CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Beth
Nash pays the driver as he pulls in to the curb outside of my parents’ house. My nerves are on edge. He laces his fingers in mine as we stand on the path leading to the front door. “Are you ready for this?” I look up at him, confidently he nods back before his face lights up with a smile.
“Am I late? Ella would not settle and Matt had training, but I couldn’t leave her with Caleb and Addy while she was fussing.” Her words come out in a rush. “Ah, Nash. Hi.” She greets him.
He lets go of my hand to kiss Gretna on the cheek. “Hi, Grets, nice to see you again.” The look on Gretna’s face is pure shock.
He steps back to take my hand again. “Shall we?”
I knock and my dad answers the door. “Hi, daddy.” My forever stoic father holds true without an ounce of emotion on his face.
“Hi girls. Nash.” He nods before extending his hand to Nash. “It’s good to see you again. Come in.” Dad steps back to allow us to enter. “Bethany, your mother is in the kitchen. She could use some help.”
I find Mum at the sink, a glass of wine sits half empty on the bench next to her. Hearing us she turns to greet us. “Oh my! Nash Gibson.”
“Hello, Mrs. Spencer. You’re looking as lovely as always.” Mum actually blushes, Nash is definitely full of charm.
“Please, call me Tina. Dinner won’t be long. Does anyone want a glass of wine?”
“I will pass thank you, I am still nursing.”
“Bethany, you’ll have one won’t you?” Nash and Gretna both look at me.
“Ah no. I…”
“I’d love one, Mrs. Spencer. Sorry, Tina.” Nash squeezes my hand, and Mum doesn’t miss a beat to dote on him, pouring him a glass from the bottle sitting next to her glass.
She hands it to him, “One of David’s favourites.”
“Yes, I remember.” With just those words Mum’s face lights up. “Is there anything I can help with?”
“No, dear. Beth will help me, you go have a seat, and we’ll be in with dinner shortly.”
Nash hesitates to leave the room, I squeeze his hand in reassurance. He winks and plants a kiss on my temple. The others have hardly left the room before Mum pounces on me.
“I didn’t realise you knew David’s friend, Bethany. You’ve never mentioned him before.”
“Yes, Mum.” I answer her dryly, before taking a deep breath to compose myself, suddenly wishing I could’ve had a glass of that damn wine. “I’ll take the plate of beans in, is there anything else you need me to do?” I didn’t want to talk to her about David’s friend, or anything else that is going on between us.
Dinner evolves as it did every year, David’s favourite meals and then my mother telling colourful and glowing stories of David and his accomplishments. Mum had just gotten to the end of her favourite recount of her last birthday when David was still alive when Nash speaks up.
“Do you mind if I share a story of David, from the time we used to work together?”
“Oh, that would be lovely, Nash, thank you.” She gushes.
“Did David ever tell you of the time when we were picked up by the police?” Mum’s eyes go wide, and she silently shakes her head, there is no way David would have mentioned anything about being picked up or even locked up by the police. From the look on Dad’s face though, he knew about it.
“Well it was one summer actually, might have been the first summer I’d met David, and we had only been working together a few months. Anyway, I remember it was still around twenty-five degrees at 9 o’clock and we had just left the office for the day, thinking it was a good idea we should go for a swim, I don’t remember if it was his or my idea but we tended just to be as bad as each other when making decisions without thinking of the consequences.” Nash’s eyes fall on me, like a secret message between us. “At the time I was seeing a girl who was a lifeguard at the pool, thinking back I’m sure it was David’s idea not that I needed a whole lot of encouragement. So we get to the pool and find it closed. I’m sure you remember that David never let anything defeat him, and he was determined to get in there for a swim.”
“Oh my god, David never told me this story, but I remember he got home and his shoes were missing, when I asked him where they were he just said that the police had taken them for evidence, I assumed he was just trying to wind me up and didn’t think anything more of it.” Gretna interjects, her hand resting over her heart.
“Sorry, Gretna, it was probably the truth, I think the police did take them. So anyway, we climb the fence, strip down to our underpants and jump in the pool. It was glorious, well until the police showed up.” Nash is laughing now, his eyes sparkling as he continues to recall the story. “David tried to escape, swimming from one side of the pool to the other to avoid the police nabbing him. But in the end, he gave up exhausted and they took us back to the police station, still in our wet underwear. Dripping water all over their backseat. I think they were more annoyed about the water and that they were going to have to mop up than anything else. Yeah so, we got released without charge and they dropped us home after they made us clean up the police car.”
Mum is stunned, and I couldn’t have been happier hearing Nash’s story, I think that might’ve been the very moment I realised that I was actually in love with this man.
We finished eating and Mum remained unusually silent through the rest of the meal. She was still quiet when it comes to say goodbye. “Well Nash, it was nice to see you again. Thank you for sharing your memories of David.” She was polite to a fault, especially with guests.
Gretna gives us a lift back to my place, “I swear I did not know David had been picked up by the cops! Did you see your mother’s face? Oh, my god, I wish I could have taken a sneaky photo of that moment.” Gretna’s laugh fills the car.
“Thanks for the lift, Toots, I’ll call you later.”
“Okay, have a nice night guys. Bye.”
Standing on the curb we watch as Gretna drives away. “Thank you.”
“What for, sweetheart?”
“For everything Nash! For coming with me tonight and especially for the story. My Dad knew about that night didn’t he?”
“Yeah, he knew. They called him when we were still at the station. Told them to take us both home, and assured them it was an isolated incident.”
“Come inside, I have something for you.”
“Oh yeah? Like a surprise?”
“Yes, I’m full of surprises remember, stud?”
“I hope the surprise is you, Beth, naked and in bed.”
Nash picks me up and tosses me over his shoulder, I squeal the whole way to the front door where he puts me back down only long enough to unlock it.
I wake up in the morning alone in bed, but I can hear Nash bashing around the kitchen. I lay still listening to the noise until the curiosity gets the better off me.
“Hey, sweetheart, I was going to bring you breakfast in bed.”
“I need to get up for work anyway. What you cooking, good looking?” Cinching the belt of my robe at my waist, I lean in, trying to get a good look at Nash’s culinary skills first hand.
“I ah, was going to make you eggs, this one,” he points to the burning eggs in the pan, “is the second attempt, and those ones there were the first.” He points at the bin where the remnants of some eggs sit on top of the other rubbish.
Swooping in I bump him to the side, “Let me do these before you burn the whole house down.” He kisses my temple and retreats to the kitchen table.
“How did you sleep, sweetheart?”
“I must have been worn out because I slept like the dead.”
“You fidgeted around a bit, I was worried you were having a nightmare or something.”
“Hmm, not that I remember.” It was a lie, the memories of the dream were coming back to me. I was left standing in the hospital hallway dressed in a theatre gown, as Nash walked away with his arms around a slender redhead, I assume it was Nash, I could only see his back. “So what are you up to today?”
I feel his arms wrap around my waist and his breath softly blowing the hair against my ear as he speaks, “I was hoping I could convince you to take a day off, maybe let me take you to the spa and we could get a massage or something.”
“No can do, stud, I have a full day, Julia has meetings all day so I have a lot of filing to do and calls to make. I’m sorry, a day at the spa does sound like my idea of heaven though.”
“Okay, but I will be by after you finish work to pick you up for the midwife, okay?” Yep, I loved this man, I loved how thoughtful he was and attentive, I even loved that it scared the shit out of me to love him but I was going to do it anyway.
My work day is non-stop, and by the time I’m pressing the down arrow on the elevator I’m exhausted. My feet are throbbing and I can feel a headache starting at my temples. When I get outside I see that Nash is leaning against the side of the taxi, the door already open and waiting for me to enter. When he sees me approach he greets me with that gorgeous smile; which I note is another for the pro list, as well as his lips and the way he knows how to tease me with them.
He doesn’t let go of my hand the whole way to the clinic and neither of us says a word. Only when the car stops does he release my hand with a gentle squeeze before we both climb out.
Inside, I check in at the reception desk and I’m given a clipboard with a stack of papers to complete. We wait until the nurse calls my name and I stand, ready to take the cue from her.
“Are you not coming?” Nash has remained seated when I was called. My nerves are frayed and I need him beside me to get through this.
“Ah.” He tosses the magazine back on the table and stands. “I didn’t know if that was okay.”
I laugh; he is out of his depth, and seeing him this way was kind of adorable. The fact that the arrogant cocky Nash was only one part of his persona was definitely a pro. “Well, stud, I didn’t make this baby on my own.”
The nurse prepares the bed for me, getting me comfortable and advises the midwife will be joining us shortly.
“Are you nervous?”
“Yeah a bit, aren’t you?”
“I’m not sure, it’s kind of exciting. You’re going to do fine, she’ll ask us some questions and then we’ll make our next appointment, nothing to be scared about.”
“How do you even know this stuff?”
“I’ve been reading.” He boasts but before I can ask him anything more a middle-aged woman enters the room.
“Hi, Beth, I am Maria. How are we today?”
“Good.” The one word answer was all I could manage, I’m not actually certain I have words to accurately describe how I was, I mean it isn’t even that hard a question to answer. I was good but I was more, wasn’t I? I had a man I was in love with beside me, offering his support and making it work for us as a family. I was scared beyond my own expectations but women had babies all the time, right? I was confused about how I felt, good was the best I could come up with while my brain was still trying to process this whole thing.
“Great, well we will just run through some questions and before you leave today we will schedule your first scan.” Maria stops in the middle of preparing and turns to Nash. “I’m sorry, you’re the father to be?”
“Yes Ma’am, Nash Gibson.” His clear respect and manners toward the midwife go directly into the pro column. It makes me smile.
“Let’s get started, folks. Beth, I’ll take your blood pressure first and we’ll have you hop on the scales and then we can discuss your options.”
We leave the appointment with pamphlets and handouts, detailing options for the birth. My head is spinning, and I walk out feeling more uncertain and frightened about what is going to happen over the next few months than I had when I’d walked in.
“You’re growing a tiny human being inside you. That is a miracle, sweetheart.” Nash reaches for my hand and pulls me into his body, releasing my hand to cup either side of my face with the palms of his hands. “You’re doing an amazing job.” His eyes were intense but determined; all feelings of uncertainty I had vanished with his one look. I can only manage to nod.
“Come on, I’m taking you to celebrate our first milestone.” He smiles down at me and I practically swoon and puddle at his feet.
It’s dark before we get home, Nash hesitates at the front door.
“Are you not coming in?”
“Not tonight, sweetheart, I’ve got some work to do tonight, and I need to spend some time in the gym.” He kisses my forehead. “I’ll call you later though.” My heart sinks a little as I watch him head back toward the taxi. I was left confused with a sense of being alone and I resented it.