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Right. “But… I mean, yes. Obviously. But explain the train stopping at midtown to me.”
Sean sighed. “It doesn’t mean anything. I was just talking off the cuff and it doesn’t mean a single thing.”
“So it doesn’t mean that you might break down from time to time?” I said, enjoying how frustrated he was getting. He’d never once needed a pause. Not even close.
“I do not break down!” He rolled a ball to Sully. “You’re trying to bait me now. I know you.”
He did know me because I was. “Just checking. Trying to sort out all the train stops.”
“I’ll show you all the train stops later.”
“That’s what I’m hoping.” The conversation was a good distraction from the very real concern that watching him let a baby crawl all over him was doing strange things to my insides.
Keep it light.
Do not fall in love.
Heed Michael’s warning– Sean didn’t want to settle down.
Try not to think about my grandfather’s advice that I should be open to falling in love.
Sean lifted Sully up in the air and kissed his little round belly.
Too late. I was already open. Wide freaking open.
Mondays were my favorite day of the week. Bone was closed so for the last few weeks, Isla had been coming over. We would make dinner together, hang out and talk, watch a movie. Have amazing sex. This Monday, I had talked Isla into hanging out earlier in the day. I wanted to have sex with her, no doubt about it, but I also wanted to get to know Isla outside of the kitchen and the bedroom.
She was worried about running into someone we knew if we stayed in Brooklyn, so I picked her up in my car, a plan in mind.
Isla looked around the street with a grimace, before yanking open the passenger door and jumping in. “Hi.” She slammed the door shut. “I think we’re clear.”
I should care as much as she did, because my ass, my job, and my future were on the line, but I cared more about her. “You look great,” I said, as I pulled away from the curb.
She was wearing her usual choice of jeans, boots, and a leather jacket, but she’d pulled her hair up in a way that made me want to kiss her neck. Her earrings were little red guitars.
“Thanks,” she said, giving me a smile.
“Do you play the
guitar?” I asked, because that wouldn’t surprise me. Isla was a cool girl.
“Yes. Not so much these days because I work so much, but as a teenager and in college. Gus got lots of calls from the building super that the neighbors had complained. He used to say it was no worse than our neighbors fighting at all hours of the night or the lady across the hall’s chihuahua. That dog had an attitude.”
“We had a dog like that in our building when I was a kid. It was a schnauzer and it was so freaking mean. It must have bit my ankles a dozen times when I would walk him for the owner. She was like ninety-five years old and couldn’t take him out much. She was much nicer than her dog.”
“Did you have a dog?”
“No. My mother wasn’t on board with the messes pets make. You?”
Isla shook her head. “No. My mother was allergic. Where are we going?”
“Since I’m your dirty little secret I thought we could get out of the city for a few hours. My parents have a house in Saugerties, upstate. I want to show you something.” I was only half-kidding about the dirty little secret part. I didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable or spend our time together worried about getting busted.
“Something to show me? I can take a guess as to what that might be.” She glanced down at my junk.
“Get your mind out of the gutter, woman. It’s a surprise.” It was the building I’d bought to be my own twenty seat restaurant one day. It was right in the town’s quaint downtown.
“Your mother warned me against you at the baby shower, you know. She wasn’t exactly charming about it, either. She acted like I’m a simpleton who would fall for your lies.”
