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‘Ididthink about leaving, Iosef, for a while there. Yes, I did consider it, but you need to know this—I’m dizzy and I’m emotional and I absolutely love you, but I’m also tough. Icanlive without you. I might go off to lick my wounds now and then, but I will always come back fighting.’
‘And what does this have to do with coins?’ A markedly bemused smile was appearing on his face.
‘I never knew why I kept them, I just did.’
‘And?’
‘I decided this morning that I was going to throw them in the brown envelope that came around if you and Candy got married.’
‘You’d have stayed?’
‘I like my life, Iosef. I’ve worked hard to get to where I am and I’m never going to walk away from it. It would just be very nice if you were here beside me.’
‘And you really love me?’ Iosef checked.
‘Absolutely.’ Annie nodded. ‘Now that I know that I can. I love you because you’re so horrible and rude but you still make me laugh. I love you because—and I’m sorry if it’s shallow—you’re fabulous in bed and make me think that I am, too. And I love you because...’ She wasn’t laughing now and she wasn’t crying. The moral gauge that had wobbled for so long now finally settled as she found her truth—not today’s truth but finally accepting all that had come before and knowing,knowingshe could deal with all that lay ahead. ‘Somehow I knew that we were better than that—somehow I knew I was too... Somehow I knew that you really loved me.’
‘And I do.’
Which was fab and everything, but he was playing with the top of her pajamas, the kisses that were raining on her face becoming just a touch more insistent now—and because there could be no more secrets, because she’d insisted on it, Annie had to make time for one last confession.
‘I don’t have a body image problem.’
‘Good...’ Every button was open now, his lips nuzzling her breasts, his fingers stealing down her waist towards the darkest female secret of them all. ‘Because your body’s fantastic..’
‘Just... ’ she wriggled an inch, frantic eyes catching his as love swept in andagaincaught her totally unprepared ‘…a teeny-weeny body-hair issue at the moment.’
‘Try...’ he said, slipping down her pajama bottoms and sending her straight to a heavenly torture. ‘Try, try and try again, and never will you turn me off.’
‘Never?’ Annie checked.
‘Never,’ Iosef affirmed.
Epilogue
It shouldseem the strangest of weddings but for Annie it was perfect.
If they wanted Levander and Millie to be there— which they did—then it had to be quick, and given they had just buried Ivan, it had to be low key.
Low on preparation but high on love.
Everyone they cared for, and didn’t really, crammed the registry office and the fabulous dinner afterwards. Annie’s sisters pursing their lips in jealousy yet trying to smile; her parents utterly bemused and trying not to show their surprise that their dizzy, kind but not exceptionally gifted daughter had actually been the one who had rocketed them up in social status.
‘They’re wondering what on earth you see in me!’ Annie smiled as her entire family stared open-mouthed at the very happy couple.
‘You’ve got it the wrong way round,’ Iosef countered, but Annie shook her head and laughed.
‘Believe me, I haven’t!’
‘Well—more fools them, then!’
Nina made a discreet, but later well-publicized, appearance. In just a couple of weeks she seemed to have aged a decade—as if every one of her sins had caught up with her.
And despite having learned more of Nina’s role in Levander’s abandonment, Annie kept her promise to herself not to judge.
She gave her a hug and thanked her for coming, told her that it was lovely to see her and watched with admiration and pride as somehow Millie and Levander said pretty much the same.
Weddings, even low key, very spontaneous ones, were, though,veryhard work.
