Chapter 12
JASMINE
My suitcase lay open on my bed, stuffed with swimwear, sandals, a few comfortable sundresses, and some loose-fitting T-shirts. Of all the many places I’d been, Sharm El-Sheikh would forever remain one of my favorites.
Maybe part of my fondness for it was because my grandmother still lived there and a great deal of our family history had played out in the house she still occupied, but it was also just such a stunning place that I could never get enough.
My mind was already brimming with ideas of things I wanted to show Isaac, from snorkeling the stunning but lesser visited reefs in the Red Sea to a true Bedouin dinner in the Sinai desert.
I was dying to take him to the hidden alleys of the Old Market backstreets and this little rooftop lounge I loved that the tourists hadn’t discovered yet.
It wasn’t often I got to nerd out over the hidden gems and the trips that took a person off the beaten track, and I was genuinely excited for it.
Isaac had opened himself up to a different kind of sightseeing when he’d admitted his original plan for the night of the gala had been to get lost in Old Town.
I stood in the middle of my walk-in closet, searching for one very specific pair of cream leather sandals I refused to leave home without.
I knew they were in here somewhere, but I’d managed to pull half my wardrobe onto the floor while I’d been packing, and frankly, in the rush of the last few weeks, it had also been a bit of a mess to begin with.
A worry for when I get back.
For now, I bent over to dig between some hat boxes, lifting a sweater that had somehow slid in behind them. As the material slid up, something else slid to the side. I stumbled back, knocking over one of the hat boxes in the process.
Right as it toppled over, a pair of tiny, pitch-black eyes rose up, attached to the long, thin, sandy brown body of a snake.
It hissed at me, clearly as unhappy about seeing me as I was about seeing it.
My eyes widened, and the next thing I knew, my blood-curdling scream was echoing through the closet.
Scooting back as fast as I could, I slammed the doors shut behind me and finally managed to stop screaming. Shit. I have to burn it down. That room belongs to the snake now. Hell, it can have the whole building.
Racing over to my nightstand, I grabbed my phone with shaking hands and called down to Hassan. The doorman answered with laughter in his voice after a few short rings, but it still felt like an eternity. “Yes, Miss Saad?”
“There’s a snake in my closet!” I cried into the phone, panic winding its way through my insides. I glanced over my shoulder, suddenly worried that it might grow opposable thumbs and open the door.
“A snake?” he asked, sounding puzzled.
Only vaguely aware of Isaac’s voice suddenly in the background, I backed out of my bedroom and shut that door too. Just in case it either learned how to free itself or, God forbid, had brought his friends. “Hurry, Hassan. I think it can sense my fear.”
I hung up, keeping a very close eye on the floor as I picked my way across the apartment toward the front door.
A few seconds later, a frantic knock sounded against it, startling me.
I jerked it open, and Isaac stood on the other side, slightly out of breath with his blond hair a lot messier than usual.
His gaze swept over me like he was checking for injury. “Are you okay? Where is it?”
“I am absolutely not okay, but it didn’t bite me,” I said quickly, pointing a finger toward the hallway that led to my bedroom. “It’s in there.”
My heart fluttered when I realized he looked genuinely alarmed, like he’d run all the way up here as soon as he’d overheard what was going on. Heat crept into my cheeks, but Isaac didn’t seem to notice, simply exhaling a heavy breath when he seemed satisfied I was uninjured.
“Okay. Good. You closed the door to wherever there is, right?”
“Of course.” I squinted up at him. “I’m not that stupid.”
He chuckled. “I didn’t say you were, but panic generally tends to make even the smartest people do dumb things.”
Hassan finally appeared behind Isaac in the doorway, carrying a broom and a worried frown. “What kind of snake is it?”
“I don’t know.” I stepped aside to let them in, not even caring that the apartment looked like a bomb had hit it. “Just… make it go away.”
“I’ll do my best,” he promised, disappearing down the hall with the broom held in front of him like a sword.
I didn’t quite know how he thought that would help him, but I was too grateful for his presence to ask any questions. Isaac shot me a sheepish smile. “Did you scream? I’m pretty sure I heard a scream.”
I blinked hard. “Is that why you ran?”
“Well, yeah,” he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I was just coming back inside from a walk and I was actually on my way up to come see you, but then I heard a scream and you called down to the front desk. I nearly had a stroke.”
He admitted it like it was nothing, like he didn’t consider it a big deal at all, but my heart did more than just flutter this time. It skipped a beat, then missed another when I realized the fact that he’d beat Hassan up here meant he’d just dropped everything and sprinted.
“I’ll go help Hassan.” He flashed me a smile before brushing past me into the apartment, not shy about looking around as he went.
I tried to see it through his eyes then, ignoring the fact that it was a train wreck with shoes scattered across the floor and discarded clothes hanging over just about every available surface.
When I’d moved in here, I’d tried to make the modern space feel warm, covering the marble floors in a few rugs and draping throws over the couches.
My bookshelves were overflowing with travel guides, the spines cracked and worn, history books, romance novels, and the adult coloring books I liked to take with me on planes.
I didn’t follow him down the hall, but I saw him take in the books, the knick-knacks I’d collected from every city I’d ever visited, and the fresh flowers in the vase on my sideboard.
Finally, Isaac reached my bedroom door and turned back to look at me. “You’re not coming?”
“Oh, no. I’m fine. Thank you.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Okay, have it your way, but Hassan in just standing here. Which closet is it in?”
“The big one.”
“They’re all big.”
“The walk-in,” I said, finally drifting halfway down the hall so I could watch from there. “It’s behind the hat boxes.”
“You have hat boxes?”
“Of course. Where else would I keep my hats?”
He gave me a strange look but eventually broke eye contact to walk into the closet after Hassan had thrown open the door, still wielding the broom like it was the ultimate weapon. Isaac, however, walked in like he thought of himself as Steve Irwin.
A few seconds later, his head popped back out and he grinned at me, both of his eyebrows arching this time. “That’s what all the fuss was about? He’s tiny.”
I scoffed. “He could grow, and he shouldn’t be in there.”
“I don’t think snakes respect property laws,” he said, chuckling as he ducked back into the closet. “It’s a sand snake, Jasmine. They’re only mildly venomous.”
“Mildly?”
“So mild that their venom has virtually no effect on humans,” he said, speaking loudly enough that I could hear him despite not having moved any closer. “They’re pretty shy little creatures, but they’re fast. I’m sure he’d much rather have fled into a shrub than to have to face you.”
“Well, then that’s where he should’ve gone, isn’t it?”
“Again, I doubt he knew this was private property,” Isaac said while Hassan hovered in the closet doorway, apparently having decided he’d be the backup while leaving Isaac to act as the main snake-removal expert.
“Shit, how the hell are we going to find him in here? How much clothes does one person need?”
A few muttered curses later, I finally got curious enough about what was happening that I drifted closer, immediately realizing that my closet was not an optimal space for snake retrieval.
Every time Isaac got close to the little terror, it shot away, slithering in under a pile of clothes, shoes, or behind garment bags.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered when he lunged for it, his hand closing around nothing but air as it darted back behind the hat boxes. “Seriously? I don’t want to hurt you, little dude.”
“I do,” I piped up. “What happened to it being tiny, harmless, and shy?”
“It is. That’s why I can’t grab the fucking thing. You scared him.”
My mouth dropped open. “I scared him?”
Hassan moved to one side while Isaac crouched lower, trying to peer behind a stack of luggage on the other side of the hat boxes. He must’ve finally spotted it because he glanced up at Hassan and motioned toward the back corner.
“I see you, little dude,” he murmured quietly. “Come here before the mean lady hurts you.”
Isaac moved in one smooth motion, his hand disappearing between the hat boxes. When he pulled back, the snake was twisting furiously between his fingers. “Got you.”
Hassan pulled back a little further. “It’s aggressive.”
Isaac smiled. “I think it’s just embarrassed, actually.”
Before he could move another muscle, the snake whipped around and clamped its mouth onto Isaac’s forearm. A bead of blood immediately welled around the bite and my stomach rolled, twisting violently.
“Oh, my God! Isaac!”
For his part, Isaac didn’t even flinch. He glanced down at the snake like it was nothing more than a mild inconvenience while it continued clamping down on his forearm like it was a puppy that had finally sunk its teeth into its new favorite toy.
“Seriously?” he asked, calmly rising to his feet and carrying the snake to the door like this happened to him every other week. “You’re making me look bad, buddy.”
I stared after him. “Are you… are you serious?”
He glanced at me over his shoulder, those twinkling blue eyes still completely calm. “What?”
“It’s eating you!”
“Nah, it’s just scared.” He left my apartment like he’d just had a cup of tea and was on his way out for the day.
I glanced at Hassan, who’d at least finally lowered the broom. “That man is not normal,” I told him.
The doorman shrugged. “We should see if we can help Mr. Thayer.”
I let out a heavy sigh and fell into step behind him, choosing to take the stairs since Isaac seemed to have taken the elevator. Imagine being trapped in a steel box with that thing.
A shiver rolled down my spine at the mere thought, but when I spilled out into the courtyard that led to the back gardens, Isaac was still as cool as a freaking cucumber, crossing the lawn to a patch of bushes near the wall.
He crouched down on the grass, and as soon as it either sensed, felt, saw, or smelled the greenery—I had no idea how snakes went about making decisions—the little bastard released his arm, vanishing into the plants less than a moment later.
Isaac chuckled and stood, looking ridiculously smug as he turned to look at me. “There. See? Problem solved.”
I took a pointed look at the blood running down the ridges of muscle in his forearm. “I disagree. It very much left a problem behind.”
Hassan had already pulled out his phone and he waved it at me. “I’ll call the doctor. He’ll be here?—”
“There’s no need for that.” Isaac accepted a handkerchief from one of the gardeners with a grateful smile, wrapping it loosely around the bite. “I promise. If it was venomous, I would be dead already.”
“You’ve been bitten by a snake,” I said. “You need a doctor.”
“What I need is soap and a first-aid kit. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to buy one of those yet.”
“You’re a bloody mess and you’re looking a little pale, but all you want is a first-aid kit?”
“Yeah,” he said easily. “Do you have one?”
I sighed, but under the circumstances, it was the least I could do. “Sure, but if you die on my couch, I’ll never forgive you.”
He chuckled, holding his free hand up in some kind of promise or salute. I wasn’t sure what it was supposed to be, but it seemed to mean something to him. “I won’t die. Scout’s honor.”
“Right. Okay.” As I followed him back into the building, I glanced at the side of his face, that sharp profile definitely a little sharper today. “Does it hurt?”
“A little.”
“Promise you won’t die?” I asked, a little quieter now. For some reason, I was desperately worried even if he didn’t seem to be. “I’m not sure I can trust a scout’s honor.”
“You can.” When he glanced back at me, at least his eyes seemed clear. A little shiny, which made me think he was in more pain than he was letting on, but there was warmth in them too. “I’ll be fine, Jasmine.”
“How can you be so sure?”
He shrugged, following me into my apartment where my kitchen island quickly became a treatment station. “Well, I’m not a hundred percent sure, obviously, but I’m fairly certain I would’ve been feeling much worse by now if I’m wrong about the type of snake it was.”
“How do you know so much about snakes?” I asked as he watched me unpack the first-aid kit, his gaze still surprisingly calm.
“I don’t,” he said, then nodded at a little bottle. “Saline first.”
“Then how did you know which one that was?” I picked up the bottle of saline, trying to keep as calm as he was as I followed his treatment instructions. “What if you’re wrong?”
I rinsed the bite carefully, but thankfully, the bleeding had already slowed. When I glanced up at him again, his jaw was clenched tight, but he hadn’t made a sound to indicate I was doing it wrong.
“I researched Egypt extensively before I came here,” he explained through a slightly clenched jaw. “I wanted to learn everything there was to know about the country, and that included its wildlife.”
“I’m impressed you care so deeply about my home,” I admitted, finishing up with the saline and some additional disinfectant before reaching for a bandage.
“I just like knowing where I am.”
“Well, I’m just glad you were here when I needed you.” I tied off the bandage and leaned closer to inspect my work, suddenly fighting the intense urge to press a little kiss to the top of it. “Thank you, Isaac.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, his voice as soft as mine, but then he glanced toward the hallway. “I’m sorry about the mess in your closet.”
“Please.” I smiled. “You’re responsible for maybe one percent of that, and it’s not even really you. It’s the snake who should be sorry.”
He brought his eyes back to mine. Something quiet but weirdly intense passed between us. “I’m glad I was here when you needed me too, Jasmine. For as long as I’m in Egypt, feel free to call me for any snake-related emergencies.”
My heart skipped yet another beat and I averted my gaze, suddenly seeing that my hand was still resting on top of his arm where it’d been while I’d tied the bandage, but I didn’t move to pull it away.
Isaac’s gaze followed mine, but he didn’t move either, both of us just sitting there for a minute, casually touching, and yet not moving or saying a word about it at all.