AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Isaac’s eyebrows rose.
“Well, not invite youinin.” My face flamed, and I gave a panicky laugh. “Wow, I am great at this.”
Isaac let go of my hand and got out before going around and opening my door for me. “Come on,princesa. Let me walk you up.”
“Okay, but you’re coming in with me.”
“Whatever you say.” He took my hand and held it up, doing a couple of twirls with me before we reached the gate, and then he reached up and undid the latch. “It’s Carmen and Isaac time,” he whispered, leading me through. “But just for a minute.”
Heck yes, it was Carmen and Isaac time, and the anticipation was killing me. I felt like my heart was going to beat right out of my chest every time I looked at him. I had never been this nervous about anybody or anything, which, I guess, brought its own rightness to the situation. Isaac wasn’t just anybody.
I pulled out my keys and went to unlock the door, except my hands and eyes seemed to be having a communication error. Also, was this even the right key?
“Carmen.”
I turned and looked up at Isaac, and he smiled and took the keys out of my hand, putting them back into my purse and setting the purse down on the porch. Then he took both my hands and lifted them to his mouth, leaving a kiss on each wrist. The sensation was the most delicious thing, and I think he knew that, based on the way he was looking at me, like my enjoyment was his enjoyment.
My heart was in my throat. I couldn’t move, or even breathe. Until he let go and I realized he was leaving, walking away with his hands in his pockets. “Good night, Carmen,” he called over his shoulder.
“Isaac Romano, get back here.” I jumped off the porch and jogged over to him, blocking his path with my body, my hands up against his chest. “Go sit on my couch. The time for treading lightly is over. This relationship is not that fragile and neither am I. So, we’re going to talk about what’s going on here, and the world is not going to end if we do.”
He stared down at my hands on his chest. Not that they were doing much. He was so much taller and stronger than me. “If that’s what you want.”
I raised an eyebrow. “That’s what I want.”
I led the way back to the porch, making sure he was following me, and pulled my keys out of my purse once more, only this time, they were noticeably heavier. The van keys were attached to them, but there was also a blinged out keychain shaped in the letter C, and every single crystal sparkled when it caught the light above my porch.
“What’s this?” I asked. While I’d been losing my mind, he’d been performing magic tricks?
Isaac shrugged. “Looks like a keychain to me.”
“Yeah, I caught that part.”
“Do you not like it?” he asked, scratching the tip of his shoe against the porch.
“I love it. I’ll have to thank whatever wizard snuck this on here.” I glanced around. “Thank you, wizard.”
Isaac shook his head at me. “You are the best kind of strange. You know that, right?”
“I do.”
Once we were inside, I took off my jacket and hung it up next to his on a hook by my door. I got a Coke out of the fridge and cracked the top, taking it over the couch where he was sitting and watching my every move. For a moment there, I’d forgotten to be nervous, but it was all coming back. I took a long drink and then handed it to him, and he did the same.
Isaac cleared his throat. “How is your dad doing with his crutches? He looked grumpy. Or as grumpy as your dad ever gets.”
“You’d think he’d love the freedom of it.” I shook my head. “Má has been giving him tasks to force him to move around. She’ll put the TV remote in weird places so he’ll get up and look. Oh, and he’s the one feeding the chickens now. Normally they adore being fed, but they’re terrified of his crutches. The knee scooter they love. They hop on for rides. But it doesn’t work in the yard well so he mostly uses his crutches. He’s threatening to cover each crutch with oatmeal and carrot circles so the birds will stop freaking out and scattering when he comes out.”
“Oatmeal and carrot circles?”
“Trust me, they would think it was the most scrumptious thing ever.” There was a lull while we both stared at each other. We were talking about chicken feeding habits, and that was not the reason I’d dragged him in here. “I’m sorry I got a little, um, bossy with you earlier.”
Isaac shrugged. “Can’t say I hated it. So, how are we doing this?”
I twisted my hands together. It wasn’t like I had a guide for how to take someone out of the friendzone once you put them in. But I did have a question I’d been wondering about. “Sadie said you were engaged once.”
Isaac set the Coke can down on the coffee table in front of us. “This is true. Toni and I broke things off a little over a year ago.”
“Have you dated since then?”
