Life Ain't Always Beautiful

Chapter Five: Seducer

"Dad, I need a refill," Jesse told Luke, who was at present sipping at his beer. The boys, including Bo, were hanging out at the Boar's Nest on their lunch break.

"I'll get it, sport," Bo said, getting his nephews glass that had been filled with Coca-Cola, since he was obviously not old enough for alcohol.

"Hey, Dad, could we play catch later when we get home?"

"I don't see why---" he stopped in mid-sentence when he saw a familiar, not to mention beautiful, face enter the Boar's Nest. Isabella. "Not," he finished slowly as their eyes met and sauntered her way over to their table.

"Hello, boys," she said with a soft voice. "Mind if I join you?"

"Hi, lady!" Jesse smiled, recognizing the woman that had given him a tip for pumping her gas the other day.

"Hey, Isabella, ummm, yeah, you can sit here," Luke said, without even knowing why he did it.

At this time, Bo had come back and handed his nephew his drink but not before noticing the beautiful stranger sitting with them. "Well, Luke, who's your friend here?" he smiled politely.

"Isabella Sinclair," she told him before Luke could even open his mouth. "And who might you be?"

"This is my cousin, Bo," Luke informed her as Bo sat back in his seat and shook a hand with Isabella. "He runs the garage with me."

"Pleasure meeting you, Bo," Isabella smiled at him, getting a wide one back.

"Same here," the blond returned. Ever since Rachel had died, he hadn't really associated himself with many women due to the fact that he was still in love with his wife, but he was still ever charming and a gentleman to boot.

"Uh, do ya need anythin' to drink, Isabella?" Luke asked, not knowing why he had done that either.

She gave him an award-winning smile that showed all her pearly whites. "If ya don't mind, Luke. Scotch on the rocks."

Jesse didn't seem to notice that this woman was flirting with his father, but Bo sure did. A suspicious feeling creeped up in the back of his mind about this chick, so when Luke got up to get her Scotch, he stretched out casually and said,

"So, Jesse, tell your ol' Uncle Bo how school's doin'?"

The boys shrugged and said, "Y'know, the usual."

Isabella got a little confused. "Wait, how are you his uncle? I thought you and Luke were cousins."

"Oh, we are, but see his wife Ali's the sister of MY wife, Rachel. So that makes me Uncle Bo. Right, sport?"

"Right."

"How's your mom been anyhow?"

"I guess she's okay. She's been acting kinda funny lately though. I think it's her woman problems," Jesse told him, getting Bo to laugh at the thought of Jesse even knowing what "woman problems" were in the first place.

Isabella was starting to get a little uncomfortable and Bo noticed. Good, she needed to be. Luke was a married man and didn't need some prissy girl from the North coming down and screwing that up. At this point, Luke came back with her Scotch which she politely accepted with a more modest smile.

"I saw Enos comin' in on my way back," Luke said off-handedly. "He's probably goin' to come over here in a minute."

"Does he got Rachel with 'im?" Jesse asked.

"YOUR wife?" Isabella asked Bo.

"No, Enos's kid, she's named after my wife. She passed away when our daughter was a year old," he told her, getting the old aching feeling that he felt when someone asked about her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she apologized in a sincere voice.

"It's all right."

"Hi, Jesse!" Rachel Strate exclaimed upon reaching their table. She saw Isabella and gave her a funny look.

"Who the heck are you?"

"Rachel, be polite!" Enos very slightly scolded before smiling at Isabella. "Howdy, ma'am. I'm Sheriff Strate an' this is my daughter, Rachel."

"Isabella Sinclair," she smiled at the man. Rachel started glaring daggers at the woman.

"I've never seen you before, you some kinda relative or somethin'?"

"No, I'm just passin' through here for a few days, maybe longer," she smiled, giving Luke a quick look before focusing back on the inquisitive child.

Rachel had an eye like a hawk and a brain like one too, so she started burning holes in Isabella's eyes when she had her attention again. Then she said, "Jesse, wanna go outside? Smells funny in here." She said the last part while glaring at Isabella and then she turned to leave the building with Jesse beside her.

"Who was that woman in there with y'all?" Rachel asked upon exiting the building.

"Her name's Isabella, she bought gas the other day at the garage. She gave me a quarter for a tip."

"Is that any reason for her to sit with y'all? It's not like y'all saved her life an' she owes y'all her company. She seemed suspicious to me."

"Everyone seems suspicious to you, Rach."

Rachel rolled her eyes at her cousin's gullibility at strangers. They were the same age and in the same class at school, but you would think that Rachel was older than Jesse just from their personalities. She decided not to say anything about this Isabella character making eyes at Luke. She didn't want to upset her cousin for no reason.

"Whatever," she simply stated, giving the parking lot a full scan when her eyes landed on something that she had seen just a few days earlier. "Holy smokes, I don't believe it!" she exclaimed, taking off in a diagonal direction across the lot.

"What is it?" Jesse asked, beginning to slowly jog after her. Rachel was much smaller than he was and in better shape, so she beat him by a mile when they reached a shiny black BMW.

"This is it! The stolen car!" she said excitedly.

"What? No, Rach, that's Isabella's car," Jesse panted once he reached her, putting a hand to his stomach where his abs had started running.

Her eyes flashed. "Ha! I knew she looked suspicious to me for a reason!"

"You're crazy."

"Oh, am I? I bet if I scratched this black paint, there'd be white up underneath it."

"You lost me..."

"The stolen car was white, but I say the thief painted the car to hide it. So I'm sayin' that there's white paint under this black."

"Don't be scratchin' up that car!" Jesse cried, his eyes bugged out at the very idea. "You're goin' to get in big-time trouble!"

"Trouble's my middle name," Rachel reminded him. She then looked around to see if anyone was looking before easily opening the unlocked door to the passenger side of the car. Jesse looked like he was going to have a conniptions fit.

"What in tarnation are you doin'!"

She opened the glovebox and started searching through the papers. "Seeing if her name matches these registration papers. Ha, they don't. Some guy named Gary Howell's car."

"It could be a relative or someone's."

"Don't be a moron, Jesse, this car is HOT." She looked up at the main entrance of the Boar's Nest. "Crap, they're comin' out, move outta the way!"

Rachel stuffed the papers back in the glovebox and scrambled out of the car, shutting the door and taking off after Jesse where they were hiding underneath a nearby truck. They watched all four adults walking out together, Enos heading towards his patrol car and calling for Rachel (who wasn't budging until she saw what she wanted to see), and Bo headed towards Luke's truck while Luke walked Isabella to her car.

"Thanks for letting me sit with you," Isabella said sweetly as she started digging her keys out of her small purse. "It was real nice of you."

"Shucks, it's no problem, ma'am," Luke smiled at her, unaware that Jesse and Rachel were watching them.

"Well, maybe I'll see you around sometime, huh?" She gave him a quick kiss before getting inside her car and then waving off as she drove out of the lot, leaving Luke standing there wondering how in heaven's name could he allow something like that to happen, shook his head and headed to the truck and calling for Jesse.

Jesse and Rachel's jaws were dropped. "Hey, she kissed my dad!" he finally said once Luke was out of sight. "My mom would kill her if she knew 'bout that."

"I told you she was strange," Rachel told him, growing even more distrustful of Isabella as the minutes crept. "I didn't want to tell ya, but I saw her givin' your dad looks while we were inside."

Jesse looked about ready to cry. "But, what about my mom? Does this mean they're gettin' divorced?"

"Don't be silly! It's not like he kissed her, she made the first move and your dad didn't even return it. 'Sides, they just met. Be kinda stupid to get divorced just 'cause some chick you've only seen twice pops off an' kisses ya."

"RACHEL!" Enos was hollering now from his squad car.

"Oh, I gotta go!" Rachel said, crawling out from under the truck. "Look, don't let your dad know we saw them. He might not like that very much. Just keep your mouth shut about everything, including my theory that her car is the stolen one. I'll talk to ya later, bye!"

Jesse crawled out slowly after she had already gone, rather confused on what he just witnessed. He couldn't look Luke in the eyes once he got in the truck and kinda sat closer to Bo's side than he normally did.

"What's wrong, sport?" Bo asked, patting his nephew on the back.

"I don't feel good," he told him. "Stomach kinda hurts."

"Ya need us to go pick somethin' up for ya?" Luke asked him.

"No, I just wanna lay down for a while," Jesse told him, his stomach actually starting to hurt him.