Tangled: A Moreno Brothers novella (15 page)

Brandon smiled as understanding seemed to set in. “I did get her
a few other things.” He lifted the bag in his other hand. “But you’ll think me
a cheese ball.”

Isabel’s eyes were immediately on the bag from the craft store. “No,
I won’t. I love the gifts you make her. Can I see?”

A bit hesitantly he lifted the big bag and pulled out the long
pillow with something printed on it. The words “My ticket to paradise” were embroidered
just over a photo of an airline ticket. Isabel read the only print embroidered on
the airline ticket: the destination from Washington D.C. to San Diego and the
date. That was sweet. Her sister had told her how the very first time she’d
seen Brandon was at the airport in Washington D.C. when they were stuck there
for a few hours because they were on the same delayed connector flight. But
somehow Isabel had still expected a bit more.

“That’s the actual ticket I used that day,” he explained. “I
saved it and came across it a few weeks ago, so I had it photocopied onto the
material for the pillow.”

Now Isabel’s jaw dropped. He saved the ticket all these years?
Gina had told her she’d been sure he hated her at first sight. He flipped the
pillow over, and she read the words he’d had embroidered there.

Once upon a time, a very grumpy and lonely soldier
stood in line at the airport behind a beautiful princess who would change his
life forever . . .

All love stories are beautiful, but ours is my
favorite.

I love you, Princess.

Merry Christmas

Instantly Isabel was a mess. Normally something like this would
just choke her up, but she had tears streaming down her cheeks this time, and she
brought a shaky hand to her mouth, utterly overwhelmed with emotion.

“Oh Brandon, this is so beautiful,” she sobbed and hugged him.

“Wow.” He laughed softly. “I thought you might like it, but I
didn’t expect this.”

She pulled away, still sniffling and unable to control the
emotion that still inundated her. Wiping at the tears, she shook her head. “I’m
sure it’s these damn hormones. I cried a lot when I was pregnant with Romeo
too. But seriously, Gina’s gonna love this!”

Isabel managed to pull it together a little before parting ways
with Brandon. She’d almost reached the store with the cufflinks, and
unbelievably the tears were still coming. Just as she reached the store, she
was almost annoyed at the sight of Elliot rushing toward her. He stopped right
in front of her, his eyes overly concerned. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she assured him, wiping away the tears.

“You sure?” He searched her eyes.

“Yes, yes,” she said, sniffling and feeling even sillier now. “This
pregnancy is making me overly emotional. These are actually tears over
something very sweet my brother-in-law just showed me he bought for my sister.
They’re not sad tears or anything.”

“Ah,” he nodded, looking less concerned. “Well, that’s good.” He
lifted a Macy’s bag he was holding and held it out for her. “I would’ve given
it to you today if I’d known you weren’t coming back tomorrow. It’s just a
little something I got for your kids.”

“Oh, you shouldn’t have,” she said, taking the bag.

He shook his head. “It’s nothing big. But you might want to have
them open them before Christmas. They’re holiday-themed. Something they could
put on the tree.”

She nodded, feeling bad that she’d been irritated when she first
saw him. “Thank you, Elliot. This was very thoughtful.”

It was also awkward since it hadn’t even crossed her mind to buy
his kids anything. Elliot shrugged. “No biggie. Since this may be the last time
I see you before Christmas or, wow, maybe ever”—he opened up his arms, and
Isabel had no choice but to lean in and hug him—“it really has been a pleasure
to work with you, Isabel. Have a wonderful holiday.” Before she could respond
or pull away, he leaned in closer to her ear and lowered his voice. “I really
hope this isn’t goodbye forever.”

Doing her best to not go stiff, Isabel nodded then pulled away.
She wiped a few tears still lingering in the corners of her eyes, determined to
not let this moment get her all frazzled in case that was his intention. “It
was a pleasure working with you too, Elliot. Thanks again for the opportunity,
and”—she lifted a shoulder as nonchalantly as possible—“it’s a small world. We’ll
probably run into each other around town.”

He gazed at her for a moment before catching her completely off
guard and reaching for her hand. He brought it to his lips and kissed it
softly. “I hope so.” Isabel didn’t have a chance to protest because, just as
quickly, he let go of her hand and backed up, never once breaking the eye
contact. “I wish you the best, Isabel. Take care of yourself.”

Just like that, he spun around and walked away, leaving her
standing there a bit stunned. Gathering her wits, she stepped into the crowded
store that sold the cufflinks and bought them. She was able to keep Elliot off
her mind the whole time she continued to shop.

Getting out of the mall and finally into her car proved to be
tricky. First, after getting a toxic whiff of something from the food court,
she had to make a mad dash to the ladies’ room where she puked what felt like
all her insides out. After being in the ladies’ room for what felt like
forever, she’d finally dragged herself out of there.

Once in her car, Isabel felt completely drained. She was so glad
now she’d gotten out of going into work tomorrow, because she felt so
incredibly exhausted. Sleeping in tomorrow would be heaven.

Isabel must’ve looked as pooped as she felt when she got home
because her mom offered to stick around for a few more hours so she could nap,
but Isabel refused. She knew her mother had a lot to do still too. Her mom was
as bad as Manny and Max when it came to shopping for the grandkids.

The good thing was the kids had just eaten lunch and her mom had
made enough of the casserole that there’d be enough for dinner. Isabel didn’t
have to prepare anything for tonight. She sat down with the kids in the front
room when her mom left.

The kids argued for a bit about which of the movies Manny and Max
got them to watch. They’d already watched each one so many times Isabel was sure
they had all the lines memorized. Normally, she didn’t let them watch so much
television, but she’d been so exhausted lately she’d been letting them slide.
They finally decided on E.T., the movie they were most obsessed with. Isabel
didn’t even get past the part where the cops first arrive and E.T. gets left
behind. Both kids had cuddled up on either side of her and she’d promptly
passed out.

Eleven

Sweet Darling

t was the third call from Manny he’d gotten today.
Romero had been too busy to take any of his calls earlier. Lately, Manny had
been calling a lot to ask questions about the kids’ and Izzy’s sizes in
clothes, shoes, etc. Yesterday he’d called a lot too and mentioned he’d be
shopping today again. Apparently, even with all the shit they’d already bought
and given the kids, they were still going to town shopping. Romero was only
answering now because he was almost done for the day, but he still had one last
thing to do before heading home, and since his uncles could be so long-winded, he
answered the way he usually did when they called.

“I’m busy, so make this fast.” Romero grabbed his tablet, wallet,
and keys and headed out of the office, waving at Wanda. “I won’t be back,” he
mouthed before walking out the door.

“Finally you answer! Guess what me and Aida saw today down at the
mall,” Manny said, sounding a little too strange for this to be one of his
normal annoying “guess what” conversations, and before Romero could even try to
guess, he heard Manny take a deep breath. “Now don’t get your panties all in a
bunch or anything because ya know maybe it’s nothing, but I just thought I
needed to run this one by you.”

“It really could be nothing, honey,” Romero heard Aida say
loudly. “It was just a little weird is all.”

Romero slowed as he reached his car, remembering Isabel’s
reaction to his nearly going in her purse that morning. Even though both his
uncles were now adamant now that no way would Izzy ever do anything shady with
the professor, he got the feeling this call was about his wife. All day he hadn’t
been able to shake the feeling that maybe there
was
more to it than just
a Christmas gift hidden in her purse. She’d been just a bit too frantic. “What
did you see?” he asked, already preparing himself not to get too sucked into any
theories.

“Your wife and that professor,” Manny said a little too cautiously.
“She was there with him. They hugged, and she was crying, but—”

“Wait, wait. Back up,” Romero said, feeling every hair on his
body go instantly on alert. “She was crying?”

“Yeah, she was crying, but before we make more out of nothing, Aida
saw her first and—”

“Put Aida on the phone,” Romero said, his heart already pummeling
in his chest, but this didn’t just piss him off. This scared the hell out of
him.

Thoughts of that morning and all her weird moods lately,
including the memory of what he’d overheard her and Gina talking about came
crashing down on him. He couldn’t bring himself to even buy into the idea that
his Izzy would ever
consider
cheating—risk breaking up her family. He
wouldn’t even entertain the idea of her having done anything physical with this
guy. But the notion that maybe Izzy was having some kind of emotional affair
had crossed his mind. Still he refused to believe anything like this could
actually be happening. He needed to hear it straight from Aida, who’d likely be
less worried than Manny about freaking him out.

“Hey, Moe,” Aida said when she got on the line.

“Is it true? She was actually crying?”

“Yes, but here’s the thing,” she said in an even more guarded
tone than Manny’s. “Before you get all crazy or anything, she was walking
through the mall
alone
when I saw her and asked Manny if she was crying
or if I was just seeing things. She definitely was, but I don’t think it was
anything that guy said or did to her that made her cry. Me and Manny had just
begun to gather all our bags because we were taking a break on one of them
benches when I spotted her, but then he showed up, and we sat back down and
watched.”

“He rushed to her,” Manny said loudly in the background, “all
concerned and shit. Maybe they’d just had a fight or something. He is her boss,
right? Bosses can be dicks sometimes.”

“We couldn’t hear a word they said from where we were sitting,” Aida
said.

“But we saw everything,” Manny insisted in the background. “And
it didn’t look
too
bad.”

“Didn’t look
too bad
? What does that mean?” Romero asked,
throwing his wallet and tablet on the passenger side, and started the car.

“Now wait a minute,” Aida said again in that tone that said she
wasn’t convinced it was at all bad.

Romero thanked God for her because he could easily have a
meltdown just thinking about this. But Aida had been there and saw the same
thing Manny did. His only hope was that Manny had been known to misinterpret
things all the time. But as much as Manny worried about Romero losing his shit
because of all people he and Max knew how bad that could get, he wouldn’t be
calling him now unless he felt it necessary.

“It all depends on how you interpret it,” she said calmly even as
Manny went on in the background, trying to tone it down. “Will you be quiet so
I can hear myself think?” she snapped suddenly.

“Well, just tell him already,” Manny barked. “The longer we draw
it out, the more riled we’re gettin’ him.”

“I’m trying to!” She barked right back.

“Tell me what?” Romero braced himself, thinking better of driving
off just yet. Manny was right. He was too damned worked up already.

“They talked a little,” she said calmly. “He gave her what looked
like a Macy’s bag, and they hugged. It was a longish hug,” she said as if to
explain why she was even mentioning it. “And he whispered something in her ear.”

“Even the kiss wasn’t so bad!” Manny added loudly.

“He fucking kissed her?” The bomb Romero had felt ticking inside
him went off, and he started up the car.

“Her hand!” Aida said quickly. “He kissed her hand one time, and
that was it.”

“Yeah, that was it,” Manny added quickly, sounding just as
alarmed as Aida that Romero was about to lose it. “It was just a little weird
too.”

“What was so weird about it?” Romero demanded, his blood
thrumming away at his ear, and he swallowed hard.

He was done pussyfooting around, trying to be the understanding
mature adult so Izzy wouldn’t think he hadn’t grown any. This was bullshit. He
needed to know everything, and he was going straight home now, cancelling on
his client—again—to deal with this. This ended
now
. One way or another
he was getting it straight when he got home.

He heard Aida sigh, and even that spiked every one of his already
frantic senses. “There were a couple of long . . . I don’t know . . . stares?
And with the crying, it was all just a little too weird to dismiss as nothing.
But I’m not saying it was bad. Questionable maybe.”

“Give me that,” he heard Manny say, and in the next second, Manny
was on the line. “We’ll be here all night with you tiptoeing around the whole
thing. Listen to me, Moe. This could be nothing, but another thing Aida left
out because she’s worried you’re gonna freak out is we stuck around and waited
to see if maybe this guy would come back. He never did, but a while later she
rushed off into the ladies’ room, and she was in there so long we thought maybe
she’d walked out and we missed her. But then there she was. She finally comes out,
and she looks like she was crying again. Her eyes were all red and puffy. Aida’s
theory is—”