Page 22 of Pieces into Place (Moonflower Cove Romance #16)
Isla
W ith the holidays officially behind her, Isla felt like she could finally relax.
She loved the holiday season so much, but between birthdays, work parties, and family dinners, every week seemed to be filled to the max.
Add in this year that she was working on healing her relationship with Blake, and Isla was flat out exhausted. Both mentally and physically.
Isla wouldn’t trade anything in the world for the last two months, though.
After spending years wishing and hoping for a relationship with Blake, she finally had it.
It had been slow, since Isla still didn’t want to push Blake faster than she was ready to go.
But Blake had been texting or calling Isla daily with updates about her pregnancy or the kids or her day.
Her heart grew happier each time she saw Blake’s name on her phone.
She was also insanely happy that her relationship with Blake wasn’t the only one that had improved.
Blake was also getting closer to Vera as well.
Isla loved watching them together, looking more relaxed than Isla had seen either of them in the five years that Blake had been in the Cove.
Vera was made to be Blake’s mama. That much was apparent since the moment Vera knew about her thirty years ago.
But seeing Vera with Blake? Watching how Vera loved her and cared for her and listened to her?
It was more than Isla had ever expected to see, and it warmed her heart immensely.
Blake was also working on her relationships with her siblings as well.
It was slower than with her or Isla, but Blake was trying.
She’d gone to lunch with Ellie twice while she was out of school and even driven up to watch Brayden’s first game of the semester with Isla and Vera.
Isla knew she had a day planned to spend with Mason soon, and she hoped for both of her girls’ sakes that it went well.
Everleigh would be Blake’s biggest holdout.
Isla knew that from the first day Blake came into their lives.
She was the most intuitive of all their kids when it came to her and Vera.
Although she didn’t know how, Everleigh seemed to sense even the slightest change in their moods.
Since Blake came back, Everleigh had been the most standoffish toward her.
Isla wanted more than anything for all her kids to have a great relationship, but she worried the most about Everleigh letting Blake into her life.
Similar to Mason, Everleigh had autism and ADHD.
She struggled in social settings and with making friends.
Isla and Vera had made it a point to never force Everleigh to do more than she was comfortable with.
It was why they’d homeschooled her and, yes, probably babied her more than any of their other kids.
Everleigh just had so much on her plate at only thirteen that Isla wanted her to stay a kid as long as she could.
She’d already had to grow up so much after her diabetes diagnosis that they’d just wanted to keep her safe.
Taking off her reading glasses, Isla sat them on the desk as she rubbed her eyes.
It was only eleven days into the new year, and Isla was already ready for a vacation.
She’d spent the last several hours getting her expenses from the previous years all into one folder to send to her accountant.
No matter how many years she told herself she’d do that as she went the next year, she never did.
And it always came back to bite her in the ass .
Eventually, Isla knew that she’d have to turn the bar over to someone else.
She loved her job, truly. The bar had been a part of her life since she moved to the Cove.
Isla and Vera had raised their kids there as their second home.
Or a third home after the hospital. So many memories had been made at Straight to Ale that Isla couldn’t imagine without it in her life on a daily basis.
She did, however, have two people in mind who could take over for her. Isla hadn’t told them she was thinking about that, though. That was a conversation for another day. One she needed to have with Vera first.
Her phone dinged on her desk, and Isla quickly checked the message from Blake.
Open the back door. My hands are gonna be full.
Laughing, Isla pushed her chair back from the desk as she hurried to the back door. She saw Blake getting out of the SUV with two large cups in her hands and a wide smile on her face. Isla knew by the logos on the cups she’d gone to Sonic during happy hour.
“I come bearing gifts.” Blake grinned as she walked over to Isla. “I thought you might need a little mid-afternoon pick-me-up.”
“You thought correctly.” Taking the cup that was hers, Isla put her arm around Blake and hugged her. “It’s good to see you, honey. Come on in.” She opened the back door for Blake as she followed her inside. “I was just working in my office.”
“I hope it’s okay that I stopped by.” Blake sat on the couch across from Isla’s desk as Isla shut the office door. “Alexis took the kids to that new indoor play place in Portland with Sophia and Emily.”
“It’s always okay to stop by.” Sitting at her desk, Isla took a long sip of the crisp Diet Coke. It was the perfect solution to her stressful day. Her daughter knew her well. “Did you want to go to the play place? ”
Blake nervously laughed as she looked down at the cup in her hands. “Not today. I haven’t been feeling the best.”
Isla was instantly on edge, and Blake must have sensed that, because she quickly kept talking.
“Dr. Jacobs said it was round ligament pain.” Blake scrunched her nose up. “I don’t really know what that means, except it hurts like hell.”
“Aww, honey.” Moving to sit by Blake, Isla put a hand on her knee. “I know how much that hurts.”
“Yeah, and it’s just a reminder that in a few weeks I have to push this baby out,” she groaned. “I’m so not ready for that.”
“You’re gonna do amazing, honey.”
Isla thought back to a few weeks ago when Blake had told her she wanted to know her birth story.
She and Vera had told all the other kids the story of their birth, but never Blake.
There were hundreds of stories Isla could tell her about her first pregnancy, but the memory of Blake’s birth pushed itself to the forefront.
“Would it help if I told you your birth story?”
Blake nodded, her eyes mixed with eagerness and sadness.
“I told myself coming over here I was going to ask because you told me you’d tell me anytime.
But I haven’t because I didn’t know if I was ready.
Then I’ve been having these pains all day and I’m at home by myself and my mind was just going wild. I needed my mommy.”
“Oh, baby.” Isla hugged her neck. Hearing Blake say those words felt like a balm to her healing heart. “I’m so glad you came over. I am always here for you. Especially when you’re home alone and scared. I’ve been there. I know what that’s like.”
Isla could tell by the pain on Blake’s face that she knew what Isla was saying without her having to explain it.
Taking hold of Blake’s hand, Isla squeezed it as she prepared herself to tell a thirty-six-year-old story.
She checked in with Blake to make sure she was ready, knowing the journey down memory lane would be a lot for both of them.
“I’m ready,” Blake firmly nodded, squeezing Isla’s hand.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Isla could remember that time in her life as if it were yesterday.
She had been only nineteen when she was pregnant with Blake.
Isla had been scared of every change her body had gone through.
As her stomach grew, so did her anxiety about becoming a mother.
How could she be a mom when her own mother wasn’t a part of her life?
There was no one for Isla to look up to; no one who knew what she was going through.
Ben was as uninterested in Isla’s pregnancy as anyone could be. He didn’t want to touch her, let alone be involved with her pregnancy. Isla felt so alone as she went to every appointment by herself. Her older sister, Nora, went to one with her when Isla found out it was a girl, but that was it.
One of Isla’s favorite parts of pregnancy was watching her baby bump grow.
She loved sitting on her bed each night as she rubbed lotion onto her belly.
Isla would giggle each time she felt the small flutter.
At least until those flutters became full-fledged kicks that took her breath away.
Blake loved to kick her ribs, just like Everleigh would do years later.
But still, watching her body grow to accommodate the baby had been a lot for Isla to get used to.
She’d been lucky with her first pregnancy and hadn’t experienced any complications.
Nora had been the one who talked Isla into a home birth.
She was in medical school and had a friend who was a midwife.
Her sister had gone on and on about how natural it was for women to do a home birth and how it would be more comfortable than being in a hospital.
And being so young, Isla believed her big sister.
Which, looking back, was so na?ve because Nora had never had a kid. What did she know ?
The hardest part for Isla during her entire pregnancy had been having no one to talk to about what was happening to her body.
All her friends were either in college or working full-time and kids were nowhere on their radars.
When Isla’s body ached after a long day of bussing tables, Ben had no interest in rubbing her feet or massaging her shoulders.
As Isla began to experience Braxton-Hicks contractions, she had to rely on the dispatcher who picked up after she’d called 9-1-1 to know it was normal.