"You are so easy to get. As if I don't have a ring. A grossly expensive ring with a huge diamond on hand for the one time you were bound to say yes." He pressed a kiss to the side of her neck.
Charlotte looked at the ring. It did indeed have a huge diamond, a very beautiful square cut one set in white gold with smaller diamonds encrusted around the band. She smiled softly as she plucked it out of his hand, slipping it straight onto her ring finger. Pivoting within his embrace, she wrapped her arms around him, her body sliding against his in all the right places. "For this, you get an extra special treat."
"Yes, I do."
"Egotist."
"Realist." He pushed her firmly back against the shower wall. "I am not stopping for anything or anyone. They can all just get in line shrieking at the top of their lungs for all I care."
Charlotte closed her eyes as his lips fell against hers, totally on board with that plan.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Charlotte flipped through the magazine, a frown creasing her forehead as she took a sip of tea from the mug she had held up in her hand. "There's nothing here I like."
"What do you have in mind?" Iris sipped from her own mug as she peered at the pages of Charlotte's magazine upside down. "There are some stunning dresses in there."
Shrugging, she closed the magazine and pushed it towards her mother. "I don't know. There's heaps of time anyway. No rush." Turning in her seat, she glanced at Toby who had just walked into the kitchen, keys jangling from his hand. "Hey. What do you think I should wear for our wedding?"
"Charlotte!" Iris interrupted. "You can't ask him! He's not supposed to be involved with choosing your dress!"
Charlotte rolled her eyes at her mother before returning her gaze back to Toby. "Well, any ideas?"
He smirked at her. "I'm not fussy. Lots of cleavage and a big split up the side?"
Charlotte snickered but Iris was having none of it from the pair of them. "That's exactly why you don't get a say." She pointed at Toby, but despite her tone, she was smiling. "Where are you headed off to?" Iris nodded at the keys in his hand.
"Bunnings."
Charlotte turned to face him again. "What are you going there for? You hate Bunnings."
Toby shook his head at her. "I don't hate Bunnings. I just hate going there and not being able to find what I want in less than two hours. Ash!" He leaned his head towards the kitchen doorway. Ashley appeared within seconds, all dressed for going to the shops; he even had his hair combed. "Tell Mummy and Granny why we're going to Bunnings, mate."
Ashley grinned, his excitement evident. "We're getting stuff to build a proper cubby!"
Charlotte burst out laughing, making no effort to hide her mirth. "You're building a cubby? That the children will be expected to use? Thank goodness those things don't need to be inspected for safety."
Toby smirked, flipping her his middle finger over the top of Ashley's head. "Yeah, you'll see. Won't she, Ash? We are all over this. Don't you worry."
Charlotte continued to laugh. "I'm not worried. I think it's hilarious. So, do you even know what you're buying?"
"Yes! I've checked out the shed and there are heaps of tools left over from your dad in there, so I just need the building materials. And some nails. For some reason," he shot a look over at Iris then, "the nails are all mixed up with the screws and I'm not sitting there picking them out as I go."
Iris looked away, suppressing a smile behind her mug.
"I'll ask again," Charlotte interjected, "do you even know what you're buying? Building materials is a pretty broad category."
"There's a kit, Mummy. A sheet that tells you everything to buy and what to do to make it. Like a puzzle." Ashley took a hold of his father's hand, male solidarity in action.
Charlotte smothered her laughter this time, trying hard to be respectful for Ashley. "Well, then that makes me feel better, because your daddy has not had a lot of practice building things and I would hate to think he might get the wrong stuff. He doesn't have Uncle Chad up here right now to show him what to do."
Toby shook his head at her. "Your consideration of me never ends," he noted sarcastically.
"So, you'll be gone for ages then?" she asked, flippant.
Toby rolled his eyes at her.
"He might be gone for the entire weekend," Iris put in, her own laughter matching Charlotte's renewed giggles.
"Can you take Bree?" Charlotte asked.
"No." Toby's reply was swift and definite.
Ashley looked up at his father for a few moments before resettling his gaze back onto his mother. "We could take her," he offered.
Toby glanced down at Ashley with surprise. "You don't mind if Bree comes?"
Ashley shrugged, looking back up at Toby. "She can push the trolley and if she gets annoying we can stick her in the craft club section."
Toby raised his eyebrows at Charlotte as he ruffled Ashley's hair. Charlotte met his gaze with a knowing look and a smile. "Good idea, matey. Alright," he leaned towards the door again, hollering out, "Bree!"
She appeared through the other doorway, coming in from the hall dressed in a long blue Cinderella costume dress, with ugg boots on her feet and a beanie sitting atop her head. "Yes, Daddy?" She smiled at him, all sweet as can be, which was usually an indication she had just been in the middle of getting into mischief.
"Get dressed. Want to come to Bunnings?"
Bree smoothed her hands down the front of her gown. "Are you blind? I am dressed! I hate Bunnings!"
Iris stifled a laugh.
Toby looked at Bree carefully before answering her. "My mistake. You are indeed dressed, it was your slippers that threw me."
Bree rolled her eyes at him and crossed her arms. "Daddy, as if I would wear these outside! They would get dirty! I will put proper shoes on if I go out! But I'm not, because Bunnings is dumb!"
"It's Saturday, Bree," Ashley said to his sister. "They have sausages on Saturday."
"I love Bunnings!" Bree clapped her hands and took off with a squeal, turning to race back in the direction she had come from. She clattered back up the hall minutes later, having swapped the ugg boots for rubber rain ones.
"Ready!"
"Well, that's much better now," replied Toby. "Let's go."
Ashley stopped by the table to give Charlotte a hug. "Bye, Mummy. I promise to make sure he reads the sheet." He squeezed his arms around her neck, planting a solid kiss onto her cheek, his tone and expression so very serious.
Charlotte squeezed him back, leaning closer to his ear. "Don't let him forget Bree this time."
Ashley giggled then. "That was funny."
"Not for the staff at Kmart," Charlotte replied, without humour.
Multi-tasking with the kids around had never been one of Toby's strong points. But, you live and learn. Even it was very slowly at times.
What could have been disastrous was saved by Jake, who was able to build like a champion. After navigating Bunnings for an hour and a half, losing Bree twice, and then realising half way home he had forgotten to buy nails, Toby was about ready to throw the whole project in. But Ashley was so enthusiastic, there was no way Toby would even consider backing out. While trying not to swear and show too much frustration as wood refused to line up and the saw seemed far too blunt to cut straight, Ashley innocently wondered if Uncle Jake had had as much trouble as they seemed to be having when he built his dog kennel.
Ten minutes later, Jake had arrived and was laughing his guts out at Toby's efforts. "That's not even the type of saw you use!" He shook his head and reached down to swing Ashley up onto his shoulders. "Come on pal, let's go back to the Ute and get out the real tools."
The cubby was finished by three o'clock.
Both Bree and Courtney participated in gymnastics. Courtney only did the toddler tumble class, but Bree was showing an aptitude for the sport that rivalled Charlotte at the same age.
"She's like you. Perfect balance. Look at those flips!" Iris was a proud spectator at each of Bree'
s sessions.
Charlotte beamed at her daughter with pride. "She's naturally flexible so she doesn't have to work as hard at it."
Charlotte had been training the older gymnasts on and off to fit around her pregnancies for the last few years and they had been increasingly imploring her to return of late. She was the only one with any skill and training at acrobatics, and that was where their interest lay, much as hers had at the same age. There was no real reason for her not to come back; Iris liked to come down to the gym as well so she would always be on hand to watch Danielle and Courtney while Charlotte instructed her classes. She enjoyed training the girls; it was the only form of work she did anymore. The early morning shift at the radio station had been ideal when it was just Ashley, but once Bree had come along, Charlotte had no way of managing the four o'clock starts. She gave up trying and stayed at home; there was always enough going on there to keep her busy. When Bree turned two, she enrolled her into the toddler tumble class and was welcomed on board as an instructor before the end of Bree's first class.
While watching Bree and taking note of her posture as she entered into a double flip, quite an advanced move for a girl her age, Annabel, the current manager, came to stand beside Charlotte, a grim expression on her face.
"Charlotte, can I talk to you in the office?"
Charlotte paused, a ripple of unease moving through her. Normally she would just jump to the conclusion that Bree had done something she should not have, yet the gym was the only place she remained perfectly behaved no matter how long they stayed there. "What's wrong?"
Annabel beckoned for Charlotte to follow her. Once they were behind closed doors, Annabel slumped down at the desk, a weariness about her that Charlotte had never seen before.
"I'm leaving town. My husband has got a job over in Perth. Dad is selling the gym because he doesn't want to bother with it since I won't be here to run it. He wants me to close it down so he can just sell the building to anyone who wants it."
"When do you move?"
"Three weeks. We just found out; it's a short notice transfer."
Charlotte rested against the door, thinking rapidly. "Would your dad sell it as a gym if he had an offer?"
Annabel raised her eyebrows, looking at Charlotte with interest. "I don't see why not. Are you interested?"
Charlotte smiled widely. "What do you think? Get your dad on the phone so we can talk specifics. My husband is a lawyer; specifics is the only type of language he speaks."
Toby made enough money for them to live on comfortably. This was aided greatly by the fact that they had no mortgage to pay and no rent either; they lived with Iris in her fully owned home, so this saved them a lot right from the outset. They did not go away on holidays; the kids were too young to make going anywhere worthwhile and Toby was far too busy to consider it anyway, so they saved on that front too. While they had two cars, these were not expensive models, practicality winning out over style, particularly with Charlotte's car. Toby had lived off of an educational trust fund his solicitor had set up for him while studying for his law degree, but this had not been fully depleted and they were still using that money now to pay for Ashley's school fees.
The educational trust fund though, was just the tip of a very big iceberg. Toby was the sole heir to a fortune; a somewhat tainted fortune, but a vast one nonetheless. Added to this fortune were life insurance payouts, property settlements, and proceeds from the sale of his father's medical practice. Aside from paying for the plastic surgery she had needed in order to get her neck fixed, and their two cars, this money had remained untouched. While fully aware of the scope of his wealth, Charlotte tended to ignore it, because that was what he did. He budgeted his salary and kept careful consideration of expenses even though he did not need to. And while they never went without, they never lived with any extravagance. There was a curiosity within Charlotte about why he was so repelled by all of his money, but not so much so that she would dig around at him to find out. There were just some things you did not try and talk to Toby about.
Even so, the knowledge of this fortune was teasing Charlotte now that this new opportunity had presented itself to her. The amount of money a person might need, to say, buy a gym, would probably be an insignificant dent in the balance. Charlotte was more than capable of running a gymnastics academy, and she was certainly qualified as a trainer to do so. She just needed to be able to get Toby to see that and agree to it. She had made herself entirely dependent upon him financially, and it was only now when faced with a prospect she did not want to pass up, that she realised just how vulnerable that really made her. She was twenty nine years old and had no money of her own to speak of; she had been unemployed for more than four years now and owned nothing in her own name. There was no way she could do this without him.
It was rather sobering when you laid it all out like that.
Toby looked over the figures Charlotte had neatly laid out in front of him. They looked good, better than he might have expected for a gymnastics academy that did no advertising and had not upgraded their facilities in at least twenty five years. Even if it had looked less healthy financially, he would still never have refused her. It was good to at last be able to do something like this for her. She had given up her career to have his children and the significance of that sacrifice was not lost on him. Her sacrifice had enabled him to climb upwards in his own career and he was in a much better place now than he would be if he had needed to scale back his workload in order to help juggle things at home.
"You can talk him down from his asking price. All of the equipment is old and the whole place could do with a refit, which is what you should do when you take it over. Close for a few weeks and re-open with a fresh look. Back to the price though, he's asking too much. Take twenty grand off, at least, and then you work up back to fifteen below and stop at that. I think he'll take less though, but it's good to have room to move. I'll transfer some money into our joint account for now, but you'll need to open a business account. The bank will help you sort out what you need." He gathered the papers together and handed them back to her.
Charlotte stared at him, her hands remaining by her side, the papers still hanging out in front of her, clasped in Toby's hand. "You're saying yes? Just like that?" she asked, her expression wary.
Toby smiled at her, putting the papers down onto his desk. "You don't need my permission. My opinion is that it's viable and a good idea. But it's not up to me to say yes or no. You don't defer to me."
"But it's your money," Charlotte protested.
"Really? Hardly. Anyway, it ceased being my money right from when we first started living together as a family. Besides, most of it is in your name already. I set that up ages ago so you were protected if anything ever happened to me. I didn't want you having to go without for any period of time, because generally speaking, the more money you have, the longer it can take for estates to be finalised."
"What do you mean, if something happened to you?" She looked alarmed now.
"I mean if I die, Charlotte. Honey, I'm a lawyer. It's impossible for me to not think about the specifics of life in this manner. Anyway, we're getting way off track. I think this is a great idea, you'll be brilliant. It will be the best gymnastics academy in town. You should make an offer this afternoon and then go and sort out the bank account tomorrow." He looked over at her and grinned then. "Bree is going to be so excited. She'll get to spend even more time doing her favourite thing."
Charlotte smiled widely back at him. "I know. I think it will be good for us, to have that common interest. She's not as naughty there, so I might be able to tell her off less each day."
"Here's hoping." Toby glanced down at his watch with a frown. "I have to go. Sorry."
Charlotte stood up, gathering her papers up off his desk and sliding them into her bag. "That's fine. I have things to do. I'm a very busy person you know; no time for all this sitting around and chatting," she said to him, a breezy tone to her voice.
Toby lau
ghed at her, standing also. He really did need to go, but he did have time for one more thing. Walking around the desk, he grabbed hold of her face with both hands, kissing her hard on the mouth. "I love you."
Charlotte patted him on the shoulder, sending him a wink as she turned to leave. "It's very hard not to. I'm completely irresistible."
Toby smiled at her retreating figure. She really did not know just how true for him that was.
Annabel's father accepted a price twelve thousand dollars below his asking one. He wanted a quick sale so the gym changed hands rather rapidly. Jake had some connections to a couple of tradies who were available to work on the refit while Charlotte ordered upgraded equipment that arrived in time for them to install before her scheduled re-opening.
Bree spent every bit of time at the gym that Charlotte did, and in the space of three weeks, became an entirely different child. The flow on effect to the rest of the family was profound. Ashley was happier because Bree was no longer annoying him constantly; Courtney was less whiny because Charlotte was less cranky because Bree was less naughty; Toby was more relaxed in the evening because he was no longer bracing himself for an onslaught of complaints from his entire family each time he walked in the door. Iris and Danielle were essentially unchanged, one too indifferent to have even been bothered by all the fuss anyway and the other too young to be affected by anything other than an alteration in her feeding schedule.
When the gym re-opened, it did so with Charlotte in charge of the acrobatic classes, and two other existing coaches staying on and sharing the load of the other classes dependent upon their expertise. A play area was installed, not only for her own children, but for the use of others that came along while their older siblings trained. The kitchen in the back had been upgraded so Charlotte could make light meals for herself, the children, and the other staff members while they were there. She bought a coffee machine and offered it out as a help yourself with a one dollar charge to cover the coffee, milk and sugar. She quickly had more interest than she could cater for and needed to develop a systematic waiting list. The list grew longer so she advertised for a third coach.
Selling the Drama Page 24