AMY
Daniel's hand slipped into mine as we walked through the high street of my small home town. I wanted to show him each sight of this town, as much as he had given me a tour of Perth when I was last there.
"It's so small and quaint." Daniel commented as he wrapped himself up in his jacket and looked over the old buildings.
The weather was not matching the time we were last in Perth, it was considerably cooler and I even missed the hot temperatures of Australia.
"I have more appreciation for it now, but when we were teenagers, we hated it here." I told Daniel and he looked at me, swinging our hands together as we walked hand-in-hand.
"Why?" He questioned as he made room for some people to pass by on the pavement. The walkers greeted Daniel and moved on. "Why does everyone here say 'good morning'?"
"Because it's polite." I laughed as we started to walk again. "And we hated it here because we always thought there was nothing to do and it was boring. I guess when you are 16, a small town doesn't have everything you need."
Daniel smiled as we passed the bakery at the end of the high street. Scents of freshly made bread and pastry filled the air outside, almost palpable in the air if you stuck your tongue out for long enough.
"Ah cool, a bake shop." Daniel eyed up the food in the window. "This is like a Bakers Delight, right?" He asked whilst turning around to face me.
It was a good job that I'd lived in Sydney for eight years prior to meeting Daniel as I wouldn't understand half of the things he spoke about, but luckily on this occasion, I did.
Bakers Delight is a chain bakery found across Australia, kind of like a Pret A Manger or Greggs in the UK. A chain bakery never competed with the in-house, traditional ones. These recipes were passed down from generations with each time being authentic.
"A bakery, my love. Nobody here calls them bake shops." I smiled as we entered.
Daniel headed straight towards the counter as he continued to scan over the plethora of sweet treats.
"Morning Debbie." I smiled at the lady over the counter as she stepped away from cutting up a loaf of bread to finally notice who was talking to her. As soon as she saw me, she smiled brightly and greeted me the same.
"I'm so sorry to hear about your nan. She was a valued customer here." Debbie laughed as we continued to chat about my grandmother. She loved the bakery and would often spend so much money in here that she'd struggle to carry all the items back to the car where either mom or dad would be sat waiting for her.
"I remember the once she demanded for every single viennese whirl we had on the counter. I had to empty the tray!" Debbie laughed as Daniel looked between us, trying his best not to be awkward.
"Dan, I'm sorry." I said and placed my hand onto Daniel's shoulder. "Debbie, this is Daniel, my fiancé." I informed the lady as she smiled and held her hand out for a brief handshake.
"Fiancé, huh?" She question and smiled lightly. "Well at least your getting married and having a baby. You know what the oldies are like around here, Ames. If they knew that you had no intentions of getting married, they'd hang you out to dry!" Debbie laughed whilst leaning against the counter.
"Oh god, I know. Some of the locals here have the oldest mindsets." I shook my head as I now looked in the shop counter, making a choice in my brain of what I wanted, or more importantly, what my daughter wanted.
"Right, Ames, help me choose." Daniel spoke as I pointed towards each individual item and described what it was and what it could taste like, comparing items he didn't realise to particular foods he may have tried elsewhere.
"I'll take two jam doughnuts, two chocolate orange brownies and two flapjacks, please Deb." I told the lady as she started to bag them up for me.
"Can I get a box of four of the unicorn cupcakes, please?" Daniel asked as he pointed across to the cupcakes with rainbow coloured icing on. "They are for Delilah before you give me that look. Can't have the birthday girl going hungry."
Tomorrow was my nieces 3rd birthday and she was having everything unicorn themed. She loved the galaxy colours and the fantasy sparkles. We were holding a small family party for her at my parent's tomorrow in the day, but Rich, Penelope and Delilah would be staying tonight.
As we said our goodbyes to the lady, we walked back to my mom and dad's house whilst eating the sweet confectionery on the way back.
"This is the best jam doughnut I've ever had." Daniel hummed as he licked the sugar from his lips and caught the jam which exploded next to his mouth.
I giggled at how messy he was, turning on my heel to stop walking altogether, looking up at him as he towered over me.
Raising my finger, I cleaned off the strawberry splatter which had somehow moved down his chin, licking my finger clean of the sticky substance.
"You're the messiest eater I've ever met." I giggled whilst retaining eye contact with Daniel. His throat chuckle vibrated out of him as he remained fixed on me, brining his hand up and placing it carefully onto my cheek.
Without words, he pulled my face to his to kiss me, our lips finally locking as we exchanged the flavours of strawberry syrup and sickly pastry. The perfect end to our perfect little date day.
Even though non of this was exciting or particularly special, I enjoy life's monotonous and boring experiences with Daniel. They make the boring and monotonous not so that way.
When we arrived back at my parent's, I noticed some luggage by the front door, a clear indication that my brother was here with his family.
As we entered the living room, there everyone sat as I made my way to my other members in my family to greet them. Michael bounced Delilah in his lap and for the first time in a few days, he managed to crack a genuine smile.
Daniel rushed straight over to Delilah to greet her, picking her up off Michael's lap to make a fuss of her, small squeals escaping her mouth as Daniel pressed kisses to her cheeks.
"He's a natural, isn't he?" My mom said as the girls moved into the kitchen to prepare some dinner for tonight. We'd plan to have a small family meal before the craziness of Delilah's birthday party.
"Yeah, he's amazing with her." I commented as I placed some cutlery onto the dining table.
"Delilah loves Daniel. It's like the only word she's willing to say!" Penelope laughed as she cut up some vegetables to accompany my moms lasagne. She had really pushed the boat out today, pairing her dish with homemade garlic bread.
"Michael seems a lot happier now." My mom said as she placed the layered dish into the oven, setting the timer accordingly to notify her when it was cooked.
"I told him; spend two days at my mom's and you'll be fine again." I smiled over at my mother as she giggled under her breath, wiping her hands over the apron hung across her front.
"I'm going to tell you two, but you can't tell Rich that I've said anything...." Penelope's voice trailed off as we nodded and ushered her to continue to speak. "We are trying for another baby."
"Oh honey!" My mom crouched down slightly, maintaining her voice was kept at a low pace. "That's amazing news."
"Cheers Penny. You've just told us that you're having loads of sex with my brother!" I stuck my tongue out in disgust, laughing as I made a joke before running over towards my sister-in-law and pulling her in for a hug.
"Don't be so crude, Ame!" My mom joked as she pointed across to my stomach. "I'm sure your baby just popped into your tummy, no sex involved."
"Of course. I'm the Virgin Mary." I clicked my tongue over my lips as we laughed together, continuing our previous jobs as I laid the table, Penelope made some accompaniments to my moms main course and my mom prepared dessert.
"How long have you been trying for, sweetheart?" My mom struck up conversation as she whisked some cream together in a bowl.
Penelope turned around as she placed the cut up carrots into a separate dish, brushing the wooden chopping board with the edge of the knife.
"We started last month but nothing happened." Penelope said as she scrunched her nose together. "I came on my period last week and I was gutted. But, there's always this month." She explained as my mom nodded.
"Don't put too much pressure on yourselves." My mom said, using her pearls of wisdom over towards Rich's girlfriend. "You don't need added stress whilst trying to conceive."
"I've got anxiety medication which seems to block your contraception from working, if you'd like?" I joked again as Penelope laughed alongside my mother.
Before long, Michael came into the kitchen asking if there was anything he could do to help, so I gave him some plates to lay the table with, offering him a beer in the process.
"Can I have a word, Ame?" Michael asked as he shuffled nervously, finishing his touches to the dining table. Nodding along, we moved into the office and shut the door, providing us with some privacy from the others.
"What's up?" I asked Michael as I leaned myself against the desk.
"I just need someone to talk to." Michael shrugged as he looked out of the small window. "Rachel's only been gone for three days and I feel empty." Michael looked down towards his feet as his spoke, sadness practically over spilling from his face.
"Mike, I know it's so fucking hard right now but Rachel was completely and utterly selfish to just leave you like that. She's only going to be gone for a month and, to me, that doesn't warrant ending your relationship." I told him as I placed a hand across my stomach.
"Did she seem happy with me?" Michael asked as he looked across the room. "You've seen her with other boyfriends in the past and I just want to know whether-"
"She did seem happy with you, Mike. Honestly, and I'm not just saying that because you're my friend or Dan's best friend. She seemed to be changing whenever she was with you, in the best way possible. But, she will always be selfish and she will always put herself first. I've come to that realisation and maybe she isn't the friend I need right now." I told Michael as he listened intently. "You will find someone who loves you, Mikey. You'll find someone who puts you before any decision they ever make."
"Just like you do with Dan." Michael smiled slightly as my cheeks grew hot at his statement, a small kick erupting from inside my stomach as it jolted me forward. "Is she moving?"
Simply nodding, I reached out for Michael to come closer, which he did in a heartbeat as I grabbed his hand and placed it onto the part of my stomach where the last kick happened. Sensing Michael's hand, she kicked again so he could feel.
"Wow." He breathed out as he looked at my stomach intently.
"Meet your goddaughter." I said to him before even thinking about what I'd said.
Daniel and I had previously spoken about who we would like our children's godparents to be and of course we chose Michael. I just now had nobody to be their godmother.
"Goddaughter?" Michael asked as I took his breath away, his hand still clutched onto my stomach as he spoke.
Daniel burst into the room with Delilah in front of him, holding hands as they came to look for us. His dark eyes scanned the scene of Michael feeling my stomach, looking as if he'd just won the lottery.
"What's going on in here?" Daniel asked as Delilah hugged her teddy bear in front of him.
"I let slip that we chose Mike to be the godfather." I bit my lip, expecting Daniel to be angry, but instead he just smiled and chuckled under his breath as Michael still continued to feel the movements from my stomach.
"Thank you guys." Michael whispered through tears as he pulled me in for a hug before moving across to Daniel, sharing a brotherly embrace.
"Aunty Amy." Delilah spoke up as she moved over towards me, reaching out for my hand to link with hers. "When will your baby be here?" She asked in her soft tones, an almost French accent playing on her lips.
"Not long now, baby girl." I said to her as we moved out of the office and back down the hallway.
As we walked, I was winded by the stronger kicks to my ribs as I came to a halt, rubbing over where hurt.
"Come on, love. Let's get you sat down." Daniel said as he placed a hand across my back and assisted me to the kitchen.
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As some of our other relatives arrived, Delilah got the opportunity to meet with her little cousins and have a small dinner party birthday together.
My mom had organised everything and if she hadn't thought to be a nurse when she was younger, she could've 100% had been a party planner. The room looked amazing as the guests started to flow into the house.
My dad and my mom's brother had soon found their way over to Daniel, as did everyone who hadn't yet met him before. He was now the famous member of the family and each and every single person in the room was dying to meet him.
"Why did you never tell me?" Daniel said through a mouthful of cake as he wiped his hands over his jeans.
"Tell you what?" I asked as I held Delilah in my arms as she cuddled into me, slightly drawing tired from today's festivities.
"Your uncle has just told me that you were once into rally car racing? That you were in the junior division when you were 17?" Daniel questioned me with a slight grin on his face. "Is that why you drove like a maniac on our first date?"
"You don't forget anything, do you Riccy?" I teased him as Delilah started to fall asleep, her unicorn crown falling off her head and into her hand. "I haven't done it since I was 19, Dan. It's something my uncle and I liked to do before I moved away."
Daniel nodded as he was handed another beer from my dad, squeezing past me with Delilah's tired body in my arms.
"Amy here used to be a speed demon." My dad slightly slurred as he stood next to Dan and looked over at me. "Isn't that right, Mark?" My dad yelled for my uncle's attention, making him move over to us in the corner of the kitchen.
"A beast behind the wheel." My uncle joked at his took a sip of his drink. "Watch out Danny boy."
Daniel chuckled under his breath as he became aquatinted with the men in my family, feeling like one of the boys as I moved away and handed Delilah back to her mother.
"You alright, Ames?" My mom asked as she parted ways with party favours she had made for the children. I smiled at her through exhausted eyes, feeling as if I could pass out at any given moment.
"Go sit down my love." My mom ordered me onto the sofa where I sat with my dad's sister and her 14 year old son, Joseph.
"Here she is. Beautiful Amy." My aunty beamed as I took a seat across from her, making her slightly laugh as I twirled around for her. "That's a beautiful bump you have growing there."
"She's certainly cooking." I giggled as I rested my hand across my stomach as I sat down.
"And that ring!" She gasped as she noticed my freshly cleaned engagement ring. It was until today where I had forgotten about people seeing it, constantly saying how beautiful it was when their eyes landed on the diamonds. "Have you set a date?"
After Daniel and I's conversation the other day, we had decided to get married as soon as possible, in a small ceremony. That small, that it would only be us two there, no friends and no family. This decision had not been made lightly but we wanted a chance to celebrate us, not to celebrate everyone around us.
Sure, we'd have a party afterwards where friends and family could join, but for now it was only about Daniel and I.
When we explained this to my mom and dad, they seemed to understand implicitly. When they got married, they were both extremely young, 21 in fact. Mom had just had me and they vowed that they were finished with having children and they just wanted a private wedding. The only attendees were themselves.
Grace and Joe were a little harder to convince. Grace had always dreamed of Daniel having an elaborate, extravagant wedding. But with Daniel's sweet talking abilities, he managed to get them round to the idea with a small promise of, "one day we may have a big ceremony."
"We haven't yet, going to wait for little one to be born." I smiled sweetly, convincing myself of the lie I'd popped across to my aunty. She smiled with glee and continued to talk about her pregnancy with her only son, whilst he sat there wishing that he had never been born.
Once the guests started to leave, I washed up the used dishes which wouldn't fit inside the dishwasher alongside everything else, the feeling of two large hands reaching around my waist and holding my stomach cascaded onto my body. Daniel's warmth now radiating into me as his head rested on my shoulder.
"I thought you'd be out getting drunk with my dad and uncle?" I questioned Daniel as I leaned back slightly and inhaled his bold citrusy cologne.
"I'd rather be here with you." Daniel muttered as he placed a soft kiss to my shoulder, watching intently as I wrapped the plate up in the kitchen cloth to dry it. "I need to talk to you anyways."
Swivelling around on my heel, my back now pressed up against the sink, I used the towel to dry off my hands as I looked up into Daniel's direction.
"You sound serious?" I asked Daniel as I threw the cloth onto the side once my hands were dry. "You never sound serious."
"Things are pretty serious between us, Ames." Daniel said as he moved his hands across the front of my stomach. "We need to plan a lot of things; where we intend of living once she's here. Getting married, if you still want to do that before baby's born?"
I smiled up at my fiancé as I used my hands to caress his broad shoulders and chest, firmly patting the soft cotton t-shirt which wrapped across his torso.
"There's only one place which has felt like home, for a very long time..." I trailed off my words as Daniel continued to finish my sentence for me.
"Perth." He smiled as I nodded up to him, biting my bottom lip slightly. "Did you want me to contact some people to get your stuff out of storage and moved over to the farm?"
"I don't want you to think that I'm completely changing your home, Dan." I retaliated at Daniel's kindness.
"Babe, we are going to be married soon, we need to learn to share." Daniel smiled as he placed a small kiss to my forehead, reaching his hands around my back to play with the silk fabric of my dress. "I'll ask Blake to sort it for us in the morning. I don't think he's in any fit shape to discuss this now."
"Why?" I asked Daniel as I tilted my head. "What has my dad done now?"
"Let's just say that in your dad's retirement from the military, he's made some questionable gin of his own in your garage." Daniel chuckled as I rolled my eyes.
"Fuck sake. He never gets that gin out, it's lethal! It's practically white spirit at this point." I slapped Daniel's chest lightly and shook my head from side to side.
"Yeah, the stuff could strip paint off the walls." Daniel teased as I giggled lightly. "At least Michael's having a good time though. Thanks for letting him come here."
"My mom and dad are the best." I smiled. "They always cheer me up when I'm at rock bottom."
"About that wedding..." Daniel trailed off again as I leaned in closer to him, standing on my tip-toes to get as near to his face as possible.
"What about it?" I asked him in a teasing voice as his hands broadened over my hips.
With one swift motion, he picked me up, as if I was nothing but a bag of sugar and placed me onto the kitchen worktop. Even sat up here, Daniel slightly towered over me.
"Well, we fly to Austin tomorrow and I thought that maybe we could make a detour..."
"A detour?" I questioned and raised my eyebrow.
"Where can you get married in America at any point? The famous Little White Chapel."
"Vegas?" I said with a beaming smile etched across my skin. "Dan, that would be a 3 hour detour! I don't want you wasting your time, I know you love Austin."
"I wouldn't be wasting my time, I'd be marrying you. If I thought that getting married was a waste of time, I would've never asked." Daniel joked as I laughed back at him, moving my hands through his hair. "What do you say?"
"As long as Elvis isn't there," I teased, "then let's get married tomorrow."