Sexy Love (Sexy Series Book 4) (35 page)

“They’re okay there, too, Clare,” Tilly says, “you go and have your shower while they’re asleep. I’ll stay here and look after them.”

“I’ll be here, too,” Mum says, so Clare appreciatively nods, heading off to her room.

“See you in a little while!”

~~~~~~~

“Just beautiful. Absolutely beautiful!” My mum whimpers into her tissue as Tilly fastens the waistband belted part of my dress at the back.

“You look stunning, Bea,” Clare adds, slipping her arm around my mum’s shoulders.

I walk over to the mirror to look at the dress that I chose all those months ago with Alexia and Tilly, and it’s so much more, today, than it has ever been.

The moment I stepped into this incredible gown today, I felt my life changing. When I step back out of it later with the help of Daniel, I’ll be his wife. His
wife
! I’ve known for a long time that we would be together forever, but this day signifies it, it tells the world that there isn’t another living soul for me, or Daniel. And this gown? This is where that starts, today.

This moment is one I’ll treasure for eternity – my lovely mum, my stunning bridesmaids and best friends, and the most important dress I’ll ever wear. It has been an entirely memorable and perfect morning, and only this afternoon and evening will top it, when my Daniel completes it.

Stepping into the lounge, the make-up artist, hairstylist and team of planners wait to check the look out before they leave, and even they gasp when they see my perfect gown.

Tilly, Clare and Alexia look outstandingly beautiful in their fitted, strapless dresses. The long, floaty fabric of the skirt accentuates their stunning figures perfectly; even Clare who only had twins a month ago looks as slim as she ever has. Each dress matches in style, but has it’s own, soft and very subtle pastel colour, just like my Cakery.

The bridesmaids have pretty ivory posies and my bridal bouquet is beautiful selection of pastel roses to match the bridesmaids and the day. It’s sitting waiting for me in a huge box in the corner of the living room, along with the posies, Dad’s buttonhole and Mum’s pinned corsage.

We have a little under an hour until we need to move, so we’re all ready with plenty of time to spare. My veil and shoes have been set out on my bed by Clare, ready to slip on when the time comes. Her lovely little boys are sleeping as always, comfortably in their car seat carriers on the bedroom floor, wearing soft powder blue baby-grows. I’m so glad that she didn’t feel any pressure to put such tiny little creatures in fancy clothes. I’d much rather see them cosy and snug in soft cotton.

Oliver is coming up to collect them once everything downstairs is ready and it’s time for me to come down.

“Right! Who’d like a glass of champagne?” The planner asks as the stylists leave for downstairs, where they’ll stay, on call, for the rest of the day.

“I would absolutely love one,” I respond gratefully. “Mum, is Dad ready? He should join us.”

“I’ll pop over and get him. Won’t be two ticks,” she says as she scurries away, disappearing into the suite hallway area, her adrenaline pumping. “Ooh!” I hear her squeal as she opens the door and obviously bumps into someone. It can’t possibly be Oliver, it’s much too early. I instantly still, Tilly jumping in front of me to prevent any of the groom’s party potentially seeing me. “Darling!” Mum yells, “There’s… er… someone here for you.”

“Are they allowed to see me?” I shout out.

“I don’t really see why not… whoever you are, you’re allowed to see the bride, aren’t you?” I hear her ask. “Okay, in you come.”

I smile, wondering what on earth is going on when I see a huge cupcake with legs and arms walk into the lounge and stand before me holding a plate of doughnuts. Within a couple of seconds, music begins to blare from this delightful character and instantly I realise that this is a present from Daniel. Only he would send me a life-size cupcake, dancing to ‘Marry You’ by Bruno Mars.

It wiggles its way over to me, handing Tilly the doughnuts before dancing with each of us individually as we all howl with laughter. Goose bumps cover my skin and tears fill my eyes as I watch and listen to the fun-filled, meaningful words of the song. This cupcake, considering its size and dimensions, can dance!

This was such an unexpected surprise and an amazingly fun thing to experience with my best friends on this most memorable of days. I’m marrying an impossibly perfect man and I couldn’t be happier.

Tilly is crying with laughter, as is Clare, my mum, Alexia – hell we’re
all
crying with laughter, and with excitement and sentiment and joy.

Half way through the song, ‘Cake’ magically produces two huge handfuls of red and white rose petals, throwing them up into the air so that they float magnificently down to the floor around us all. It takes each of our hands, one at a time and brings them to its cakey mouth to kiss.

Dad walks in amongst the dancing, musical, floral chaos and smiles delightedly at the scene before him. I still notice how handsome he looks in his suit, the emotion of seeing me clear in his eyes. He wells up and turns when he sees me watching, waving his hand to dismiss his sentimentality of seeing me in my gown.

Mum walks straight to him and takes his face hard in her hands, kissing his cheek and brushing his neck with her fingertips. They look one another in the eye and smile wholly, sharing a closeness that only they know. It’s like I’m getting a glimpse at what life and love should be like when you’re older, and I’m watching it, whilst listening to this enchanting, enlivening song, sent to me by the man who’ll make my future.

I’m brought back to the craziness of the rest of the room, dabbing a tissue under my eye to protect my newly applied make-up, when the cupcake takes the tissue from me and grabs both of my hands, holding them together, kissing them again as the song comes to an end.

It then moves quickly to the middle of the room, holds its arms out to bow, and then wiggles its bottom as it runs through the suite and out of the door.

My mum claps and laughs, along with the girls as the room becomes, once again,

a calm bridal suite. “How utterly fantastic!”

“That was brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!” Clare shouts. “Did you know about this Lex?”

“Not at all! It was a complete surprise to me! Well done to Daniel!”

“Definitely, I loved that! What a way to suppress nerves… if I had any.
That
is why I am marrying him.
That
is why I love him.”

“It’s a good job you weren’t running late, Bea!” Lex says, laughing.

“Ah,” Til joins in, “he’d have known ‘Little Miss Organisational Skills’ would have been on the ball and ready well in advance. I’m starting to think there’s a chance she could be getting even worse than you, Lex!”

“Hey!” Alexia cries, wounded. “I’m not that bad!”

“Hey!” I cry in response. “Neither am I!”

“He thinks of everything, your favourite petals, the song,
doughnuts…
” Tilly adds with a cheeky wink and I giggle at the naughtiness of what they represent, loving that we have both thought of surprising each other with one half of our favourite sexy snack.

“Yes,” Mum adds, “how thoughtful of him to think you might be hungry at this time. What a lovely chap.”

Nobody has the heart to let her in on what the token means, and nor do I want to. So we all nod and agree, keeping quiet, appropriately.

“Well I’m definitely hungry,” Tilly says, swiping a doughnut and munching down on it immediately. “Getting pretty takes it out of you,” she mumbles through the soft sponge.

“Ooh me too, I’m allowed, aren’t I?” Clare asks. “I don’t want to get anything on my dress!”

“So don’t get any on your dress!” Tilly says, handing her the plate.

The girls munch on their sweet treats while Mum and Dad tend to the twins in the bedroom and Alexia fixes her earrings in the mirror. I take a few excited deep breaths and I look at three of the most loyal, dear friends a person could have, and feel a huge, overwhelming wave of contentment wash through me.

Since I met Daniel, a little under two years ago, so much has happened for all of us. Of course, firstly - there was Tilly, my brilliantly hilarious and ridiculously to-the-point firecracker of a best friend.

I adored how we met Daniel and Luke together, and that she enjoyed Luke’s company so much while I was off cavorting with Daniel. She didn’t think it would last, of course, but there was always something different about her when she was around him. There was something different about her altogether from the moment she met him.

They had a particularly electric spark, a magnetic attraction that looked on the outside, to be far too strong to abandon. Little did she know as she pumped his head full of crap about her being a ‘physical-relationship-only’ commitaphobe, that he desperately didn’t want to let her go.

And it seems his little swimmers felt the same way, depositing a runaway right where it needed to be, at the right time.

Tilly was never the same after we got back to the UK, and it was so hard to try to understand what was wrong because she refused to open up about her true feelings, in typical Tilly style. And because I was thoroughly smitten and in love with Daniel by then, I’m ashamed to admit that I was distracted from her distant and unusual behaviour.

When she told us that she was pregnant in Aspen, we were utterly stunned. Clare, a little less distracted than me, had noticed, and – thank God – been there for her a little bit more than I could have.

Luke leaving shortly after she told
him
the news was heart-breaking for her. I think we all knew he’d be back – he just needed to get his head straight, and not a single person on this planet could have believed that he wasn’t deeply and resolutely attached - emotionally.

Their beautiful wedding at home and the birth of their baby are hands-down, two of the most memorable moments of my life. And having her living here now is both strange – I’m so used to seeing her in England – and wonderful. She is near her sister again; I’m here for a couple of weeks every few and she’s entirely in her element, living with her perfectly handsome, hunky husband and adorable, dainty little girl.

I do miss Tilly at our traditional weekly ‘Mad Men’ nights with a Chinese takeaway and red wine, and I know Clare finds it hard without her, so I’m just thankful that I get to spend so much time with her when I’m back here in California, when Daniel is at work.

We do so much together, really making the most of the time that I’m around before we jet back off to England for another six weeks.

When Daniel and Luke aren’t working, we spend time together as couples, too. I know Daniel misses Luke while we’re in England, and vice versa, so we like to ensure that they get their necessary ‘boy time’ and that we all get together at least two or three times.

Clare, sadly, doesn’t get the luxury of seeing Tilly as frequently as I do, and I know that’s hard for her. We were all so close and suddenly there’s so much change, and had she not gotten together with my brother, I think it’d be much harder.

But, of course, as I turn my attention to her, nibbling on a doughnut, keeping it as far away from her dress as is physically possible, I think about how everything has worked out for this second, utterly kind-hearted and thoughtful best friend.

I don’t think I have ever seen her so blissfully happy. Deep down, I knew there was always a little attraction between Clare and Oliver, but as far as I was concerned, it was a fun and jovially flirtatious ‘thing’ that they had going on alongside their best-friendship.

Not once would I have thought that he’d ditch that bitch, Stacy, and run off to a Vegas chapel to marry my best friend! But, that they did, and oh - how happy they are, having done so.

I mean, I didn’t think he’d stay with Stacy, and thank the Lord he saw sense, but to dump her during a trip to Vegas and to propose to Clare the very next day? Talk about impulsive!

When I caught Oliver in Clare’s hotel room, I knew that they had started something, especially when he told me that it’d probably happen again but I didn’t realise quite how in love with her he was, or that she had wanted him for so many years.

Lots of people don’t like their friends dating their brothers, and I can understand that if said friend or brother wasn’t quite what you’d want for the other, but Oliver is such a great man, always has been since he was a little boy and he’s an amazing brother. Clare is also exactly the type of person I’d want for him, utterly gracious and considerate, but not a push over.

They are obviously extremely happy together and I just love watching how they interact. They’re so very tactile, well – we all are, really, but I just seem to notice the tiny things with them; the way Oliver will stroke the back of Clare’s neck when they’re talking with other people, or how she clutches his hand with both of hers when they’re sitting together. Maybe I see it because he’s my brother.

Watching her throughout her pregnancy was wonderful. She had always wanted babies and romance and to see her have both, and the added bonus of twins after having to go through the trauma of Oliver’s accident was like every one of her prayers had been answered.

It was a hard time for everybody after his fall, so it’s even more sensational to see them so wonderfully happy now. It must have been so difficult for Clare to function at the time, feeling like she couldn’t tell anybody that they were married. I’m just glad we could all comfort each other and help her cope with having to share their news alone while he was lying unconscious next to us.