Randall Wedding by Judy Christenberry

Author:Judy Christenberry
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2002-12-25T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

When Pete walked into Jake’s office, he found his twin sons chatting quietly.

“I’m glad you’ve calmed down, Russ. That was quite a scene you were creating out there.”

“I’m sorry, Dad, but Isabella…she backed out of the marriage.”

“Did she?”

“Yeah. She doesn’t even like it when I kiss her!” His voice was rising again.

“Keep your voice down. I thought you promised that you would be friends, nothing else. Did you change your mind?”

“Hell, Dad, I promised to stay married to her forever, too. Was I supposed to do without any sex forever? That doesn’t seem fair. Especially when she’s so beautiful.”

“I wondered about that.”

“So what was I supposed to do?”

“He’s got a point, Dad. His life would be miserable. He’d have to cheat on his marriage vows, or Isabella would have to—and she said she didn’t want to,” Rich protested, staunchly on his brother’s side.

“Everyone draw a deep breath.” Then Pete began his conversation where his wife said the difficulty had begun. “Why did you decide to teach Isabella to ride today?”

“She doesn’t know how.”

“She needs to know how to ride today?”

“Well, no, of course not, but eventually she will.”

“I agree, Dad,” Rich added.

“Learning something new as an adult can be difficult. It requires a lot of energy and concentration,” Pete pointed out. “If a person, say, Isabella, had a lot of other problems to deal with, problems like her father trying to hurt her, taking care of a newborn baby, dealing with a husband who betrayed her and then died, moving away from home to a place where she didn’t know anyone, mourning an aunt she’d never met who died before she could get here, being ill, you know, a few problems like that, do you think it would affect her willingness to take on something else? Other than marrying a stranger, I mean.”

“I forgot about all the problems she was facing.” Russ ducked his head, embarrassed at his behavior.

“Not only that, son, but if she’s not going to marry you, who’s going to protect her from her father? Who will protect Angel? Do you think she’ll let you? Do you think she’ll stay here?”

Russ began to realize the enormity of what their argument had done. “Damn! I didn’t think. I just didn’t think.”

“But, Dad,” Rich said, “he can’t make that kind of promise! It just won’t work.”

“I know that. But he could promise a year. He’s gone eighteen months without any intimacy. I think he could wait a year, give Isabella a chance to settle in, resolve her issues with her father, let her feel at home here. She might look at everything differently then. Don’t you agree, Russ?”

“Yeah. I… Things have been changing so quickly, I let myself get out of control. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t think you need to apologize to me. But Isabella shed a few tears, you know.”

Taking a deep breath, Russ said, “I’ll go talk to her.”

“I knew you’d do the right thing, Russ. After you convince her, bring her down for dinner.”

“Yes, sir,” Russ agreed before he left the room.

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