Page 66 of VOGUEish

“If he turns out to be my soulmate.” Isabella surprised Chandler by grabbing his hand and twining her fingers into his.

The intimate touch caused all his blood to rush to his dick. He unraveled their fingers before he could give into the urge to yank her into his arms and kiss all thoughts of Ryder out of her head.

As if completely unaware of his turmoil, she continued walking.

If only he hadn’t set her up with Ryder. He shoved the thought away. Regrets were for losers.

She stopped walking, bent down to pick up a pink shell, and stuffed it in her pocket. “Did you know Ryder believes in love at first sight and also wants to adopt?”

Fuck if his chest didn’t tighten. “I was aware of his desire to adopt.” They walked in silence, and he forced himself to view everything going on in her life through her eyes, her heart, and her thoughts. “How do you feel about that?”

“Truthfully, for personal reasons and societal reasons, I rather like the idea.”

Chandler told himself he didn’t have the right to drill her on the whys behind her reasons.

Three carrot-topped boys carrying colorful boogie boards ran in front of them, forcing Chandler and Isabella to stop. The boys were about the age Chandler had been when he’d first visited the island with Nonna. They were laughing and mouthing off at each other as they ran waist-deep into the ocean. Then they turned toward the shore and glanced over their shoulders, preparing to catch a wave.

“Are you recording us, Dad?” one of them yelled.

A man standing on the edge of the water gave them a thumbs-up.

Chandler watched as a huge wave came at them. They started running and one of them caught it.

“Did you see that, Dad? I caught one,” the little boy said after riding the wave all the way to the shore.

His dad rubbed his head. “Perfect. Do it again.”

Watching them brought Chandler back to the thought of having children. What color of hair would his and Isabella’s children have if they made a family the old fashion way? What color would they have if they adopted? “Why adoption?” While he would never be against adoption, he’d always thought he’d someday be a biological father.

She twisted her lips. “Childbirth destroyed Mom’s mental health and made it hard for her to be a parent. I don’t want to risk that with my own children. It wouldn’t be fair to them, my husband, or myself.”

“I thought there were meds and such to help with depression. Did they not work for your mom?”

Isabella stiffened.

“Fuck. I’m sorry. That’s none of my business.”

She exhaled hard. “It’s okay. Mom gets on them and does well for a while. But then a switch flips, and she stops taking her medicine and going to therapy. When that happens, things get dark before she finds a way to crawl back out of the hole in search of the light. She has tried to commit suicide several times.”

The intimate piece of knowledge Isabella had bestowed upon him crushed his heart. He’d lost his parents due to a tragic accident and knew firsthand how painful that was to live through. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to watch a parent try to leave you on purpose.

A tear slid down her cheek.

He reached out and wiped the tear away. “You had that going on in your life as well as asshole classmates. No wonder Nonna took you under her wing.”

Isabella sniffed and turned toward the water. “You’re destroying my buzz.”

He clamped his jaw on any other questions. “My apologies for being a buzzkill.”

She made a noise, something between a snort and a laugh, and then nonchalantly peeled off her coverup, revealing the bikini of their earlier conversation. She handed him the silky robe to hold.

His heart stopped and his cock crowed cock-a-fuck-a-do at the sight of her ass on display. She wasn’t wrong about needing that magnifying glass to see the bikini bottom. He was not complaining. The woman’s ass was pure perfection.

In the distance he noticed a man with a camera. It would be just his luck if paparazzi had followed him here to get a picture of him living it up after firing half the staff at the last company he’d been brought in to fix.

Isabella leaned over as if to pick something up and instead face-planted. He looked down at her in horror. Getting all that sand out of all the places that bikini did not cover was not going to be easy.

She turned her face, spat out sand. “I’m good. Nothing to see here.”

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