Fairytale Come Alive (38 page)

She’d flipped the switch on the coffeemaker when she heard Prentice calling her name.

She turned and looked to the top of the stairs.

He stood there barefoot, in jeans, his wet hair slicked back, his shirt unbuttoned all the way down, exposing his chest and stomach.

Her resolve to ignore the tingling and warmth slipped a hefty notch.

When she finally tore her gaze from his flat stomach and caught his eye, he bizarrely asked in an exasperated tone, “A little help up here?”

Then he turned and disappeared down the hall.

She stared at the place where she last saw him, slightly concerned about the frustration in his tone. Mostly her mind was busy deliberating on the fact that Prentice had asked for her to help him with something upstairs.

Upstairs, she had made beds, gathered clothes, vacuumed, tidied and put Sally to bed.

But in the mornings she made coffee and breakfast in the kitchen, never part of the family pandemonium upstairs that usually centered (from what she heard), one way or another, around Sally.

Upstairs was
their
space. Cameron family space. And, even making beds or reading to Sally, somehow, Isabella always felt like she was intruding.

But now, Prentice seemed to be inviting her upstairs, asking for “a little help”.

With only a moment’s hesitation, she ran up the stairs.

She found Prentice in Sally’s room, his shirt buttoned but not tucked in, his hands on his hips, his exasperated gaze on Sally.

Sally was dressed in the fancy, frilly flower girl dress she wore to Annie’s wedding. The dress was on backward, its skirt askew mainly because part of it was tucked into her little girl pants.

She was glowering at her father, clearly digging her heels in about something and it didn’t take an experienced parent to know it was the dress.

“Sally, I’m no’ going to say it again, take off the dress,” Prentice demanded, his voice firm, his patience obviously spent.

“I want to be a princess today!” Sally returned, unwisely defiant in the face of her father’s escalating frustration, she went on to cry in equal frustration, “And this is my only princess dress!”

“Princess.” Isabella heard mumbled from beside her and she saw that Jason had joined them, dressed in his school uniform. His eyes were on his sister and he was shaking his head with disbelief. “Mental,” he finished.

“Jace, your contribution isn’t needed,” Prentice said to his son, Jason gave Isabella a hilariously disgusted look (at which Isabella did
not
laugh, even though she wanted to) and wandered out of the room.

Prentice’s eyes cut back to his daughter and he said warningly, “Sally –”

“
I wanna be a princess!
” she shrieked, Prentice tensed and then he turned his gaze to
Isabella
, brows going up.

She stared at him.

He expected her to do something.

Her.

Isabella.

She had no idea what to do!

She looked at Sally.

Sally was still scowling stubbornly at her father.

Then it came to her.

“Hmm,” Isabella murmured, putting her forefinger to her lips as her eyes travelled Sally and Sally’s gaze went to her. Isabella continued, “Of course, Cinderella
ended
up
a princess but she didn’t get that by demanding to wear her best dress during the day. In fact, that was something her evil stepsisters would do, seeing as they were spoilt rotten. The evil stepsisters likely wore their best princess party dresses
everyday
while Cinderella wore her normal clothes. That’s probably why the fairy godmother came to visit Cinderella, because she needed to have a special occasion to wear her best princess party dress.”

Sally’s scowl had disappeared and she was watching Isabella in childlike horror at the very
thought
that she might be more of an evil stepsister than Cinderella.

Isabella felt Prentice’s eyes on her but she didn’t spare him a glance.

“So, I suppose, if you don’t wait for a special occasion to wear your best princess party dress then, when you need her, your fairy godmother will never come to visit.” Isabella shrugged with indifference then finished, “Oh well.”

She turned to Prentice and saw he was watching her, biting back a smile. She didn’t react to this; she just started to leave the room.

“I want a visit from my fairy godmother!” Sally cried, her voice desperate.

Isabella immediately switched directions, walked up to Sally and guided her to her wardrobe while muttering, “Then let’s get you some normal clothes, sweetheart.”

She was tugging Sally’s flower girl dress over her head when she felt her wet hair swept over one shoulder and then she felt Prentice’s hand at her waist at the same time she felt his lips at the nape of her neck.

She shivered, felt his presence depart and, by the time she whirled, Sally free of the dress, all she saw was his back as he strode from the room.

When she and Sally descended the stairs, Prentice was sipping coffee in the kitchen, his shirt now tucked in and boots on his feet and Jason was making toast.

“Do we have to have porridge again today?” Sally asked, skipping to a stool.

Isabella entered the kitchen and started to get busy as she said, “No, honey, I’ll make you some eggs.”

“I don’t want eggs. I want you to make some of your cookies,” Sally replied, clearly determined never to give up on the idea that, one day, someone would relent and she’d get sweets for breakfast rather than just breakfast.

“No cookies. Eggs,” Isabella returned, deciding today was not that day and
she
certainly wouldn’t be the one who would relent.

“Pancakes,” Sally pushed.

“Eggs,” Isabella repeated.

“Pancakes!” Sally shouted.

Isabella turned to her and explained calmly, “Pancakes are weekend food. Tomorrow’s Saturday. Saturday is the weekend. I’ll make you pancakes tomorrow, with blueberries in and everything. But today you get eggs.”

“Okay,” Sally agreed happily.

Prentice burst out laughing.

So focused on Sally, Isabella’s body jerked and her gaze snapped to him. Her mind blanked as she caught sight of his handsome, laughing face.

His handsome,
carefree
, laughing face.

No tightness around his mouth, no pain in his eyes, his face was relaxed and he was at-ease in his kitchen with her and his children.

This so astonished Isabella, she didn’t react when he snatched her in his arms, gave her a hug and a swift kiss on her neck even though he was still chuckling.

He released her and she stood swaying as he went to the cupboard, pulled down a mug, poured in some coffee, splashed in her milk and brought it to her.

Automatically, her finger hooked the handle as he murmured, “I’d like mine scrambled.” She blinked up at him but he just grinned and turned to the fridge to get Sally some milk. He poured the milk in a glass while walking to Sally but he was speaking to his son, “Jace, get your rucksack ready, mate. We’re running late. We’ll need to leave right after eggs.”

The words “late” and “eggs” made Isabella jolt out of her motionless, befuddled stance, preparing to sort breakfast.

Her body stilled again when she saw Jason, his eyes darting back and forth between Isabella and Prentice like he was viewing a fascinating tennis match. His gaze stuck on Isabella and she watched as he slowly smiled his father’s smile.

Carefree, at-ease, relaxed.

Joy shot through her as fear pierced her soul.

She jolted yet again when she felt Prentice’s hand slide along the small of her back, stopping to give her waist a squeeze.

“Elle, baby, eggs,” he prompted softly, let her go and said to Jason, “I’ll finish the toast, Jace. Rucksack. Go.”

Jason nodded to his father and raced upstairs.

Isabella made eggs.

Prentice made toast and, shockingly, didn’t ruin it.

They ate while Isabella’s thoughts descended into turmoil, happy, sad, elated, sated, content, but most prevalent of all, terrified.

After they finished breakfast, she trailed after Prentice as Jason ran ahead to the door.

She caught his wrist, starting, “Pren –”

He abruptly turned, twisted his wrist and grasped her hand, pulling her to him. Her body hit his at about the same time his lips hit hers.

The terror fled and all good things
Prentice
were the only things on her mind.

His head lifted and he murmured, “I should make today’s deadline and be home in time for tea. Pick Jace up, will you?”

Without waiting for her to answer, he turned and walked out the door.

Long after it closed, Isabella stared at it.

Then she felt Sally’s little hand slide into hers.

She looked down at the girl.

“We forgot to give Blackie breakfast,” Sally told her, her face full of worry that a half an hour delay in Blackie getting breakfast would cause her new kitten to expire.

Alleviating Sally’s worry obviously took precedence over the fear closing around Isabella’s heart.

Therefore she set the fear aside to deal with later and she and Sally got Blackie some breakfast.

* * * * *

After they got Blackie breakfast, Isabella loaded Sally in the car and they went into town.

They did this partly because there were a few things for dinner that night that Isabella needed to pick up.

They did this mainly because Isabella decided that, although Sally couldn’t have cookies for breakfast, that didn’t mean Sally couldn’t have cookies
at all
and they needed some ingredients for cookies too.

As she was driving and Sally was chattering, she made up her mind that, after the kids went to bed that night, she and Prentice were going to talk.

She was
not
going to get dazed and confused.

She was
not
going to let him touch her, kiss her, make love to her or sleep with her.

She
was
going to put her foot down and get things straight.

They were going through the market with a cart as Isabella decided exactly what they’d get straight.

She was going to leave Monday. They were going to tell the children tomorrow night. Maybe take them out to dinner or something. Then she’d have Sunday as a farewell day and she’d be gone.

That was as far as she got in her plan.

Isabella had to stop strategizing when she had to stop and explain to Sally that she could pick only
one
candy bar for her and
one
candy bar for Jason rather than Sally having
one
of
each
on the display.

Then she couldn’t continue her mental planning session because practically everyone she passed in the aisles either smiled at her or said hello and this broke her concentration.

Then
she couldn’t continue her mental planning session because, on their way to checkout, Lucy Guthrie (who used to work at the pub where Dougal and Annie, Fiona and Scott and Prentice and Isabella hung out), stopped them. Isabella and Lucy chatted for ten minutes about how Sally was getting on, if they were going to have a mild winter and if Isabella and Prentice had sampled the new Indian place in town.

Somehow shaken by Lucy thinking Isabella and Prentice would sample anything together even though it seemed the entire village (including Prentice) were under the mistaken impression that they
were
together, Isabella didn’t start her mental planning session again until much later.

It was after they went to the fruit and veg shop so she could get fresh fine greens for dinner and blueberries for pancakes the next morning.

And it was after they ran into Denise MacRae, Debs’s best friend since childhood who spent as much time at Prentice’s Mum’s house back in the day as Isabella did, which meant
a lot,
and her baby outside the fruit and veg shop.

And also after Denise’s nearly one year old baby charmed Isabella with a smile and then began to flirt with her brazenly (as only one year old baby boys could do), rendering Isabella smitten.

This meant she stood outside giggling with baby Robbie while talking to Denise about all things baby, Sally, Jason, Prentice, school runs and football practices.

And the mental planning session also came after Gordon Taggart, who was walking his dog, stopped to chat with Denise, Sally, Robbie and Isabella. Sally and Isabella fell in love with Gordon’s border collie instantly and they both took turns giving her hugs and cuddles (Sally) and scratches and body rubs (Isabella).

“Gon’ ruin her for me, lasses,” Gordon said on a smile, his eyes moved over Isabella’s shoulder and then his smile turned sour.

Isabella’s heart skipped a beat as the older man moved with a strange aggression around both Isabella and Sally.

She stared at him wondering if there was a magical spell over the village making the villagers be nice to her and the spell had suddenly been broken.