‘I’m just … I’m so happy,’ I nodded. The realisation that this was what I’d always longed to feel like hit me hard, and tears rolled down my cheeks. ‘Before you came for me, I didn’t know life could be this good, it’s all a little overwhelming.’
‘Neither did I, but this is it, Paige. We’ve had our share of misery and disasters. Now we’re together, it’s going to be like this all of the time, I’ll make sure of it. Can I give you my present now?’
‘Don’t tell me you’re pregnant, too?’ I teased. He laughed and kissed the tip of my nose, then wiped away my tears.
‘I don’t think we can expect two miracles in one day, you’ve already given me one.’ He bent down to kiss my stomach again, then reached for the flat, rectangular wrapped gift he’d returned with, which he handed to me.
‘What is it?’ I asked as I took it off him to find it was flexible.
‘Well, open it and see,’ he chuckled. ‘If you don’t like it, if I’ve made a mistake, be honest. I just want to make you as happy as you’ve made me.’
I peeled back the paper and my eyes widened with surprise to see the quality brochure he’d carefully wrapped. It was an exclusive estate agent's brochure, showing a stunning sandstone and timbered Jacobean house, set in extensive grounds in the Shropshire countryside, not far from Mum and Dad, or Poppie and Justin. I looked up at him to see him nervously chewing his lower lip, then back down at the brochure. I opened it to see the pictures of the large, beamed sitting room with a huge inglenook fireplace and the contemporary open plan kitchen-dining-family room. There was also a cloakroom, utility, and pantry downstairs, then a cellar with a huge study and wine storage. One side of the first floor had two large en-suite double bedrooms with a landing so vast it could double up as a playroom or second lounge. The master suite was on the other side with an enormous dressing room and bathroom, and on the top floor was another large double bedroom in the eaves with its own en-suite and skylights, perfect for guests. The matching Jacobean stables next to it had been converted into an indoor pool and gym, with another study and two en-suite rooms above it. It was breathtaking.
‘So?’ Alec eventually asked as I tried to take it all in.
‘You want to buy this for us?’ I asked, tearing my eyes away to look up at him.
‘No, I’ve already bought it for you, for us. Don’t you like it?’
‘Alec, it’s beautiful, a really gorgeous family home. I love it, honestly I do. I could see Christmas’s here with all of our loved ones around a roaring fire. But it’s in Shropshire, in the countryside, not New York or London where you need to be.’
‘I need to be wherever you are, Paige, and I know that you’ve started craving a quieter life, close to your family and best friend. It’s close to my family too, and the grounds are extensive enough for me to have a helicopter pad. It’s a short flight to the nearest airport and I already checked that they can accommodate my plane. I can still travel to anywhere I need in the world from here. You can come with me when I’m working away, or if you choose to stay at home, I know you have family nearby to keep an eye on you.’
‘You really don’t mind moving back to the country?’
‘No,’ he replied, his serious face reassuring me. ‘Much as I’ve loved living in cities for most of my life, I want our son or daughter to have fresh air and plenty of space to run around in. To get the chance to experience nature and the countryside, just like we did. I can’t think of anywhere else that I’d want our child to grow up. Do I need to sell it and we’ll look for somewhere together?’
‘No,’ I answered as I shook my head vehemently. ‘This is perfect, I love that you’ve thought about what suits us as a family.’
‘Thank God,’ he smiled with a sigh of relief. ‘I wasn’t sure you were serious about being ready to move out of London.’
‘I am, especially now that I’m pregnant. I want to take a break from work and focus on us and our baby. I can always do the odd shoot if I miss it, but it’s not like we need the money.’
‘It’s not,’ he laughed. He was commanding extortionate fees now, making money faster than he could spend it, but we weren’t extravagant with it. ‘We’ll go and see it when we get home and think about any kitchen and bathroom alterations you want to make. I think the current dressing room will need to be properly kitted out for all of your clothes and accessories, and we can discuss décor and order furniture. I want to be in before the baby arrives so you can put your feet up and relax for the last month or two of your pregnancy.’
‘You were so worth the wait,’ I told him as I clasped his face and poured all of my love for him into a long, deep kiss.
‘Keep buttering me up like that, Mrs. Wright, and baby two will be happening before you’ve had a chance to draw breath.’
‘I have no problem with that at all,’ I replied, then giggled as he forced me back down onto the bed to kiss me into another blissed-out stupor. We hadn’t just collided, we’d merged. I had no idea anymore where I ended and he began, and I never wanted to find out.
Epilogue
‘What are you wearing?’ I laughed as I opened the heavy old oak front door to see Poppie dressed in black with camouflage stripes on her face. ‘Who are we pulling a revenge prank on today?’
‘Get ready, fast, we don’t have any time to waste. This is a serious undercover mission,’ she ordered, handing over a small tin.
‘You’re not going to tell me what this is about?’ I asked as she herded me up to my bedroom at top speed.
‘No, you have to see this with your own two eyes. Bring one of Alec’s cameras with a zoom lens and some binoculars, just in case.’
‘I don’t own binoculars. What’s going on?’ I demanded as she riffled through my dressing room and threw a pair of black jeans and a black sweater at me.
‘Less talk, more action, Paige Wright. Move it, I’ll be waiting in the car with the engine running.’
‘I’d better let Alec know I’m going out. I told him I was staying in to have a blissfully quiet pamper night.’
‘No need. He’s having a pint with Justin in The Cock and Bull, as usual on a Thursday. You’ll be home before he even knows you were missing.’ She shot off down the stairs, leaving me standing there in a confused daze. I did as I was told, except for the black facial stripes, and headed downstairs to Alec’s studio in the cellar to grab one of his cameras. Poppie was waiting, as promised, with the passenger door to her BMW X5 open and the engine running. I’d barely had time to close the door when she wheel span out of the gravelled forecourt and up my drive.
‘Are you trying to kill me?’ I exclaimed as I hastily tugged on my seatbelt, my voice reverberating as she shot over the cattle grid.
‘No, but you might kill me when we get there, for showing you this.’
‘Poppie, seriously, what’s going on? Who’s upset you and why would I be cross with you?’
‘No one’s upset me and this is something you need to see, rather than be told,’ she replied, slamming through the gears as she shot along our long drive flanked by fields and trees. We allowed the farmer to let his sheep graze on our non-landscaped land to help keep the grass down, and right now, I was worried that a poor, unsuspecting sheep was going to amble into Poppie “spawn of Lewis Hamilton” Cavendish’s path and be catapulted into the air feet first, then crash through the ceiling and land in my lap. I’d planned on a roast turkey for lunch on Sunday, not roast road kill lamb.
‘Slow down,’ I urged as she hit the next cattle grid and nearly took off. ‘I’m only forty-seven, I’m too young to die.’
‘I hate you sometimes,’ Poppie muttered. ‘Why do you still get to look fresh faced and gorgeous at forty-seven and I look old, lined, and haggard?’
‘You don’t look any older than me, Poppie,’ I laughed. ‘One bonus of me having been in the beauty industry for so long is I was given all the creams and potions to keep us looking younger than our years. Men don’t seem put off by our age either. I saw
that twenty-something model flirting with you at the Gala ball in London last weekend.’
‘He was hot, wasn’t he,’ she nodded, flashing me a grin. ‘Nice to know I’ve still got it sometimes.’
‘You’ve always got it. And you’ve also got a handsome and very attentive husband who will always love you, no matter how many lines you develop as we age. Seriously, what’s going on?’
‘A few more minutes and we’ll be there. You have to promise me to stay calm and not to freak out, ok?’
‘Of course, because nothing reassures me more than you warning me not to freak out,’ I responded sarcastically. My mind boggled at what she could possibly be taking me to see that she thought might upset me. If I didn’t know my husband so well, I might think she was taking me to show me proof of him having an affair, but my bad luck had run out the day Alec and I had finally got together. Even though we were both much older, we were more in love and happier than ever. ‘I’m about to lose some nails in your leather upholstery,’ I warned as she took another narrow country lane hairpin bend at speed.
‘O stop moaning, this is a way less risky mission than our breaking and entering when we exacted revenge on that cheating arsehole, Spence,’ she retorted. I saw the pub sign for The Cock and Bull flash past and a glimpse of Alec’s Porsche Cayenne sitting on the forecourt. Poppie slammed on the brakes and I jolted forwards with a gasp as she swung left, into the village hall car park.
‘You’ve just given me a double mastectomy and quite possibly a couple of fractured ribs,’ I moaned, rubbing where the seatbelt had cut into my chest.
‘Sssshhh, stealth is the name of the game from this moment on,’ she warned as she cut the lights and proceeded to drive in the dark to the furthest corner of the car park.
‘How can you see where you’re going?’ I whispered.
‘I can’t,’ she replied, ‘but who parks at the back of the car park? It’s too far to walk to the door.’
‘What about the hedge?’
‘What hedge?’ she asked, turning to face me as there was a horrendous screech of twigs on metal as she ploughed straight through it into the field on the other side. ‘Shit, who put that there?’
‘Poppie,’ I giggled. ‘What’s got into you?’
‘I’m nervous, seriously nervous,’ she replied as she slammed the car into reverse and managed to completely miss the BMW-sized hole in the hedge and fence that she’d already made and carved a new one, before coming to a stop on the gravel car park. ‘Oops. If Justin asks, the brakes momentarily failed. Ok, why don’t you have your face paint on?’
‘For starters, it was black boot polish, which you’re going to have a hell of a time washing off. Secondly, I want to know why we’re at the village hall dressed like burglars.’
‘Grab your camera and come with me. Tred quietly, we don’t want to alert anyone to our presence,’ she warned as she slipped out of the car.
‘Right, as no one will have heard you hand brake turn into the car park or drive through the hedgerow, twice.’
‘Ssssshhhh!’ she scolded, grabbing my hand and crouching as she scurried forwards, trying to keep to the shadows as we approached the windows facing the car park. ‘Leg it,’ she shrieked as the security light pinged on and we were bathed in a dazzling brilliant white glow.
‘Leg it where? I can’t see a damn thing and I’ve no idea what we’re doing,’ I replied. She grabbed me and yanked me forwards, slamming me against the expanse of rough stone wall between the two long lit windows. ‘Ok, very slowly and carefully, angle the camera to take some pictures of the room inside, then check them and tell me what you don’t see.’
‘Ok,’ I said slowly, none the wiser. I jumped as she suddenly grabbed my arm.
‘Make sure the flash is off, we need to stay incognito.’
‘Have you been tested for senile dementia?’ I asked.
‘No, why?’
‘Because right now I really think you ought to be. We look like a couple of elderly perverts spying on the kids at KFC.’
‘YFC,’ she tutted. ‘And I’ve got senile dementia?’
‘I know that, I’m just dreaming of chicken. Now that I’m older, it’s harder work to keep in shape. I have to eat healthily most of the time, so on my one night off a week, I like to gorge on fried chicken and chips, then a huge slab of chocolate, in secret. Instead of that, I’m on some Expendables covert operation with you, so covert even I don’t know what I’m doing here,’ I hissed as I took some pictures. I pulled the digital imager up to study the shots, with Poppie looking over my shoulder. ‘Ok, I’m looking at a room full of youngsters enjoying themselves. Where’s the scandal?’
‘Tell me what, or who, you don’t see?’ she repeated. I frowned as I scanned the faces again. Everyone was facing me, but for the club president and secretary, who always sat facing the room. I gasped and looked around at her.
‘Where’s Daisy?’ My sixteen-year-old daughter, who was supposed to be in there right now, was missing.
‘Exactly. Now don’t kill me when you see who else is missing,’ she advised as I looked again.
‘Jeremy!’ I exclaimed, shooting her a look. ‘Where has your son gone with my daughter, Poppie?’
‘Who says he’s gone somewhere with her? She might have been the one to drag him into the kitchen at the back for a snog,’ she retorted.
‘They’re snogging in the kitchen?’
‘Please don’t yell, but they were last week,’ she grimaced.
‘Right, I’m going in,’ I stated with grim determination. She was only sixteen, too young to be snogging anyone, let alone my godson. They’d practically grown up together.
‘Please don’t, I wanted you to see for yourself instead of telling you as I knew you’d be angry. They’re so sweet together. He really cares about her, he wouldn’t do anything to get her into trouble. You’ll understand when you see them. Come with me.’
‘Are they having sex?’ I asked, my heart breaking at the thought of it. Her dad would go mad if he found out.
‘No, of course not, what kind of boy do you think I raised?’ she scolded as she pulled me around the side of the hall and we squeezed past some bushes to the rear. She pushed me down into a crouching position and we scuttled along sideways, like fast-moving crabs, until we were under the window. We gripped the windowsill and slowly pulled ourselves up until we could see into the room. I drew in a sharp breath to see Daisy gripping Jeremy’s bottom, as he held her face in his hands, kissing her. Actually, kissing her made it sound sweet. What he was doing to my daughter wasn’t sweet, he was eating her alive. Right how I’d have been chowing down on my illicit fried chicken if I’d been left in blissful oblivion. ‘How adorable is that?’ Poppie moaned, wiping some tears from her eyes as we dropped back down out of sight.
‘Adorable? If he goes at it any harder, he’ll swallow her whole. No wonder she’s been stealing my Vaseline, he’s sucking the top layer of her lips off each week. How long has this been going on?’ I demanded, ready to march in there and drag her out.
‘Just over a month, apparently. He’s always had a soft spot for her, Paige. I warned him not to even think about kissing her until she was sixteen. He came home the night of her birthday party with stars in his eyes, saying she’d let him kiss her and told him that she thought he was really cute. He was so happy. Please don’t be mad, he adores her. In fact, he’s told me he loves her and one day he’s going to marry her.’
‘She’s only sixteen, Poppie,’ I sighed.
‘And? If they were shagging like rabbits, I’d be up in arms as well, but they’re not. They’re just teenagers who’ve fallen for each other, who make out. We were doing it at their age. In fact, I was doing worse.’
‘You were,’ I nodded. ‘I wasn’t though, I was eighteen before I kissed Alec.’
‘You’d have kissed him earlier if you’d had the chance and don’t tell me you wouldn’t. Please don’t put your foot down, he’s so happy. I’ve had a long chat with h
im about not rushing things. What harm can it do?’ she urged. I shook my head and we pulled ourselves up to watch them again. Jeremy was tucking her long dark hair behind her ear as she gazed up at him with eyes full of adoration, just the way I was sure I did with Alec, then he dipped his head and planted a tender kiss on her forehead. I felt my eyes fill up with tears as I watched. My little girl wasn’t a little girl anymore. She was turning into a woman, a woman who was already falling in love with the son of my best friend. I guess there were worse things that could happen to her.
‘What exactly do you two think you’re doing?’ came Alec’s voice from behind me.
‘Shit, busted,’ muttered Poppie, as we sheepishly turned to face him and Justin, who both stood with their arms folded as they shook their heads. ‘How did you find us?’
‘My son rang me to say he’d seen a couple of perverts taking pictures through the window, then sneaking around the back. Obviously we ran over from the pub immediately to confront them. Imagine our surprise to find you two spying through a window, dressed up like you’re on a bank heist. Care to elaborate, Paige?’ Alec demanded.
‘We’re not perverts, obviously,’ I replied, quickly standing up and dragging Poppie up with me, trying to block his view of our daughter in the room behind. ‘We were … we were … why don’t you tell him what we were doing, Poppie?’ I suggested, warning her with my eyes not to let on.
‘No, you’re so much better at storytelling than me, you go ahead,’ she nodded, giving me an evil smile.
Until We Collide Page 24