Sanctuary Found (Pelican Bay 2)

I closed my eyes and bowed my head as Nolan recited a simple prayer. Although my father had been a well-known reverend with a megachurch and huge following via his televised sermons, Dallas and I hadn’t really bought into the man’s teachings, especially after we’d realized that what the man taught and what he lived were two very different things. But there’d been a few times on the battlefield where I’d sent a prayer heavenward, so I had no issue with thanking the man above for everything He’d seen fit to give me and the people around me.

When the prayer was done, everyone softly said their amens and then Nolan went to work on carving the turkey as conversation broke out again. Nolan’s mother began passing bowls of food around, but I found myself preoccupied with watching Isaac, and it was all I could do to remember to actually spoon food onto my plate before passing it on.

The way he spoke with Sawyer was so easy and natural. And Sawyer was a good-looking guy. He was also really laid-back. I couldn’t see him ever pushing Isaac too hard.

Or making him cry.

I felt a hand on my lower arm and saw that at some point Dallas had closed his fingers around my wrist.

I realized why when I saw my fisted hands.

And the multiple platters of food sitting by my plate waiting to be passed on.

“Sorry,” I murmured, then went to work filling my plate, though I didn’t really have an appetite. My eyes continued to move to Isaac of their own volition. Today was the first time I’d seen him a little more dressed up, though it wasn’t a traditional formal outfit.

Which I was glad for, because Isaac was anything but traditional.

His jeans were as tight as ever, but they were bright white instead of black. He had a bright pink button-down shirt on that had little jewels sewn into the collar. The buttons were large and sparkly. He had his normal blue eyeliner on, but it looked like he’d added some kind of shadow to his lids and his lashes looked thicker than normal. They almost looked like they had a bit of a blue tinge to them, similar to his hair. He’d put some product in his hair to keep it from falling into his face and I couldn’t decide if I liked it or not. On the one hand, I could see more of his gorgeous face. On the other hand, my fingers itched to run through the long strands that perpetually seemed to hang just above his eyes. I didn’t see any kind of foundation makeup, but it looked like he was wearing a little bit of blush.

That, or something was naturally causing his cheeks to pinken.

God, if it was because of Sawyer, I was just going to lose it.

For the life of me, I just couldn’t stop looking at Isaac’s lips. They were shiny-looking as usual, but I suspected he’d used some kind of gloss with just a hint of color, because they were a pretty shade of pink. I’d kissed women who were wearing lipstick before, but my gut was telling me that the gloss wouldn’t detract from the softness of Isaac’s lips. There’d be no tacky texture or chemical or artificial taste.

It would just be Isaac.

God, what the hell was wrong with me?

But I knew the answer to that. I couldn’t keep denying it anymore.

I was wildly attracted to Isaac.

More so than I’d ever been to any other person.

And it wasn’t my mind playing tricks on me. Despite there being a hint of femininity in his features, I wasn’t seeing him as anything other than a beautiful man who, for some inexplicable reason, stirred my blood.

I barely listened to the conversation going on around me. Dinner seemed to last forever, but I knew from the time it had taken us to fill our plates to the time Nolan’s mother went to the kitchen to get the dessert, it hadn’t been more than half an hour.

But it might as well have been a lifetime.

Because I’d had to watch Isaac make conversation with everyone but me. In fact, he’d gone out of his way to ignore me.

So much for trying to force him into acknowledging my presence.

He’d meant what he’d said. He wanted me to stay away from him and his brother. I needed to accept that. It was a good thing.

Right?

“Mrs. Grainger, thank you so much for having me,” I suddenly blurted when there was a lull in the conversation as everyone began digging into their pie. The food I’d eaten was already feeling like lead in my stomach, so I pushed back my chair and added, “It was all delicious, but I couldn’t possibly eat another bite.”

“Oh, of course, dear, would you like me to wrap it up for you?” she asked as she motioned to the pumpkin pie on my plate.