Strangers (50 page)
“Eighteen thousand pieces?
It’s going to take years.”
He grinned.
“I thought you could lie here naked trying to fit pieces together, while I tried to fit words to music.”
Kate ripped open the plastic bag and tipped all the pieces onto the plywood.
“Start composing then.”
Charlie sat at the piano, ran his fingers over the keys and then started to play.
After a few bars, he began to sing and Kate turned to look at him.
His voice sent tremors down her spine and wrapped her in its embrace.
“She was a stranger
That girl in the sea
Who came to me
She filled my dreams
And I gave her my heart…”
Charlie stared at her as he sang and Kate had to blink back her tears.
It was a song about loss, about her and him, the mistakes he’d made and how he didn’t know if he’d ever find her again.
When the last echoing notes died away, Kate stood and walked to stand behind him.
She slipped her arms over his shoulders and crossed them over his chest.
“I hope you find your lost dog,” she whispered and Charlie shuddered.
“And you were a bit out of tune in that last part.
Set my teeth on edge.”
For a moment, Kate thought he was crying and then realized he was laughing.
“You are the cruelest person I know,” he said.
“It was lovely, really.
What’s it called?”
“Strangers.
That was supposed to be an incredibly romantic moment.” Charlie spun round and buried his face in her chest, curling his hands around her waist.
“Even though you are the meanest person I know, I still love you.” He kissed her forehead.
“And even though you can’t sing in tune, I love you,” Kate replied.
Charlie planted a gentle kiss on her nose.
“You can sing some more if you like,” Kate said.
“You’ll get better with practice.”
“Does that little piece of advice apply to everything?” Charlie nibbled her ear as he slipped his hands inside her panties.
Kate groaned.
“You can only get better,” she said and yelped when he bit her.
“No more secrets,” Charlie whispered.
“You know everything about me.” And it was true, Kate thought.
“And you know everything about me,” he said.
“And I still love you.
It’s amazing.”
Charlie kissed her breasts.
“I want to take you on holiday.
Somewhere out of the rain.
Tomorrow, you’re going to fill in a passport application.
Where would you like to go?
Pick anywhere in the world.”
“The Gobi desert.”
“Pick anywhere else in the world.”
Kate hesitated.
“Hawaii?”
Charlie lifted his gaze from her chest.
“I won’t let you down, Kate.
I want to give you the world.”
“I only want you.
You’re my world.”
She could feel his heart beating fast under her hand.
“Kate?”
She looked into his eyes.
Charlie slithered to the floor and knelt in front of her, holding her hands.
“I wanted to find the perfect place to do this, the perfect moment.
I fucked up telling you that I loved you and I didn’t want to get this wrong too.
Only I realized that I don’t need to find the perfect moment because you’re what makes the moment perfect.
So…Kate Snow, the woman I love more than my life, will you do me the very great honor of becoming…the person who’ll cook me lovely things to eat, who’ll cheer me up when I’m miserable, who’ll tell me no and mean it, who’ll do that thing to my cock with her tongue every night—well, maybe every other night, who’ll love me forever and ever—damn, I’ve forgotten what I was going to say now.”
Kate’s shoulders shook as she laughed.
“Oh yeah, that was it.
Will you marry me?” He looked up at her with his beautiful dark eyes and Kate gulped.
Oh God.
“Yes.”
He smiled his lovely Charlie smile and tears welled in her eyes.
Charlie got to his feet and kissed her.
A sweet, gentle caress of her lips by his.
When he straightened, his eyes were shining.
“I love you.
We’re going to have so much fun.
We could stop at Las Vegas on the way to Hawaii and get married,” he said in an excited rush.
“No press, no interference.
Just us.”
“What about your mum and dad?”
“They’ll like Vegas.
They can come with us, only not to Hawaii.
I want you to myself, there.”
“What about Rachel and Lucy and Dan?”
“I’ll fly them out too.”
Kate laughed.
He tugged her out of the room toward the stairs.
“Okay, we’ll get married in London,” Charlie said.
Kate looked up at the white ceiling and Charlie followed her gaze.
“I paid a fortune to have it painted.
I didn’t want it to remind you of my stupidity.”
“Mine too,” Kate said.
He pulled her up the stairs.
“Can we go to Vegas?”
“If you promise not to gamble.”
“Hey, I’m on a winning streak.
I’ve got you.
There’s nothing left to lose.”
“You can have a hundred dollars a day,” Kate said.
“And when it’s gone, it’s gone.
And don’t think I don’t mean it.”
Charlie dragged her onto the bed.
“I need you so much,” he whispered.
“You’re the beat of my heart, the air in my lungs.
You make me feel safe.
I don’t want to live without you.
I want to spend my life making you happy.
I want us to grow old together and when we die, I want us to die in each other’s arms, because I can’t live in a world without you by my side.”
“You’ve not left me anything to say.” She reached out and stroked his cheek.
“I want—”
Kate put her finger on his lips.
“That didn’t mean I don’t want to say something.
I love you, Charlie.
I never thought I could love anyone as much, and I need you, too.
My other path led me to you.
I’m finally where I belong.”
“In my bed and in my bath and—”
“Don’t say kitchen,” Kate warned him.
“In my heart.” Charlie smiled.
Epilogue
“Put that down.
Right now.
I don’t want to have to tell you twice.
Don’t…oh damn…I mean, bother.” Kate watched as the ball flew through the air and landed on a half-built sandcastle.
“I don’t call that putting something down.
Come here… No, I said here, not down to the water.”
“Mark, do as you’re told.
Come here.” Charlie gave a heavy sigh.
“Leave Lizzie’s hair alone.
It’s no use complaining she’s bitten you if you’re going to do that.”
“Lizzie, stop trying to pull down Mark’s trunks.”
“Mark!”
“Lizzie!”
Kate turned to Charlie and raised an eyebrow.
A moment later they were chasing the twins along the surf.
Charlie scooped five-year-old Mark into his arms and up onto his shoulders.
Kate did the same with Lizzie.
The twins screamed with laughter.
After they’d exhausted their two-legged horses, they settled on the blanket to eat the picnic Kate had prepared.
“Is this why they’re called sandwiches?” Lizzie asked, picking at the grains of sand stuck to the one she’d dropped.
Kate took it from her hand and gave her another.
“No, a man called the Earl of Sandwich invented them when he was too busy playing cards to stop for a proper meal.”
“Mummy, do you know everything?” Mark asked.
Kate laughed.
“Yes and I know best.”
“If you know everything, what am I thinking?” Charlie asked, running his hand up Kate’s leg.
“You’re thinking what a lucky guy you are to have such a fantastic wife and two delicious children.”
“We’re not delicious,” Lizzie said.
“Chocolate’s delicious.”
Acting in unison, Kate and Charlie pulled the twins onto their backs and blew raspberries on their squirming bellies.
“Delicious,” they said.
“Grandma!” shrieked Lizzie.
“Grandpa!” echoed Mark.
Kate looked up to see Paul and Jill holding ice creams.
“Who wants to see a jellyfish?” Paul asked.
Kate shuddered back into Charlie’s chest and he put his arms around her.
The twins walked off hand-in-hand with their grandparents and Charlie kissed Kate’s neck.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you.”
“I love this beach too.
“ Charlie tightened his hold on her.
“It could have been the end and instead it was the beginning.
You don’t mind having a vacation here, do you?”
“What?
Sandy sandwiches, gray sky, freezing cold sea, biting wind, lurking sharks and apparently—jellyfish—what’s not to like?”
“Would you still come every year if I didn’t bribe you with a trip to Hawaii as well?”
Kate turned and ran her finger over his lips.
“I’d go anywhere with you.”
“Have I made you happy?”
“Yes.”
“Can you forgive me anything?”
“Er…yes.”
Charlie smiled.
He brought his hand up from behind her back and dangled a piece of seaweed over her face.
Kate screamed and scuttled backward off the blanket.
“You bloody—”
“Not in front of the children.”
Kate spun round.
The twins were way down the beach, but out of the corner of her eye she saw Charlie leap for her.
He pinned her down and kissed her and kissed her.
They were the last to leave the beach.
The sea crept closer to the place where they’d sat, closer to the word they’d written in the sand.
H E L L O
About the Author
Barbara Elsborg lives in West Yorkshire in the north of England.
She always wanted to be a spy, but having confessed to everyone without them even resorting to torture, she decided it was not for her.
Vulcanology scorched her feet.
A morbid fear of sharks put paid to marine biology.
So instead, she spent several years successfully selling cyanide.
After dragging up two rotten, ungrateful children and frustrating her sexy, devoted, wonderful husband (who can now stop twisting her arm), she finally has time to conduct an affair with an electrifying, plugged-in male—her laptop.
Her books feature quirky heroines and bad boys, and she hopes they are as much fun to read as they are to write.
The author welcomes comments from readers.
You can find her website and email address on her
author bio page
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www.ellorascave.com
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Table of Contents
Chapter One G O O D B Y E Kate stared at the letters written in the sand and laughed
Chapter Two Kate’s Story “Guess what
Chapter Three Charlie’s Story “I think you’re loads better than Robbie Williams
Chapter Four Charlie yelped when his toes scraped against something and his fear made Kate panic
Chapter Five Kate didn’t blink
Chapter Seven Charlie tossed and turned on the couch
Chapter Eight When they came round the following morning
Chapter Nine Rachel looked at Lucy
Chapter Ten Charlie spent the journey across London torn between excitement and misery