Public Property (11 page)

‘
Oh my God!
You know
Kiefer Sutherland
?!
’
Jennifer, one of the
other
women at the table
shrieked. S
he was dressed in a Princess
Lei
a
outfit and her headdress almost fell off.

‘
Well
, I wouldn’t say I know him.
I mean I met him last week for the photographs
and he was really nice
but we didn’t do lunch or anything
,’
Freya told them.

‘
I love
him
.
24
was
one of my
favourite
shows
,’
Jennifer
said
, her eyes glazing over.

‘
I suppose being engaged to Nicholas
Kaden
, you become kind of immune to celebrity
,’
Lisa
suggested
.

‘
I guess so. The thing is, I don’t even think of Nick as a celebrity
.
H
e’s just, you know, normal
,’
Freya
said. She
looked over to where Nicholas was helping Sam, Brian and
Casey
light the barbeque.

‘
Believe me
,
honey, there aren’t many
“
normal
”
men on the planet
that look as good as he does
,’
Lisa told her.

‘
Oh don’t tell him that
.
I don’t want him getting the idea that he
’
s handsome or anything
,’
Freya joked with a smile.

‘
So
,
when are you two going to get married? Have you talked about a date yet? And where do you think
you
’
ll do it? You know if you live in
Mayleaf
you get to have a wedding in the square if you want it
,
’
Jolie said.

‘
Oh
,
we haven’t really talked about a date
.
W
e’re just so
busy
,
there hasn’t been time to think about it
.’

She hadn’t thought about it.
Not at all.
Was that strange? When she’d accepted his proposal she’d accepted because she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, but the actual getting married part she hadn’t really considered. What did she want and when did she want it? She knew there was barely a gap in her diary for the next six months.

‘
I remember when Sam asked me to marry him
.
I said I wasn
’
t going to get engaged to him until we
’
d set a date for the wedding. Long engagements are just a man’s way of putting off the big day if you ask me
,’
Jolie remarked to the group.

‘
Well, we haven’t had a long engagement yet
.
I mean
,
we’ve only been engaged six months or so
,’ Freya answered. Why did she feel like she had to justify why they hadn’t set a date?

‘
Oh Freya
,
I wasn’t meaning Nick was trying to put things off. Me and my big mouth! No, I just meant that for me a long engagement was out of the question
. W
ell
,
I was pregnant with twins
,’
Jolie explained with a laugh.

‘
Are children something else we should have had by now?
’
Freya
asked
.

Their faces told her they weren’t sure if she was joking. She laughed and they relaxed.

‘My advice, l
eave off having kids for a few years
.
Y
our life
’
s not your own once they
’
re here
,’ Jolie said. The others at the table all nodded.

‘
Or better still
,
don’t have them at all. They mess up your house and they don’t understand the importance of not covering Mommy with sticky finger
marks
before she goes to work
,’
Lisa
added
.

‘
How o
ld are your children?’
Freya asked her.

‘
Seventeen and nineteen and the sticky hands and messy house still applies
.’

It was gone midnight when the party drew to a close and everyone began to leave.

‘
Brian’s asleep in the dog kennel
,
Sam
.
H
e can’t stay there
,
he
’
ll freeze to death
,’
Jolie told her husband as he said goodbye to his guests.

‘
Oh my God this is the fourth
“
Brian Episode
”
of the night! I’m just going to take a picture
,’
Freya announced
. She
hurried back through the house and out to the garden.

‘
Freya really does take photographs of everything
,
doesn’t she?
’
Jolie remarked as Sam followed Freya in a bid to wake Brian up.

‘
Yes she does
,’
Nicholas replied with a smile.

‘
She’s very talented. I saw the photographs she took of
t
he Chri
stian Fathers b
ridges
.
T
hey
’
re
beautiful
,’
Jolie told him.

‘
She has a thing about those bridges. Some things she sees she just gets taken with and she kind of immerses herself in them. Put it this way
,
she gets more excited photographing those bridges than she
did
taking pictures of
Kiefer Sutherland
in the buff
,’
Nicholas tried to explain.

‘
An unnatural reaction I would say
.’

‘
Unusual I admit
,
but I
’
m not sure the
same would apply
if it were Bruce Willis
with no clothes on
.’

Freya
returned,
a smile on her face and her small digital camera in her hand.

‘
You should have seen Brian
.
H
e had his head in
Rusty’s
biscuit bowl and a bone in his hand
.’

‘
Has Sam
woken
him up yet? I could really do without him staying
over
tonight
.
W
e have to be up early in the morning
,’
Jolie said
,
looking at her watch.

‘
Sam and Casey are going to walk him home
to
make sure he doesn’t ju
st pass out on the lawn outside,’
Freya told her.

‘
We’ll go
,
Jolie
.
T
hank you for a great evening
,’ Nicholas said. He lent forward and kissed
her on the cheek.

‘Thank you both for coming.
I’m sorry you got cornered by Sam’s u
ncle Joe.
H
e does like to talk
,’ Jolie said, kissing Freya’s cheek.

‘
He advised me to get out of acting and into property development. He said that
’s
where the real money is
,’
Nicholas said
, smiling
.

‘Oh I’m sorry.
H
e has no idea who you are
,’
Jolie spoke, sounding slightly embarrassed.

‘
I’m glad, particularly as I
’
m wearing this outfit
.’

‘
Say goodbye to Sam for us and I’ll probably see you later in the week
,’
Freya said
. They left the house and started to walk down the path.

‘
Thanks again for coming
.
T
ake care getting home
, it’s almost freezing out there,’
Jolie called
.

Nicholas took hold of Freya’s hand and they started out across town towards their home. It was
certainly
chilly and not the sort of weather to be outside
for long when you were wearing
flimsy fancy dress costumes.

‘
It was a nice evening
,’
Nicholas
said
.

‘
Yes it was and Jolie’s sister is a real laugh. Apparently she lives a
ten
hour drive
away. And there I was moaning about the flight times to Corfu,’
Freya told him.

‘
Casey told me she’s going through a divorce
.’

‘
Really?
She never mentioned it. That’s sad
.’

‘
Ye
a
h, divorce is never nice even when it’s amicable
,’
he agreed
.

‘
Well I wouldn’t know, having not been in that position
.’

‘
Would you like to be?
’

‘
Would I like to get divorced?
’

‘
No! You know what I mean
.
W
ould you like to be i
n a position to get divorced? W
ould you like to be
married?
’
Nicholas asked her
. Despite the roundabout way this conversation had started, his tone was serious.

‘
Are you making me a proposition
,
Mr
Kaden
?
’
She smiled.

‘
I did that in Corfu remem
ber?
But
,
perhaps now’s the time to reaffirm that intention
,’
he suggested
.

‘
Has Sam been talking to you about long engagements?
’
Freya queried.

‘
Sam? No. What made you ask that?
’

‘
Because Jolie asked me tonight if we
’
d set a date for the wedding
.
W
hen I told her we hadn’t
,
she said she didn’t believe in long engage
ments or indefinite engagements
,’
Freya explained.

‘
Well
,
I think I have to agree with her
.’

‘
You do?
’

‘
Yes, I think we should set a date
.’

‘
But when?
I mean you’re off filming in Africa
soon
for four months and I’m up to my eyes working on the Every Day project.
I just can’t see us having time to
organise
a wedding
.’

‘
We can make time
,
Freya
.
I mean
,
for all the
work we both do, charity or otherwise
,
we
still
have to have time for us,’
he
reminded her.

‘
I know but
…’
Freya started.