Away From the Spotlight (53 page)

“More drinks?”  I got up to check out what else we had in the refrigerator and bar.

Will joined me.

“I have never seen Niall at a loss for words in my life.  He loves embarrassing people and you refused to be embarrassed.  I think you ended up embarrassing him for
a change.  I absolutely love it, a
nd I love you.”  He kissed me and helped me
take
a bottle of
wine and
some
beers into the living room.

A while later, I thought I heard Niall telling Will, “You are never going to be bored with that one.”

I looked at Will and saw him reply, “I know,” smiling brightly.

We sat around drinking and talking for a couple of hours.  Will
and I sat next to each other on the sofa with me pressed up into his side and his arm around me.  Pete and Susan sat together on the loveseat. 
Jane
sat in one of the chairs and Damon in the other.  Niall sat close to Pam on the floor with his right hand behind her almost as if he had his arm around her.  Pam leaned in toward him with body language that indicated that she was interested.  Since we were leaving in a day
and
a
half, I wondered how that was going to work.

At the end of the evening
and in light of all the drinking
,
we
decided that no one should drive home.  Consequently, Pete and Susan would stay in one of the other bedrooms in the cottage and Damon and Niall in the twin-bedded one.

Niall offered to walk the girls back to the main house since it was dark and no one was in a position to drive.  Since Pam and
Jane
had a two-room suite, I didn’t anticipate that Niall would be returning that night.  We agreed that
everyone
would meet at the cottage at ten
the next morning
for breakfast.

When Will and I made it up to our bedroom for the night, I mentioned that we should call Stephen and Colin and let them know.
  It was about
six
in L.A. by this time and we managed to catch everyone at home. 
Stephen
put
Will
on speaker so that they could all hear
what he had to say
.  I could hear screaming in response to the news despite the fact that I was a few feet away from Will at the time.  After a few minutes, they wanted to speak to me.

“Shannon, we’re so happy for the two of you,” Kate said after I put the cell phone to my ear.

“Thank you.  I’m beyond happy right now.  And I’m so glad we’ll be friends forever now.”

“So are we.  We know it’s late there and that you two probably want to celebrate some more together.  Good night and congratulations.  Kiss Will for us,” Gemma said.

“Don’t worry about that, I will.”

They all laughed before hanging up.

Having a full house was going to put a little damper on our celebration.  We couldn’t move around the house as we had last night and we were going to have to keep it down.  Although I wasn’t embarrassed at the fact of them knowing that we had sex, I certainly didn’t want them to hear the headboard banging, the bed squeaking, or the sounds we made while we were doing so.
  Although we had sex in the house
in the Palisades
when Stephen and Colin were around, Will didn’t have a headboard or a squeaky bed
,
and the walls were fairly thick unlike here.  I liked a challenge though and we managed to enjoy ourselves quite a bit before migrating to the squeaky bed and falling asleep in each other’s arms.

The next morning, we got up, showered and got
dressed to meet the gang
for breakfast.  We joined the
m
downstairs as the
B
utler was laying out food for us and all
of
our unexpected guests.

I looked over at Niall and he looked fairly satisfied with himself
.  T
hat made me wonder what had happ
ened after he and Pam left us.

“Pam, can you help me in the kitchen for a minute?” I asked
,
dying of curiosity.

When we
entered
the kitchen, Pam asked, “What do you need?”

“Well, tell me what happened.  We noticed that Niall didn’t come back last night.”

Pam smiled guiltily.  “Not
too
much.  Although I have to say, if
Jane
hadn’t been in the next room,
we
might have
done a lot more
.  We just made out for a while and slept together on the couch.  When I say slept together, I mean actual sleep.
   He is a very good kisser and has a very nice body, at least what I’ve seen anyway.  I’m going with Niall to London and we’re going to spend the day together after we leave here. 
Jane
says that it’s okay with her.  We’ll see what happens then.  I wish I didn’t have to go home tomorrow.”

“I’m sure you’ll see him again.  There’s always my wedding.”

“Well, I don’t want to waste the time I’ve got left.  I’ll see you back at the table.”

I returned to the table to find Pam and Niall’s chairs pulled close together.  I imagined that, if I looked under the table, I would find them holding hands.
  It reminded me of Will and me although I think that we were in love from the outset and I don’t know that I g
ot that vibe from Niall and Pam, b
ut it had only been a day.

Will pulled me into his lap and I sat there while we both picked at his plate.  As always, he assured me that I was not too heavy and that it was enjoyable to hold me like this.

After finishing breakfast, we said our goodbyes, knowing that we would see
only
Pam again in the near future.  I promised to make sure that Will
would
return
to England soon to visit.

After our guests left, we had only a little while before we had to check out and
drive
back to London.  We ended our engagement trip on a high note, taking ad
vantage of the fact that we
could make all the noise we wanted
now that the guests were gone
.

I
sulked quietly
during the d
r
i
ve back to London, knowing that the highlight of the trip and
o
ne of the highlights of my life was over.

Will tried to cheer me up on the ride back, holding my hand and kissing
it
intermittently.  I knew that he probably felt the same way I did, but he didn’t want to
show
it for my sake.

Finally, he said, “Shannon, this isn’t the end of a perfect weekend.  It’s the beginning of a perfect life together.  I promise I’ll do everything in my power to make you happy.”

“I know.  It’s unreasonable of me to be sad.  It’s just that everything was so
amazing
that
I didn’t want it to end.  We go back to reality tomorrow.”

“Was reality really so bad?  The last few months with you have been the happiest of my life.”

“They were the happiest of mine too
, b
ut things will be different when we
get
home.  I’ll be working full-time and you
’
ll be off soon to shoot
Midnight 4
.  We won’t be able to be together like we
’
ve been the last few days
and my first week in London
.  I’ve had you all to myself.  I’m spoiled now and I don’t want to go back to any other way.”

“I promise there will be other trips like this one and that they
’
ll be frequent.  Does that help?”

“Yes, it does.  Thank you.  I love you.”

“And I love you.”

We returned to Will’s flat to find a few paparazzi hanging
around
out front.  I thought it strange since they weren’t there when I returned from Europe.  I realized that this meant that someone had seen us at the airport.  I could anticipate more tabloid photos of us kissing at the airport.

We parked the car and tried to walk quickly through the paparazzi.  It was useless to look down at this point since they had already published a number of photos of us.  Will was holding my left hand and I had my ring tilted in toward Will’s body and I hoped that it wouldn
’
t show, but it was awfully large.  If the paparazzi pointed the cameras that way and zoomed in, they wouldn’t miss it.  I should have thought to take it off although I di
dn’t want to take it off ever.

We made it into the flat finally after
numerous clicks
of the cameras as we moved slowly with t
he photographers in front of us, asking questions we refused to answer.

Once
inside, we relaxed on the sofa.

“They must have caught us at the airport and realized you came back,” Will said matter-of-factly.

“That’s what I was thinking
. 
I should have taken off my ring.  I’m sorry.  I hope they didn’t see it.”

“I don’t want you to take off your ring.  We just need to do a better job of hiding it in the future assuming they didn’t catch it today.  You can’t just turn the ring around into the inside of your hand.  It
’
ll just look like a wedding band so that doesn’t help.
  You can put your hand in your pocket maybe or I can cover it with my hand.
”

“We’ll have another opportunity to do
a
better
job of hiding it
tonight when we leave for the
All Castles Are Grey
wrap party.”

“
Y
es
,
I guess we
will
. 
Well, w
e have a little while alone before we have to get ready.  Do you want to see what you’re wearing tonight?”

“Another dress?”

“Of course.  You’re my fiancée now so I can officially lavish all these
things on
you.
  What’s mine is yours.
”

“You know, most regular people wear things more than once.  And it’s not like I didn’t bring a few things with me.”

“I know, but since I was getting you two dresses already, it was just too easy to get three.”

I grimaced.  “Okay.  Show it to me.”  I was curious as to whether we were going to go with my third color choice of green or whether we would repeat black or blue.

Emma
had chosen another black dress for me that was black chiffon
,
above the knee,
and had a lot of detail around the
bust line
.  It was shaped to flow out at the legs so that it would move with me.  A pair of strappy
and
sparkly evening shoes and matching purse came with the dress.

“I gather we have another
more
formal affair?” I asked after appraising the dress.

“Well, it’s that
sort
of crowd.”  He looked sheepish.

“What happened to us going to casual places
?
”

“We will again when we get back to L.A.”

“Promise?”

“Yes. 
My next wrap party will be for
Midnight 4
and the cas
t
and crew for that is younger.  It will be more casual, I promise.”

“So when do we need to leave?”

“A few hours.”

“What will we do until then?”

“
I have a few ideas,
”
he said, giving me a look that let me know exactly what he meant.

T
he dress and shoes managed to fit again and the dress was a hit with Will.  When we left the flat, Will covered my ring with his hand so that the photographers wouldn’t see it.

We
drove
to the outskirts of London to a very large home with well-manicured grounds.

“Where are we?” I asked as I looked wide-eyed at my surroundings.

Will responded that we were at the home of a
well-known and
long-respected Academy Award-
w
inning
a
ctor.

“Seriously?  I didn’t know he was in this with you.”

“You didn’t ask.”

“Well, you make me feel like you don’t want to talk about it, so I don’t ask.”

“That’s not exactly true.  I know that it makes you uncomfortable so I don’t volunteer the information, but I don’t mind talking to you about it.  I
want
to share my life with you and this is part of it.”  I could tell that he was a little hurt that I hadn’t made the effort of asking him about his work.