Fairytale Come Alive (48 page)

No, Prentice was more a man who spoke through actions.

This wasn’t a time for action; it was a time for words and Fiona doubted that Prentice could give Bella what she obviously needed.

Fiona was wrong.

His face gentled, his hand came to rest on her jaw and he answered her question in that soft voice filled with love.

“Your pancakes, your cookies, your smile.”

Uh-oh.

Even said in his beautiful, soft voice, Fiona didn’t think that was a great start.

Bella, staring up at him with fear and doubt barely masked behind the coldness in her eyes, didn’t either.

Prentice wasn’t done.

“The way you care for my home, the way you care for my family.”

Fiona decided this wasn’t going too well. No woman wanted a man to want her because she was a good housekeeper and babysitter and made good pancakes.

“The way you are with Sally, enjoying every second of her, never making her feel silly or getting impatient with her liveliness.”

All right, that was a
wee
bit better. Fiona watched Bella’s face shift slightly, still guarded but Prentice had struck a chord.

“The way you are with Jason, how you handle him with such care. Showing him that Fiona’s guitar, something she loved, wasn’t an instrument of mourning, which she’d hate, but an instrument to celebrate her and keep her memory alive.”

Bella started to shake her head but his hand at her jaw tightened.

“The way you make me laugh when you forget to be what your father wanted you to be and you’re just you.”

Her head jerked.

“Prentice –” Bella broke in.

Prentice wasn’t done.

His face dipped closer to hers. “The way you respond to me, no inhibitions, so quick, so wild, my kiss, my touch, my tongue,” his voice dropped deep, “my cock. I love kissing you, baby, touching you, fucking you. And I love knowing you love it too.”

Fiona could have done without hearing
that
but she saw he was getting to Bella because her eyes had grown glazed.

“Pren,” she whispered.

“The way you give of yourself, every second, to
everyone
without knowing you’re doing it or expecting that first thing in return. You’re the most generous person I’ve ever met in my life.” He got even closer, his arm sliding around her waist, his hand at her jaw gliding into her hair. “And I want you in my life until I’m no longer breathing.”

Bella was struggling with this, Fiona could see it. She wanted to believe but she couldn’t.

Or she wouldn’t.

“I –” Bella started to protest.

Prentice cut her off. “And I want you in my children’s lives.”

Bella bit her lip which had begun to tremble.

Then she said something bizarre.

“I think you’re confused.”

Prentice’s brows drew together, indicating to Fiona he thought what she said was bizarre as well.

“Confused how?”

“With who I am and who you
think
I am.”

“What?”

His voice was no longer soft and loving. Prentice wasn’t happy he’d laid it out for her and, apparently, it had no effect.

Fiona didn’t think this was a good sign.

“You think I’m that girl you met twenty years ago,” Bella explained. “I’m
not
that girl. I never was. And you’re confused.”

“So, who are you?” Prentice asked, his voice now edging towards impatience.

Bella heard it and decided not to respond.

Fiona watched as his hand fisted in her hair. “You’re telling me that all this is
a game?
”

Bella’s body jerked yet again and her face went pale.

“A game?” she whispered.

“Aye, a game,” Prentice clipped. “You’re saying you dropped everything in order to come to Sally… that was a game.”

“No!” Bella replied sharply.

“The laundry, the ironing, making the beds, hoovering the floors, baking the cookies, that wasn’t you? That was what your father said you were doing? That was you playing house?”

It was a low blow and Bella flinched like she’d been physically struck.

Fiona wished she could kick Prentice.

Where was he
going
with this?

“Of course not,” Bella whispered.

Prentice was relentless. “It wasn’t
you
that played darts with Annie, Dougal and me? It wasn’t
you
who asked Gordon over for hamburgers?”

Bella shook her head.

Prentice kept after her.

“It isn’t
you
who’s teaching Jace how to play guitar? It isn’t you who stares into my eyes like you do, like you’re lost in what you see and you don’t want to be found. And it isn’t
you
who wraps your hand around my cock like you never want to let it go and moans in my mouth when my tongue slides into yours?”

Okay,
Fiona thought,
overshare
.

Bella’s face was confused and her reply was hesitant, “Yes, um… well, that all
is
me but –”

“So, tell me, Elle, if that’s all you then how the fuck am
I
confused?”

Bella didn’t have an answer for that, evidently, because she didn’t speak.

She just stared at him.

He let her go but didn’t move away. His hands slid down her forearms and caught her wrists. Bringing them up between them, his thumbs slid into her fists, pushing back her fingers. Then he stroked her palms.

Bella closed her eyes.

Prentice spoke and his tone was now gentle. “I’m not confused, baby,
you
are.”

Bella opened her eyes.

“I’m not that girl you knew,” she whispered.

God,
Fiona thought,
Bella’s stubborn.

“You are,” Prentice, Fiona knew, could be stubborn too.

“I’m not.”

“Baby, you
are
, then and now. But, now, with time and maturity, you’re even
better
.”

Her eyes filled with tears and Fiona worried her lip. She watched as Bella curled open her fingers and lifted her hands, showing him her palms.

“
This
is me, Prentice,” she said, her voice harsh. “
This
is who I am.
This
is who you’d have in your house.
This
is who I’ve always been, weak, trapped, useless. I
saved
you when I left you years ago. Don’t you understand? That girl didn’t exist,
you
made her. She was only alive for
you
.
This,
” she jerked her hands still in his wrists, “is who I am.”

“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 fuck 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.

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.