Page 19 of Isolated (Harper Security Ops #21)

Iris

“This is not how I imagined things would be.”

No truer words had ever been spoken.

Although she hadn’t fully explained her reasons for making such a statement, one look at Flora’s face told me everything I needed to know. The weight of where we were in our personal lives—my sisters and me—was crushing.

It was Saturday evening, and I was out on the town with Eleni and Flora.

They’d arrived in Steel Ridge last night, so I’d prepared a late dinner for the three of us to catch up over.

Since we’d rescheduled getting together previously due to Eleni’s newest client at work, I steered the conversation in that direction from the start yesterday.

“Have things settled down a bit at work now that you took the extra time to catch up with the new client?” I asked, the three of us seated around my table. The same table I’d sat at just two nights before to have dinner with Landen.

Eleni twirled the fettuccini around on her fork. “Yeah. I desperately needed that time the other weekend to get caught up on their account, but it’s all good now.”

“That’s great to hear. Congratulations, again.” I smiled at her. “I’m so glad we were able to reschedule reasonably soon afterward.”

Her eyes dropped to her plate. “Me, too.”

It took some effort not to roll my eyes.

I loved her dearly, but Eleni’s frequently miserable mood made it difficult to be around her sometimes.

If I didn’t think it might cause an argument or unnecessary tension, I might have taken this time to talk to her about what was going on.

It was far better to do it when it was just the three of us and not the entire family.

But I didn’t want to get into any of that. Instead, I shifted my attention to Flora. “How have things been going for you since I was last in Grouse?”

Unsurprisingly, Flora wore a sweet smile, her cheeks tinged pink against her flawless skin. “Excellent, actually. I think there must be something about the Gibson sisters and the timing of their professional success, because I picked up a few new editing clients this past week. I’m so excited.”

“That’s awesome, Flora. I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks, Iris.”

After hearing all about how things had been going for my younger sisters, I was merely grateful it hadn’t been that long ago when I’d visited with my family for my birthday. At least I’d been able to tell them then about my recent luck at work and the promotion that was on the horizon.

No matter how much I loved and trusted Eleni and Flora, I couldn’t bring myself to confess to them just how awful things had been going for me at work lately.

I was so embarrassed by what had happened, and admitting that I’d screwed up so badly without even trying was something I didn’t want to add to my plate.

Not this weekend, anyway.

Because my sisters—even Eleni—would go out of their way to be supportive of me, and I wasn’t in the mood to talk or think about work anymore. I’d spent plenty of time over the last couple of days doing just that; I was ready for a break.

Fortunately, neither of them had pushed for details about my work beyond asking how it was going and accepting my answer that had been short and sweet. Work was busy—not a lie, but certainly not the full truth.

The three of us enjoyed our night in last night—I did wind up sharing some ideas I had about the progress I was hoping to make on my home over the next few months, and they’d shared some recent local gossip from back in Grouse—but today had been all about getting ourselves out of the house.

We started this morning. As soon as we’d all gotten up and dressed, I took my sisters to The Early Bird for breakfast. They’d ordered doughnuts and coffee; I’d stuck to the doughnuts and water.

Following breakfast, we’d spent our morning and early afternoon shopping.

Having given them a broad picture of my upcoming plans for my house last night, they’d assisted me in deciding on a few items that would help give my place a bit of a cozier feel as we’d head into the fall and winter months.

It was something that had been on my mind a bit last winter, but with putting so much focus on my work, I hadn’t managed to get around to it then.

So, I promised myself I’d do it this year.

Eleni and Flora coming for a visit was the perfect opportunity to make it happen.

It was nice.

It was fun.

And I’d laughed more this afternoon than I had in a long while.

Until it happened, I hadn’t realized just how desperately I’d needed the time with my sisters, simply to do things like eating too much food out and shopping for things I didn’t necessarily need.

In reality, I probably could have spent several more hours doing just that, but with plans for us to go out for dinner and drinks tonight, we made our way back to the house to get ourselves ready. And it was no surprise that when we returned, Walter was there to greet us.

“That’s a lot of bags.”

My mood, already elevated from my day of shopping, lifted even more. I stopped moving and turned to face him, my sisters doing the same. “Hi, Walter. You remember my sisters, Eleni and Flora, right?”

His chin jerked down sharply, and his eyes moved among the three of us, widening as he took in all the bags in our hands. “Is it someone’s birthday, or did I forget about an upcoming holiday?”

“Neither.” Surprise washed over him as he stepped back slightly. “We decided to have a bit of sisterly bonding today, so we went out and did some shopping.”

Walter’s expression immediately turned solemn. It was enough for me to step forward and reach for his hand.

“Are you okay?”

He pulled his hand back and waved it in the air, as though attempting to shoo me away. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I just… Gertie and Rachel used to do that all the time.”

Gertie, his wife who’d died twenty years ago. Rachel, his daughter who left home and moved across the country long before I ever moved here. Gertie couldn’t come to visit, but Rachel could and never had. At least, not as long as I’d been around.

“I’m sorry, Walter. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

He shook his head. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve got to get back inside and get some things done around the house.”

“Oh, don’t leave.”

Walter had already turned and was making his way back to his house as he mumbled something I couldn’t quite make out.

I shifted my attention to my sisters, and their expressions mirrored my own. It was heartbreaking to see this old man battle with his loneliness every day.

“I get it,” Eleni murmured, her eyes fixed on my neighbor.

“Get what?”

The moment Walter opened his door and walked into his house, she looked at me and said, “I understand why you spend time with him. God, he’s heartbroken.”

Flora was just as caught up in the moment. “Can you imagine the love he must have had for his wife to be like that all these years later?”

Eleni sighed. “I want to be loved like that one day.”

I couldn’t say I didn’t understand the sentiment. I often wondered about what Walter was like when Gertie was still alive. It was so hard to imagine him as anything besides the grump that I’d grown fond of, but it would have been a treat to see him with the love of his life.

“Same,” I muttered.

“Me, too,” Flora sighed.

At that, the three of us had gone inside, unloaded the bags, and gone about getting ourselves ready for tonight.

Now, we were here, had ordered and received our meals, and done everything possible to avoid any real talk that would lead us down uncomfortable roads. But it seemed Flora had reached her limit.

Maybe it was the scene with Walter that had pushed her to this point. Maybe it was purely that constant desire for more in her life. Either way, I didn’t think this was going to be an easy conversation.

Just to be certain I wasn’t making any assumptions about her mindset or why she’d just said what she did, I countered, “This isn’t how you imagined things would be? Exactly what do you mean by that?”

Her features were pinched, filled with tension. “I never anticipated getting to this point in my life, to this age, and feeling like there’s little hope left for a romantic relationship. I think I’m going to become like Walter.”

Eleni was quick to reassure Flora. “You’re not going to become like Walter.”

“No? How can you be so sure? None of us are married or engaged to be married. Heck, none of us are even dating anyone seriously. Iris is thirty-one, Eleni. We aren’t far behind. What if it doesn’t happen? Or worse, what if we spend half of our lives alone?”

I realized she was genuinely upset, but I couldn’t help myself. Soft laughter escaped. “Do you honestly believe it’d be worse to find your guy later in life as opposed to not finding him at all?”

She shrugged. “I’d probably spend so much time thinking about how many years we lived without one another, how only having forty or fifty years together just won’t be enough.”

Flora wasn’t wrong. Time was certainly passing us by.

And it was that thought which forced my mind back to the conversation I’d had with Landen at my place a few days ago. While there were no guarantees about what might happen between us moving forward, it was apparent we’d wasted some time.

For so long, I had assumed that Landen had no interest in me beyond being my gym buddy. To hear him admit that he’d been waiting to ask me out on a date for months had left me feeling like I was floating.

And it was for that reason that I felt compelled to offer Flora some reassurance. “Some time is better than no time.”

“Do you really believe that?”

“Absolutely.” If I had a shot at exploring something with Landen now, I wasn’t going to turn it down because it hadn’t come months ago.

“I think if you find the right guy, you’ll be happy for any time you have with him.

And if he’s the one , I suspect he’s going to do everything in his power to make it so that you don’t feel like you’ve missed out on anything. ”