Fairytale Come Alive (Ghosts and Reincarnation #4)(56)
Author: Kristen Ashley

“Christ,” he muttered under his breath.

Sally was on her knees, Annie in a crouch in front of her. The kitty was jumping excitedly around Sally as Sally tried to stroke it with her good hand and Annie was doing her best to keep the cat from overwhelming the just knocked over by a car little girl.

Sally tilted her head back to Prentice and requested loudly, “Can I keep her, Daddy? Can I, can I, can I?”

“Sorry, mate,” Dougal murmured and Isabella saw that he’d sidled close to Prentice’s side, “you know Annie.”

Annie grinned up at Prentice, completely unrepentant.

“I vote we push her off a cliff,” Isabella said in a soft whisper and then felt the blood drain out of her face because she meant to think it not to say it.

Dougal and Prentice’s heads turned to Isabella.

Isabella’s hands released her elbows and clenched into fists.

Dougal burst out laughing.

Prentice didn’t laugh but his face changed. He stared at her as if he’d never seen her before. Then his eyes dropped to her hands and she forced her fists to uncurl.

He quickly guarded his expression and looked down at his daughter.

“You can keep her, baby.”

“Hurrah!” Sally shouted.

Prentice bent down and picked up Sally, carrying her to the couch. “But you’ve got to rest. You’re just out of hospital.”

“Can I have cake?” Sally asked.

“In a minute,” Prentice answered.

“Hurrah!” Sally repeated.

The partygoers closed in on Prentice and Sally. Jason and his cousins claimed the attention of the cat. Annie got close to Isabella.

“I need to talk to you,” Annie said out of the corner of her mouth, being cloak and dagger.

Isabella looked at her friend, knowing Annie’s cloak and dagger was never a good thing but she had other, more pressing things on her mind.

“And I need to talk to you,” her look turned severe, “Annie, a cat?”

Annie gave Isabella a “What?” look and Isabella gave her a “You know!” look in return.

Then Annie grabbed Isabella’s hand and dragged her down the hall, up the stairs and to the guest suite.

“Annie, what on earth?” Isabella asked when Annie stopped them in the sitting room.

On the couch were coats and bags. Annie dug through them, pulled out her big, suede, satchel purse and yanked out a magazine.

“I’m sorry, Bella, something’s happened,” Annie said and handed the magazine to Isabella.

Isabella took it, saw it was one of the way too many celebrity gossip magazines and she stared at the cover.

Confused, she looked at Annie and asked, “You dragged me up here because you’re upset Bianca Preston is adopting another child from Africa?”

Annie’s eyes bugged out, her hand shot forward, she ripped the magazine out of Isabella’s hold and opened it to a page that Isabella saw had been marked by Annie turning down the corner. She flipped it in half and handed it back to Isabella.

Isabella instantly understood.

She saw a full page photo of Prentice, Jason and herself walking from the Range Rover toward the hospital. It had been taken several days before.

Prentice was close to Isabella, guiding her with a hand at the small of her back. Jason was walking close to Isabella’s side. Isabella and Jason had their heads bent, eyes to the ground as they walked. Prentice was gazing straight ahead.

They all looked pale, tired and worn.

Isabella’s eyes flew to the caption.

Socialite Isabella Evangelista, with her new beau, handsome, award-winning architect Prentice Cameron and his son, Jason, visiting the hospital after a tragic accident involving Cameron’s daughter.

Isabella’s eyes flew to Annie and she said the first idiot thing that came to mind.

“Prentice has won awards?”

Annie’s eyes bugged out further then she snatched the magazine from Isabella’s hands and snapped, “That’s not the point. Prentice is going to freak.”

She wasn’t wrong.

Prentice was going to more than freak.

He’d always wanted a quiet life, a simple life and that was what he’d given his family. He’d moved them to their private house on the cliff close to the sea. He (obviously) excelled at his work (awards!) and she knew he enjoyed travel (or, he did twenty years ago, she had no idea about now).

But he wasn’t the kind of man who wanted his photo in celebrity gossip magazines.

And he wasn’t the kind of man who wanted his children’s photos in celebrity gossip magazines.

And he certainly didn’t want to be referred to as Isabella’s “new beau”.

“This isn’t good,” Isabella whispered.

“No, it isn’t,” Annie returned.

Always, for Isabella, it was something.

Something dark.

Something bad.

Even in the middle of a miracle.

Isabella gazed at her friend. “What am I going to do?”

Annie got close. “Show him the picture. Talk to him for once. Explain how this is for you and how you deal with it.”

Isabella sighed and nodded but added, “And I need to go. They’re going to be all over the village –”

Annie grabbed Isabella’s hand. “No, you don’t need to go. You need to stay. You’re experienced with this. They aren’t.”

Isabella stared at her friend. “If I go, the photographers will lose interest.”

Annie snorted and shook the photo in front of Isabella’s face. “Hardly. Prentice is hot. Look at him. Incredibly photogenic. And Jason is a good-looking lad. You’ve all obviously been run through the mill and you still look amazing together. And it looks like you’re definitely together. They’re going to eat this up. They always do when it’s about you. Bella, they’re going to descend on them like flies on doo-doo.”

Isabella looked to the photo.

Prentice did look great, even though his face was tired and his mouth was tight, he’d never looked so handsome.

And Jason was a good-looking lad, with his father’s eyes and his mother’s hair. Pre-teens the world over were going to be in throes of ecstasy.

Isabella closed her eyes.

Then she muttered, “Damn it.”

“Talk to him,” Annie encouraged.

Isabella opened her eyes. She had no choice.

“I’ll talk to him.”

Annie squeezed her hand.

Isabella took the magazine, shoved it in her nightstand and then they went back to the party.