Branded: An Everyday Heroes World Novel (The Everyday Heroes World)

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“You’ve got a deal, Isaac Black.” I extend my hand to seal the deal with a handshake. “Don’t make me regret it.”
“I would never.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his cell phone, then passes it to me. “Call yourself so I have your number and you have mine.”
His screen is already on when I look down at it, and his phone background is all black with the phrase ‘Negativity Is the Easy Way Out’ in the middle.
I open up keypad, dial my number, and let it ring until I feel the vibration in my pocket then I end it.
“All set.” I pass him the phone.
“Perfect.” I watch the muscles in his arms contort and flex as he slides his phone back into his pocket. “I should get back to her before she leaves here with more numbers than me.”
I giggle. “Probably a good idea.”
“I’ll call you sometime soon. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He flashes me that damn smile of his and leaves me in the middle of the supermarket with a racing heart and butterflies in my stomach.
Isaac
“Aren’t you going to tell me about her?”
I’m honestly shocked how long it took Grams to push for more information about Sawyer. She waited all the way to the parking lot before starting twenty questions.
“Here we go,” I groan.
“Don’t you have that tone. I’m an old woman. You’re supposed to be kind to me.”
I laugh out loud and shake my head at her audacity.
“Are you saying that I’m not? Because if I remember correctly, I’m ‘such a sweet boy,’ unless you were lying to me when I picked you up and took you for doughnuts.”
Grams is a sugar fiend. That is a one-way ticket to her good side. Anytime she’s mad, I’ve learned to ply her with chocolate or some sort of sweet confection. She can never say no to that.
“I’m saying you are being defensive over a girl, and it’s the first time that’s happened. I’m a naturally curious person, so I want to know about her. She’s very pretty.”
The motorized cart she is riding in rolls to a stop just beside my truck and she stares at me, waiting for some kind of response while I load her few bags of groceries into the back of my extended cab. Her gaze is so palpable, like a typical grandma gaze you can feel from across the room when you know you’re in trouble.
“Why are you staring at me?”
She tilts her head to the side and holds her hands out like the reason is obvious. “Because I can tell you like her.”
“I hardly know her, Grams. I’ve only run into her a couple of times.”
“I may be old, but I’m not stupid. I can feel obvious sexual tension when I see it.”
I hold my hands up in surrender. “Okay, first of all, you can’t see sexual tension and second of all, gross. Please don’t talk about feeling sexual tension.” I place the final bag in the truck then close the door. “That’s the last thing I want to think about.”
“How do you think you’re here, Isaac? I had sex with your grandfather to have your father then he had sex with your mom to have you. Sex is normal.”
“I’m thirty seconds away from covering my ears like a two-year-old and shouting la-la-la-la-la until you stop.” I shake my head at her. “Give me your hand and I’ll help you around and into the truck.”
“I am a stubborn woman, Isaac. I don’t give up easily.” She gathers her purse and holds it tightly against her side.
I help her stand and slowly walk her around to the passenger side of the truck then maneuver her up and 0nto the seat.
“You? Stubborn? I would have never guessed,” I say sarcastically.
“Where do you think you get it from? That’s a Black family trait, you know? Stubborn asses who never accept no for an answer.”
I take my place behind the wheel and turn the keys, bringing the engine to life and her music of choice, old-school country music, croons through the speakers.
“Grams, there really isn’t much to say. I think she’s attractive, and easy to talk to, so yes, I’ve asked her out.”
“Did she say yes?”
“Not at first, but eventually.”
“Ah, playing hard to get. Good girl.” She clasps her hands in her lap and begins to sway to the music.
“I have a feeling you were one hard lady to land back in your day.” I pull out onto the road and head back toward her apartment.
“Back in my day?” she scoffs. “Are you calling me old?”
“Aren’t you though? I thought it was common knowledge you were there when the wheel was invented,” I tease her, like we always do each other. “You’re basically a dinosaur. Hell, not even that. You’re a fossil.”
“At least I’m pretty. You took after the unfortunate side of our family, dear. I’m really sorry about that.” She laughs, reaching over to pat my shoulder.
I really love this woman, and I’m grateful she is still here with me so I’m able to joke around with her, even if our love language is being mean to one another. She stepped up for me in my life when I had no one. Who knows where I’d be right now without her?
“You’re right. You are pretty.”
We sit silently, listening to Johnny Cash serenade us about a woman in love. Grams has always loved the Man in Black, and he’s always her music of choice when she’s in my truck.
“Listen, Isaac, I don’t mean to press every single time a woman is mentioned, but I want more for you than this Casanova thing you’ve got going.”
“How do you even know what I do and don’t do in regard to women? I’m hardly a Casanova, Grams.”
“Then what would you call yourself, because I am not blind, you know? I know you see ladies and see them often. I have my ways of finding these things out. What about that Isabelle girl? You were seeing her a lot.”
“We’re just friends. I’ve