by Lily Morton
“How much longer?”
He shrugs, reaching down by the bed and bringing up a tray laden with food. “As long as it takes to eat all this.”
“Bloody hell,” I breathe. The tray has a huge pile of assorted pastries on it, as well as a cafetière of coffee for him and a big mug containing my green tea.
“Don’t worry,” he says, setting the tray down before wriggling into bed and pulling the duvet over him. “I didn’t make any of it apart from the coffee and tea. The bakery down the road supplied the croissants.”
“That’s a huge relief,” I tell him and, ignoring the tray, I lean over and kiss him soundly. I add a bit of tongue for good measure and pull back. I’m gratified to see his eyes looking glazed over, as they always do when we’re close.
He cups my cheek in his palm. “Happy Birthday, darling,” he says, his eyes warm and so loving.
I smile at him and then turn and look at the tray. “You did all this for me? What a lovely birthday.”
“It’s just the start,” he scoffs, selecting an almond croissant and passing it to me, knowing it’s my favourite. “After this, we will have stupendous sex. And then it’s your birthday surprise from me.”
“Are we going round to my dads’ house later?”
He shakes his head. “We’ll go on Sunday when you will have more presents and a cake that luckily your mother hasn’t baked.”
“Thank the Lord,” I intone, and we cross ourselves and laugh.
“So, what are we doing today, then?” I ask, taking a bite of the croissant and groaning at the sweet buttery goodness. His eyes darken, and I smile at him.
“Minx,” he says affectionately. He helps himself to a pastry. “The rest of the weekend is taken up with my present.”
“Is it a day spent parachuting?”
He stares at me. “No. Why on earth would that be the first thing to spring to your mind?”
I shrug. “It just always seems to be what people are doing when they have a surprise whole-day birthday present.”
“Charlie, I doubt your hair would ever fit in a helmet, so parachuting is definitely out.”
“You weren’t complaining about my hair when I stroked your cock with it last night,” I say and laugh when he chokes on his pastry.
“Oh, you’ve done it now,” he says darkly and throws himself on me.
“Misha, the tray,” I protest as I fall backwards.
“Ignore it. I need to tick stupendous sex off my checklist for the day.”
“Oh, are we bringing someone else in to give it to me?” I say innocently and then shout in laughter as he tickles me.
The laughter slowly turns to groans and sighs as Misha attends to his checklist.
A couple of hours later, I follow Misha down the street. He’s carrying a weekend bag, and we’re both wearing jeans and jumpers, our jackets slung over my arm.
“Are we having a drive out?” I ask. “This is where you park the car.”
“I can tell you’ve been to university,” he says as we cross the road. “You’re so quick.”
“Not as quick as you this morning,” I say and laugh as he grinds to a stop.
“Charlie Burroughs, you know very well that when you do that special thing, you get one result, and what is that?”
“You come quickly,” I say, trying not to laugh. “I can’t help being a sexual temptress.”
“Life is a lot more interesting when you spend your time reading books with men’s abs on them.”
“Those are book club choices,” I protest and his laughter echoes around the car park. I follow him as he walks down a level, shivering and pulling my coat on. It’s cold down here.
Finally, he comes to a stop, and I look round in consternation. “Why have we stopped?”
He gestures at the car he’s standing next to. It’s a bright cherry-red Volkswagen Golf. “Ta-da!”
“Ta-da, what?” I say in mystification. “Have you had some sort of brain freeze? That’s not your car.”
“No,” he says and guides me around until I see the enormous blue bow wrapped around the front of the car. “It’s yours.”
“What the fuck?” I breathe. I look at Misha who is grinning ear to ear like a small boy. There is no sign at all of his legendary smoothness. “What have you done?”
“Bought you a car.”
“Oh my God,” I breathe, as he drops our bag to the floor. “I was expecting a Toblerone and a Waterstones voucher.” He opens his arms, and I automatically step into them, feeling his body heat warm me. I reach out and run my hand down the silky coldness of the car roof. “You really bought me a car?”
He nods. “We’re over a year clear of turns now.” I smile at the word “we.” “You’ve got your license back.” He grins. “I saw it on the hall table and got the idea straight away. So, you’re going to drive us to Brighton, and I’ve booked a very beautiful hotel on the front for the weekend. But don’t worry,” he whispers into my ear. “There are no baths in this hotel bedroom. They’ve actually gone the whole hog and built a special room for that.”
I laugh and nudge him, still staring at the car. “I can’t believe it.”
“Do you like it?”
I turn to him and hug him tightly until he protests. “Oh my God, I love it,” I exclaim. “It’s so beautiful.”
“The colour reminded me of that first pair of your knickers,” he whispers, and I flush.
I still love wearing lacy knickers. The difference is that Misha more than loves it too, to the extent that I now have a drawer full of very expensive panties because he buys me something new every week. I generally only get one wear out of them because he really likes to use his hands and ripping lace floats his boat.
“It’s so expensive,” I say worriedly. “What if I have a turn again and can’t use it?”
He shrugs. “We’ll use it for something else.”
“What? A plant pot?”
He pinches me, making me laugh and flinch away. “I’m not sure when sarcasm found you, Charlie, but I wish it’d move on now.” I laugh again, and he tugs me closer. I go willingly, loving him so much it makes my stomach tighten. “But here’s a novel concept,” he says seriously. “What if you never have another turn and you drive this car until it’s too old to use it anymore? What then?”
“Is this a euphemism?”
He laughs and kisses my temple, nuzzling my hair. “Maybe, or maybe it’s just a simple way of saying that we can’t prepare for everything, so let’s just enjoy what we have now.”
“What happened to the man who prepared for everything?”
“You broke him with your happy Spotify playlists,” he advises me.
I hug him. “I love you so much, Misha,” I say, and in that fierce tone is everything that I can’t find the words to say. It’s the laughter we share, the home we’ve built, and the sense of finally finding the other part of me. It’s a good foundation for everything to come, and while I know that some of that might be bad, after over a year spent loving my best friend, I know that we’ll face it together because that’s the source of our real strength.
Misha
“This is the best birthday ever,” Charlie says, laughter dancing along the words. He hugs me tight, and I press my face into his hair, inhaling the scent of melons.
“Enough canoodling,” I say, pulling away. “I know you want to examine the car.”
He laughs. “I do. I can’t deny it.”
I watch his face as he walks around the car. He’s lit up from within, and even after over a year together, he still stops my breath. It’s not how gorgeous he is, although he will always be that to me. It’s more the fact that he’s mine and that I will never need anyone else. It’s a stunning thought.
My life has been filled with a lot of laughter and many men. Many, many men. I never believed in the love songs and books which told of one great love. I happily dismissed that as advertising crap designed to sell flowers and chocolates. And maybe it was for me, until o
ne day I really looked at the person who was my best friend and I finally got my head out of my arse and realised that he was so much more.
My life is filled with a sweet steadiness and a fierce love for Charlie that goes beyond a song or flowers and chocolates. It’s coming back to our house at night and smelling the sweet candles. It’s feeling that lift in my stomach when I see him. It’s laughing with our friends, loving our families, and at night curling up together knowing we’ll do it all again tomorrow. It’s knowing that I will always have him on my side and that we will never forsake each other.
However, I learnt my lesson long ago about not being flippant in all areas, because Charlie occasionally needs that old romantic touch. I look down at the keys in my hand. And hopefully, this will be one of those. I smile. Who am I kidding? This is a bloody epic gesture.
“Have you got the keys?” Charlie exclaims, echoing my thoughts as he often does. “Let’s take this baby out.”
I throw him the keys with the Union Jack key ring on them, and he unlocks the door while chattering about which is the best way to Brighton, and I let him talk on, smiling because he hasn’t noticed the platinum wedding ring on the key ring at all. It catches the light, and while Charlie talks, I picture it sitting on that third finger of his left hand. I want it there by nighttime.
Like I said, I learnt my lesson, and I learnt it well because I am never letting go of my Charlie Sunshine.
Charlie Sunshine Short Story
Do you want to know how Misha proposed? There is a free short story ‘Brighton Rock’ which is available for subscribers to my newsletter.
You can find it here
Thank You
My husband for being my best friend and a calm voice amongst the chaos.
My boys. For mastering the art of mime which is now needed if they want to get my attention while I’m wearing noise cancelling headphones!
Hailey Turner. This is for London and the National Gallery. It’s also a thank you for finding Shad Thames when I appeared to be steering us towards Birmingham.
Edie Danford. Thank you for sprinkling your magic on the final version. You’re brilliant.
Leslie, Courtney, and everyone at LesCourt Author Services. I couldn’t do it without you.
The members of my Facebook reader’s group, Lily’s Snark Squad. I love my time spent in there.
To all the bloggers who spend their valuable time reading, reviewing and promoting the books. Also, the readers who liven up my day with their messages and photos and book recommendations. I love being a part of this community, so thank you.
Lastly thanks to you, for taking a chance on this book. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I never knew until I wrote my first book how important reviews are. So if you have time, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads or any other review sites. I can promise you that I value all of them.
Contact Lily
Website: www.lilymortonauthor.com
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Also by Lily Morton
Mixed Messages Series
Rule Breaker
Deal Maker
Risk Taker
The Finding Home Series
Oz
Milo
Gideon
The Close Proximity Series
Best Man
Charlie Sunshine
After Felix
Black & Blue Series
The Mysterious and Amazing Blue Billings
Other Books
The Summer of Us
Short Stack
Merry Measure
Short Stories and Novellas
Best Love
3 Dates (newsletter exclusive)
Spring Strings
The Stopping Place