Away From the Spotlight (69 page)

Emma rolled her eyes.

Pete and Susan
arrived
next followed closely by Damon and his new girlfriend
,
Sarah.

“Where are Niall and Pam?” I asked as they walked in the door and after
being introduced to
Sara
h.

“
They’re coming in a little while.  Pam just got in today and I imagine Niall wanted to spend a little
alone
time with her before comin
g here,” Damon said and winked.

I
knew that Niall had specifically asked that she come and that he and Pam had kept in touch, but I didn’t think it was like that
. 
Pam had made it sound all very casual.  It surprised me.  Now I was reall
y anxious to see them together.

Katherine and Mark
arrived
next.  I was worried that Katherine might feel a little uncomfortable in this crowd as she might be treated differently.  I needn’t have worried. 
Kelly
and
Matt
were the only ones who didn’t seem to know her.  Will ensured that they were introduced properly.
 
Kelly
behaved perfectly, treating Katherine like she was just another one of Will’s friends.  I was relieved.

Finally, Niall and Pam
turned up
, hand-in-hand, both looking very happy to be reunited.  I
’
m sure my eyebrows were raised when I greeted them at the door. 
Niall wasn’t as eager
to
greet me as he had been in the past despite the fact that he said, “Hello
,
gorgeous,” as he did so. 
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the time to ask questions. 
I
’ll have to
corner Pam later.

W
ill played host and bartender,
en
sur
ing
that everyone had a drink and were all introduced. 
While Will did this, I went around the room to greet everyone myself.  Pam had gone off to the restroom
by the time
I got to Niall.  I noticed that Niall didn’
t hug me so tightly this time.

“You look happy,” I said
a
s we hugged.

“Well, if I couldn’t have you
.
. .
,
”
h
e spoke in my ear.

“Funny.  You don’t look too unhappy about that.”

“Not
now
,
anyway.  After we met and until just recently for that matter, I was gutted thinking of you with Will.  It’s a good thing I didn’t know about your breakup at the
time or you might
’
ve had me in Los Angeles
.”

“Pam’s my best friend.  Be good.”

“Promise.  I’ll be quiet now.”

Once Will had
served
everyone drinks, he and I
sat down on the floor of the living room
since
there weren’t enough seats for everyone
. 
Will
put his arm around me w
hile I
lean
ed
against his shoulder.  Between the seating and those of us on the floor, we were all sitting in somewhat of a circle around the ce
ntral space of the living room.

Pete started off the conversation with a toas
t to us and then asked, “So how is
married life?”

I just then realized that Will and I were the only married
couple
in the room.  It seemed strange
to me to be married
.

“Perfect
,
” Will said as he put both arms around me
and
his head into the space between my shoulder and my neck
,
and hugged me tightly.  I smiled
and nodded
in agreement.

I could see that everyone was thinking at that moment that they
wished they
would have what we did.
I had
always
considered myself extremely lucky in finding someone like Will, but it really hit me at that moment.  If it weren’t for the roomful of people, I would have turned around and really kissed
him
.  Instead, I put my hands on his
hands
that were
still holding me and squeezed.

“So I heard you two were broken up for a while?”  Of course, it would be Niall who would bring up
an
un
pleasant topic of conversation
and in front of everyone.

I fe
lt
Will flinch
before he answered,
“Yes.  It was my fault.  The paparazzi were creating terrible problems for Shannon,
endangering her when she was driving
, c
ausing
problems for her at work, and harassing her all the time.  I thought that maybe she would be better off without that, without me
, s
o while I was away on the
Midnight 4
shoot, we broke off our engagement.  I c
ouldn
’t live without her and we got back together not long after I
returned
to L.A.  Not a lot of story there, Niall.  Tha
nks for bringing it up though.”

I wish I could have seen behind me to catch a glimpse of Will’s expression
to match the sarcasm
because I am sure it was murderous
.

Pam added, “Well, I was one of the ones trying to
console
Shannon during that time.  She couldn’t live without you either.  We all took turns taking her out every night so she wouldn’t have to be alone.
  She was a total train wreck.”

Again, I could feel Will fl
inch.

Katherine chimed in this time.  “Well, I was with
Will during
the
Midnight 4
shoot.  He wasn’t a
lot
of laughs then either.  He spent all his free time in his room or trailer alone, probably curled up into a ball.  The makeup artists complained about the bags under his eyes.  And trying to get happy scenes out o
f him was like pulling teeth.”

I decided to end this
tragic
topic of conversation.
“It’s all good now thoug
h.  See, both of us are happy.”

“We’re happy for you,” Gemma said. 
“
Colin told me the night you met that you
two
would get married, didn’t you?”

Colin, sitting
close
to Gemma on the sofa, responded,
“Yes.  When Will started making all the arrangements for their first
date, I knew he was done for.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Really.”

“
I’ll be right back.
”
  I stood up, grabbed Will’s hand and
led him
in the direction of our
bed
room.  I closed the door
behind us
and kissed him hard.

“What’s this for?”
he said as he tried to come up for air.

“I don’t know
.  H
earing about how you feel about me just does
this to me.  I can’t help it.”

“Not that I’ll complain, but if we do what you seem to want to do, they’ll hear us.  I’m sure they
think we’re doing it already.”

“We can go out in a
minute
.  No one will think you’re that fast. 
Let’s j
ust do th
is for a minute.”

After a minute or two, I could go back, but Will could not
, at least not immediately
.  I decided to
make a quick appearance
and check in on the group
.  When I
entered
the living room, everyone was
so
en
grossed
in
various
conversations
, they
barely noticed my return.  Pam and Niall appeared curiously missing.

I returned to the bedroom.  “I think we’ll be fine for a little while.”

Will sighed
with relief and curled his finger toward me
.  “Good.  Come here.  I need you.”

“Is that all I am to you?”

“Wasn’t it you who brought me back here?”

“Oh, yeah.  Sorry.”

“I’m not.”  He kissed me and we tried as hard as we could to be quiet and quick about it.

Will returned to the living room first, promising to try to act like he had been there a while.  I put myself back together and joined
everyone not long thereafter.

“Did the plan work?  Did they notice we had been gone that long?” I whispered in Will’s ear.

“I don’t think they noticed
at all
.  They’re too busy talking about the fact that Niall and Pam are
MIA
.”

Niall and Pam
shortly thereafter
tried
unsuccessfully
to return unnoticed.  They clearly came from the bedroom
on
the o
pposite
side of the suite from our
bedroom
.  It didn’t help that Pete and Damon had noticed their absence and
had
started the group talking
and looking out for their return
.

When they
entered
the
living
room, everyone stared and I could sense the embarrassment in both Niall and Pam.
  Niall looked down at the floor and Pam flushed. 
I looked at Will with a pleading look for him to help them.

Will
said, “Sorry Shann
on and I took so long.  We want
to toast all of you and thank you for coming.”

“You were gone?” Colin asked.

I shrugged my shoulders
,
looking guilty.
 
It seemed to work and the spotlight moved off of Niall and Pam.

Pam walked over to us after the toast, “Thank you for saving us.
”

“It’s okay.  We know exactly how you feel.  What do you think we were doing on the oth
er side of the suite?”
I smiled mischievously.
 
“So, now you have to tell me what’s going on between you and Niall.  You never mentioned it was like this.”

“Well, it wasn’t.  I
ha
d
sex
with him the night before we left for home last summer, but I treated it like a summer fling.  We talked a handful of times since then on the phone and sent a few e-mails
and texts
, but nothing serious.  He would ask me about you and Will and, of course, I couldn’t tell him since I figured that was up to Will. 
T
hen, when I got off the plane today, something just clicked between us.  So, you see, what you’re seeing no
w is brand new for both of us so it’s no surprise you didn’t know. 
I
didn’t know.”

“Well, I’m happy for you.  I hope it works out.”

“So do I.  He is . . . Wow
!
”

I looked at Will as I said,
“I definitely know how that feels.”

Since
the next day was going to be a big day, everyone cleared out
just after
m
idnight.

“We’ll see you tomorrow afternoon,” Kate and Gemma said as they left.  Kate was planning on doing my hair and makeup and Gemma would help and make sure all was well with my dress.

“Thank you.  You have no idea how much I appreciate it.”

When everyone had left, Will and I
sat on the sofa in the living room together to decompress for a few minutes.

“That was fun,” I said as I
put
my head on Will’s shoulder.

“Yes, it’s nice to be surrounded by family and friends
,
and with you, of course.”  He leaned his head on mine.

“Thank you for including
Kelly
,
Matt
and Pam.”

“You’re welcome for
Kelly
and
Matt
, but you’ll have to thank Niall for Pam.
”

“I know you invited her at his request
,
but still, it was nice of you.  It looked like Niall appreciated it very much.”