Catch me! Catch me not! (9 page)

She walked to the fridge and grabbed an open bottle of Valdo, she poured two glasses and went to sit with Carlo.

“Let’s toast!” she smiled handing him his glass.

“To what
Divorce or marriage?”

“Marriage on my terms...here in London we both work here and we go ahead with this dog-sitter solution. I would like to take him to school when he is a little bigger and I want to try for our own children with or without IVF I am only 28 for heaven’s sake so we have some lee way. I just don’t want a gypsy life...I want us to be a family, soggy pads and all! I don’t want to go back to that mechanical sex. I want you to help in the house and I want you to help with any children who come.”

“I will make you the happiest wife in the world! I would like to go to our honeymoon hotel and spend a weekend being pampered with my wife. Let’s see if the dog-sitter could do a night? I want our reunion night to be special.” He wrapped her in his arms and rained kisses on her head, face, neck and then came up to take possession of her lips...he was lost. He  was in the arms of the woman he loved most in the world.

Carlo held her.

Carlo breathed in her perfume.

Carlo ran his hands through her silken hair.

He  glided his hands over the contours of her face eyes, nose, lips down to her neck, hardly touching...

He closed his eyes tight shut and prayed this was not a dream. He was here with Emma in his arms and he was moving to London as soon as possible to be with a cute puppy and his wife. HIS WIFE! He wanted to shout it from the highest mountains.

Three years on...

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.

James A. Baldwin

             
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Pedro was patiently walking around the garden with two little identical boys holding on to his back, he had taught them both to walk! He was better than any nanny...a bit like Peter Pan! Charles and William were now two and their little sister Sophia was now just one...in fact all their friends were gathered together with their off spring for her first birthday.

Fabio and Georgina had managed to get back from Singapore and lived round the corner, their latest child was the twin of Sophia so they spent a lot of time together.

Carlo looked at his wife with heart swelling with pride. Motherhood had given her a radiant glow, she had got her figure back almost immediately but her face had softened and her hair seemed to shine more in the sun. His father was sitting in a rattan chair playing with his grand-daughter, she was giggling at whatever he as telling her in Italian!

Emma moved over to  Carlo and put her arms round him, hugging him and thinking what a lucky woman she was. I have it all a loving husband, three gorgeous children a trained dog and a lovely home...to put the icing on the cake ...Georgina and Fabio lived round the corner from her and Sophia and Clara loved each other!! They were only a month apart. Antonio had bought a holiday home in Chelsea so he could be with his grand-children more often. She stood up on her tip toes and kissed him.

“Thank you Carlo for being you...thank you for your love, thank you for your help with the children and Pedro and thank you for understanding my need to go back part time to work...thank you!”

“Thank you for letting me catch you again and show you for the rest of your life how much I love you!”

                                         
The End