“When was the last time you saw them?” he asked.
“It would have to be a couple of days after Is turned eighteen. I was twelve. They told us that they would be back in a couple of days. They told Is that they had put some money away for her. Next thing I know, it’s just Is and me. She’s working to keep us both, and I’m going to school. She helped me get the grades I have now. Did you also know that she’s quit the course she was doing?” Sophie asked.
“No, I didn’t know.” Edward rubbed at his temples. “Don’t take this personally, but Is was only a kid herself. Why didn’t anyone take you away?”
Sophie sighed. “I don’t know. I know Is was scared in case someone did try. No one did though. Everyone knew our folks had left. Good riddance as well. I never liked how they were able to make Is cry. It has been nearly eight years. I doubt they would ever come back. They’re probably dead somewhere.”
“You don’t sound too cut up about it,” he said.
“There is only one parent I know, and that is Isabel. She’s my mom, my dad, my best friend, my everything, Edward. I love her. She’s my Is. I don’t think she knows how much I appreciate everything she did for me. Even when I was being an asshole to her growing up. She’d just sit there and take it. Eventually, I’d be the one humiliated.”
Edward knew she didn’t just sit there and take it. Isabel had other means of dealing with what was going on in that head of hers.
****
“How was lunch?” Edward asked.
Isabel strapped herself in and smiled. “It was fun.” She was getting closer to the girls every single day. She and Amy had hit it off straight away.
“Good. I just got finished talking with Sophie.”
“Is she okay?” Isabel asked. She hadn’t talked to her sister in a couple of days.
“She’s fine. We were just chatting about everything and nothing. She’s already talking about Christmas.”
“She loves Christmas. We would decorate the trailer as much as possible. It was kind of hard to do, but we made do with what we had. It was fun.”
“You’ll have a field day with my place then. Don’t worry about the expense either. I’ve got you covered.”
“You’re always so good to me.” She rested her head back on the seat, and smiled at him. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” He took hold of her hand and pressed a kiss there, heating her up. She pressed her thighs together remembering the feel of him sliding inside her. “Why didn’t you tell me that you had quit the online college?”
“It slipped my mind.”
When she went to withdraw her hand, Edward held onto it.
“I want you to sign back up for it.”
“Why?”
“Because I remember how excited you were talking about it, okay? You could have gone to college. I saw your test scores. You graduated with a decent grade. It wasn’t sloppy.”
“I don’t have it in me to do the college thing, or the online stuff. I’ve tried, and it doesn’t suit me.” She gritted her teeth as she stared at him.
He looked so disappointed.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes, and she wondered what he was thinking, so she asked him.
“What am I thinking?”
“Yeah, I want to know.”
“I don’t know right now. I’m just in a weird place. I don’t understand why you would quit a course that you enjoyed. It was English, right?”
“Yes, it was. You don’t understand.”
“Then explain it to me.”