Isabelle watched the father and daughter with warm eyes. She only looked away to check on Noah when he quietly yelped. The young child was obviously happy with the canine, but also cautious.
He grinned at her when petting the pup after his short hesitation. His eyes flickered between the dog, the hugging Carstairs then back to her. "Dads are cool, huh?"
She smiled poignantly and ruffled his hair. And proceeded to clear her throat. "Can we do ours next? Naturally, it's not as nearly stunning, but I'm sure it will still be satisfying."
Soon, the party was over and Ethan saw the guests out with only Isabelle and Noah remaining inside, since Bianca had invited her new best friend to sleep over with the puppy for the night. Ethan was more than happy to oblige. He set up the theatre room so the kids could sleep in a small tent with all the snacks and drinks they could ever ask for.
"Come get us if you need anything," he said softly, kissing both children on the forehead before leaving the room and joining Isabelle in the living room downstairs.
"I think it's safe to say that that was a success," he said happily, just as his phone began to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket and frowned at the unknown number.
Isabelle opened her mouth to reply just as his phone rang. So, she sat back on the couch to wait patiently, looking out the window where it had started raining outside. Which was funny, she always found the weather funny. One moment it could be sunny and the next gloomy.
She listened to the pitter patter of the rain, or at least tried to. It wasn't as if she was purposely listening to Ethan's call, but he was standing in her presence. So, she turned away from the window to look at him.
He appeared visibly uncomfortable, surprised and something more, she couldn't quite put her finger on it, to have received a call from his brother. She raised an eyebrow.
"Hi," said Ethan's nervous brother from the other end of the phone.
Ethan's hands were shaking so hard that he put the phone on speaker and then on the coffee table, because he couldn't hear properly with the rattling of the device. He slid down onto the floor so he could speak into the phone, almost forgetting that Isabelle was there.
He hadn't spoken to Eden in years.
"Um, I just wanted to talk to Bianca for a little --"
"No."
"Huh?"
"No, I mean, she's asleep." That was a lie but he didn't care. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and glanced at Isabelle out of the corner of his vision.
"Oh -- it's later there, isn't it? Um, could I speak to her tomorrow then?" Eden sounded genuinely hopeful, like he really wanted to speak with Bianca.
"I ... I don't think that's a good idea, Eden."
"... Why not?"
"She's ... she's happy. I can't risk you scaring her again. Jessa will take her off me."
Ethan could hear his brother's teeth rattling. "You can fucking monitor the call if you want, I just want to wish her a happy fucking birthday. Two minutes. That's all I want."
"Edie --"
"Don't you fucking dare call me that."Eden's voice was rising in both volume and emotion. "DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE! You have no right -- you don't even like me, you weren't even there for me when my girlfriend fucking killed herself. I found her, in the bathtub filled with her blood and I told you this and you couldn't be fucked flying out to Vermont to see me. Fuck you."
Isabelle remained silent through out the conversation between the brothers. Well, at least, it was a conversation at first until Eden began yelling and cursing out Ethan. And that must have hurt.
Both parties were hurt.
She slowly leaned over in her seat to pick up his phone on the coffee table. And then quietly slid off the couch to sit beside him. "Are you okay?" She asked, keeping her voice low and gentle.
She put her hand in his and squeezed it gently to give him a sense of comfort. Like he had done for her on several accounts, though those times weren't as serious, but still ... She wanted to help.
"Its not midnight yet." She whispered, fiddling with the phone in her other hand. She didn't say it outright, but she wanted Ethan to call back and at least allow his brother to say those two words to his neice before her birthday met its end at midnight. It was only two words.
As intimidated as he was by his brother, Ethan did want to have some form of a relationship with Eden. His only living, immediate relative, besides his daughter, of course. But he wanted to keep his daughter out of it as much as he could.
But he knew that wasn't fair. Bianca asked about her uncle a lot, which broke Ethan's heart and was ultimately what called her down.
"Hello?" said Eden through the phone, after he had picked up on the very last ring.
"Hi, Uncle Edie."
"Bianca." Eden sounded genuinely shocked to hear his niece's voice. "Oh my God -- hey, baby, happy birthday."
Ethan hovered close while Bianca chattered about her presents and her day and Eden listened quietly. After a couple of minutes, Bianca said goodbye and went back upstairs. Ethan took the phone back.
Isabelle found herself seated back on the couch when watching Bianca babble on to her uncle about all that occurred during the day. When seeing the eight year old talk so sweetly to Eden, it was hard to believe that he could be a danger. But she was glad that he at least was able to wish her a happy birthday.
"Are you okay?" Asked Isabelle, once again when Ethan's younger brother hung up on him for the second time.
She couldn't imagine how either of them must feel. She had always kept a pleasant relationship with all her siblings. But then again, she still had her parents too.
"Thank you for letting me talk to Uncle Edie, Daddy," said Bianca quietly, kissing her dad on the cheek.
Ethan nearly cried. "It's okay, princess," he choked.
Bianca scurried off upstairs and Ethan leaned his head back on the cushion of the couch, sighing heavily and pinching the bridge of his nose to stop himself from crying.
"I'm okay," he croaked. "I ... I just want to keep her safe, and I know it's not fair on Eden but I can't risk it. I can't risk her getting attached, and then him doing something and traumatising her again. Jessa will stop me from seeing her. She nearly stopped me last time."
Ethan didn't really expect her to understand, but he hoped she did. She would do anything to keep Noah safe, too, right?
"I'm sorry, Ethan." Isabelle whispered softly, placing a hand on his back.
She wasn't in his position, and she couldn't fully understand the mechanics going around in his family. And she wasn't going to try pretending she did either. But what she did understand was his desire to protect his child the best he possibly could.
How could she blame him for that? It was a parental instinct. And he didn't want his daughter taken away from him. Neither did she.
Isabelle could never imagine herself in such a horrid position. It pained her to even try to see herself in that spot.
"I get it. With Bianca. I do. It's just ... Sad. "
"If our parents were alive, it would be different," Ethan croaked. "Eden was eight when they died and it hit him hard, he was so young. And he ... snapped, I guess. He lost control of all of his illnesses and ... well, you know."
Ethan sat up on the couch beside Isabelle and rubbed his face before inhaling shakily.
"Okay, let's do something else," he muttered. "I don't want to ruin your night by sulking."
Eden fetched a bowl of pretzels and set it on the coffee table just as the lightning and thunder cracked outside. "Sounds like there's gonna be a storm."
As soon as she heard that crack of thunder and lightening outside she clapped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes closed. Of course, there had to be a storm. It was raining to hard for there not to be.
"Oh crap, oh shit ... "
She mumbled underneath her breath, pulling her knees up to her chest. She couldn't even his in the safteynof her own bed. Instead, she was on the couch of Ethan's living room. Ethan.
She immediately pulled her hands away and opened her eyes. It wasn't as if she was trying to his her fear, her phobia of thunderstorms, but it was embarrassing at her age. She was a mother too. Not even Noah feared these storms.
"I just - it was loud, I was surprised." She tried to explain and tried just as hard not to let her hand shake as she reached for a pretzel. But when she heard another booming crack of thunder, she cried out and clapped her hands over her ears once a again with her eyes shut tight.
Ethan frowned at Isabelle's reaction to the storm and wondered what the hell was going on until he realised -- she was scared.
No, she was horrified.
Immediately, Ethan sat down on the couch beside her and pulled her into a hug, leaning her small body against his chest and rubbing her back in what he hoped was a soothing manner. "It's going to be okay, it's just noise," he assured her, dropping a small kiss to her forehead.
"If it makes you feel better, I'm absolutely petrified of the ocean."
"The ocean?" Isabelle mumbled and slowly let her hands slip from her ears and peek at him. She was still cautious, but semi distracted by this new piece of information and the close proximity between them.
But she wasn't moving, not with that storm still going on outside. She would never know when it would strike again.
"Why the ocean?" She didn't frown, but gazed at him with curiosity.
"My parents died in a plane crash over the ocean," Ethan murmured in a completely expressionless voice. Void of any emotion, of any hint of feeling.
"I don't like the idea of anything being infinite -- I like things to have boundaries, and the ocean doesn't really have boundaries. Most of it is still unexplored. I hate the idea of being stuck over an empty void I can't see through, or stuck over anything I'm not familiar with. I'm also horrified of the universe."
Ethan didn't feel uncomfortable telling her this, even though he had never told this to anyone but Jessa. He turned his head to look at her.
Isabelle didn't say a word as he explained his reasons. She didn't think of herself as a super emotional and empathetic person. But it pained her to hear about his parents and his fears. There wasn't anything she could think to say in response to that.
She was, however, able to let out a small and short laugh at the mention of Jaws. Though that quickly ended, she had easily became conscious of the little distance between their faces. The last time they had been so close, they were acting as Kit and Grace. But they weren't acting anymore.
And strangely, she wasn't nervous or uncomfortable as she was back then, despite the rapid beating of her heart. In fact, it felt natural to lean in and ...
Ethan hadn't been expecting the kiss, not at all. But that didn't mean her kiss was unwelcome. In fact, he had been longing to kiss her again ever since filming had ended and he realised he wouldn't be doing so for a while.
Or, so he had thought. She was kissing him and it felt better than the last kisses, the ones as Grace and Kit. Because they weren't Grace and Kit, they were Isabelle and Ethan and this kiss with the beautiful Spanish girl felt so perfect that Ethan forgot his brother and his issues entirely.
He slowly ran a hand down her curves and rested on her hip as he tilted his head to the side and deepened the kiss a little. Kissing had always come naturally to Ethan and now, everything felt natural with Isabelle.
One hand raised to cup the back of her neck delicately while the other cupped her hip.
It had been on impulse, the kiss. And there was some obvious instinct to it for her. But there was no denying the happiness and increased pleasure she felt when he reciprocated. And even deepened it, if only a little.
This time it was real. Genuinely real. She wasn't kissing him because she had to, but because she wanted too. And he must have felt the same because he wouldn't have been returning it otherwise.
She put her arms around his neck, reeling in closer. She was so lost in him and his lips, that she didn't notice the flash of lightening out the window . Ultimately, the booming noise of the thunder had made her pull back. For once, the storm wasn't taking up her entire mind.
"Was that - was that okay?" She asked, dropping her arms from him and pulling away a little.
The thunder made Ethan jump, too, but not because he was scared. Because he was so absorbed in Isabelle and her lips that he had forgotten they were in the middle of a storm, with their kids upstairs, sharing their deepest, darkest fears to one another like little kids.
He chuckled at her worries and kissed the tip of her nose. "It was perfect," he murmured, rubbing her waist affectionately before looping both of his arms around her.
"I've ... I've been wanting to do that for a while," he admitted, licking his lips. "But I didn't know if you wanted to or just stay professional. I really like you."
He wasn't nervous, but he was slightly anxious that she would reject him.
"You do?" Isabelle blinked, searching his blue eyes for a hint of doubt or falsehood or anything that would suggest his words untrue. But it was ridiculous to think he would even lie about this, there was nothing in his eyes that contradicted it either.
It was simply beyond her belief that he could feel romantic feelings toward her. And it was just too good to be true. Her own feelings toward him at shaped into something more than just admiration and adoration long before.
"I really like you too. Like, a lot." She blushed a little, rolling her eyes at how childish that may have sounded. But it didn't make it any less true.
She happily put her arms around his neck again and smiled tenderly at him. "So, no. I don't want to be professional."
Ethan couldn't accurately describe the happiness Isabelle's words brought him. They had erased months of doubt and anxiety like soft pencil off paper. There was nothing but elation now.
He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips again, as if to cement their relationship. "I understand if you want to hide this from the Internet," he murmured, knowing full well how the media tended to take things out of proportion.
"But we can't keep it from the kids. That's not fair."
