Never the Bride (Dilbury Village #1)

by Charlotte Fallowfield

  ‘I’ll make it up to you later,’ I whispered, brushing his lips with mine again. ‘Why don’t you grab the boys to help you cook while us girls chat?’

  ‘They’re a hindrance. Heath wants more coals on the fire, Dean wants less, and the others are arguing over whether sausages should sit in the grooves of the grill or across them.’

  ‘No one wants a gritty sausage that’s dropped.’ I winked, making him laugh and smack my backside playfully. ‘Can you find a few minutes to–’

  ‘Mummy!’ yelled Jackson, interrupting as he chugged behind us, and Teddy barked a greeting at me.

  ‘What, sweetie?’ I asked, my stomach still fluttering to hear myself being called that.

  ‘I’m hungry,’ he moaned as he pressed the button to stop the train by the house.

  ‘Already? You only had breakfast a while ago, and don’t think I didn’t spot you eating one of Teddy’s biscuits either. I’ve told you they’re no good for you,’ I warned him with a wagging finger. He giggled and bit his lower lip. He was completely fearless with anything he considered to be edible, as well as playing and climbing, which terrified me.

  ‘They’re yummy though,’ he nodded with a serious expression.

  ‘Yummier than Mummy’s cookies?’ Miller asked with a mock gasp. Jackson grinned and shook his head as he jumped off the train.

  ‘No, silly billy. Those are the absolute best,’ he exclaimed, giving his dad an honestly look. He ran over to put his arms around my knees and looked up at me through his dark lashes. ‘But I can’t reach the cookie jar.’ He pulled a sad, pleading face, which made us both laugh.

  ‘Which is a very good thing,’ I replied, hoisting him up as I made a mental note to move all of Teddy’s biscuits and cans of dog food up out of reach as well. I’d even caught Jackson with a spoon in Teddy’s food bowl one day when he was younger, eating the gravy-smothered chunks.

  ‘Not when I’m hungry,’ Jackson pouted.

  ‘You’re always hungry, son.’ Miller ruffled his hair and planted a kiss on his head. ‘One cookie, that’s all. Lunch will be ready soon.’

  ‘Not if you don’t cook it,’ I reminded him as Jackson snuggled up against me.

  ‘What were you going to ask me, baby?’

  ‘It can wait, go cook. Be with you in a minute,’ I called over to my friends at the table.

  ‘If you’re getting the cookies out, I’ll have one,’ Daphne responded.

  ‘Oh, me too,’ chorused Charlie, Quinn, and Georgie.

  ‘Rachel?’ I asked. We’d become closer, more because of Miller and Dean being best friends. She’d never be in my closest circle of Daphne and the three girls, but we got on well. She’d been to Fi-Fi’s wedding to a footballer last year, which I thankfully hadn’t been invited to, and had been mortified to find out that the “slutty dress” Fi wore had once been mine. We’d had a good giggle about that.

  ‘I’d love one too please, darling,’ she nodded.

  ‘Oh no, now everyone wants one of my cookies,’ Jackson sighed. ‘Will there be enough left for me?’

  ‘Yes,’ I laughed as I carried him inside. ‘Besides, they’re not your cookies, they’re for everyone. You know I always bake enough for you and Daddy, plus spares. But we can make some more together tomorrow, how does that sound?’

  ‘Can we make doggie-shaped ones, like Teddy?’ he asked, his face lighting up. Teddy was his best friend. He just adored him and Teddy was so protective of him.

  ‘We can make any shape you want,’ I confirmed, smiling as he squealed and clapped, then pursed his lips for a kiss.

  ‘Ok, now that all of the wedding talk is out of the way, how are you, Daphne? What’s the news from the school house?’ I asked. She was so happy in her new flat. We visited her often and still had her over for Sunday lunch. She was able to come all the way on her electric scooter if the weather was nice, like today. She’d even got herself a boyfriend, none other than Mr. Bentley. They’d sit holding hands as they watched the spectacular Shropshire sunsets from the communal lounge, which looked out to the Welsh hills in the distance. He’d never replace David, but I was so happy that they had each other. He’d zoned out and fallen asleep when we all started talking excitedly about the upcoming wedding and last-minute arrangements. Dilbury was going to be a hive of activity this summer.

  ‘Well, you heard about poor Joyce Weathers?’

  ‘The one whose husband died this week?’ Quinn asked. It was strange to hear her and Miller now talk with a slight British inflection to their American accents.

  ‘Well, it was Charlie’s fault,’ Daphne nodded, with a tongue in the side of her cheek as she gave Charlie a look.

  ‘What did I do?’ Charlie exclaimed indignantly. ‘I only met him at the village fête this year.’

  ‘Joyce had been reading one of your saucy books, got a bit excited, and convinced Frank to try out a position you’d written in one of your stories.’

  ‘Which one?’ Charlie asked, leaning in with a curious expression as the rest of us groaned and shook our heads, really not wanting to know.

  ‘The wheelbarrow,’ Daphne confirmed. ‘He only had a heart attack from all of the exertion and effort of trying to keep her legs in the air and fell on her. She was found pinned under him the next morning, as she hadn’t been able to get up to ring the emergency alarm.’

  ‘No!’ we all gasped, Georgie covering her mouth as she tried not to giggle at the thought of it.

  ‘And that’s not the worst of it,’ Daphne advised.

  ‘I’m already pretty grossed out, do we really need to hear more?’ groaned Quinn.

  ‘They had to call the fire service out, as rigor mortis had set in and, well, let’s just say I think it took a crow bar to separate them.’

  ‘Oh my God,’ I winced, covering my eyes as everyone else chuckled. ‘Charlie, you’ve made Dilbury a hot house of old age pensioner iniquity.’

  ‘I think I’d better start putting a disclaimer in my books,’ she laughed.

  Miller opened some champagne and set more bottles of beer on the table as we all gathered around to tuck into our feast, laughing and joking, especially with Dean telling us some new stories from Miller’s youth.

  ‘Mummy,’ Jackson yelled from the bottom of the garden, ‘I got Teddy poo all over me.’

  ‘Great,’ I sighed. ‘Why does he want me for the messy jobs and Miller for the fun ones?’

  ‘I’ll sort him out,’ Miller smiled, grabbing the box of wet wipes off the table.

  ‘Don’t eat it please, Jackson!’ I called back, making everyone laugh. I didn’t dare admit to them that I was being serious, it had happened before.

  ‘Ewww, it’s stinky. Bad Teddy,’ Jackson scolded, as my boy bounced around him, yapping.

  I had half an ear on the conversation at the table as I watched Miller trying to clean Jackson up. Teddy stole a fresh wipe from the box and raced around with it clutched in his jaws, shaking his head as he growled. There they were, my boys. My family. My heart and my home.

  ‘Excuse me a minute,’ I said to no one in particular as I got up and left the table and made my way down the garden.

  ‘I still don’t understand how you got it all over your hands, Jackson,’ Miller was saying as he wiped his own.

  ‘I was moving it, Daddy.’

  ‘Why? You know to tell me or Mummy to come with a poop bag to scoop it up.’

  ‘Teddy was sniffing it. I thought he was going to eat it. Mummy said it’s naughty to eat poo, that it makes you poorly, and I didn’t want Teddy to be poorly. He’s my bestest friend in the whole wide world.’

  ‘He is, isn’t he?’ I agreed as I joined them and put my arms around Miller’s waist. ‘Maybe we ought to find you both another best friend to play with. Would you like that, someone you and Teddy could have fun with?’

  ‘Who?’ Jackson asked, his eyes curious as he looked up at me. I looked up at Miller with a smile, holding his gaze.

  ‘Well, Mummy’s going to be having ano
ther baby in about seven months’ time, so you’ll have a little brother or sister to play with.’

  ‘Yay,’ Jackson squealed as he clapped his hands. Miller gawped at me, blinking a few times. We’d got pregnant with Jackson so fast, we’d assumed it would happen that way again when Jackson was two and we decided to try for another. But it hadn’t. We’d been devastated that after two years, nothing had happened. All the tests we had recently had showed nothing was wrong, so we couldn’t understand it. We’d pretty much assumed it wasn’t going to happen again, until Georgie and Daphne had spotted the signs before me, just like last time. Miller had been busy with a new game release and hadn’t noticed.

  ‘Seriously? We’re pregnant again?’ he asked, searching my eyes, as if he was fearful that I was pulling his leg.

  ‘Seriously,’ I confirmed. ‘I’m seven weeks according to the test I took earlier in the bathroom.’

  ‘God, Abbie! Best. News. Ever,’ he exclaimed. His smile lit up his face as he lifted me up onto his hips and we kissed. My stomach did a somersault just like it always did when he kissed me. It was a feeling I never wanted to lose. ‘I hope it’s a girl this time,’ he whispered against my lips.

  ‘Me too,’ I confirmed, linking my arms behind his neck as we smiled contentedly at each other. ‘How about you, Jackson? What would you like, a boy or a girl?’

  ‘Dunno,’ he huffed. ‘Will it be fluffy like Teddy?’

  ‘No,’ laughed Miller as I giggled and buried my face in his neck. ‘It will be like a tiny version of you.’

  ‘Oh,’ Jackson responded, not sounding overly enthused at that bit of news. ‘I’m not sure I want one then. I love Teddy’s fur.’

  ‘Well, we can’t send it back!’ I teased, lifting my head to roll my eyes at Miller.

  ‘I’m gonna have no cookies soon, not with all these new people who are gonna want to eat them,’ Jackson moaned.

  ‘You and your cookies,’ Miller chuckled. He smiled adoringly at me, making my stomach flutter, then kissed me again. The sound of his watch alarm forced us to break our embrace. ‘Sprinklers,’ he confirmed. ‘You cancelled the timer, right?’

  ‘No, that was your job,’ I reminded him.

  ‘No, I said, “We can’t forget to cancel the sprinklers today,” when we were having breakfast.’

  ‘Well, that’s not asking me to cancel them, Miller. That’s a statement.’

  ‘So you haven’t?’ he asked, a panicked look crossing his face as his eyes darted up to our friends who were all sitting at the edge of the lawn.

  ‘No,’ I replied quietly. ‘I take it that means you didn’t ei-’ I screamed as the lawn came to life, jets of cold water showering us both. I also heard the yells and screams of our guests as they tried to move out of range. Jackson chortled with delight, loving nothing better, other than his cookies, Teddy, and train rides, than playing in the water spray in the summer heat. Teddy yapped and jumped up and down, biting at the jets that were attacking him. ‘Damn it,’ I wailed, the water saturating my clothes as Miller started laughing.

  ‘What is it with you and me and getting wet, Abbie Davis?’

  ‘I’ve no idea,’ I laughed, using one hand to push my wet hair out of my face and thinking back to the first day I’d met him when we’d both got soaked. ‘But if the offer’s still on to take a hot shower with you, I’m all over that action.’

  ‘We have to kick out our guests first,’ he reminded me as we started squelching our way back up to the house.

  ‘They’re wet too, they’ll all want to get home.’

  ‘And we have a four-year-old who we can’t leave alone.’

  ‘We can ask Auntie Quinn to watch him,’ I suggested.

  ‘Someone’s desperate,’ he observed with a wide smile.

  ‘Make the most of this phase, before the super-tired and extra-irritable one kicks in again,’ I warned him, feeling my heart racing as I drank him in. Was it normal to still be so madly in love after nearly eight years?

  ‘I’ll take you any way I can get you, baby,’ he murmured, kissing the tip of my nose. ‘I love you. You, Jackson, Teddy, Quinn, and now my new little bump. I’ve finally got the family I’d always dreamt of. You’ve made me so happy today.’

  ‘You make me happy every day, Miller,’ I said, never more sincere. ‘I’m so exceptionally happy you chased me through the sprinklers all that time ago.’

  ‘Even when I’m grey and old and zipping around in an electric scooter like Daphne, I’ll still chase you through the sprinklers, Abbie.’

  I put my head on his shoulder as he carried me over to where our guests were trying to shake off the water, while Jackson and Teddy raced around, trying to get more on them.

  I’d truly believed I was cursed the day I’d stood there in that rainbow dress, but it turns out it had led me to my own pot of gold. Miller. I had everything I could ever wish for, and then some.

  The End

  Did you enjoy Never The Bride?

  If so, I’d be really grateful if you’d take a moment of your time to leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon, even if it’s only a sentence or two. They are so important to authors in helping other readers find our work.

  Thank you!

  If you enjoyed this, then try my other romantic comedy, Until We Collide.

  http://mybook.to/UntilWeCollide

  Free on Kindle Unlimited

  The first 10% of Until We Collide is available for you to sample for free on Wattpad:

  www.wattpad.com/user/charlottefallowfield

  Next Release

  I’ll be staying in Dilbury for a while, bringing you more romantic comedy tales from the villagers, including Quinn, Charlie, Heath Jones, and Lord Kirkland, as well as a newcomer to the quaint English village, Fleur Dubois.

  Georgie will be back this August in her romantic comedy story,

  The Great Escape – Dilbury Village #2.

  A tropical beach paradise in Mexico was the last place Georgie Basset expected her decimated heart to be jump-started again, not after she’d been jilted the year before by her fiancé, leading to said breakage. But when she spotted Weston Argent jogging along the beach, all bronzed with ripped muscles like some Greek God out of a modern day Baywatch scene, she nearly choked on her cocktail. She knew immediately she was in trouble, she’d never reacted so strongly to a man on first glance.

  However, after a disastrous first date with him, she headed back home to Dilbury, resigned to never seeing him again. That is, until Weston turned up unexpectedly at her dog grooming parlour with Bertie the bulldog, a species she had a real weakness for. She couldn’t help but wonder if fate was playing a helping hand. But each time she saw him, their encounters never went smoothly, resulting in some mortifying and hilarious escapades. Despite their undeniable attraction, there was something about Weston that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, something that held her back.

  When Weston finally confessed that all was not as it seemed, Georgie was convinced that all men were dogs, except she knew that was an insult to dogkind. Ever the meddler, her best friend, Abbie, intervened, knowing in her heart that despite what had happened, Weston was full of good intentions, and was undoubtedly Georgie’s Prince Charming.

  The question remained, could he convince Georgie of that, or would he forever remain in the dog house?

  Newsletter

  To receive my quarterly newsletter, which includes release updates, giveaway information, and teasers, simply sign up here:

  http://eepurl.com/bvwKoD

  My website holds the most comprehensive information about me, as well as my current and up-and-coming releases, but you can also follow me via my other social media links or join my Facebook fan group, “The Fallowettes.”

  www.charlottefallowfield.co.uk

  C.J. Fallowfield

  If you enjoyed my humour and don’t mind some steamy scenes, angst, drama, and suspense, then check out my humorous erotic romance novels, written under the pen name C.J. Fallowfield. These
are strictly for the over 18’s.

  All are available to Kindleunlimited subscribers

  http://author.to/CJFallowfield

  Shrewsbury

  While the village of Dilbury, Severn Manor, and Lord Kirkland and his estate are all fictitious, the gorgeous medieval town of Shrewsbury, set in the heart of the Shropshire countryside, does exist. I was lucky enough to grow up there, and I still live nearby.

  Shrewsbury is famous for being the birthplace of Charles Darwin, for hosting the renowned annual Shrewsbury Flower Show, and for being crowned Britain in Bloom’s Champion of Champions in 2014. Full of historic architecture and quaint boutique shops, it’s well worth a visit.

  Some of the businesses mentioned are also real, tried and tested. Here are some links for you to find out more about them, and Shrewsbury itself:

  Shrewsbury

  http://www.shrewsburyguide.info

  JOL Photography – James & Caroline Bloor

  http://www.jolphotography.co.uk

  Rosie Posie Wedding Flowers – Sarah

  http://www.rosieposieweddingflowers.co.uk

  The Peach Tree

  http://www.thepeachtree.co.uk

  Yummy Cakes by Jess

  https://www.facebook.com/Yummy-Cakes-by-Jess-308665832503066/