Starting Over

Chapter 26 - THE END

Ellen smiled. Jan looked terrified, but she wanted, no she NEEDED this from him, his mother was the bonus, but either way she needed to know that he was serious about this, about her.

As he looked from her to his mother Jan sighed, he’d been stitched up good and proper, and he could almost believe his mother was in on this, the way she the corners of her mouth had lifted into a smirk, her eyes laughing. His eyes searched between the two of them before he looked at Ellen.

“Really?”

She nodded, “if you want to! If you're serious?”

He sighed then dropped on to one knee on the floor in front of her, reaching for the velvet jewellery box, he flicked in open to reveal the most beautiful diamond ring Ellen had ever seen. She was so stunned that she barely noticed the words coming out of Jan’s mouth.

“Ellen Reynolds, I have been besotted with you since the moment I set eyes on you, I can’t live without you. So will you please put me out of my misery and make me the happiest man alive? Marry me? Please?”

“You chose that for me?” she was still mesmerised by the ring.

“Of course. You didn’t peep at it all day?” When she shook her head he coughed deliberately and stared at her, “everyone is watching, and waiting for an answer!”

She glanced around the restaurant from his mother’s expectant face to the twenty or so faces at the nearby tables watching intently. Wrinkling her eyebrows she looked back to Jan, “what?”

He shook his head, “I’m on one knee here, will you marry me?”

Suddenly the enormity of the moment hit her like a speeding train and she met his eyes once more, biting her lip nervously. Once she saw the anxiety, the stress, the fear in his eyes, she finally realised this meant as much to him as it did to her.

“You mean it? You don’t really fancy my sisters?” He shook his head. “It's not just because of the baby?”

As he shook his head his mother spluttered, “Baby?”

He raised a hand to silence the other woman, there'd be time for explanations later, his eyes never left Ellen’s, “no, I'm asking because I love you, and I can’t see my life without you in it. Because I love every part of you. Now please make a decision, this is killing my knee!”

“There’s only one answer Jan, you know that!” As the word ‘yes’ left her lips he jumped to his feet and pulled her into the arms. The whoops and cheers all disappeared into the background as he kissed her and she melted into his arms.

Ellen had paid for the trauma she’d inflicted on Jan daily over the last three months, but now as she stood here looking at herself in the floor to ceiling mirror, she knew that every joke, every gibe had been worth it. She’d made him prove himself to her, not just because she doubted him, but because she doubted her own judgement too. Her frayed confidence, her belief in herself had all been restored, so that now as she stood in her floor length ivory gown, her hair coiffed, her makeup immaculate, she KNEW that she had no doubts about him, that he loved her, was as devoted as she deserved and that they shared an equal future. She never thought about Richard, hadn’t for months, but at that moment, the last few seconds before she joined her waiting father to enter the marquee that adorned the lawn of Jan’s house, no, she corrected herself, THEIR house, she did think of him for a moment. Or rather she sighed with relief that she’d found him with Rebecca. How different could her future have been?

With a sigh, and a smile to herself, she turned to the door, and stepped out into the hallway, to take her father’s arm.

Jan stood at the far end of the marquee, seventy very select guests flanked the aisle that she faced, and spotting him she grinned, he looked so handsome, his dinner suit as impeccably tailored as was every suit he owned...and there were dozens of them! He’d re-grown the longer hair he’d had in Spain at her request, and as she looked down the aisle at him, she was reminded of the carefree man she’d met seven months earlier. They’d both come so far since then, some days she barely recognised herself as the insecure put upon dumped fiancée who’d arrived in that hotel back in May. But then Jan wasn’t the same man either, and she didn’t know which side of him she loved more, the man she’d fallen in love with, the successful business man, the considerate lover, or the doting father to be. Though these days they were all so entwined that she couldn’t separate them any longer.

Instinctively she placed a hand over her swollen stomach, and at that second his eyes left hers and followed her hand. Then with an appreciative smile, his eyes returned to hers. She remembered in all the romance novels she’d ever read, the sultry hero ‘undressed the damsel with his eyes,’ she’d never believed that ‘look’ existed, until that very second. As she started her journey towards Jan, he devoured her, penetrated her, owned her with his eyes, and she had no complaints.

The service was all a blur; she remembered murmuring ‘I do’, her father smiling at her, her mother crying. Then Jan kissed her and took over her senses. Since then they’d talked, greeted, been photographed until she felt like royalty. Now her tired legs and burgeoning body needed a rest. She was trapped by Marta, Jan’s eldest sister, the matriarch that his gentle and elegant mother could never be. The rest of the family found her annoying, and pitied her husband Hubert, but Ellen loved her, she’d been instrumental in making her feel at home in Brussels.

“Are you ok? You look tired.”

“Long day!” Ellen offered, “Thanks for all your help!”

Marta nodded scanning the room, “where’s that brother of mine?”

“Is someone using my name in vain?” a warm voice intercepted the conversation as two arms snaked around Ellen’s waist, hands settling possessively over their baby bump. Dropping in volume he whispered at her ear, “you look as bored as me. I think our wedding stopped being our wedding about four hours ago. I‘ve got a car waiting, packed with some things....”

She nodded apologetically to Marta who merely smiled approving, then turned in the embrace to Jan, her husband. Those two words overwhelmed her.

“I thought we weren’t getting away...something about being too busy and me being too pregnant?” She leaned back in his arms looking up at him.

“Firstly, you could never be TOO pregnant, I am falling in love with you more each day...” he paused to kiss her gently, “secondly, a man is entitled to have a few secrets!”

“You think?”

He nodded, “Remember I promised you a cruise around the Balearic's, when we were sat looking out at those azure seas?”

She grinned, “Such a nice day! Such a nice memory!”

Swinging her in his arms he waltzed her towards the door, “well that was my vision for a honeymoon...until we got married in December.” As she giggled he hugged her closer, “so I’ve booked us business class to New York, then a week in a five star spa on Central Park. We can shop, sight-see and create new New York memories, without Rebecca in them, but we can also chill out or sleep and be pampered.”

She smiled, it sounded divine, but she was exhausted, all she really wanted was to curl up in that huge bed upstairs. Seeing the uncertainty in her eyes he couldn’t restrain his laugh anymore, “aren’t you glad we don’t leave until tomorrow? Tonight we are staying at a special hotel a few miles away that’s quiet and relaxing....and they’ll bring us anything we want to our room, we don’t have to move until....oooh four o’clock tomorrow afternoon!”

“Shouldn’t we say goodbye?” she asked as he gestured to the car that was waiting, the engine ticking over.

“I think everyone is enjoying themselves, and will have no doubt where we’ll be!”

Ellen stopped at the car door and asked, “And that is?”

Jan chuckled, “falling from stupidly to ridiculously in love! And who can object to that?”