He had no doubt their sibling group chat was probably on fire with speculation that Julian had lost his mind all of a sudden and what were they going to do about it?They’d be formulating a plan for how they might rein him in and get him back on track with the program they’d all committed to years ago.
A week ago, if any of them had behaved the way he had today, he’d be having that same conversation with the others.
Now, everything was different, and the only thing that’d changed was the arrival of the woman in the passenger seat, who held his hand as if it was something they’d been doing for years.Everything about being with her felt natural and almost effortless, as if he’d been meant to find her and vice versa.
While it was easy to get lost in this moment of domestic tranquility, he had to remember that she’d recently survived the emotional equivalent of a massive earthquake, and in many ways, her life was still in shattered pieces.The wounds she carried wouldn’t heal overnight, and he was under no illusion that the path forward would be easy.
Him wanting to be by her side while she traversed that path made this situation an earthquake inhislife.
He’d never been so happy to be caught up in someone else’s disaster, with his well-ordered life spinning out of control with every minute he spent with Isla and her kids.Would he wake up from this odd new state of being in a week or two to discover he’d made a huge mistake and then go back to normal?That was certainly possible, but he didn’t expect it to happen.Nothing about being with Isla felt like a mistake.If anything, it seemed a bit like… well…destiny, a word that would’ve given him hives a few days ago.
How else to explain the series of events that had him at the wheel of an SUV owned by a woman with two young kids, driving them up to the ranch in Ojai on a Monday afternoon after blowing off a workday for the first time ever?
He’d promised his grandfather he’d check on things at the ranch, not that the ranch needed checking with their outstanding ranch manager, Miguel, in charge of things.But Spence wanted the family to put eyes on the place every few weeks, so that’s why he’d asked one of them to go up.
With horses, goats and chickens running around, the kids would love it, and perhaps the spectacular scenery in the mountains would give Isla some peace, too.
“So your family has an actual ranch in Ojai.”
Julian winced.“That sounds pretty fancy, huh?”
“Just a tad.How long has it been in the family?”
“My grandfather bought it in 1980 because he wanted a place the family could go to get away from the city.”
“Is your dad his only child?”
“Yep, which means we’re his only grandchildren, so we’re all close to him.Growing up, we spent a lot of weekends up there.We couldn’t wait to get there… until we were in high school, that is, and wanted nothing to do with him, the family or the ranch.”
Isla laughed.“So you were rotten, huh?”
“For a while.I snapped out of it after college.How about you?Were you an awful teenager?”
“Denny would say I was the worst.”
“I knew him back then, and I can’t imagine he was in charge of a teenage girl.”
“I was a monster to him.It’s a wonder he still speaks to me.”
“He adores you.”
“And I adore him, even if he drives me crazy sometimes with the protectiveness.Although, if I’d listened to him years ago, things might’ve been different.Not that I’d change anything, because being with Gabriel led to my babies, the best things to ever happen to me.”
“My grandma Freida was a big believer in the universe bringing exactly what’s intended for you.”
“Do you believe that?”
He gave her hand a squeeze.“I’m starting to.”
She sighed.“Julian…”
“Yes, Isla?”
“I don’t know what to think of this.”
“You and me both.”
“Does it scare you?”she asked.
