Authors: Cassandra P. Lewis
Looking at Rosie now, tapping away at her keys and frowning at her screen, I know that he was right all along. If she
hadn’t come along when she did would I have ever realised that I do want someone by my side? I really don’t think so.
We head into Leeds train station and I feel content.
Dad is picking us up from here and I notice Rosie take a deep breath to compose herself as the train comes to a stop.
“Hey Pops!” Dad is waiting inside the station for us; he couldn’t wait for us to get up here. I put my bag down and give him a massive hug before turning to introduce him to my fiancée,
“Dad, this is Rosie, Rosie this is Pete, my Dad” Rosie holds a hand out for Dad and he just uses it to pull her into a hug too,
“It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you love. Come on, let’s get you both home” Dad takes Rosie’s bag and we head out towards the car park, Rosie smiles to let me know that she’s ok and I breathe a sigh of relief. My two favourite people have met. That’s the hard part out of the way.
“Brucey” Dad’s Staffordshire Bull Terrier is waiting in the garden to greet us when we arrive at the house, “Hey boy, come here!” I call him to follow us into the house, unsure how Rosie will feel about being licked to death by such a brute of a dog, but when her face lights up at the sight of him and she calls him to her by patting her knees, I realise I’ve no need to worry, “You ok with him babe? He’s not exactly a delicate little thing”
“Yeah I’m fine
Jackson, I love Staffies” she smiles as Bruce tries his best to lick her ears clean off of the side of her head and the sound of her giggling and playing with him warms my heart. It just makes me love her even more.
Dad’s house is gorgeous, even to me who grew up here. It’s a stone built cottage in the Dales, the postcard picture of Yorkshire. People often knock on his door and offer to buy it but he’ll never sell, there are too many happy memories here.
“How are things then Dad? You look well” I catch up with my Dad while he puts the kettle on and Rosie comes to join us in the kitchen,
“Oh you know me son, plodding along. It’s good to see you though
Jackson, both of you” he smiles towards Rosie who returns the gesture, “So Rosie, what exactly do you see in this lout?”
Rosie laughs and shrugs her shoulders as if to say that she has no idea, but then smiles at me and answers “He makes a pretty good cup of coffee!”
Dad laughs and raises his eyebrows to me, “I like her!”
After a cup of coffee I show Rosie up to my old room, she looks around and then at me, wide eyed,
“Jackson, I feel like I just walked into a wet dream!” she’s referring to the posters of naked and semi naked women all over teenage
Jackson’s bedroom,
“Rosie I was eighteen when I left home, Dad just shut the door and left it as it was
, and I guess it was nice spank bank material when I came to stay!” her mouth drops open in shock and I laugh as I dump our bags onto the bed and sit down, “I’ll take them down, I have you in the bank now!” I wink and she shakes her head as she moves to stand in front of me. I laugh again, “I don’t need these now, well, except maybe that one!” I point at one above the bed and Rosie smacks me on the arm and laughs before leaning forward and kissing me, “Ok, just you Alvez!”
By the time I’ve shown Rosie around the village and made sure
that she feels comfortable in Dad’s house, the day is getting away from us. None of us can be bothered to cook so Dad, Rosie and I decide to get a take away Chinese and watch a dodgy Christmas film that’s on TV.
T
he fire is lit and I’m comforted by the sight of Rosie in her flannel pyjamas and fluffy socks, snuggling up to Bruce on the sofa while dad and I sit in the arm chairs and moan about the bad acting in the cheap film. I can’t help but wonder what Mum would have made of all this, no doubt she would firstly have told Bruce to get down off the furniture, but she would have loved Rosie, I know that for certain.
Mum was a hopeless romantic
just as Rosie is, and they share the same family values but the most important thing to Mum would have been the fact that Rosie makes me smile every day, that’s surely all that any mother wants for her child.
“Right young’uns,
I’m off to bed!” Dad stands and Bruce eagerly looks up, waiting to be called to join him.
Dad got Bruce a coup
le of years ago to try and fill the house with a bit of life and quench the loneliness a little, but I don’t think he realised how attached to him he would become. We picked him up from a rescue in Leeds when he was only seven weeks old. Dad was adamant that he wanted a border collie but when we arrived there we were shown straight to the five small Staffy pups.
T
he rescue centre assistant explained that the mother had been abandoned while she was pregnant and the pups had been born in the rescue centre. Sadly the mother didn’t survive; she’d been badly mistreated and used for over breeding so her heart gave out. The pups had been hand reared by the staff at the rescue and were now ready for loving homes, there was no way that dad could resist and chose the runt of the litter there and then.
We took Bruce home a week later, the same time that my Uncle Mike took home two of Bruce’s litter mates and
they never looked back,
“Come on then you!” Dad calls
him up to bed and Bruce eagerly follows his best friend, tail wagging as he goes.
“Bedtime Alvez?” I question as Rosie smiles at me sleepily,
“Yeah come on then James” I stand and hold out my hands to pull her up from the sofa and as she wraps her arms around my waist I know I’m done for, this is what being really happy feels like, I love it.
“
Jackson I love it here, it’s so picturesque but it’s bloody cold!” I blow on my hands as Jackson stands throwing a ball for Bruce.
“I did tell you to put gloves on Alvez! Come on we’ll head back”
We’ve been out walking Bruce for about an hour and I feel completely content, that may be because I’m numb from the cold but either way I’m happy. Pete, Jackson’s Dad is fantastic; he’s so welcoming and makes me feel completely comfortable in his home.
We get back to the house and
Pete’s car is not on the drive, inside there’s a note on the dining table, ‘gone for supplies, back in a bit.’
Jackson sees an
opportunity and smiles as he pulls me toward the stairs and up to his room, I laugh and enjoy his need for me,
“Alone at last beautiful”
Jackson kisses me and slides his hands up the back of my top to undo my bra,
“Hey eager beaver slow down!” I push him down onto the bed and smile as I pull my jumper up over my head and off,
“We may not have long Alvez, get your kit off!” he removes his own jumper and throws it to the floor,
“
Who said romance was dead?” I laugh as Jackson undoes the button on my jeans and I push them down.
Jackson kisses me on my forehead as he lifts up and out of me, just as we hear his dad’s car pull onto the driveway,
“Timing Alvez!” he smiles and
raises his eyebrows as he passes me my underwear before heading to the bathroom. That was certainly one way to warm up.
“Hey Pops, Get everything you were after? Need owt doin’'?” I can’t help but laugh at Jackson’s accent, he’s suddenly more ‘Yorkshire’ than I’ve ever heard him, “What are you laughing Alvez?” he and his Dad look at me, confused and amused at the same time,
“Oh sorry, I’ve just not heard you sound so, well, northern!” I bite my lip and scrunch up my nose hoping that I haven’t offended eithe
r of them when Pete cracks up with laughter,
“He weren’t born wi’that plum in his mouth Rosie; his student loans bought him that!”
Pete and I laugh while Jackson shakes his head,
“Right you two, I’m
goin' down t’pub, who’s comin'?” Jackson smiles as he exaggerates his Yorkshire accent and pulls me into a hug, Pete winks at me from behind his son’s back and I giggle into the neck of my man.
After a couple of pints in the local pub, Pete, Jackson and I head back to the house. It’s New Year’s Eve and Pete has invited some friends from the village around to celebrate.
Jackson and I set about preparing a table with bottles of spirits,
beers, wine and soft drinks, plastic cups and a bowl of party poppers ready for midnight. There’s a beautiful oak dresser in the dining room and I’m drawn to the smiling face of Jackson and a woman that I can only presume is his mother. I walk over to the dresser and pick up the frame. Jackson looks young but as handsome as ever, I can see the resemblance to his Mum,
“Is this your Mum
? She’s lovely” He smiles as he sees the picture in my hands and walks over to me,
“Yeah, tha
t’s Mum. She was always smiling” He smiles at the memory, “She’d have loved you Rosie” he takes the photo from my hands and I see only love in his eyes, no sadness.
Beth
James was a very attractive woman. She had a smile that I imagine would light up a room when she walked into it. Her shoulder length blonde hair was shaped to frame her face and she had the same piercing eyes as her son. Jackson has already told me that she was a dancer and then a ballet teacher in Leeds and that after he was born she set up a small dance school in the village so that she could be closer to home.
I had told him then that we should go to the ballet
together some time, he said that he’d never expect me to sit through something just so that he can feel closer to his Mum but I confessed that I had wanted to go and see Swan Lake since I was a little girl, dancing around the room pretending I was a prima ballerina.
As I look at the various pictures of her around the house and remember all that
Jackson has told me about her, I’m sad to not have had the chance to meet her. I also think she would have got on like a house on fire with my Mam.
I find myself in front of the fireplace in the living roo
m, Jackson is still in the dining room and I’m compelled to speak to the woman that will be my mother in law even if she can’t physically be here, I speak quietly,
“I will take
care of him. I love your son. Thank you for making him the wonderful man that he his.”
A
s I turn to walk back to the kitchen I see Jackson leaning against the doorframe smiling at me, his arms folded across his chest,
“Having a nice chat?”
he asks with a smile and I blush, embarrassed that he caught me talking to his dead mother, “Its ok Rosie, I didn’t mean to embarrass you. It’s nice that you did that. I talk to her all the time”
“I just wanted her
to know how much you mean to me. I know if I had a son and some red haired vixen came into his life I’d probably hate it!” I grin and Jackson laughs and heads into the kitchen, I give Beth a quick glance over my shoulder and follow after my man.
As the evening arrives and the house fills with people I become nervous. These people know Jackson; they were the ones that saw him getting into fights and brought him home when he was drunk. I look around at the women in the room, there are at least 10 here around our age and I wonder if he has slept with any of them, do they know him as intimately as I do?
As my mind wanders I feel
Jackson’s hand on mine and his fingers interlink with my own, I forget my concerns,
“Rosie, come and meet John.
He’s hilarious but for all the wrong reasons!” Jackson introduces me to John who runs the farm next door. He’s at least seventy with grey hair above his ears and a black toupee on top of his head. Jackson informs me privately that he only wears it to social events and replaces it with a flat cap when he’s working.
Jackson and I spend about ten minutes chatting to John and his party hair about the price of cattle and other farming issues before Jackson is pounced upon by an attractive brunette,
“Jackson you’re back. I didn’t think we’d see you back here for New Year anytime soon” the brunette smiles and leans up to plant a kiss on Jackson’s cheek. When she lowers back down she leaves her hands on his arms and my thoughts from earlier return.
“Hi Molly,
It’s great to see you” Jackson smiles at her before introducing her to me, “This is Rosie, my fiancée” Molly looks at me and then Jackson as though she can’t believe her ears, she snaps out her response,
“You…Engaged? You’ve got to be joking?!” She looks at Jackson, confusion clear to see in her eyes,
“No Mol, it’s true. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind but we’re happy” Jackson slides an arm around my waist and pull me close to him as Molly raises her glass,
“Well then, to the happy couple” she downs her
drink and turns on her heels, She can’t get away quick enough and I look to a laughing Jackson for an explanation,
“We had a bit of a thing
years back, but I told her I’d never settle down. I guess it’s a shock to see me with you, for everyone” Jackson leans down to kiss me on the temple, “Let’s get you a drink”