Seven Days: The Complete Story (39 page)

“Heavy.”

“Majorly.”

“So you’re
having a bubba?”

“It’s a boy.
We found out earlier this week. I’m so excited. And Nicholas is
being all cute and trying to look after me and stuff.”

“
Awww
.
He always was a sweetie.”

“Hey Em?”

“Yup?”

“Do you reckon
we could get together for a coffee before Alex comes home? I mean,
I know he doesn’t want you hanging with me but you don’t have to
tell him. I’ve missed you. I want you back. And we have so much to
catch up on and so much to look forward to.”

“A baby
and
a wedding.”

“Exactly.”

“You know
what?” she says.

“What?”

“I’m tired of
him telling me what to do and when to do it. I love Alex but he’s
not my freakin’ master. This is not some dirty movie where he gets
to tie me up and lord it over me with his big long dick.”

Okay. Too much
information there.

“So meet me
next week. Say Tuesday?”

“The cafe in
the park?”

“Fab. And
Emily?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad
we’re friends again.”

“Yeah, well
you need me. Who’s gonna babysit for you if you don’t have cool
Aunty Em?”

“Exactly.”

*****

I arrive home
feeling buoyant from my conversation with Emily. I fling open the
front door and head straight for Nicholas’ wireless music system.
I’ve hooked my Spotify account up to it, much to his disgust, which
means that at anytime of the day or night my phone is able to
become the controller of music. I feel
soooo
in the mood for
Beyoncé or Destiny’s Child so I download one of my saved playlists
and happily dance and sing along that my body’s too bootylicious as
I head toward the room that will become the nursery.

An unusual
sight stops me dead in the doorway. It’s so unusual, in fact, it
sucks the breath right out of me and I blink, blink, blink unable
to believe my eyes. The painting of the room, a lovely shade of
periwinkle blue and mint green, has been completed while I was out
for the day. I expected that so I’m not surprised. I’m also not
surprised by the antique dresser Nicholas and I bought the other
weekend. It’s been sprayed white to match other furniture I intend
to buy and there’s cute blue china knobs where the manky pine ones
used to be. It looks adorable. What does astound me though, is the
fact that the room is now filled with every other thing I could
possibly imagine a baby would need
—
a
gorgeous white wicker basinet (one we saw at the antique shop), a
large armoire also in white, a cot already made with the most
exquisite linen a baby would want (not that a baby would know) and
a mobile in the shape of a merry-go-round hanging above it. It’s
all the things I chose, all the snippets I stuck into my notebook
for the baby. The curtains and blind I chose with the blue and
green bunting have been hung at the window. And in the corner is
the most gorgeous antique rocker. But the most amazing thing is the
ceiling, filled with heart-shaped helium balloons in baby blue. It
looks like the sky has exploded in our house. When did this happen?
How did this happen?

Oh
Nicholas.

I begin to
cry. Tears slide down my cheeks and I try to blink them away but
they’re too big, too fast. My eyes sting with the weight of
them.

“Don’t you
like it?” Behind me, a hand caresses my bottom. I pull it away and
wrap it around me. Nicholas puts his chin on my shoulder. He kisses
my tears and tilts my face to kiss my lips. “I was worried you’d go
psycho. I know you wanted to do it all yourself.”

“Oh Nicholas.”
I hug him tight and tighter.

“So I’m not in
the bad books?”

“No! I… I love
it but when did you have time to do this? How did you know what I
wanted? It’s beyond my wildest dreams.”

“I have my
ways.”

I eye him
suspiciously. “You found my book, didn’t you?”

“I did and I
couldn’t help myself. I love to see you happy, Sadie. And I haven’t
done everything you wanted. I’ve left the accessories and wall art
for you. And I didn’t bring home a pram or a carry seat for the car
because I knew you’d go mental with the superstition stuff. I
haven’t bought any clothes either.”

“Let me guess,
because you know I have better fashion sense than you?”

He swivels me
to face him and drops a kiss on my nose. “Don’t be a minx. Just
tell me you like it and that I’m not a bastard for ruining your
fun.”

“I love it…
and you’re not a bastard but you did sort of ruin my fun. I’m not
mad, though. I’m happy you want to do this for our baby.”

“I liked the
booty dance by the way. Very sexy.” He gives me a wicked grin and I
blush. My Beyoncé moves are not normally for general consumption.
“I think you might be right.”

“About
what?”

“You’re body
is too bootylicious for me. You drive me wild, my little pregnant
witch.”

I giggle. I
can’t help it. He makes me. “You’re an idiot.”

“I know. But
I’m you’re idiot.”

I gesture
towards the room. “Thank you for making my dreams come true.”

“All of
them?”

“Mostly. The
rest are dreams only I can make happen.”

“It’s all I
want to do Sadie… to make your dreams come true.” He disengages
himself from my grasp and reaches into his trouser pocket.
Suddenly, his face has gone over all serious like. That might be a
crinkle of a frown between his perfect eyebrows. He raises his
clenched fist toward my face and gazes at me.

Shit. Is
Nicholas going to cry? What on earth is going on?

“Go on,” he
says.

Slowly, I peel
his fingers away. My heart is pounding like I’m about to have a
heart attack. I hope this is good. “It can’t be the key to the
front door.” I joke, because the tension is threatening to kill me.
“You gave me one of those a while back.”

Nicholas’
fingers unravel. In his palm is a platinum ring with the most
massive motherfucker of a diamond. I think my jaw is going to fall
off my face. He holds it up between two fingers. “It’s the key to
my heart.”

I swallow.
This cannot be happening. It can’t. I’m dreaming. I know I am.

“Sadie Amelia
Cooper. You are the air I breathe. You are my life, my everything.
From the moment I saw you I felt a tugging in my chest where you
took hold of my heart and ran away with it. I want to be your
partner for life. Until death do us part. I want to give you your
heart’s desire, if you’ll have me. Will you do me the honour of
becoming my wife?”

Holy shitty,
shit, shit. I am being proposed to by the most eligible bachelor in
the city, possibly the country. This is insane. I’m so happy to be
living with Nicholas and having his baby, I never considered he
might want to make it official, but I guess he’s that kind of
guy.

Lucky, I’m
that kind of girl.

I take the
ring from him and slide it on my finger. Somehow, amongst
everything else he has managed to make it a perfect fit. “I’d like
nothing more than to be your wife, Nicholas Clayton Lawson. Just
don’t go springing any more of these surprises on me. You know I’m
pregnant. I could go into early labour and we don’t want that
happening.”

“Deal.” He
pauses for a beat, his dark blue eyes gazing into mine with more
intensity than I believed possible. “So you’ll marry me, spend the
rest of our lives together?”

“Yes, yes,
yes!” I laugh. I can’t stop laughing. I’m laughing so much I begin
to cry again as Nicholas sweeps me into his arms and carries me to
the sofa where he sits cuddling me to him.

“Are you
okay?” I ask.

“Fine. But
you’re not the lightweight you used to be.”

I hit him with
a cushion. “Nicholas! Way to spoil a moment.”

“Let me make
it up to you.”

So he
does.

I am so
freaking nervous.

I’ve changed
my outfit four times, ending up in the one I began with. I’ve done
my hair every way I can think of. I’ve drunk a gallon of water and
subsequently been to the loo, like, sixteen times already. And we
haven’t left the house. I’m that nervous.

Today, I’m
meeting Nicholas’ dad for the first time. It’s fitting, seeing
Nicholas and I are getting married. I’m not scared about the actual
meeting part. The thing that’s been playing on my mind is that I
won’t measure up. What if Mr Lawson thinks I’m not sophisticated
enough, not pretty enough. I already know I’m way off base in the
wealth department, so it’s not worth going there. I remember
clearly that conversation I overheard a long while back, the one
where Nicholas was telling his dad that he didn’t want to go out
with some high society girl his father was trying to set him up
with. I mean, I know I have Nicholas’ heart, as he has mine, but I
want his father to like me. I want to feel like part of the family,
not have his dad look down on me as the poor girl marrying Nicholas
for his money. Which I’m not. I never was. I love Nicholas with all
my heart. Hopefully, that will be enough to convince his
father.

We arrive at
Nicholas’ childhood home an hour before dinner. The house
impressive, the sort I’d expect an affluent family like Nicholas’
to live in. It’s also the complete antithesis of where I grew up.
Our tiny two bed cottage would have been termed quaint at best, and
from what I’ve seen so far it would’ve easily fit into the ground
floor of Nicholas’ house. Nicholas has grown up with wealth and
status and privilege, yet he never seems to be bothered with the
expectations that carries. Not with me anyway. Being here, with his
father, might show a side I’ve never seen. I know it’s always been
about making his father proud but can I be part of that equation? I
grew up in a middle class suburb. I went to a public school and on
the weekends I mostly hung out with my Mum, at home in our garden.
I don’t know the first thing about which fork goes with which
course of dinner. Okay, well I know a little bit because I Googled
it last night but that’s beside the point. I just pray I don’t make
fool of us both.

After letting
us in— no need for the help to answer the door— Nicholas takes my
hand, leads me through a set of double doors and down a wide
hallway to a room I suppose is a sort of family room. Except
gigantic. Like for a super big family. From the door, I see a man
sitting on a large fabric sofa. He’s swirling a glass of scotch or
brandy in his left hand and staring thoughtfully into a fireplace
that’s not lit. The resemblance with Nicholas, right down to this
movement, is enough to make me do a double take. Apart from some
greying at the temples and a few lines in the corners of his eyes,
I could be looking at my lover’s twin. I hope this means we’ll get
along the way Nicholas and I do. I pray we will.

“Dad.”
Nicholas walks to the sofa and addresses his father. I stay at the
side. I think he’s going to do the formal introduction thing and
I’m not sure how to behave in this instance.

“Nicholas, my
boy. Right on time for a pre-dinner cocktail. Help yourself to the
drinks trolley.”

I can’t
understand it. Surely, Mr Lawson knows I’m here. I distinctly heard
Nicholas tell him on the phone the other evening that I was coming
with him. It can’t be that he’s ignoring me deliberately. Or can
it?

Nicholas walks
back to the side of the sofa, taking my hand and ‘presenting’ me to
his father. “Dad, this is Sadie Cooper, my fiancée. I’ve asked her
to marry me.”

It’s so sweet
that he’s as nervous as me.

“That’s what
the word fiancée normally infers, Nicholas.” His father doesn’t
look up. He stares into his glass, fixated on the liquid. His voice
has a distinctly icy tone. Colder than the ice in his glass, that’s
for sure. “Sadie. So you’re the lass who’s managed to tame the wild
Lawson beast. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Shit. I
swallow. How am I meant to respond to that? Defend myself? Make a
joke? I choose to ignore it.

“It’s so
lovely to meet you, Mr Lawson.” I hold out my hand, hoping he’ll at
least look up to shake it. “I can see where Nicholas gets his good
looks.”

Oh. My.
God.

Let the floor
open up and suck me in. I can’t believe I said that. I sound like…
I don’t know what I sound like.

Mr. Lawson
looks at my outstretched hand. He raises his eyes to my face. The
blood drains from his cheeks as if he’s seen a ghost. What the hell
is going on?

“Sadie, you
say?”

“Sadie
Cooper.”

I see the
Adam’s apple in his neck move as he swallows and peers at me more
intently. He’s scrutinising every detail of me. It’s awkward and I
don’t know where to look. I’m not used to being stared at in this
fashion. I don’t think anybody is. After at least a minute, Mr
Lawson speaks again. “Are you any relation to Caroline Cooper?”

Okay, this is
getting a little freaky.

“Um. She was
my mother.”

“Was?”

“She passed
away, almost two years ago now. She drowned.”

Mr Lawson
jumps to his feet so fast it’s lucky he doesn’t send the glass top
coffee table flying across the room. And that would be no mean
feat, it must weigh a tonne.

“Excuse me,
please,” he says. He doesn’t exactly dash from the room but his
stride is way faster than someone who’s going to check on the
dinner and the look on his face is one of death. His own.

I am left with
my outstretched hand. “What the hell was that?”

Nicholas
shakes his head. “I’ve got no idea but I’m going to find out. He
can’t treat you like that. Stay here.”

“NO!” I hiss.
“Don’t leave me here. What if he comes back. I can’t be here alone
with him.”

“He’s not an
axe murderer, Sadie. He’s my father. Obviously, seeing you has
triggered some … I don’t know… but he’s not going to kill you.”