“Anything.”
“You should hear what it is before you say anything.”
“Not changing my answer.What do you want me to promise?”
“That if this…” With her free hand, she included the kids.“If it turns out to be more than you bargained for, or if you decide you want to stick with the stubbornly single life, will you tell me?I’d rather you come right out and say it than disappear or ghost me or whatever people do these days.”
“I’d never ghost you, and I promise I’ll tell you if things change for me.But… I need you to tell me if I screw up, because I haven’t done anything like this in almost twenty years, and I’m afraid I’ve forgotten how.”
“You’re doing great so far.”
“It’s early days.Don’t let me screw this up, okay?”
“I won’t.”She looked down at their joined hands, marveling at how natural and normal it felt to be holding hands with him when she’d met him less than a week ago.“Do you need to go back to work?”
“I’m covered for today.”
She still couldn’t believe he’d covered his day, no doubt a complicated proposition, to be with her.He’d done that for her.
“Do you want to get out of here for a while?Take a ride maybe?”
“That’d be nice.We’ve been cooped up all weekend.Where do you want to go?”
“I need to take a run up to Ojai.We’ve got a ranch up there with horses and other animals that my grandfather wants one of us to check on.The kids might enjoy that.”
“They’d love it.Are you sure you want to do that?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
ChapterTwenty-Two
They took Isla’s car because the car seats were already installed, and after a quick stop at Julian’s so he could change clothes, they headed north to Ojai on a beautiful, mild, blue-sky Southern California day.
When he’d been changing into jeans and a pullover, he’d taken a quick look at his phone and found thirty missed calls—twelve of them from his siblings, several of whom had called multiple times—and forty-six texts.He powered down the phone but stuck it in his back pocket in case he needed it later.
He hadn’t taken a day completely off the grid in years, even when he was on “vacation,” so he refused to feel guilty for one day away from it all.Tomorrow would arrive all too soon, and he’d pay the piper then.For now, for this one day, he was going to enjoy the time with Isla and her kids, who were thrilled to be going on a “mystery ride,” as he’d referred to it.
When they were on their way north to Ojai, Theo started asking questions about where they were going.
“Is it the beach?”
“Is it a pool?”
“Is it a toy store?”
“Is it Disneyland?”
Julian looked over at Isla, who seemed to have relaxed a bit since he’d suggested the outing.“He knows about that, huh?”
“Sometimes I think he knows about everything.”
“Mickey,” Mila said.“Minnie.”
“And he’s teaching his sister.”
Isla had a mirror affixed to the visor that allowed him to see the kids in the back seat.They were beautiful, well-behaved children, and he was enjoying spending time with them.Would he enjoy being with them every day, or was it because he was so new to kids that they intrigued him almost as much as their lovely mother did?He had no way to know, so he intended to proceed with caution where they were concerned.
There’d be hell to pay tomorrow with his family.They’d demand an explanation for his seemingly irrational behavior and would want to know why he’d run off to be with a woman he barely knew after she’d found out that the husband she’d been divorcing had died suddenly.
