Page 48 of Earned Husband

“Yes.”

Isaac abandoned any pretense of being here for work and moved around to my side of the desk, sorting through the package with me. He picked up one of the bottles of cologne, inspecting the packaging and the label before he frowned at me.

“What is this?”

“It’s cologne.”

“Yeah, I got that part. Thank you. I also completed elementary school. I think you might even have been there for my graduation. What I mean is why have I never seen this brand?”

“It’s theirs,” I said. “White Water Lily.”

He nodded slowly, then sprayed a sample strip. As he brought it to his nose, his eyes widened. “Why does this smell better than everything I’ve ever owned?”

“I don’t know.”

He sprayed another strip and inhaled again. “Maybe America is doing cologne wrong.”

“Or maybe Deja is just really good at her job.”

Isaac shrugged. “Either way, I’m serious. Smell this. It smells like someone who owns a yacht on every ocean.”

“We should get it for Alex for his birthday.”

Isaac laughed, moving on to another one of the bottles while I finally picked up the photographs. There were landscapes, markets, and narrow streets lined with stone buildings. Some featured scenes from what appeared to have been family gatherings and a cat popped up in at least four separate photographs.

My favorite shots, however, were those of Deja. They didn’t seem to be posed, just her laughing with her sister or taking selfies at the markets. She was stunning, her black hairshimmering with bronze in the mid-day sun and her smiles completely addictive.

“That’s dangerous,” Isaac said as I stared at a picture that only had her in it. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’re at risk of falling in love with this girl.”

I nearly dropped the photograph in my hand. “She might end up being my wife. I should hope she’s someone I could fall in love with.”

Isaac made a face at me that suggested he was about to be sick, but the guy was becoming a pretty notorious playboy. He had zero intentions of settling down and the mere idea of it always turned him a little green around the gills.

Evidently, seeing what our mom had gone through with our dad had affected us in different ways. For him, it’d made commitment seem like a trap, but the same wasn’t true for me.

Getting this package and seeing those pictures from Cairo was easily the best part of my week. Possibly even my whole month.

Isaac glanced at the pictures occasionally as I set one down to continue onto the next, but he mostly continued working his way through the colognes she’d sent. He didn’t stop until my entire office smelled like a luxury department store, but interestingly, I obviously wasn’t allergic to these.

That meant there had to be something specific in that perfume. Or it was still just seasonal allergies and I’d have to survive a few months a year on medication just to be able to get close to my wife. Shit.

“You know,” Isaac said, sniffing one of his sleeves. “If engineering doesn’t work out for me, I could probably make a killing reviewing fragrances.”

I snorted. “You’d last three days before you get bored.”

“Maybe, but they’d be a pretty awesome three days,” he shot back. “Seriously, these are amazing. When you get there,you have to convince them to send me some. All of these and whatever else they’ve got.”

“Sure. I’ll just walk into the home of one of the most powerful families in Egypt and start demanding free products for my brother. That’ll go down well.”

“It should,” he said easily, reaching for a small stack of pictures I’d set down. “Who knows? Maybe they’ll be so flattered that they send me the entire range every season from here on out.”

“You really are an optimist.”

He shrugged a shoulder before turning back to the image in his hand. “Someone in this family has to be and it’s worked out pretty well for me so far. Why change a winning recipe?”

Before I could say a word, he switched to the next picture and immediately groaned, a slow grin spreading across his face. “Well, hello there. Who are you?”

Regretting letting him look at the pictures at all, I leaned over to see who the unlucky lady was who’d captured his attention. He turned the picture toward me, revealing one I’d liked of Deja and her sister in front of a fountain, both of them laughing at something outside the frame.