‘Sorry?’
‘I have a little jar on my dressing-table and every time I get one in my change I pop it in.’
‘And?’
‘I did think about leaving, Iosef, for a while there. Yes, I did consider it, but you need to know this—I’m dizzy and I’m emotional and I absolutely love you, but I’m also tough. I can live without you. I might go off to lick my wounds now and then, but I will always come back fighting.’
‘And what does this have to do with coins?’ A markedly bemused smile was appearing on his face.
‘I never knew why I kept them, I just did.’
‘And?’
‘I decided this morning that I was going to throw them in the brown envelope that came around if you and Candy got married.’
‘You’d have stayed?’
‘I like my life, Iosef. I’ve worked hard to get to where I am and I’m never going to walk away from it. It would just be very nice if you were here beside me.’
‘And you really love me?’ Iosef checked.
‘Absolutely.’ Annie nodded. ‘Now that I know that I can. I love you because you’re so horrible and rude but you still make me laugh. I love you because—and I’m sorry if it’s shallow—you’re fabulous in bed and make me think that I am, too. And I love you because…’ She wasn’t laughing now and she wasn’t crying. The moral gauge that had wobbled for so long now finally settled as she found her truth—not today’s truth but finally accepting all that had come before and knowing, knowing she could deal with all that lay ahead. ‘Somehow I knew that we were better than that—somehow I knew I was too…Somehow I knew that you really loved me.’
‘And I do.’
Which was fab and everything, but he was playing with the top of her pyjamas, the kisses that were raining on her face becoming just a touch more insistent now—and because there could be no more secrets, because she’d insisted on it, Annie had to make time for one last confession.
‘I don’t have a body image problem.’
‘Good…’ Every button was open now, his lips nuzzling her breasts, his fingers stealing down her waist towards the darkest female secret of them all. ‘Because your body’s fantastic…’
‘Just…’ she wriggled an inch, frantic eyes catching his as love swept in and again caught her totally unprepared ‘…a teeny-weeny body-hair issue at the moment…’
‘Try…’ he said, slipping down her pyjama bottoms and sending her straight to a heavenly torture. ‘Try, try and try again, and never will you turn me off.’
‘Never?’ Annie checked.
‘Never,’ Iosef affirmed.
EPILOGUE
IT SHOULD seem the strangest of weddings but for Annie it was perfect.
If they wanted Levander and Millie to be there—which they did—then it had to be quick, and given they had just buried Ivan, it had to be low key.
Low on preparation but high on love.
Everyone they cared for, and didn’t really, crammed the registry office and the fabulous dinner afterwards. Annie’s sisters pursing their lips in jealousy yet trying to smile; her parents utterly bemused and trying not to show their surprise that their dizzy, kind but not exceptionally gifted daughter had actually been the one who had rocketed them up in social status.
‘They’re wondering what on earth you see in me!’ Annie smiled as her entire family stared open-mouthed at the very happy couple.
‘You’ve got it the wrong way round,’ Iosef countered, but Annie shook her head and laughed.
‘Believe me, I haven’t!’
‘Well—more fools them, then!’
Nina made a discreet, but later well-publicised, appearance. In just a couple of weeks she seemed to have aged a decade—as if every one of her sins had caught up with her.
And despite having learned more of Nina’s role in Levander’s abandonment, Annie kept her promise to herself not to judge.
She gave her a hug and thanked her for coming, told her that it was lovely to see her and watched with admiration and pride as somehow Millie and Levander said pretty much the same.
Weddings, even low key, very spontaneous ones, were, though, very hard work.
A sort of concentration of emotions and feelings and people who were either desperate to be together or desperate to be apart.
Still, there was always a good party afterwards!
Everyone they really adored squeezed into Iosef’s that night as Millie and Levander packed their bags in preparation for their early morning flight.
‘You should have booked a hotel,’ Millie chided from the bedroom, frantically trying to squeeze milk through a breast pump so she could freeze it for the flight back to the UK the next day. ‘It’s your wedding night and the two of you are stuck with us lot.’
‘But we love you lot.’
‘You’ll come and see us in England?’ Millie asked for the hundredth time.
‘I think Iosef’s already booked the flights!’
‘George wants to play strip poker!’ Annika, Iosef’s younger sister, plonked herself on the bed. ‘I think things are starting to get out of hand.’
‘Talk to George!’ Annie mouthed as Iosef wandered into the bedroom and promptly wandered out again.
Jackie then wandered in with a lime margarita, Levander turned on a massive plasma TV and ignored the women who sat chatting on the bed.
‘I think I made a better bridesmaid than bride…’ Annie stared down at her pale lilac dress critically. ‘I was really gorgeous, you know…’
‘You look fab,’ Millie scolded. ‘I wore jeans for my wedding.’
‘Poor Mum.’ Annika actually laughed. ‘She longs for a big white wedding, for a Kolovsky dress to be on the news. There’s still me, she says sadly, and Aleksi, too, I remind her.’
On cue he entered—shuddering at the thought.
‘Not a chance! Is this where the action is?’ he asked, sprawling on the bed. ‘Best wedding I’ve been to, by the way, Annie.’ Then flinched as Millie dug him in the ribs. ‘Well, one of the best…’
And it was family, just a crazy family that had never been like this before—one night that could never happen again, one night when for the first time they were all united.
Till Iosef came back.
‘Out…’ He shooed them like flies, flicked off the television when Levander didn’t budge, ushered out a giggling Annika and Jackie and even screwed on the top of Millie’s bottle of breast milk as he pushed her out, too. ‘If you lot don’t mind, I’d actually like to spend time with my wife.’
‘I don’t mind.’ Annie laughed when finally he turned the lock, when finally, despite the high antics outside the room, they were alone.
‘You really don’t, do you?’
‘Not a scrap.’
‘It’s our wedding night,’ Iosef attempted. ‘It should be about us.’
‘This is us…’ Annie said softly, holding him close, drinking him in. ‘This is about family and friends and still being able to be yourself. Anyway, we’ve got plenty of nights ahead when it’s just the two of us—let’s just enjoy them all for tonight.’
‘I love you.’
He said it again for the umpteenth time, held her so close she could barely squeeze out her answer, but hearing it again there on their wedding night it was like a poultice on a wound. She just accepted the relief that came with it.
‘I know that you do.’
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3244-4
BILLIONAIRE DOCTOR, ORDINARY NURSE
First North American Publication 2009.
Copyright © 2008 by Carol Marinelli.
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