“I don’t have a doubt in my mind.”
I spend some time going through our email and going over the wedding and tour plans. Both events are huge and take so much planning. But at least we have help with each of them – doing it all on our own would drive us both entirely insane.
I approve a pdf proof of our wedding invites and then send through our set lists for the first leg of our tour. I also spend a bit of time going over our calendar to make sure that we don’t have any overlapping appointments and call Stephanie to talk to her about the dress she and Paige have been looking at for Amanda and Grace to wear as my flower girls. They’re both close in age and will look absolutely adorable walking down the aisle throwing rose petals from these little paper cones that are printed sheet music.
So far, everything seems to be coming together nicely. Both the wedding and the tour plans seem to be moving along without a hitch. That is, until Theo comes storming out of the studio.
“I need to go out,” he states, grabbing the keys to his bike.
“What’s going on?” I ask in concern as I watch him slide his arms into his leather jacket and grab his helmet.
He shakes his head. “My fucking parents. I just got a call from dad. I need to go deal with this.”
“Well, wait and I’ll come with you.”
He holds up his hand to stop me. “No, babe. I need to deal with this myself. This has all gone too far.”
With that, he turns and storms out the front door, leaving me calling out after him for some sort of an explanation. “What are you talking about?!” I call from the doorway, although I’m pretty sure he doesn’t hear it over the sound of his bike engine roaring to life before he takes off down the street toward his parent’s house.
Time moves by at a snails pace while Theo is gone. There isn’t much that I can do to occupy my mind besides play my violin. I go into the studio and stay well away from Theo’s area where he’s left his notebook out on the piano seat. As much as I’m curious to see what he’s working on, I really don’t want to ruin the surprise. So I just grab my violin case and head back into the main house.
When I’m upset or worried, I generally revert back to my classical training. Today, I’m playing something a little more upbeat with the third movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. I play it over and over again, each time losing myself further and further into the music as my fingers fly over the strings and the bow slides back and forth furiously.
I’m so absorbed that I don’t even hear Theo’s bike pull into the driveway and I don’t realise he’s here until the front door closes. I stop all of a sudden, my fingers slipping on the string as the bow strikes and releases a loud squeaking noise that causes both of us to wince.
“Tchaikovsky, huh?” he says as he drops his keys on the table near the door and shrugs out of his jacket.
“I was worried about you,” I state, setting my violin and bow on the couch as I move over to him. “Are you OK? What happened?”
He runs his hands through his hair, damp from the heat of the day then shakes his head. “Mum doesn’t want to come to the wedding,” he says, meeting my eyes with a great look of disappointment in his.
“What?” I ask disbelievingly. “What the hell is wrong with her? Is this because of me?”
He steps toward me and takes my hands in his. “Don’t ever think this is because of you. This is all her. She’s the one behaving badly. Not us. Not you.”
I step back, feeling as though I’ve actually been slapped in the face. “But it is because of me isn’t it? It’s because of what she saw?”
Moving toward me again, he reaches out and gently places his hands on my upper arms. “Babe. Don’t let this get to you. You are my world. The only person I give a fuck about being at our wedding is you. If my mother wants to boycott it then there’s nothing I can do to stop her. I have bent over backwards for my family. My whole life I’ve tried to be a good son and a good brother. But the only thing that matters anymore is that I’m a good husband. Fuck them, Nomes. This wedding is about you and me. No one else.”
Tears well in my eyes. I can’t believe we’ve been putting ourselves under so much stress because of that woman and now she’s turning around and refusing to be a part of this. “No,” I say in response, and Theo gives me a quizzical look. “No,” I repeat. “She doesn’t get to do this to you. Not this time.” I reach over to the table and grab my car keys off it.
“Babe, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to go over there and give her a piece of my mind.”
“Don’t waste your breath. It’s not going to change anything.”
“Maybe not. But it will make me feel better. I deserve the right to stick up for myself.”
He nods. “Alright. But I’m going to drive you. Don’t go over there on your own.”
Without waiting for me to respond, he reaches out and takes the keys out of my hands and heads for the door. Grabbing my handbag, I shove my feet into my black ballet flats at the same time, then head out the door after him and get into the passenger seat of my Rav4.
“You sure you want to do this?” he asks as I buckle my seatbelt and look ahead.
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
He reaches over and squeezes my knee. “OK, babe. OK.”
Ten
My heart beats faster the closer we get to Theo’s parents house. I’m tired of standing by and saying nothing while she badmouths me to Theo, and Marcus and Lisa. I know they stick up for me, but it’s high time I stuck up for myself. I kept quiet out of respect for their family. But if she can’t respect her son enough to support his choices, then I’m all out of respect for her. And the fact he’s driving me over there, means that Theo’s lost respect for them too. I think he’s finally reached the point where he won’t be pushed around by family politics anymore.
The moment we pull into their driveway, I jump out of the car and storm up to the front door and beat my fist against the green wood.
The door opens fairly quickly, revealing Mrs Bailey in her black mourning dress. My eyes roll all by themselves.
“What you want?” she says to me, her eyes darting over my shoulder to see Theo coming up behind me. She breaks into Italian and directs her speech to him instead of me.
“English mum. I’m just here to make sure you listen to what my fiancée has to say,” he tells her sternly.
Her dark eyes return to me, filled with disdain, or disgust – whatever the hell it is she feels toward me.
“Why won’t you come to our wedding?” I demand, wanting to hear her excuse for myself.
“I no like you,” she states. “My son, he deserves better.”
I nod my head. “You’re right. He does. He deserves a mother who is willing to support any sort of decision he makes.”
She looks at Theo and attempts to speak Italian again.
“Not me,” he says. “Speak to Naomi.”
She looks at me again, her lips pursed, and her arms crossed.
“In all honesty, I don’t care if you don’t want to come. You’ve never made me feel welcome and I think you treat Theo terribly.”
“I love my son,” she insists.
“Do you? Do you think that calling his fiancée a whore is loving him? Do you think refusing to watch him marry the woman he loves, is loving him? If he isn’t doing exactly what you want, you do your best to make his life a living hell. There is no way you’d do this to Marcus – he ran off on us all for two years and you still supported him. Then he ran off again and married a woman you’d never met, and who did you blame? It wasn’t Marcus – you never blame Marcus. All Theo did was fall in love and share his life with me. There is nothing wrong with what we did. You are the one who was in the wrong. You are the one who walked into our house uninvited. You are the one who judged us. And you are the one who is causing all this trouble. We have bent over backwards trying to make this right. We have organised a wedding, and it’s going to be beautiful, and you know what? I d
on’t want you there. I don’t want your angry, judgemental face watching me as I vow to love Theo with everything I have for the rest of my life. If you can’t share in our joy and smile and show your son love then I don’t want you there. I don’t want you in my life – our life. As far as I’m concerned Mrs Bailey, you can go and fuck yourself,” I say, my body shaking in anger but my voice staying calm.
I glance over her shoulder and see Theo’s father standing a few feet behind his wife. I nod my head once at him. “Mr Bailey,” I say, in recognition. Then turning around, I grab a hold of Theo’s hand before walking straight back to the car.
“Do you think I went over the top?” I ask as soon as he starts the engine. My heart is beating like crazy and I feel sure that my hands are shaking too.
“Babe, you were a hell of a lot nicer than I was earlier,” he grins, pulling into the traffic of the main road. “Do you feel better now?”
“Yeah. I do actually.”
“Then that’s all that matters.”
“What do we do now?”
“Now we move on. We get married like we planned and we live our life the way we want it. It’s you and me babe. That’s all we need.”
I rest my head against the seat and let out my breath to try and calm down.
“You and me against the world,” I state.
He reaches over and takes my hand in his. “You and me against the world.”
Eleven
With so much going on, time flies by and before we know it, we’re only a week away from our wedding. Everything is planned and despite the fact that Theo’s parents still aren’t talking to us, despite Marcus attempting to also convince them to be supportive - we’re still excited to finally be tying the knot.
At first we were thinking that we might just forgo our buck’s and hen’s nights in favour of a big barbeque or a night out with friends. But our bridal party decided that wasn’t going to be good enough. Jack and Lachlan have planned a big night out in the city for Theo, and Stephanie convinced Paige and Lisa that they just had to throw a hen’s party for me.
I have no idea where it is, but the one thing I’ve asked is no male strippers. I know that strippers are a custom on Hen’s nights, but I really just want to go out and dance and have fun. I don’t want some guy gyrating in my face.
The bridal party have managed to work together and plan both parties so they happen on the same night, so we all head into the city together where we are meeting everyone else at a club in Darling Harbour before we all head off on our separate ways.
“Holy fuck,” Theo says as he enters the bathroom where I’m putting the finishing touches on my makeup. I’m wearing a short skin tight royal blue dress that sets off the colour of my eyes and a very high set of matching heels so I’ll at least be close to the height of some of my tall friends. “Babe, I can’t let you out of here with that dress on,” Theo adds, his eyes going wide as they land on my arse.
I glance at him via the mirror as he stands behind me, looking amazing himself in a fitted white v-neck t-shirt that hugs him in all the right places and a pair of black pants with suspenders. His hair is messy and he hasn’t shaved. I love the messy stubble look about him.
Placing my mascara wand back into the tube, I screw it closed and turn around to face him with a coy smile on my face.
“Maybe I don’t want you out looking like that,” I murmur, moving slowly toward his welcoming arms. I press my body against his as his hands immediately run over my curves and settle on my arse. “I’ve got a hell of a lot more to be jealous about. You’re the lead singer in our band. Girls are always trying to bed you. I’m the fiancée who stands in their way and I won’t be with you tonight.”
He grins. “They don’t hold a candle to you, babe. But you, out in this dress. You’re smoking hot in it, Nomes. I don’t like the idea of you out in the city looking like everything delicious in this world without me beside you to protect you.”
“I’ll be with you, then I’ll be with the girls. From what I hear, we both have massive parties to attend tonight.”
He pulls me closer to him. “I think I’d rather a party for two. I want that dress on the floor,” he growls, dipping his head to take my mouth in his.
My hands go up around his neck as our mouths move together. My core ignites and I half want to make a phone call and cancel tonight to be with Theo. We’ve been so busy lately that we’ve hardly had any time to ourselves. My body craves him and from the feel of things, his body craves me too.
When a horn beeps outside, he groans in my mouth and we pull away from each other, both slightly breathless and incredibly turned on.
“Fuck people and their timing,” Theo grumbles, looking at his watch. “I didn’t think they were picking us up for another twenty minutes.
“Is that all the time you were going to give us?” I ask with a laugh.
“I don’t even think I would have needed that long. It’s been a while. I’ll go out and tell them to fucking well wait.” He turns to leave the bathroom, but I reach out and grab his arm.
“No, wait,” I say. “Let’s get a hotel room. I’ll meet you there when the parties are over. We can spend the night in anticipation before having mind-blowing sex, over and over again until we have to check out.”
He grins and his eyes sparkle. “Book it,” he says, taking my face in his hands, pressing his lips to mine, inhaling as he kisses me. “Tonight is going to take forever now, you know that right?”
“It’ll be worth it,” I tell him, turning back to the mirror to check my makeup one last time. Thank god for lipstain, it hasn’t smudged a bit.
As I follow Theo out of the house, I quickly bring up LastMinute.com and find a hotel room in the heart of the city that’s free and book it.
“Come on you two!” Stephanie yells from the window of the enormous limousine that’s parked in our driveway. She’s in there with her husband Gary, Paige and Elliot, and Marcus and Lisa.
“We’re coming!” I call back, sending the hotel information to Theo’s phone so he can meet me there later.
He leans into my ear. “I’m going to be hard all night thinking about you,” he murmurs before taking a hold of my hand and pulling me toward the limo. Every fibre of my being wants to plant my heels into the ground and drag this delicious man of mine back inside to spend all night having my way with him. But knowing that we’ll meet up later will be sweet torture for the both of us.
“Come on! We don’t have any kids for a whole night. We’re dying to go out,” Paige calls out as we reach the limo and the driver holds the door open for us.
Theo holds my hand to help me keep my balance and my dignity as I slide into the leather interior alongside Lisa and Marcus then say a quick hello to each of our friends. “Well, that explains why you’re so early. You’re escaping the kids,” I grin, wriggling slightly to get comfortable as Theo slides in beside me. He places his arm along the back of the seat beside me and I lean into him, loving the firm warmth of his body in the cool of the air-conditioned cabin.
“You don’t know the half of it,” Stephanie says. “The moment I started to get ready, Amanda lost it. We practically had to run out of there and promise that we were bringing back half of Disneyland.”
“How are you going to manage that?” Theo asks.
Gary chuckles. “We’re hoping she’s forgotten by morning, but if not, we’ll figure something out.”
“She’ll never trust you again,” I laugh.
“That reminds me,” Lisa says. “The resort we’re staying at for the wedding has babysitting if you need it for when your kids get too tired at the reception,” she informs Paige and Stephanie.
“Really? That’s great,” Paige replies. “Thanks.”
“We’re leaving Adam at home with my mum and stepdad. But Gracie will probably get too tired to make it through the night,” Elliot adds.
“You should have been an event planner instead of a muso,” I say to Lisa, giving her a little nudge in t
he side.
“Sorry. It’s probably a bit of the control freak in me left over from my days organising advertising campaigns. I’m not trying to take over.”
“It’s fine. I’m more than happy for your help. If I forget to say it later, you’ve been amazing. Thank you.”
We meet each others gaze for a moment and give each other an understanding smile. We may not be sisters by blood. But we’ve certainly become sisters through friendship. I can’t imagine my world without Lisa in it anymore.
“Alright you two. Stop having a little moment. Tonight is a party,” Marcus says, handing both Theo and I a glass of champagne. “Now, I think it’s time to make a toast to the happy couple. So raise your glasses.” Everyone does. “To Naomi and Theo, may you live a long and happy life together but tonight, I hope that you both get shitfaced drunk and do very stupid things.”
“Cheers,” everyone choruses on a laugh, clinking our glasses together and sipping at the champagne inside.
Lowering my glass, I take a breath to ask the question that’s been nagging at me all day. “Speaking of getting shitfaced - exactly where are we going tonight?”
Twelve
“Bad Boys Afloat!?” I say, staring up at the boat in disbelief. “Isn’t that a stripper cruise?”
“Yep,” Stephanie giggles. “Don’t pretend like you don’t want to see it. I know you Naomi Prendergast. You’re going to love the spectacle,” she assures me as she races ahead of everyone and stops to talk to the shirtless guy who’s standing at the gangway to check off all the names on our booking.
“I told her you didn’t want strippers,” Lisa tells me quietly.
“It’s OK. I had a feeling she’d go and do this. She went on it once before and said it was great fun. I don’t know…” I say, feeling slightly disappointed in my friend. I know she’s just trying to get me to experience something that she considers fun, but I’d hoped we could have gone clubbing and dancing for the night instead of watching a bunch of guys run around with their shirts off.
Beautiful Series Boxset, books 1-4 Page 146