Inevitable (44 page)

I’ve been
pretty casual with him so far for Kara’s sake – just the odd stern
look and too-firm handshake. But I swear if I find out his dick has
so much as twitched while he’s around my sister I’ll crush his nuts
until his face turns blue.

“
I’m so proud of you both!” Annie wailed when we reached her in
the swarm of parents, dabbing smudges of mascara from under her
eyes with a crumpled tissue.

“
Thanks, Mum,” Maddie replied whilst I gave a grateful
nod.

Having Annie live with us has been easier than I thought it
would be. I don’t want to sound like an insensitive jackass but I’d
be lying if I said her illness didn’t weird me out at times. Yet
just like the very first time I saw her having one of her
‘episodes’ I somehow automatically knew how to handle her. She’s
been admitted to hospital only once since coming to live with us
and that was almost eight months ago. Since then she’s been…
normal.

After her most
recent discharge she came out fighting – determined to get better
and stay better and be the mum she always wanted to be for Maddie.
And she has. She doesn’t drink or even smoke anymore and she spends
all her time helping Clarabella with the housework. I’m pretty sure
that irritates the hell out of Clarabella although she’s far too
polite to say anything.

“
I’m going to miss you two,” Trudy said with watery eyes and
then wrapped her arms around Maddie who gladly let her. It’s been
nice to watch them growing closer over the last few months. Since I
first discovered the truth I had noticed that look of adoration in
Trudy’s eyes whenever she looked at Maddie, and about six months
ago I started seeing it in Maddie’s eyes too.

Reluctantly uncurling herself from Maddie, Trudy turned to
me with her arms outstretched. I made a face which said
‘seriously?’ expecting her to back away but she ignored me and
hugged me so tightly I think she might have punctured one of my
lungs. Pulling away, I smiled at her. I didn’t meant to it just
sort of appeared involuntarily. Hell, who was I kidding? I love
Trudy. She is part of my family – my and Maddie’s
family.

I love my
family.

“
Keys?” Maddie asked with a devilish grin spreading across
her beautiful face.
Damn.
Maddie passed her driver’s test back in January but she was
yet to get her paws on my precious Lambo. I’d told her it was
because I didn’t trust
anyone
with my baby but the truth was I just loved to see
her pout. She’s adorable when she’s frustrated. I’d also said
however that my graduation present to her was going to be letting
her drive us home in my car.

“
Yeah… about that…” I trailed off, shrugging my
shoulders.

“
No way, Jose! You’re not pulling that one on me. Keys. Now,”
she demanded all masterfully and sexy as hell.

“
Maybe I just wanted to see you pout one last time,” I teased,
whispering in her ear and then planting a soft kiss along her jaw.
I heard a low moan escape from her lips and I had never wanted to
get her home so fast. “Take us home. Now,” I ordered, being equally
masterful as I tossed her my keys.

“
Yeah, maybe we’ll hang around here for a while whilst you
two go and, um, ‘celebrate’,” Annie air-quoted. You gotta love
Annie and her candidness. Unless you were Trudy of course, who as
usual rolled her eyes.

I raced Maddie to my car
and as she reached for the handle to the
driver’s side door I grabbed her waist and spun her round to face
me, pressing her against the yellow metal with my body.

“
Marry me,” I breathed.
There I went again - that thing where ridiculous
words spill involuntarily out of my mouth. Except this time they
weren’t ridiculous. This time, the minute they’d left my lips I
knew they were right. Although they slipped out by accident, those
two words were the most perfect, wanted, necessary words in the
world.

Maddie’s
big brown eyes widened and almost instantly a jaw-splitting smile
illuminated her pale face.

“
Of course I will!” she beamed.

Breathing
erratically, I cupped my fiancée’s face in my hands, kissing her
softly.

“
I love you, Maddie. So fucking much.”

“
You’re not so bad yourself.”

The end.

I would like to thank my wonderful family
for all their love
and support. Especially my parents for providing me with such
creative genes!

Thank
you to my husband Michael for always believing in me and telling me
daily I can do anything I set my mind to. For looking after our
wonderful children whilst I’m hiding out in my own world with my
fictional friends and for putting up with me whilst I ramble on
about my constantly changing dreams and ideas.

Thank
you to my beautiful children for being perfect (most of the time!)
and for being excited about the fact that “Mum is an author!” Thank
you for leaving me alone and taking your squabbles to your dad
whilst I’m tapping away on the computer and thank you for the
kisses and cuddles when I am done for the day.

Thank
you to James at Cover Designs by humblenations.com for my fantastic
cover which I am very proud of!

Finally,
thank you to my sister in law and best friend in the whole world,
Keeley Wall. Thank you for sharing my reading addiction. Thank you
for all the hours spent talking nonsense about our fantastic ‘book
guys’. Thank you for reading through and critiquing my unfinished
books over and over again, for your encouragement, advice and your
ideas. Love you, Keeya girly!

I know
technically this should be in third person but writing about myself
like that feels kind of stupid so I’ll just tell you a bit about
myself instead!

I was born
in Rochdale, England and have lived there my entire life. A
true home bird I still live there, just a few doors down from my
parents and a few up from my sister and her family, with my
wonderful husband. I am a full time mum to my four delightful
(sometimes!) children and our Labrador Harry (who could easily give
Marley a run for his doggy treats!).

When I’m not
busy being a mum/housewife/all round slave or studying towards my
degree in English Literature I can usually be found with either a
laptop or kindle stuck in front of my face. Sometimes – if I’m
feeling particularly wild – I might even have a real-life paperback
there instead!

All in all I’m
just your ordinary mum spending my days doing ordinary mum things.
Unless I’m reading or writing of course and then I can be whoever I
want to be! And that’s usually someone young, slim and gorgeous
with a hot muscly man on her arm ;-)

Man, how I’d
love to live in a book…