Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-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.
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 in his life.
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.
“It scares the s-h-i-t out of me.”
“Are you scared of me?”
“Terrified,” he said, smiling at her. “But you should be more afraid of me.”
“How come?”
“Denny told you I’m a risky bet, right?”
“He did. He said you go out of your way to avoid things like suddenly widowed single mothers with two very young children.”
He winced at the way she described herself. “I always have, and PS, you’re the first suddenly widowed single mom with two very young kids I’ve met, and if I had ever met a woman like you before you, I probably would’ve run screaming in the opposite direction.”
“So why are you taking my kids and me to Ojai?”
He shook his head as he grunted out a laugh.
“That’s a very good question.” After a pause, he said, “All I know is that when I heard about what’d happened overnight, I needed to be with you.
It was like a force bigger than me propelling me toward you.
” He glanced at her again. “And trust me, that sounds as ridiculous to me as it does to you.”
“It sounds incredibly romantic to me.”
Julian scoffed. “I’m not romantic at all.”
“I think maybe you could be if you had the right inspiration.”
“Is that right?”
“Uh-huh.” After another pause, she said, “Will you do me another favor?”
“Anything.”
“Will you talk to me about how you’re feeling, even if it’s not what I want to hear?”
Julian had never had such an emotionally charged conversation with a woman, even Aimee. “Yeah,” he said gruffly. “I will.”
He was about to tell her there was nothing he wouldn’t do for her, but he decided he ought to save something for tomorrow.
Isla hadn’t expected to feel so calm after receiving the news about Gabriel earlier.
But knowing he was finally at peace had diffused the constant state of turmoil she’d lived in for years.
And having Julian come running to her, wanting to be there for her…
That was heady stuff from a man who’d avoided such things his entire adult life.
She wouldn’t be the one to make him want forever with one woman, but there was no reason she couldn’t enjoy a little swoon-worthy romance with a kind, sexy, interesting man for as long as it lasted.
If anyone deserved that, she did, and after the years of pure hell she’d endured with Gabriel, she was going to enjoy it without feeling guilty.
Isla took in the mountainous scenery leading into the quaint town of Ojai, which she’d never visited before. “Oh, this is so pretty.”
“I love it here. It’s been a home away from home my whole life.
We’d come up here with my dad on the weekends, and my brothers would want to surf, so he’d drive us out to Ventura.
My sister Gillian always got car sick because the road is hilly and winding, so she got to sit in the front seat.
She used to gloat about getting to sit in the front. ”
“How did he move around with nine kids?”
“In a very large Suburban. Both my parents had them when we were all at home.”
“Your family required its own school bus.”
He laughed. “Pretty close. You want to get some lunch before we go up to the ranch?”
“Sure.”
“What do the kids like?”
Isla spotted a pizza place on the town’s main street. “That’d work.”
Julian parked in a public lot and went to help Theo out of his seat.
Theo giggled when Julian couldn’t figure out how to release the safety clasp.
“Are you laughing at me, mister?”
“Yes!” Theo let loose with his trademarked belly laugh. Anyone who heard that and didn’t laugh along with him wasn’t truly alive.
Julian proved he was truly alive by cracking up with Theo as he continued to try to figure out the clasp. “I went to law school, for crying out loud. Why can’t I undo this thing?”
“It’s a secret,” Theo told him.
“Tell me how.”
Theo shook his head as he continued to laugh.
“Isla, come help. Theo’s being mean to me.”
“I’m coming.” With Mila in her arms, she walked around to the other side of the car and reached in with one hand to release the clasp.
“What? Come on. How’d you do that?”