Phoebe
As harps and bells strummed and tinkled, I gave a huge sigh of contentment and breathed in the aroma of jasmine.
“Oh my God,” Beth whispered. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so relaxed.”
“I know. I feel like I’m about to melt all over the bed, I’m so floppy.”
“You know, if you don’t nab Grantley pretty quickly, I may just do it myself.”
I lifted my head to glare at my sister, who was sporting a huge grin.
“Don’t worry, I’m not interested really. You can keep him. Although,” she said wistfully, “if you ever want to loan him out, I’d be up for that. It must be lovely to have a man who cares about you and likes to do nice things for you.”
My heart clenched as Beth’s smile disappeared. Steven really had been a shit. Not just for leaving her, but for never taking care of her. It had always been Beth looking after his every need, never once had he ever bought her flowers – not even a shitty, half-dead bunch from the garage at the top of the road. I swear he’d only married her because he thought it would get him regular sex without having to put the effort in. Obviously that had changed once the boys arrived, and so Beth had been usurped by Miss Cock Sucker, who evidently gave herself freely to Steven, for the price of a new handbag and matching shoes. Seeing as her social media accounts pretty much boasted of such purchases at least twice a month, Steven was getting everything he’d ever wished for in a partner – someone as twatty and vacuous as he was.
“Stop thinking about Steven,” Beth hissed. “I don’t give a shit about him, so neither should you.”
“Did I have that constipated look again?”
“Yep.”
“It’s just so unfair, Beth. He’s living the life of a playboy, obnoxious dick, while you’re the one struggling with the boys.”
“I don’t struggle,” she replied. “My mortgage isn’t much and I earn a good wage.”
Thankfully, having worked in a bank since leaving school, my sister was incredibly good with money. She’d always saved and contributed to a pension. She knew how to budget and with great foresight had put the mortgage in her name because she got a great deal for working at the bank. She did admit to me after Steven had been gone for a couple of months that in the back of her head, she’d always worried whether he’d get flaky one day, which was why she’d done it.
“It’s still not fair.”
“Not everything in life is. But,” she said, pulling herself up on her lounger. “What is fair is that you’ve found Grantley, and I want to be sure you’re not going to let him go.”
I closed my eyes and pictured Grantley. He wasn’t wearing his sexy, smart Addison Yates’ suit in my mind’s eye, but his worn jeans, a t-shirt, and his sexy black glasses.
“Phoebe,” Beth hissed. “Are you listening to me?”
I opened my eyes and turned to her. “What do you want me to say, Beth?” The film finishes shooting in a little over three weeks and then he goes back to LA.”
Beth sat up and swivelled her legs around to place her feet on the floor.
“You could visit?”
“I could, if he’d even asked me.”
“He hasn’t said anything?” she asked a little nonplussed.
“Nope, but I don’t expect him to.” I sat up and hugged my knees to my chest. “I knew what this was going to be when we started it.”
“And what was that, sweetie?”
“An on set fling.”
As I said the words, the sadness I felt threatened a storm of tears. I hadn’t had many relationships, but I certainly had never felt the way I did about Grantley. We were good together, in every sense, but more importantly he took me for who I was. He never made me feel less than him, because he was the big star. He didn’t come into my sister’s home and look down on it because it wasn’t some fancy penthouse with its own infinity pool, and he certainly didn’t treat my beloved nephews as a nuisance. Despite everything with his mum and dad, and all the crap he’d had to deal with, he’d wanted to do something special for my sister, because she’d had a bad week.
“You know it’s so much more than that.”
I hadn’t noticed Beth join me on my lounger, I’d been so caught up thinking about Grantley.
“Do I?”
She nodded and laid a hand on my knee. “Yes, and now you just need to tell him what you want to happen, after the film wraps.”
“I don’t know what I want,” I protested.
“Bullshit.”
I rolled my eyes at Beth. “Okay, I know I want to be with him, but I’m not sure I can do the long distance thing, Beth.”
“Okay, tell me why?”
I gave her a look that pretty much said ‘are you stupid?’
“Well what about the fact that I’ll be worried every day that he’s found someone else, or is cheating on me.”
“As if,” she scoffed. “I know I hardly know him, but he doesn’t seem the cheating type to me.”
“They never do. Steven aside.”
Beth’s eyebrows shot up, almost hitting her hairline.
“I’m sorry,” I cried. “But I always thought he looked like a cheating knob. I think it was the too shiny shoes. Besides, if you were honest with yourself, you did too.”
Beth thought about it for a few minutes and then nodded. “Yeah, you’re right,” she replied with a matter of fact tone, “but I just don’t see that in Grantley.”
We sat in silence for a couple of minutes, Beth picking at a thread of my luxurious velveteen dressing gown and me watching her with great interest, contemplating what she’d said.
She was right, Grantley didn’t appear to be a cheat. He’d left his home with Serena when he knew the relationship was over, he hated what Sue-Ann’s affair had done to his life, and I couldn’t imagine him putting anyone else through such pain.
“I think I’m going to tell him I want to do the long distance thing,” I blurted out.
Beth’s head shot up. “You are?”
“Only if he promises to tell me it’s over, if he’s even tempted to cheat.”
Beth’s eyes glistened as her smile widened. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Well he may not want to. This is me telling him what I want. Grantley may have a totally different idea on what happens in three weeks.”
“What, like he might want you to move their permanently?” she asked, excitedly.
“No you numpty,” I cried, shaking my head. “Where do you get these ideas from?”
As Beth giggled, I couldn’t help but wish, deep down in the hollows of my head, that it might just be a possibility.
“It’s all very quiet,” Beth said, as we closed the front door behind us.
“Maybe they’re watching TV.”
Beth opened the lounge door and stopped dead. “Aww, look,” she whispered.
I moved up behind her, looked over her shoulder and felt my heart do an excited skip. Barney was asleep in a chair, his head lolled back and mouth open. Marcia, for some strange reason dressed in what looked like the boys’ football kit, was lying on the floor, star-fishing over the rug with her head on a beanbag. But the sight that made my breath quicken, was Grantley. He was lying on the sofa with both boys lying on his chest, his arms protectively wrapped around them, while Mack had one hand in Grantley’s hair and Callum had a finger up Grantley’s nose.
“Phoebe,” Beth whispered as she turned to me.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked, seeing tears welling in her eyes.
“That’s the first male hug they’ve had, in all their lives.”
My eyes widened as I looked over at the three men who held my heart. Beth was right. Steven’s parents were both dead, so his dad hadn’t been present in the twins’ lives and as for our dad – well he wasn’t exactly the cuddly grandpa type. The boys were lucky if they got a pat on the head, the three times a year that they saw him, despite living just a thirty minute car ride away.
“He’s such a good man,” Beth said, grabbing hold of my hand. “Don’t you dare let him go.”
As I watched them sleeping, Grantley’s arms instinctively went tighter around the boys, and I knew Beth was right. Grantley James was a keeper.
“Beth,” I whispered.
“Yes,” she replied, turning to me. “What is it?”
I gazed over her shoulder and smiled. “I love him.”