Meanwhile, back in Edinburgh
Hannah
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d come around to my parents’ house and it wasn’t chaotic. Mum and Dad had to like it that way because it was constant. I knew Mum well enough to know if it was bugging her, she’d tell us all to shove off.
“Dad, can I go upstairs and play the computer with Will?” Dylan said quietly, staring up at his father imploringly as we stood in the hallway of my parents’ house.
We’d only stepped foot in the door and already my nephew Will was attempting to drag my stepson up the stairs.
Marco stared down at Dylan, as did our son Jarrod, who was reaching out his short little arm for his brother with no hope of obtaining his goal. Dylan helped him out by reaching back and clasping his hand. “Only for a while,” Marco said. “Your grandma Elodie has made lunch, and you’re going to sit with the family and eat it.”
“That goes for you too.” Adam, my brother-in-law, stepped out into the hall from the sitting room.
His son, Will, who was only a few years younger than Dylan, grinned back at him. “Okay.” He shrugged. It was becoming more apparent as the years went on that he’d inherited his easygoing nature from my sister.
Dylan nodded too and then followed Will upstairs.
“I thought I heard voices.” Mum appeared beside Adam with five-year-old Braden in her arms.
I strode over to kiss her cheek and then steal Bray from her. “And how is this wee man?” I asked him.
“Fine,” he said, chewing on a now soggy brioche roll my mum had probably given him. “Hungry.”
Jarrod made this cute little grunting sound as he tried to push away from his dad to get to Bray. When it didn’t work, he immediately burst into loud tears. For whatever reason, my son had decided he liked Bray the most out of all of his cousins. Unfortunately, Bray was too concerned with five-year-old boy things to care much for the attentions of a two-year-old.
“Oh dear.” Mum smiled. “Let’s put Jarrod in the playpen in the sitting room.”
“Where’s Will?” Bray asked.
“Upstairs.”
“Down, Granny,” he said.
Mum let him down, and he hurried upstairs as fast as his wee legs could take him.
“Hannah, sweetheart,” Dad said, getting up from his chair to hug and kiss me. “How are you?”
“Good, Dad. Stressed with school. Nothing new.” I smiled.
“Teaching.” He grunted as he took Jarrod into his arms. My dad would know all about the ups and downs of teaching. He taught at university level. “Marco.” He nodded congenially at my husband and then looked around us, frowning. “Where’s Dylan and Sophia?”
“Dylan is upstairs with Will, and Sophia…” I glanced over my shoulder as Ellie walked into the room carrying my daughter in her arms. “Ran straight toward the kitchen.”
Sophia adored her aunt Ellie and apparently had some kind of psychic radar for finding her.
Ellie came over to kiss me on the cheek, and Sophia buried her head against her aunt’s chest, clearly stating, “I am refusing to budge.” My eyes laughed into Ellie’s. “How are you?”
“Good.” She smiled. “We booked our family holiday this morning.”
“Ooh, where are you off to?”
“Disney World,” Adam answered, coming up behind his wife. He looked pained just at the thought of it. “Florida.”
Ellie was grinning from ear to ear. “It’s going to be fantastic.”
“Fantastic,” Adam murmured, making a horrified face behind her back.
Marco coughed, trying to cover a laugh, but he was fooling no one. Ellie shot him a sideways glance. “Is my husband making faces behind my back?”
Marco straightened his face. “Absolutely not.”
“I don’t believe you.” She looked over her shoulder at Adam. “You are going to enjoy the magical kingdom, Adam Sutherland, end of story.”
He stared at her and then turned to us. “The kids will love it – that’s what matters. Even though I think Bray is still too young for it.”
“Then we’ll go again when he’s older.” Ellie shrugged.
Adam paled. “I need a drink.”
“I’ll get you one,” Mum offered. “Alcohol, right?”
“I really love you, Elodie,” he said.
She laughed. “I’ll go get you a lager. Clark?”
“Yes, thanks, sweetheart.”
“I’m just going to the loo,” I said, brushing a hand over Sophia’s hair as I passed her and Ellie.
I’d just finished up in the upstairs toilet and had opened the door to come out when I was blocked by Marco. He gently put a hand to my stomach and pushed me back inside, closing the door behind him and locking us in together.
“What is it?” I stared up at him in surprise.
In answer, he slid his hands across my stomach and down onto my hips, gripping them so he could tug me in to him. My own hands smoothed over his chest as I stared up into his beautiful eyes.
“Baby, what is it?” I repeated, growing more concerned by the anxious look in his eyes.
“You’re not upset?” he said.
“About what?”
“About all the talk about Disney World?”
Realization suddenly hit me. I shook my head emphatically. “No. I’m not.”
Although we both had full-time jobs, as a young couple living in a four-bedroom house in central Edinburgh, it wasn’t financially easy. Of course we’d had a better start than most because my pseudo big brother Braden had gotten together with Ellie and they’d bought me a gorgeous flat in New Town. I’d sold the flat to put down a hefty deposit on our four-bedroom house, but we still had a sizable mortgage to pay as well as three kids to clothe and feed.
Expensive holidays to Disney World weren’t exactly in the cards for us right now.
“We’ll pick up a bargain and take the kids to Spain or something,” I reminded him. “And even if we can’t do that, we’ll just take them on day trips around the country.”
Marco nodded but still didn’t look entirely convinced. “I don’t want you and the kids to miss out on anything.”
“Miss out on what?” I pressed deeper into him. “A beautiful house, a husband who loves me, a father who adores them. What exactly are we missing out on?”
“You’re sure?” he said, his voice gruff now.
I slid my hands up around his neck and pulled his mouth down to mine. I teased my lips over his, brushing my top lip over his bottom, my bottom over his top.
He groaned, his grip on my hips turning almost bruising, and I felt his immediate reaction to me digging into my stomach.
My skin flushed hot and I kissed him, loving how I could turn him on so easily.
The kiss turned wet, deep, hard, hands sliding and touching and pulling to get closer.
The sound of my mother calling up to the boys that lunch was ready broke through our haze and we reluctantly parted. My breasts heaved in Marco’s hands, and he kneaded them one last time before sliding his hands to a safer position on my waist.
“I guess that means you’re sure.” His voice rumbled with amusement.
I grinned up at him. “Baby, every day with you is a vacation.”
His eyes warmed, filling with tenderness.
“Where are Hannah and Marco?” I heard my mum say loudly.
“Dunno,” Will answered cheerily.
My eyes widened. “I’ll slip out first and let you…” I gestured to his hard-on.
He closed his eyes. “My fault for choosing a hot wife.”
I chuckled and slipped past him as he moved his back from the door. “I’ll tell them you’ll be down in a minute.” I opened the door and looked back at him. “Uncle Gio. Naked.”
Marco cursed and threw a hand cloth at me, and I laughed, fleeing the bathroom and slamming the door shut behind me. “I bet it works!” I yelled through the door, and laughed all the way downstairs.
Upon my arrival in
to the dining room, Dylan patted the seat next to him. “Hannah.”
As always, my chest burst with feeling as I walked over to join my stepson. Dylan adored his dad, and of course he loved his mum to bits, but I was pleased to have earned his love over the last few years and the coveted position of being the person he most wanted to sit beside at mealtimes. Just as I was about to sit down, Sophia decided she’d missed me in the last ten minutes and refused to sit anywhere but on my lap. It was clear she hadn’t realized that at four years old she was now much bigger than she was at two. But I didn’t mind. Mum had already warned me there would come a time when Sophia wouldn’t want to be seen with me, let alone sit on my lap, so I was determined to soak up her attention as much as possible.
The skin on my neck prickled and I knew my husband had entered the room. I looked over as he walked in with Adam, Adam holding Bray’s hand while Marco carried Jarrod.
Marco took his seat beside me, shooting me a look that promised retribution later for our moment upstairs. Jarrod immediately reached for a lock of Sophia’s hair, and she turned and tickled his neck in response, eliciting a giggle from him.
“Everyone ready to eat?” Mum asked the table, and as I glanced around at my family, I felt strangely emotional. I looked back at Marco, who seemed to sense it and was watching me carefully.
Like he always did. My feelings were a number-one priority to him, and he never let me forget it.
I thought of what he’d asked me upstairs.
“I am so sure,” I whispered, and my husband reached out his free hand to squeeze my knee under the table.
Olivia
It was too quiet. Much, much too quiet in the house.
I was snuggled up on a huge armchair in the snug sitting room (the smaller of our two sitting rooms), where I was reading a book by an author Grace worked with. I got to a steamy part that made me flush and looked over at my gorgeous husband, who was lying on the couch reading a graphic novel (because he’d never stopped being a big kid).
My intention was to jump him when the thought occurred to me that either one of our girls might come running in and interrupt us. That’s when I realized the house was much, much too quiet.
“Where are the girls?” I said to Nate.
He turned his head on the fat cushion he was resting against and peered at me over the glasses he now had to wear. He hated them. I thought they made him look adorable. Which was exactly why he hated them. “I thought they were in the living room watching a film.”
“And that usually comes with singing or dancing or squealing of some sort.” I got up off of the chair, leaving my book in my place. “I’ll be back in a sec.”
“Baby, can you get me a coffee while you’re up?”
“Your lack of concern is wonderful.” I rolled my eyes at him and disappeared out of the room.
What I found in the living room made me draw to a stop with a small gasp.
Playing on the large television screen Nate had mounted on our wall above the fireplace was our wedding DVD.
Lily and January sat on the couch, quiet as mice as they watched their mom and dad dance at their reception.
I stared at the image, too, at the way that Nate held me close and gazed into my eyes like no one else was in the room with us.
Clearly the girls were mesmerized by this, watching it as if they were watching a Disney Princess movie.
I felt heat at my back seconds before arms slid around my waist and drew me back against a hard chest. I relaxed against Nate, covering his arms with my own. He nuzzled my neck and whispered in my ear, “Good movie choice.”
I grinned. “I haven’t watched it in ages,” I whispered back.
Lily turned, having heard us. She wore a look of apology. “Oh. We just found it.”
January glanced over her shoulder at us. “Mummy, your dress is so pretty.”
“Do you still have it?” Lily asked, eyes bright just at the thought of getting to wear it.
“I do. I’ll show it to you, but you have to be really careful with it, okay?”
They nodded solemnly, my two little angels.
“Daddy, you’re wearing a kilt there!” Lily giggled.
“I am wearing a kilt,” he acknowledged as he shuffled me forward as if I were his puppet, making the girls giggle harder.
“Did you like wearing a kilt?”
He squeezed me harder. “I don’t know. Did I like wearing a kilt?”
I shook my head. “You complained about it the whole day.”
Lily paused the DVD and turned around on the couch to face us. Like always, January did what her big sister did. “Would you rather wear a kilt or a nappy?” She grinned like she’d thought of the funniest thing ever.
I shook with laughter, wondering if Nate regretted introducing our “would you rather” conversations to our children.
“Hmm.” He actually pretended to ponder it. “I think I’d rather wear a kilt.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s warmer and less humiliating.”
Lily giggled again, but Jan wrinkled her nose. “What does humil—humanaiting mean?”
“Humiliating,” Lily corrected her. “It means embarrassing.”
My smart, smart little cookie.
“Oh.” Jan laughed, the dimples she’d inherited from her father flashing. “Yeah, a nappy would make you look silly, Daddy.”
“I don’t know.”
I glanced over my shoulder to look at him. “A nappy, really?”
He grinned, his own dimples flashing. “I could pull off a nappy.”
“Honey, I love you, and I think you are very handsome, but not even you could pull off a man nappy.”
He snorted. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Mum, would you rather be married to Daddy or the man from the washing-up liquid commercial?” Lily grinned mischievously.
I bugged my eyes out at her as my kid gave me away.
Nate gently eased me around to face him. “What’s this?” he teased.
I shrugged sheepishly. “He’s very good-looking.”
“So?” He raised an eyebrow. “Me or this washing-up guy?”
Now it was my turn to pretend to muse over it. “The washing-up guy does do the dishes.”
“We have a dishwasher.”
“He cleans kitchen countertops too.”
“Hey, we had a deal. I give you two cute kids, you clean the kitchen.”
“That’s a pretty good deal, Mum.” Lily smiled.
I made a face at Nate, who couldn’t contain his laughter. “She’s got you there.”
“She’s not got me there. I did the hard work to produce these two angels. That doesn’t make sense at all. If anyone should be cleaning countertops, it’s you.”
“Mum, would you rather —”
“No, my turn.” I bent down as far as I could with Nate’s arms wrapped around me and brushed my nose over Lily’s and then Jan’s. They both giggled and waved me away. “Would you rather live in the sewers with enchanted animals and pretty elves and mystical sewer cities, or in a beautiful, peaceful forest with a bunch of pretty princesses and charming princes?”
Our girls looked at each other for a second as they contemplated it and then turned in unison and said, “Sewers!”
“Good answer.” I nodded in approval.
“That was a tough one.” Nate was pensive. “I was really having a hard time coming up with an answer to that one.” He put a hand to his heart in a dramatic fashion. “Live in the dirty sewers with a bunch of lovable weirdos or traverse a beautiful forest with a gorgeous princess. It’s tough. Really tough.”
“Daddy!” The girls laughed at his joking, their giggles coming harder.
“You’re lucky you’re adorable in those glasses.” I pressed into him, laughing when his eyes narrowed at the word “adorable.” “Or I might just take offense to the whole gorgeous princess thing.”
“I wouldn’t,” he whispered. “She was dull as dishwater and kept fal
ling asleep.”
“Sleeping Beauty!” Jan shouted, having overhead. “Can we watch Sleeping Beauty?”
“Yeah!” Lily shouted, dashing across the room to our DVD cabinet.
Nate looked from them to me and snorted. “Our wedding DVD has been bumped for Sleeping Beauty.”
I pulled him away from the girls, snuggling into him once I had him at the doorway. When I was sure the girls couldn’t hear, I whispered, “Perhaps there is something to the whole Sleeping Beauty thing.”
His hands flexed on my hips, his gaze turning low-lidded and hot. “What did you have in mind?”
“I’m thinking sexual fantasy. Tonight.” I brushed my lips over his. “Your choice? Do I play a damsel-in-distress fairy-tale style, or do we go with something a little more sci-fi?” I grinned suggestively.
“Never change,” he whispered hoarsely. “You are absolutely fucking perfect the way you are.”
“What are you talking about?” Lily called over to us nosily.
“Your dad is just remembering why he married me,” I called back, and he grinned, those irresistible dimples flashing again, like they were wont to do at least thirty times a day.
Johanna
“Belle loves it here.” I snuggled into Cam’s side as the breeze from the water sent goose bumps up all over me. “I should have put on a jacket.”
In response, Cam opened his and burrowed me into him, closing the jacket over me as far as it would go. “We should make an effort to come here more often.”
I nodded, watching Belle play on the beach with our friends, Lyn and Peetie’s daughter, Sara. Lyn and Cam’s mum, Helena, pretended to chase them, and their giggles floated up into the air to join the caws of the seagulls above our heads.
I always loved Cam’s hometown of Longniddry. I loved the nearby beach we were on, and I loved that my kid loved her grandparents so much. I loved that she was having the kind of life I’d always dreamed of having as a child.
“Cole and Shannon will be enjoying the sun,” Cam said, a smile in his voice.