Page 36 of Rescuing Tobias

“Sure.” There was no other answer he could give since she’d been so open and honest with him.

“Is there a personal issue you're letting get in the way?”

“Way of what?”

She rolled her big blue eyes at him. “Don’t play dumb. We all picked up on the fact that you’ve been different since you helped rescue Isabella Baker. Even Josiah has. Would I be wrong to think there’s a connection there?”

When he didn't say anything, she just studied him for a long moment.

Then she leaned in and kissed his cheek. “Never let the past steal your future from you. Life is too short to waste being scared and unhappy.”

With that, she turned and walked off, leaving him staring after her wondering if that’s what he was doing. Was he letting his past, his mother’s diagnosis, his father’s revelation, and his own fears of his injury being a burden rob him of actually living?

April 16th

12:27 P.M.

“I was getting worried.”

Isabella was greeted by her best friend the second she walked back inside Becca’s house. Connor was there, too, hovering behind his wife, his hand on her shoulder, his expression worried, with a little bit of reprehension.

Okay, way to make her feel guilty.

Because she’d been afraid of a call or text from Tobias after she left his place—or maybe afraid to hope for one—she had turned her phone off. She’d reasoned that she would have turned it off or put it in flight mode to fly back anyway, so it didn't really matter. When she’d picked up her car from the airport parking lot, she’d found she wasn't ready to see people yet.

Instead, she’d just driven aimlessly around.

Or not so aimlessly.

She kept finding herself outside schools and parks, drawn to children, her hand always seeming to find itself caressing her stomach. Knowing she had a baby growing inside her was the craziest thing, and she didn't know how to feel about it.

Excited, terrified, sad.

A mixture of all three.

Although if things had gone differently with Tobias, she expected the sadness wouldn't be part of the mix. It was really more to do with him so easily brushing them off than the pregnancy itself.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly. Despite the warring emotions inside her, it was wrong of her not to consider her friend’s feelings. After all, Becca had opened up her home and told her she and her baby would still have a place there for as long as they needed it, that the pregnancy changed nothing. If anything, Becca seemed thrilled by the idea that their babies would be so close in age.

It wasn't cool to leave Becca worrying. She couldn’t imagine what her best friend had gone through for seven months not knowing where Isabella was or if she was even still alive. She did know how much fear she’d felt thinking Becca had suffered the same fate she had, so she had to be more considerate.

“Don’t be sorry, I know you're going through a lot, I was just worried. But maybe leave your phone on, okay? So I can at least know that you're okay,” Becca said gently, drawing her into a hug.

Falling into it was the easiest thing in the world.

They might not have met until college, but it felt like they’d known each other all their lives. Becca was the sister she’d never had but always wanted growing up, and with her family gone and no extended family to fall back on, Beccawasher family. More than that, Becca had shared her own family with her, soIsabella didn't just have Becca and Connor, she had the entire Charleston Holloway clan at her back.

The thought cheered her up a little. She was going to be a single mom, but she wouldn't be doing this alone. Connor’s oldest brother, Cade, was also expecting a baby with his daughter’s former nanny, and Connor’s twin, Cooper, and his fiancée, Willow, were trying for a baby. It wouldn't be long before Cole, Jake, and Jax were all adding to the family, so her baby might not grow up with siblings, but it would grow up with a whole extended family of kids to play with.

That thought cheered her up even more.

“I really am sorry. I just needed a little time to process,” she told Becca, squeezing her friend hard to make sure Becca knew how much she appreciated everything she was doing for her.

“It didn't go well?” Becca asked, giving her a return squeeze before pulling back so they were eye to eye.

“Didn't go well,” she answered. Actually, it went about worst-case scenario. It wasn't so much that she’d be raising this baby alone, she could handle that, difficult though it was going to be, it was the loss of a dream she hadn't even realized was so important to her until it flitted past.

Marriage and kids had always been on the table, but she hadn't thought she cared one way or the other. Maybe she wouldn't have if she hadn't been abducted, trafficked, and spent seven months being held captive. Because now she craved the stability of a family of her own, whereas she’d always loved the freedom of traveling the world, not tied down to anyone or anything.

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