What happens in Cheltenham, stays in Cheltenham...

Chapter 9

Seb

Life was good. Charlotte was a ray of sunshine, and I couldn't imagine my life without her in it, even after such a short time. Looking back, I'd fallen for her at Tori and Jack's wedding, the day I'd met her for the first time, although I'd not wanted to acknowledge my feelings as I knew she had a boyfriend. I remember her dancing with me, her head on my shoulder, my arms round her after she'd delivered April, and that was the point I think it had happened for me, even though she was still with Bradley and was going back to Bristol. The excitement I'd felt when I'd seen her working in A and E for the first time was off the scale. We didn't have every shift together, but when we were on at the same time, I loved seeing her in her professional role, caring for her patients.

We'd kept our engagement a secret for a week and had decided to tell Zack and Gabriella first, so arranged to go round to see them one evening. We were sat in the lounge, Jacob watching the end of his cartoon in his pjs before he went up to bed. Gabriella had the bedtime routines down to a fine art. April wasn't going to be far behind by the looks of things. She draped the muslin down as she put her to her breast. One day would that be Charlotte feeding our baby? I hoped so. I loved my nieces and nephew, but both Tori and Zack were younger than me and both had kids. But I was now thinking that way, and from the look on Charlotte's face, so was she. About 15 minutes later, both kids were down, and Zack and Gabriella appeared.

"So, what's the big news, you two finally figured out what we've been seeing for weeks?"

Charlotte held her hand up showing off her ring. Gabriella let out a little shriek.

"For real?" Zack asked. I nodded, his eyes wide.

"We've wasted enough time," I said. Charlotte looked over towards me and smiled, as Gabriella admired her ring.

"Congratulations both of you, we knew you'd finally get there, just didn't know how long it would take and now you seem to be making up for lost time," she said.

"In more ways than one, no doubt," Zack added, grinning.

We'd spoken to all my siblings and mum and dad, who seemed happy for us, and next was Charlotte's family this coming weekend. How would her parents take the news? And I was meeting Ellie for the first time.

Charlotte had told her parents that I was going to be coming, rather than just turning up out of the blue. We drove over, arriving at a beautiful house, with a large lawn and flowers, all neatly tended. So, this is where she'd grown up. I hoped one day we could live somewhere like this. Her mum answered the door, as we got hugged and ushered through to the kitchen where her dad was opening some wine. He shook my hand.

"Seb, lovely to see you again." James was a nice guy. Would he still be as nice when he found out I was engaged to his daughter?

"Mum, dad we've got some news," Charlotte said excitedly, "Seb and I are engaged." Both took a moment to process the news, before Lucy stepped forward to kiss her daughter and hug me.

"As long as you're sure, you haven't been together long?" She turned to look at James.

"Charlotte, I have to ask, are you pregnant?" James said, very protective of his daughter. Charlotte laughed.

"No, but I don't think you can talk, considering you got mum pregnant with Ellie and me not that long after you started seeing her," she retorted.

"Point taken," he smiled. "Well, welcome to the family Seb." At that moment the door opened, and the spitting image of Charlotte walked through it. Charlotte charged at her sister who dropped her bags to embrace her. I thought I was close to Zack, but this was a whole new level. Ellie was just as pretty as Charlotte, but she didn't affect me in the same way, thank god. Charlotte could still make me hard, just by looking at me.