Murders & Romance: A Psychic Detective Romantic Mystery (Isaac Taylor Mysteries Book 5) by Lashell Collins (ready player one ebook .TXT) 📗

“Yep.” Pete answered.

Mateo looked at Ike. “So you solved more cases than anybody?”

Isaac sighed. “So they tell me. I don’t keep track.”

“How’d you do it?”

“How?”

“Were your psychic powers involved?”

A cannonball struck Pete in the gut.

Damn that kid and his questions, questions, questions!

“Psychic powers?”

Jada, Charlie, and his mom all spoke at once, and Pete just wanted to shrink down into the chair, slip away under the table and go hide. This is what he got for sharing things with his nephew.

Ike and Sidney looked at each other.

“You’re psychic?” Jada stared at Isaac. Then she looked at Sidney. “He’s psychic?”

“I’m really sorry, partner.” Pete glared at Mateo. “I guess I never told Mateo that you didn’t want the entire world to know.”

“Oops.” Mateo turned contrite eyes at Ike. “Sorry.”

Isaac set his fork down and reached over to take Sidney’s hand. They shared a look, and Pete finally began to realize that Sid was like an anchor for his strange partner. Opposites or not, she gave him something he needed. Something he lacked. And Pete suddenly understood the mystery of their connection.

Isaac made Sidney brave.

Sidney made Isaac whole.

“It’s all right.” Isaac glanced around the table. “Psychic is not a word I fancy. But unfortunately, it is the word that best describes it. And yes,” he looked at Mateo. “A lot of times my… abilities play a big role in my job.”

There was dead silence around the table and Pete really wanted to kill Mateo for making Ike uncomfortable.

“As long as you continue to watch out for my Pedro, I don’t care that you have the sight.” Julieta smiled at him.

“The sight. I haven’t heard anyone but my grandfather use that term.”

“That’s what we called it in the olden times,” Julieta laughed and then she looked Ike in the eyes. “La vista. La vista de la oscuridad? O la vista de la luz? Which one do you possess, Detective?”

Pete could only describe Isaac’s expression perplexed.

Ike opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated a beat and then quietly cleared his throat.

“My Spanish isn’t all that great, ma’am. But I think you said sight of darkness or sight of light?”

“I did.”

“The only answer I can give you is both. The things I see are often dark. But I use my abilities for good. To shed light on the awful deeds done in the dark.”

Julieta nodded. “Sí. I can see this inside you. I think you are a good man, Isaac Taylor. Pedro is lucky to have you as a partner.”

Isaac grinned at her. “Well, you know, I tell him that all the time, but he doesn’t want to hear it.”

Laughter went around the table, and Pete rolled his eyes.

“Oh, come on! Don’t tell him things like that, mamá. It’s hard enough to work with him already.”

“You love working with me, and you know it.”

“I hate working with you, and don’t you forget it!”

Dinner passed by with a constant flow of chatter after that, and Pete relaxed when he realized that everyone seemed to be having a good time. Aside from Mateo’s endless questions about Ike and police work, both boys appeared to be on their best behavior. Too bad they didn’t spend much time talking to each other though. Pete was really hoping they would hit it off, but so far that prospect wasn’t looking so hot.

They devoured Julieta’s pineapple rum cake after dinner, and when they were cleaning up afterwards, Pete was ecstatic to see Jada and Julieta laughing and talking as they loaded the dishwasher and put away the leftovers.

“Thank you so much for a lovely evening, Pete. Dinner was absolutely delicious!”

“Thanks, Sid. And thank you for coming.”

He kissed her cheek and then looked at Ike.

“I’ll see you in a few hours, I guess.”

“Yep. See you then.”

Ike turned around and waved at Mateo and Charlie who were both sprawled out on the sofas in the living room with eyes glued to the flat screen.

“Bye boys.”

They said goodbye to Jada and Julieta and left.

“Well, Charlie and I should be leaving too.” Jada motioned for Charlie to get up. Then she turned to Julieta with a smile. “Thank you so much for having us, Señora Vega.”

“Please call me Julieta.”

“Julieta.” Jada nodded. “This was fun. Maybe sometime you and Mateo could come to my house for dinner?”

“That would be lovely. Right, Mateo?” Julieta looked at the kid, and Pete watched as Mateo shrugged a shoulder.

“I guess.”

“Okay,” Pete sighed. “I’m going to walk Jada and Charlie to their car. I’ll be right back.”

He followed them outside and Jada gave Charlie the keys so that he could unlock the door. He ran ahead, leaving Pete and Jada alone for a few minutes.

“Well, I think that went well.”

She smiled at him, and Pete pulled her into his arms.

“Despite me acting like an idiot half the night, I agree.”

“Why were you so nervous? Did you think your mom wouldn’t like us?”

“I don’t know what I was thinking. I just… I don’t know, I wanted the two of you to love each other. And I expected Mateo and Charlie to have some missteps, but it turns out they barely said more than two words to each other.”

“Pete, they’re kids. They’ll find their own rhythm. We can’t expect them to be best friends right off the bat, and that’s okay. They don’t have to love each other just because we do. It would be unrealistic and unfair of us to expect that of them.”

“What did you just say?”

“I said it would be unrealistic…”

“No, no, no. Not that part. The part right before that?”

Jada tried to hide a smile.

“I said we can’t expect them to be best friends right away.”

“Mmm… I’m pretty sure you said something else in between those two things.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yeah, you did.”

“Nope.”

“I heard something else in there, I’m sure of it.”

“Well, then you should get your hearing checked because I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Riiiight.” He nodded. “Okay. Guess I was hearing things then.”

“I guess you were.”

He smiled and stared into her big brown eyes.