CORAL - Forever (A Romance Trilogy, Book 3) (12 page)

“You look good,” George surmises.

I laugh dryly at him. “Blubbering all over
the place and unable to move, I don’t think so George.” I answer dryly.

“There’s nothing wrong with tears,” he
says.

“I know,” I whisper.
But seriously, I
wish they would stop now!

“Happy belated birthday,” he says.

“Thanks,” I answer shyly.

“We’ve got you a little gift, something to
cheer you up,” he says.

I cock one eyebrow up at him. “Cheer me
up?” George nods, grinning widely at me.

“Aunty Coral!” I hear Lily’s voice screech.

I turn and see her running flat out towards
me –
Uh-oh! This is going to hurt!

“Lily!” Debs shouts from the front door.
Lily jerks to a stop with a guilty look on her face. “Come back here!” With a
worried look on her face, she turns and walks somberly back towards Debs and
Scott; they both kneel down and start talking to her.

“Catch up with you soon?” George questions.

“Yes please,” I smile. “It’s really good to
see you George.”

“You too darling,” he leans across and
gently kisses my cheek, then walks over to Phil.

“Coral.” Tristan appears, gently placing
his arm around my waist. “Happy?” I nod unable to articulate anything. I finish
my drink and place it on the side. “Hungry?” Tristan asks.

“Not yet,” I whisper then look down the
hallway. Gladys and Malcolm have arrived, and are marching towards us. “Darling!”
Gladys wails her hands in the air as she dashes over to me. She crushes me to
her making me gasp in pain. “Oh no!” She says standing back, patting me all
over. “I’m sorry darling.”

“It’s…ok,” I say trying to get my breath
back.

“Tristan!” Gladys opens her arms wide and
crushes him instead. “Oh darling boy!” she says her voice wobbling. Tristan
seems bemused by her behavior, but enfolds her in his arms.

Malcolm shakes his head at Gladys and
smiles, then leans down and pecks my cheek. “Happy birthday Coral.”

“Thanks,” I beam.

“Where shall I put these?” He asks his
hands full of presents.

This is going to be so embarrassing!

“Um…just over there.” I point to the table.

“Right oh!” Malcolm says a quick hello to
Tristan, shaking his hand, then makes his way over to the table. Tristan hands
two Champagne flutes to Gladys who wonders over to Malcolm.

I look up and notice Stuart is stood
awkwardly with the front door open, although I don’t understand why? I watch
Debs, Scott & Lily walk over to us. Lily looks really upset. I grit my
teeth in frustration –
Why did they have to make her cry?

Debs pulls me into a bear hug. “You had me
so worried,” she scolds.

“I know,” I whisper, wincing in pain. “Talk
later?” I ask.

She nods once at me then I hug Scott. “Good
to see you back on your feet,” he says. I smile tentatively at him. “Aunty
Coral?” I hear Lily whimper. I look down at her flushed, tear stained cheeks –
Poor
kid!

“Take my hand Lily,” I say. Lily beams at
me, places her tiny hand in mine and we walk outside onto the patio. I carefully
sit on one of the loungers and pat my lap. Lily carefully climbs up and rests
her head against my chest.

“So, Mommy and Daddy told you off?” I
question.

“Yes,” she whimpers.

“Why?”

“Because Mommy said I wasn’t allowed to hug
you, but when I saw you I forgot.” She sniffs.

“Well, I wouldn’t have minded if you had
hugged me,” I say.

“You wouldn’t?” She squeaks.

“No kiddo.” I squeeze her tightly and kiss
her hair.

“I’m so glad you’re ok Aunty Coral, Mommy
said you were really poorly, she was crying a lot.”

“Was she?” Lily nods. “Well, that’s because
we love each other and well…I was poorly, but I’m getting better now.” She
sniffs again.

Debs must have really told her off.
I
need to cheer her up!

“I’m really happy you came today. I simply
couldn’t celebrate my birthday without my beautiful little niece,” I hug her to
me and kiss her again.

“Oh yes!” She beams. “I forgot, happy birthday
Aunty Coral, I got you a present,” she says, bouncing up and down on my lap –
Ouch
that hurts!

“Can I open it?” I ask, gritting my teeth
and trying to smile.

“Yes!” She squeals excitedly, jumps down
from my lap and runs back into the house. Moments later, she re-appears with a
small square box, wrapped with shiny red paper, and it has a cute bow on the
top –
How sweet!

“Happy birthday,” she beams holding the
present out.

“Thank you Lily.” I take it off her, and try
to unwrap it, but there’s so much sellotape! “Did you wrap this up yourself
Lily?” I ask.

“Yes,” she squeals excitedly – It’s no
good, I can't open it –
I have no strength!

“Can you help me Lily?” I say handing her
the gift, her eyes widen as she takes the present off me, and only as a child
can, she demolishes the paper in seconds.

I look down and sat in her hands is a clear
plastic box, and inside the box is a small photo-frame in the shape of a red
heart. Inside is a picture of Lily and I, taken a couple of years ago, on the
frame are the words –
Always in My Heart

“Lily it’s beautiful,” I say, tears pooling
my eyes again. “Thank you.”

“It’s for when we leave,” she whimpers.

“When you go to Spain?” I ask.

She nods once. “It’s so you won’t forget
me,” she says, tears spilling down her cheeks.
Crap!

“Lily!” I open my arms and she sinks into
my lap. “I could never forget you.” I let her cry it out, gently rocking her. “It’s
ok,” I soothe. “Don’t you want to go Lily? You’ll make lots of new friends.” She
shakes her head and cries even harder –
Double Crap, this is not good!

When she finally stops crying so much, she
looks up at me. “I want to stay,” she whimpers.

My heart sinks. “Yeah…I can see that Lily.
Have you told Mommy?” She shakes her head at me.

I sigh inwardly. This is a difficult one. I
really don’t want to get involved in Scott and Debs life, but this child is
unhappy and that’s just not right.

“Well maybe you should tell Mommy,” I say.
“Be a big brave girl?” Her bottom lip starts to wobble again and she shakes her
head at me. “Maybe you want me to talk to Mommy?” I offer, she nods at me. “Ok
kiddo.” I hug her to me for a while longer; this feels nice, really nice…

“Oh there you are!” Joyce’s voice booms.

I look up and smile, then immediately
frown. Joyce is mad with me, I can tell –
Great!

“Hey Joyce, Lily and I were just talking,
she got me this,” I say showing Joyce my present, she slaps her hand to her
mouth trying to stop the tears –
What is it about everyone crying?

“Oh Lily, that’s so thoughtful sweetheart.”
She smiles up at Joyce.

Looking down at me, Joyce discreetly
gestures for me to follow her, she wants to talk –
Crap!

I swallow hard – I really don’t want
another bollocking!

“Hey Lily, guess what this house has?” I
say.

“What?” She beams excitedly.

“A swimming pool,” I say, my eyes widening,
teasing her.

“Really?” She squeaks excitedly.

“Yes, and I bet if you ask Tristan nicely,
he’ll show you,” I say smiling down at her.

“Ok,” she beams. I kiss her forehead and
release her from my arms. “See you later Aunty Coral,” she says dashing off to
find Tristan.

I look up at Joyce and frown. I’m seeing
her in a completely different light now I know she and Tristan were already
acquaintances before she sold. Shaking her head several times, she sighs heavily
then places her hands on her hips –
Here we go!

“Coral.” She closes her eyes for a moment,
when she opens them she is glaring down at me. “Why on earth didn’t you tell me
what was going on, what
that
woman was doing?” she asks, her lips
tightly pressed together.

I sigh inwardly. “You know…” I whisper.

“Of course I know,” she hisses. “Tristan
told me everything!” Ok, she is really pissed at me.
Damn you Tristan
Freeman!

“Oh…” I wrap my arms around myself. I want
to hide away. I don’t want to talk about it anymore, but Joyce needs an
explanation, I can see that and in fairness, she deserves one – she’s been so
good to me.

“I’m sorry Joyce, to everyone…for not
sharing, especially you…but I…” I break off. “If it makes you feel any better
Tristan is really pissed at me!” I stare out at the view – I really love the light
nights that summer brings.

Joyce sighs heavily, then comes and sits
next to me. “Coral,” she says grabbing hold of my hand, and squeezing it tight.
I turn and see she has her eyes closed. “I just don’t understand why you didn’t
confide in me? I thought we had a good relationship?”

“We do Joyce…I just…” I stop and shake my
head. “I nearly told you, so many times…but I knew it was Tristan I really
needed to speak to about it. And I didn’t want to worry you,” I add.

“Worry me?” She says incredulously.

“Well, yeah…” I say. “You…you have enough
going on,” I add, thinking about John.

“Of all the things….” She says, then closes
her eyes and takes a deep breath.

“Joyce, please…I don’t think I can take
anyone else being pissed off at me,” I breathe, closing my eyes, hoping she’ll
get the message. I feel her pat my hand. I open my eyes and smile tentatively
at her.

“So he’s mad with you?” Joyce says.

“Yes, very,” I balk.

“Well, he has every right to be,” she scolds.

“I know,” I whisper.

“Oh my dear girl!” Joyce carefully wraps
her arm around my shoulder and presses her head against mine. “If I’d have lost
you too…” She chokes.

“I’m sorry,” I say again and wrap my arms
around her waist trying to soothe her. We stay like that for a while. Honestly,
I think it’s Joyce that needs this more than me.

“Well…” She says, pulling back and sitting
up straight. She takes a handkerchief out of her purse and dabs her eyes. “All
is well now I suppose. Are you going back to the company?” she asks.

I frown up at her. “I don’t know…Maybe.
Depends what happens I suppose…” I say, Joyce nods. I can see she understands.

Then I really think about it, by the time
I’m better, Tristan might have hired someone else.

“I’m going to miss you so much,” she says.

“Me too,” I say. “When are you leaving?” I
add.

“Oh not for another six weeks,” she says
despondently.

“Joyce, is that really where you want to be
– In Florida?” I ask. Joyce smiles awkwardly at me, which pretty much answers
my question. “Joyce, if you don’t want to’ – “I don’t really have a choice,”
she interrupts. “I can't stay here,” she adds.

I nod. I can understand that – If I had
lost Tristan…

“Come on,” Joyce says brightly. “Let’s go
open some presents!”
Crap!

I plaster a fake smile across my face.
Joyce helps me to my feet, and we slowly make our way back inside. As I scan
the room, I instantly freeze – Malcolm’s daughters, Erin and Ellie are here?

They both come rushing over to me. “Oh
Coral, we’re so happy to see you up and about.” Ellie says. “Yes, Dad told us
what happened, we were so shocked.” Erin adds.

“I’m shocked you’re here,” I say feeling
bemused. “But thank you for coming,” I quickly add.

“The kids have gone to watch a pantomime,
we left the Dad’s in charge,” Ellie says, giggling. “Yeah, god knows what chaos
we’ll return to,” Erin adds. We all laugh, then I notice in my peripheral
vision, a small balding man sitting uncomfortably on the sofa –
Bob!

“Can we catch up in a while?” I ask.

“Sure.” They say together and I hobble as
quickly as I can towards Bob.

He looks up and sees me. “Coral,” he
croaks, smiling widely at me.

I sink to my knees in front of him and take
his hands in mine. “Hey Bob.” I softly say.

“Hello sweetheart,” he says, I can tell
he’s choking back the tears.

“Bob!” I choke, as the memory of him lying
on my studio floor; bleeding and hurting flood my mind. His head still looks
sore from where Susannah attacked him. I reach up and hold him tight. “How are
you feeling?” I softly ask.

“You’re worried about me?” he asks
incredulously, pulling me back to look at me.

“Well, yes…of course I am,” I say.

Bob shakes his head at me. “You survived,”
he says, patting my hand.

“You too,” I whisper, swallowing against
the lump that’s formed.