Page 48 of Everything After (Everything Trilogy)

ALFIE

After wrapping a towel around my hips, I grabbed another and began drying my hair as I wandered back into our bedroom. Lily stood facing the full-length mirror dressed in a sexy, burnt orange, chiffon maxi dress.

Still standing in bare feet, she was a good nine inches smaller than me. I watched her scoop her long hair to one side over her shoulder and cock her head while she considered her choice of outfit.

When she twisted her body this way and that to try to look at it from behind, I knew she wasn’t convinced she’d made the right choice. From my perspective, it was demure but sexy, the perfect dress to announce she was pregnant.

“You look sensational,” I gruffly muttered, as I sidled up behind her, wrapping my still damp arms around her and across her chest.

I watched in the mirror as Lily’s eyes closed and a slow, satisfied smile graced her lips. “You’re making my dress wet,” she mumbled without moving.

“It’s not your dress I’m interested in making wet,” I whispered into her ear. As her long hair was clear of her shoulder, I dipped my head, kissed the sweet spot on her neck and breathed in her natural scent. Lily’s legs buckled and she shivered while a rash of goosebumps covered her skin.

As I began to creep the hem of her dress up her leg, she turned in my arms, making the chiffon I’d bunched up slip from my hand and cascade back to the floor.

“Tsk, Alfie. There’s no more time for that,” she admonished, glancing up at me with pure love shining in her eyes. “We’re going to be fine with all this, right?” she suddenly asked nervously. I heard the need for reassurance in her tone.

I thought other men might say, ‘We’re married and you’re having a baby, isn’t that normal?’ but this was Lily displaying a level of self-doubt I’d rarely ever seen in her since she’d been famous. “Yes, baby. And it’s going to be amazing, you’ll see,” I whispered tenderly.

Grabbing her hand, I stepped back and took another long look at her, in her dress. “You look radiant. Wait there,” I said. I left her facing the mirror and quickly grabbed a blue velvet box from my closet.

“I saw this and thought of you,” I said, grinning and handing it to her.

“You bought me jewelry for today?” she asked, amazed.

“Of course, after all it’s a big day,” I admitted. The moment I said those words my heart began to beat faster. I’d been busting for the day when we could tell our friends that we were going to be parents.

Lily swiped her hair back over her shoulder with one hand, letting it cascade down her back as she sat at her dressing table and cracked open the box.

“Oh, Alfie, it’s gorgeous,” she mumbled, timidly touching the delicate charm on the platinum belcher chain necklace. “When did you get this?” she asked, taking it out from the box to inspect the charm further.

“About a week ago,” I admitted. “I thought you might think it stupid, but I figured anything that gave you a little more confidence about your pregnancy journey might be welcomed.”

“It’s beautiful and so thoughtful. I love it,” she said. Her tone sounded shaky, while tears shone in her eyes.

“Aw, baby, don’t cry,” I mumbled and kissed her neck again.

“Then don’t do romantic things when I’m loaded with hormones that are running like free radicals through my body,” she admonished, turning her face up to the ceiling and blinking back tears.

“Come here,” I said, pulling her to her feet and swiping a stray tear with my thumb. “Give it to me,” I commanded, taking the necklace from her. “Turn around and I’ll help you put it on.”

Lily did as I asked, and I slipped the chain over her head. The charm rested perfectly between her breasts.

I lifted the charm, which was a guardian angel with an aquamarine body, a platinum face, and tiny diamond-studded wings. “I’m trusting her to look after you whenever I’m not around,” I mumbled, sounding sentimental for once.

“I’m in love with her already,” Lily mumbled, taking it from my hand and studying the figure again.

“Are you two ever going to come out of that fucking bedroom today, or are you looking for a threesome to join?”

I chuckled. “Coming, Rick,” Lily called out.

“Well, can you come quicker or is that limp dick of his having trouble getting you off?”

“Fuck off, Rick. I was having a romantic moment with my wife. We’re both fully dressed,” I lied. “We’ll be down in a minute.”

“I guess that’s our cue,” Lily said, smiling.

“Two secs, I swear,” I said, quickly darting into my closet and pulling on jeans and a shirt. “Tada, I’m ready,” I said, sweeping back out, bare footed.

“No shoes and you’ve yet to fasten your button-down shirt,” she pointed out.

“Nope, this is me. My house, my rules.”

Stepping forward, Lily smoothed her hand down my abs and smiled warmly up at me. “I love your house rules.”

Slinging my arm around her shoulder, I turned us toward the door. “Let’s go, our public awaits, Mrs. Black.”

Rick sauntered across the outside patio with his arms open wide.

“Wow! I can see why you took your time to come down,” he remarked by way of a compliment toward Lily.

“May I?” he asked before lifting her hand and pressing a kiss to her knuckles.

He let go and took a step back. “You look incredible, sweetheart,” he remarked before he turned to his partners Lennie and Coral. “Right, guys?”

“Divine,” Coral agreed.

“Stunning, as always,” Lennie stated, smiling. Stepping forward, Coral pulled Lily in for a hug.

“It’s been what… over a year since we saw one another?” Coral remarked.

“At least. You look amazing as always,” my wife responded, smiling. She liked Coral, which was just as well since she was her bandmate’s girl.

“No one else here yet?” I asked as I walked over to the window and saw a launch coming toward the jetty. “Ah, Elle, Drew and Digs have arrived,” I announced.

Soon after, the party was in full swing with most of our friends arriving thick and fast, almost all by boat, apart from the guys from Screaming Shadows and their wives, who had hired a bus to bring them up from the Keys.

Most bands have an element of competition within the field, but I didn’t get a sense of that with everyone we’d invited to our party.

And due to schedules, it wasn’t that often that we got the opportunity to form firm friendships with many other bands out there.

But both Lily and I hit it off from the first time we’d met the guys from Screaming Shadows.

Jude, their drummer was generally a broody kind of guy with a cool head, and I saw him as the anchor of the band. Levi, the lead singer, was the band member I’d gotten to know first, but Irishman Greg, their replacement bassist, was my favorite of the band.

“Thanks for the invite,” Levi said, fist-bumping me. “You remember, Trinnie and Gabby, right?” he asked, presenting his beautiful wife and her daughter.

“I do. Glad you could come.” I glanced around and caught my wife’s eye. Lily smiled and came toward us. “Trinnie, I’m so happy to see you,” she said, hugging her first, then her daughter. “And look at you, Gabby, you look so grown up.”

My wife and I continued to greet the rest of the band and their wives. Then I figured I needed a few minutes with them on my own. “Would you mind helping the ladies while me and the guys catch up?” I asked Lily.

My wife winked. “I was just about to ask. Come on ladies, you all look fabulous. Shall we head over to the bar and leave these boys to their band talk?” she asked, gesturing toward the bar with a nod and then led the way.

Once the women had gone, Drew came over and we and the bandmates spent a few minutes catching up. Then Drew led the guys outside to where Rick and his band were sitting. Screaming Shadows had opened for Cobham Street back in the day, so once they saw them no further introductions were needed.

As I mingled with our guests, I was impressed by the perfect mix of people Lily had invited.

Everyone was connected to someone else in the room, and the way she’d pulled them together, no one could have felt like an outsider.

Even Sienna, Kara and Poppy would be well placed because they knew me and Lily, my sister and her husband.

For a few minutes I gave advice to Jack and Mya, along with their daughter Ava, regarding a potential music career, when I saw some of our final guests pulling in to the dock.

Excusing myself, I headed down to the boardwalk to meet them. Not much had changed about Kara, the petite blonde that had been the love of my best friend’s life. The moment her amber eyes met mine, they instantly glistened with unshed tears, as she stared up at me from the boat.

“Hello, sweetheart,” I said, immediately extending a hand to help her, then her daughter, onto the dock. I noted my voice sounded calming… careful in fact.

Kara stood speechless and tried to swallow back her tears. There was a slight hesitation as she took me in, then she slipped her hand into mine and I pulled her closer beside me. Before she could talk, I pulled her in for a hug.

For a second, I felt a small, tenuous connection to Gary, and once I’d felt that, my hug tightened while I tried to bring comfort to us both.

Comfort to Kara, for all she’d been through.

And I supposed for a second or two, the grief that still lingered inside of me stirred, despite all the years since we’d lost Gary.

I pulled back to look at her again, still partly in disbelief at her being there, and partly curious about the changes in her familiar features that I’d remembered from a decade before.

Kara hadn’t changed much through the years, but I felt relieved that her eyes now held none of the pain that had haunted me during the time that I’d tried to protect her.

“Would you give me a hand?” Sienna’s plea from the boat broke the spell of the silent connection between Kara and me. Letting go of her, I stepped to the side, offered my hand to Sienna and tugged her up on the jetty beside me.

“That trip was awesome,” Poppy gushed, hitching her thumb over her shoulder toward the ocean, distracting me from welcoming Sienna. Gazing at Poppy, I studied her more carefully than the last time we’d met. I’d been blindsided when I’d first seen her in those brief minutes at Sienna’s place.

Now, with the sun shining in her blonde hair, she mesmerized me.

She no doubt had the best bits of Kara’s fine features, and the same stunning, platinum mane of hair, but Poppy was much taller than her mom and stood at around five feet eight.

She stood staring up at our house, looking catwalk-model lanky, dressed in some denim dungaree shorts and a white off-the-shoulder T-shirt.

“Well, are we going inside or is this as close as us common people get to the life of luxury?” Sienna mumbled.

Shaking my head, I smiled, turning to face Sienna.

“I’m sorry, y’all look beautiful,” I mumbled, complimenting them for something to say.

“This just feels a little surreal… especially seeing these two after all this time,” I said to Sienna, wagging a thumb between Kara and Poppy.

“Come on, let’s go up to the house and I’ll introduce you to everyone. ”