Fairytale Come Alive (62 page)

She loved it when he did that, she loved the quiet togetherness, the sea their view, comfortable in each other’s company without words.

But something told her tonight, knowing she was tired, Christmas less than an hour away, he wasn’t in the mood to sip whisky and stare at the sea with her back tucked to his front, his arms around her, her head resting on his shoulder.

It was something else.

And tomorrow was Christmas so that something else could be
something else.

Prentice exited the closet with one of his thick, wooly sweaters.

“Pren –” she started.

“Socks on, Elle,” he interrupted her.

She stared at him for another moment. Then she bent over and pulled on his socks. When she was done, he was close and he pulled the sweater over her head. It was huge and covered her from neck to thigh, well past her nightgown but it left her legs bare. Even with her legs bare, the minute she shoved her arms through the sleeves, Prentice grabbed her hand and led her out to the balcony.

Heart still racing, Elle didn’t argue or resist.

She followed.

He closed the door behind them and guided her to the railing before he stopped them and guided her into his arms.

She tipped her head back to look at his face in the moonlight and the illumination from the soft lamps lit on either side of the bed that were coming through the windows of their room. When she did, she saw he was already looking down at her and she noted he looked serious.

She opened her mouth to speak, knowing he had to feel her heart beating against his chest where it was pressed close but she didn’t utter a peep.

Because he spoke first.

And when he did, it was to ask, “You’d throw yourself in front of a bus for me?”

She bit her lip as she tried to control the beating of her heart. This was an impossibility so she answered, “Well –”

That was all she got out before Prentice spoke again.

And when he did, this time it was a thick, hoarse whisper, “You’d throw yourself in front of a bus for me.”

She would and he knew it. He knew it and she knew that he felt that knowledge burrow deep and he liked it.

Elle felt tears stinging the backs of her eyes, her body melted into his, her arms tightened around him and she whispered back, “Yes, Pren, though I hope I never get the chance.”

A short, sharp laugh escaped his throat but that was it before his head dropped and his forehead came to rest on hers.

Then he said in his soft, low, sweet, beautiful voice, “You know I love you.”

“I know,” she replied just as soft but probably not as sweet and beautiful.

“You love me,” he declared.

“With everything I am,” Elle confirmed, his eyes closed slowly and his arms squeezed her tight.

Then they loosened, his eyes opened to look into hers and that voice kept coming at her. “And you know I want you in my life until my last breath.”

Her heart tripped over itself.

“Pren.” That was all she could get out, she could say no more and Prentice didn’t give her a chance.

He pulled slightly away at the same time he reached behind him to wrap a hand around her left wrist. Then he shifted it between them as his other hand went to the pocket of his pajama bottoms. The next second he was sliding a large diamond ring on her finger, the diamond brilliant, gorgeous and
huge
but the setting was simple, unadorned, the luster, brilliance and size of the diamond the only thing it needed.

“I’m making that official,” Prentice told her, his voice still sweet but it was again thick as Elle stared at the ring and couldn’t speak at all because her heart was still beating a mile a minute but now it was doing it in her throat. “
That
is the ring I wanted to give you twenty years ago.
That
is the ring my Elle deserves to wear on her finger, the ring that lays my claim to her, shows the world she’s mine and shows her how much she means to me. So
that
is what she’ll have.”

Elle’s eyes, filling with wet as her lips trembled, lifted to his and when they did his hand, warm and strong, curled around hers tight and pressed it to his chest.

“Merry Christmas, baby,” he whispered.

Elle stared at the man she’d loved for forever, the man who breathed life into her, the man who set her free, the man who, again, slid the perfect ring on her finger making all her dreams come true and she knew she was right earlier.

She had her happily ever after.

And it was
happy.

So she stuffed her face in Prentice’s sweatshirt, yanked her hand free from his so she could wrap her arm around him again, both her arms spasmed and she burst into tears.

Prentice gathered her closer, pulling her deeper to his warmth and he held on tight as she wept tears of joy into his chest.

When this went on for a good long while, he whispered into her hair, “Baby, we need to get you inside. It’s cold and your legs are exposed.”

Her head jerked back then it jerked side to side.

Then she pulled her arms from around him, lifted her hands and placed them on either side of his head. With wet on her face, tears still spilling over, she got on her tiptoes to get closer.

And in a fierce voice, Elle told him, “When Cinderella is on her balcony with her handsome Prince, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, they don’t feel cold, Pren, they don’t feel anything. They just feel happy.”

She watched his face shift, go soft, his eyes warm and his arms convulsed around her as he murmured, “Elle.”

“I love you,” she whispered, got higher on her toes and touched her mouth to his then moved back half an inch. “I love you.” Her fingers slid into his thick, fantastic hair and she repeated, “I love you.”

“Elle –”

Her fingers clenched in his hair and she pressed her body deep into his.

“I love you, Prentice Cameron.”

Elle stopped talking and stared into his beautiful eyes, eyes she’d look into every day for the rest of her life and for the first time in that life she felt blessed.

Prentice allowed her a moment to experience that added gift then his neck bent and his mouth crushed down on hers.

Some time later, his body bent so he could lift her in his arms and carry her to their bed.

In their bed he gave her another gift and as often as she got it (which was often), it was always special.

But this time, after, sliding to sleep with Prentice’s warm, strong, big body curved into hers, his arm around her, his fingers laced in hers, keeping her safe, holding her close and doing it with his ring on her finger, it was beyond special.

It was
magical.

Then they were gone.

And he knew she was too.

Elle

Elle was sitting in her Land Rover outside the school waiting for Jace and Sally to get out.

It was three weeks after Christmas, there was a dusting of snow on the ground and the weather had hit a chill so cold the snow was going nowhere, not for awhile.

Elle’s gaze was on the kids pouring out of the school but she didn’t see them. She had a dozen things on her mind.

First, she had to get Jason to his guitar lesson, something he requested after he got the electric guitar and, about five minutes after the last present was unwrapped on Christmas morning, he worked with his father to set it up. He strummed once, the sound blasted back from the amplifier and he instantly fell in ten year old boy love. Considering the amount of time he practiced, Prentice had agreed to the lessons. It was clear Jason was committed to the guitar and, further, Prentice liked the idea that it linked him to his mother in an unusual but beautiful way.

When Jason got his guitar lessons, Sally, not to be left out, declared she wanted dance lessons
and
gymnastics lessons. Surprisingly to this too, Prentice agreed. He decided at her age she couldn’t know which she had more of an interest in he was just pleased she had any interest at all. So he told Elle that Sally might as well try them both and later, if she was still committed, follow through with the one she preferred.

Therefore Elle had to get Jason to his lesson, Sally home to change into her leotard then off to her lesson, then, after dropping Sally off, head to Fern’s to make final decisions on furniture and bedding (their rooms were, at that very moment, completely bare and being painted, they were sleeping in the guest suite) then back through town to pick up Jason then Sally then get home and start dinner.

She’d spent the morning booking their Disneyworld holiday on-line, the rest of the day cleaning the house and doing laundry all the while intermittently making tea for the painters and she hadn’t thought once about what they were going to have for dinner.

So as she sat in her Land Rover contemplating the mad dashes through town she would soon be making, hoping she could do what she needed to do at Fern’s in time to pick up the kids as well as thinking about what she had in the fridge for dinner and not concentrating much on her surroundings.

Until she saw something that caught her eye and she focused on the figure that appeared to be trying to hide, and poorly, around the corner of the school.

Hattie Fennick.

Hattie Fennick with a camera around her neck.

Elle pulled in a shocked breath as she watched Hattie scanning the kids streaming out of the school and Elle knew, she
knew
Hattie was waiting to take Jason and Sally’s picture. Just like she sold her and Prentice’s story to the gossip magazine, she’d been selling the recent photos too. It was
Hattie
who was their source, keeping the photos and stories coming and thus the interest alive.

In fact, just last week they’d printed a photo of Prentice and Elle wandering down the sidewalk two villages over, having a date night, the kids at Fiona’s sister Morag’s house. They were illuminated by a streetlamp, Prentice’s arm was wrapped around Elle’s shoulders and both hers were wrapped around his stomach. Her front was pressed to his side, he had his head tipped down to look at her, she had hers tipped back to look at him, she’d said something to make him chuckle and she was laughing with him.

The caption read,
It’s Wedding Bells for Isabella and Prentice!
And in a little square at the bottom right corner of the photo was a blown up shot of her hand wearing Prentice’s ring and that had its own caption of,
And her hunky architect is not messing around!

As annoying as it was, she had to admit she loved that photo. They looked happy mainly because they were.

But that was two villages over; the shot had been taken after they had dinner and were walking back to Prentice’s SUV so it was after nine at night. There was practically no way Hattie would just happen to be in that village (with a camera), which was smaller by half than Prentice’s which meant it was tiny. They had a takeaway Chinese, the Italian restaurant she and Pren went to and a news agent. There was no reason for Hattie to be there.

This meant Hattie Fennick was stalking Elle, Prentice and the kids!

Hattie Fennick was stalking them and getting paid to expose snippets of their lives and steal photos of their memories and sell their privacy to the world.

As this knowledge burned into her brain, Elle lifted her hands and curled her fingers on the steering wheel in an effort to stop herself from opening her door and marching straight to Hattie, yanking that camera from her neck, smashing it on the ground and giving Hattie a piece of her mind.

It would not do to throw a temper tantrum in front of all the kids at Sally and Jace’s school and the parents there to pick them up.

No, she thought as her narrowed, angry eyes stayed focused on Hattie, she’d pick her time and it would be the right time.

The bed in the guest suite was smaller than the one in their room and the one they would be purchasing.

But it was cozy and comfortable.

They were good. The furniture could wait another day to be ordered, Elle decided as Hattie lifted the camera to her eye and Elle knew that Sally and/or Jason was headed her way.

Yes, she thought, glaring at Hattie taking photos of her children, the furniture could wait.

* * * * *

Fiona

“Is everything okay, Elly Belly?” Fiona heard her daughter ask, her small hand held by Bella’s as Bella walked her into the dance studio.

Fiona thought her wee lass looked adorable in her baby pink tights and leotard, even with that big coat over it, scarf wrapped around her neck, wooly hat pulled over her ears, feet encased in warm boots (she would put on her ballet slippers in the studio).

Bella didn’t take any chances with the cold, Fiona was pleased to see.

But Fiona, for once, wasn’t thinking about her sweet Sally.

Her focus was Bella who Sally couldn’t help but notice was angry, walking stiffly, face set. Hell,
anyone
would notice it; that was how angry Bella was, she wasn’t even shielding Sally from it.