Was this his way of making sure she was in town for another little while? Yes. Yes, it was. He couldn’t help himself. Valens was caught between wanting to push her away and spending more time with her. It was confusing, but it was also pretty fun to hang out with Isa when they weren’t fighting and locked at each other’s throats.
“Maybe I could do a profile on him or something.”
“I’m sure he’d love that,” Valens said. Good thing the man was more and more lucid these days.
They left the beach, and Valens led them down the main street to the center of town. He told her a bit about every shop and restaurant. How the owner was related to him or how they had come to live on the mountain. Isa soaked it all up, asking questions and sometimes even typing things on her phone to remember later.
“I honestly didn’t know this place’s rich history when I picked this spot. I’m glad I did, though.”
“I’m glad too,” he admitted. He was about to ask her if she would like to continue their exploration after dinner, but his thought was cut off by his ringing phone. “I gotta take this,” he said apologetically. “It’s the office.”
She waved him off, understanding his duties.
“It turns out one of our tourists is six months pregnant and experiencing some cramping. I’ve gotta go check her out. Maybe we can have dinner together?”
Isa gasped softly, her eyes going wide.
“I just mean, maybe it would be a fun idea to continue this later on. Show you the nightlife around the mountain.”
The nightlife around the mountain?
What the fuck was he even thinking? That didn’t even exist unless he was counting Old Man Warner roaming. Valens knew he was in for it, that was for sure. He held his breath as he waited for her to answer. Every second made it harder for him to breathe because he really did want to spend more time with her.
Go figure. The man who didn’t want a human mate couldn’t seem to keep away from her. If Oz and Egon could see him now, they’d piss themselves laughing at him.
“Dinner,” Isa repeated the word. “I guess we could.” She didn’t sound sure at all.
Valens plastered on his best smile. “We definitely should. I’ll pick you up at your cabin at six. How does that sound?”
She winced. “No. Don’t do that. I’ll meet you in the center of town by that massive tiger statue.”
I can’t wait for her to learn that the statue is of us, his tiger roared.
“Six at the statue, then,” Valens said before leaning over to place a soft kiss on Isa’s cheek. Her breath hitched as soon as they touched, and it made him grin.
Oh, yeah.
He was in for it all right.
9
ISA
It was 5:58, and Isa couldn’t stop looking down at her phone’s screen. She knew Valens wasn’t late. It wasn’t his fault she decided to show up early.
If it was anyone’s fault, it was Luke’s. He had come back from his mysterious errand in a nasty mood that could have rivaled her dad on his worst day. Isa tried to be a good friend, but Luke snapped at her and Tarrah before locking himself in his room.
When Isa left the cabin, she knew Tarrah was going to spend the rest of the night trying to coax the grown man out of his room with the promise of food.
Isa couldn’t be around for that. She got ready as fast as she could and rode her bike into town. She was getting the hang of driving the thing one handed. It had actually given her an idea for a stunt. As soon as she was healed up, she would start practicing mountain biking down the mountain. That would make for some cool and daring shots. She’d done a few dirt bike tricks at the beginning of her career, so the skill set was already there, somewhere, tucked in her brain.
Her phone vibrated in her hands, and she immediately looked down to see if Valens was canceling on her.
It wasn’t the sexy town doctor.
It was him. Her stalker.
YourOne&Only: Why does it feel like I’m always the one reaching out to you? I’m gonna get sick of this one day, you know. You need to make some effort in this relationship.
Isa scoffed. Relationship? What the fuck? Whoever was messaging her had some serious delusions about life if he thought for one second that commenting on all of her posts and messaging her constantly made them friends, let alone meant they had a relationship going.
“Enough out of you, psycho.” She slid the phone into her purse with a shudder.
“Everything okay?”
Isa spun on her heels to see Valens making his way toward her. He was wearing a nice pair of Bermudas with a pale salmon dress shirt. It highlighted his tanned skin and light green eyes. His smile always made her knees a little weak.
The man had sex appeal dripping off him like it was going out of style.
His hand went to her shoulder as he placed a sweet kiss on her cheek. The man liked to kiss her, she realized.
If only he kissed other parts of me than my cheek.
“You look absolutely stunning,” he whispered in her ear.
Isa shivered. She had tried to look halfway decent. She hadn’t exactly packed date clothes with her when she came to the mountain. She had in no way anticipated meeting someone interesting like Valens. She had paired her best jeans with a deep green chiffon tank top. Hopefully, he wouldn’t mind she was in flip-flops. Isa couldn’t remember the last time she wore heels. Actually, she didn’t even know if she still owned a pair of heels.
“You don’t look so bad yourself,” she said, hoping to be all flirty and coy. To her ears, she sounded stunted and hollow, like she hadn’t been on a date in a while. That was the truth too. She hadn’t been on a real date in a very long time.
“You flatter me,” Valens said as he took her hand in his. “I’m going to take you to one of the best restaurants in town. How’s that sound?”
“Lead the way.”
They slowly made their way down the main stretch. Valens had already given her a tour of this part of town earlier, so he added more information and cute little anecdotes from his childhood.
“When my brothers and I were kids, we stole candy from the grocery store.”
“No way.”
“Oh, yeah. My older brother, that’s Egon, the Sheriff. He will deny this story until he dies, but I swear it happened. We were probably around eight to ten, and my mother had banned sugar from the house for a bit. It had an adverse reaction on Oz. Made a very hyper kid all that much more hyper. That didn’t work so well for Egon.”
“Right, Bree mentioned he is always eating candy.”
“Exactly. You should have seen the groom's cake at his wedding. The thing was huge, and there was more candy on it than actual cake. Anyway, we were kids in need of a sugar fix. We got into the grocery store, and while Oz pretended to have a skinned knee, Valens and I snuck to the back of the store where all the candy is kept. We tried to fill as much as we could in our pockets. We weren’t exactly smooth about it, but we were kids. Not exactly criminal masterminds.”
“What happened?”
“Well, we were caught. We weren’t exactly careful and overstuffed our pockets. It totally showed. The clerk, who just happened to be our babysitter, caught us. She called our mother, and we were grounded within an inch of our lives. Oz thought it was hilarious because we failed, but Egon was furious he wouldn’t be getting any candy for even longer.”