"You're not too old to put over my knee."
I'd heard that a lot too.
"Are you proposing to that girl or not?"
Mum and Nell chose that exact moment to walk in the room. My eyes widened. The last time she'd overheard one of my parents saying something stupid it ended badly. Mum looked as worried as I felt, but Nell sat beside me and placed her hand on my chest.
"I doubt he could afford the rock I've got my eye on," Nell said to my dad.
Dad laughed and I felt like I was dreaming. There was no panic in her eyes; she spoke about our engagement so calmly. "What?" I said, looking at her stunned.
Nell smiled. "I'm only joking, I don't expect a two hundred thousand pound ring."
I would've choked if I wasn't still so surprised that we were having this discussion. "Um..."
"You're not freaking out on me, are you?" She asked, smirking.
What? "Have we switched places?"
"Looks like it," she replied to me and then turned to my dad. "How are you?"
"Much better now there are two beautiful women in the house."
I rolled my eyes. He was such a charmer, or so he thought.
Nell laughed and poked me in the chest with her thumb. "Uh oh, I think we broke him."
Broken wasn't right but I definitely felt...something. Nell even being able to joke about our future, cemented my belief that we could make this work. It eradicated every last niggling worry I had about her doing a runner.
"I'm not broken," I grumbled.
"Are you scared about the proposal jokes?"
"The opposite." Don't propose to her when your parents are watching your every move like a hawk. If we were alone I would've blurted it out by now.
Mum made an excited squeaking sound and clenched her fists. She wanted me to get down on one knee, right here, right now. Nell deserved for it to at the very least be in private. God, I wished we weren't here right now because I knew that she would say yes.
Silence stretched into minutes and Mum, finally accepting that I wasn't doing it here, got up. "Tea everyone?"
"Coffee for me, please," I said.
Nell kissed my cheek and stood up. "I'll give you a hand."
Dad looked over his shoulder as they walked out. "Look at that, she followed Mum into the kitchen rather than hightailing it out the door."
"You're hilarious, Dad."
"Looks like the only person stopping you popping the question is you."
"No, I think that was you and Mum. Anyway, there's no rush, we've not been together long."
Dad looked at me and cocked his head to the side. "Now who're you fooling? From what you've told me you've been together a lot longer than that. If you're sure you'll make it, then what're you waiting for? Whether you marry her now or in five years doesn't change the fact that you'll grow old and grey together."
"Lance and Cara should be here to witness you giving good advice."
"Nothing wrong with my advice, lad."
If I'd have done half the things he said growing up I probably would've been arrested. He was the dad that told me to punch them back until they couldn't get up and small lies on your tax returns weren't illegal because the police didn't have enough resources to arrest and charge everyone that did it.
"I need a ring."
He cracked the biggest smile I'd seen since I passed my driving test. "That's the spirit. But don't ask me to re-mortgage the house to get her that 200k one."
"Not much chance of that." My job paid well but not that well. Besides, Nell wouldn't really care what the thing cost. I was more likely to get shit for it being too expensive.
"You two need to learn to whisper," Nell said, leaning against the doorframe.
"Shit!" I closed my eyes. There was no chance of this proposal being anything that even resembled romantic now.
She laughed and then bit her lip. I wanted to drag her off upstairs. My old room was still as I'd left it, minus the few boxes of junk that keep finding their way in there. She pushed off the frame and moved aside for mum to get through with the tray of drinks and biscuits.
"Don't worry. I'll pretend I know nothing."
I felt like shit. She could not talk about it all she wanted but we both knew it was going to happen, we both wanted it, so it couldn't be forgotten. I wouldn't get to surprise her. It was like knowing what you had for Christmas before the day.
So I decided to do the one thing she wouldn't now expect, I wasn't going to ask her to marry me.
Nell
"This one is much better," I said, looking out of the window in the departures lounge at our massive plane. We were lining up, ready to board. It looked sturdy, unlike the pretend one we flew to Scotland in.
Damon rolled his eyes.
"But this one has a lot further to go," Chloe said. "More time for things to go wrong."
I shrugged. Flying didn't bother me, I felt safe and confidant flying. But when I was in something that looked like it belonged to a toddler I started to get erratic.
It was a year, just over, since Chloe and Logan got married and we were all on our way to Vegas. I was so excited I could pee. We'd not had a holiday since Scotland and it didn't count to me unless I actually left the UK. So technically this was mine and Damon's first holiday together.
Since we made us official and decided to give it ago I'd felt an inner peace that I didn't even know existed. I just felt like I was home and I belonged somewhere. It wasn't easy, I had a lot of hang-ups, but together we made sure that we both felt safe in our relationship.
Letting myself love freely and openly was the best thing I'd ever done. I was surrounded by people I loved and trusted. If I had a problem I knew I could go to Damon, Chloe and even Logan and I'd be listened to and never judged. Opening up was - is - hard but I'm learning and each time I ask for help or advice it gets that little bit easier.
And my sex life was still just as explosive. Being in a relationship had not slowed us down. It just made everything more intense.
We made our way to the front of the queue and handed our boarding passes over, before being let thorough.
Damon's hand slipped into mine and I was suddenly ten times more excited. "I can't wait," I said, smiling up at him. He'd booked business class tickets too so we had extra room and free booze on tap.
"Neither can I. What do you want to do first?"
I wiggled my eyebrows and then frowned. "Actually... I'll probably want to sleep first."
"You may want to sleep first..." he muttered as we approached the door.
A very smiley air steward welcomed us and pointed us in the direction of our seats.
"This is posh," I said, looking at the large, pod-type seats. We could properly lay flat and I intended to. We had a long eleven-hour flight and I'd barely slept last night because I was so excited.
"Worth every penny. Or it will be when they come around with beer," he replied.
I rolled my eyes and pointed to our seats. "I call window!"
Shaking his head and smiling in amusement, he replied, "Of course you do."
Thankfully our flight was direct, I had no desire to get off this plane and onto another on. I wanted to lie down - after sampling a lot of free wine - and sleep until we hit Vegas.
Chloe and Logan were in the two seats the other side of the isle. Chlo looked as excited as I was. She sat in the chair closet to me so we could gossip, I'd have to lean over Damon but I wasn't giving up my window seat until we'd taken off. I loved to watch cars and people on the ground turn tiny.
"It's not even night and I'm tired," I said, buckling my seatbelt the second my arse hit the chair.
"The journey ahead exhausting you?" Logan asked in a condescending but playful voice.
"No, Damon nailing me to the bed until three in the morning exhausted me."
Chloe and Logan laughed, Chlo hiding her face too. Damon... Well, Damon smiled proudly and put his hand on my thigh. He had this thing where he assumed just because we were both on the same pla
ne that we'd be joining the Mile High Club.
Tempting and even the thought of it made me hot under the collar but the toilets on planes were gross and the whole thing was just a bit overdone now. We'd already started out as fuck buddies, no need to add to the cliche.
After being shown emergency procedures and had the exits pointed out - which I knew already because I'd pre-booked the seats near them, we sat back and waited for the pilot to get this show on the road.
Once the seatbelt lights went off the alcohol began. A beautiful angel brought drinks whenever we asked. Damon ordered a beer and wine for me and we relaxed into our long journey.
"Wow," was the first thing to leave my lips when Damon pushed the door to our gigantic room - a fucking penthouse suite - open. "When did you do this?" He had previous deception, with secret upgrades, but this one was so completely unexpected I wasn't sure we were in the right room.
"Soon after you booked the other room. I asked them not to send you a confirmation and spoil the surprise."
Turning around, I wrapped my arms around his waist. "I love you, Damon."
He held me close and pressed his forehead against mine. "I love you too, baby. Just so you know, this isn't the only surprise on this holiday."
"Oh? What else do you have planned?"
"Something tomorrow afternoon. Something big."
"Something big that is...?"
"You remember when Chloe took you shopping a few weeks back for dresses to bring?"
I turned my nose up at that experience. Chloe was like a drill sergeant that day, nothing was good enough for her but we did end up with killer dresses that would make Damon and Logan's heads spin.
"I remember it vividly." I'd never known tired until that day.
"Are you happy with the dress you got?" He asked.
"Yeah..." I loved it. Like really loved it. The dress was white, knee length with lace detail on the bodice and a slight kick to the skirt. The strapless sweetheart neckline showed off my assets perfectly.
Chloe's dress was equally gorgeous, all blood red and a similar style but without the lace.
He gulped. "For a while I've been thinking about our future..."
Frowning, I rubbed the knot in my stomach. "Okay."
"Nell, I've planned our wedding. Which is tomorrow at one o'clock, by the way."
My eyes bulged. I heard three words that sent my mind spinning: our, wedding and tomorrow. What. The. Fuck. We were here to get married?
"What?" I whispered, feeling too cold despite the heat.
"Don't freak out. I can cancel it if you want. Nell, there is no pressure."
"Huh?" Nothing made sense. He'd planned our wedding? He hadn't even bloody proposed yet!
"I know how much you think and stress about things like this and if we had a long engagement and planned a wedding you'd overthink until you were sick."
"So you took that away?"
I wasn't sure if that was sweet or downright stupid.
"Yeah. Plus after that weekend at my parents I was pissed that I wouldn't get to surprise you."
"Well, you've certainly made up for that," I squeaked.
He shrugged and kissed my forehead. "I love you so much, Nell, you're the other half of me, you're all I need now and forever, and if you decide you don't want to do this tomorrow I swear to you nothing will change. We'll do this however you want, whenever you want."
"Fuck," I whispered. Tomorrow I was all booked in to become Mrs Masters. The thought made my heart jump. It was something that terrified and thrilled me. Damon knew me well; I would freak myself out if I had months to plan a wedding.
He pressed his lips to mine and wrapped his arms firmly around me. With my head squished against his shoulder I had no room to move but I didn't want or need to move away from him. Ever. I was overcome with emotion so thick it choked me. Damon was my forever and I would never run or hide from him again. The thought of being his wife filled me with joy and excitement. Knowing it would just be us and our best friends was perfect.
"I'm in," I muttered.
He stilled. "What?"
"I'm in. Let's get married tomorrow."
Pulling back, he flashed the brightest smiled I'd ever seen. "I bet you cry before I do," he challenged.
I narrowed my eyes. "Game on, Masters."
Books by Natasha Preston
The Silence Series:
Silence
Broken Silence
Players, Bumps and Cocktail Sausages
Silent Night (Christmas short story)
The Chance Series:
Second Chance
Our Chance
Standalones:
The Cellar
Save Me
Connect with Natasha Preston
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