I looked down at the notification and saw enough that I didn’t need to open the whole text.
Get up here. Isaac is leaving.
I barely held onto the phone as I sprinted up the path toward Dallas and Nolan’s house. Nolan and Newt had already played their songs for Gentry while Dallas and Isaac had taken Snotrod with them up to the house to get started on dinner. I’d volunteered to do one last walk-through to make sure all the buildings and enclosures were secure before joining the family for dinner. I had no clue what possibly could have gone wrong between then and now because Isaac had seemed fine when he’d said his goodbyes to me. No, we hadn’t been allowed to touch because he was still sticking to his ridiculous rule while we were anywhere but my house, but I knew Dallas and Nolan suspected Isaac and I were seeing each other. The fact that Dallas was texting me about Isaac was proof that he knew there was something between us.
I’d sensed Isaac’s need to run. I’d been sensing it for a while. It seemed the closer he and I got, the more tense he grew when I pressed him for even the smallest of details about himself. In truth, I’d expected him to be long gone already, and every day I arrived at the sanctuary to find him working in the office or the barn and every night when I heard his tires crunching over the snow as he arrived at my house, I sent a little thank you heavenward that I hadn’t already lost him.
I might know it was an inevitable thing, but I’d be damned if I was going to stand by and just let it happen without a fight.
I heard yelling long before I reached the house.
From what I could tell, it was Newt and Isaac going at each other.
“No, I don’t wanna leave!” Newt shouted as I reached the final path that led to the house. It was dark out but the floodlight attached to the house was on, so I had a clear view of things. Isaac was carrying a flailing Newt down the small sidewalk that led to the driveway where Isaac’s car was already running. The back seat looked packed full of stuff, just like it had when he’d arrived.
“Isaac, no!” Newt screamed.
“Newt, we have to go!” Isaac responded, his voice thick with tears.
“Mad!” Newt yelled when he saw me, then he was kicking and squirming in Isaac’s arms until Isaac was forced to put him down. The little boy came barreling at me and I scooped him up when he reached me. His face was wet. “Tell him we can’t go!” Newt cried in my ear.
Isaac was frozen in place and I could see he was silently crying himself.
“It’s okay, Newt, just calm down,” I said as I rubbed my hand over his back. I made my way to Isaac, who was pale as a ghost.
“Isaac, talk to me,” I said as I stopped a few feet from him. I wanted to reach out and touch him, but he looked like he could completely shatter at any moment. He was caught right on that line that said he was about to have a complete meltdown, but I didn’t know what that would look like. He could do something foolish like get in the car and drive away and possibly end up in a wreck, or he could sink to his knees right there in the snow and go completely silent.
I just didn’t know.
And I didn’t want to find out.
His wet eyes met mine and I could tell he’d been crying for at least a little while because his eye makeup was starting to streak just a bit. “They want to buy him Christmas presents,” he whispered.
“Who? Nolan and Dallas?” I asked as I spied both men standing near the bottom of the steps leading into the house. Nolan was holding onto Loki to keep the wolf hybrid from following Isaac. Dallas had his arm around Nolan.
“We’re not your family,” Isaac whispered. “We can’t be.”
“Yes, we can!” Newt cried. “Lightning and Mater and Sally and all the others became a family!” The little boy turned to look at Isaac but refused to release his hold on me. “You said I could tell them my middle name ’cause they care!” he accused. “I don’t wanna leave!”
Every word Newt lobbed at his brother seemed to tear something open in Isaac and it was scaring me how quiet he’d gone.
“Newt, buddy, will you go into the house with Nolan and Dallas and Loki so I can talk to Isaac?”
“You gotta make him let us stay, Mad!” Newt said. He spit into his hand and held it out. “Please, Mad, we gotta spit on it.”
My heart broke for the little boy and I wrapped my arms around him. “I promise I’ll spit on it just as soon as I talk to Isaac, okay?” As badly as I wanted to tell Newt I’d make it so he could stay, I wouldn’t do that to Isaac.