The teenager nodded.
“Did you really kiss his girlfriend?” Isaiah asked, and Sofia gawked.
The boy nodded.
“And he’s your friend?”
He nodded again.
“And you still want to be his friend?”
For a third time, the boy nodded.
“Then you’d better make it right.”
“Yes, sir.” Then he hurried out of the yogurt shop.
Isaiah watched him leave then slid back into the booth and began eating his yogurt again.
Sofia’s jaw dropped.
“What?” he asked when he noticed her expression. He set down his spoon.
“Do you want to tell me what that was all about?”
“What do you mean?”
“It was like you knew exactly what to do and say. Your posture was even… different. And your voice…” A flush creeped over her skin.
Isaiah merely shrugged. “I was just doing what anyone would do.”
Sofia shook her head, disagreeing but not wanting to go into more detail about it. “If you say so.”
But she couldn’t keep her mind off the way the boy had responded, meeting Isaiah’s gaze, standing a little taller, and saying “Yes, sir.” Something was bothering her, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was.
Chapter Thirty-Four
SOFIA
After they left the yogurt shop, Sofia and Isaiah strolled toward the large city park. Sofia decided she would show him a few of her favorite spots then they would go and check out the rental home she’d won for the weekend.
Before they entered the park, Sofia peeked in the window of one of the little shops that lined the path toward it. She could never resist keeping her eyes open for the gems she often found when she visited the town.
She inhaled sharply at the sight of a kite in the window. It was the classic shape and bright pink with streamers running down the ends.
Without warning, her mind flashed to a time on the beach as a child, flying a kite just like it through the air with her mom. It had been years since she’d thought of the scene, and it hit her like most unexpected memories with her mom did, magical and bittersweet all at once. She swallowed a lump in her throat.
“What is it?” Isaiah asked, and Sofia was surprisingly warmed by the feel of him standing next to her.
“That kite… It just reminded me of when my mom and I used to spend summers at the coast. There were perfect kite-flyingconditions there.” Her breath caught in her chest at the memory of how young, happy, and healthy her mom had been.
“Let’s get it,” Isaiah said.
Sofia turned to face him, her jaw dropping, before she shook her head. “No, that would be silly. I don’t go to the coast anymore.”
“So?”
“So? Should I just have a kite sitting in my house, never used?”
