In Close (Bulletproof #3)(31)
Author: Brenda Novak

“He said I needed to eat, but nothing was open.”

“You’re telling me Isaac wanted to make you dinner?”

It was true; he’d been set on it. But Claire wasn’t sure she’d believe it if she were Leanne. “He says I’m too thin.”

“Why does he care?”

Claire didn’t have an answer for that. If she had to guess, she’d say he felt guilty for the way their relationship had ended. But there was no telling what Isaac thought. For one thing, it could change from day to day depending on his mood. “Who knows?”

“What about after dinner?”

Grateful for the chance to turn her back, Claire put her purse on the kitchen counter. “I dozed off on the couch while he was cleaning up, so he threw a blanket over me and let me sleep.”

“That’s so unlike anything I’ve ever heard about him,” Leanne marveled. “He thinks he’s too good for the rest of us. He doesn’t mind using locals to get off—you learned that the hard way—but he’d never take anyone in Pineview seriously. We’re all hicks to the famous photographer.”

“Thanks for the reminder, but he loves this place.” He’d just told her so.

“He likes living in a remote location. That doesn’t mean he likes the people here.”

Claire had heard others charge Isaac with the same thing. He could seem arrogant. But some of that was simply a product of being so appealing. His good looks, his talent and keen mind intimidated people, made them search for some flaw in order to prove he wasn’t as perfect as he seemed. And he was more than willing to expose every weakness, just to show that he didn’t need their approval. “Let’s…give him the benefit of the doubt, okay?”

“He does you one kindness after how he treated you before and now you’re sticking up for him?”

Again she regretted ever letting her sister know how she’d felt about him. “I’m not sticking up for him. I’m trying to look at the whole picture. We were together a long time ago, and people change. He’s…guarded, but don’t forget he was abandoned as a little boy, then raised by Old Man Tippy, who scarcely said a word that wasn’t about his beloved photography. You remember how Tippy was. It’s understandable that Isaac might be unwilling—or unable—to get close to people.”

Leanne maneuvered her chair past the couch. “Oh, come on. He gets close to people all the time. He was close to you once. And there’ve certainly been others who’ve visited his place after dark and gone home so well-ridden they can hardly walk.”

The crudeness of that statement made Claire cringe. She didn’t like the image it created, or how foolish it implied she’d been. But Leanne wasn’t feeling the contempt she pretended to feel, at least not exclusively. Claire sensed envy, too—and the last thing she needed was for Leanne to come on to Isaac.

“He’s made some mistakes, but I don’t think he’s as…bad as he once was.” After she’d stopped sleeping with him, Isaac had gone from one girl to the next. Word of his “sexcapades” had spread all over town. There’d even been rumors that he was having an affair with Claudia Hampton, a rich older woman whose husband, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, stayed in Houston most of the time she’d lived in Pineview and rarely bothered to visit.

“You’re convinced he isn’t a womanizer anymore? Just because he made you dinner without taking you to bed?”

Leanne didn’t believe a man like Isaac was likely to change, and she was probably right. But Claire refused to concede the point. “I’m saying we don’t really know, so why judge?”

“He makes his true self impossible to miss!”

“Maybe he uses his hard-ass image to hide who he really is.”

“And why would he do that?”

“It’s a defense mechanism. If everyone thinks the worst of him he has no expectations to meet and no disappointment to face.”

“Where did you learn that psychobabble bullshit?” she said with a laugh.

It was just something she’d been thinking about now that she was older and could look at the situation from a perspective less affected by her own unfulfilled desires. But even if she was right, understanding the reason for his sharp angles didn’t make them any less capable of cutting anyone who ventured too close, and she wasn’t about to forget that. “Could you lay off? What he does isn’t any of our business.”

“Whatever you say, as long as you realize that it doesn’t matter whether or not he helped you out last night. Isaac Morgan hasn’t changed as much as you want to believe. He’s done everything he can to earn his reputation.”

And Leanne was earning hers, which made it ironic that she was the one pointing a finger. But Claire wasn’t going to make an issue of it. Her sister had reasons for her behavior, too. “I’ve got to shower. My first appointment will be here in forty minutes.”

“Wait a second. I came over because…I want to explain something before you…jump to the wrong conclusion.”

Her halting words alerted Claire that Isaac was no longer the subject of their conversation. “I’m listening.”

“What you asked me yesterday about…about being out of school on the day Mom went missing.”

Claire stiffened. Thanks to what Tug had told her, she didn’t want to discuss this. She was surprised Leanne had even brought it up. “Yes?”

“I know you’ve been told.”

Their stepfather must’ve felt too guilty to keep his indiscretion to himself. Claire kneaded her forehead so she wouldn’t have to look at her sister. “Is it true?”

“I had a crush on Joe, thought I was in love with him.”

“That’s a yes.”

Silence.

Claire had to look at Leanne now. “He was married. And two and a half times your age. What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t thinking. I was thirteen, okay?”

“But…how did you even get hold of a video camera?”

“I borrowed Mom’s. Dad had just given it to her for Christmas, remember, and I was using it for a school project at the time. I’m embarrassed, and I have been for years, but…there’s more to what happened than my stupid mistake. That’s the part you need to hear if you want to find Mom.”

A chill ran up Claire’s spine. “Tell me.”