The Aristocrat and the Single Mom (18 page)

He shifted his weight to the balls of his feet. The check-in clerk snatched up his documentation. Tiredness swept across his face. ‘So you’ve come to see me off after all,’ he called out when she didn’t add anything to her initial greeting.

He looked so unfamiliar, so impeccably correct in his suit. And tie. She’d grown so used to seeing him in board shorts and T-shirts, chinos and polo shirts, that she’d forgotten—Simon Morton-Blake was the seventh Lord of Holm. What on earth would the seventh Lord of Holm want with her?

Then he smiled and he was just Simon. The sun came out and she knew she was still his princess. She threw her head back and laughed for the sheer joy of it. She moved around the barrier until she was as close as she could be to him and the check-in desk, but still too many bodies separated them. She swooshed the people with her hands, glaring at them until they moved to one side or the other, or at least as far as the barriers would let them, giving her a clear line of sight to Simon.

‘Simon—’

She didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry.

‘Simon, we can come to England to live—me and Jesse!’ She shouted the words out in much the same fashion as Jesse had to her only hours ago.

Simon frowned. Kate wondered if her words had come out coherently or if they’d only made sense in her head.

He went to move towards her when the check-in clerk snapped, ‘If you move away from the counter, sir, you will have to go to the back of the line!’ She glanced at his documentation, scowled at his ticket. ‘I wouldn’t recommend that, sir. Not with the flight you’re trying to catch.’

He hesitated, an endearing indecision flashing across his face. He pointed a trembling finger at Kate. ‘Will you repeat what you just said?’

Her heart swelled with love for him. She understood his fear of allowing himself to hope, his fear he hadn’t heard her right the first time.

‘Paul has been offered a job in London.’ She turned and found Paul and Jesse, Danny and Felice, forming a small group nearby. ‘Paul, what’s the name of the firm you’ll be working for?’

‘Inglewood and Baxters.’

She turned back to Simon and repeated it. ‘You know them?’

He nodded. He stared at her and his shoulders stiffened, then went slack as if a truck had hit him, or a thunderbolt. ‘They’re good. One of the best design groups in the world.’

Her heart swelled even more as she saw he still hadn’t comprehended her meaning. ‘Paul has been offered his dream job and he has accepted it.’ She pulled in a breath. ‘Which means Jesse and I are moving to England.’

She stared at him. He stared back. She waited for comprehension to dawn in those clear grey eyes of his. ‘I don’t mean right now, of course. It’ll take us a few weeks to organise everything. But soon…if that’s what you still want,’ she finished on a gulp, nerves assailing her all over again.

‘You’re going to come to England? To live?’

‘Yes!’ She shouted the word, her nerves suddenly at stretching point.

Simon dropped his briefcase, kicked his suitcase out of the way and strode away from the counter, knocking barriers every which way.

‘Sir!’ the check-in clerk called. ‘Sir, your passport, your suitcase. Your ticket!’

‘I’m not taking that flight,’ he shot back over his shoulder, his eyes never leaving Kate’s face.

People scattered out of his way, barriers kept falling and then he was down on his knee in front of her and she found her hands clasped in his.

‘Kate, you are the love of my heart. I have been dying by slow degrees today in this God-forsaken place, knowing that every minute was a minute closer to leaving you behind. Please, Kate, please…do me the very great honour of consenting to be my wife?’

If possible, the airport became even more hushed as all within earshot turned and held a collective breath, but Kate wasn’t aware of anyone else other than the man in front of her, down on bended knee. She dropped to her knees too. They were decidedly useless and wobbly knees after that declaration. Especially when Simon insisted on steaming her up with an expression of such utter intensity she doubted whether her legs would work ever again.

‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘Yes, please, Simon. I would very much love to be your wife.’

With a whoop, Simon dragged her to her feet and swung her around. Kate found herself in the centre of a victory dance with her family. And then she realised it wasn’t just her and Simon, Jesse and Paul, Danny and Felice, cheering and dancing and wiping their eyes, but what appeared to be half the airport too.

Which reminded her where they were. ‘Oh, Simon, you’re going to miss your flight.’

‘I am.’

He didn’t seem the least put out by that fact.

‘I shall have to return to England at some time over the next week—meetings I can’t get out of, I’m afraid, and documents that need signing. But then I’m coming back here to take you and Jesse home.’

It sounded heavenly.

‘It takes one month after the notice of intent to get married in Australia.’

She blinked. ‘How do you know that?’

‘I looked it up.’ His eyes darkened. ‘I want to marry you on the beach at the exact spot where we first kissed.’

Her mouth went dry at the promise in that marvellous voice of his. ‘I…um…we’d better wear our swimsuits then, because from memory it was a bit wet.’ Not good for a frilly dress. ‘Make it the spot where we did back flips and you have yourself a deal.’ She wanted the frilly dress.

She wanted Simon. For ever.

‘Done.’ He gripped her face in his hands. ‘I love you, Kate Petherbridge.’

She stared at those divine lips, trying to shake herself out of the trance threatening to descend on her. ‘I love you too, Simon Morton-Blake.’ She meant to spend the rest of her life proving to him exactly how much.

‘Can you, Jesse and Paul be ready in a month?’

She’d make sure they were. ‘Yes.’

His hands traced her face; his thumb followed the curve of her bottom lip. ‘Once we’re married we are never going to be separated again,’ he vowed.

She twined her arms around his neck. ‘Amen,’ she whispered against his mouth the moment before his lips claimed hers and she could finally melt into him.

When Simon lifted his head, heaven only knew how many seconds or minutes later, Kate grew aware of the applause, the cheering, the people—strangers—who called out their congratu
lations and good wishes. Heat mounted her cheeks but she was too happy to be embarrassed for long. In fact, it seemed as if the happiness surrounding her and Simon rippled outwards in ever increasing circles, engulfing everyone nearby in its glow too.

She glanced down when Jesse squeezed in between her and Simon. ‘Cool, huh?’ he said, grinning up at Simon.

‘You bet,’ Simon said, swinging him up into his arms.

‘I think Mum will be happy again now,’ Jesse whispered.

Simon pretended to consider her. ‘Her eyes are decidedly sparkly,’ he agreed.

Jesse curved one arm around Simon’s neck, the other around Kate’s. ‘I think we’re all going to be happy.’

‘That’s the plan, bucko,’ Simon said with a grin. ‘I plan to dedicate my whole life to making you and your mum happy.’

‘And whoever else comes along?’ Kate whispered, touching her forehead to his.

‘And whoever else comes along,’ he said, his eyes dark with promise.

Kate winked at Jesse. ‘Cool, huh?’

Jesse beamed back. ‘You bet.’