Away From the Spotlight (52 page)

“Nothing.  I just wanted to be clear about that.”

“Come with me.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door with him.  We walked quickly downstairs and outside,
and
around the corner where it was dark and secluded.

He put his arms around me and started to kiss me passionately
,
and then leaned
away to look at me. 
“Now tell me, what brought that on?”

“I was just thinking that maybe you didn’t realize that I fell for you as hard and as fast as you fell for me.”

That got quite a response from him as he started to kiss me even more urgently.

I leaned away
this time
.  “I was also thinking that
you know
you don’t need to do all this for me
?
  I would love you and would agree to marry you no matter what.  All I want is
you
.”

He started to kiss me again and I thought I saw him
blink away
some tears in his eyes for a moment.

I pulled away
reluctantly
. 
“
If we don’t stop, neither of us will be able to return to our guests.”  I kissed him gently.  “I love you.”

“You can’t imagine how much I love you.”
  His eyes sparkled as there was still a little bit of liquid in them.

“Probably as much as I love you.  Let’s go.”

We rejoined our guests and they looked away as we walked in like they were embarrassed, knowing that we likely had been outside making out for the last few minutes.

Dinner of roast beef,
new
potatoes and vegetables had been served in our absence.  My nerves were receding and my appetite was returning so I started to eat.  Will continued to hold my hand intermittently throughout dinner and, when my hands were engaged and his were not, his hand was on my left thigh.

Will’s mother, Margaret, leaned across the table and asked, “Have you talked about where
y
ou
’r
e going to get married?”

I could tell that she was hoping that it would take place in England.  “No, not yet.”

“There are a lot of beautiful places like this one that would be perfect.”

“Yes, there are.”  I tried to be noncommittal.  I hadn’t even told my parents yet that I was engaged.

Will rescued me.  “As soon as we talk details, you’ll be the first to know
, Mum
.  I’m sure Shannon would love your advice when we get down to the planning stages.”

He wasn’t wrong.  I wasn’t one of those people who had been planning my wedding since I was young.  I had no idea where to start.  I was going to need all the help I could get.  Planning a wedding with my upcoming work schedule was going to be tough.

“I would love your help,” I said enthusiastically.  That seemed to
please
Margaret.  Will turned around and smiled at me
,
and squeezed my hand for making his mother happy.

I looked over at that moment to see Pam ensconced in a conversation with Niall.  Niall
was
quite animated and Pam was laughing.  I tapped Will’s
hand to get his attention
and nodded in the direction of Niall and Pam.  He looked back at me, chuckled
,
and shook his head.

After dinner, we had
a light
desert and then everyone was up and standing around again after Port was served.  We were able to mingle with the guests at that time.

We headed in the direction of Olivia first
because
we knew
she was
likely to be the first to leave
since
her
young
daughter would need to be put to bed
relatively early
.  Before we got there, we had another toast to us
given
by Pete. 
Despite the fact that Pete sat next to Will at dinner,
I don’t think I realized until that moment that Pete was Will’s best friend.  I imagined that he would end up being best man at our wedding.
  I missed part of what Pete said in toast as I was thinking this and only caught the last portion regarding Will going halfway around the world to find me.
 
We detoured to
Pete to thank him for his well-
wishes.

“You have to promise me, Shannon,
you’ll
make him come back here and visit us more often.”

“I promise.  I love it here.  Besides, I have a lot of new friends here to visit myself.”  I winked at him.

Pete
smiled in response.

We
then
headed again in the direction of Olivia and her family.

“I’m sorry
we didn’t get much of a chance to talk at dinner,” I said when we approached.

“Wait until you have children.  They take all of your attention.  Some of our friends with children Emily’s age wouldn’t even be able to sit through a dinner like this so we consider ourselves lucky.  Have you two talked children, yet?”

Yikes
!
 
I just graduated from school, am getting married almost immediately after that
,
and now I have to plan babies?
  I’m sure that I must have looked startled at the question.

“Ummm
,
we haven’t really talked a
bout it, but I do want children.  S
omeday.”

“Give us a break, Liv.  We’ve only been engaged for a day.”

“I just want to make sure you two are on the same page.  Children change your relationship and your life.”

I gulped and hoped that it didn’t show.  This must be the kind of personal question Will was referring to earlier.  I expected questions about our sex life.  Those would have been easier.

“We’re going to have to get Emily home soon, Will.  She’s already fading on us
,
”
Geoffrey stated.

At that point, I noticed that Emily’s eyes were closing as Geoffrey was holding her against his shoulder.

Will went around and kissed Emily on the forehead. 
She opened her eyes and said,
“Bye Uncle Will.  Come visit me soon.  I wa
nt another doll from America.”

Will smiled.  “I promise.”

Olivia and Geoffrey gave us hugs and kisses before going to say their goodbyes to Iain, Margaret
,
and Emma.

We
then
made the rounds to ensure that we spent time with all of Will’s friends who had joined us that evening.  The party started to break up about an hour after Olivia and her family left.  We made plans to meet Pete, Susan, Niall, Damon, Pam and
Jane
back at the cottage for drinks when the party was over.

We said our last goodbyes to Will’s parents
, promising to visit them in a few days on the way to Heathrow when we dropped off Will’s car
.
 
I
also agreed
to call Margaret after our return to L.A. once Will and I decided what to do about the wedding.

Will and I drove back to the cottage with our remaining party guests
following us in two other cars.

Upon our
return,
we found that
the
B
utler had left
champagne
,
and a fruit and cheese platter.  We poured the champagne for our guests and decided to go upstairs and change into something more comfortable.

“Don’t take too long,” Niall said
while
leer
ing at us
.

When we got upstairs and started to undress, we couldn’t help ourselves and tried to make love as quickly as possible
while
be
ing
as quiet as possible.  Afterward, we both threw on jeans and comfortable shirts and headed to the living room.
 
When we re
joined our guests
, we received looks that made it clear that they all knew exactly what we had been doing.  I blushed and didn’t help things by doing so.

So that I
would
n’t have to fa
ce the teasing, I decided to
call my parents and
Kelly
as I again remembered that they hadn’t yet
received
word of my engagement.

I had to call my mom and dad separately
because
my dad was at work since it was eight hours earlier in California.  I called my mom first.  She was so excited and started to talk wedding details immediately.  She had assumed we would marry in California.

“Mom, I don’t know what we’re doing yet or when.  I promised Will’s mom that she could be involved in the planning too.”

“You told them first?”
  She sounded hurt.

“Well, they’re kind of here and Will told them before he proposed.  He also planned a party tonight to celebrate with his family and a few friends.”

“Can we do something for you when you get home?”

“Absolutely.”

I then called my dad and was lucky to get him in his office.

“I wanted to make sure I told you personally before the town crier got to you.”  I referred to my mother as the “town crier” because she had a big mouth.  She couldn’t keep any news
to herself for even a few
seconds.  In fact, I was pretty sure that
Kelly
would know before I got a chance to call her.

My dad
told me that he
was happy for me
,
and said that he liked Will and looked forward to having him as a son-in-law.  I thanked him for that and told him that we would visit soon after our return to California.

I then called
Kelly
and, sure enough, my mother had already gotten to her.

“I
knew
something was up when Will’s sister called me.”

“Yes, you were right.  They were buying me dresses, unbeknownst to me
,
for last night when we got engaged and tonight for my engagement party.”

“Did I help?”

“I don’t know what you said, but the dresses were
unbelievable
.”

“I told her you liked black and that you looked really good in blue and green.  I also told her that you had good legs and liked to show them off.”

“Well, I don’t know about my legs, but my dress last night was blue and tonight’s was a black lacy overlay on top of cream satin.  Both were designer and gorgeous.  They were both above the knee and came with high heels and matching purses.”

“Lucky you.”

“I don’t care about any of this stuff.  I’m lucky in having Will.  It’s hard to believe this is all real.”

“Well, I’m happy for you.  You have to visit me in the City when you come home so we can celebrate.”

“Of course.  I’ll call you when I get home.”

I returned to the party after th
at
last call.

“I’m sorry it’s taken me so long.  I realized I hadn’t had a chance to tell my family yet and wanted to do it tonight or another day would go by due to the time difference.”

Pam responded, “It’s just as well.  You missed Niall giving Will a hard time about you two disappearing a few times during the party and
again
when you arrived here.  You would have been embarrassed.”

“Great.”  I looked down.

“We tried to keep him quiet,” Damon added.

“You didn’t succeed,” Will replied, not quite as embarrassed as I would have been.

“Niall can be persistent,” Damon responded.

Niall smiled triumphantly.

“So what did you tell them, Will?” I asked
.

“That I was a gentleman and wouldn’t say anything.”

“For my sake?”

“Yes.”

My embarrassment faded and I started to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Will asked
,
not understanding.

“I’m laughing at us and particularly me for being embarrassed.  Niall, we are in love and are consenting adults in our mid-twenties, and we have been engaged for only
twenty-four
hours.  What do you think we were doing?”

Both Will and Pam laughed as it was so completely out of character for me to be that open and blunt.  The others started to laugh after that, not because they understood that it was out of character for me, but because I had turned the tables on Niall and
he was dumbstruck.