Chapter 17
Seventeen
KIERAN
When Jaime returns without Isabel, I panic. I’ve made two bracelets in the time they were gone, so I don’t feel guilty when I leave Natalia’s side to go stand by the pool. “Where’s Isabel?” I ask a cool, calm Jaime.
He shrugs. “I dunno. Somewhere.”
“Jaime.”
“Man, what the fuck is your problem? You white knighting her now? She’s probably upstairs. No need to get your panties in a bunch.”
Upstairs? “What the fuck did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” Jaime snaps.
“Kieran, calm down.” Cisco’s words only incense me further. Can’t he see that Jaime’s being predatory? And that whole fucking bet—are we all really expected to just cosign it?
I glower at Jaime. “You tried to take advantage of her when she was high.”
Jaime rolls his eyes. “She liked it. I can tell you that much.”
If he wasn’t in the water, I would have pushed him into it.
“No shit,” Bo says, laughing. “You fucked her?”
“Not yet,” Jaime says. “I’m working my way up to it.”
“Finger, then?” Bo asks, holding his index and middle finger up and curling them.
“We just kissed,” Jaime answers. “We’re taking it slow. But I’ll say, if I didn’t know any better, she’s probably up there getting herself off to me.”
I shake my head. “You’re a fucking bastard, man.”
“Aw, c’mon, Kie,” Jaime says as I storm away. “Don’t be jealous!”
“What’s going on?” Natalia asks. I grab Mere Christianity off the glass table next to her, not bothering to answer her question.
I enter the house and take two steps up the stairs at a time.
I knock on Isabel’s door and wait to be let in.
When there’s no response, I poke my head in.
She’s sitting with her knees bent, duvet draped over her lap, her back against the wall.
She’s got a wistful look in her eyes as she stares off into space.
She liked it. I can tell you that much.
I swallow thickly. When she looks at me, she smiles widely. No sign of discomfort there. Probably just decompressing.
“Hey.”
All the air goes out of me. She liked it. She liked it. She liked it.
I hold her book up. “Thought you’d want this back.”
“You don’t want to read it?”
I shake my head. “You go ahead.”
She reaches out for the book and I hand it over. I don’t bother to ask if she’s okay. I read it all wrong. I projected. She liked it, and Jaime would know better than me.