“She sounds great.”
“Because she calls me a monster?”
“Because she loves you. She’s your best friend. She’s been there for you when I wasn’t.”
I roll my eyes. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“I could have still been there for you.”
I guess, but I’m tired of obsessing about the past. “She wants to meet you, and she’s safe, Hunt. She knows about us. I needed someone to talk to. I’m sorry if that was betraying your confidence, but—”
“Invite her over to dinner tonight,” he interrupts.
“What?”
“You heard me. Invite her over. Let’s…let’s hang out with someone. Be a normal couple. I want to give you that. I want to giveusthat.”
It’s things like this that made me fall for Hunter in the first place. He’s always thinking of others. He’s looking for ways to make people happy and do what’s right, sometimes tohis detriment. He can try too hard and hurt himself in his efforts to protect others, but it always comes from a good place.
“Okay.” I smile. “She’d like that.” I pick up my phone and call her.
Isla answers right away. “If it isn’t my best friend who hardly has time for me anymore. What did I do to earn his phone call? That asshole better not have hurt you.”
“I didn’t!” Hunter calls out, making Isla and me realize he can hear her. “I promise.”
“Oh shit,” she says. “Warn a girl next time.”
“I didn’t know he could hear you either. I actually called because Hunter would like me to invite you to his house tonight for dinner.”
“I’ll be there in like thirty.”
“That’s not dinner, you brat.”
“Ugh. Fine. What time should I come over?”
I look at Hunter. He shrugs and says, “Three? We can hang out for a while.”
“Three it is,” Isla replies.
“Do the two of you just want to talk?” I ask.
“Oh, we’ll talk,” Isla says. “In fact, I might talk to him all day. Don’t be mad at me if I ignore you, babe.”
I chuckle. “I won’t. I’ll text you his address.”
“See you soon. Love you.”
“I love you too,” I tell her, then end the call. “Thank you…and sorry about that.”
“You don’t have to apologize. She cares about you, and I do too.”
*
I’m so excitedfor this. No one in my family has ever met Isla. Bringing friends home was never really my thing. Of course, I did when I was young, but the older I got, the less it happened. My parents never liked my friends, not the way they did Ellis’s, and I never wanted anyone around my father so he could use them to try and get me to do what he wanted—Can you believe Lucas? Throwing all that talent away. I bet you would play, wouldn’t you?And even if football was the furthest thing from what they enjoyed, they would always say yes because no one says no to Ellis Blake Sr.
Plus, being around Isla, someone who knows about Hunter and me, makes it feel more real, like it’s not only my wishful thinking or a reality I’ve created for myself that doesn’t really exist.
The doorbell rings, and I look at Hunter. He’s wearing jeans and a nice button-up that fit him well, not too tight but not too loose. Definitely dressier than my T-shirt and jeans with holes in the knees.
