Chapter 15
ISAAC
Jasmine took me to the Old Market first, leading me through a maze of alleyways and stalls and telling me the story of nearly every building we passed.
For probably about the sixth time in the last hour, I stopped to admire a doorway, but she never rushed me, just patiently standing at my side with a smile on her face that said she appreciated every tiny detail as much as I did.
“How is it that every door here has so much character?” I asked, finally straightening up and falling back into step beside her.
She laughed. Her rich dark hair glowed under the light of the lanterns starting to come on in the alley.
“I’ve been coming here my whole life, and every single time, I still find streets I’ve never walked and shops I’ve never noticed.
I think that’s how the doors get their character. This place is just… magic.”
She smiled at me over her shoulder as we wandered through the last stretch of the Old Market, and for a second, I almost tripped over my own feet, just staring at her instead of paying attention even to my own body.
The way she looked, framed by the buildings, with crooked little balconies behind her, and the energy of the place lighting her eyes, threatened to cut off my air supply.
Jasmine had always been gorgeous, but here, she was absolutely radiant.
Like whatever energy source she usually operated on was super-charged in this city.
As far as I was concerned, the real magic here was her, but hey.
I was drunk on the architecture and history of the very streets I was walking, so I kept that little tidbit to myself.
“I knew you’d like it,” she said, then promptly rescued me from buying a rug from an elderly woman who’d claimed she made it by hand. “That’s complete bullshit. It’s printed. You can see it’s printed.”
I sighed. “Maybe she’s just really good at painting.”
Jasmine laughed. “There’s no way. Besides, how are you going to get it back to Cairo?”
“I can ship it.”
“It’ll never reach your address,” she said, grabbing my arm and physically hauling me away. “If you want a rug, we’ll find you the real thing.”
“That was the real thing.”
“No, that was a tourist trap. We’re almost back to the more heavily populated areas. You don’t buy anything here.”
“You’re denying me happiness.”
“I’m saving you from overpaying for imported crap you can buy on at least two apps on your phone for a quarter of the price.”
“Fine, but if you’re wrong, I’m coming back.”
She arched a steep eyebrow at me. “If I’m wrong, I’ll buy it for you. Now forget about the rug. Better things await.”
“Better than the rug? I doubt it.”
“Trust me, Terrazzina Beach is going to knock your socks off.”
I only pretended to be disappointed for about a second before I caved. “I’ve read about that. Is it as beautiful in person as it is in the pictures?”
“It’s better,” she said. “I literally just told you that.”
She dragged me out of the market to a beach where the sky melted into shades of gold and orange while waves lapped the sand and music drifted from the restaurants lining the shore.
Strings of lights decorated every outside seating area and Jasmine headed straight for a table right on the sand itself.
“I’ve got dinner,” I said before she could even glance at the menu. “As a thank you for everything you’ve shown me so far. It really has been an incredible experience.”
“If you’re going to buy me dinner just for showing you around the market, I hope you have some big plans for the rest of the activities on my list,” she joked. “The market is awesome, but it’s also nothing in comparison.”
“Now I’m intrigued.” I leaned forward across the table, holding her dark, glittering gaze and wondering why I suddenly enjoyed spending time with her so much. God knows, I never used to. “What have you got up your sleeve, Jasmine Saad?”
“You’ll just have to wait and see.” She smiled innocently, then ordered food and drinks in Arabic without asking for any input from me.
When our waiter finally left, I narrowed my eyes at her. “What are we getting?”
“Everything,” she said, and I thought she was joking until a mountain of food arrived with our drinks.
Colorful cocktails were set down between platters of fresh seafood, spiced rice, breads, dips, and a few other things I couldn’t name.
Naturally, she just smiled at me as she waved at the spread.
“Bon appetit. I know it looks like a lot, but trust me, we’re going to finish it. ”
I eyed the amount of food she’d ordered but didn’t question her. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned since I got here, it’s that I trust you.”
“You do?”
I shrugged. “Weirdly, yes.”
“Why is that weird?” she asked, laughing as she started dishing up. “I’m a very trustworthy person.”
“Maybe, but I didn’t think so when I first met you back in Chicago,” I said honestly. “I actually thought you were a bit of a brat.”
I braced myself in case she threw a prawn at me, but instead of taking offense, she laughed. “A lot of people think that. I wonder why.”
“Yeah. In retrospect, so do I, but I’m pretty sure it’s because you want people to think that’s exactly what you are.”
For a second, she just stared at me. Then she shrugged and started eating. “Alright, Mr. Thayer. If we’re getting deep, I hope you’re ready to play ball because I won’t hold back.”
“I’m an open book.”
She snorted. “You’re really not, but okay. Here goes. Why are you so much more easygoing than your brother? Colin acts like he’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders because of what happened with your family, but not you. Why?”
I blinked hard a couple times, but when I finally opened my mouth, the answer came easier than I’d expected. “I think it’s because I’m the only one who was somewhat relieved when our money vanished.”
Her mouth dropped open. “What?”
“Is that really so hard for you to imagine?”
“You’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions. Your father is in prison for just about every white-collar crime a person can be convicted of. How on earth did that make you happy?”
“I didn’t say it made me happy. I said I was relieved, and I really was.
” I chewed the bite of spectacular seafood I’d just taken, washing it down with a sip of my surprisingly strong cocktail before I managed to get a hold of my thoughts again.
“If we hadn’t lost our money, I’m not sure I would have pursued a career in engineering. ”
She didn’t interrupt, so I kept going, still finding all of this coming out a lot easier than it should’ve.
“Obviously, I’d rather not have a father in prison and I definitely would’ve preferred if my younger brothers hadn’t had it so much harder than me, but all things considered, I’m choosing to look on the bright side. ”
“The bright side being your career?”
“Yep.” I ate another bite of my food, unable to stop now that I’d started.
She really might’ve been right about finishing all this. As we ate, I told her more about my family than I’d probably told anyone before. Usually, I played this kind of thing pretty close to the vest but not with her. Not tonight.
“When it all went down, everyone acted like it was the end of the world,” I said. “In a way, I guess it was. It was definitely the end of life as we’d known it, but it also led us to where we are now, which is life on the other side of all that.”
“Like what?” she asked. “What wouldn’t you have known?”
“What it feels like to have this kind of freedom,” I said. “We never would’ve had to figure things out for ourselves and we never would’ve been forced to think about what we really want to do.”
“And that’s a good thing?” she asked finally.
I shrugged. “It’s the thing we have, but yeah. It’s actually pretty good. Especially now that they’ve found the money. Ryan, Holden, and Wyatt will have their trusts restored, which means they’ll also have the financial freedom I never did.”
“What about you? Isn’t your trust being restored?”
“Honestly? I don’t know and I don’t care. I’ve been making my own way in the world and I’m doing pretty well now.”
“But it’s millions,” she said. “Presumably, anyway. You really don’t care?”
“It all still feels a little surreal,” I admitted. “The FBI finds an account after all these years and it finally turns out to be the missing money? That’s not something I could process quickly.”
“Hasn’t it been months?”
“Yeah, but I’ve had other things on my plate,” I said.
“Colin and Jane have been carrying all that. They deserve the peace they’ll have now.
I do know that. I also know that Wyatt and Holden will get to make decisions about their futures without having to worry about how much it will cost. I’m not sure about Ryan, but he seems happy exactly where he is, and frankly, so am I.
That’s about how far I’ve gotten with figuring things out. ”
She looked at me like she’d discovered an alien species, but there was something a lot softer in her expression too. It was almost like I could see her guards sliding down, all that self-involved defensiveness flickering for a moment before her eyes were shining in a whole new way.
“You worry about them,” she said. “Your younger brothers.”
“Yeah, all the time,” I admitted, surprised I was saying any of this at all.
“After my dad’s arrest, we were all shocked.
We were all worried, but Jane had already gained access to her trust fund, Mom still had some money left in her accounts, and there were some assets in her name we could sell.
None of us knew at the time how long the whole thing would drag on, so I think we all thought we would be okay. ”
“Were you?”
“No. By the time Holden had to start thinking about college, the money was pretty much gone. He and Wyatt had long since learned that even the simple things needed to be budgeted for. New sneakers. A night out. The rest of us didn’t have that.”
“Neither have I,” she said softly. “I can’t even imagine it. That’s probably bad, right?”