Isabella

by Jennifer Foor

  I watched as his eyes scanned my belly. “Holy shit. You’re pregnant?”

  He didn’t know. Confusion hit me all at once as I tried to figure out why he’d be in this store if he’d not learned about my pregnancy. “Obviously.”

  I waited for him to do the math, but he didn’t even seem interested. “Well, it’s good to see you. I know I was shitty to you on the phone when you called. Everything was a mess for a while.”

  “So it’s better?” I wanted to know.

  He nodded and smiled. “Yeah. Actually, it it’s great. For a while I thought that giving up was my only option, but something happened, and now it’s all how it is supposed to be. What you did to me was wrong, but it made me see what I’d been doing. I treated you and Jenn badly, and neither of you deserved to be lied to.”

  “I’m glad you feel that way.” The baby started to kick, causing me to hold onto my belly. Just as I was about to say something I saw Jenn heading in our direction.

  Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I wasn’t the only one carrying a child. Tate’s child. She placed her hand on her bump and walked toward us, before realizing who I was. To say that she was in shock would have been an understatement, especially when she noticed my appearance. “Tate, honey, I was looking everywhere for you.”

  The first thing after noticing her pregnancy was the huge diamond that she had on her hand. With one quick glance I noticed the band on his left finger.

  “So you guys got married? That’s great.” I wasn’t lying. It was good that Tate had a life now. His life would no longer be something I felt guilty about.

  “I thought you moved away, Bella.” I could see in her eyes that she was assuming Tate was lying again.

  “I did. I live in Kentucky with my boyfriend.” Tate’s eyes were on me, as if I’d kicked him where the sun didn’t shine.

  “How far along are you?” Her question made me freeze. We could all do the math in our heads, especially with her pregnancy due date probably being so close to mine. This was my opportunity. The decision had to be made.

  “I’m just five months along. How about you?”

  She looked at Tate before answering. “We’re seven months along, right baby?”

  Tate gave her a worried smile. “Yeah. Seven months now.”

  “Well, for all that it’s worth, I’m glad you to are so happy. Congrats on the baby and the marriage.”

  I turned to get the hell away from both of them, felling as if the room had suddenly begun to spin. If I didn’t find some fresh air and a seat I knew I’d be waking up on the ground. I no sooner found the rocker section and sat down when I saw Jenn approaching me. Tate was nowhere near her and I had no idea what was about to happen.

  “Bella, can I talk to you?”

  I nodded, even though I was freaking out. “Sure.”

  “Listen, I know you hate me, and that you probably think I had it out for you. I honestly didn’t know about you for a long time. When you sent me that video it killed me, but I dumped him. I couldn’t trust him anymore.” She looked down at her belly. “Then I found out I was pregnant. I thought about having an abortion, but my heart wouldn’t let me. I’ve loved Tate since we were kids, so my decision wasn’t hard to make. We got married before telling my parents, so that they couldn’t try to talk me out of it.”

  “Why are you tellin’ me all of this? I have nothin’ to do with Tate.”

  “I need you to be honest with me, Bella. When I came around that corner and saw you in your condition one thought crossed my mind. I may be way out of line, but I need to know if that baby is Tate’s. I know you slept together, so just tell me. Please.” She started to break down in front of me, as if my being there was destroying her happiness. It was at that exact moment when I realized that I wasn’t ever willing to destroy their happiness, mostly because I wanted the same for myself. “This baby isn’t Tate’s, Jenn. It’s my boyfriend, Rusty’s.”

  She smiled through her tears and nodded. “That’s really good to know.”

  My mom came out of nowhere with her hands full of items. “You okay, Bella?”

  I stood and walked toward my mother, waving to Jenn as we left the aisle. The moment we were away from her, I grabbed the stuff in my mom’s hands and sat it down, then pulled her out of the store as quickly as I was able to move.

  “Bella, what is the matter with you? Is it the baby?”

  I fell into my mom’s arms, clinging to her as I started to collapse. The rush of emotions overwhelmed me, sending me into a uncontrolled crying fit.

  We stood there in the middle of the parking lot until I could calm down enough to explain. “The baby is fine, Mom.” We climbed into the car and I wiped my tears with a napkin. “There’s somethin’ I need to tell you. You’re probably never goin’ to forgive me.”

  “The baby is Tate’s, isn’t she?”

  I nodded and looked at my mother. “How do you know that?”

  “Mother’s intuition.”

  “No, really. How did you know?” I was going to kill Jake and Jax if they’d told her.

  “There’s a couple of reasons. The first is that I knew you went to see him when you came to visit last time. Then at the party you asked me about Tucker. You’ve never asked me about him, Bella. It was a dead giveaway.”

  “He can’t find out, Mom. He can’t ever find out.”

  “Bella, are you with Rusty, or is he just coverin’ for you?”

  “We’re together. We’re in love, and he wants to raise her as his own. Please don’t tell Daddy. He’ll never forgive me. Nobody will.” I continued to be over-emotional, realizing that this could destroy the relationship I had with my family.

  “This decision is yours to make.”

  “That female in the store was Tate’s wife. She’s pregnant and they went and got married. Don’t you see? He’s already got a baby on the way. He’s got a second chance at a future with her, and I have a new life that doesn’t include him. This secret needs to be buried. My baby is goin’ to be Rusty’s. He’s goin’ to raise her as his own.”

  “Honey, that is all so easy to say now, but what happens if the two of you don’t work out? What happens if your child needs medical attention and they require the father’s information?”

  “I will cross that bridge if it ever happens. Mom, I want my daughter to have a good life. Rusty’s already lost one child. Even if something happened between us, he’d never give up another child. That’s why I know it’s the right decision. If Tate gets to have a second chance at happiness, why can’t Rusty?”

  My mom reached over and placed her hand over mine. “Oh, Bella, he can. You both can.” We hugged each other for a few minutes, both crying at this point. My mother just wanted me to be happy, and even though I thought I was before, I knew this time it was going to happen. “Who else knows about this?”

  “Jake and Jax. That’s all.”

  “This secret stays between our immediate family. You don’t need to share it with anyone else.”

  “What about Daddy?”

  “I’ll explain it to him. There’s no need for you to get this upset again. It’s not healthy for the baby. He’ll be fine, Bella. Your father loves you no matter what.”

  “I really am sorry, Mom. I thought I loved him.”

  She wiped the tears away from my face as I spoke, like she’d done whenever I cried as a child. “Until you fell in love for real, right?”

  “Yes. Is that how you felt with Dad?”

  “Yeah, sweetie. It’s how I felt with your father. When I fell in love with him I knew the difference right away. It made me hate Tucker even more, because he’d been such a waste of my time. I’m just thankful that I had you. If that man did one good thing in his short life, it was giving me you. You’re perfect in every way, honey. Your daughter is goin’ to be lucky to have a mom like you.”

  My mom drove us home early that day. She took my dad into their bedroom and gave him the news, while I sat in the kitchen freaking out. I heard th
e door open and turned to see him smiling at me. He walked right over to the table and sat down beside me. “No more secrets, kiddo. Life is too short to do it all alone.”

  “I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me.” That burn was forming in my throat again. “I want you to always be proud of me.”

  He cupped my face with his hands. “Isabella Mitchell, I am proud of you. We all make mistakes. You know that.”

  “So you don’t hate me?”

  “Of course not. I don’t hate Rusty either. In fact, I’m kinda liking him even more now. It takes a real man to step up and take responsibility for a child that isn’t his. I mean, guys like that should be considered superheroes, or maybe even Greek Gods.”

  My mom and I started to laugh. “Dad, really?”

  He put his hands up. “What? I’m just saying, we’re pretty freaking cool. They always say that women marry their fathers. I thought it was meant to be incestuous, until now. I mean, what was the chance that you’d go out and find a younger version of me?”

  I shoved his playfully. “Dad. You’re ridiculous. I’ll be sure to tell Rusty how you feel.”

  “I’ll tell him myself. He’s a good man, Iz. He’s got problems, but so does everyone. All that matters is if he makes you happy.”

  “He does.”

  “Then go be happy. Stop coming here unannounced. It’s bad for my health.”

  With my dad’s sense of humor in full effect, I knew that I’d finally found peace. Tate was married, with a child on the way. I wasn’t keeping him from anything that he didn’t already have with his wife. If anything, I was protecting him from a truth he didn’t want to know about.

  Then there was Rusty.

  He claimed that I’d given him his life back, but in reality he’d taught me that love went beyond what I’d always assumed. He was going to be a good father, and a partner.

  All I had to do now was figure out how to combine his old life with our new one. I didn’t care what I had to do. I’d make it happen, for our future.

  Chapter 36

  Rusty

  After one night, I was already on my way out of Indiana. It was going to take me a long time, but I was determined to get to Isabella. She’d left me so that I could take care of things that I’d left unsettled, but the truth was that there was nothing more important in my life than being with her. I couldn’t afford to lose her over something from my past. My mother was going to have to learn to accept what she couldn’t change. The resemblance was only skin deep. What was inside of Isabella was nothing like any woman I’d ever met. She was heard-headed, always had to be right, caring, loyal, and above all the woman that I wanted to spend my future with.

  It took me eleven and a half hours to get to North Carolina, and another hour after I’d called Noah and got the address of the farm. Beat, and ready to honestly sleep for another twelve hours, I pulled into the driveway and parked where I saw her parents SUV. She’d told me which house was hers on the farm, and I’d seen a ton of pictures, so I knew which house to walk up to. I knocked twice before one of the twins came to the door. He saw me and leaned on it. “Which one am I?”

  “Is this a trick question? I’ve been driving for twelve hours, man. Can’t you give me a break?”

  He opened the door and let me all the way inside. “Bella, there’s some dude here to see you.”

  “Jax?” I guessed.

  He chuckled. “Close, but nope, I’m Jake.”

  “Quit messing with him, Jax,” Tyler Mitchell yelled as he walked into the room. He stuck out his hand. “Rusty. Did you just come all the way from Indiana?”

  “Yes.” I was a little upset with myself for not asking their permission to visit their daughter. She’s clearly been upset when he picked her up from the airport, and here I was beating down the door to get to her. I was lucky this guy didn’t jack me up and force me to be on my way.

  “So you heard that her mother and I know the truth?”

  I was stunned. Had she been so upset that she’d gotten to her parent’s farm and told them the truth? Did they know I wasn’t the father? “About what?”

  I heard her voice before I knew she’d entered the room. “Everything.”

  I put my hands in my pockets and clenched my jaw, trying to remain calm when I felt like the whole world was about to come crumbling down again. I’d driven so far to see her, to prove to her that my love was unconditional. After one fight she’d turned around and told them the truth. I didn’t understand how all of my efforts had turned to shit. “Why?”

  She walked toward me, breaking the distance between us. When her arms wrapped around my waist I felt confused. Clearly her parents knew that I’d lied. They lose all respect for me, and probably help her come to some kind of agreement with her ex. Was this hug her way of saying she was sorry? Was this going to lead to her telling me we were through?

  “I saw Tate today, Rusty.” The mere mention of his name made my heart wrench. This was the one person who could singlehandedly ruin my life. He could rip her away from me without a single consideration for what I was willing to do for her.

  I cut her off. “Where? Why? I thought we talked about this.” It didn’t matter that her dad was standing there with us. I needed to know what had happened. I was determined to find out if I’d caused this. Was I the reason that she’d run to North Carolina and told everyone the truth?

  “How about we go talk about this outside?”

  This wasn’t going to be good.

  She grabbed my hand and pulled me outside, where we walked further to a large red barn. Inside it was finished off, for entertainment purposes. She sat down on a couch and I plopped down beside her. “I still can’t believe you came all of the way here. Did somethin’ bad happen in Indiana?”

  “No.” I was antsy. “Everything is fine. Iz, I just came all this way to be with you. You’re scaring the shit out of me. What’s going on? Did you tell Tate about the baby to spite me?”

  “Absolutely not. I didn’t tell Tate nothin’. We ran into each other in a store. It wasn’t difficult for him to assume I was pregnant. I look like one of the cattle in the pastures. In fact, if I dressed in black and white you wouldn’t even be able to tell us apart.”

  “Don’t say that. You’re beautiful.”

  “I don’t feel beautiful.”

  My heart couldn’t take much more. I silently prayed that this was all a nightmare; that I wasn’t about to lose two people that I loved for the second time in my life. “I promise that you are. So then what happened?” I couldn’t let her change the subject, not when our future was riding on what had transpired.

  She shrugged and looked down. I felt like she was trying to find the words to break my heart with as little pain as possible. She didn’t know I was already breaking apart inside.

  “Then his wife walked up to us.”

  My eyes shot up to meet hers. “His wife? I’m confused.”

  “Let me help you out with that,” she offered. “Tate isn’t the depressed soul he was a couple of months ago. It seems that he and Jenn have gotten back together. The main reason being that she’s pregnant with his child.”

  In a matter of seconds everything had changed. “He’s having two children at the same time?”

  She shook her head. “No, Rusty. He’s having one child.” She grabbed my hand and put it on her belly. “This little girl is yours.”

  I can’t say that hearing that didn’t get me choked up. I wanted nothing more than to be a father to the child she was carrying. I’d made it my life’s mission to make it work. Just when I thought that all hope was lost, she was sitting across from me reassuring me that it was really going to happen. “So, he doesn’t know?”

  Iz shook her head. “No. I lied about my due date so he couldn’t even inquire. Tate has a wife and a child on the way. Finding out the truth would just ruin his life again. Jenn would never be able to look past it. Besides, our daughter deserves to grow up in a stable environment, with two parents that lo
ve each other. Don’t you think?”

  I ran my fingers through her wavy blonde hair. “Yeah. I do.”

  “My parents know the truth now, Rusty. They’ve promised not to tell the rest of the family.”

  “Are they pissed at me?”

  “No. contrary to what you might have thought, my dad now considers you his hero. It’s no secret that he’s not my biological father, but he’d never admit that to anyone else. The moment I told him what you were willin’ to do for us, he was sold on you bein’ a part of my life.”

  I pulled her against my chest and held her there as I spoke. “I was afraid I’d lost you. I can’t imagine spending a single day without you, Iz. That’s why I had to drive out here to find you. Indiana holds my past, and I get that you wanted me to have some kind of closure, but the truth is that I let go of it a long time ago, before you and I were even a thought. I explained to my parents that my future was in Kentucky, and I was staying there. While driving here I thought about what was best for our daughter. I’m going to see about getting back into the medical field. I’m sure there’s plenty of livestock that needs to be attended to. The Mitchell ranch alone pays the current vet a ton of money each year. I think if I got my license current, I’d be able to offer your family a more cost efficient plan than they’re paying. Maybe we could even open an animal hospital locally. With your business degree and my medical expertise, we could have our own family business. It’s going to take some time to see it all through, but don’t you think it will -.”

  She cut me off before I could finish. Her lips pressed against mine, and I was lost in the moment. Not only had I not lost Isabella, but I’d somehow gained the respect of her father. It was a win-win situation for both of us.

  We sat there on that couch for the longest time.

  Her parents were waiting when we headed back to the house. The look on their faces let me know immediately that they approved of me stepping up. Her dad approached me first. He held out his hand. “I may have a man crush on your right now.”

  “I’m going to pretend that’s not as weird as it sounds,” we both laughed as we shook. “I appreciate the gesture all the same. For a second I thought she was kicking me to the curb.”