by Andrews, Amy
“Yes.”
Regina White was the co-anchor of Rise and Shine and well respected in the industry. Mostly, though, Edwina just wanted it done so she could head to the airport afterwards and catch her nine-thirty flight. The show was being hosted from the deck of Lullabar in the morning and they’d scheduled her for a slot at seven ten tomorrow morning, straight after the news.
Then Justin was driving her to the airport.
She snuggled into him more, trying to get closer, even though she’d have to roll on top of him to accomplish it. But Edwina couldn’t shake the strange sense of finality that had settled around them as they lay in their post-coital drowse.
The rally was over and in a few hours she’d be gone, and she didn’t know what the future was going to hold. She just knew she wanted him to be in it and that she couldn’t leave without telling him she loved him.
She pressed a kiss to his chest and took a deep steady breath. “I love you,” she murmured.
His hand stopped its lazy pattern and she could tell by the way his chin moved against her hair he was looking down at her. “What did you say?”
Edwina squeezed her eyes shut briefly before opening them again. She shifted, lifted herself up on her elbow, pushing her hair back over her shoulder as she looked down at him. Her heart tripped in her chest as she looked at him. He was all wonderful and shaggy, his lips full and sexy in the early morning light.
“I said, I love you.”
“Oh, thank Christ,” he said, his hand pushing into her hair, his head raising off the bed as he pressed a swift, hard kiss against her mouth. He grinned as he pulled away. “I love you, too. I’ve always loved you.”
His quick, easy confirmation was like a balm to the uneasy feelings swirling inside her and she grinned back, relieved beyond measure that her feelings were reciprocated, even if she had no idea how they were going to manage a relationship. This little bubble of time they’d had together was fast coming to an end and, the fact was, they were going back to real life.
He was a freaking movie star who lived in LA. She lived in Sydney with a dream acting job she was exceptionally lucky to have and a sister she loved and couldn’t leave.
High profile lives lived under a microscope.
“Ed.” He pushed a long lock of hair back that had fallen forward. “I can hear you thinking.”
Edwina shut her eyes. She loved this man so much, had loved him for four years, and these last five days together, despite certain noticeably crappy things, had been everything she could hope for.
He loved her, for crying out loud.
But she knew from experience that sometimes it just wasn’t enough. That love was all well and good, but they couldn’t live on that alone and there were practicalities to consider.
Love… sex… they were the easy parts; it was the relationship part that was hard.
And as much as she was loath to spoil the wonderful glow, she knew they had to have this conversation sooner or later and to save a lot of potential heartache it was probably better to have it sooner.
“I don’t want to… pressure you or come across as some borderline needy chick, who insists you have her name tattooed somewhere on your body because that’s not me.”
Justin laughed. “Thank god for that.”
“I’m not that girl, Jus. But… do you think we should talk about where to from here? I mean… there are inherent things in our relationship that are problematic.”
He smiled at her, his lips curving up amidst the scruffy stubble of his face and she reached out with her index finger and traced around the sexy line of his mouth.
“Like?”
“We don’t even live in the same country, Justin. And I don’t want to have some long distance relationship. I’ve seen how badly they suck, particularly in our industry with so much damn temptation around. It would be alright if I could just pick up and leave and go on location with you for a few months while you shoot your latest movie, but, aside from my own filming schedule, I can’t leave the country for any length of time because of Jenny.”
“I know,” he murmured, his hand now stroking up and down the small of her back.
He sounded so sure of himself but did he really know? Really understand? She had to be available for Jenny twenty-four seven. She couldn’t just take off on a whim.
“I can’t,” she repeated, “and I won’t, Jus. A holiday every now and then is fine. A couple of weeks here, ten days there but I can’t do anything more than that. Yes, she’s independent and she doesn’t need or want me hovering around, but the truth is she is my dependent and she does have higher needs, things that often just crop up on the spur of the moment that need to be dealt with. And besides all of that, I don’t want her to—” Edwina broke off, caught offside by a sudden swell of emotion that lodged like a freaking boulder in her throat, “—ever think I’ve deserted her.”
“Hey,” Justin said, his tropical gaze shadowing with concern, a little frown making his eyebrows form a ‘v’. He stroked the side of her face with the back of his hand. “I understand. And I’m not going to ask you to do that. I don’t expect you to… commute back and forth. I know how much Jenny means to you and I know that you have to be here for her.”
“But I don’t want to spend time apart from you either. Not now when we’ve finally come together.”
“God,” he groaned, lifting his head again, kissing her with infinite tenderness this time before pulling back, “neither do I. And we won’t be. I’ll just move back to Australia.”
Edwina blinked at the casual announcement. “What?” Now that she hadn’t expected. She shook her head. No. She did not want to be the one responsible for screwing up his career.
That shit just came back to bite eventually.
“No.”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“No. You can’t. That’s where the jobs are, where your career is.”
“I already told you I’ve been yearning to do other stuff. Some writing and directing and developing some projects.”
“Well, yes, but I didn’t think you meant to the sacrifice of your movie career. Your huge, stellar, multi-million-dollar career.”
“Are you afraid we’ll be poor, Ed?” he teased. “That I won’t be able to support you?”
She whacked him just a little harder than playfully on the arm. “Be serious. You know exactly what I mean, and for the record, I don’t need your damn money. I can support myself. What if a movie comes up that you love?”
“Then I’ll go there for however long it takes and come back and forth when I can.”
“So, you don’t expect me to commute but you’re perfectly happy to?”
He shrugged. “Yes. For the woman I love, absolutely.”
“Until it starts to get wearing.”
“Honestly, Ed, I don’t see it happening too often. And besides, surely every once in a while you can fly out and see me and bring Jenny with you. She’d love LA.”
The suggestion took Edwina by surprise. She’d never thought of travelling overseas with Jenny. But why not? A little flame of hope lit up inside her. “I could bring her with me to visit you, couldn’t I?”
He nodded. “Of course. If she wanted to.”
“I think if it was to visit you she just might,” Edwina smiled. “Of course, it’d be a big upset to her routine and she’s such a stickler for that, but if it was organised with some kind of advance notice for Bev and her boss then… yeah, it could be possible.”
Maybe they could make it work after all.
He smiled. “There you go then, but as I said, I think it’ll be rare, anyway. This is the perfect opportunity for me to make the break. Because I haven’t been satisfied with what I’ve been doing, not deep down, but it’s been easy and convenient. I’ve needed something to give me the prod to move on and frankly… I’m pretty damn excited.”
Edwina quirked an eyebrow. She felt light and dizzy, like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She slid her hand under t
he sheet that covered his hips to discover he was excited.
“Oh my,” she murmured. “So you are.”
He grinned. “What can I say? You’re nekkid and I’ve had some recovery time.”
“Well now,” she said pushing the sheet down and moving quickly to straddle him, his erection nestled at the juncture of her thighs. “I don’t think we should let that go to waste.”
The breeze coming through the open balcony door ruffled through her long blonde locks and brushed across her skin, pebbling her nipples.
“Jesus. You’re beautiful,” he muttered, his hands sliding up her body to cup her breasts, his thumbs stroking across the aching tips.
Edwina arched her back as sensation arrowed right down to her core. “You make me feel beautiful,” she said before leaning down, her lips greedily seeking his.
*
A light breeze blew across the deck of the Lullabar, a few hours later, and the ocean had quietened from the roar of the day before to a gentle lap on this, their first overcast morning.
It was a hive of activity, with cameras and crew all doing their thing to keep the outdoor Byron edition of Rise and Shine ticking over smoothly. But it was all superfluous to Edwina, well used to the cast of thousands it took to run any kind of television show.
She was nervous, grateful to have the coffee Parker had thrust into her hand before she’d taken her seat opposite Reggie. So nervous in fact, she’d asked Justin to come on with her. He’d agreed and then they’d all agreed that Reggie could also address the question of their relationship.
“So,” Reggie said, smiling at both, as they sat opposite her at a couple of the Lullabar café tables, “Edwina, I believe you’d like to address the allegations that have been made that you dumped your intellectually impaired sister into a home to hide her existence.”
Edwina winced a little internally at the boldness of Reggie’s opening but it was what they’d been saying in the press about her.
Justin squeezed her hand under the table.
“Yes, thank you, Reggie. I haven’t dumped my sister, Jenny, or kept her from the world because I’m ashamed of her. She hasn’t been put in a home and left to rot. I love my sister. I’ve been her legal guardian since our parents died over ten years ago. I don’t keep her existence from anyone. The people who know me well, know about Jenny. Most of them have probably met her.”
“But I guess with it not being common knowledge and her living in a residential care facility, I guess you can see how it could look to some people that you were hiding her,” Reggie asked.
“Well… no. And frankly it’s none of anybody’s business. I understand that I live my life under the spotlight. But that’s my life and my choice. It’s not Jenny’s life. Jenny is a private citizen and she deserves a life free of intrusive media harassment just because she happens to have a well-known sister.”
“Justin,” Reggie said, turning to him. “You knew about Jenny, yes?”
“Yes.”
His voice was deep and authoritative in her ear, and Edwina was so damn glad he was by her side, she put her hand on his thigh and gave it a squeeze.
“I’ve always known about Jenny. Edwina never tried to hide her from me or anyone else that she knew, for that matter. Sure, she did try to keep it largely private and, given the situation we have now, who can blame her? Jenny has special needs, which makes her particularly vulnerable, especially in front of a rabid media pack, and the fact that we now have cameras staked out outside her place is an unacceptable and atrocious invasion of her privacy.”
“Agreed,” Reggie nodded. She turned back to Edwina. “In retrospect, don’t you think it would have been better to have come out about this sooner?”
Edwina nodded. “I had thought about opening up about Jenny many years ago, to avoid this kind of thing, but my then husband urged me not to and, despite this… bloody big mess we’re now in, I’m glad I listened to him, even though his motives were far from altruistic.”
Reggie frowned. “What do you mean?”
“My motives to keep it a private matter were to protect Jenny from a media circus. His motives were to protect me from the shame of having a sister who wasn’t like everyone else. He didn’t think having a retarded sister was particularly glamorous.”
Reggie looked a little stunned for a moment. “Dale said that?”
“Yes,” Edwina said. “Those were his exact words.”
Which wasn’t strictly true. He’d actually used the word retard but Edwina wasn’t going to say it, not when Jenny was probably watching.
“In fact, you suspect it was him who leaked the story in the first place?”
“Yes. Dale hasn’t taken the divorce well and he didn’t take very kindly to the recent… publicity surrounding Justin and I. I believe he leaked it to get back at me.”
If Dale thought he could set off this bomb and then walk away scot free he was wrong. Dale always seemed to come out of things smelling like roses, but Edwina was going to make sure he came out of this with a lot of stink attached to him.
She wasn’t going to let him off this time.
“So… on the subject of your and Justin’s relationship, what can you tell us about that? Have you guys updated your relationship status on Facebook, for example?” Reggie asked with a smile.
“Oh, I think we might be avoiding Facebook for a while,” Justin joked.
Reggie laughed. “Fair enough. But you’re… together?”
“Yes,” Edwina confirmed.
Justin looked at her and Edwina could feel herself starting to blush.
“I love her,” he said, placing his hand on the table, palm up and holding it out to her.
“Yeah,” Edwina smiled, sliding her hand into his. A strand of her hair blew across her face as a seagull landed on the railing nearby. “We’re in love.”
“Aww, you two,” Reggie cooed. “Congratulations, that’s so lovely.”
Edwina, still blushing dragged her eyes off Justin. “Thanks.”
“There’s always been a fair bit of speculation about the two of you though, hasn’t there, over the years? Rumours that you were having an affair? I mean, your on-screen chemistry was insanely hawt.”
Justin’s hand tightened around hers. “Nothing has ever ever, ever happened between us until this past week,” he said, his voice steely. “When Edwina and I first met, there was definitely an attraction between us, but she was married and we both respected that.”
Reggie nodded, seemingly satisfied and Edwina could have kissed her. So many other anchors would have kept digging.
“So what’s next for both of you? Marriage? Babies.”
“Oh…” Edwina laughed, even more embarrassed now. They’d just gotten together and poor bloody Justin was being pressured into putting a ring on it already. “We’re just going to enjoy being together for a while, I think.”
“You don’t want to get married again?” Reggie asked with a worrying amount of faux-looking innocence.
“Well… yes… that is, I’m not against it. I just don’t think anyone needs that kind of pressure so early into a new relationship.”
“That’s okay,” Justin said. “You can pressure me.” Edwina frowned at him. He was grinning. “What?”
“Pressure me,” he said.
Edwina slid her gaze to Reggie who was also grinning. “Justin…?”
“No? That’s fine, I don’t need it. I’ve already made up my mind.” Then he stood and pushed his chair out of the way before going down onto his knee in front of her.
“Justin?” Edwina said, her heart pounding, her hands shaking as a cameraman with a hand-held got right up close.
He was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a trendy aubergine coloured jacket from where, out of the inside breast pocket he pulled a little velvet box.
“Justin,” she said again, her voice a little higher.
He opened the box, and nestled in a velvet cushion sat a ring with a huge square cut sapphire, surrounded by tiny dia
monds.
It was so stunning Edwina gasped. But… where the hell had he gotten that?
“Edwina Calloway, I love you. I have loved you for four long years and resigned myself to life without you. But, thankfully, true love does win out and here we are. Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?”
Edwina gaped as everything but Justin on his knees with the world’s most exquisite ring faded to black. Even the ocean seemed to pause in its relentless back and forth.
“Edwina?” Justin prompted. “These boards are hard on the knees.”
“But…” she stared at the ring, “where did you get it?”
“Parker gave me the number of a local jeweller and I may have used my influence just a little to get him to open up for me yesterday evening.”
Edwina glanced at Parker who shot her the thumbs up. So that was where he’d disappeared to.
“As soon as I saw this one, I knew it was for you. It’s the exact shade of your eyes. So… what about it?” he prompted. “Fancy being stuck with me forever?”
Edwina nodded, a rush of emotion clogging her throat and stinging her eyes. “Yes,” she said pressing her lips together to push back the sob. “Yes,” she said again, throwing her arms around his neck.
Justin stood with her still hanging on to his neck. The entire cast and crew, and the little crowd of people gathered to watch the show being taped, all clapping and cheering. When Edwina finally let him go, he pushed the ring onto her shaking hand. She looked down at it.
She was engaged. Getting married. To Justin Wilde.
“I love you Jus,” she whispered and, uncaring that the cameras were still rolling, she stood on her tippy toes and kissed him for a very long time.
The End
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