No Matter What (32 page)

She turned her head slightly and kissed his mouth quickly, smiling.
 
They’d made love twice that morning and she didn’t want to let him go, she didn’t want to leave their perfect little world and go outside into reality.
 
They’d only found out she was pregnant yesterday and since then it was almost like they’d been locked inside their own little bubble.
 
The news was still sinking in and they hadn’t told anyone else yet, they hadn’t wanted to until they’d got used to the idea themselves.
 
They’d tell Terry, of course, and Reece and Vince, and
India
couldn’t wait to tell Kenny.
 
He’d freak at this one!
 
India
the tomboy settling down to become a mum!
 
But, as far as announcing it to the world was concerned, it was far too early for that.
 
They weren’t going to make any announcements and they’d make sure nothing was leaked out, either intentionally or unintentionally.

“Maybe another five minutes won’t hurt,” Michael smiled back, letting his hands wander down to her inner thighs.
 
“They can’t really start without the director, can they?”
 
He kissed her neck gently.
 
“Or the leading lady.”
 
He pushed the shirt down over her shoulder and kissed that too, his fingers gently stroking her thighs.
 
“A leading lady whom the director is now going to have to keep a very close eye on.”

India
closed her eyes as his mouth continued to kiss her shoulder, moving up to her neck.
 
“You can’t be too obvious, Mikey, or people will start talking.
 
We don’t want to give anyone any reason to put two and two together.
 
Besides, it’s early days yet, I’m fine.”

“I can be discreet.
 
Anyway, only a few days to go and we can finally take that much-needed vacation, huh?”

She smiled, turning her head to kiss him again.
 
“I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to that.
 
To get away for a bit ... just you and me.”

“And Junior,” he grinned.

She laughed.
 
“Yeah.
 
And Junior.”

“We’ll go away after Christmas, ok?
 
A few days away from here to get our heads together.”

She turned round and sat astride him, slipping her arms round his neck.

“I’m scared, Michael.
 
Being a mum ... it’s not something I ever really thought about.
 
It’s a bit daunting.”

He slid his arms around her waist and kissed her nose.
 
“I know, baby.
 
I guess I’m a little scared too, but, you ... you’re gonna be a great mom.
 
I know you are.”

She smiled and closed her eyes as he kissed her slowly, so slowly it brought her skin out in goosebumps, and she couldn’t see a time when he wouldn’t do this to her, when he couldn’t make her smile just by looking at her a certain way, when he couldn’t make her knees go weak just by touching her or her stomach flip over with a kiss.

“Come on then, daddy,” she said, climbing off the bed and running into the dressing room.
 
“I guess we’d better get going.
 
The sooner this movie wraps the sooner we can get away from here.”

Michael watched her run off to get ready, pushing himself up off the bed.
 
He couldn’t agree with her more.
 
The sooner he got this movie finished the sooner he could put the final part of his plan into action.
 
And then India Steven really would finally be his.

***

Terry stood on the sidelines, watching his team of kids out on the soccer pitch.
 
They’d come such a long way since he’d joined the school and he was so proud of them.
 
He’d never thought he’d love anything as much as playing professionally but this job was a dream come true for him.
 
He was really motivating these kids and they gave so much back in return.
 
Although he was forever being asked to get autographs from
India
, Kenny, Michael and Reece, and a day never went by when he wasn’t being asked questions about what it was like being the brother of a famous actress.
 
Little did any of them know that her movie star father was closer than anyone thought.
 
And God knows what was going to happen when
that
little snippet of information got out.

The surreal events of yesterday were still very fresh in his mind but Terry knew that, for Reece, telling
him
hadn’t been the hard part.
 
He still had that ahead of him.
 
Telling
India
was the hurdle they had yet to get over and that wasn’t going to be easy.
 

Everyone had been summoned over to her and Michael’s tonight, for some reason, and Terry had no idea why.
 
He’d spoken to Reece earlier and he had no idea either.
 
It wasn’t a party, more just popping round for dinner, although popping round for dinner in this town usually consisted of a catered event with chefs being brought in and hired waiters roaming around the place.
 
Even
India
loved the odd extravagance, but Terry was still far more comfortable with just a beer and a buffet.

He looked at his watch and blew his whistle, signalling to the kids to come and join him on the sidelines.

“Ok you lot, come on, over here!”

They all ran up to him, gathering round him, catching their breath as he threw bottles of water at them.

“That was good.
 
Better than good, it was great!
 
But, we need to keep up that level of commitment if we want to go far in this inter-schools tournament.”

“Do you think we can win this, coach?”

He smiled at them.
 
“Win this?
 
We can sail through it easy and leave the rest standing.
 
If you keep playing like you did out there then we’ve got it in the bag already, but we’ve got to keep up the practise.
 
I know it’s almost Christmas and everyone’s mind’s are on the holidays, but if we don’t put the work in we’ll fall behind because there are some tough teams out there, I know, I’ve been watching them.
 
So, do we have a deal?”

They all shouted at once, high-five-ing him, and he laughed.
 
“Now go get showered, go on.
 
Get out of here.”

“Coach?”

He looked over as Nick, one of his star players, hung back for a second.
 
He was one of the shyer students; great out there on the soccer pitch but quiet and reserved off it.
 
Not your average American sports student.
 
He very much fell into the stereotypical geek category.

“Yeah?
 
Do you want something, Nick?””

“I know you must get asked this loads of times, coach, and you must get sick of it but ... your sister ...”

“What about her?” Terry asked, gathering up the stray soccer balls that were lying around, putting them back in the huge net.

“Could you get me a signed photo?
 
Preferably one from her ‘Viper’ shoot?”

Terry looked at him, trying not to smile because this was the first student brave enough to ask him for one of
those
photographs.

“You’re pushing it, aren’t you?” Terry said, still trying hard not to smile.
 
It was quite amusing really.
 
They were at that age where
India
was probably all over their bedroom walls and – actually, he didn’t want to think about what else went on in their bedrooms where
India
and naked pictures were concerned.

Nick blushed and Terry couldn’t help it.
 
He burst out laughing, and the relief on Nick’s face was evident.

“Sorry, coach, but they dared me to ask you.
 
They said you wouldn’t mind. Would
India
mind?”

“No, I don’t think she’ll mind,” Terry laughed.
 
“Now go on, get out of here.
 
I’ll see what I can do, ok?”

Terry winked at him and Nick smiled, running off to join the others.
 
This was what happened when you were the brother of one of
Hollywood
’s sexiest leading ladies and he was slowly getting used to it.
 
Slowly.

Throwing the bag of soccer balls over his shoulder and picking up the odd discarded water bottle, he headed back to his office.
 
He had a pile of paperwork and meetings to get through today and if he didn’t get everything done he’d never get to
India
’s on time tonight.
 
He didn’t know what was going on but he had a feeling something was happening and he didn’t want to miss it.
 
Whatever it was going to be.

***

“A baby?
 
Shit,
India
, how’d you let
that
happen?”

“Well, I could explain it in detail, Kenny, but I thought even
you
would have realised how babies are made by now.”

India
hadn’t been able to contain the news any longer.
 
She’d been planning on telling everyone tonight when they came over for dinner but once Kenny, who was visiting her on the movie set, had sat down in her trailer she hadn’t been able to keep her mouth shut.

He looked at her, smiling a sarcastic smile.
 
“Funny girl.
 
I meant, it obviously wasn’t planned, was it?”

“How do
you
know?
 
We could have been trying for ages.”

He looked at her again, raising one eyebrow, and she sat back against the sofa, sticking her tongue out at him.
 
“Ok ... no, we didn’t plan it.”

“Are you happy about it?”

She smiled, absent-mindedly laying a hand on her stomach, rubbing it gently. “Yeah.
 
I am.”

“And daddy-to-be?”

“He’s really excited, Kenny.
 
You should see him ... actually, don’t say anything to him yet, ok?
 
I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone before tonight and if he finds out I’ve told you first … just try and look surprised this evening, will you?”

She looked at him and they both burst out laughing.
 
“Christ, I feel about twelve saying that,” she giggled, quickly looking out of the window to see if Michael was about, even though she knew he was busy.
 
She’d spent most of the day just hanging about in the trailer as the majority of her final scenes were due to be filmed tomorrow, and then that would be it, done.

Kenny looked around the large and modern trailer that
India
had to herself, every surface covered with vases of white roses, little cards attached to all of them.

“You opening a florists on the side or something?” he asked, standing up and going over to the fridge in the corner.
 
“
Jesus
,
India
!
 
You got no beer?”

“Yeah, ‘cos that’s just what a pregnant woman should be drinking.”

“And what about your guests?” he grinned, grabbing himself a can of soda and flinging himself back down beside her.
 
“So, what’s with the flowers?”

She smiled, pulling her knees up and hugging them to her.

“Michael’s been sending them over at regular intervals.
 
White roses are kind of our flower.
 
It was the first one he ever gave me on the night we first ... the night we got together.”

Kenny looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
 
“You’ve gone all weird on me,
India
.”

She laughed, throwing a cushion at him and he ducked out of the way, laughing too.

“You always seemed so anti-romance though.
 
What’s happened to you?”

“Maybe it was because
you
haven’t got a romantic bone in your body, Kenny Ross.”

“Isn’t old man Walsh going a bit over the top though.”

“No, he isn’t.
 
It’s lovely.
 
He sends little notes with each one and they’re beautiful.”

“You really
have
gone all soppy on me.
 
And who am I going to go surfing with now?
 
You can’t get on a surfboard in your condition, can you?”

“I’m not ill you know.
 
But yeah, you’ll have to find a new surfing buddy ‘til I’ve had Junior here.
 
Then maybe Uncle Kenny can teach
them
to surf too.”