Chapter 22 #2
“Should we tell him?” she asked Theo as Julian lifted him out of the seat.
“No! It’s a secret!”
They crossed the street and entered Ojai Pizza Company.
“My dad used to bring us here for dinner on Saturday nights. We loved it. I haven’t thought about that in years.”
“I’m trying to picture your dad wrangling nine kids by himself.”
“He was better at it than my mother was. We drove her insane. He just rolled with it.” Julian helped her to settle Theo in a booster seat while Isla kept Mila on her lap. “It’s possible he was medicated.”
Isla laughed. “I’d be surprised if he wasn’t. What’s the age difference?”
“Thirteen years between me and Roman.”
“What are the others’ names again?”
“Carson, Griffin, Jordan, Kaidan, Ethan, Jackson, Gillian and Roman.”
“All your names end with n.”
“Our parents’ names do, too. Corbin and Katherine both have an n sound. So they made it a thing.”
“I like it. I still can’t believe there’re nine of you. That’s wild. I’ve never known a family that big.”
“Growing up, I knew of one family with twelve kids and another with eleven. I negotiated a divorce for a mother of eight last year.”
“That’s a lot of kids. I can barely handle two. How in the world does anyone wrangle eight or nine?”
“Well, in our case, we weren’t all little at the same time. And for another, they had a lot of help from a long string of nannies, who are probably still in therapy after dealing with us. The older kids helped with the younger ones. We made it work.”
“It sounds like a fun way to grow up.”
“It was. For a time. What looks good to you?”
“Mama, chicken!”
“How about pizza?” Isla asked her son.
“No, Mama. Chicken.”
“They have boneless chicken bites,” Julian said.
“Chick,” Mila said, parroting her brother, like always.
“The people have spoken,” Julian said with a smile. “What do you feel like?”
“I’d love a salad and a bite of whatever you’re getting.”
“Want to split a large, tossed salad and a small pizza?”
“That sounds good to me. No onions on the salad?”
“You got it. What do you like on the pizza?”
“Will you laugh when I say onions?”
His laughter was a lovely sound and made him even sexier than he already was. “You’re a woman of contradictions.”
“Only with onions. Cooked good. Uncooked bad.”
“Got it.” He pretended to make a note. “Anything else with the onions?”
“You pick.”
“Pepperoni?”
“That works.”
“Want me to order for us?”
She appreciated that he’d asked and didn’t just assume she’d be fine with it. “Sure, go ahead.”
When the waitress came to get their drink order, Julian asked if they had Mountain Dew. It was such a small thing, but it meant so much to her that he remembered what she liked.
“I’m sorry that we don’t. Second choice?”
“Sprite is fine,” Isla said.
“I’ll have unsweetened iced tea, please,” Julian said. “What about the kids?”
“I have drinks for them.”
“Do you want to order food, too?” the waitress asked.
Julian gave her their order and asked for two orders of the boneless chicken bites.
“One order is more than enough,” Isla said. “They won’t eat that much.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very sure. One is good.”
“Mom’s the boss,” Theo said.
“I see that,” Julian replied. “Thanks for letting me know.”
Theo giggled at the face Julian made.
“You’re good with him,” Isla said.
“Am I? You should know…” He leaned in and added, “I have no clue what I’m doing.”
“You’re a natural.”
“No way.”
“Yes way. You make him laugh. That’s honestly all it takes to win over a three-year-old.”
“What does it take to win over a one-year-old?”
“Patience. She’s in her shy, I-want-Mommy stage.”
“I get that. Mommy is pretty great.”
Her smile hit him in all the feels, filling him with a sense of absolute rightness that would’ve been unthinkable before she’d walked into his life and changed everything. “I ought to be pissed at you,” he said in a teasing tone.
“Pissed,” Theo said with a grin.
Julian winced. “Whoops.”
“He’s a parrot. Are you going to tell me why you should be PO’d with me?”
“I was just thinking how you came strolling into my office and turned my well-ordered life upside down in the course of an hour, and I’d like to know how exactly you did that.”
“First of all, I do not stroll.”
“Trust me. There was strolling.”
Her lips quivered with amusement. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“My siblings tell me that every day. Anyway, there I was, minding my own business and dealing with other people’s nonsense.
I was perfectly fine until you showed up with two of the cutest kids I’ve ever met.
Tell me the truth… Are you some sort of witch with magical powers who cast a spell on me or something?
Because that’s the only possible explanation for why I’m at a pizza place in Ojai on a Monday afternoon with one kid in a booster, another on her mother’s lap and a very pretty mommy trying not to laugh at my soliloquy. ”
“You found me out. I cast a spell on you.”
“I knew it.”
“I can undo it if you want me to.”
“Can I get back to you on that?”
“It’s a limited-time offer.”
“Is that right?” Had he ever had more fun simply talking to a woman? Not since Aimee…
The waitress brought placemats and crayons for the kids that immediately captured their attention.
“Can I tell you something?” she asked quietly so the children wouldn’t overhear her.
“I wish you would.”
“I feel so guilty for having fun when…”
He covered her hand with his. “I know, but what would he want for you?”
“He said he wanted me to have fun, to be happy with the kids and new friends who make me laugh.”
“There’s absolutely nothing else you can do for him besides your best to raise your kids to be great people and try to make yourself happy along the way.
The choices he made for himself took a terrible toll on you.
There’s nothing wrong with making this next phase the Age of Isla—and her kids.
And wow, that sounds incredibly self-serving, doesn’t it? ”
Smiling, she said, “No, I get what you mean, and you’re right. This is my chance to forge a new path.”
“That’s right. It’ll always be incredibly sad that his story ended the way it did, but it doesn’t have to define you or your story.
I tell my clients all the time that they’re the authors of their own destinies and only they can decide the outcome.
Granted, we’re all hit with things that force us to make course corrections, but at the end of the day, we’re in charge of our own paths in life. ”
“I like the sound of that, but so far, I’ve had very little control over my destiny other than deciding to get married. I feel like outside forces, from my parents’ accident to Gabriel’s struggles, have charted much of my course for me.”
“Well, you’re the captain of this ship now. The future is yours to shape to your liking.”
“That feels kind of daunting, if I’m being honest.” She glanced toward the kids, who’d pushed their placemats together to make one big, scribbled picture. “Being solely responsible for two little beings is so overwhelming.”
“Haven’t you been mostly responsible for them all along?”
“I mean… I guess so? But I wasn’t technically a single parent.”
“Weren’t you?”
“Are you cross-examining me, Counselor?”
He laughed. “Sorry, no. I’m just saying that in some ways, nothing will change for you, even though the title has become official.”
“That’s true.”
“I’ve had single-parent clients tell me that the benefit of sole-custody single parenthood is that there’s no one to question your decisions.
You’re in charge of everything, which is a lot, no doubt about that, but it’s also freeing in the sense that you don’t have to consider anyone else’s opinion about what’s best for your kids. ”
“I’m afraid I won’t always know what’s best for them.”
The kids were now driving Theo’s trucks over the “road” they’d drawn on the placemats. They were so good at entertaining themselves, which was a huge gift to her as she stared down full-time single parenthood.
“Yes, you will. You have all the skills and sensibilities you need to do a brilliant job. I have full faith in you.”
“How’s that possible? You barely know me.”
“How’s any of this possible? I just know. It’s that simple—and that complicated.”
She flashed him a saucy grin. “Are we still talking about my sensibilities?”
“You’re so freaking beautiful,” he said gruffly.
Before she could catch her breath from hearing those words from him, the waitress arrived with their food, and she was occupied with cutting up chicken while she reeled from what he’d said and how he’d looked at her as he’d said it.
After he insisted on paying for lunch, they buckled the kids back into the SUV and headed up into the hills on winding roads that delighted Theo with their twists and turns.
“Is this the road that made your sister sick?” Isla asked.
“One of them.”
“What goes on at this ranch of yours?”
“Well, we grow lemons that we sell to fruit distributors all over California.”
“That must be a lot of lemons.”
“We farm about two hundred acres of lemons, olive trees and grapevines.”
“So it’s a huge operation.”
“You could say that. My grandfather’s goal was to make the ranch self-sustaining, and it’s more than succeeded in that regard. This is the start of our property now.” He gestured to the groves of lemon trees on either side of the road.
Isla took in the rugged beauty of the landscape. “I love the cacti.”
“It comes in every shape and size around here.”
“It’s so different from the city but has a lot of the same Spanish influences.”
“I’ve always loved how different it is from home. It’s only like ninety minutes north of LA but seems like a world away.”
“I can see why you love it here.”
“I’d live here full time if it wasn’t for the pesky day job in the city—and the band.”
“I’m excited to see you play.”
“We’re at the Whisky next weekend if you want to come by.”
“Um, well, I’ll be there. I picked up three shifts cocktailing. My friend is the manager.”