“You can’t believe that.”
“I know it.”
They stared at each other.
Fiona hovered anxiously.
Then Prentice broke through.
His eyes went soft and he lifted one of her hands to his mouth. Touching her palm to his lips, Bella (and Fiona) watched him kiss the scars tenderly. He repeated this gesture with her other hand.
Then he dropped it and placed it against his stomach, holding her hand flat over it with his.
“Then it’s good you’re with me so she can be alive again because I’m in love with her. I always have been,” he whispered. “And it’s good you’re with me so I can feel alive again.” He pressed her hand into his gut and his face moved closer. “Nothing,” he stated, “I felt nothing here.” He pressed her hand into his gut again. “Nothing, since Fiona died. And I didn’t think I could feel again after I lost Fee. Now it feels warm. Even when you first returned, you made it that way, when I saw you smile, when you made the children laugh, anytime I caught sight of your sweet, sexy ass –”
Bella wasn’t ready to give in, the daft cow (now Fiona wanted to kick her), “Prentice, stop –”
Prentice, fortunately, wasn’t ready to give in either.
“Life, for me, luckily has been a beautiful journey. It put me in this village, it brought me Fee who walked at my side and then Jason and Sally who continue to share that journey with me.” His voice dipped low and his hand took hers from his belly to press it against his heart when he finished, “But, baby, through that long journey, I’ve only ever been home twice. Once, twenty years ago and now I’m home again, with you. You. I know exactly who you are. I just have to introduce you to her.”
Bella was staring at him, lips parted.
Prentice held her gaze.
Fiona hovered.
The tears welled up in Bella’s eyes and slid silently down her cheeks.
Prentice tensed as he watched them fall.
Then Bella spoke so softly, Fiona (even with super-ghostly senses) could barely hear her.
Even so, it hurt to listen to the hesitant but hopeful ache in her words.
“You’re saying… I can be free?”
Prentice closed his eyes slowly but briefly.
Then he put both his hands on her jaw and tipped her face up to his, getting close, his body against hers. “Baby, with me, you can be whatever the f**k you want to be. But most especially, you can be free.”
“I want to be free,” she whispered and you could tell she wanted that, you could tell she’d wanted that forever.
“Then I’ll help you to be free,” Prentice whispered back.
She closed her eyes and fresh tears slid down her cheeks.
“You always did,” she replied.
Prentice made a low noise, like a groan and bent his forehead to hers.
Fiona didn’t close her eyes but she felt her own ghostly tears falling.
Bella opened her eyes and Fiona waited.
Prentice broke the silence. “I can’t promise you heaven, but I’ll no’ let anything harm you.” He paused and smiled. “And Jason will no’.”
“Jason likes me,” she whispered, as if this was an impossibility.
“No, baby, Jason and Sally don’t like you. They both fell in love the first time they laid eyes you.” He touched his lips to hers and finished, “Just like their Dad.”
More tears slid down her cheeks.
These were a different kind.
And when they did, Fiona knew immediately that Isabella Austin Evangahlala was gone for good.
Prentice’s “Elle” had finally awoken and come back to life.
Therefore, Fiona smiled.
Bella threw her arms around his neck, shoving her face there, holding him tight.
Prentice’s arms slid around her waist, bending and twisting his head so his lips were resting on her hair nearly at her nape, holding her back.
“Can I tell you something?” she whispered her question into his ear.
“Aye, Elle, anything,” he replied.
She sucked in a breath and then whispered, “There will be no bitterness. Ever. It took you a long time but it had to so you could give me everything I’ve ever wanted. And, Prentice, the only things in my whole, entire life I ever wanted were you…” She pulled back, he lifted his head, she pushed a finger in his chest and then pointed upstairs. “And them. Even though I didn’t know it would be them, in the end it is.”
His voice had grown hoarse with emotion when he started, “Elle –”
Her hands went to the sides of his head, her fingers gliding in his hair and she cut him off by saying, “If you want me then I’m here. And I hope we have fifty years but if we don’t, if we have five weeks or five days, I’ll never be bitter.” She came up on her toes and put her mouth to his, finishing on a whisper, “I’ll only be happy because finally, finally, finally I have everything I’ve ever wanted and you must know that it was you who gave it to me.”
Prentice stared into her tear-stained face but he hesitated only for a moment before he slanted his handsome head and kissed her.
Fiona popped back to the stream.
She stared at her tent.
Then she giggled.
It took Prentice a day.
It took him a day to breathe life into Bella.
He was a genius!
Then again, Bella had been fiercely in love with him for twenty years so, really, it wasn’t that much of a challenge.
Still.
Fiona wandered into the tent, picked up the guitar, sat on the chair, threw her legs over the arm and she played.
Chapter Seventeen
Fairy Godmother
Elle
Elle was nervous.
Therefore, when the door opened heralding Prentice’s arrival home, she didn’t give it a thought when she felt that special feeling that slid through her when he came home.
Instead, she jumped right before her body froze.
Sally jumped too.
Then she screamed, “Daddy!” and ran headlong toward Prentice as he made his way to the great room, throwing herself in his arms as if she hadn’t seen him in one hundred years.
Prentice scooped his daughter up and held her in front of him but his eyes never left Elle.
“We all ready?” he asked.
At his words, Elle’s heart skipped a beat.
No, it was safe to say she wasn’t ready.
That morning, after Prentice woke Elle early and made love to her, he shared with her his fabulous idea that they would all go out to dinner that very evening. At dinner, he would make the announcement to the children that Elle was going to be a permanent fixture in their lives.