A Winter’s Tale by Carrie Elks (36)

‘Why are we stopping here?’ Kitty looked over at Adam as he steered the car onto a gravelled driveway, then parked in front of a set of steps leading up to a cream stucco bungalow with a red tiled roof. Beyond the house she could see the cerulean blue of the Pacific Ocean, the waves crashing onto a beach that must lie just beyond the back of the building. There were palm trees, too, lining the pathway to the bungalow, and a wraparound deck that was filled with potted plants and cosy chairs.

Adam shrugged, holding his hand out to her as she climbed out of the passenger side. ‘I just wanted to show it to you.’

‘Aren’t we going to be late?’ she asked, glancing at her watch. It was almost eight. The sun was starting to make its descent into the ocean, flooding the sky with an orange-pink glow. The silhouettes of the palm trees looked beautiful, and the sound of the waves against the shore made it feel all the more peaceful.

‘It’s only ten minutes away,’ Adam reassured her. ‘You won’t be late, I wouldn’t let you be. This is your big moment.’

‘Hardly. It’s a wrap party, but the work for me is only just beginning. We have all the post-production stuff to do. I have to be in the editing suite first thing tomorrow.’

It had been a long few months. Though the majority of the production had taken place on the studio lot, Kitty had spent some time in Mexico with the cast, supervising as the filming took place. It had been too risky for Mat to travel south of the border, so she’d been the one to make sure the story stayed true to his recollection. The two of them had spent hours poring over rushes together.

And now it was coming to an end. It was a strange feeling. Like so many employees in the movie industry, she had no idea what project she’d be working on next. It felt both freeing and anxiety-inducing at the same time.

But she couldn’t hide the fact she was delighted to be finally spending some quality time with Adam. She couldn’t wait to wake up with him in the morning without having to rush out to a dawn shoot, or make phone calls over breakfast to locate an errant cast member.

‘You want to come inside?’ he asked her, pulling at her hand as she followed him up the steps to the front door. She frowned as he pulled out a key, sliding it into the lock and pushing the door open to reveal an open-plan living area. It was cosy, with warm wooden floors and white painted walls, filled with furniture that looked lived-in. So different to some of the places she’d been in during her time in LA, where the houses looked more like museum pieces than places to live.

‘Who owns it?’ She looked over to the other side of the room, where floor-to-ceiling glass doors revealed a large wooden deck. Beyond it was the beach – pale sand that stretched out for a good thirty feet to the ocean. It was so beautiful it took her breath away.

‘We do.’ He stopped in front of her, looking down at her with those deep, warm eyes. The clouds behind them had long gone. They were as clear as the evening sky. ‘Well, we will if you agree to it. They’ve provisionally accepted my offer.’ He bit down a smile, shaking his head. ‘I’m doing this all wrong, aren’t I? What I’m trying to ask is if you’ll move in with me.’ He took her hand, sandwiching it between his. She could feel his warmth, his strength, his roughness. All things that made her feel weak at the knees. ‘Should I be dropping to my knees?’ he asked her. ‘I can do that.’

Kitty thought of her apartment in Melrose – of the bathroom she could hardly get into. Of the rooms covered in whatever mess her room-mates had left. The whole place was smaller than the living area here, and so much more claustrophobic. Two different worlds separated by only a few miles.

Not that she’d been spending too much time there in the past months. Whenever she had a free night she’d inevitably spend it at Adam’s rented apartment, only a few hundred yards down the road. But it was still home, still hers.

Was she ready to leave it?

‘Are you renting it?’ she asked him. He was still staring down at her. She could feel warmth blooming in her face, in her chest, all over her body. The way she always reacted to him.

He slowly shook his head, his eyes still on hers. ‘No, buying. I wanted something permanent.’

The way he said it made her wonder if he was talking about the bungalow or their relationship. ‘It’s beautiful,’ she said. ‘I can see why you like it. But it’s out of my league, I can’t afford anything like this.’

‘We can,’ he said. ‘It’s not about you or me. It’s about us. And we can afford it. If you’ll have it.’

She felt tears stinging at her eyes. Not just at the beauty of the place – or the beauty of his words – but at the thought of the future. She could picture Adam in the kitchen, cooking up his usual pasta, or him sitting on the deck with his laptop, working on his plans for the next documentary.

She could picture herself here, too. In her shorts, with her legs folded underneath her, looking out at the ocean as she drank a glass of ice-cold white wine. Being chased by Adam on the beach as they both laughed so hard they couldn’t run any more.

Leaning down to talk to a small child – their child – in the kitchen, as she taught him how to bake cupcakes.

Christ, where the hell did that come from?

Though it was thousands of miles – and a lifetime away – the beach house somehow reminded her of the cabin. Maybe because they’d made that place theirs, too. Built a relationship inside those four walls, one that lasted beyond Christmas, beyond a brief fling, into something so big neither of them could stop it even if they wanted to.

But she didn’t want to. Not ever.

‘It’s beautiful,’ she told him, taking a step towards him. They were both in their finest tonight – Adam in a pair of tailored grey trousers and a white shirt, unbuttoned at the collar, revealing the shadow that always seemed to cover his face by the end of the day. It wasn’t quite a beard, but it was sexy enough anyway. She was in a short cream dress – fitted at the bodice, flaring out to her thighs below the waist, with spaghetti straps that crisscrossed her back. Her skin was tanned from all her months here in LA, her blonde hair flowing in waves down her back. When Adam had arrived at her apartment to take them both to the party, he’d pushed her back inside again, his eyes flashing at the sight of her bare thighs, her smooth shoulders, and the way her dress clung in all the right places. He’d practically dragged her to her bedroom, leaving her in no doubt about how much he liked that dress.

She reached up, running her fingers along his stubbled jaw. ‘I love it here,’ she told him. ‘It’s perfect.’

‘Will you move in here with me?’ he asked her.

She nodded, her heart too full to speak.

‘I want us to do this properly,’ he told her. ‘If we move in together, then it means something. It’s a commitment from both of us. That we want to be together. That we want more.’ He leaned down, brushing his lips against her cheek. ‘This is where I want to propose to you, in front of the beach and the palm trees and the waves. And this is where I want us to bring up our kids, where the sun always shines and the sand’s always warm.’

It was strange how in-sync they were, and yet perfectly normal, too. They were both thinking about the future – about their future – and it didn’t frighten either one of them at all.

It made perfect sense, because they made perfect sense. Together, they were so much more than the sum of their parts.

‘I want that too,’ she said, her voice hoarse with emotion. ‘So much.’

His lips crashed down on hers, and he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her into his warm embrace. She hooked her arms around his neck, rolling on to her tiptoes to kiss him harder, her fingers stroking his closely cropped hair.

When they pulled apart they were both breathless. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she tried to calm her rushing pulse. He was still holding her, his arms loosely circled around her waist, his palms pressed into her spine.

‘I can’t wait to wake up to this view every morning,’ he told her.

‘You’re not even looking at the beach,’ she pointed out.

‘That’s not the view I’m talking about.’ He leaned forward to kiss the tip of her nose. ‘It’s you I want to wake up with. Whether it’s here in Malibu, or in a snowy cabin in West Virginia, you’ll always be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.’

‘You always know the right things to say.’

‘That’s because I love you.’ He slid his hands up her back, cupping her neck with his hands. ‘I love you and I want you, and now I’ve got you I’ll never let you go.’

‘I love you too,’ she told him, a huge smile breaking out on her face. ‘But you may need to rethink the letting go bit. We’re already late for the party.’

He lifted his hand from her neck, checking the silver watch on his wrist. ‘Shit, you’re right. OK, I’ll let you go for long enough to drive us over to Everett’s place. After that all bets are off.’

Sliding her hand into his, she let him lead her back out to the front of the bungalow, watching as he locked the house up before they walked back down to his car. As he pulled away, she found herself turning around, craning her head to look back at the house. Taking in the location, the beauty, the feeling of home.

It was the first step in their for ever, but it wouldn’t be their last. That thought made her happier than she ever thought she could be.

 

‘Uncle Adam!’ Jonas called out from his spot beside his father. Adam turned to look at him, a glass of champagne in his hand. Kitty had wandered off to talk to some friends from the costume department, leaving him to order drinks from the bar.

He raised his hand to his nephew, who beckoned him with an impatient hand. Smiling, Adam walked over to him, giving his brother a curt nod when Everett turned to see him.

‘How’s it going?’ Adam asked Jonas, ruffling his hair. ‘School OK?’

Jonas grinned, nodding rapidly. ‘I got a gold star today for my reading. And Angela Merritt told Kirsty Evans that she likes me.’

Everett looked down at his son. ‘That’s high praise indeed.’ There was no trace of irony in his voice. In the past few months the producer had mellowed out even more. Ever since Mia had left him, shortly after Christmas, he’d started spending more time with his son. According to their parents, Everett was a changed man.

Adam wasn’t rushing to judgement, but even he’d seen the way Ev had bonded with Jonas. That counted for a lot, in his book. The two of them might never be as close as they had been, but the hatchet had been buried, and neither one of them was planning on digging it up again.

‘Is Kitty here?’ Jonas asked. In spending more time with his father, he’d also been hanging out a lot on the production sets. Whenever he was there he’d singled out Kitty, shadowing her like his puppy shadowed him. Not that Kitty minded – she’d fallen in love with Jonas the way she’d fallen for Adam. He’d joked with her that maybe she just had a thing for Klein men.

Then she’d pointed out Everett was a Klein man, and that was the end of that conversation.

‘She’s inside somewhere,’ Adam said. ‘She’ll be out here in a while – I bet she’d love to see you.’

‘Can I go find her, Dad?’ Jonas asked, pulling at Everett’s hand.

‘Sure, just make sure you come back in twenty minutes. I want you with me when I make my speech.’

As Jonas pushed his way through the crowds that lined his house, Adam found himself turning to Everett. ‘He seems happy.’

‘He is. We both are.’ Everett cleared his throat. ‘Mia and I have agreed on joint custody. Fifty-fifty down the middle. It works for me.’

‘That’s good to hear.’ Adam found the corner of his lip turning up. Was he smiling at his brother?

‘And you?’ Everett asked him. ‘Are you happy?’

Adam took a mouthful of his champagne, feeling the sparkling liquid tickle his throat as he swallowed. He thought of Kitty and the way she’d smiled up at him at the ocean bungalow. Of the image he’d had of her playing on the beach with their future kids. Of the way the setting sun had turned the sky orange, illuminating the side of her cheek, highlighting her beautiful face.

Blinking, he turned his eyes back to his brother, who was looking at him expectantly. ‘Happy?’ Adam asked, then nodded slowly. ‘Yeah, I’m fucking ecstatic.’

 

‘Congratulations.’ Cesca squeezed her tightly around the waist. ‘Your first movie. How do you feel?’

Kitty looked around Everett’s oversized living room, filled with the great and the good of Hollywood. The party spilled out into the yard, people thronging around the poolside bar. Occasionally there was a splash as an unsuspecting – and drunk – reveller managed to fall in.

‘Ask me when we’ve finished post-production,’ Kitty said, hugging her sister back. ‘I’m so glad you could make it.’

‘I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.’

‘Nor would I.’ Lucy passed them both a glass of champagne she’d managed to grab from a passing waiter. ‘I’m so proud of you, Kitty. I feel like a parent whose kids have finally grown up.’

‘You always were our makeshift mum.’ Kitty squeezed Lucy’s hand, the one that wasn’t holding a champagne glass. ‘You should be proud. We’re who we are today because of you.’

‘Stop it.’ Lucy couldn’t hide the tears in her eyes, even though she was obviously trying her best. ‘You guys should be proud of yourselves. Look at you – a best-selling playwright and an up-and-coming producer. I wish Dad could be here to see this.’

‘Well at least the four of us are here.’ Juliet walked over to join them, her daughter Poppy clinging to her hand. ‘Well, five of us, I guess. How often do we all get to be in the same place?’

Kitty reached for Poppy, giving her niece a huge hug, then turned to Juliet to embrace her, too. ‘I can’t remember the last time we were all on the same continent, let alone in the same room. It makes me so happy to have you all here.’ She couldn’t help but feel warm inside, surrounded by her family.

‘You’re glowing,’ Juliet said. ‘You look fabulous.’

‘That’s because she’s in love,’ Cesca said. ‘And you guys thought Sam and I were bad. These two put us in the shade.’

‘Stop it,’ Kitty said, rolling her eyes. ‘At least our PDAs don’t make it onto TMZ.’

‘Maybe you could both tone it down,’ Lucy said, looking amused. ‘Take it easy on those of us who are single.’

Sensing the opportunity to take the spotlight from herself, Kitty grinned at her eldest sister. ‘When are you going to find a nice man and settle down, anyway?’ she asked her. ‘I’m sure Sam and Adam might have some friends you’d be interested in.’

‘If I want to get set up by my sisters, I’ll tell you,’ Lucy said. ‘But I think I can take care of my own sex life, thank you.’

‘What sex life?’ Cesca asked. ‘Inquiring minds want to know.’

‘Um, there are children here,’ Juliet pointed out, putting her hands over Poppy’s ears. ‘And by the way, if it’s anything like mine, it’s non-existent,’ she whispered, before releasing Poppy from her grasp.

Kitty sensed it was time for a change in the conversation. Licking her lips, she steeled herself to tell them her news. ‘Um, Adam and I have something to tell you.’

That got their attention. All three of her sisters turned around to stare at her. She noticed Cesca take a surreptitious glance at her left hand, as though to check if she’d got engaged.

Adam walked up behind her, sliding his arms around her waist. She rested the back of her head on his chest. Sam was with him – in the past few months they’d spent a lot of time together whenever Cesca and Sam were in LA. The four of them got on so well, it made Kitty’s heart swell.

‘Are you making an announcement without me?’ Adam whispered in her ear. He didn’t sound the least bit upset with her.

‘I’m not doing anything without you.’ Kitty smiled, tilting her head back to look up at him. ‘We’re a team, you know that.’

‘So what’s the big announcement then?’ Lucy asked. ‘Don’t leave us all in suspense.’

‘What suspense?’ Jonas walked over to them, grabbing at Kitty’s hand. She smiled down at him, squeezing his palm in her own.

‘Hey, Jonas.’ Her niece, Poppy, gave the boy an excited smile. There were two years between them, but Poppy had latched on to him as soon as she arrived at the party. Thankfully, Jonas was as patient with the little girl as he was with everybody else.

Adam reached down to ruffle Jonas’s hair. Another good thing about him being back in LA was that he got to spend a lot of time with his nephew. It wasn’t unusual for Kitty to find the two of them together, their heads almost touching as they bent down and made surreptitious plans. It gave her a glimpse into the kind of father Adam would be one day. ‘Kitty and I have a secret we want to tell you,’ Adam told him. ‘We want to tell everybody.’

‘Then it won’t be a secret.’ Jonas looked confused.

Adam laughed. ‘That’s true, buddy, but we’re OK with it not being a secret any more.’

Lucy was staring at Kitty’s stomach. Was she looking for a baby bump? Kitty tried to bite down a smile. ‘I think we should tell them before the wild speculation starts,’ Kitty told him. ‘Before you know it they’ll have us married off with five babies.’

He squeezed her tighter. ‘That sounds kind of awesome to me.’

It did to her, too. One day. Once she’d managed to establish her career. But the fact that it was ‘when’ and not ‘if’ felt like a warm sun beating down on her. Was it possible to feel any happier?

‘So what’s the news then?’ Lucy prompted.

Adam kissed the sensitive skin below her ear. ‘I asked this beautiful woman to move in with me.’

She twisted in his arms to brush her lips against his. ‘And I said yes.’

His eyes flashed as he looked down at her. He gave her a smile, that smile, the one that promised they’d celebrate later, when it was just the two of them. When they were naked and tangled up together in bed.

The room echoed with congratulations from her family, but Kitty was too busy staring at Adam to take much in, too busy grinning at him, and seeing him grin in return.

As a child she’d dreamed of finding her happy-ever-after. Now he was here, it was more wonderful than she’d ever imagined, and so much sweeter than she’d ever believed it could be.

It really didn’t get much better than that.