Fairytale Come Alive (Ghosts and Reincarnation #4)(74)
Author: Kristen Ashley

“Just being real,” Jason replied drolly.

“Oh my God, someone shoot me,” Isabella muttered out loud before she could stop herself.

Jason threw her a playful grin.

Prentice gave her a squeeze when they hit the kitchen right before he let her go.

Then he asked, “I don’t know. Can you still make cheeseburgers suffering from bullet wounds? Maybe we’ll shoot you after you make dinner.”

Jason burst out laughing.

Sally cried on a giggle, “Daddy! Stop being funny!”

It was too much. Isabella decided to ignore it all, cook dinner and then throw herself over a cliff.

She didn’t get the chance.

She cooked dinner, Prentice manning the deep fat fryer with expertise (thankfully), they ate it and she and Prentice barely finished the dishes when the doorbell rang.

Jason went to get the door.

Isabella was wiping her hands on a tea towel when Dougal, Annie and Fergus walked in.

“Ready, mate?” Dougal asked before Isabella could call out a greeting at their surprise visit.

“Aye,” Prentice answered, indicating from his ready response that for him this was not a surprise visit. With hands on Isabella’s hips, he steered her toward the hallway. “Get your bag, baby.”

Isabella glanced over her shoulder at him, confused.

Yes.

Confused.

Again!

“What’s going on?” she asked, stopping Prentice’s steering by halting while she looked around at the assemblage.

“We’re going to the pub,” Annie announced, scooping up Blackie and giving the kitty a cuddle. “Dad’s going to watch the kids.”

“Hurrah!” Sally shouted. “Fergus tells stories in funny voices!”

Isabella continued to look around realizing that her plans for the evening which she spent all day getting sorted, which included calmly, warmly, in a friendly, controlled manner, telling Prentice she was soon to be leaving and that their current (she couldn’t even think in her head what to call it but she settled on the word “situation”), situation could not continue, were being dashed.

“I didn’t know we were going out,” Isabella remarked.

“Forgot to mention it,” Prentice said with a gentle shove at the small of her back then repeated, “Get your bag.”

“But I –” she started.

Prentice interrupted her, “Bag, baby.”

It occurred to Isabella that Annie hadn’t returned her phone call. And Prentice “forgot to mention” he’d made plans for them to go to a pub, including arranging a babysitter who happened to be Annie’s father.

Then it occurred to Isabella that she was being played.

She slowly turned and glared at Annie who was trying to look innocent but who never was. Then she looked at Fergus who smiled. Then she looked at Dougal who didn’t look back, instead he studied his boots.

Yes, she was so, very being played.

Then she looked at Prentice and announced, “I don’t feel like going to the pub tonight.”

The hand Prentice had in the small of her back became an arm curved around her waist which he used to curl her into him, front-to-front.

“You will once you’re out,” he said. “Go and get your bag.”

Now, she wasn’t sure, but she was thinking she might be getting angry.

“No, I don’t think I’ll feel like it once I’m out,” she said slowly, looking up at Prentice. “I think I’ll stay in and listen to Fergus telling stories in funny voices.”

“Hurrah! Elle’s staying with us,” Sally shouted.

Prentice grinned.

Now she was pretty sure she was getting angry.

“Elle, baby –” Prentice coaxed.

Isabella opened her mouth to say something but didn’t get the chance.

“Come on Bella Bella,” Dougal called, walking up to them using the sing-song way he used to say her name decades ago, telling her back then that what he was saying really was “Beautiful Bella” as both words meant the same. “You two need a Friday night out and a drink.” He got close and his voice lowered so the children wouldn’t hear. “It’s been a tough couple of weeks, Bella. Prentice needs it, you need it. You know you do. Come out, down a few and relax.”

He had her at “Bella Bella”. She barely heard anything else he said. He hadn’t called her that in twenty years.

“I’ll get my bag.”

“Well, all right!” Dougal boomed.

Prentice gave her a squeeze.

She threw Prentice a glare.

This made him laugh out loud.

This made her glare turn to a scowl.

She pulled free from his arms, still scowling then she transferred her scowl to Annie who ignored it completely (as usual).

Isabella might be happy Dougal liked her again, liked her enough to sing-song her name and therefore felt the need for a celebratory drink at a pub but that didn’t mean she forgot she’d been played.

Deciding to have her drink and bond with Dougal but completely ignore her soon-to-be shoved off a cliff best friend and her… whatever Prentice was… she turned on her boot and went to get her bag.

Chapter Fifteen

That Path Led Home

Prentice

“Bye! Bye! Byeeeee!”

They were standing outside, Elle plastered to his front, her torso leaning to the side, and she was shouting and waving her arm fanatically at Fergus driving Dougal and Annie away.

Prentice had a grin on his lips, his hands on her h*ps and he was, with some difficulty, shuffling her backwards to the front door.

“Bye! Bye! Byeeee!” Prentice heard Annie call back in return, he looked over his shoulder and saw Annie was leaning her entire upper body out the back window and waving fanatically at Elle.

Elle started jumping up and down, still waving, and now shouting, “Hasta luego!”

“Hasta luego!” Prentice heard the now distant Annie return.

Prentice chuckled.

He succeeded in getting Elle through the door and once he did, she abruptly turned and headed into the great room.

“That was fun!” Elle exclaimed, her back to him.

He watched her walk to the kitchen while he mentally agreed with her.

Their night at the pub was fun. More fun than he’d had in years.

Twenty of them to be precise.

Fiona was social, she enjoyed going out and his wife had a wicked sense of humor that she used often.

But Annie plus Elle, when they were in a mood (and twenty years ago, they always were), were wild and hilarious in an infectious way that was beyond anything he’d ever experienced before he met them and since.