Даниэла Стил - All That Glitters

“I wish you lived here,” she said sadly.

“Come home soon then,” he said with the big brother look in his eyes that always went straight to her heart. He was the only family she had now.

“I love you, Sam,” she said, as the tears crept down her cheeks.

“I will always love you, Coco,” he said with a lump in his throat, and she knew he meant it. She nodded, and a minute later, he walked into the security line. She watched him until she couldn’t see him anymore. He waved for a last time, and, crying openly by then, she waved and touched her heart. He nodded, and then he was gone, back to his own life. She cried most of the way home in the cab.

She was glad Nigel was out when she got home. He was meeting friends to play tennis at their club. She wanted some time to think about Sam and her parents, and everything Sam had said. It all made sense. And she hoped he wouldn’t marry Tamar. She sounded like such a dull girl.

On the plane already in the air, heading back to New York, Sam was hoping she wouldn’t marry Nigel. Something told him she was going to get hurt. And there was nothing he could do to stop it. His heart was heavy as he left.

Chapter 6

On Coco’s twenty-third birthday in December, after three months of house parties, hunting weekends, and going to nearly every fancy party in London, Nigel took her to dinner at Harry’s Bar, and dancing at Annabel’s afterward. He was a member of both clubs, along with several others. He had wanted to give her a party, but she said she didn’t want one. Her birthdays made her too sad now, since her parents’ deaths, and she preferred to spend it alone with him. They had been to a constant round of Christmas parties for the past two weeks, and had been invited to various friends’ ski houses for Christmas and New Year’s, and hadn’t decided where to go yet. Christmas was hard for her now too. Nigel wanted to go to Gstaad or Courchevel, where his friends had houses and had invited them. Coco didn’t really care where they went, and she was enjoying the quiet evening with him on her birthday. He invited her to dance at Annabel’s, and startled her when he stopped dancing, and dropped to one knee on the dance floor. She realized then that they had been playing a song she liked and there was no one else around them, as the people at tables around the dance floor stared at them. Nigel had warned the manager of what he planned to do, requested the song, and they had asked the other clients to sit this one out. In the spirit of romance, they had agreed, excited to be part of the surprise.

As Nigel dropped to one knee, Coco stared at him, not sure what he was doing. He held her hand and looked at her with his big blue eyes. “Coco, my darling, will you marry me?” She was so stunned she didn’t know what to say, and was speechless for a moment. “Coco?” He pressed her for an answer as tears filled her eyes. She wanted her parents to be there to share it with her, or Sam, or someone she loved and knew well. Nigel looked at her so imploringly with tears in his eyes too that she couldn’t turn him down. She couldn’t do that to him and break his heart. She loved him, and wanted to be his wife, just not quite so soon, but the right man had come along, and she didn’t want to lose him. She nodded, as the tears spilled down her cheeks and she couldn’t stop them.

“Yes…yes, I will,” she whispered, as he got to his feet, took her in his arms and kissed her. The whole room applauded, and then he led her back to their table as everyone around them smiled and offered congratulations even though they were strangers. Another couple sent them a bottle of champagne to celebrate their engagement.

“I didn’t know you were going to do that,” she said, as she wiped her eyes on her napkin.

“Neither did I.” He beamed at her. “I decided yesterday when I was trying to figure out what to get you for your birthday.” He took a small ancient-looking navy leather box out of his pocket and set it on the table. “It’s the only thing of my mother’s that I have. I hope it fits.” He opened the box, and took out a beautiful antique cushion-cut diamond ring of a very respectable size. “It was originally my grandmother’s.” He slipped it on her finger and it fit perfectly, and she stared at it and started to cry again.

“I wish my parents could see it, and meet you,” she said as he held her tight, as the ring flashed on her finger. It was a beautiful stone, and bigger than any of the jewelry her mother had. Her parents preferred art to jewelry.

“I wish I had met them too,” he said respectfully. “When do you want to get married? Let’s do it soon. I want you to be my wife as soon as possible. We’re going to have such a beautiful life.”

“I don’t know. Next summer? June?” She said it off the top of her head.

“Why wait that long?” He looked disappointed. “We could invite everyone we know to my club for a big reception. Do you want a church wedding?”

“I…” She choked on her words for a minute. “I can’t have a big wedding without my parents. It would kill me. Can’t we do something very small, just us and your family? We can do something later for friends, but not at the wedding.”

“I doubt my brother would even come, with his dreadful wife. And I don’t want them there. They would ruin it. I don’t have any other family. Just friends. They’re my family now.” He looked a little dismayed and hurt that she didn’t want a big wedding, but she had no family either. He wanted to reciprocate for all the fabulous parties they’d been to with a big event of his own, the bigger the better, but it was clear that Coco didn’t want that and wouldn’t agree to it. “If you don’t want a big wedding, then why wait? Why not January?”

She looked shocked. “The only one I want is Sam, and maybe Leslie, my boss, since she introduced us.” They had gotten close and Coco liked her a lot. “I don’t know if Sam could come over, although he promised to give me away. And I’d like it in a church.” There was a small church that she had discovered and liked. What she described was not the splashy, important wedding he had envisioned, but the main thing was that they get married. They could give a huge party later, when she wouldn’t feel her parents’ absence quite as acutely as on the day of their wedding. They had only been gone for a year and a half. He and Coco had only known each other for three months. He said that people were probably going to comment on that, and even wonder if she was pregnant. But this felt so right to him. Despite her mixed emotions about her parents, it felt right to her too. She remembered Sam’s admonition then that she get married in the States with an airtight prenuptial agreement to protect her, but there wouldn’t be time now, and all of Nigel’s friends were in England, for the reception. He wouldn’t know a soul at their wedding if they did it in New York.

“Let’s say a month from today, in January,” Nigel said happily. “That gives us time to plan whatever we do. We could go skiing for our honeymoon,” he said, looking excited. “I’m sure someone would lend us a chalet.”

“I’d like to go to New York after that. You could see the apartment, and my parents’ house in the Hamptons. It’s my house now.” And would be theirs, and their children’s.

“I didn’t realize you still had an apartment and a house of theirs,” he said, looking intrigued by both. She had never mentioned them. “That should be fun,” he said. He looked like a child at Christmas, as she sat next to him, with his grandmother’s diamond on her hand. His mother had given it to him before she died, for his future wife. He had been saving it in case he ever had to sell it, if he needed money, but this was a much better use for it, as the symbol of his love for her, and a prelude to their marriage. Coco looked dazed when they went home to her place that night. They never used his, it was too grim, and he’d been talking about letting it go. He was with her all the time. But she didn’t know how long she was staying in London, so he had kept it. But now she would be staying forever, as his wife. She hadn’t even thought about that yet. New York was still her home. But Nigel expected to live in London with her. He was so profoundly British, she couldn’t imagine him living anywhere else, and he wouldn’t want to.