Cupid's Daughter

Chapter 13~ Dinner With the Devil

✧ Noah Jones ✧

I watched with satisfaction as Issy went flying into the water, her face masked into a look of horror. We'd sort of been having a moment, but even still I couldn't resist the temptation of shoving her into the pool and watching her get mad at me. She was just too funny when she was angry.

"You are such a jerk!" She yelled, pushing back wet strands of hair that had escaped her ponytail and were plastered to her face. I resisted the urge to laugh and instead leaned down to help her out of the water. She climbed onto the wooden floorboards and stared down at her soaked clothes with a frown, a visible shiver running down her spine. Tiny droplets of water streamed from her in all directions, and she crossed her arms self-consciously as her clothes clung to her.

Watching her stand shaking, it suddenly struck me how I'd never noticed her before. Issy was good-looking, that much was obvious, but in a different way to Sabrina. Sabrina was hot; Issy was beautiful. I wasn't sure what the difference was, but I knew that there was one. In the short time I'd known her I could already tell that she was kind and loyal, and that she seemed perfectly fine flying under the radar. Perhaps this was why I'd never even spoken a word to her before a few weeks ago.

"Uhh... are you quite done staring at me? I'm freaking freezing." Issy said, snapping me out of my thoughts. I shook my head and shoved my hands inside my pockets.

"Sorry, I'll grab you a towel and some spare clothes. Give me a sec." I motioned to her that I'd be back in a minute and walked brusquely towards the house, running upstairs to retrieve a clean towel and some of Amara's clothes. Amara was a small woman, but Issy was tiny, and I knew that the shirt and pants would barely stay on her. Even still, it was the best I could do.

I jogged back down to the backyard and found that Issy was stood exactly where I'd left her, her lips and fingernails tinged blue from the cold. I suddenly felt a little guilty for making her fall into the pool, but the guilt eased when she looked up at me and grinned.

"There's a bathroom at the end of the hall where you can change and shower, if you need to." I informed her, watching as she nodded and brushed past me back into the house, disappearing down the hall.

I marched up into my bedroom and lay down on my bed as I waited for her to clean up. My thoughts wandered back to the theme park when we'd met Issy's mom. Issy had seemed so small and vulnerable against the contrast of her mother's sharp personality, who seemed like more of a harsh school principal than she did a matchmaker. Issy didn't take any of her crap though, not even for a second.

There was a small knock on the door and, thinking it was Issy, I yelled for her to enter. The face that appeared before me, however, was not Issy's but my dad's.

I opened my mouth to greet him when he cut me off, coming inside and closing the door behind him. "Would you care to explain why there is a girl in my home who is not Sabrina? If you have the nerve to cheat on that lovely girlfriend of yours then I sincerely hope the trash you brought home has the decency to greet me properly." My father scolded me, his dark eyes burning into me.

I stood up quickly and marched over to him, forcing him to back against the door. "Don't you ever talk about Isabelle like that. Sabrina isn't even my girlfriend anymore, but Isabelle is helping me change that. Leave her alone." I threatened, my fists balling at my sides. My father's eyes slid down to my hands and back to my face before his expression softened.

"Isabelle... the one you mentioned for a scholarship?"

I nodded.

"You and Sabrina broke up?"

I sighed and walked back towards my bed, flopping down onto it. "Yeah, we had a bunch of arguments about everything and anything. She broke up with me a month or so ago."