“You should at least consider.” Sarah surveyed the smorgasbord of goodies on display for her guests. “With his past, Zach probably understands your father better than most.”
“He’s military?” Of course he was. No wonder all the warning bells had clanged when she’d first looked up into his laughing eyes. His army T-shirt had been his own prideful patriotism, not a family member’s.
Sarah nodded. “He’s staying in our Beds for Vets suite. We’re honored to have him visit.”
“He’s here to rehab?” The suite was for helping veterans get back on their feet when they returned to civilian life.
“Bodie and Zach have been friends for a long time. Zach’s here to visit.” But even as Sarah said it, Isabelle knew there was more. “He went to work for iSecure after injuries prevented him from continuing in the army. He’s been with the company just over a year.”
Zach had been hurt? Why did that knot her belly?
“He didn’t look like anything was wrong with him.” He’d looked strong, healthy, full of life—Thank God. But onlythank Godbecause Isabelle didn’t wish ill upon anyone. Not evenhim.
“Zach has worked hard to regain his strength and life.” Sarah’s soft tone conveyed deep empathy that likely had to do with Bodie’s past. “Some injuries can’t be seen.”
Isabelle knew all about those injuries. The ones that couldn’t be seen. She’d lived with them for the first part of her life.
“That’s more reason for me to stay away from Zach. Maybe Bodie will help.”
“Help with what?” Bodie asked, joining them in the kitchen with Jeannie in his arms.
Sarah filled her husband in while Bodie removed a teether from the refrigerator and handed it to the baby he held. Immediately, the blue-eyed cherub raised it to her mouth and began gumming the pink ring.
With every detail Sarah gave, Isabelle’s stomach twisted tighter and tighter. “If we can’t find him, Sophie will be devastated. I don’t want that, not right before her wedding, so this has to be kept quiet. Who knows where our father is or what he’s been doing? I refuse to let that man disappoint her again.”
Jeannie waved the teether at her father, smiling up at Bodie.
He grinned at the baby, then, expression serious, met Isabelle’s gaze. “That man being your father?”
“He wasn’t much of a father. Not like you already are.”
“Sarah makes it easy.” Bodie shot an appreciative look toward his wife, who kissed his cheek, then went to check on her guests. “But not a day goes by that I don’t question my ability to do a good job raising our daughter. Sometimes the demons one battles in one’s head convinces a person that the best thing for his family is for him to stay away. Those demons make it easy to believe that they are better off without you being in the picture.”
“You sound as if you’re speaking from experience.” Isabelle didn’t buy that her father’s decision to leave had been anything other than selfishness.
He hadn’t been thinking about his wife or two young daughters when he’d skipped town.
“I am. Make no mistake, I’d always do what’s best for my wife and child, no matter the cost to myself.” The steely look that came into Bodie’s eyes assured there was nothing he wouldn’t do to protect them.
“You wouldn’t leave them.” Isabelle knew she spoke the truth.
“Never that my being with them wasn’t putting them in harm’s way. If it did”—his hold on Jeannie tightened, causing the baby to glance up as he took a deep breath—“if it did, then I’d do whatever was necessary to keep my family safe.”
Bodie was the type of man who would always do the right thing. Leaving his family would never be that. He didn’t understand the difference in her father’s abandonment and what he was describing. “You would, but that isn’t my father.”
“You’d know better than me.”
Isabelle did know. Painfully so.
Bodie’s gaze went beyond her to whomever had entered the kitchen, then back to Isabelle. “You want to find your father? Sarah just returned with the perfect guy.”
“Don’t believe a word he says about me, Blondie.”
Isabelle had known who he was looking at before Zach had said a word. The hairs on the back of her neck had alerted her that he was near, but she refused to acknowledge his comment.
She focused on Bodie. “I prefer you or a professional. I recall meeting Lukas and his family at your wedding. I’d like to hire his company.”
Bodie didn’t look sure. “No offense, but I’m not sure you can afford iSecure. On the low end you’d be looking at…” He told her an amount more than what she made in three months.
