“I didn’t know. You always looked so happy together as a family.”
“Just to please Dad, out of earshot we fought like sailors. We hate each other because of her mum. Rachel’s mum, she is a strange one and blames my mum for breaking their marriage up, when nothing could be further from the truth. Dad and her hadn’t been man and wife for oh nearly five years when they met, and as soon as they did they fell in love, and Dad asked the shrew for a divorce.
Which they got, she got a massive pay-out, and custody of the brat daughter and Dad and Mum married, he adopted Luis who was from my mum’s first marriage to the Greek hotel magnate, as you probably know through Luis? I was the surprise child, Luis and I we are still inseparable, I hate not seeing him now he’s got his own life but heck he’s never away from the ranch, he even bought a puppy and we look after that apparently. I will kill him I have always said no, that we are not having a puppy. I come here and what does he do, he buys E… Dad a puppy, one we can’t get rid of, because he loves it already.
“Well, we have spoken nursery foods families, what about love lives Bella?”
“Hahahaha, I haven’t one is the plain and simple answer to that question, the last man was kind of hard to get over.”
“I don’t and haven’t had a friend lady or girl in three years I’ve been too busy working and stuff. I haven’t as much as kissed anyone in oh, nearly three years. Get where I’m going with this Bella?” I laughed, relief I think and a warm glow rushed throughout my body, was I the last?
“Now that I find hard to believe, really hard to believe you kept faithful to me, me who walked out on you?”
“Sorry, why would I look at anyone else? I mean have you tried to date other people, I have and none were you, so have you had a boyfriend since me?”
“Oh you’re playing dirty no I have never had a boyfriend so there. I once went from being single to being a fiancé, in like thirty seconds and for a whole day too.” He smiled I swear I’m going to kill him in a minute.
“Never had any man, as in only ever me?” He was grinning like a schoolboy.
“You know what, here it is… I have only ever kissed you, slept with you, had sex with you and loved you, so enough of the have I got anyone in my life that I have sex with questions, you have been the only man to ever mean anything to me and now your grinning like you’ve won the lotto.”
“I wanted to know if I asked you out tonight would I be stepping on anyone’s toes. So really, there’s only me and you kept yourself faithful to me too?” I gulped the orange juice down.
“Yes just you, so you want to go out with me as in a date?” I ask.
“Yes as in putting on a fancy dress, meal drinks and dancing, or is that not how dates go?”
“Err, I’ve never had a date, I got drunk and danced with a man once does that count?”
“I don’t know did you enjoy it?” I know I blushed, I felt the heat rising.
“I did very much so, I was at my sweet sixteenth and he danced with me, he did it at my seventh birthday too, but on that occasion, he left with a hooker too and broke my heart.”
“Oh, how very ungallant to use you like that, sorry I was hammered and it was Luis’s fault.” I laughed. “So is that a no to the date then? Only you never said?” I looked across the table and saw those eyes.
“Yes, I will go out for the evening with you, but under the understanding that we don’t mention Rachel, or what she did ever again, and oh, I don’t put out on first dates either.”
“I’m wounded you thought so little of me, consider me told, no smooching or putting out then?” Laughing I looked at the time.
“Shit I, sorry we, have to get to the offices they will be waiting for us, damn where did the time go? I still have to phone Dad.”
“Well, we know I want the properties I shook on that last night, and we know the price, so I figure we can let legal know we will be down in an hour and get things started without us?”
“Are you sure? You definitely want to spend a lot of money and become a hotel magnate?”
“I’m sure, besides I will have a CEO in charge of them. I don’t have time to run them, I was going to give the job to the man running it now for your Dad, either a Marcus or a Warner, but as it’s so massive I may ask them both to stop on and run it all, what do you think? I will be in overall charge, but they will make me billions?”
“Dad trusts them and Luis too, they are both good people as Dad says, and they are as honest as the day is long, they would love the job they stepped up when Dad was diagnosed and have been such a good family friends to us.”
“Well if they are good enough for Hugh Humphries, they are good enough for me. I will shower and change and see you in a while, your place or mine?”
“Mine, I take longer to get ready.” He gave my cheek another kiss this time a little longer than the chased one from the night before.
“See you after I shower and change Bella.” He leapt the wall like superman.
“We have doors you know.” He laughed and went inside shouting, as he did.
“Where’s the fun in that?” I grabbed another shower did my hair, and dressed quickly, I could just read Pooh Bear to Ethan, if I hurried.
“Hello Dad, how’s things you’re looking peaky are you alright? How’s Ethan?” He smiled.
“He’s had a late night, because we had a long nap this afternoon, it’s going to take you a couple of days to get Ethan back into his routine, I’m sorry I can’t help it when he asks to stop with me.”
“Can I see him and read him Pooh Bear?”
“Yes here he is, I will take you through to his room and let you have time with your son.”
“Thank you, and Dad, I will be telling Chris he has a son later, but for now can I see him please?” I smiled as his chubby little face came on the screen.
“Mummy, Mummy you there and I’m here, see and Mojo here too, I keep Mojo, pleazzzze?”
“Yes baby boy, you can keep Mojo, have you been a good boy for Papa?”
“Yesss I have, you read me Pooh Bear tonight, or will that man read me story?”
“What man Ethan?”
“The man behind you, you’re silly Mummy.” I turned to see Chris looking at the screen and tears flowing down his face, shit what do I do, what do I say?
“If he wants to he can read you Pooh Bear. Ask him he’s, he’s your…”
“I’m your Daddy, and I would love to read to you Ethan, is that your new puppy?”
“Yes, you my Daddy, I not got a Daddy. I got a Papa and Unkie Lou, now I got a Daddy too, I say night, night to Mummy pleazzzze?”
“Night, baby boy, see you in the morning sleep tight and sweet dreams, Daddy will read you some Pooh Bear, hugs squishes and kisses.”
“Hugs kisses squishes Mummy love you lots night, night Mummy, read me now pleazzzze Daddy.” Dad was right, he’s been accepted no questions asked, by both of them, shit what happens now?
“Oh, okay now lie back down and listen whilst I tell you a story…” I ran to the bathroom, shit, shit, shit, not like this he’s going to take my son, shit, oh shit no. I sat for what seemed like forever, before I was called to see if I was coming down to the meeting, shit I’d forgotten about that, I asked them to finalise the paperwork in our absence, as we had something’s to sort out and we’d sigh in the morning. Apparently, Chris told them the same thing he was too busy reading a story to do it just now. I lay down crying. I slept on the warm tiled floor, as I sobbed myself to sleep, I napped for about ten minutes, and I went in the room as Chris and Dad were speaking and Ethan had long since fallen asleep. I sat on the couch across from him and waited for the fall out as he shut the screen down.
“I left you alone carrying my child, can you ever forgive me?”
“I haven’t anything to forgive Chris. I’m sorry I didn’t know you still loved me, Rachel was very convincing.”
“It seems your sister has a lot to answer to and your dad said you should have told me, what
were you thinking?”
“Dad and Mum wanted you to know, but I didn’t want you to take him from me. As to Rachel doing and saying what she did, I would have thought she was doing it for spite, thank God she knew nothing about Ethan.”
“He’s a credit to you and so like me.” He is, and I don’t believe this is going so well, where’s the bombshell moment?
“You don’t want to do a DNA test on him?”
“All the tests in the world, would only confirm what my eyes saw, that he’s my double, thank you for looking after him so well.” I cried.
“What, why did you say it like that, are you taking him from me, because I will fight you tooth and nail for him, he’s mine Chris?” I broke down in tears.
“Where’s that coming from? Why would I take him away from his mum, are you mad? I was thanking you for being a good Mum. Apparently, this is the longest you have been away from him, and he’s missing you Bella. Why would I break both your hearts? Bella, I love you and have been searching for you everywhere, and when Henry found out you were the one chairing the sales, I got in my jet and came to see the woman I so rudely walked out on.” I cried even more, never in fact have I ever cried as much.
“I... Thought... You... Would... Take... Him... From me...” My sobbing broke the sentence it a long rambling cry.
“Bella, I wouldn’t do that to you ever, oh Bella come here.” I slid across the couch towards him.
“You don’t want to see him either?”
“Err try keeping me away from him and his mum.”
“What you want me too?”
“Yes you come as a package deal. Wow Mel owes me a million dollars, because I won the bet yeah me.”
“What?”
“Sorry I’m just being stupid, as Mel and I are getting on in years, we made a bet when I turned thirty that whoever gets the first baby gets a million bucks and yeah I won.”
“You won’t hold her to that I hope?”
“Damn right, I always honour my bets, so does she, and her daughter isn’t due until Christmas, looks like someone is giving me my million back.” I slapped him.
“You will do no such thing, betting on my son.”
“Err I think you’ll find that’s our son.” He pulled me to him and kissed me, wow I had a near heart attack as he held me tightly. “I wanted to do that when you walked into that office and were late for that meeting Bella, those five minutes seemed like an eternity.”
“Umm, what, what did you say, err eternity five minutes?”
“Yeah you have that effect on me too Bella, so when do I get to give my son a hug?”
“When we wrap up selling the businesses, and then and only then if you really want to be in his life and not just a weekend and holidays dad?”
“Oh your dad isn’t selling the hotels now, he’s gifting them to Ethan, and I will set a team in place to run them and take the strain from him, he wants to keep our son’s inheritance running.”
“Wow, how long was I asleep in the bathroom for?”
“Err two hours or so, enough time for me to tell Mel to divert here in the plane and let the lawyers go and ask your dad for your hand in marriage, seems I have to make an honest woman out of my baby’s mum?”
“What, that was a proposal? Shit you really know how to wine and dine and dance me to bed don’t you? We haven’t even been on a date and you want to be tied to me again because of that one day? It really isn’t necessary.”
“Oh but it is, because that one day has kept me going for nearly three years, Bella and I’m not waiting any longer than I have to, we have an appointment at city hall in half an hour and then we are going to see our son together.”
“You’re serious, really serious… Oh hell you are too.”
“Damn right I have been carrying this around for God knows how long.” He was on his knee and opening a ring box and flashed the biggest diamond ring at me.
“Wow err does that come with sunglasses?”
“Isabella Maria Humphries will you do me the greatest of honours, by consent to being my wife again and having a few more of those cute kids for me?”
“Oh yes, yes, yes I love you. Not many more kids either, that one nearly killed me.”
“Sorry he does have my big head, that’s why the no need for a DNA test, it’s a killer thing having all those brains, and so they need a big skull to go in.” I laughed as he slipped on the ring.
“Really you have had this for three years?”
“No about eighteen months, it was my grandmothers diamond and I had it made into a ring for you, these I got three years ago from Birks in Canada, these I had engraved too, and we will need them in life forty five minutes. Get a dress on your not marrying me in jeans and a tee shirt.”
“Let me see the rings then? Oh sweet, ‘I love you Princess Isabella” and what does mine say? Oh Chris, that’s…”
“I know I’m such a girl… ‘I love you Prince Christopher’. Oh and I do mean I love you, you and our son and you come with me everywhere.”
“Dad and Mum, what about them, they won’t let Ethan go?”
“Well he agrees your place is by my side, and I agree which means we go nowhere without him and your mum. There are great oncologists all over the world and he has hired a private nurse.” I cried again. “Besides it’s just Australia, not the moon, so we will stay there until we sort out stuff.”
“Stuff?”
“Oh hell lots of stuff, money, houses, planes, businesses, my child’s name and stuff you know stuff.”
“Can we not buy a normal house and do nothing but other stuff all day?”
“Nope, sorry the little man and you will be more at risk once it gets out we’re married Bella and then he will be at risk as you were and if anything were to happen to you or him it would kill me.”
“Oh, I never thought of that, I sort of got used to the way we live now, and I guess yeah he will be a bigger target, shit.”
“Dress woman do as your future husband tells you.” I had my backside slapped. What to wear for a wedding?
“Which dress red dress or blue dress?”
“Which one goes on the quickest Bells?”
“This one I think, yes this one, gimmie five minutes for the hair and makeup. It’s a good job Mum isn’t here she would kill me.”
“Oh she’s planning a big shindig for later don’t you worry.” I had no doubt about it. I went out ten minutes later to a wow.
We were married after we got the papers signed, in a brief ten minute drive through wedding. His sister was waiting at the airport for her big brother and his new wife, and we were up in the air two hours later heading to see Ethan. Parker was dispatched when he realised I was right, and she did look at him that way, she will be waiting in Australia for his return.
“Well, she’s everything you said she was and more, welcome to the family Mrs Holland, you look beautiful, and I can’t wait to see my nephew, is he as adorable as Christopher Robin says?”
“That’s your actual name?”
“Yeah live with it sweetheart, your married to Pooh’s best friend. Melissa, we could fall out. Do you know all my documents have just Christopher on them, but that’s so amazing because guess what, my first job as a dad, was to read my son a story, I read to Ethan, my son, his bedtime favourite about a bear, a boy called Christopher Robin, a tigger and a piglet in a Hundred Acre Woods, I read to my son this morning and when he wakes up I get to give him those teddies and the real Christopher Robin how cools that?”
“Damn cool it your two I suppose? God you’re going to be worse than Luis with him aren’t you, you mentioned son quite a few times there Chris?”
“For a while he gets spoilt, I have some catching up to do. I like the sound of saying my son, shit my son, well our son I suppose I have to share?”
“Well excuse me I need to grab some shut eye, I’m in my cabin Chris, see you in seven hours I don’t know what you two are doing, but me and my bump need sleep.”
“Se
e you later Mel.”
“Yeah, I have some legal stuff to do Sis, see you when we get there.”
“Don’t work too hard you have a bride to keep amused.” She laughed as she shut the door to her cabin.
“Well come on, my room we have some legal work to do.”
“What sort of legal work?”
“Consummating our union for one Bells, making this marriage legit and all above board, come on Mrs Holland.”
“Mr Holland, you only had to ask.”
“Now, in here or on the big comfy bed, I am asking Bells?”
“Bed please and less talking more action husband.”
“I live to please…” We made love for hours and hours only stopping when the pilot buzzed we were half an hour from landing.
“Are you happy Mrs Holland?”
“Very Mr Holland, have I got time for a shower?”
“A quick one and hurry I need one and unfortunately it’s not big enough for two, bigger plane next time.”
“Yes sir, two shakes I love you and thank you.”
“I love you too and I’m damned nervous too, what if he doesn’t like me?”
“He likes everyone he’s two, he thinks everyone is nice and he thinks everyone smells funny.”
“Smells funny?”
“Yeah, he has a keen sense of smell and everyone has different smells and things deodorants aftershave soaps you name it he can smell it.”
“Oh, perhaps I need to diversify in to perfumeries?” I laughed as I came out to a hug and a kiss.
“We will smell the same, you’re wearing my smell well, Bella.” I dressed as he showered, coming out I was ready and he grabbed another hug.
“This morning I promised you a date, what the hell am I gonna do to top marrying you and that afternoon in the mile high club?”
“After a morning with Ethan, you will be too knackered I can tell you.”
“Why did you call him Ethan?”
“After my grandfather, my dad’s father, he was Ethan Hugh Humphries, and my dad’s best friend in the world. He’s called Ethan Christopher Holland Humphries already, and because he was born in Spain he can take either name.”
Soul Mates. The Beginning. Page 34
