by Odette Botha
“Dad please,” Joshua said when he saw me blushing.
“Lets get home your mother has been cleaning for days, she wanted to impress, you know,” his dad said nodding at me.
“So Katie we have spoken so many times on the phone but how is the new novel coming along? Any chance that we might get a peek at it?” Liz asked.
“I am afraid it’s not getting along at all, I started it and then my friends past away so my writing went a bit to the dark side. I am going to do a rewrite,” I explained.
“Yes Joshua told us about that, I am so terribly sorry, sometimes the work you do while you are so emotional helps you cope.
I too wrote a couple of short stories in my day. I published two of them,” she said proudly.
I never knew that about her, I was in a way very relieved knowing that we had something in common and we could relate.
The drive home was like being interviewed, they kept on asking questions it was nice answering the questions without wondering if your words would get twisted. It was almost like they tried to get to know my whole life story in only a couple of minutes.
The drive up to the house was breathtaking; they lived in a big white house with a huge front yard. There were big old trees along the winding driveway; it stretched almost a kilometre I imagined.
It was refreshing, coming from a concrete filled city to a place as peaceful and colourful as this. There were grass, trees and flowers something you didn’t really see in LA unless you bought it in a pot.
“Your sisters are in the house they will be so happy to see you and of course to meet the new Mrs Scott. Be kind to Haley she is six months pregnant as you know and she is very moody. Isabel is going through a divorce so they might not look like rays of sunbeams at the moment but they are usually happy children,” Liz explained.
She still referred to everyone as children. Joshua explained it once, they were her comfort when Edward had his affair, they were the only ones that kept her afloat.
He had fallen for her best friend and they almost got a divorce, they were separated for months but eventually they worked through their troubles and managed to find their way back to each other again.
Chapter 38
We walked into the big old house the smell of cake lingered in the air someone was baking.
Haley and Isabel greeted us by the front door, I could see immediately by Haley’s tummy who was who.
They were very happy to see their brother.
“Come let me show you your room, when you are settled we can have drinks outside by the pool,” his mom said pulling me by the arm to the back of the house where the guest bedroom was.
It was a nice room filled with light, the bed was much smaller than what we were used to but we didn’t need a big bed anyway. We use to sleep only on half of the bed. “Here is the closet, I made space for you, here are hangers. I will leave you to get settled,” she said before leaving the room.
“So am I going to get divorced after the interrogation in the car and lets not forget the comments about your hmm body from dad?” Joshua asked walking towards me arms out stretched.
“Not even close, I love you and your family,” I said reassuring him.
“Why don’t you go catch up with the family, I will pack out the things?” I suggested. “Are you sure?” He asked.
I nodded and gave him a quick kiss before he left the room.
I sat on the bed breathing slowly, there was nothing to it the family was nice I was stressed for nothing.
I heard a soft knock on the door.
“Come in,” I said looking at the door, it was Isabel.
“Do you mind if I come in and talk to you?” She asked as she walked in.
I never really spoke to her on the phone she was always busy, it was weird being in a room alone with her.
I didn’t know what she wanted to talk about.
“It’s about Josh, and you and your marriage,” she said when she sat down on the bed. “Alright,” I said hesitant.
“I think it’s a joke really, you guys knew each other forty eight hours before you jetted off to Vegas and got married. I know you said that you guys had known each other longer because of the movie but face it; you didn’t know a single thing about each other when you got married.
I know you have money so that wasn’t the motive so I figure it must be the celebrity status,” she said almost sounding angry.
I looked at her my mouth couldn’t move it felt like I couldn’t think of any words to say.
I couldn’t believe the words leaving her mouth; my first instinct was to slap it shut.
“I love him,” I defended.
“That I don’t believe. I think he looked at you and decided this will do as a one night stand. I must admit you are gorgeous but I don’t think this could possibly last. Do you have anything in common other than sex?” She asked.
I made my hand into a fist; I was just about to take a swing when Haley walked in. “That is enough Isabel, I think you should go,” she said to her sister.
Isabel got up and shot me one last look.
“The lust will go away and then he will realise he married the help.”
I got up ready to grab her back by her hair but Haley stopped me.
“Don’t, she is just a bitter woman,” she explained.
“Can you believe that little…” I said rubbing my hair out my face.
“Yes I can believe it she doesn’t like you, not for who you are but because she wanted Josh to end up with someone else,” she explained
“Who? A Hollywood actress?” I shot back never realising that my voice was raised.
“Well yes,” she admitted.
“And the rest of you, do all of you feel the same?” I asked my heart beating a thousand miles a minute.
“Are you kidding me, mom and I have loved your novels from the first one you published. We bought all of them and read them from cover to cover in only a couple of days. When we found out you guys got married we were ecstatic. Dad said you were gorgeous and an absolute sweetheart over the phone. We were only upset over not attending my baby brother’s big day,” she said pulling me closer for a hug.
I felt better after she said that.
I was so taken aback at Isabel’s nasty words that I was worried everyone felt the same, I was afraid she was just the only one who had the guts to say it out loud.
Hayley helped me pack away the rest of our things. She shared little stories about the baby and about them growing up.
It was nice to hear nice honest stories about him other than the stuff you usually read in the tabloids.
We left the room laughing at a story she told me about Joshua being scared of the tooth fairy when he was just a little boy, he thought that the tooth fairy came at night and pulled your teeth.
It was Isabel that told him that and when ever anyone spoke about it he would cringe. “Katie come sit here by me,” Edward said patting on the chair next to him.
“Dad please,” Joshua pleaded.
“Now Joshua we need to get to know this beautiful wife of yours,” Edward protested. “By the way when are we having the big wedding?” Liz said over the open plan kitchen counter.
“We haven’t really planned anything, my friends were going to organise everything, my one friend had an events company but sadly it never worked out,” I explained. “Why did they realise this marriage was over before it even begun?” Isabel interrupted.
“Her friends died in a car crash a month ago,” Joshua said irritated.
“Never mind her she is just sour because her husband lived a double life,” Haley said sarcastically.
“This family is cursed,” Isabel said rolling her eyes as she got up to leave the room.
“I am so sorry about her really I am,” Edward said pointing at his daughter.
“So tell me everything about you. Where did you g
row up? Do you have siblings? Your parents what do they do?” He asked not taking a breath, he was interviewing me again.
“Well I grew up in Alaska. I have one brother he is a paramedic in the army and my parents are both surgeons.”
“A family of medical people, why didn’t you become a doctor or something in the medical field?” He asked.
I looked at Joshua what I was about to tell him no one but Dean knew about me.
“I did go study medicine,” I said.
I saw Joshua move in his chair, listening more attentively.
“Didn’t you finish?”
Isabel walked back into the room again with a bowl of popcorn. I heard her mumble something under her breath, I just couldn’t make out what she said.
“No I finished. I am a doctor too,” I said softly looking at Edwards’s surprised expression.
“But why…” He started asking.
“I was on call one night at the hospital I worked at and there was an old lady that came in she had been raped and stabbed several times. I couldn’t handle the misery that went with the job. So I started writing and that took off so I gave up my job,” I explained
“Wow you are full of surprises but why aren’t you using your title? You are a doctor after all?” He asked moving in his chair.
“When I started writing I changed my name, most authors do that. I tried to make it so that my readers could relate to me. After all I was writing romance novels for teenagers at first so I used Katie Roberts instead of Dr Kate Roberts; the girls of that age would rather read the books if they thought of me as a girl next door, rather than a doctor.”
He nodded; I could see he saw my point.
“That is very clever.”
Isabel was till mumbling. Edward continued with his questions and I tried answering them as best I could.
Joshua did try a couple of times to stop his father but it didn’t help.
After a couple of hours of getting to know each other, Joshua’s mother called us for dinner. She had prepared a meal fit for kings she explained that she loved cooking. “I bet you don’t cook?” Isabel asked me with a smile on her face.
“Actually she does, since we got married I have been getting proper home cooked meals,” Josh said giving her a fake smile back.
“So tell us about the decision to get married how did it happen? I bet it was pretty romantic?” Haley asked sitting on the edge of her seat.
I looked at Joshua hinting that he must tell the story.
“I had asked her out on a date but she refused, she was at the time looking forward to a date with another guy. So I followed her on her date and I watched them, it didn’t work out so I tried to wow her with Irish coffee at my place. It was horrible.
We spend the next day on set, I asked her to be my girlfriend and that night I asked her to marry me. We had some complications but then we flew to Las Vegas and we got married,” he explained.
“The complications, was that the press conference you had?” Liz asked and we just nodded.
“My brother looked broken that day, but it was so romantic what he said about you on national TV,” Haley said.
“That’s not romantic that’s idiotic,” Isabel said.
“If you don’t shut up this instant you can take your plate and go sit in the room and eat,” Liz said widening her eyes at her daughter.
“I think it’s romantic. You probably kind of regret marrying him. He is such a knuckle head,” Haley said playfully.
“No I am glad; I love him he is the best part of me,” I said winking at him.
“I like love stories, you should write a book about it,” Liz suggested.
“I am busy with some drafts but I am unsure of the direction,” I explained.
“Yes so am I,” Isabel said.
Liz looked over to her and shot her a look.
“Okay I am leaving.”
She picked up her plate and left the room.
I put my fork down and pushed the plate away, I still had a little bit of food left but I just couldn’t eat it, Isabel had upset me. Joshua looked at me and realised what had just happened, he put his fork down and gave me a kiss.
I was a bit embarrassed it was the first time we kissed there in front of his family and everyone was watching us.
He whispered in my ear, “don’t let her upset you, they all love you my sexy wife.”
I was red in the face.
“Ah she’s blushing,” Liz said looking at me.
Joshua laughed at me trying to cover my face.
“You guys are such a nice couple, and Joshua she is really gorgeous,” Haley said.
“I know she is breathtaking.”
I covered my face again. Everyone was laughing at me because my face was red as a tomato.
“She’s not good with compliments,” Edward said laughing.
After dinner I helped Haley with the dishes, we insisted that Liz go catch up with her son.
“He loves you, you know?” Haley said looking down at the dishes in the sink.
“I love him too.”
“He has had girlfriends here before but he hasn’t ever looked at them the way he looks at you. When ever I phone him I could hear he is happy. He always tells me how happy he is.”
“I wish Isabel would lighten up on me so that she could at least enjoy the time with her brother,” I said sighing.
“She won’t, her husband left her for a girl who is barely of legal age and she can’t stand anyone else being happy.”
I felt sorry for her.
“Where is your husband?” I asked.
“He is away on business he will be back soon, I am still waiting on him to tell me when.”
“How’s the pregnancy going?” I asked
“Its nice it’s just my mood is a bit unstable from time to time, but we are coping. Are you planning on having kids?” She asked.
“We spoke about it and we both decided we weren’t ready. We are still too selfish, I still want him all to myself for now,” I said blushing again.
“Well when you are ready then you do it, don’t let anyone try and make you have a baby,” she said smiling at me.
“Are you girls nearly done? Your dad wants to play board games,” Liz said rolling her eyes.
“Yes Mrs…” I started but I wasn’t sure how to finish the sentence.
“Oh please don’t do that, it reminds me of my mother in law and I wasn’t very fond of her. Call me Liz or if you want mom. And with Edward call him Edward or dad what ever you are comfortable with.”
“Yes mom we are done,” I said.
I saw her eyes lit up when I said that.
We walked out to the lounge Edward had already plucked out all the games he could find.
“We are playing in teams of two,” he explained.
I walked over to Josh and sat between his legs on the floor.
“That’s no fair she is an author,” Haley protested when she saw the scrabble board on the table and Joshua and I were a team.
“I will play with you if you want?” I suggested.
“No you playing with me,” Josh said immediately.
We didn’t win the game but we came in second place. Edward and Elizabeth won the scrabble.
Later on we played monopoly it was Joshua’s favourite game as a child so it was nice playing it with him. I saw where he got his love for buying property from.
Isabel’s comments stopped after a while, when she saw how affectionate Joshua and I were with each other.
We got ready to go to bed when Liz came in with a stack of books. They were all books I wrote from my first one up until my newest one.
“Please sign them for me.”
She scratched in a drawer for a pen.
“This one should work.”
She scratched on the back of her hand and then she handed it to me. I opened the first
book and asked, “what do you want me to say?”
She looked up at the ceiling and thought.
“I don’t know say anything,” she said after she couldn’t think of anything.
“Oh and sign them Katie Scott please.”
I smiled at Joshua.
“Mom she is Katie Roberts Scott.”
“Okay that’s perfect, sign it like that please.”
‘Thank you for the support mom, I love you. Katie R Scott.’
She was pleased with that, I saw on her face that the surname Scott was important and that she wanted me to sign my married surname.
“You are an absolute sweetheart,” she said giving me a kiss on the cheek.
“It’s my pleasure.”
Chapter 39
I went for a shower before bed.
When I got out of the bathroom I walked through the passage to the room, I got distracted by the photos hanging against the wall.
I tried to get a look at them half in the dark. I laughed at some of them. Joshua pulled funny faces on most of them.
“He hated the camera he always acted up,” his mom said from behind me. I got such a fright I made a little shriek.
“Oh dear I am so sorry,” she said giggling at me.
“I didn’t realise you were standing behind me,” I said putting my hand on her arm.
We stood in the passage talking for a couple of minutes before saying goodnight.
I got into the bed, it was a very noisy old bed.
“No funny business in this bed for sure,” I said laughing.
Joshua put off the light next to him and turned to me he put his arms around me and held me.
“What do you think of the family?” He whispered in the dark.
“They are really nice besides for Isabel everyone has been very kind to me.”
“This family wasn’t always this happy, you know about dad.”
I laid on his chest and listened to the story, it was sad but at least it ended happily. I could hear that he was still very hurt by what his dad did.
I looked up at him and kissed him. He pushed me over and laid on top of me. The bed made such a noise that I started giggling.
“No funny business in the bed. But there are always other places and ways,” he said raising his eyebrows.
I nodded with a smile; he got up and locked the door.
I put a blanket and a pillow on the hard wood floor.
We made love on the floor that night it was almost like the night at the club, we couldn’t make a noise.