‘But don’t you understand? It was only three months after I lost Tom.’ Her eyes were anguished.
‘Ellie, the point is, you had lost Tom.’
She stared into his eyes.
‘Things don’t stay the same, sweetheart. Things change in those circumstances.’
‘Is that…is that what you meant about dealing in the truth?’ she asked. ‘Did you suspect all along?’
‘No. I was hoping to get you to admit that you wouldn’t sleep with any man the way you did with me unless you were in love with him.’
She was racked by the memory of their love-making and buried her head against his chest.
‘Ellie?’ His hands moved on her very gently.
She raised her head and her eyes were full of tears but she was smiling. ‘No, I wouldn’t.’
She felt the reaction in his body—a jolt of intense relief—then he was kissing her as if he were starved of her.
He lifted his head abruptly. ‘How can I make up for all those years and for being such a blind fool?’
‘Shall I show you?’
His gaze narrowed, then he nodded.
She took his hand and led him to her bedroom.
‘I think I get the picture,’ he murmured.
She laid his hand over her heart. ‘Do you? I was going to suggest some wild, glorious sex but if you have any other ideas?’
‘Not a one, my mind is a complete blank—that part of it that is not reeling from the thought of being wild and glorious in bed with you!’
They laughed together, then helped each other to undress with growing urgency. And the flame between them was more intense than it had ever been so that they lay in each other’s arms speechless and shaken afterwards.
Until he said, ‘About Africa.’
Ellie moved cautiously in his arms and kissed his shoulder softly. ‘I do understand.’
‘No, I don’t think you do. I didn’t understand myself until the other night when you fell asleep in my arms after I’d been talking about it. All of a sudden I felt different—yes, I’ll always have great memories. Yes, one day I’d like to take you there.’ He stroked her hair. ‘But it’s not in my blood any more. You’ve replaced it.’
She sat up. ‘You don’t have to say that.’
‘It’s true.’ He cupped her breast. ‘I always thought of it with this…niggle of discontent because I wasn’t there. Now I think of it with warmth and affection but the niggle has gone. As for being a loner, that has well and truly gone. I would have come home this morning anyway because I was missing you like hell.’
She sighed with sheer contentment and lay back in his arms.
‘Happy?’ he queried.
‘Blissfully,’ she conceded. ‘And I know someone else who is going to be over the moon. You know—he missed me.’
‘Why wouldn’t he?’ Brett asked.
She shrugged.
‘You don’t seem to understand what a special person you are, Ellie.’ He rolled her onto her back and leant up on his elbow so he could look into her eyes.
‘What can anyone say to that?’ she answered ruefully.
‘Then I see that I’ll just have to remind you on a regular basis.’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t want you to have to work at it,’ she protested.
‘Work? That’s a strange name for pure pleasure,’ he said quizzically, and kissed her to stop her laughing.
They told Simon as soon as he got home from school.
His reaction was pure Simon. ‘Yippee!’ He threw his cap in the air, hugged Ellie enthusiastically and shook Brett gleefully by the hand. Then he sobered. ‘That’s a big weight off my mind, guys! I was only saying to Martie yesterday how grown-ups like to make things awfully complicated.’
Ellie closed her mouth after a moment and said, ‘You’ve been discussing this with Martie Webster?’
‘Sure. He’s my best friend. We’d even cooked up a little plan.’ He grinned mischievously. ‘I’m really happy I don’t have to go through with it!’
‘What sort of plan?’ Brett asked in a strangled kind of way.
‘I was going to fall off my bike, not too seriously, just enough to get Mum in a tizz so you could comfort her and patch me up and…’ he shrugged ‘…be a hero.’
With a perfectly straight face Brett turned to Ellie. ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’
But she was laughing helplessly although presently she said, ‘Listen, you two, I just think I ought to issue a general warning. You have ganged up on me in the past—don’t even consider it in the future!’
‘We wouldn’t do anything like that, would we, Simon?’
‘Only when it’s really necessary, Brett,’ Simon returned gravely. ‘Hey—’ he sat down at the table ‘—we’ve got a wedding to plan!’
They got married two weeks later.
Ellie wore a simply styled white dress encrusted with tiny white voile flowers and she carried yellow rosebuds.
Simon and her father accompanied her down the aisle, Simon bursting with pride and happiness and wearing his first suit. And although her father left her at the altar, Simon stayed at her side throughout the ceremony. After Brett had kissed the bride, he threw his arms around his mother and whispered into her ear, ‘You did good, mon!’
The reception was small but lively—the McKinnons, Gemma Arden, the Webster family and her father and stepmother. And Chantal and Dan Dawson.
Chantal looked sensational. She was poured into an aquamarine silk dress and wore a cartwheel hat smothered in feathers. And she too, as she hugged Ellie, said, ‘You did good, honey!’
Ellie laughed and thanked her, adding, ‘How goes it with you and Dan?’
Chantal glanced over her shoulder to where Dan was standing beside Brett. ‘You know, there’s a lot more to Dan Dawson than meets the eye. Not that I’ve made any decisions! But he’s getting to be a bit like a fixture in my life.’
Ellie squeezed her hand warmly. ‘I’m—’
‘Don’t say it,’ Chantal warned. ‘But I’ll keep you posted.’
After the reception, Brett took her away to a hotel for the night—they were to fly to Tahiti for their honeymoon the next day. Simon was staying with her parents.
Still in her slim, lovely dress, she waited while Brett tipped the bell hop. Then he came to stand in front of her and he took her roses and laid them on the bed and put his hands around her waist.
‘You’re looking very serious, Mrs Spencer.’
‘That’s because I’m seriously in love with you, Mr Spencer,’ she replied, and added softly, ‘Thank you for a lovely day.’
He drew her closer. ‘I can see this is one of those occasions when I need to remind you how special you are—if any thanks are due for a lovely day, they’re due to you, my darling.’
‘Maybe it’s just—us,’ she suggested.
‘You could be right. We are special.’ He kissed her lingeringly.
‘Although—’ the little golden points in her eyes glinted at him ‘—you have done one thing for me that I’ll be eternally grateful for.’
‘What’s that?’
Her lips curved into a gorgeous smile. ‘I’m no longer Elvira Madigan.’
‘Oh—is that why you married me?’
‘Of course! Didn’t you guess?’
‘So…’ his hands moved up her back and he released her zip and eased her dress off her shoulders and down her body ‘…it had nothing to with this?’ Her bra came off next and she stepped out of her dress, and he removed his hands.
‘That’s…wicked,’ she breathed as he stared at her breasts.
‘Wicked, wanton—ah, wonderful,’ he said softly as her nipples peaked and he covered them with his palms and looked into her eyes. ‘Could this be a prelude to the kind of wild and glorious sex you specialize in, Mrs Spencer?’
‘Try me, sir.’
He did.
Eighteen months later the first note on the fridge said:
Dear Mum, now that Lucy is 3 month
s old can I start teaching her to talk? And walk? By the way, I don’t think it’s good 4 her 2 b in her own room, she can share mine if you and Brett are going 2 b so heartless about this.
Your loving son, Simon.
The second note read:
Simon, talking, yes, but, going on yourself, you didn’t walk until you were about fifteen months old so it’s probably too early for that. Thanks for the offer of your bedroom, dude! But she’ll be fine in her own room, promise. And I really appreciate all your help, I don’t know what I’d have done without you.
Your loving Mum.
P.S. Brett says thanks a million too! And just to show we mean it, there’s a frozen pizza in the freezer with your name on it.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8061-2
HIS CONVENIENT PROPOSAL
First North American Publication 2003.
Copyright © 2002 by Lindsay Armstrong.
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His Convenient Proposal Page 16