BUTTERFLIES FLY AWAY (38 page)

“Hello you”

“Hello, have you been introduced yet?”  She
kissed him on the lips.  The butterflies in her stomach flipped at seeing
him.  Tonight he was her billionaire business man.  Clean shaven and
the scent of his signature cologne she had to hold herself back not to leap on
him.  He wore a black suit, white shirt and a thin black tie.  “You
look beautiful Carrie,”

“Thank you, you look pretty good too Mr Devanti,” he
placed an arm around her waist and the walked towards her parents.

“Mum & Dad, I’d like you to meet Nico.”

“Nico my parents Kate and Dan”

“Delighted to finally meet you both, Carrie has told
me so much about you, as has Belle”

“My daughter has been very closed lipped about you
Nico but welcome to our home, now let’s get you a drink, are you a whisky
drinker?  I have a new single malt to try out”

Carrie rolled her eyes as her Dad led Nico
away.  Jay was talking with Belle and Carrie couldn’t help but notice the
frissons of chemistry coming off the two of them.  Oh well maybe cupid had
finally struck her Aunt?  She let out another schoolgirl giggle. 
Definitely something going on there.

Nico returned a few minutes later a crystal glass of
amber liquid in his hand. 

“You made it back in one piece; did my Dad suitably
warn you off?”

“Indeed he did darling but I wouldn’t have it any
other way,”

“’lo Man,” Harry pulled at Nico’s trouser leg. 
“Hello Harry,” Nico placed the glass on one of the tables and hunched down to
eye level with Harry.

“Its Nico, Harry remember you met him today”

“’lo Eco, wanna play car?”  Harry returned with
an assortment of toy cars which he pushed up and down the floor.  Nico had
joined in pushing them around the floor.  Ryan came looking for Harry to
let him have a dance with the other children who were invited to the
party. 

“Hey, I’m sure my son is monopolising the evening,
I’m Ryan,”

“Nico, nice to meet you, he sure loves his
cars!”  At this understatement Ryan laughed.  Carrie was holding some
champagne and offered some to Nico.  Ryan was the designated driver and on
baby watch in case Claire’s labour started early.  Ryan popped Harry onto
his shoulders and they returned to the guests in the marquee. 

“I can show you around my childhood home, if you
like,”

“I’d like that,”

They walked through the front parlour and Carrie
recanted their Christmas festivities.  “It was a great home and had a
chimney fit for Santa, I loved it,” Family photographs in various sizes were
tastefully arranged on the lid of the piano.   Nico picked up a few
and Carrie gave him the bio. 

“Oh I was seven there, no front teeth and ever so
desperate to be a ballerina.  I don’t think I took my ballet shoes off
even when I went to bed,”

“You were cute Carrie, even minus the front teeth,”

They laughed at the changing hair style of Belle in
many of the photographs.  A group shot from her wedding day to Rob. 
This one she quickly put back down and they left the room.  They walked
past a few more rooms until they stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

“And your accident?”

“The scene of the crime, yes, about here on these
very steps, when my dream of being a dance with all my teeth stopped,”

Nico kissed her softly on the lips, “Don’t be sad
Carrie,”

“I’m not Nico; it was a long time ago,” still
holding his hand they walked up the stairs.

“There are a few guest rooms upstairs, including my
former bedroom.”

“I’d like to see it, guest room or not”

“Okay,” Carrie opened the door to her childhood
bedroom.  Now it was a guest room with twin beds in soft creams, gold’s
and coffee shades.  Carrie pulled back the wooden panel at the window from
the original shutter.  “I used to close these shutters and make the room pitch
black; it was all part of my teenage angst”

“I can’t imagine you full of angst,” he joked. 
They stood at the window looking out to the front of the house. 

“Oh I was a proper drama queen,”

Nico stood behind her, his arms wrapped around her
bare shoulders.

“I missed you while I was away, I’ve been to Asia
many times but there were so many things I would have liked to have shown you.”

“I missed you too Nico, I’ve been thinking a lot
about us and our future,”

“I hope you aren’t having cold feet about us Carrie,”
he turned her round to face him and he could see she had tears in her eyes.

“No, not at all Nico, that’s the thing, I want a
future with you,”

“So why the tears?” he whispered the words against
her mouth as he kissed her lips.  “I don’t like to see you sad Carrie, I
want to make you happy”

“You can have happy tears too Nico!” 

Carrie ran a finger to catch a tear that had
escaped.

Suddenly Nico knelt before her.  He reached
into his pocket and produced a black leather box.  Monogrammed with the
distinctive HW of Harry Winston jewellers.  OMG! She was holding her
breath.  The box opened without fuss and her breath whooshed out. 
Carrie was dazzled by the ring it contained and what it symbolised on the bed
of velvet.

“Carrie Reynolds-Davies, will you do me the honour
of becoming my wife?” 

He took the ring from the box and held it
mid-air.  “Yes Nico, yes I will” and the tears fell down her cheeks once
more.  “See happy tears,”

Nico slid the ring slowly down her finger until it
nestled at the base.  It was stunning in its simplicity.  A
rectangular emerald cut diamond, set high on platinum shoulders of smaller
diamonds that crisscrossed in supporting arches.  “It’s beautiful Nico,
absolutely beautiful,”

They kissed softly, “Carrie I haven’t said the words
but they have been inside my head for so long when I think of you I’ve said
them a million times.  I love you,”

“Nico, I love you too.  I fell in love with you
that first day on the beach I think.  My life was never going to be the
same again after meeting you.”

“That first day, I wanted more.  I saw you play
on the sand with Beau but your eyes where full of such sadness.  I wanted
to make you smile even then.”

“I couldn’t help feel an attraction to you that I
almost ran back up the path to the Inn.  You were some mystery man to me
and then I read the local paper, the news of the fire and how you were helping
Monique.”

“I hoped you would come back to the beach the next
day, that’s why I had that report done.  I wanted to find you if you
didn’t come back,”

“We have to go back to the party but first of all,
just for tonight, I have to take this ring off, I don’t want the party to be
about us.  It’s my father’s retirement,”

“Okay, just for a few hours then it goes back on,
agreed?”

She nodded, “Agreed now I have to clean myself up, I
can’t go back to the party with my make up all cried and kissed off my face!”

“I will wait for you downstairs, okay?”

She nodded agreement and opened the door of the
guest bathroom.  Oh my, Doris Day was back.  What had she done! 
Distracting her racing mind from her engagement, oh hell she was engaged! 
She blotted her face with a tissue and tipped out her make up from the small
hand bag she had brought.  A few minutes later she was ready to join Nico
at the bottom of the stairs.  She was unaware that her Mother had observed
them leaving her room separately, Carrie’s sparkling eyes and their shared look
of intimacy.  If anyone was to guess getting engaged would have been the
furthest thing from their mind.  They would have thought they would have
been trying out the bedsprings. 

He took her hand tightly and pulled it to his
mouth.  Their secret for now.

“Okay now?  You look amazing, not at all
ravished” he joked.

“Oh Carrie, how could you?  In your parents’
home of all places.  Have you no shame, either of you” Her mother
chastised.  Misinterpreting their look and glow for something altogether
post-coital. 

“Mum!  What on earth are you saying?”

“Mrs Reynolds, I think there is some
confusion.  Carrie was giving me a tour of your lovely home; I can assure
you nothing untoward has happened”

“I do have eyes in my head, it’s clear to me that
something has been going on between you”

“Mum, nothing is going on but once again, I am
delighted that you think so highly of me that I would do something to embarrass
you tonight of all nights.  But it seems my own Mother would rather
embarrass
me
instead.  Come on Nico, let’s join the party, I’m sure
that after that lovely welcome from my Mum meeting Aunt Peggy won’t seem half
as bad.”

“Carrie!” her mum exclaimed. 

“Let her go Kate, can’t you see that you are driving
her away with your negativity”

“Belle since when are you the expert”

Belle let the dig go by about her childless state.

“I think I am more of an expert here than you think,
she cares deeply for Nico as he does for her.  Do you want her to return
to her cocoon?  Shut away from everyone.  Crying or having those
nightmares about Rob dying over and over again.  Heading fast for a
breakdown.”

“She’s changed Belle; it’s too soon for her to be serious
about anyone”

“Everyone changes Kate, but she hasn’t forgotten
Rob, far from it if you ask me,”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Oh I’ve said too much as bloody usual.  But I
think there is a time and a place and this seems to be it.  Remember when
she was mugged?  Well the silly girl wouldn’t hand over her bag.  The
only reason why she wouldn’t because she was carrying some of Rob’s ashes with
her,”

Kate gasped at how reckless her daughter was.

“Yes, she put herself in danger to protect the ashes
of her husband.  She fought her attacker. Yes you know this but I don’t
think you know to what extent”

“Tell me then Belle; tell me something else that I
don’t know about my daughter”

“With that attitude no wonder she doesn’t say, she begged
me not to as she didn’t want to worry you.  She thinks that you still
think of her as seventeen and broken by her injuries.  The end of her
dancing dreams and picking up the pieces.” 

“I never knew that, she’s always been such a Daddy’s
girl.  She tells her father everything.  Does he know what happened
at her mugging?  What else aren’t you telling me about that day?”

“You will have to ask them that if she has told her
father.  The mugger had a knife and she fought him off.  A
concussion, a sprained wrist, bruises, so many bruises.  Nico was there by
her side the whole time at the hospital.  He took care of everything,
security in case she was scared and a private room.  When she was finally
allowed out of hospital she stayed at one of the beach houses at his family
home.”

“I had no idea,”

“She has a lot of guilt about Rob, about not being
with him that day, well as if that could have stopped the accident. 
That’s why she went to America to scatter his ashes.  To visit the
lighthouse they talked about.  All to try and bring back some of the old
Carrie,”

“There was nothing she could have done Belle, she
knows that.”

“Yes but it doesn’t change how she feels.  Give
Nico a chance Katie, give him a chance before it’s too late.  Rob was
Carrie’s world.  Nico will show her the world,”

They walked through the grounds of the house. 
Carrie needed to calm down. 

“Oh I guess we have some work to do on our parents,”

“You mean our Mothers!  It’s so frustrating;
she had to pass judgement so quickly,”

“Let’s not let that disagreement spoil our evening,
come on let’s dance and give me a legitimate excuse to hold my fiancée”

“Fiancée I like the sound of that”

The marquee was set up to the rear of the house
where most of the garden space could accommodate it.  They passed by some
of her cousin and Carrie gave a small wave in greeting.  Her father was at
the doorway chatting and laughing with her Uncle Donald who was also her
god-father.  He had been friends with her father since university and it
seemed he was always a part of their family life.  She was lifted off her
feet in a bear hug.  He was over 6ft in height and had broad shoulders
that had not diminished as the years passed.  His hair as grey as her
fathers was the only feature they shared.  “Oh it’s good to see you
Carrie, you are looking grand.  Now is this your young man?” 

“Nico, I’d like you to meet Donald Montgomery, who
also happens to be my god-father,”

The men exchanged handshakes, “Uncle Donald, this is
Nico Devanti, my boyfriend”

“Devanti as in the Devanti Group?”

“Yes, one in the same,”

“Ahh you must be doubly blessed dating my
god-daughter and having Belle work for you” His laugh as large as his stature
bellowed out.  Even her father joined in.  “I will leave you two
jokers, Daddy is Nana here yet, I’d like Nico to meet her.”