Isabel, The Beauty Next Door Pt. 06

Gran grabs my hand by mistake, but she still had some strength in her grip. I looked at her in surprise, my eyes follow in the direction she is looking.

A cheer goes up as a fairly short chap with dark hair and an attempt at growing a beard walks through the back gate. He walks over to some of the male cousins and bumps fists.

At that moment I feel Isabel tense up on my lap. "That wouldn't be Robert by any chance would it?" I say with a rare feeling of anger building.

"Bloody cheek, turning up here." Gran is not a happy woman. She turns and realizes she's squeezing my hand.

"I know I'm biased, but he's not what I expected."

"Feeling disappointed it's not much of a challenge Jimmy?" Isabel says through clenched teeth.

"Well no not really. More like I'm surprised at the mismatch between you two. What made him think he even had a chance?"

Isabel didn't get a chance to answer as Robert spots Isabel sat down on my lap. The smile disappears from his face for a moment and is replaced by what I can only describe as a sneer.

One of Isabel's aunties gets up before he gets too close and stops him in his tracks. "Robert, I don't think it's a good idea for you to be here."

He stops but doesn't take his eyes off Isabel. She squeezes me with her arm that is wrapped around me. He looks at the woman that is stood in his way. "Who do you think you are to stop me coming here?" He says in not so convincing aggressive way.

"ROBERT." Uncle Brian shouts. "Don't disrespect my sister like that and now I'm telling you to leave."

"And what if I don't?"

"Then I will set Isabel's boyfriend on you. He knows about you and what you tried."

"What's he going to do?" Robert is now looking more awkward. "He's just a country boy." He's now looking at the boys that greeted him for support. With nobody stepping forward he tries a different tact. "Look, I just want to have a private conversation with Isabel."

If it wasn't for Izzy keeping me pinned down I think I would have gone for him. Isabel has other ideas and jumps from my lap. She's had enough now and the anger that she has coiled up is unleashed. "Talk with you, why would I want to have a private conversation with a creep like you? You disgusted me then and you disgust me even more now. James is ten times the man you will ever be and you better turn and run. I've seen him hospitalize men five times the size of you that have threatened my safety." Isabel is now unleashing all the anger and hate she had built up for him since he assaulted her. She is not shouting but I can clearly hear the anger in her voice and is walking slowly towards him as he backs away.

He still has that horrible smirk on his face. "Yeah, but you know you really meant yeah. Come on you wanted it."

"You bastard, how many times does a person have to tell you no and to fuck off before you get the message. You have no right to be here tonight, just like you had no right to lay a hand on me before." Isabel was beginning to shout now. "Do you realize how long that bruise you gave me took to go down? For ages after I blamed myself and was ashamed. You made me ashamed of my own body. You made me into a hateful person. You caused me and my family so much anguish. What is even more bemusing is that you don't seem to think that you did anything wrong. You stand there with that stupid grin and a half attempt to grow some facial hair and have the audacity to ask to speak with me. Now for the last time. I do not want to speak to you or be near you, and if I never saw you again after a thousand years, it would still be too soon. So just fuck off."

Robert stands there for a moment his eyes going from Isabel to myself and back again. Everyone is stunned for a moment until Uncle Brian steps forward and escorts Robert back out of the gate. As the gate is closed all the women stand up and clap Isabel. She looks around startled at the response. The men then stand and join in followed quickly by the cousins. Isabel turns to me with tears streaming down her face.

I open my arms and she just falls into me as my arm close around her. "I'm so proud of you baby," I say into her ear.

She looks up with tear-filled eyes and a smile, "Thanks Jimmy, you give me so much strength."

The clapping dies down and Uncle Brian walks over. "Welcome to the family barbeque James." There was a ripple of laughter and then gran slaps him on his arm. That got a bigger laugh.

Isabel gathers herself and pushes herself off my chest. She turns, "sorry everyone. I didn't realize I still had so much anger inside." Everyone in the garden reassured her that it was fine and many of the aunties hugged Isabel. Roberts's parents come over and apologized for their son's behavior and then hug her.

That's when the music started up and everyone cheered. The woman all push the chairs back and drag Isabel to the center of the patio where they all started dancing. There is a lot of eighties music playing, but I am used to that from home. Isabel and I danced and sing together, she truly looks like a weight had been lifted.

To be continued............

I will take a bit of a break from this story, for now, there are at least another two chapters to go. As I said before, I have a number of other stories to get out of my head that have been started and need to get onto a script. Sorry all the Isabel and James fans for the break, but my head will explode if I don't.

Please don't forget to score this latest episode.