“Auntie Peggy, good to see you,” Carrie kissed her Aunts cheek in greeting.
“Well, well if it isn’t wee Carrie, now look at you out of your widows weeds eh!”
“Peggy!” Her Dad interrupted. “Here have a drink”
“So your Mum has warned me, oh I mean told me, that you have a fella coming here tonight but we’ve not to make anything out of it, it’s no big deal eh”
“That’s right Auntie Peggy, my boyfriend Nico is coming tonight, I will make sure you get to check him out”
“Nico what sort of a name is that? Is he from around here? Your Mum wouldn’t say?”
“His family has an Italian background and he is from America”
“Did you meet him on your travels when you were away to ‘find yourself’ again? Mmm well I guess the insurance money came in handy then if you bagged yourself another fella”
“Peggy, keep your opinions to yourself” Claire warned.
Carrie picked up a glass of the champagne and drank it in one swift gulp. It was going to be a long night if Peggy’s reaction was anything to go by. Peggy sauntered off with her cousin Marie not that far away. She knew they would be off to claim the best table in the marquee for their entourage as they did at most family events. A chance to observe all the other guests and pass comment.
“Hey why are you all looking so glum? I thought this was supposed to be a party” A voice boomed from the door way.
“Auntie Belle”
Looking glamorous as ever in a scarlet dress pulled low over her shoulders she swept through the room dispensing kisses of hello. No one could accuse Belle of growing old gracefully. Harry had insisted on running through the living room and hiding behind one of the sofas. Carrie ran after him, secured his giggling body and returned back just as Nico arrived.
“Hello you”
“Hello, have you been introduced yet?” She kissed him on the lips. The butterflies in her stomach flipped at seeing him. Tonight he was her billionaire business man. Clean shaven and the scent of his signature cologne she had to hold herself back not to leap on him. He wore a black suit, white shirt and a thin black tie. “You look beautiful Carrie,”
“Thank you, you look pretty good too Mr Devanti,” he placed an arm around her waist and the walked towards her parents.
“Mum & Dad, I’d like you to meet Nico.”
“Nico my parents Kate and Dan”
“Delighted to finally meet you both, Carrie has told me so much about you, as has Belle”
“My daughter has been very closed lipped about you Nico but welcome to our home, now let’s get you a drink, are you a whisky drinker? I have a new single malt to try out”
Carrie rolled her eyes as her Dad led Nico away. Jay was talking with Belle and Carrie couldn’t help but notice the frissons of chemistry coming off the two of them. Oh well maybe cupid had finally struck her Aunt? She let out another schoolgirl giggle. Definitely something going on there.
Nico returned a few minutes later a crystal glass of amber liquid in his hand.
“You made it back in one piece; did my Dad suitably warn you off?”
“Indeed he did darling but I wouldn’t have it any other way,”
“’lo Man,” Harry pulled at Nico’s trouser leg. “Hello Harry,” Nico placed the glass on one of the tables and hunched down to eye level with Harry.
“Its Nico, Harry remember you met him today”
“’lo Eco, wanna play car?” Harry returned with an assortment of toy cars which he pushed up and down the floor. Nico had joined in pushing them around the floor. Ryan came looking for Harry to let him have a dance with the other children who were invited to the party.
“Hey, I’m sure my son is monopolising the evening, I’m Ryan,”
“Nico, nice to meet you, he sure loves his cars!” At this understatement Ryan laughed. Carrie was holding some champagne and offered some to Nico. Ryan was the designated driver and on baby watch in case Claire’s labour started early. Ryan popped Harry onto his shoulders and they returned to the guests in the marquee.
“I can show you around my childhood home, if you like,”
“I’d like that,”
They walked through the front parlour and Carrie recanted their Christmas festivities. “It was a great home and had a chimney fit for Santa, I loved it,” Family photographs in various sizes were tastefully arranged on the lid of the piano. Nico picked up a few and Carrie gave him the bio.
“Oh I was seven there, no front teeth and ever so desperate to be a ballerina. I don’t think I took my ballet shoes off even when I went to bed,”
“You were cute Carrie, even minus the front teeth,”
They laughed at the changing hair style of Belle in many of the photographs. A group shot from her wedding day to Rob. This one she quickly put back down and they left the room. They walked past a few more rooms until they stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
“And your accident?”
“The scene of the crime, yes, about here on these very steps, when my dream of being a dance with all my teeth stopped,”
Nico kissed her softly on the lips, “Don’t be sad Carrie,”
“I’m not Nico; it was a long time ago,” still holding his hand they walked up the stairs.
“There are a few guest rooms upstairs, including my former bedroom.”
“I’d like to see it, guest room or not”
“Okay,” Carrie opened the door to her childhood bedroom. Now it was a guest room with twin beds in soft creams, gold’s and coffee shades. Carrie pulled back the wooden panel at the window from the original shutter. “I used to close these shutters and make the room pitch black; it was all part of my teenage angst”
“I can’t imagine you full of angst,” he joked. They stood at the window looking out to the front of the house.
“Oh I was a proper drama queen,”
Nico stood behind her, his arms wrapped around her bare shoulders.
“I missed you while I was away, I’ve been to Asia many times but there were so many things I would have liked to have shown you.”
“I missed you too Nico, I’ve been thinking a lot about us and our future,”
“I hope you aren’t having cold feet about us Carrie,” he turned her round to face him and he could see she had tears in her eyes.
“No, not at all Nico, that’s the thing, I want a future with you,”
“So why the tears?” he whispered the words against her mouth as he kissed her lips. “I don’t like to see you sad Carrie, I want to make you happy”
“You can have happy tears too Nico!”
Carrie ran a finger to catch a tear that had escaped.
Suddenly Nico knelt before her. He reached into his pocket and produced a black leather box. Monogrammed with the distinctive HW of Harry Winston jewellers. OMG! She was holding her breath. The box opened without fuss and her breath whooshed out. Carrie was dazzled by the ring it contained and what it symbolised on the bed of velvet.
“Carrie Reynolds-Davies, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?”
He took the ring from the box and held it mid-air. “Yes Nico, yes I will” and the tears fell down her cheeks once more. “See happy tears,”
Nico slid the ring slowly down her finger until it nestled at the base. It was stunning in its simplicity. A rectangular emerald cut diamond, set high on platinum shoulders of smaller diamonds that crisscrossed in supporting arches. “It’s beautiful Nico, absolutely beautiful,”
They kissed softly, “Carrie I haven’t said the words but they have been inside my head for so long when I think of you I’ve said them a million times. I love you,”
“Nico, I love you too. I fell in love with you that first day on the beach I think. My life was never going to be the same again after meeting you.”
“That first day, I wanted more. I saw you play on the sand with Beau but your eyes where full of such sadness. I wanted to make you smile even then.”
“I could
n’t help feel an attraction to you that I almost ran back up the path to the Inn. You were some mystery man to me and then I read the local paper, the news of the fire and how you were helping Monique.”
“I hoped you would come back to the beach the next day, that’s why I had that report done. I wanted to find you if you didn’t come back,”
“We have to go back to the party but first of all, just for tonight, I have to take this ring off, I don’t want the party to be about us. It’s my father’s retirement,”
“Okay, just for a few hours then it goes back on, agreed?”
She nodded, “Agreed now I have to clean myself up, I can’t go back to the party with my make up all cried and kissed off my face!”
“I will wait for you downstairs, okay?”
She nodded agreement and opened the door of the guest bathroom. Oh my, Doris Day was back. What had she done! Distracting her racing mind from her engagement, oh hell she was engaged! She blotted her face with a tissue and tipped out her make up from the small hand bag she had brought. A few minutes later she was ready to join Nico at the bottom of the stairs. She was unaware that her Mother had observed them leaving her room separately, Carrie’s sparkling eyes and their shared look of intimacy. If anyone was to guess getting engaged would have been the furthest thing from their mind. They would have thought they would have been trying out the bedsprings.
He took her hand tightly and pulled it to his mouth. Their secret for now.
“Okay now? You look amazing, not at all ravished” he joked.
“Oh Carrie, how could you? In your parents’ home of all places. Have you no shame, either of you” Her mother chastised. Misinterpreting their look and glow for something altogether post-coital.
“Mum! What on earth are you saying?”
“Mrs Reynolds, I think there is some confusion. Carrie was giving me a tour of your lovely home; I can assure you nothing untoward has happened”
“I do have eyes in my head, it’s clear to me that something has been going on between you”
“Mum, nothing is going on but once again, I am delighted that you think so highly of me that I would do something to embarrass you tonight of all nights. But it seems my own Mother would rather embarrass me instead. Come on Nico, let’s join the party, I’m sure that after that lovely welcome from my Mum meeting Aunt Peggy won’t seem half as bad.”
“Carrie!” her mum exclaimed.
“Let her go Kate, can’t you see that you are driving her away with your negativity”
“Belle since when are you the expert”
Belle let the dig go by about her childless state.
“I think I am more of an expert here than you think, she cares deeply for Nico as he does for her. Do you want her to return to her cocoon? Shut away from everyone. Crying or having those nightmares about Rob dying over and over again. Heading fast for a breakdown.”
“She’s changed Belle; it’s too soon for her to be serious about anyone”
“Everyone changes Kate, but she hasn’t forgotten Rob, far from it if you ask me,”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Oh I’ve said too much as bloody usual. But I think there is a time and a place and this seems to be it. Remember when she was mugged? Well the silly girl wouldn’t hand over her bag. The only reason why she wouldn’t because she was carrying some of Rob’s ashes with her,”
Kate gasped at how reckless her daughter was.
“Yes, she put herself in danger to protect the ashes of her husband. She fought her attacker. Yes you know this but I don’t think you know to what extent”
“Tell me then Belle; tell me something else that I don’t know about my daughter”
“With that attitude no wonder she doesn’t say, she begged me not to as she didn’t want to worry you. She thinks that you still think of her as seventeen and broken by her injuries. The end of her dancing dreams and picking up the pieces.”
“I never knew that, she’s always been such a Daddy’s girl. She tells her father everything. Does he know what happened at her mugging? What else aren’t you telling me about that day?”
“You will have to ask them that if she has told her father. The mugger had a knife and she fought him off. A concussion, a sprained wrist, bruises, so many bruises. Nico was there by her side the whole time at the hospital. He took care of everything, security in case she was scared and a private room. When she was finally allowed out of hospital she stayed at one of the beach houses at his family home.”
“I had no idea,”
“She has a lot of guilt about Rob, about not being with him that day, well as if that could have stopped the accident. That’s why she went to America to scatter his ashes. To visit the lighthouse they talked about. All to try and bring back some of the old Carrie,”
“There was nothing she could have done Belle, she knows that.”
“Yes but it doesn’t change how she feels. Give Nico a chance Katie, give him a chance before it’s too late. Rob was Carrie’s world. Nico will show her the world,”
They walked through the grounds of the house. Carrie needed to calm down.
“Oh I guess we have some work to do on our parents,”
“You mean our Mothers! It’s so frustrating; she had to pass judgement so quickly,”
“Let’s not let that disagreement spoil our evening, come on let’s dance and give me a legitimate excuse to hold my fiancée”
“Fiancée I like the sound of that”
The marquee was set up to the rear of the house where most of the garden space could accommodate it. They passed by some of her cousin and Carrie gave a small wave in greeting. Her father was at the doorway chatting and laughing with her Uncle Donald who was also her god-father. He had been friends with her father since university and it seemed he was always a part of their family life. She was lifted off her feet in a bear hug. He was over 6ft in height and had broad shoulders that had not diminished as the years passed. His hair as grey as her fathers was the only feature they shared. “Oh it’s good to see you Carrie, you are looking grand. Now is this your young man?”
“Nico, I’d like you to meet Donald Montgomery, who also happens to be my god-father,”
The men exchanged handshakes, “Uncle Donald, this is Nico Devanti, my boyfriend”
“Devanti as in the Devanti Group?”
“Yes, one in the same,”
“Ahh you must be doubly blessed dating my god-daughter and having Belle work for you” His laugh as large as his stature bellowed out. Even her father joined in. “I will leave you two jokers, Daddy is Nana here yet, I’d like Nico to meet her.”
“Yes, she’s holding court,” he pointed over to where her Nana was seated.
“Come on Nico, I want you to meet my Nana,”
Although the wheel chair was never far away, her Nana was seated at small area to the back of the marquee that had been fitted out with some sofas. Carrie recognised several members of her family who were chatting away.
“Hello Nana,” she bent down to kiss her Nana’s cheek. “Oh Carrie girl, what a treat you look tonight, so eh is this your young man?”
“Yes it is Nana, Nico this is my Nana, Ella,”
Nico took her hand and kissed the back of it, “It’s a pleasure to meet you”
Did her Nana just blush? The Nico effect. Maybe she too had a Doris Day Oh My moment.
“Anyone who can put a smile of my girls face is welcome here and I’m sure by the looks of you quite a few girls have a smile on their face!”
“Nana”
“Hush Carrie, next thing you will be sounding scandalised like your mother. Away and dance you two and leave me to my gossiping with the family”
Thoroughly dismissed they finally made it to the dance floor.
Now it was Nico’s turn to laugh. “I love the women in your family Carrie I don’t think I have ever laughed as much as I have when I am with you”
It wasn’t as glamorous as the commerce dance but it
felt the same being in his arms again. The split of the dress allowing her to move with a little more ease than the beautiful dress she had worn that night. “Your legs are amazing,” Nico whispered into her ear, “I can’t wait for you to wrap them around me later”
“You are outrageous Mr Devanti but I can’t wait either, I want you,” He pulled her closer and she could feel his hardness against her. The thin silk material of her dresses no barrier. He dipped her low as the song finished. “I think I need a drink after that dance”.
“Do you want a drink from the bar or some champagne?”
“Mmm champagne for me, I think I will just nip to the ladies room, won’t be long,” she kissed him briefly on the cheek and walked towards the portioned area for the guest toilets. When she returned her Aunt Peggy was with her parents and Nico. Nico handed her the glass of fizz and she held his hand with her other hand. Before she could speak Peggy commented.
“I did wonder why Kate was being so cloak and dagger but now I can see why. We’ve all been warned not to speak a peep about Carrie’s new mystery man,”
She tensed, about to reply but her Mum beat her to it. “Peggy no warnings have been issued, Carrie’s private life is just that, private,”
“Oh come on now Kate, don’t be such a sourpuss, she’s only just bagged herself one of the richest men on the planet, and no one here is allowed to talk about it in case we offend anyone”.
No interrogation from Peggy, this time she was on attack mode.
“Aunt Peggy, I appreciate that my personal life is giving you such concern but as my Mum has said, it’s private and tonight is about my parents, not me,” Carrie replied.
“It’s a concern to us all, that’s all I’m saying,” not giving this one up Peggy continued. “Rob’s not even cold in his grave and with that display on the dance floor; you are dancing all over it!”
“Oh Peggy!” Kate gasped.
Carries hand tightened in Nico’s. But it was her father who took over now.
“Peggy, Peggy, what have you done now? Eh, my own sister. You are a guest in my home but you have not only offended my wife and daughter you have offended me. I am very proud of my children and the paths they have taken. We were all blessed to have Rob in our lives but don’t ever mention his name in this context to cause any hurt to my family again. I think too much of the free drink has gone to your head, that’s the excuse I’m giving you anyway for the drivel that you are speaking. Take a quick minute to decide where your loyalty lands Peggy or I will call you a taxi home now” He escorted a silenced Peggy to a nearby table and called over her husband John.
BUTTERFLIES FLY AWAY Page 37