31 Days of Autumn (46 page)

‘Lots of presents,’ he agreed. ‘You’re a very
lucky girl. Why don’t you go and sit with Logan again while we go and say hello
to everyone?’ Dan set her down and we watched her run back to take her place. Logan
put his arm around her and kissed her on the lips, and Eva immediately wiped
her mouth and screwed up her face, making me laugh. ‘Jesus, talk about starting
young!’ Dan muttered, looking none too impressed. ‘This is the last time I’m leaving
her on her own with
him
.’

We headed through the opening in the thick
stone wall to the internal bar, to be met with a chorus of greetings. Everyone
was already here. Dan’s parents, Magda, Lucas and Summer, Mr. and Mrs. McAdams,
Brooke and Molly, John and Edward, and Theo and Florie. Chris, Conn, and James
were here with their wives, and even Stuart and his wife had made it here
before us. The happy atmosphere of my loved ones chatting and laughing almost
bowled me over.

‘You guys,’ I moaned, fluttering my hands in
front of my eyes, overcome with all of the support and love being shown to Eva on
her second birthday.

‘It is cause for a grand celebration,’ Luiza
announced as she came over to kiss me, thrusting a glass of champagne into my
hand. ‘Not only is our beautiful granddaughter two, but our daughter-in-law is
a walking miracle. We nearly lost you that night, Ellie.’

‘We did,’ Dan confirmed, kissing my temple as
he squeezed my hand. ‘And not for the first time. I warned you that you’re
through scaring me, Ellie Davenport. We’re going to live a long and uneventful
life now, surrounded by our friends and family.  Hopefully one day, when we’re
old and grey, we’ll be here celebrating our fiftieth wedding anniversary, or
the birthday of one of our grandchildren.’

‘Do you really think that will happen?’ I
asked, smiling up at him. Why was I always surprised by the fact that he took
my breath away every time he gazed into my eyes? Or made my heart race and
butterflies release in my stomach? I really hoped I’d hold onto that passion for
him for the rest of my life. There was no better feeling in the world, other
than hearing my children tell me that they loved me.

‘Why not? I’ve made so many wishes when it
comes to you and my children, and they have all come true, why shouldn’t we
have our own fairy tale happy ever after? No one deserves it more than us.’

‘Well said,’ Daniel called. ‘I know it’s my
granddaughter’s birthday, and I’ll be raising a toast to her when we sit down
to eat, but for now I’d like you all to raise one to my son and
daughter-in-law. They’ve had so much thrown at them in their lives, both together
and apart, but it’s only made their bond and love for each other stronger. May
they have nothing but peace and happiness for the rest of their lives.’

‘To Dan and Ellie,’ Brooke called, raising her
glass and blowing a kiss in my direction.

‘To Dan and Ellie,’ came a chorus from the rest
of our loved ones, making me cry. Dan held my chin as he wiped away my tears.

‘See, how can fate argue with that?’ he
whispered, dipping his head to kiss me.

‘It can’t,’ I replied, clutching his strong
biceps for support as my legs turned to jelly from his tender kiss. ‘To our
happy ever after, and that of our children, too.’

We headed out with the rest of the guests to
take our seats for Eva’s birthday tea. I reached down to pick up my silver
locket and kissed it. Mum and Dad might not be here, but in Jonas and Eva it
was like they were in spirit, and I knew how proud they would have been to see
me now with such a beautiful family of my own.

‘Thank you,’ I whispered to Dan as I squeezed
his muscular thigh under the table.

‘For what?’ he asked, his green eyes filled
with love as he gazed down at me.

‘Making all of my wishes come true. Who’d have
thought the grumpy woodcutter that I met one cold winter would actually turn
out to be my Prince Charming after all?’

Fifteen years
later ~ 27
^th
December

Ellie

‘Think we can get away with sneaking off for a few
minutes?’ Dan asked as he slipped his arms around my waist while I topped up my
glass of wine. I spun around and put my arms around his neck, smiling up at
him. Age had improved him, like a fine vintage port. He still had a full head
of thick hair, but where it had once been black, now it was tones of salt and
pepper. He had fine creases around his gorgeous, deep, soulful eyes, and he
didn’t stride as fast as he used to, but he was still in incredible shape. I
kissed him, amazed that after twenty-two years, such a simple act could still have
such an effect on my body.

‘What did you have in mind?’ I asked, giving him
a coy smile.

‘It’s the twenty-second anniversary of us having
sex,’ he whispered against my lips, the heat of his breath making me long to
kiss him properly. ‘The night you fell in the loch and got that scar on your
arm.’

‘It is,’ I confirmed, touched that he
remembered little things like that after so long. My scar was faint and silvery
now, like the one on my temple from falling down the stairs, and the one on my
leg from my bullet wound. I saw the three of them as one scar for each of my
children, a mark I had to bear for the pleasure of having them in my life, and
I displayed them proudly now, unlike my emergency caesarean one, which remained
hot pink and jagged to this day.

I looked over Dan’s shoulder at the lounge, at
the houseful of people laughing with the fire roaring, the Christmas tree
twinkling in the background. We’d had an amazing festive season, though it had
been sad not to have some of our loved ones with us. Mr. and Mrs. McAdams had
moved into a retirement home, paid for by Dan, and they were far too frail to
come. We’d made a trip out, with all of the children, to visit them yesterday,
as well as Theo and Florie in their home on the loch. John and Edward had
retired in September and were currently on a world cruise. Lucas and Summer
were in California, as they had some public engagements that they couldn’t get
out of. We’d had a pretty tough year and were looking forward to putting it
behind us. Sadly, both Magda and Mr. Davenport had passed away, within months
of each other. Magda had been battling cancer for a long time, and having not
complained about her symptoms, by the time we realised that she was ill and got
her diagnosed, it had been too late to help her. All we could do was try and
make her last few months as comfortable and pain-free as possible. But it had
been heart-breaking to watch her decline. Mr. Davenport had died peacefully at
home, after spending the day with Luiza, Dan and I and his grandchildren. Dan
had taken it hard, the children too, but being there at the end, having a
chance to say a proper goodbye, had softened the blow.

I smiled as I looked at Brooke and Molly. They
had their arms around each other’s necks as they slow danced to
All I Want
For Christmas Is You.
Just like Dan and I, they were showing their age, but
were still as in love as ever. They continued to live with us on the island,
except when the McAdams moved out, they’d moved from the boathouse to the
larger cabin up the hill. At our insistence, Luiza had moved in with us. She
was in her mid-eighties now, though didn’t look a day over sixty-five. Much as
her and Daniel had squabbled, they’d been deeply in love and she was lost
without him. Dan and I hadn’t liked the idea of her being all alone in that
sprawling mansion, so we’d moved her up here to be with us. We’d sold our mews
house, and used his parents’ home as a base whenever we visited London. We went
at least twice a month now, given that Oliver was at university there, studying
IT, of course. He was a natural, so talented and intelligent. He’d passed all
of his exams early, so instead of being in the middle of his bachelor's degree
like most twenty year olds, he was in the middle of a master's degree and
couldn’t wait to finish, to start working for his dad officially. He’d already
come up with a number of new ideas that had impressed Dan to no end. We’d
purchased him a two bedroomed apartment in Canary Wharf, oddly enough in the
very same building that I’d lived in with Zac all of those years ago. It even
had the same layout, which felt a little odd each time we visited, but Harry,
the kind old doorman, had long since passed away.

‘Do you think Oliver’s having sex?’ I asked Dan
as he moved behind me to look at our family. Oliver was kissing his girlfriend
of one year, Lottie Le Grand. He was besotted with her, which was
understandable. She was a stunning brunette with the most unusual vivid amber
eyes. She was attending the same university, in the second year of her bachelor's
degree, studying French, Italian, and Spanish. I smiled as I remembered Oliver
ringing me last year to tell me he’d met the girl that he was going to marry. He
was so sure of his feelings for her, just like I’d been with Dan. We’d offered
to accompany Oliver and Jonas back to London next week, for the start of the
new term, and we’d been invited to go and spend the weekend with Lottie’s
parents, Lulu and Luc, whom we’d not yet met in person. Oddly, Lulu was an old
friend of Lucas’s. It was such a small world.

‘Of course he’s having sex. Look at them, they
can’t keep their hands off each other,’ advised Dan, making me cringe. I didn’t
want to think of my sweet, innocent boy doing that, but he was an adult now, it
was inevitable. ‘Jonas too,’ Dan added as we looked over at him, playing some
game on his iPhone. That or texting one of a long line of girls he seemed to be
in touch with. ‘God only knows how many girls he’s got on the go at uni, he’s a
smooth talker,’ Dan said confirming my thoughts exactly.

‘Just like his dad,’ I added, giving Dan a
shoulder bump and making him chuckle.

‘He was gutted that Autumn Steel wasn’t coming
over this Christmas. Look at him, he’s still sulking. He has your pout.’

‘He does,’ I laughed, clutching my heart as I
looked at my eighteen year old, the middle child of my brood. He was the
spitting image of my dad and definitely took after my side of the family with
his blond hair. He’d started university this year, thankfully also picking the
same one as Oliver, so he’d moved into the two bedroom apartment with him. It
eased my concerns about my two boys living so far away, to know that they had
each other. They were still inseparable to this day, the best of friends. Jonas
didn’t have Oliver’s mind for IT, but he was very clever too. He had a real
strategic mind, so he’d chosen Business Studies as his major. Dan was hoping
he’d want to take over the running of operations at Davenport Technologies
while Oliver remained in charge and oversaw the development of projects.

‘I think he kissed Autumn last time Lucas was
over,’ Dan mused, making me gasp with horror.

‘Don’t! She’s only fifteen. Lucas would
kill
him if he even thought Jonas was looking at his daughter.’

‘Like I’ll kill that bloody Greyson Austin if
he keeps texting mine,’ muttered Dan with a low predatory growl. I laughed and
tipped my head back and kissed him again. When it came to Eva, Dan’s protective
side went into overdrive. She was seventeen now, but he treated her like a
twelve year old sometimes, putting far too tight a leash on her.

‘You need to ease up on her a bit, she’s nearly
an adult and she could do a lot worse than Greyson. He’s respectful, charming, confident,
and I tell you, if I was thirty years younger, I’d be batting my eyelids at him,
too. I don’t normally go for blonds, but phew!’ I laughed as Dan gave me a
disapproving scowl. No one would ever be good enough for his princess. ‘I
really thought that her and Logan would start dating, they’ve practically grown
up together.’

‘Exactly. I think they’re too close, they see each
other as siblings,’ Dan confirmed, his arms around me tightening as he kissed
my neck.

I looked back over at Eva as she laughed with
Luiza. She was a real mix of Dan and I. She had his dark Brazilian hair,
eyebrows, and lashes, then his defined bone structure, but she had my small
straight nose, heart-shaped lips, and bright green eyes. She turned heads
whenever we went out, but she was a good girl, she hadn’t even kissed a boy yet.
That was probably due to her being enrolled at an all girls’ boarding school
for her AS levels. I missed her terribly in term time. We were really close,
she was like a best friend, not just my daughter. While she hadn’t kissed a boy
yet, lately she’d admitted that she couldn’t stop thinking about one boy in
particular. The one Dan was liable to kill if he kept making advances to her. Greyson
Austin, the grandson of Dan’s long-term lawyer, Robert Austin. Greyson’s father,
Gabriel, had hosted a joint charity ball with Davenport Technologies for sick
children. We’d all gone and Eva had looked stunning in a jade green off-the-shoulder
ball gown. In the limo on the way back to Luiza’s, Eva had confessed to me that
when she laid eyes on Greyson, it was the first time that she’d actually wanted
a boy to kiss her, though she’d politely declined when he’d tried. She’d
eventually agreed to give him her number when he refused to leave without it. Every
time she got a message from him since, her face lit up. I imagined that’s how I
looked, how I still looked, each time I saw Dan.

‘So, how about a bit of reminiscing while
they’re all distracted,’ Dan whispered, moving his lips to kiss my neck in that
spot he had memorised so early in our relationship, the one that made me
amenable to anything and everything. ‘I’d like to make love to you, Ellie
Davenport,’ he advised, sending a frisson of excitement through my body.

‘We’d need to be quick, before we’re missed,’ I
warned him.

‘Trust me, at my age, I’m always quick,’ he
chuckled.

‘Yet still a hell of a lot longer than Matt and
Zac,’ I winked, ‘in all respects.’

‘Maybe Jonas got his smooth talking from you,’
he grinned, pecking my lips. ‘Give me five minutes and meet me down there.’

‘Why five minutes?’ I asked, frowning as he let
go of me. I missed his touch already.

‘Will you ever learn to just do as you’re told,
woman?’ he replied with a shake of his head, as he disappeared into the utility
room to sneak out of the back door the security team used. Andy and Chris had
obviously retired, too old for this line of work now and replaced by some
younger versions, but we kept in touch. As we did with James, he was part of
our family now, having put his life on the line for us. After those few days
I’d spent with him underground, we shared an unbreakable bond now. We hadn’t
seen Dean since that day in the bunker after Jenny’s funeral. He’d gone to
Australia to stay with a friend and had never returned, though he kept in touch
with Dan. He ended up taking a pilot’s job for an airline company over there,
where he’d eventually met someone and got married and had his own family. I was
pleased that he was able to find some happiness, Jenny would have wanted that
for him.

‘Stroke face,’ Brooke whispered, making me jump
to find her next to me.

‘Charming,’ I uttered as I turned to face her.
‘What do you mean?’

‘You’re in a world of your own, staring into
space, open-mouthed. What’s up?’

‘Just looking at everyone, thinking how lucky I
am to have you all here,’ I smiled, linking my arm through hers. Molly had
moved to sit with Luiza. They were chatting while she plaited Eva’s long hair.

‘We have an amazing family, don’t we?’ Brooke
nodded. I loved that she included herself in that, because she was.

‘We do, all thanks to you.’ I kissed her cheek.

‘Why me? I didn’t squirt them all out.’

‘You made me book the boathouse the day I left
Zac. All of this started because of you, Brooke Hanson. Without you, I’d never
have met Dan or had my three wonderful children.’

‘Well, I didn’t want to remind you that you
owed me, but maybe the time’s come to return the favour,’ she teased. ‘Where’s
lover boy?’

‘Hopefully naked and hard, waiting for me in
the boathouse for a quickie.’

‘Still at it like a pair of energiser bunnies,’
she laughed. ‘I’m amazed your vagina can still spring back after the amount of
action it’s seen over the years.’

‘Me too,’ I giggled. ‘Honestly, if the police
did a vagina line-up for a flashing forty-eight year old woman, no one would
pick me as the culprit in a million years. Mine must have the premature
wrinkles of a ninety year old's, it will be that haggard from overuse.’

‘Someone needs to invent a cream for fanny
aging,’ she suggested.

‘Honestly, I’d rather they perfect a facial
one. I hate looking in the mirror and seeing lines. Where did the time go?’

‘Look around you, at where we are and what we
have. I’d say it went mostly into the happiest times of our lives,’ Brooke
stated as she kissed me. ‘You still look stunning, Ellie Davenport. You’re as
beautiful on the outside as you are on the inside. You always have been, that’s
why I picked you as my best friend. No one has a heart as big as you do. Now go
and get your orgasm over with and hurry back, before I miss you.’