During this course, Emma turned to me. “So, tell me, how was Will’s proposal?”
“It couldn’t have been more perfect.”
“I’m glad. He was so nervous.”
“I couldn’t tell.”
“He’s a good actor. He has a bit of a perfectionist streak and he was worried about getting everything just right.”
“He shouldn’t have worried. I don’t need all this. I just need him.”
“I thought as much. I don’t think he would love anyone who would require all this. He’s just a romantic, that’s all. Olivia and I trained him well.”
“Well, thank you for that. I’m very lucky.”
“Yes, you are so you’ll have to humor him sometimes. I’ve been hearing about you for months though and, from what I’ve heard, he’s pretty lucky too. I spoke with him the week he met you and I was certain even then that this was what he ultimately wanted.”
James asked Emma a question and she turned to speak to him.
I leaned over to Will and whispered in his ear, “I love you. I’ve loved you since the moment I met you.”
“What brought this on? What did Emma say to you?” he whispered in my ear.
“Nothing. I just wanted to be clear about that.”
“Come with me.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door with him. We walked quickly downstairs and outside, and around the corner where it was dark and secluded.
He put his arms around me and started to kiss me passionately, and then leaned away to look at me. “Now tell me, what brought that on?”
“I was just thinking that maybe you didn’t realize that I fell for you as hard and as fast as you fell for me.”
That got quite a response from him as he started to kiss me even more urgently.
I leaned away this time. “I was also thinking that you know you don’t need to do all this for me? I would love you and would agree to marry you no matter what. All I want is you.”
He started to kiss me again and I thought I saw him blink away some tears in his eyes for a moment.
I pulled away reluctantly. “If we don’t stop, neither of us will be able to return to our guests.” I kissed him gently. “I love you.”
“You can’t imagine how much I love you.” His eyes sparkled as there was still a little bit of liquid in them.
“Probably as much as I love you. Let’s go.”
We rejoined our guests and they looked away as we walked in like they were embarrassed, knowing that we likely had been outside making out for the last few minutes.
Dinner of roast beef, new potatoes and vegetables had been served in our absence. My nerves were receding and my appetite was returning so I started to eat. Will continued to hold my hand intermittently throughout dinner and, when my hands were engaged and his were not, his hand was on my left thigh.
Will’s mother, Margaret, leaned across the table and asked, “Have you talked about where you’re going to get married?”
I could tell that she was hoping that it would take place in England. “No, not yet.”
“There are a lot of beautiful places like this one that would be perfect.”
“Yes, there are.” I tried to be noncommittal. I hadn’t even told my parents yet that I was engaged.
Will rescued me. “As soon as we talk details, you’ll be the first to know, Mum. I’m sure Shannon would love your advice when we get down to the planning stages.”
He wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t one of those people who had been planning my wedding since I was young. I had no idea where to start. I was going to need all the help I could get. Planning a wedding with my upcoming work schedule was going to be tough.
“I would love your help,” I said enthusiastically. That seemed to please Margaret. Will turned around and smiled at me, and squeezed my hand for making his mother happy.
I looked over at that moment to see Pam ensconced in a conversation with Niall. Niall was quite animated and Pam was laughing. I tapped Will’s hand to get his attention and nodded in the direction of Niall and Pam. He looked back at me, chuckled, and shook his head.
After dinner, we had a light desert and then everyone was up and standing around again after Port was served. We were able to mingle with the guests at that time.
We headed in the direction of Olivia first because we knew she was likely to be the first to leave since her young daughter would need to be put to bed relatively early. Before we got there, we had another toast to us given by Pete. Despite the fact that Pete sat next to Will at dinner, I don’t think I realized until that moment that Pete was Will’s best friend. I imagined that he would end up being best man at our wedding. I missed part of what Pete said in toast as I was thinking this and only caught the last portion regarding Will going halfway around the world to find me. We detoured to Pete to thank him for his well-wishes.
“You have to promise me, Shannon, you’ll make him come back here and visit us more often.”
“I promise. I love it here. Besides, I have a lot of new friends here to visit myself.” I winked at him.
Pete smiled in response.
We then headed again in the direction of Olivia and her family.
“I’m sorry we didn’t get much of a chance to talk at dinner,” I said when we approached.
“Wait until you have children. They take all of your attention. Some of our friends with children Emily’s age wouldn’t even be able to sit through a dinner like this so we consider ourselves lucky. Have you two talked children, yet?”
Yikes! I just graduated from school, am getting married almost immediately after that, and now I have to plan babies? I’m sure that I must have looked startled at the question.
“Ummm, we haven’t really talked about it, but I do want children. Someday.”
“Give us a break, Liv. We’ve only been engaged for a day.”
“I just want to make sure you two are on the same page. Children change your relationship and your life.”
I gulped and hoped that it didn’t show. This must be the kind of personal question Will was referring to earlier. I expected questions about our sex life. Those would have been easier.
“We’re going to have to get Emily home soon, Will. She’s already fading on us,” Geoffrey stated.
At that point, I noticed that Emily’s eyes were closing as Geoffrey was holding her against his shoulder.
Will went around and kissed Emily on the forehead. She opened her eyes and said, “Bye Uncle Will. Come visit me soon. I want another doll from America.”
Will smiled. “I promise.”
Olivia and Geoffrey gave us hugs and kisses before going to say their goodbyes to Iain, Margaret, and Emma.
We then made the rounds to ensure that we spent time with all of Will’s friends who had joined us that evening. The party started to break up about an hour after Olivia and her family left. We made plans to meet Pete, Susan, Niall, Damon, Pam and Jane back at the cottage for drinks when the party was over.
We said our last goodbyes to Will’s parents, promising to visit them in a few days on the way to Heathrow when we dropped off Will’s car. I also agreed to call Margaret after our return to L.A. once Will and I decided what to do about the wedding.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Will and I drove back to the cottage with our remaining party guests following us in two other cars.
Upon our return, we found that the Butler had left champagne, and a fruit and cheese platter. We poured the champagne for our guests and decided to go upstairs and change into something more comfortable.
“Don’t take too long,” Niall said while leering at us.
When we got upstairs and started to undress, we couldn’t help ourselves and tried to make love as quickly as possible while being as quiet as possible. Afterward, we both threw on jeans and comfortable shirts and headed to the living room. When we rejoined our guests, we received looks that made it clear that they all knew exactly what we had been doing. I blushed and d
idn’t help things by doing so.
So that I wouldn’t have to face the teasing, I decided to call my parents and Kelly as I again remembered that they hadn’t yet received word of my engagement.
I had to call my mom and dad separately because my dad was at work since it was eight hours earlier in California. I called my mom first. She was so excited and started to talk wedding details immediately. She had assumed we would marry in California.
“Mom, I don’t know what we’re doing yet or when. I promised Will’s mom that she could be involved in the planning too.”
“You told them first?” She sounded hurt.
“Well, they’re kind of here and Will told them before he proposed. He also planned a party tonight to celebrate with his family and a few friends.”
“Can we do something for you when you get home?”
“Absolutely.”
I then called my dad and was lucky to get him in his office.
“I wanted to make sure I told you personally before the town crier got to you.” I referred to my mother as the “town crier” because she had a big mouth. She couldn’t keep any news to herself for even a few seconds. In fact, I was pretty sure that Kelly would know before I got a chance to call her.
My dad told me that he was happy for me, and said that he liked Will and looked forward to having him as a son-in-law. I thanked him for that and told him that we would visit soon after our return to California.
I then called Kelly and, sure enough, my mother had already gotten to her.
“I knew something was up when Will’s sister called me.”
“Yes, you were right. They were buying me dresses, unbeknownst to me, for last night when we got engaged and tonight for my engagement party.”
“Did I help?”
“I don’t know what you said, but the dresses were unbelievable.”
“I told her you liked black and that you looked really good in blue and green. I also told her that you had good legs and liked to show them off.”
“Well, I don’t know about my legs, but my dress last night was blue and tonight’s was a black lacy overlay on top of cream satin. Both were designer and gorgeous. They were both above the knee and came with high heels and matching purses.”
“Lucky you.”
“I don’t care about any of this stuff. I’m lucky in having Will. It’s hard to believe this is all real.”
“Well, I’m happy for you. You have to visit me in the City when you come home so we can celebrate.”
“Of course. I’ll call you when I get home.”
I returned to the party after that last call.
“I’m sorry it’s taken me so long. I realized I hadn’t had a chance to tell my family yet and wanted to do it tonight or another day would go by due to the time difference.”
Pam responded, “It’s just as well. You missed Niall giving Will a hard time about you two disappearing a few times during the party and again when you arrived here. You would have been embarrassed.”
“Great.” I looked down.
“We tried to keep him quiet,” Damon added.
“You didn’t succeed,” Will replied, not quite as embarrassed as I would have been.
“Niall can be persistent,” Damon responded.
Niall smiled triumphantly.
“So what did you tell them, Will?” I asked.
“That I was a gentleman and wouldn’t say anything.”
“For my sake?”
“Yes.”
My embarrassment faded and I started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Will asked, not understanding.
“I’m laughing at us and particularly me for being embarrassed. Niall, we are in love and are consenting adults in our mid-twenties, and we have been engaged for only twenty-four hours. What do you think we were doing?”
Both Will and Pam laughed as it was so completely out of character for me to be that open and blunt. The others started to laugh after that, not because they understood that it was out of character for me, but because I had turned the tables on Niall and he was dumbstruck.
“More drinks?” I got up to check out what else we had in the refrigerator and bar.
Will joined me.
“I have never seen Niall at a loss for words in my life. He loves embarrassing people and you refused to be embarrassed. I think you ended up embarrassing him for a change. I absolutely love it, and I love you.” He kissed me and helped me take a bottle of wine and some beers into the living room.
A while later, I thought I heard Niall telling Will, “You are never going to be bored with that one.”
I looked at Will and saw him reply, “I know,” smiling brightly.
We sat around drinking and talking for a couple of hours. Will and I sat next to each other on the sofa with me pressed up into his side and his arm around me. Pete and Susan sat together on the loveseat. Jane sat in one of the chairs and Damon in the other. Niall sat close to Pam on the floor with his right hand behind her almost as if he had his arm around her. Pam leaned in toward him with body language that indicated that she was interested. Since we were leaving in a day and a half, I wondered how that was going to work.
At the end of the evening and in light of all the drinking, we decided that no one should drive home. Consequently, Pete and Susan would stay in one of the other bedrooms in the cottage and Damon and Niall in the twin-bedded one.
Niall offered to walk the girls back to the main house since it was dark and no one was in a position to drive. Since Pam and Jane had a two-room suite, I didn’t anticipate that Niall would be returning that night. We agreed that everyone would meet at the cottage at ten the next morning for breakfast.
When Will and I made it up to our bedroom for the night, I mentioned that we should call Stephen and Colin and let them know. It was about six in L.A. by this time and we managed to catch everyone at home. Stephen put Will on speaker so that they could all hear what he had to say. I could hear screaming in response to the news despite the fact that I was a few feet away from Will at the time. After a few minutes, they wanted to speak to me.
“Shannon, we’re so happy for the two of you,” Kate said after I put the cell phone to my ear.
“Thank you. I’m beyond happy right now. And I’m so glad we’ll be friends forever now.”
“So are we. We know it’s late there and that you two probably want to celebrate some more together. Good night and congratulations. Kiss Will for us,” Gemma said.
“Don’t worry about that, I will.”
They all laughed before hanging up.
Having a full house was going to put a little damper on our celebration. We couldn’t move around the house as we had last night and we were going to have to keep it down. Although I wasn’t embarrassed at the fact of them knowing that we had sex, I certainly didn’t want them to hear the headboard banging, the bed squeaking, or the sounds we made while we were doing so. Although we had sex in the house in the Palisades when Stephen and Colin were around, Will didn’t have a headboard or a squeaky bed, and the walls were fairly thick unlike here. I liked a challenge though and we managed to enjoy ourselves quite a bit before migrating to the squeaky bed and falling asleep in each other’s arms.
The next morning, we got up, showered and got dressed to meet the gang for breakfast. We joined them downstairs as the Butler was laying out food for us and all of our unexpected guests.
I looked over at Niall and he looked fairly satisfied with himself. That made me wonder what had happened after he and Pam left us.
“Pam, can you help me in the kitchen for a minute?” I asked, dying of curiosity.
When we entered the kitchen, Pam asked, “What do you need?”
“Well, tell me what happened. We noticed that Niall didn’t come back last night.”
Pam smiled guiltily. “Not too much. Although I have to say, if Jane hadn’t been in the next room, we might have done a lot more. We just made out for a while and slept together on the couch. Whe
n I say slept together, I mean actual sleep. He is a very good kisser and has a very nice body, at least what I’ve seen anyway. I’m going with Niall to London and we’re going to spend the day together after we leave here. Jane says that it’s okay with her. We’ll see what happens then. I wish I didn’t have to go home tomorrow.”
“I’m sure you’ll see him again. There’s always my wedding.”
“Well, I don’t want to waste the time I’ve got left. I’ll see you back at the table.”
I returned to the table to find Pam and Niall’s chairs pulled close together. I imagined that, if I looked under the table, I would find them holding hands. It reminded me of Will and me although I think that we were in love from the outset and I don’t know that I got that vibe from Niall and Pam, but it had only been a day.
Will pulled me into his lap and I sat there while we both picked at his plate. As always, he assured me that I was not too heavy and that it was enjoyable to hold me like this.
After finishing breakfast, we said our goodbyes, knowing that we would see only Pam again in the near future. I promised to make sure that Will would return to England soon to visit.
After our guests left, we had only a little while before we had to check out and drive back to London. We ended our engagement trip on a high note, taking advantage of the fact that we could make all the noise we wanted now that the guests were gone.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
I sulked quietly during the drive back to London, knowing that the highlight of the trip and one of the highlights of my life was over.
Will tried to cheer me up on the ride back, holding my hand and kissing it intermittently. I knew that he probably felt the same way I did, but he didn’t want to show it for my sake.
Finally, he said, “Shannon, this isn’t the end of a perfect weekend. It’s the beginning of a perfect life together. I promise I’ll do everything in my power to make you happy.”
“I know. It’s unreasonable of me to be sad. It’s just that everything was so amazing that I didn’t want it to end. We go back to reality tomorrow.”
Away From the Spotlight Page 26
