Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
It went on and on, and I waited to see who would look away first.
But it took nearly a minute for Isabella to drop her gaze, to cross her arms over her chest like she was cold or uncomfortable.
And Edric continued to stare on . . . like she might look at him again.
When I got to Daiquiri, Edric was already there, sitting alone at a table for four, his drink in front of him, along with appetizers he hadn’t touched. He lounged back, arms crossed, examining one of the nearby trees.
I walked up and took a seat. “Hey.”
His eyes flicked to me, but his body remained in place. “Hey.”
I grabbed the menu and browsed. “Might get a piña colada.”
“Are you a girl on vacation?”
“I like the fruity drinks here. Makes me feel like I’m in Turks and Caicos.”
“You haven’t been to Turks and Caicos.”
“And this is probably as close as I’m going to get.” I closed the menu. “What’s your problem?”
“I don’t have a problem.”
“You’re being weird.”
“How am I being weird?” he asked.
“You aren’t being yourself.”
He gave a slight shake of his head, then took a drink. “You’re paranoid.”
“And you’re trying to gaslight me.” I’d always had it, a remarkable intuition. I could read people like an open book. I’d known Edric my entire life and knew his behaviors and his tells. He’d been different the last few weeks, and I still hadn’t figured out why.
Edric stopped participating in the conversation.
I tried to change the subject, sticking to the restaurant. He worked at the other location we had, the one that was only takeaway.
A couple minutes later, his eyes latched on to something in the distance and didn’t pull away.
I glanced over my shoulder and spotted Isabella, out with some of her friends for a drink. Naturally, my eyes lit up at the sight of her in that little dress with her sexy thighs, and I swooned as always.
But her eyes were on my brother instead of me—and she was white as a ghost.
Her eyes finally made contact with mine and she smiled, but it was strained.
She and her two friends headed over. “Hey, what are you doing here?”
My hand went to her hip, and I pulled her onto my lap. “Get that fine ass over here. Ladies, take a seat.”
The girls occupied the two open chairs. Her friends were cute, so I assumed Edric would be excited by this easy proposition, but he was standoffish to both of them.
“What are you guys up to?” I asked, inching my hand up Isabella’s dress to the point where she had to shove it away before she flashed everyone.
“Just getting drinks and dinner,” she said. “What are you guys doing?”
“Just talking about work.”
She nodded but didn’t say much else.
The three of us used to hang out all the time, have dinner together, and we’d felt like a threesome, but now everything had changed. The air was constantly sucked out of the room. The energy was . . . tense. “Did something happen between you guys?”
Edric’s eyes shifted to my face with lightning speed.
And bumps immediately formed on Isabella’s arms.
“Did you have a fight?” I asked. “Did Edric say some shit to you? Because I’ll throw him down the stairs over there if he did.”
“No,” she blurted. “No . . . everything is fine.”
Edric shifted his eyes elsewhere. “Yeah, we’re good.”
The awkwardness continued, and there was no explanation in sight.
“You think she’s hooking up with Edric?” Antonio asked as we walked to the back of the truck, grabbed the boxes of supplies for the restaurant, and then carried them down the alleyway, into the store, and all the way into the storage room in the back.
Our town was quaint and cozy, a perfect spot for travelers because everything was walkable with no cars, but when it came to deliveries, it was always a bitch. “No.”
He walked back with me to the truck, slightly winded. “Then what else could have happened?”
“I don’t know, but she wouldn’t do that.”
“If he was an ass to her, wouldn’t she have told you?”
“I don’t know,” I said as we passed underneath the Rosticceria Da Cristina sign and headed up the alleyway toward the truck. “Maybe he said something really stupid and she’s afraid I’ll never speak to him again.”
“But why would he do that?”
“I don’t know. Why does Edric do anything?”
“But what if—”
I stopped before we got to the truck. “She would never do that to me. And as much of an asshole as Edric is, he wouldn’t do that either. All right?”
Antonio raised both of his hands and backed off. “All right.”
I let myself inside my mother’s front door and entered the house. I’d gotten caught up with work, and then I had to help a friend with a shipment for his family’s business, so I’d lost track of time. I was almost an hour late to dinner, but even if the food was cold, my mom’s cooking was still better than anyone else’s piping-hot food.