“It’s not him Dad, it’s Chris whose buying them, stop pretending you didn’t already know, he’s buying everything his father wants, but the difference is he wants to keep them all up and running, but the offer is sound Dad, how’s my little man?”
“He’s here. Ethan come to Papa, Mummy is here, see Mummy is waiting to see you, you and Chris are alright?” I nod.
“I will talk in a minute Dad can I speak to my baby first? What I really need is a cuddle.”
“Mummy, Mummy here Mummy come see me.” My heart broke being away from him.
“Mummy is here little man, are you being a good boy for Papa?”
“I always a good boy me eating my eggs and soldiers Mummy see, you have breakfast too?”
“No baby, I’m going to bed to sleep, its nigh time here.”
“Why it not night here too, you silly, sun out and bird singing, look see I show you.” He goes to the window, points and runs back to Dads lap. Dad takes over as Ethan rushes off in search of a whimpering noise.
“No Ethan, Mummy knows it’s sunny here, oops he’s off, the puppy Luis got him has him totally indifferent to anything going on around him, and he and Mojo are best buddies.”
“He got him a damn puppy, oh I am going to kill my big brother. He needs to get his own kids to spoil, I said no.”
“Technically it’s Luis dog, he’s just sharing it with Ethan.”
“Technically my ass Dad, you fell for that?”
“Technically no, but Mum thinks I did and she likes the little fella too, he’s a bouncy golden retriever puppy and your son adores him, besides you wasn’t here to say no.”
“Oh Dad low blow, like I’d want to be anywhere else.” I sob because I miss my Dad and Ethan.
“I know baby, so what’s Chris like? I’m sorry for what Rachel did to you both, she isn’t welcome in my life anymore, not when what she did robbed Chris of a chance at being your husband, and stopped poor Chris from being a father to Ethan.”
“Dad I stopped that, but I know what you mean. He wants to try again, pretend like it never happened, but it did and I have to tell him about Ethan, he may want to fight me for him, then what Dad?”
“He won’t, he will understand your reasons. We know now he has been robbed of over two years with his son, years we can’t give him back, but he is his son and Ethan needs to know him, they need to know each other, children are so accepting, so don’t worry about Ethan he will be fine, he’s getting a daddy.”
“I’m going to tell him tomorrow Dad. He has your phone numbers now and knows where we live, I was upfront about everything apart from Ethan, how do I tell him, oh here you are Chris, that’s a picture of your son, who I kept from you, because of what I thought you did with my sister? Rachel has a lot to answer for Dad, It’s a bloody good job she didn’t know about Ethan. I promise, I will tell him tomorrow, but for now can I see my little man before I hit the sheets?”
“Of course buenas noches cariño. I love you so much baby and miss you more.” I smiled as he span the screen for me to see Ethan chasing the ball of fluff, that was Mojo, around the terrace, he was cute and then Ethan fell over the dog, there were tears and then a shrill laugh as the puppy jumped all over him licking his face, wow he was a happy little boy.
“Bye Dad see you soon, give him a love for me and see you as soon as I wrap everything up here, hopefully a hell of a lot sooner if Chris has them all.” He waved and went he went to sort out his grandson. I changed and stripped the war paint off and grabbed a whiskey from the bar and opened the doors to the veranda outside of the room, to hear a raised voice and swearing.
“Holland, the deal has been done and I own the hotels. So suck it up old man and live with it, no I am not fucking messing with you, I told you three years ago, that I would make you pay. You sent in your lackey Gerry Frisco in under the guise of Labyrinth really Holland? They were the first hotel group you bought out. No Holland, I will not sell them to you, you were shutting them down as they were competition for you, besides what the fuck did Hugh do to you to want to stiff a dying man, tell you a few home truths, well I learnt that night what a bastard you are, so when I said I hadn’t got a father anymore I meant it. Goodbye and good luck Holland.” Chris comes on to the balcony and at first doesn’t see me, and then he does, and smiles.
“Nice night for a walk along the beach, pity there aren’t any here. I was just watching the little people down there, getting on with their lives oblivious to being watched by me way up here in the clouds.”
“People watching you do it too?” I smile, no Bella, when we danced on your sixteenth birthday you chatted on and on about the people in the room, but I know you like to do it and for me it’s become a habit I fell into, by happy accident, as we danced she told me her tall tales of the couple next to us being spies, and they were here to steal the Russian man’s personal files, and the elderly couple who were pick pockets and were busy trolling the room taking rich pickings. I laughed and said the young man opposite, was a poor man looking to be a rich woman’s gigolo, she laughed and said I had to make something up Luis was in fact a gigolo, but he wasn’t poor…
“I sometimes watch them and make up stories yeah, please don’t laugh at me Bella. I only do it to get away from my everyday life. I also sit and crowd watch when I have made a bad life choice. Then I sit wishing I could change something bad I did or didn’t do, I get headaches when I think about some of the things like that, you know the what if’s? You know things you wish you could change and do differently?”
“Do you need to change many things you have done Chris?”
“Lots Bella, there’s lots in my life I wish I could turn back the hands of time for, and have a do over. The biggest is not looking all across the island for you that day and trusting your sister to see you got the letter and my messages. That killed me every day. Then the family stuff, not meeting my mum, fighting with dad and my siblings not being closer. We were all abandoned by Dad, so you’d think we would be close, but we’re not. Still Roger, twenty years later, hates me. He left my life three years ago, and is still a bitter and twisted young man. The last time I saw him was after Dad got back from our engagement, and the bastard had feigned a heart attack, Roger came to the ranch, when I ignored his calls and he ended up in the pig pen, you know the brother who called me Junior? Then there’s lots of other little things and painful things, I wish I could change. Have you many regrets in your life Bella, things you wish you could change? If I gave you the gift of time travel for a one off do over what would it be?”
“Oh that’s easy, but I’d need two turn backs, one to about two years ago when Dad didn’t take the doctors’ orders seriously enough to get checked out and sooner, rather than the later he did. Then just one other time that was a particularly confusing and sad time for me, but that I can’t do over, as much as I’d like too, do-overs are a fruitless waste of time. I stopped wishing for that piece of my life to play out better, three years ago, besides you have to live in the now, not the past, you can’t change your past no matter how much you wished you could. I don’t think that part of my past I would change, even if I could, I’d gain a little yes and lose more, so much more. I’m going to bed and try to get some sleep. Today has been different I will give you that, it’s Christopher Robin time and sleep is needed. Lord I do hate not having my own bed, night and I will see you at breakfast.”
“Goodnight Bella and thanks for listening to me gripe.” I smiled and went inside, I am going to get him back, I am going to tell him about his son, and I am going to do it tomorrow…
…She laughed and closed the doors, goodnight sweet Bella tomorrow I win you back…
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Bella:
I wake up after a fraught night’s sleep, I must have ignored my alarms too. I to find I’ve over slept, why did Molly not wake me? That’s right, I emailed her and told her to get her things from her apartment and bring them here, as we could be away quicker than I expected, if today�
��s meeting goes to plan. I slept very well listening to Winnie the Pooh on my iPod it seems you are never too old to listen to it. I order room service and have a shower whilst I wait and as I sit on my bed, through my open bedroom window I hear Chris on his phone again does that man never sleep? He was on his phone most of the night, it seems they want him back in Australia and he has asked for three days, two I think were offered. He’s on now to his assistant, as Judy is mentioned not Parker, I haven’t seen the delectable girl and I wonder if Chris has told her to keep her distance? I think its Judy as there are lots of yes dears and no dears.
“Right Mel, I am back in Perth the day after, so I will fax you the copies of the contracts Bella gives me today. Have Mitchel and Price go to their corporate headquarters there, and do a full audit as soon as the hotels are ours. No keep the staff in place for the moment no tell them everything stays the same for the foreseeable future, there will be redundancies and offer good early retirement packages. Yes there will be some job losses, but no, not in the thousands, I will be a trimming the fat cats, and seeing to the basic staffing levels. No Humphries Hotels have always been run well, so I highly doubt there will be a great need for major changes, Hugh Humphries ran and still runs a tight ship, of course some jobs will go if we bring our people over.” Good he’s keeping them as they are for now he is a man of his word, how very refreshing and yes interesting.
“Mel, I know it was an expensive buy, but I had to have them, yes she means that much to me yes, her father was extremely nice to me once and made me what I am today. Mel, they have family, you know how much family means to me, you are the only family I have sister dearest, and at the moment the biggest pain in my rear, so the funds are in place? Good and it’s everything Bella agreed on? I actually thought she was going to squeeze my bollocks for more, yeah, yeah metaphorical, not actual. Yeah, you’ll be the last to know if she does, I know you and that mouth.” He bought the hotels just to see me is he mad? I won’t ask for a penny more, but he’s mad to do it just for me. No, they make good money but take all of Dad’s time and time I know he doesn’t have, I know he’s putting his affairs in order I’m not totally stupid.
“Good one sis, see you in Perth, company jet? Yeah, of course you can use it I will have three more to add to the fleet soon. Yeah, the Humphries can keep using The Isabella, as my gift to him and them. No we will pay its upkeep, yes but all flights are still to be logged, yes, it’s on loan to them, but under no circumstances does the bitch of a sister of hers use it for her jaunts to Moscow, and use it to be ferrying her mother around for shopping trips, yeah, she does. I bet Hugh didn’t know.
That’s old news though she was fired and she was cut off from anything to do with the family, yes, she’s been cut off by her brother and sister. No, I’m not shitting you. Why? Because she was behind our split yeah, no I’m not shitting you. Really are they the only words you know, if so your daughter will come out saying no shitting you?
Really, you never read your emails I sent you the full version and yes, I want her back I know, I know alright keep your hair on are you alright? Are you sure, how’s the baby? She’s fine good, no good, but keep your legs up, you shouldn’t be working, the doctor said you were dumb getting pregnant, because your bones are still weak from the accident. I know I worry, but I’m allowed too, because I love you. Read your damn emails see you later and legs up or I come and drag you back home.” I could bound over there and kiss him, well that’s not strictly true, because there’s a wall between us, both a real one and a metaphorical one.
“Luis flies commercial between hotels and I think Isabella has only flown this one time in nearly three years? Yes, my security do monitor all their flights, where she was I couldn’t tell you then, I know now, she told me everything, read the damn email I sent you. Yes, I know her Dad did a good job hiding her from me, it’s in the email.” I laugh and fall madly for my smooth talking baby daddy.
“I want her to design the new hotel in Cancun for me. if she has the time, yes, she’s CEO of Humphries Hotels, well for now, but I highly doubt she wants to work under me running my hotels. Get your dirty mind out of the gutter Mel, yeah, I’d kill to have her under me, crude and hornie, but just for her my dearest little sister, you heard it here I love that bloody woman, sister dear. Anyway, I know that beach front is calling out for the best hotel ever, yes, I am going to build it next to Hoyt’s place there, and I’ll show him the land my mum left me is in a beautiful location for an equally beautiful hotel built on it. Thanks for finding the deeds to it in the paperwork Grandma sent me. I would never have known I owned it, and for that alone I want to show him he can’t mess with me or us.”
So, he wants me to design a hotel for him in Mexico, does he? I hear a laugh, it’s his sister he’s talking to on the phone and sounds happy too, and there is a knock at the door, umm plenty there to digest over pancakes and strawberries, and boiled eggs and soldiers.
“Yes put it on the veranda, breakfast al fresco I think? Yes, out there thank you.” I sign the chitty and casually walk out on the balcony, to see he’s people watching again.
“Good morning Bella, are you having a later breakfast too?”
“Umm, I had a very rare sleep in, sorry. I would say join me but there’s only enough for me.” I uncovered the lids and I was wrong there was two of everything. He was over the wall in one jump.
“I took the liberty of ordering mine to come here, and as you asked me so nicely to join you last night, I will thank you.”
“Make yourself at home.”
“Well after today it will be one of many, thank you and cheers.” He picks up the orange juice and clinks my glass. “They were my favourite breakfast, that and peanut butter and jelly on toast. Wow, and you eat them too, I eat them with the twins and Thomas, my adopted kids, Henry and Tammy send their love, and say you have to come back with me and see their children.”
“I know you got custody of Tammy in the split, she too was a casualty of fucking Rachel, sorry about my language. I will try to kerb it, but I can’t forgive her for what she did. The boiled eggs and soldiers, I have them with my… Dad every morning, and yes I love them too, nursery food Dad calls it, I have to have my creamed potatoes with everything, he says I should be over baby food by now, but just when the need went away I got swept back to wholesome foods.”
“My favourites still mac and cheese, that’s all I ate when I got Chicken Pox. Creamed potatoes, yes, I love them too, and if you throw in sausages haphazardly stuck in the side of mash mountain, and a pea river and a gravy trail over the top, now that’s a meal and a half, fit for any big kid. That and green trees and white trees, with cheese sauce snow over it, and shush never call it cauliflower cheese, or I won’t eat it. I have been known as a child to throw a tantrum, if I thought nanny was giving me anything but peas and corn as my vegetables. I was quite the brat apparently for eating my vegetables?” I oh-ed he was in a talkative mood.
“So apart from chickenpox did you have any other childhood diseases?”
“Measles, a broken arm twice, a cut chin, a sprain ankle and my appendix out when I was three, I got bent out of shape like any other kid, but nothing major, and you?”
“Chickenpox, measles twice, mumps and wow I had my tonsils out when I was twelve, no brakes or sprains though I did fall off my pony and hurt my bum for a week or two, bruised my cheeks and my ego.” He laughed as I cut the top off my egg, and proceeded to dunk the soldiers in.
“You didn’t say sorry for chopping off Humpty’s head.” I dropped the knife in shock, how the hell did he know that’s what Ethan did, a strange thing he and Dad did every breakfast time.
“Sorry what was that?”
“When I was little I used to say sorry Humpty I can’t put you together again my belly is hungry.” I am stunned and happy, they share a bond and he doesn’t know it yet! “Your dad taught me to say that he sat with me one day at the breakfast table at some conference we were at, and I was being uppity for my nanny and
didn’t want boiled eggs. I wanted pancakes and syrup, he made it a fun game and after that I had them every day for years, I had the pancakes too, but not before I took Humpty’s head off either once or twice depending how many eggs I wanted to do battle with. I liked your dad he was always nice to me, I think he missed Luis and your bratty sister, so used to look for a child to spoil and I was there a lot, I have several photos my nanny’s took I will find them and send them to you.”
“Thank you, do you know that you have known my dad longer than me?” I laughed. “He didn’t do the Humpty’s Head with me, so I feel cheated.”
“Argh but were you a brat with food?”
“Not as a child, but I was a troubled teenager, who battled anorexia, he tried stuff to get me to eat, but in the end, he gave up, the counselling worked and now I eat properly.” He looked shocked, by my revelation.
“One of my sisters had that, Sommer, she was a messed up kid, but she did other stuff too, one of the seven damaged kids Dad had, she died of a drug overdose, she really couldn’t be helped, I’m glad you were helped.”
“Funny thing, the thing that started it all was the thing that ended it all too. For years, I’d had my dad to myself, and when Rachel was allowed to finally come and see us, I got mega jealous of their time together. So for years I tried to be thin like Rachel and look like her, but I couldn’t be as thin as her, I read somewhere about, you know throwing up and it kept you slim. I was addicted to it, and then one day she was here again visiting and I’d forgotten to lock the door, and she caught me with my fingers down my throat, and she laughed and said the best way was the toothbrush down the throat you don’t gag as much. I then realised what she did to stay thin, and I didn’t want to be like her ever again, it took a few months but I started to eat and get the weight back on, and Dad was happy again, the stupid things you do to win affection, Rachel? Her and I hated each other well before that morning.”
Soul Mates. The Beginning. Page 33