Wincing, Isabella exhaled. “Leo and I hooked up last night.”
Norah gasped, swatting Isabella’s leg “Shut up!”
Nina threw her head back and raised her fists in the air. “Yes!” She drew out the word. “I knew it would happen.”
Isabella was delighted that her sisters were clearly thrilled by this news, but at the same time, she needed an opinion that was neutral. Not so obviously #TeamLeo.
“But then Harrison texted me,” she said. “Literally minutes afterward, telling me he wants to work things out.”
“Wow, this is huge,” Norah said.
“He said he’s ready to commit.”
“Of course he is.” Nina threw a dramatic hand into the air. “Now that you’re into Leo again.”
Isabella groaned. “I don’t think I was everoutof him.”
“What are you gonna do?” Norah asked.
Isabella lifted her gaze to meet Norah’s. “I don’t know.”
“I know you don’t love Harrison. You love Leo.”
“Sorry, sis. But it’s pretty obvious.” Nina gave her a half-smile, all crooked and knowing.
“But nothing has changed,” Isabella continued. “His life is in Colorado and mine is in New York, and I don’t know how to overcome that.”
“I think,” Norah paused as if measuring her words, “that if you just talked to Leo about all of this, it would help.”
“How? One of us has to give up a life we love.”
Nina shrugged. “Home isn’t always a place, Izzy. Sometimes home is with the right person, no matter where they live. I think the two of you could find a way to make things work. You just have to try.”
“Maybe,” Isabella said, but it felt hopeless.
She threaded her fingers through her damp hair, gazing out the window at the falling snow, a heaviness in her stomach.
“There are ways to get over the obstacles of distance and careers,” Nina began, “but not many when it comes to the heart. If you two are meant to be,” she coughed out the next words, “which you are,” and she smiled slyly, saying, “you’ll find a way.”
Nina’s words hit Isabella in the center of her chest, radiating there and making more sense with each passing moment. Leowashome. She knew that already, especially after last night. She just didn’t know how to have the life she’d builtandhim at the same time.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Leo
Why didLeo remember it being so much easier to climb the trellis and hoist himself onto the Whitley’s roof? Maybe it would’ve been if it wasn’t snowing and there wasn’t an inch of ice coating the shingles.
He perched in front of Isabella’s window, the early afternoon wind whipping at his back. He tapped on the glass. Breathing hot breath into his cupped hands, he waited.
The sheer curtains lifted, and Isabella peered out. She flashed him a wide smile while she yanked the window open.
“Leo,” she whispered, though not very quietly, dragging him inside. “Why didn’t you just use the door?”
He dropped inside, tumbling onto the floor.
She giggled. “Shh.”
“I wanted to see you without running into every single Whitley along the way,” he said, standing.
