"No, it's not ideal. But it's better than leaving unsupervised." As ridiculous as it sounded, she was familiar with it herself. As well as seeing others do the same in desperate times or sometimes not.
"Haven't you tried private daycares?"
Isabelle asked, drawing circles into the sand. "She could even make more friends that way."
She decided not to touch the topic of her mother knowing the woman was a model."Whatever works for the both of you, I suppose."
"She's seven, she's too old for daycare," said Ethan softly, watching his daughter as she chased the waves away from the shore. "She's in first grade, but it's a public holiday today so I had to take her onto the set."
Ethan shrugged and changed the topic of conversation.
"Do you have kids?" he asked Isabelle. He would be surprised if the answer were yes. Most people didn't have kids this young anymore and Bianca had only been born when Ethan had been nineteen years old. Jessa had been eighteen.
"Well, uh, yes." Answered Isabelle a bit of tune. She was not used to being asked that question. She was only twenty-one, therefore by current society standards she was too young to haven any kids. Or she just shouldn't have any, and not as old as the one she had.
"A five year old boy and his name is Noah." She continued, "My mother looks after him when I'm away."
Which was practically since the beginning considering she had to finish highschool and then work a few jobs as well as go to acting school. It was a lot on her plate, but she always made time for her family.
"He's super sweet and quiet too. Which, I am a little worried about."
Ethan was an actor so pretending not to be surprised was simple for him. He listened to her curiously, easily doing the math in his head and determining that she had had her son when she had been sixteen years of age.
And he thought he had been young when Bianca had been born.
"Kids are quiet sometimes, it's not necessarily a bad thing," he assured her, petting her knee affectionately. "Bianca was quiet at that age, too."
Ethan looked over as his little princess leaned over to make a ball of sand in her hands.
"But now she's quite extroverted, so I'm sure your little Noah will be fine. There's nothing wrong with being quiet, anyway."
"No, I guess not." She sighed, running her fingers over the same knee of hers."You seem really good at this parenting thing despite Bianca being only seven." Though it had been five years for her, she felt stuck in the same spot since her son was a baby. An amateur who didn't know how to do anything and worried about everything.
Still, she had her parents to help out considerably. And even her siblings. So, it wasn't too bad.
"How do you manage between it all?"
She looked away from Bianca was to glance at him. "I don't think I've heard you say much about it during interviews or anything."
That was true -- Ethan tried to keep Bianca out of the limelight as much as he could. Of course, the paparazzi were inescapable and he shared the odd Instagram photo, but most of the time, Ethan tried to raise his daughter like a normal child.
"Well, Jessa was around for the first couple of years, then her modelling career took off and we separated." Ethan ran a hand through his hair. "I considered sending Bianca to live with my aunt for a while but I didn't want her near my brother."
Shit. He shouldn't have said that. He moved on as if he hadn't mentioned it.
"So, I hired a nanny for her when I was at work and I try to be around her as much as I can. I don't want to be the celebrity who abandons their child for their career."
"That's good. And admirable." Isabelle noted with a tiny smile, hardly visible, but it was there. And she meant those words. She, by far, wasn't as ahead as he was in career, but tried to live by the same morals.
Pausing for moment, she pinched her lips and asked, "Why don't you want her near your brother?"
It wasn't something she could easily ignore with family being a pretty big deal to her. In fact, she had wanted to ask right away but he had went on talking casually.
"I don't mean to pry. You don't even have to tell me anything." She quickly assured him, after realizing she may have came off rude.
Ethan bit his lip. Usually, he would rather drown himself in a river than even utter a word about his brother Eden, but he and Isabelle had already had a good conversation and he wanted to be honest with her. He wanted her to trust him.
"Let's just say that my brother is just like Tate Langdon."
He rubbed his jaw and leaned back on the bench. "Well, he's not a school shooter and I don't think he's capable of rape. But ... all the other things."
He sighed shakily and closed his eyes for a moment.
Isabelle frowned slightly. It was a very interesting comparison. And she could see why he wouldn't want his child around him. It would be dangerous to some degree.
That would also explain why he didn't too much about his brother either. But, if he was anything like Tate Langdon, he couldn't be too bad.
"But you still communicate often with him, right? He is your brother."
Ethan sighed and shook his head. "No, Eden hates me," he told her, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"He thinks I exploited him by playing Tate, even if the public doesn't know I have a brother. I mean, I love him. I have to. He's my baby brother. But ..."
He closed his eyes and opened him almost at once. He kept his eyes on Bianca.
"He ... the last time I let him anywhere near Bianca, she was three and he was twelve. He killed a cat in front of her and she had nightmares for four months. He didn't mean to -- he didn't know she was watching -- but I'm not exposing her to that anymore."
"Oh, no. That's awful." Isabelle shook her head absentmindedly, biting on the inside on her lip. She had not expected to hear anything like that. It was sad and she felt guilty for even asking when this story would come to mind.
"I shouldn't have asked." She mumbled.
It wasn't her intention to bring up any negative stories of the sort and she hadn't realized how cracked his relationship with his brother was. It made her feel awful just thinking about it.
Her eyes wandered to playful Bianca. To think she had been traumatized, even if it was for a small time period. It was a relief to see how she grew, bright and full of energy.
"You don't have to." Isabelle pulled her phone from jean pocket. She still felt awful for having such a story brought up. And anyway, she didn't want to have him go out of his way to take her home. He already had taken her out for ice cream with them.
"I can call my sister to pick me up." She shrugged a shoulder and continued. "I enjoyed the ice cream greatly." She enjoyed her time with Ethan and Bianca both is what it meant.
Isabelle offered a sweet smile and stretched out her long legs in front of her.
"Really, it's no trouble," Ethan insisted, just as Bianca came over.
"Are we going home, Daddy?" she asked, looking up at him with Ethan's huge blue eyes. They were his only feature she possessed -- she had Jessa's olive complexion and curly brown hair.
"Yes, baby. Do you want to go watch a movie?"
"Is Izzy coming?"
Izzy. "Isabelle has to go home."
Bianca latched her arms around Isabelle's leg. "No."
"It pains me to have part with you." Isabelle cooed, making a sad face as she brushed her fingers through Bianca's brown curls.
She checked the time on her phone and pursed her lips. It wasn't too late in the day at all, just after lunch. So, she still had plenty of time to spend. A few hours, at least.
Crouching down, she scooped up the seven year old. "Okay, if your daddy allows it, I could watch one movie with you." She promised, holding up one finger to stress her point. Saying no to the little girl would be near impossible.
Bianca looked up at Ethan hopefully and Ethan practically melted.
"Of course she can come over," he said without even having to think about it, kissing his daughter on the head and leading both girls up to his car.
Soon they were at the Carstairs residence, a large, Victorian-style house on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Ethan was one to surround himself with vintage style, sans his modern technology, and he adored his abode. The architecture and detailing of the staircases and such reminded him of the house in The Conjuring, or the Murder House from his very own show.
He lead Isabelle and Bianca up to the living room with the large cinema-like screen stretching over an entire wall. Bianca pulled Isabelle down into the beanbags and Ethan put on Disney's The Princess and the Frog upon request.
He came back with popcorn and sat down beside Bianca.
Isabelle made herself comfortable in the bean bag on the other side of Bianca and moved her brown eyes to the huge screen that might as well be the wall. The entire house was gorgeous and obviously costed money, mainly when considering the living room. She couldn't dare hope to have something, anything like this.
Not yet, anyway. It would take a long while for her to afford such a nice place. But, she didn't think about that now. Her attention was caught when the trailers had past and the movie started.
She curled her legs up on her soft and comfortable seat and went on to lean back too.
Considering most of Ethan's work pertained to the horror genre, it was relaxing to sink back into a beanbag and watch a Disney movie with his beautiful, bubbly daughter for once. It was always nice to separate himself from his work, even if the majority of what he watched was horror.
Bianca curled up like a cat in her beanbag and Ethan instinctively reached over to pet her hair as the movie began. Isabelle didn't seem out of place here and Ethan certainly didn't mind her being here. It was relaxing to be in the presence of another single parent.
When the movie was over, Ethan looked up at his co-star. "Next time, you should bring little Noah over."
Isabelle loved her time watching the movie and so on. It was lovely to sit back and relax as much as she had done during the movie. She was sure Noah would live it too.
Speak of the devil. Or in this case, the little sweetheart.
"Maybe I will." Isabelle said in response, thoughtfully. "I think he'd love to come over."
"Of course, he's not into princess movies as much. More into superheroes." She shrugged her shoulders and smiled at the thought of her own little one.
Bianca didn't often get to spend time with children anywhere near her age. It wasn't as if he could just send her off to daycare -- no, that would be horrible in relation to the paparazzi. Meeting and playing with Isabelle's little boy would be beneficial for Ethan's child, and, besides, he would get to know his new co-star a little more.
Ethan put on Cinderella for his own little princess and rose to his feet.
"So shooting starts tomorrow," he said as he lead Isabelle down to the kitchen, where they could talk until her sister arrived to pick her up. "Are you nervous?"
