Isabella (The Mitchell/Healy Family #2)(30)
Author: Jennifer Foor

“We’re goin’ to head back to the house and grab our bathin’ suits. Shalan wants to get in the pool.”

“Sounds nice.”

“You should join us,” she added.

I smiled, trying to not talk so much that they’d end up sticking around. “I’ve got a lot to do before I’m done for the day. Enjoy your swim. Maybe I’ll come next time.”

Noah took off the first saddle and started carrying it over toward where Isabella was hiding. I panicked, rushing over and taking it out of his hands. “I’ve got this, boss. Go ahead and enjoy your day.”

He walked over to grab the second one. “Nah, I can help. It’s only a saddle.”

When I hung the first one up I spotted her out of the corner of my eye. She was bawled up in the corner ducked down. If Noah came in this direction he was going to see her.

I spun around quickly, holding out my hands for the second saddle. “Go on now. I’ve got this taken care of. I’ll brush down the horses, and make sure they’re watered before I do anything else. The farrier is coming later on anyway, so they’ll be ready for his arrival.”

Noah finally let me take the saddle. For a second I swear he looked behind me like I was hiding something. Just as it appeared he was going to say something, Shalan came and grabbed him by the hand. “Come on. You promised me a whole day with no work.”

I waved as they finally left the building, and then sighed as they disappeared on a golf-cart. “The coast is clear.”

She stood up and starting putting on a bra when I heard another voice coming from the doors. A female entered, and it took me a second to realize that it was Addison, Noah’s younger sister. “Whoa. Put some clothes on Bella. If Noah catches your ass in here he’ll flip out.”

She threw her shirt over her head as she frantically started on her other cousin. “Oh my God, Addy, you can’t tell anyone. Please, you’ve got to promise us that you will keep quiet about seein’ us together.”

She lit up a joint and exhaled before answering. “Whatever. You keep quiet about this, and I never saw nothin’.”

I walked over and grabbed the paraphernalia out of her fingers. “You won’t be needing this, young lady.”

“Hey, Give that back. I paid good money for that. Besides, you wouldn’t want my daddy findin’ out what his help has been up to, would you?”

Isabella rushed over, grabbing the joint out of my hand and delivering it to her younger cousin. “We won’t say nothin’ either. You have my word.”

In a second’s time I was being pulled out of the stable. “You’re just going to let her smoke pot like that?”

“If it prevents my family from knowin’ that this happened, then yes. That’s exactly what’s goin’ to happen.” When she started to walk away I pulled on her t-shirt, causing her to stand still. I took a few steps in her direction, breaking that distance she’d made between us.

“Don’t leave like this. We need to talk about what we’re going to do.”

She turned, with a shocking grimace. “What we’re goin’ to do? There is no we, Rusty.”

“You just…I can’t…come on now. You know that wasn’t nothing.” It shocked me that she’d showed up out of nowhere, allowed me to make love to her, and was already denying that it ever happened.

Isabella covered her face, like she did when she was thinking or frustrated. “For the past week I’ve been melancholy. I just needed to unwind, Rusty. You know that’s all this was for us. You’re lonely, and I’m all messed up. We did each other a favor. That’s all.”

I refused to let her walk away. “No. That’s not all it was. Why do you keep denying yourself the pleasure of being happy?”

“Because I can’t be with you. Please, don’t ask these questions. I enjoy your company. I ain’t even goin’ to try to lie to you about it, but you know my situation. You know we can’t be together, and the sooner you accept that, the sooner we can both agree that this can’t happen again.”

“You came onto me this time. I did what you said and kept my distance. You’re the one that stomped in here on some mission to f**k. This is on you. What’s your excuse this time? Is it your hormones? Did you just need to get off? I’m not your damn punching bag. If you say that this is nothing, than I suggest you keep it that way. Don’t come running to me, and expect me satisfy you, so you can just walk away. I’m done putting myself out there to be walked all over.”

She shot her hands in the air. “Fine! I’ll stay away. So sorry I bothered you, Rusty. I didn’t mean to ruin your day.” When I saw that her eyes were glossed over I knew I’d crossed a line. I hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings, but done just that.

Still, she’d used me for the last time. I wasn’t willing to let her hurt me, when there was absolutely no way for anything to come of it.

She was already clear across the dirt lane when I called out to her. “Don’t walk away mad.”

I saw her middle finger shoot up above her head as she continued walking at a fast pace to get away from me. For being angry, I couldn’t deny how cute she was when she was throwing an attitude. If I had my way, I would have scooped her up and taken her back into that stable until I could convince her that my feelings were genuine.

For the next week Isabella avoided me at all costs. She was determined to make it clear that we were nothing to each other. I’d stopped by her house several times after dark to try to reason with her, but she refused to answer the door and let me inside. I knew she was in there, probably cursing me under her breath, yet I didn’t know how else to reach out to her. I didn’t have her phone number, and I certainly didn’t know a way to leave her a message where nobody else would find it first.

Day after day I sulked silently to myself, trying to come up with ways to win her over. It was ridiculous that I was a grown man, in his thirties, determined to win over a twenty-something female that was hell-bent on keeping her distance.

When the new horse was delivered it took a lot of the extra time I had used to dwell on Isabella. I focused all of my energy on my new project to try and get her off of my mind. It worked during the day, but at night I longed to see her, to hold her, and to tell her that if she’d give me the chance, I’d be everything she ever needed.

With the soon arrival of the rest of the Mitchell clan, Noah had me doing extra work around his parent’s place to prepare for the large amount of people that would be coming into town for the wedding shower. Shalan had even provided me with a list of special requests that she’d come up with on her own. I worked alongside the other ranch hands on our tasks, while trying to come up with a plan to get to know her parents. I thought that if I could convince them I wasn’t a bad guy, they’d persuade their daughter to have an interest in me. Of course, they wouldn’t have to know that I’d already been in her pants, or that late at night she kept me from closing my eyes. All they needed to see was that I was a hard worker, with kind mannerism. In some ways it felt like I was a teenager again, going to meet my date’s parents for the first time.