I nod, and she reads the digits aloud for me to enter into my phone.
After thanking her, Lumi leans back in her seat, a small smile on her face that’s anything but innocent. “Can I ask a personal question?”
I wave her on.
Dropping her voice, she says, “How long is it? Nine? Ten inches?”
I bark a laugh that has Lumi looking amused. It takes me a long, long time to answer her, my chuckles going on for a good minute. Finally, I get out a response. “Ten and three-quarters.”
“Jesus fucking Christ!” she whisper-shouts, hands slapping the table. “And Isaac can take that? No, you don’t have to answer me. He’s told me enough details. MyGod. That little shit. Good for him.”
Lumi dissolves into her own laughter.
“Fuck,” she says again, tears in her eyes that she wipes away. “I always knew he had it in him.”
“Quite literally,” I agree.
That sets Lumi off again.
She leaves the coffee shop before me, needing to get to her own class. I stay a while longer, checking my most recent project grades on my laptop. My professor has been surprisingly even-tempered with me ever since it was proved I didn’t cheat in his class. He’s notwarmby any stretch of the imagination, but he’s lost the judgmental gaze every time I step into his lecture hall. And I’ve stopped wearing turtlenecks to his class, done trying to cater to anyone else’s opinions of my person.
Now, when I wear a turtleneck, it’s because I want to. Isaac’s smile sure is a nice bonus, too.
I’m just tossing my to-go cup into the trash when my phone starts to ring. I don’t recognize the number, so I let the call go to voicemail. Ten seconds later, my phone rings again.
Outside the coffee shop, I stop on the sidewalk and answer. “Hello?”
“Trevor Slade.”
The voice has me stilling. “Mr. Newport?”
“There’s something I’d like to discuss with you,” Isaac’s dad says, his tone giving nothing away. “This afternoon if you’re free.”
“I can make time,” I say slowly, not bothering to ask how the man got my number. I’m sure he has his ways.
“Two o’clock? I’ll send a car for you.”
“No offense, Mr. Newport, but I’m not getting in a vehicle I don’t know. I can meet you.”
He lets out a breath before naming a park in the city. When I hang up, I let my heart rate come down, then head for my late-morning class.
The park isn’t empty when I arrive, but very few people are out walking the paths. I make my way around slowly, spotting Mr. Newport on a bench during my second circuit.
He waits as I approach, eyeing the park as I was, a café bag beside him.
I sit, neither of us speaking for a long moment.
“Is this about Isaac?” I finally ask, not caring if I’m breaking some sort of unspoken rule about gaining the upper hand in conversation. Frankly, I couldn’t care less what Mr. Newport thinks of me.
“In a way,” he says, removing his sunglasses. I have the thought, once again, that his eyes are so very different from Isaac’s, despite being a similar shade of blue. “I have an offer for you, Mr. Slade. One you’d be smart to think over.”
My pulse hitches before taking off. I don’t let my expression change, even as I say, “Go on.”
It’s a half hour later when I leave the park the same way I came, a café bag in my hand. Once I’m inside my vehicle, I toss the bag onto the passenger seat and sit behind the wheel for what feels like a lifetime. Finally, I pull onto the road.
Isaac’s car is parked at his rental house when I arrive. I knock on the back door, the one that leads into the kitchen. Todd opens it, his grin falling slightly when he sees my face. “Everything okay?”
“Is Isaac here?” I ask, knowing he may still be on campus with his bike.
