It’s okay, guys. Liv, I know Ava’s just looking out for me. And she’s right. You know she is. Mum learned her lesson the hard way and wanted us all to avoid the same fate. No way am I going to end up pregnant to this guy. And he’s nothing
like our father. Or what we know of him, anyway. He was a jerk. A first grade a-hole who ditched a pregnant woman because he was married.
Alex is wonderful. I could write pages and pages and pages telling you how amazing he is, but you still wouldn’t get it. He’s just … perfect.
I love him.
And I know you’re worried about me, Ava, because that’s what you do. But you don’t need to be.
Have you ever met someone and just known? That though it doesn’t make sense, and there are a million and one reasons to be cautious and go slowly, you just simply can’t? Because you trust that person, and you need that person, and you loved that person, from the first moment you met them …? That’s how it is with us. I’d trust him with my life.
I love him.
Okay, on that sappy note, it’s late here. I need to sleep. Don’t argue over this. It’s a good thing. Trust me. You’ll see.
Xxx
She flicked her iPad into flight mode to avoid the barrage of emails that she was certain would follow and fell back onto the bed. Her smile was enormous on her face.
She was crazy! The whole thing was crazy!
A knock sounded at her door and she pushed up onto her elbows, her heart immediately beginning to pound as she prepared for the sight of Alex.
Only it was Eric instead.
“Sorry to intrude,” he murmured in that terribly British way he had. There was something indefinably Hugh Grant about him that always made her smile.
“You’re not,” she lied, crossing her legs at her ankles and smoothing her nightgown down past her knees. “Is it the twins? Are they okay?”
“Yes,” he waved a hand in the air dismissively and sat on the foot of the bed. “We were talking the other day and we got cut off.”
“We were?” She searched her memory and found only Alex. Little fragments of recollection of their time together that were too pleasurable to sweep past. Walks to his house, and through his house, cups of tea on his terrace and long, passionate love-making in his enormous bed.
“Soph?”
“Oh!” She felt her cheeks burn and shook her head. “Sorry. You were saying?”
“No,” he had a slightly teasing tone to his voice. “You were saying, yesterday, something about Christmas and the twins.”
“Oh!” She nodded jerkily. “Of course.” How had she forgotten? “I hate asking you this,” she said hurriedly, and she truly did. “But I want to get them something special for Christmas. There’s a performance at the Royal Albert Hall, only tickets are …” Her blush deepened. “Well, they’re almost a week’s pay for me. I wondered if you’d …”
“Of course I’ll buy the tickets, Sophie. You don’t even need to ask.”
“No!” She shook her head, consternation making her eyes wide. “I want to buy them. It’s a gift from me. Only they go on sale this weekend and if I don’t book right away they’ll likely sell out. I was just wondering if you’d mind … loaning me the money, until then.”
“I’d feel awful for you to be out of pocket …”
“Please, I want to give the tickets to the boys. Only I’m stretched now…”
“Of course.” The Aussie dollar being what it was, it was not hard to believe she’d found her money didn’t go so far. And the salary nannies earned was hardly salubrious.
“You just tell me how much and I’ll have it for you tomorrow.”
“Thank you.” She named an amount and shook her head. “I’m so embarrassed to have to even ask you.”
“Sophie, you love my children. What more could I ask for? We are lucky to have you. I’m lucky to have you.”
He stood and moved towards the door. Sophie followed him, simply because it felt like the polite thing to do. “Eric?” She said as he pulled it inwards. “Can we keep this between us?” She was thinking of Alex, of course, and how he might try to loan her money if he knew how dire her finances were.