Rumours and Red Roses (6 page)

‘I’m glad you felt you could,’ she said. ‘It’s nice that you trust me. As you say, you’ve only known me a little while.’

‘But it’s long enough, isn’t it, Rebecca?’

They each drew a breath.

They were close but not touching.

The stillness was almost overwhelming.

It was, she knew, one of those defining moments she would remember for ever. A click in time. She would very likely bring it to mind when she was a very old lady lying on her deathbed.

The first time that he looked at her like that.

The first time that he laid bare his feelings.

She certainly hoped so.

The silence, seconds only, was electrifying and for a moment she dare not look at him, almost dreading what she would see in his eyes. He reached for her hand then raised it to his lips and kissed it, a fine gesture Terry would never have thought of doing in a million years. He looked her straight in the eye as he did it and it was there, plain for her to see. She very nearly fell against him then but something told her to hang back.

Soon. But not quite yet.

Simon was there, hanging on the hook, and all she had to do was reel him in.

By the time he left her at home that evening, she had been given a rapid run-down on the business which was happily in a robust state. She had
seen the balance sheets, the predicted profit figures and his personal bank books. As a chat-up line it was a non-starter, about as romantic as being presented with a saucepan for Valentine’s Day, but, on the other hand, she thought it quite charming of him that he wanted to impress her.

Impress
her
, Becky Andrews, who was nobody.

He didn’t need to impress her.

It didn’t really matter that he had money, lots of it, that he was the sort who was going to make more money. It didn’t really matter that she would never want for anything ever again if she married him.
Married
him? It would be marriage with Simon, nothing less. Marina had told her he was on the look-out for a wife and she recognized the urgency about him.

It was a little worrying that, first of all, she might be accused of marrying him on the rebound and, secondly, of marrying him for his money.

What did it matter what people thought or said?

She liked him.

She liked him a lot.

And that was a start. 

I
T HAPPENED ON
the next date.

It was cold, sleet in the air, as they came out of the restaurant. The restaurant was only a few doors away from his apartment so they had hurried home and through the lobby. In the lift, Simon had pulled her close and kissed her. Up close like this, she realized how much she missed a man holding her, how lovely it was, and, for a mad moment, she thought he might stop the lift and make love to her there and then.

But the lift had stopped at their floor and the door had opened to reveal one of his neighbours and the moment passed.

‘Let me take your coat,’ he said, helping her off with it and standing very close. Flushed both from the wine and his nearness, not to mention the kiss in the lift, Becky caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She was wearing a new dress, an exquisite black number that fitted and flared. Since meeting this man, she was spending money like there was no tomorrow but she was looking on it as an investment in her future. Marina, as excited as a little girl, had helped her choose this during a quick shop in their lunch hour. It came from a small boutique that Marina frequented and they had been treated like royalty, given a cup of coffee even, as they made their choice. Marina had offered to buy it for her, which had embarrassed her, and although it had been far too expensive, she had insisted on paying for it herself because, as generous as Marina was, it just didn’t seem right to accept such a gift.

Despite her determination, it had been impossible to keep things secret from Marina, who was now acting as a go-between, passing on news to Becky and very likely vice versa although Simon never said anything about it.

‘Esther’s so thrilled that Simon’s got a girlfriend,’ Marina had told her. ‘She’s on tenterhooks wondering how it’s going. I’ve told her all about you.’

‘Marina! I wish you wouldn’t.’

Esther sounded a very pleasant woman, if over-anxious to get him married off.

‘All Simon’s friends are married, you see,’ Marina explained earnestly. ‘And he’s a wonderful godfather to several babies. He’s being left out of things now. Reading between the lines, and I think I know him as well as anybody, he’s getting desperate to get married and start a family. Are you up for that?’

‘I hope it means more than that to him,’ Becky told her. ‘I hope he’s not just thinking of me as a possible mother of his children. That’s a bit insulting. I mean, have I passed the test? Have I ticked all his boxes?’

‘Oh, come on, it’s not like that. That’s why he’s taken so long. He’s been waiting for the right girl to come along. And you, Becky, are her. Have you seen the way he looks at you?’ Marina laughed although Becky was surprised to see a shadow pass over her face. Not for the first time she wondered just what Marina really thought of Simon. ‘I’m amazed he’s behaved himself so far. But it’s time you got together, the both of you. If he doesn’t get on with it soon then you’ll have to do the seducing.’

It was absolutely nothing to do with her but Becky hadn’t the heart to tell her to mind her own business. It was bad enough with her mum questioning her as to how things were going, although, surprisingly, unlike Marina, she hadn’t actually asked the one question that mattered.

Looking in the mirror in the hall of Simon’s apartment, she had to acknowledge Marina’s expertise. The dress was a damned good choice – sophisticated sprang to mind – and not one she would have made on her own. The neckline dipped enough to show off a jet necklace against her pale skin.

‘Warm enough?’

She nodded, not quite trusting herself to speak. She felt incredibly nervous, which was silly because she had done this before, but not with him and that made the difference. This time she just knew it would be special, so special. They had waited a while, become friends, laughed
together, talked together, and that mattered. It made Terry’s wham-bam approach seem so puerile. This time, their first time, it would be the start of a long relationship. Whether or not marriage featured, she could not yet be sure, but just now it did not matter.

‘Come here, darling …’ He spun her round and opened his arms to her, his gaze bold and confident, and she went into them, nestling her head against his chest as he began to stroke her hair. ‘Has anyone told you that you have the most beautiful eyes?’

She smiled, dipped her head, better now at accepting compliments gracefully.

And then, at last, standing in the lamp-lit room, he was cupping her face in his hands and kissing her properly. His lips brushed hers lightly at first, that first touch sending a blaze through her body. Time stood still. Or rather everything slowed. Then it speeded up frantically and was all happening with a sudden urgency. The bedroom beckoned and, still kissing each other, they stumbled towards it, clothing removed in the wink of an eye, tossed aside.

Perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

And afterwards, relaxed and warm, it was time to say it, for Simon to stroke her face gently, smile down into her blissfully happy eyes and tell her that he loved her.

And she needed no second bidding to tell him that she loved him too.

To Becky’s delight and relief, Simon’s parents, Esther and Johnny, thought her mum quite enchanting. The first time they met face to face, a meeting she had been secretly dreading, it went very well, with Shelley on her best behaviour, which usually meant something was bound to go horribly wrong.

Becky had got herself a small car for now that she was with Simon and things were looking up financially she saw no reason to hang on to her hard-earned savings for a rainy day. With a bit of luck, her rainy days were over. With Simon at her side, she soon learned that the only way to get over her natural timidity in the driver’s seat was to drive. And drive and drive. Now, with wheels attached and her confidence high, she wondered how on earth she had managed before.

‘I’ve got myself into a state,’ Shelley told Becky on the way over to
Simon’s parents home on the other side of town. ‘My heart’s going like nobody’s business. I feel like I’m going to the scaffold. Ivana doesn’t help. She says I have to be careful what I say and how I say it.’

‘And since when have you ever taken notice of what
she
says?’

‘I know but as she points out you’re not there yet. We’ve had all this before.’ Shelley glanced at her irritably. ‘As Ivana says, it’s not over until the fat lady sings. I won’t rest easy until you’ve got the ring on your finger. But don’t you worry, I shan’t say a word about Terry. Did you know she’s had twins, that woman of his? That was quick work. Two lads. That could have been you, Becky, although I wouldn’t wish twins on my worst enemy. Just think about all those nappies.’

Becky ignored that. She knew about Terry’s twins for word travelled fast in these parts but the news had left her remarkably unmoved. She signalled and switched lanes, confident now, preparing to turn into the quiet avenue where his parents lived. She dare not tell her mother just how worried she was herself about tonight. She had worried when Simon first introduced her to them but Esther had made her feel at ease straightaway although Johnny … well, she was reserving judgement on him.

‘Just be yourself, Mum, but watch your language,’ she warned as they neared the house. ‘Esther doesn’t swear.’

‘Neither do I unless I’m provoked. Is that it? Bloody hell, look at the size of it. Stop on the road here a minute,’ she said as Becky prepared to pull into the drive. ‘I can’t go in just yet. I need to catch my breath. Oh, Becky, I’m so worried I’m going to let you down. Do I look all right?’

‘You look fine. It’s just a house, Mum. And they’re just ordinary people. You’ll see. Esther’s very homely,’ she added, trying to put her at ease because she looked scared stiff.

‘Yes. She sounded very nice on the phone the other day. She said she’d asked you to bring me along to see them umpteen times already,’ she added, a hint of reproach in her voice. ‘You’re not ashamed of me, I hope, Becky?’

‘Don’t be daft. It’s just that … after all the other times, Mum, I wanted to be quite sure that it would be all right this time before I brought you into the equation,’ she said, aware it sounded ridiculous, aware also she had picked up on some of Simon’s business speak. Equations indeed.

‘It had better be all right,’ her mum said firmly. ‘Esther was telling
me she’s got it all arranged so there’d better be no slip-ups this time. If you pull out now, Becky, I’ll not be responsible for my actions. There’s a limit to how many times you can get yourself engaged. Spring is a lovely time for a wedding and I’ve got my eye on this lovely silk suit.’

‘I’ll come shopping with you,’ Becky said, remembering the last time.

‘You will not. I can’t be doing with other people sticking their oar in when I’m trying to make my mind up. I need to focus.’

Becky smiled.

‘Esther said she hoped I didn’t think she was pushing me out in wanting to do the organizing herself and that she’d be pleased if I chipped in with some help. Not financial, mind you,’ her mum added. ‘She was adamant about that. She’s forking out the cash or rather her husband is. She’s insisting on that. Johnny can afford it, she told me. Water off a duck’s back to him, she said, and she wasn’t skimping on their only son’s wedding.’

The Blundells’ house, a one-off architect-designed house, was
extravagantly
furnished, Simon’s mother having a penchant for rich deep colours although, oddly, that didn’t extend to her wardrobe, which seemed to be mainly black. She was a small cheery woman who seemed happy to let her husband do all the talking, gazing up at him all the while with adoring eyes. She had, however, made Shelley feel
immediately
welcome, kissing her on the cheek and saying how lovely and exciting this all was and how much she liked Rebecca.

‘There’s nothing wrong with my daughter,’ her mum had said at once. ‘He’s a lucky man to get her.’

For the first meeting with the in-laws, after an agony of indecision, Shelley was wearing a longer length skirt with leather boots and a demure frilly-necked blouse with all the buttons done up, and she had made such an effort to calm herself down that Becky was moved by it. It hadn’t quite worked for she couldn’t resist some outrageous diamante drop earrings which shot off sparkles whenever she moved her head, nor could she control her raucous laugh, nor stop from telling some of her tales when she loosened up, particularly the beauty pageant one, but Esther had seemed tickled by it rather than shocked and Johnny had laughed out loud.

‘I remember that guy,’ he said. ‘And I can’t say I’m surprised. Didn’t he sink into oblivion after the papers picked up on a scandal? That’s it.
He cheated on his wife, wife number three or so, and went off with a girl young enough to be his daughter.’

‘Or his granddaughter if I recall,’ Esther said. ‘He was a horrible man. You had a lucky escape, Shelley.’

‘I could never watch him afterwards on television,’ Shelley told them with a shudder. Somehow, Becky noticed, in the telling of the tale, the top button on her blouse had come adrift. ‘If I looked at him, all I could see was …’ She stopped, flustered, looking towards Esther
apologetically
.

‘We know what you could see, so spare us the details,’ Johnny had said, laughing again. ‘Those television people are all the same if you ask me. Morals shot to pieces in that sort of business. Mind you, it goes on everywhere, that sort of thing,’ he said, looking across at his wife, his face suddenly serious. ‘Doesn’t it, Esther?’

‘Yes.’ She smiled brightly at them all. ‘More coffee?’

Simon looked like his dad, who had kept his youthful figure and his hair and had a bit of a rakish look about him at that. At least, his eyes had certainly twinkled when he was introduced to Becky’s mum.

Shelley and Johnny had one thing in common. They were both smokers and during the course of the evening they made a pact, with witnesses, to give it up. A small challenge, a little gauntlet thrown down by Johnny, and it had surprised Becky that her mum had responded to it so willingly. Her love affair with smoking was, like the one with Alan, an on-off thing, the giving up a little game she played now and then, not to be taken remotely seriously.

‘What that woman needs is a bit more glamour,’ Shelley told Becky when they were doing a post-mortem of the dinner party next day. No cigarette in hand, so, so far so good. ‘I told her straight when we were in the kitchen loading the dishwasher. “Just because you’re past sixty, Esther,” I told her, “it doesn’t mean you have to give up.” She’s a
good-looking
woman and she needs to inject a bit more pizzazz into her life for Johnny’s sake. Anyway, the upshot is, I’m taking her shopping, helping her to choose some new clothes, something a bit more exciting. And I’ve told her to get some highlights in her hair. I’ve even offered to do it for her. She’s got nice hair but she doesn’t make the best of it.’

Johnny? The easy way she said it told Becky that her mum and Mr
Blundell had hit it off big time. Hadn’t he told Simon that she was a breath of fresh air? But taking Esther shopping…?

‘Oh, Mum, is that wise?’ Becky sighed but who was she to argue? She couldn’t hope to calm her mum down for ever in any case and the truth would out eventually. Her mum was her mum and something Simon had said had made her feel ashamed that she should be in any way ashamed of her. She had worked her fingers to the bone for Becky and it was high time she remembered the sacrifices her mum had made.

They were getting married in a few months’ time, and this time she was determined it would be third time lucky. No cold feet, not on her part anyway, and certainly not on Simon’s. She was staying much of the time with Simon at the apartment now, an arrangement that suited everybody, not least the two of them. She knew it was quick work but neither of them needed to take any longer thinking about it and it was such a joy to spend time together, making unhurried love, waking up together, having breakfast together and laughing together and, in a great wave of optimism, Becky could see no end to it. They would be together for a very long time to come. He was her soul-mate as her dad had been to her mum and it felt wonderful.