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“Is it, now?”
He pulled her closer, kissing his way down her neck to the top of her shoulder. Her fingers curled into his hair as more shivers followed, full of delicious anticipation. Rex and Louie barked together nearby, drawing both of their attention. Seeing nothing, she pecked a kiss on Isaac’s cheek and took a step back. It’d be just her luck to have the fire squad show up so her father could check on Rex for himself. And while she’d love to introduce Isaac to Pops, having him arrive to find them making out in his backyard wouldn’t make the best first impression.
“If we keep this up, our dinner’s going to get cold.”
“Isn’t that what microwaves are for?” he asked with a shrug.
“Hey, if I’m staying over tonight, we’re both gonna need food to sustain us.”
At her wink, he hurried to help divvy up their orders. Soon they were seated and digging into Gina’s Wednesday special: country fried steak. After the groans of pleasure from Isaac had subsided—apparently, he’d never had it before—curiosity sent her wading back into the conversation they’d started earlier.
“So did you grow up in New York City?”
Isaac took another bite of food, his gaze shifting to the dogs. “Actually, I grew up outside of Wilmington, Delaware, which is about half an hour south of Philly. I’ve got a sister who’s eight years older than me, but we’ve never been all that close. The minute she left for college, my mother decided it was time for her to exit stage left as well. So my teen years were spent bouncing back and forth between two parents who were more focused on ‘moving on’ than raising their remaining child.”
“That sounds miserable.”
“Trust me, at times it was.” A humorless laugh escaped him. “But it wasn’t all bad. I mean, with everyone so self-absorbed, it’s how I discovered my love of computers and technology. In high school, one of the tech ed teachers discovered my passion for coding, and took me under his wing. Mr. Gunnar was awesome. No matter how good or bad a day that man had, he always made sure to ask how I was doing and offer me words of encouragement. He wrote the most awesome college recommendation letters, and helped me get into Rutgers with enough scholarships that once I left home, I didn’t have to go back.”
“Wow,” Del said. “He sounds like an amazing teacher.”
“He was. I’ll be forever indebted to Mr. Gunnar.”
“And you don’t…miss your family?” she asked, struggling to picture a world that didn’t include her father, aunt, sister, and niece. Or even Hannah, though she wasn’t physically here.
“Sadly, no.” Isaac offered her a half smile. “My family is night and day to yours, Delaney. But in college, I made new friends and ended up rooming with the man who would eventually become my business partner, Will McManus. Our dream was to create a company that could develop affordable yet expandable apps and websites that could help small and fledgling sales companies get their businesses off the ground. We worked our asses off in college to scrape together all the money we could, and recruited a few programmers we knew that showed promise. Then, when the time was right and the market showed a solid need for the apps we’d developed, Will and I struck out and started our own IT design and services company.”
Del leaned in, eager to hear more. “Did it work?”
“Let’s just say we ate a lot of ramen the first year or two. But over time, our name started getting out and our reputation strengthened. A few years more, and we had people requesting our help instead of us having to go begging for work. As our workload grew, we had to hire a few more people to assist with programming and office staff. They’ve become my family, and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.”
“Then…why are you here and not there? Are you guys looking to expand?”
No sooner did she get her hopes up than he shook his head and looked away, a tension she’d not seen since those first few days around him returning.
“I wish it were that simple.”
Something had gone wrong; Del could sense it. Had he and Will had a falling out? Maybe over a messy office romance? Rex perked up, which made Louie lift his head off the ground as well. It seemed everyone was on pins and needles to hear the rest of the story.
She reached for his hand. “It’s okay, you can tell me.”
Isaac met her gaze, searching, then looked to the yard on a sigh. “I promised I wouldn’t, but…”
Del placed a hand on his cheek, turning his face back to hers. “Tell me.”
“Yes, do tell,” came a familiar voice behind them. Del dropped her hand in surprise as Mia stepped out from the farmhouse’s backdoor. “You’ve been holding out on us long enough,Robert.”
Chapter Thirteen
And there itwas—the other shoe he’d been waiting to drop. Isaac fought the urge to throw up as Del retracted her hand, brows low in confusion.
“Robert?” She looked from him to Mia. “What are you talking about? And why are you even here?”
“Aunt Faye asked me to bring you her account information for the website. When your truck wasn’t at home or his place, I figured I’d stop and see if it was here. Now I’m glad I did.”
Mia crossed to Delaney and handed her a piece of paper, then moved to stand behind her, arms crossed and one brow arched. Isaac received the message loud and clear: big sis was here to protect her younger one. Of all the scenarios he’d run through the past few days of how to explain his past to Delaney, this hadn’t been one of them.
“You could have texted,” Del said to her sister in a growl.
