“We’re territorial,” he snorted, “I think you’ll find the Dutch were amongst the first to start claiming other people’s lands and seas as their own.”
“Okayyy. No need to get all uptight about it. It’s a good job we’re trying to unite countries here,” she said holding out her hand, the array of diamonds glinting in the sun. “Because you are wrong. Of course.”
She kicked off her sandals, holding them in her free hand and ran off onto the beach, thinking he would never catch her with a hamper and rug in his hand.
How wrong she was. He forfeited the picnic, dumping it on the sand to run after her. There was no way he would be beaten by such provocation. He ran passed her and then turned, pulling her down on top of him as he fell onto the sand. Their laughter soon progressing to full on making out.
All of the stress was finally dissolved. The drive, the music, the laughter and now laying here with his Angel. Life was back on track.
“Come on.” He pulled her up and they went to retrieve the picnic.
“Let’s sit down here, that grass will protect us from the wind.”
He laid out the rug and placed the basket in the middle. Kneeling down he got out two bottles of water, placing them on the middle of the rug so it didn’t blow away before they had time to sit on it.
“So how did it go with Helen? I know you said ‘fine’ earlier, but there must have been more to it than that?”
“Not brilliant, to be honest. She wouldn’t accept the test result.”
“Oh. So what does that mean?”
“Dunno. We’ll have to see. She’ll either come around and get back to her life as a single parent, or she’ll fight it and lose.”
“Let’s hope she accepts it. We’ve had enough crap to deal with just recently and I don’t think we need any more throwing at us.”
“I know Angel. You do know I didn’t believe a word of that story about you and the baseball player, don’t you?” She nodded. He carried on, “It was obvious to me that the photographer had just taken a snap at a moment in time.”
“Yeah. I just don’t understand why they think they can get away with lies like that though. Okay the photo was one thing, but then to come up with a whole load of rubbish about you and me splitting up and me and Leesa hell-bent on hooking up with those guys. All without any sort of corroboration. Is there nothing we can do about it? Anything Jim Bob can do?”
“I don’t think so. I’ve spoken to him and he says the whole industry thinks the paps have just got out of hand. They’re not regulated and can write any old clap trap and get away with it. They’ve got no morals and don’t give a shit about who might get hurt. I mean take the whole story about Helen and Isaac. Apparently Simon feeds them a line, they take it and publish a story, including a photo of a six year old child all without confirming it with either me or the child’s mother. That photo will be there forevermore, haunting the poor kid.”
“So you don’t think Helen had anything to do with it?”
He looked at her. “Why, do you?”
“I don’t know the woman. It just seems as if the details they had were all a bit too specific, just to have come from an acquaintance.”
“Hmm, maybe. My mother said something similar. Anyway, enough about all that crap. How about you and me? We’re still good, yeah?”
“Yeah, we’re good Jonny.” Eliza leaned across to kiss him. “Especially when you organise stuff like this.” She delved into the wicker basket, sifting through the delicacies he had bought. “I’m starving, after throwing up my breakfast.”
She pulled out a tomato and basil salad pot and a small individual cheese and onion quiche.
Jonny took hold of a Cornish pasty, ramming it in to his mouth and chomping down on it greedily. Before long he stopped chewing, holding his hand to his chest.
“What’s wrong?” Eliza fretted.
Jonny gasped, pointing at one of the bottles of water that had rolled down to the end of the blanket. She kneeled up so she could reach it for him.
He drank the whole bottle in one before letting out a sigh. “Ugh. Thanks Angel.”
“What happened?”
“Indigestion.”
She hit him on the arm. “You frightened me then. You shouldn’t be such an animal. Slow down when you’re eating.”
“I know.” He pulled her down so they were laid next to each other. “But when there’s something I like the taste of, I can’t help it. I get all greedy.”
He nestled into her neck and starting nibbling her ear lobe, sticking his tongue inside the shell of her ear.
“Don’t you think you’ve had enough indigestion for one day?”
“Errh, no, actually.” He proceeded to push his hand up her skirt.
“I didn’t think you liked making love where sand was involved.”
“Mmm. I don’t. But there’s no choice here. Unless we go in the back of the car.”
“Back of the car?” she shrilled. “I’m not sixteen you know.”
“Ugh. I guess I’ll have to wait then.” Pulling the skirt back down.
They lay a while, Jonny rubbing his finger up and down Eliza’s arm, whilst she tucked into the hamper some more.
“So what do you need to do to get back on track with this wedding?” she asked him.
“Nothing. Anyway it’s not me who needs to get anything back on track. It’s you that said it was postponed. I just ignored you.”
“I know. I’m sorry Jonny.”
“It’s okay Angel. I understand, it was a shock.”
“Well I’ve got the dress sorted, but that’s about it. I need to go back to Amsterdam really.”
He rolled on to his back. “Ugh. You’re joking aren’t you Angel?”
“No. Sorry, but I didn’t get to see my aunt after all. I’ve really got to get her involved in the wedding otherwise she’ll think I don’t care about her. And then there’s all the invitations, I need to make sure they go out to all my friends there. And Leesa of course, she’s my bridesmaid and we didn’t really get chance to discuss anything seriously when I was last there. Anyway, why don’t you come with me?”
“I would, but I’ve got flying sessions booked every day this week, and really need to get this house sorted. It’s driving me nuts.”
“Oh yeah, how are your feet now?” She rubbed his arm to show her concern.
“Sore still.” He put on his best puppy dog impression.
“Aw, my poor baby.” She pinched his cheek. “Come on, let’s go for a paddle. The salt water will do them good.”
They walked down to the sea.
“It’s a bit cold,” she complained, “a far cry from Jamaica or Ibiza.”
Jonny stopped to roll up his jeans and they walked along the shore, hand in hand. The wind against their faces and Eliza’s skirt flapping into the sea.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Eliza loved her aunt and uncle dearly, but never felt quite at home in their apartment. She associated it with a place that she didn’t want to be when she was plucked from her life at an early age to live with them.
The walls echoed with the arguments she had caused about staying out all night and bringing the police to the door.
She was an adult now though, and thanks to Jonny she was gradually coming to terms with her tragedy and the feeling of impending loss that she had lived with for so long.
Her aunt and uncle had put up with so much from Eliza, and she appreciated that more now than ever before.
Her aunt marveled at her ring. “How beautiful Eliza, I am so pleased that you have found a caring man like Jonny. He is so good for you. We never believed for one minute the reports in the papers last week and are pleased to hear it from you that it wasn’t true.”
“Thank you.” Eliza gave her a hug. Something she wouldn’t have done in years gone by.
“I thought we could maybe go for lunch with your uncle, perhaps stop by at the gallery to have a look at his new collection. He is getting a lot of wonderful comments about it.”
“Yes of course. That would be lovely. But lunch has to absolutely be on me. I’m sorry about cancelling our plans last time I was here. You understand don’t you.”
Her aunt nodded. “Anyway, let me have a look at you Eliza.” She stepped back from her, still holding her hands, the wrinkles deepened on her forehead. Not really disappearing when she put on a forced smile.
“Do you want to rest before we go to lunch?”
“I am a bit worn out. Why? Do I look tired?”
“No. I just thought with the travelling and everything…”
She picked up some of the cushions from the sofa and placed them at one end as a pillow. “Why don’t you curl up on the sofa whilst I go make up your bedroom. I didn’t have time to do it earlier.”
“Okay.”
Eliza slept for a good hour; her aunt having to gently wake her to go for lunch.
The three of them chatted over their meal. Mainly about politics, the never ending cold and wet weather and what was happening with neighbours and family friends.
Eliza liked that they were still very normal. Not caught up in the supposed glamour of her rock style life. Asking about the simple things, like what Jonny liked to eat, what they did of an evening, how the house was coming on.
On more than once occasion Eliza caught her aunt looking at her.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“I just wondered if you were feeling alright?”
“Yes why?”
“Just noticed that you’ve not really eaten much, that’s all. You’ve pushed more food around your plate than you’ve put in your mouth.”
“Yeah sorry, I’ve had an upset stomach for the last week or so. Probably self-inflicted though.” She rolled her eyes as if to demonstrate her stupidity. “That night I went out with Leesa, was my second night on the bounce. I had already been out the night before with Dirk.”
“Hmm.” Her aunt didn’t seem convinced. “That was two weeks ago. A girl your age should recover from a couple of nights out quicker than that.”
Eliza’s eyes darted to her aunt, who held her stare.
“What do you mean?”
“When was your last period Eliza?”
“Period?” Eliza’s eyes bugging out of her head.
Eliza’s uncle cleared his throat. “I’m just going to the gent’s,” he excused himself.
Eliza dropped her fork onto her plate. The sound clattering around the restaurant.
“Sorry.” She looked up, other diners whispering to each other. Her fork dropping announcement, alerting them to her presence.
She lowered her head to the table and closer to her aunt. “What do you mean period?”
“Well I remember your mother in the early days of her pregnancy with you. She had morning sickness, and earlier when I stepped back from you I had such a vivid flashback of how she looked then.”
“Pregnant?” she screeched through gritted teeth.
Eliza slumped back on her chair with a horrified look on her face. Then she let her eyes flicker. Her mind trying to compute when in fact she had her last period.
She leaned back in to her aunt. “Oh. My. God. I can’t remember exactly, but it has definitely been more than a month. It could even have been two. Why didn’t I realise?”
“Because you’ve had a lot going on Eliza.”
Her aunt leant forward grabbing her hand.
“Oh Eliza, this is so wonderful. You are happy aren’t you?”
“Happy? I don’t know. Yes of course I’m happy. I just never… Oh no…what will Jonny think?”
“Jonny will be fine. Trust me. We’ll get a pregnancy test on the way back to the apartment and if you are, you can make an appointment with Dr De Vries before you go home. I am sure Jonny will be over the moon.”
***
The second little blue line took ages to appear. She sat on the side of the bath for five minutes after it announced itself, to gain composure. Sucking in air and blowing it back out again in hard elongated breaths.
Her aunt was waiting outside, impatiently pacing the floor. She simply nodded and her aunt hugged her tight.
“Oh Eliza, it’s wonderful. Come on let’s get an appointment booked in with Dr de Vries.”
Eliza laid on her bed, in the room that was her childhood lair. Thinking about all the events that had got her to this point. All the alcohol and drugs she had consumed in those tortuous teenage years. The angst she had caused her aunt and uncle. The family that had taken her in and offered her a home when she had nowhere else to go. And Jonny. Jonny who she had twice now made suffer needlessly because of her selfish thoughts. Yes, she had gone to that place in her mind that she didn’t like to venture into. That dark place where little Eliza van Der Berg hung out. Where she felt vulnerable. Her weak spot. The place that she never opened up to anyone else, and barely opened up to herself.
Leesa was right. Jonny wouldn’t love her any less if he had to love another. His son. Just as he wouldn’t love her any less now she was having his child.
It was she that would have to learn to love again. It had taken six years for her to love Jonny with no bars. She now had to do the same with this baby that was growing inside of her. Their baby.
***
The doctor examined her. She was nine weeks already. She touched the little rounding in her stomach all the way home.
How on earth had she not clocked that?
Her conversation with Jonny on the phone that night was false. She couldn’t tell him over the phone. She needed to see the white of his eyes. See his reaction for herself.
“I’ve just realised,” she said to her aunt. “I’ll be nearly seven months pregnant when we get married. There’s no way I’ll fit in the wedding dress I’ve bought. It’s got a tight bodice. The lace at the back will be stretched wide open.”
“What about changing the date. Bringing it forward? Or postponing it until after the baby is due?”
“Oh I don’t know. We definitely can’t pull it forward. We’ve got the European tour starting soon. I’ll have to talk to Jonny first. There may not be a wedding once he finds out.”
“Don’t be stupid girl. Of course there will be a wedding. Jonny will love you even more when he knows you are going to be the mother of his baby. You don’t have to decide now, speak to Jonny of course about keeping the date, but I think we may have a solution. If you’re up for it, that is. Wait here.”
Her aunt returned with a large cardboard box. It was covered in smooth gold card. Printed with the name of a dress shop, long gone. She lifted off the lid and peeled back the inner tissue paper. A silvery white taffeta dress was folded carefully in amongst the white tissue paper.
Her aunt stood up, trailing the dress up with her.
“This was your mother’s wedding dress. She was pregnant when she married your father.” She looked sympathetically at her niece. “With you.”
Eliza gulped. “I… I didn’t know my mother was pregnant with me when she married.”
“There’s probably a lot you don’t know about your parents.” She sat back down, the dress clutched tightly to her chest. “You were too young, and I dare say most of your childhood memories were wiped away with the trauma of their passing.”
Laying the dress on the chair she got up and went to a cabinet in the corner of the room. She pulled out another box. Smaller this time, inside were several photo albums. She fingered through them and pulled out a padded silk one with embroidered daisies on the front cover.
“Here.”
She placed it on the table before Eliza and opened the first page. In a sheet of white card with a cut out oval centre was a photograph of Eliza’s mother and father at their wedding, stood outside the entrance to a church. Her mother was wearing the dress.
Tears welled up in Eliza’s eyes.
“It’s beautiful. And I can’t believe how she was heavily pregnant when she got married too.”
“I always intended to show you all of this Eliza. Giv
e it to you when you had a place to store it. When the time was right, but you’ve never been ready, if you know what I mean, until now.” She grabbed hold of Eliza’s hands, looking avidly into her eyes. “And the timing of your wedding. It is just meant to be.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“I can’t believe how much has been done whilst I’ve been away. It’s only been five days.”
The extension was now ready for fitting out. All the walls newly plastered. New woodwork and doors. Three sets of patio doors along one wall opening out onto their garden.
Boxes were stacked up in the space that would become their new kitchen. She ripped the corner of one to peak at the white washed oak doors that would soon be lined up along the walls.
“Ooh I’m so excited.” She clapped girlishly.
“The ensuite has been sorted now too, and they have finished the first fix on the other bathrooms.”
She was considering the right time to tell him her news, but for now he was excited about showing her the developments at the house. Their home.
That was real. She could see it. He could see it. Her pregnancy was something else, hidden within her. Only real when she chose to share it with him.
She was feeling a little faint and dizzy, so hastily she took a seat on the edge of one of the boxes.
Jonny didn’t notice her swooning and impending black out.
“Do you want a drink?” Offering her a cold beer out of the fridge.
She shook her head. He looked at her oddly, before putting the beer back.
Go on. She thought, ask me why I don’t want a beer. He didn’t. Telling her the living room had been decorated instead.
“Fantastic. Let’s have a look.”
She went from room to room with him. Upstairs, she inspected the bedrooms and ensuites.
“They’re all so lovely. I think I’m going to have to use them all.”
“Mmm yes.” He caught hold of her, pulling her into him. “They will all definitely need christening.”
Confused. She screwed up her nose and her forehead.
Ignoring her bemused look, he continued, “I’ve missed you Angel. Come on, let’s go to bed.”
“What now? It’s too early.”
Loving his ANGEL_A Rock Star Romance Page 19
