You And Me, Always(68)

Lily opened her eyes, her throat so choked with emotion she couldn't  speak. The next moment she spotted a small but intensely bright ball of  red light rising up through the night sky, heading towards them. Letting  out a muffled shriek, she pointed and yelped, ‘Oh my God, it's a-'

Then the red ball transformed into a giant crimson chrysanthemum that  was instantly joined by sapphire, bright white and orange bursts of  light exploding beneath their flight path like gigantic flowers blooming  on fast-forward.

‘It's a firework display!' Belatedly realising that Dan might think she  was choosing a creative way to change the subject, Lily exclaimed, ‘It  was a firework I saw, not a UFO! I love you too!'

He turned to look at her as they flew over the multicoloured carpet of fireworks exploding far below them. ‘Really?'

‘Really!'

‘In a just-good-friends way, do you mean?' He'd sounded so calm before,  but he wasn't feeling calm at all, Lily realised. He was  double-checking, being cautious, needing confirmation, and it just made  her love him more.

‘Not in a just-good-friends way at all. Quite the opposite kind of way,  actually.' She felt her stomach unknot and broke into a smile, finally  unafraid to reveal her true feelings; at last she could be honest.  ‘There's never been anyone else for me either. It's always been you.'

‘I can't believe this.' Dan reached across for her hand. ‘I just can't believe it's happening. I want to kiss you, but  … '

‘You have a plane to fly,' said Lily. Every single cell in her body was  zinging with anticipation at the thought of what lay ahead. ‘Are we  nearly home yet?'

He gave her fingers a squeeze. ‘I suppose we've waited fifteen years, so  another fifteen minutes won't kill us. Unless  …  have you ever had sex  in a cockpit before?'                       
       
           



       

‘Waiting might not kill us,' said Lily, ‘but sex in a cockpit definitely  would. Let's get our priorities right and land safely, shall we?'

Dan was grinning at her. ‘You're the boss.'





Chapter 52



One year later



It wasn't every day you got to see yourself plastered across a huge  poster advertising a hotly anticipated, about-to-be-released movie. Lily  couldn't stop gazing up at it.

OK, it wasn't actually her face on the poster, but it was the face of  the actress bringing her to life on the screen. And having your  character played by Mira Knowles was still pretty amazing, not to  mention surreal.

‘Well?' said Dan, at her side. ‘How does it feel?'

‘Weird.' Lily leaned against him. They'd viewed the poster online, but  this was the first time they'd experienced it in the flesh, so to speak;  full-sized and on display for everyone to see.

‘Wait till millions of people have seen the film. That'll be weirder.'  Dan brushed his warm mouth against her cheek. ‘We should check in to the  hotel. You haven't heard from Patsy, have you? She didn't reply to my  text.'

Right on cue, Lily's phone began to ring. She glanced at the screen. ‘This is Patsy now. Hi, where are you? Have you left yet?'

‘We're not going to be able to make it.' The line was crackly and Patsy  was sounding distant and out of breath. ‘I'm having contractions. Oh  Lily, it's happening, I'm in labour!'

Lily's mouth dropped open. ‘What? Oh my God, really? Right this minute? Are you in hospital?'

‘We're heading there now  …  ooh ow ow owww  …  hang on a sec  … '

‘She's having the baby,' Lily told Dan. ‘They're on the way to the hospital. Right now!'

Dan regarded her with amusement. ‘You sound so astonished. She has been  pregnant for the last thirty-nine weeks, you know. It had to come out  sooner or later.'

Lily gave him a thump on the arm. ‘I know, but it's exciting! Pats, can you hear me? Do you want us to come back?'

‘OK, contraction's passed, I'm here again. No way,' Patsy exclaimed.  ‘You've got a premiere to go to. No no, you do your thing and I'll do  mine. We'll see you tomorrow  …  Ooh, this weather! Is it raining in  London?'

‘Still sunny here.' Lily glanced up at the clear blue sky. ‘Hasn't rained at all. How's Oliver doing?'

‘Trying to be brave on the surface, but underneath he's panicking like a- Ooooh!'

‘Well tell him to drive carefully,' said Lily. She loved Oliver, they  all did. The night Patsy had been stood up had turned out to be the best  night of her life.

‘Aaaarrgh,' Patsy gasped. ‘I will!'



Patsy's last aaaarrgh hadn't been another contraction. Rather, it had  been due to the fact that she'd discovered the flooded lane they were  travelling down was more flooded than they'd first thought.

To be fair to Oliver, you couldn't say he hadn't been driving carefully.  He'd driven very carefully indeed through the water when it was only a  few inches deep, and there had been no indication whatsoever that the  lane would suddenly dip and the water become much deeper. Poor Oliver,  it wasn't his fault; he wasn't familiar with this nifty short cut she'd  told him to take.

Patsy, who was familiar with both the short cut and the sudden dip, had  been too busy talking to Lily to pay attention. The rain was lashing  down around them, on the radio there were reports of flash-flooding  throughout Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and there were warnings that  the emergency services were at full stretch. Patsy looked at Oliver,  the man who had made the last year the happiest of her life, and saw his  hand tremble slightly as he turned the key in the ignition.

Rurr-rurr-rurr-rurr-rurr  …

Nothing happened. The engine was flatly refusing to start. It was like  trying to turf a sleeping teenager out of bed with a plastic spoon.

Patsy witnessed the growing panic in Oliver's eyes as the realisation  sank in that they could be in real trouble here. And as if in sympathy  with the tension in his jaw, the ominous tightening sensation started up  again inside her stomach. As before, the first few seconds were fine,  then it carried on beyond an acceptable level and became a wave of pain  so intense it took her breath away. Ow. Ow.

Rurr  …  rurr  …  rur  …  rur  …  rur.

‘OK, here goes.' Abandoning his attempt to start the engine, Oliver  opened the driver's door and jumped into a foot of murky brown water.  ‘Maybe if I can push us out, it'll do the trick.'                       
       
           



       

He was strong, but not that strong. Under the circumstances, Rambo  himself might have struggled. As Patsy clutched her enormous stomach and  panted her way through the contraction, Oliver tried and failed to move  the car either backwards or forwards. Climbing back inside like a  sodden drowned rat  –  actually, more like a drowned bear  –  he said in a  strained voice, ‘We'd better call an ambulance.'

If there was one available.

Patsy's phone, which had slid to the floor during the last agonising contraction, began to ring.



In their central London hotel, Dan was stretched out on the huge bed in  their room, watching as Lily began getting herself ready for the evening  ahead. Her hair, still wet from the shower, was rippling down the back  of her white towelling bathrobe. Her dress was hanging up in the steamy  bathroom to get the last few wrinkles out of the peacock-blue silk. It  was early, still only four o'clock, but they were meeting Eddie and Mira  for a catch-up before the main event.

‘What are you looking at?' Lily was eyeing him through the mirror as she smoothed foundation into her cheeks.

‘Some girl I fancy,' said Dan.

‘And why are you watching her?'

‘Just wondering if I've got a chance of persuading her back into bed.'

‘You already had your chance, and you took it.' Lily's eyes sparkled as  she finished blending in the foundation and reached for her pot of  blusher.

Dan loved to watch her doing her make-up. She was fast, but the result  was always impressive. He loved the way she widened her eyes as she  applied mascara to her long lashes, then leaned forward and raised her  eyebrows in order to brush darker shadow into the sockets of her eyes.  He adored the way she put on lipstick, pouting, then pressing her lips  together. And he knew he'd never tire of watching her tilt her head this  way and that as she sprayed scent behind each ear, along her  collarbones and  –  always the final squish  –  down her cleavage.

Basically, he just loved every single thing about her, more than he  could have imagined possible. His friends and work colleagues might  tease him for having become a one-woman man, but they didn't know the  half of it. If they could only be aware of the thoughts that went  through his brain, they wouldn't believe he was the same person. But he  was, and he was finally the person he'd always wanted to be. Being with  Lily had made his life complete, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt  that he never wanted them to be apart.