Protected (30 page)

The
four bedroomed property wouldn’t be ready for another two weeks, but we needed
to be in Krystal to sort out the final paperwork and arrange for the funds to
be transferred.  So, we had boxed up the flat in Battersea and jumped a
plane to spend some time with Marnie and Ellie.  The only thing was, we
hadn’t told them.

Pulling
up at Marnie’s hotel, Nate helped me out of the car and up the concrete
steps.  It was nine p.m. and all was quiet.  When we enter the
reception area, Lucy is sitting behind the desk.  Her face expresses her
shock, but Nate puts his finger to his mouth to indicate our surprise. 
She grins and gestures to the door behind her, which leads to Marnie’s private
rooms.

Nate
winks and guides me around the desk and enters the door that has a brass sign stuck
to it, the words
Private
embossed onto it.  Marnie was sitting in
her chair by the window, her glasses perched on the edge of her nose, her
knitting needles working at an extreme rate, clicking in a regular rhythm. 
As if she senses our arrival, she glances over the top of her lenses, her mouth
drops open and she screeches.  The knitting falls to the floor, her
glasses are whipped from her face and she is hurling towards us.  I giggle
as Nate grabs her and swings her around chuckling to himself.  I watch on,
a grin spread across my face, as Marnie kisses her sons face over and
over. 

‘Are
you really here?’ She holds his face in her hands.

‘Ma!’
Nate rolls his eyes.

‘My
boy,’ her eyes glisten with unshed tears. Then she turns to face me, her eyes
falling to my pregnancy bump.  ‘Oh my,’ her hands move to me and curve
around my tummy, ‘you brought my grandbaby home, honey?’ Marnie asks, her eyes
hopeful.

‘Yeah,
Ma,’ Marnie had insisted I call her Ma during our Thanksgiving visit.  ‘I
brought the rest of your family home,’ emotion builds in my chest at the
gratitude in her gaze.

‘My
girl,’ she hugged me tight, ‘thank you, Sophie,’ her voice is gravelly, her
cheeks wet.

‘Ma!’
Nate approaches, ‘Sophie’s tired and hungry, you have a room for us until our
house is finalised?’

‘You
have a house?’ Marnie gasps.  ‘My boy, they not have phones where you been
staying?’  She calls, with complete attitude.

‘Yeah,
we thought we’d surprise you,’ he pulls me into his hold. ‘Can we talk about
this later, my wife needs food and a bed.’

‘Of
course, sit, sit,’ she flaps around, ‘I’ll get Lucy to sort a room.  They
got a house,’ she laughs as she leaves the room.

Pulling
me against him as I sit on the sofa, Nate squeezes me, ‘thank you, baby.

‘For
what?’ I push my nose in the crook of his neck to inhale his addictive scent.

‘For
making my life perfect, for making Ma, happy.  The list is endless,’ he
teases, pushing his hand through my short locks and tilting my face to his.

I
gaze up into his sapphire pools and my heart beats a little faster.  ‘Thank
you, for believing in us, for standing firm when everyone else gave up. 
But most of all, thank you for bringing me back to me.’

‘Baby,
I have to tell you here, I had an ulterior motive,’ Nate grins.

‘Yeah?’
I smile.

‘You
know it, London.’

********

THE END

Kyle and Shauna’s story – Coming soon!

********

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