‘My darling you look absolutely flawless.’ Rosalie Mulberry cannot contain the emotions that come with seeing her daughter in her wedding dress, in yet another try on. This is their eighth so far and every time there have been tears and happiness. One would think with the amount of times they have already done this, especially with the engagement to Marcel, she would be over it, but no such luck. The Dior does look divine on Sawyer however.
Sawyer rolls her eyes playfully, ‘mummy no more tears.’
‘I am not crying.’ Rosalie dabs her eyes.
‘You do look wonderful sis.’ Flynn spares his sister a brief look then returns to typing a message on his phone. This try on was for him because he’d been out of town the other seven times and since everyone has been in on the try on, he insisted that he too wanted to see his baby sister try on her wedding gown.
Rosalie twists her youngest son’s ear, and he immediately discards the phone and sits up.
‘Mum that hurt!’
‘I meant it to.’ Rosalie kisses her teeth, ‘you asked that we come here, no, you insisted that we come for this appointment so put your phone away and give your sister the appropriate reaction.’
Sawyer giggles at her mother and brother. This is them, her family who would do anything for her.
‘Sawyer, you look ravishing, divine. Fabulous. Absolutely stunning. Jameson’s a lucky man and he better treat you like the princess you are.’
Sawyer takes a bow. ‘Thank you brother dearest.’
Rosalie pulls her son close and plants a kiss on his head, massaging the ear she assaulted. ‘Better?’
‘Much.’ Flynn gives his mother a quick kiss on the cheek.
Despite their busy schedules, the family had shown up for Sawyer in more ways than one, dropping everything to be there for her. She is the baby of the family, therefore was liable to get away with murder. It is why they did not much question the pace of change in the wedding plans or her new fiancé. One week they were talking about the wedding on the grounds of the Duchamp family chateau in Rein and the next Sawyer is introducing them to Jameson Summers, as her new fiancé. Things with Marcel weren’t working out, she said. In a private conversation with their parents, Flynn assumed Sawyer came clean, because they were quickly on board with the new union. Even weirder, the Duchamps were not informed about their supposed daughter-in-law’s change of heart.
Jameson Summers appears to be enamoured by his sister and Flynn is fine to sit back and watch for now. He’d asked some powerful friends of his to look into him for any red flags and so far, besides a relationship that ended three years ago in a tragedy, nothing untoward came of it. He is a very successful entrepreneur, his mother is a fashion icon and important in those parts, and his brothers seem to be decent people. In addition, he makes Sawyer happy, and he wonders if she knows just how much she blushes when they are in each other’s vicinity. They’d had him round for dinner twice and both times one would be forgiven to think that the two had not been together for longer than a few weeks. It was the darndest thing Flynn observed. Sawyer is his favourite person in the world; she is everyone’s favourite in the family, but she and Flynn share a close relationship being the younger two and he would do anything to protect and see her happy. Marcel hurt her, he doesn’t know how or what happened, but he knows that punk did something to hurt his sister and when he finds out what and he will break every single bone in his pretty boy body. Ola tried to pry it out of Baxter, but the only thing tighter than their marriage is his sister-in-law’s loyalty to her bestie. Caroline too has been playing sleuth but to no avail.
Unbeknownst to Sawyer, her siblings had gotten together to discuss her shotgun of a relationship with Jameson Summers. They went from planning her wedding to Marcel to a few weeks away from walking her down the aisle to another man, one she’d barely met, never even mentioned to the family. Marcel might as well have died. What happened between them? No one knows; all they know is, baby sis woke up one day and chose violence and they were all going over the cliff into battle with her.
Sawyer sees the look on her brother’s face, she knows Flynn is not buying any of this, but she is thankful that he is giving her time and space to deal, knowing that she will come clean to him in time. She simply needs to get to the altar and say I do before Marcel has a chance to blow everything up. Are these the worst laid plans yet? Of course it is, she’s not stupid and could she have gone another route? She absolutely could have but… feelings.
Her pings with a text from her contact at Armani.
Jameson did not show up for his fitting.
Great. Just fucking fantastic.
‘Where were you this afternoon?’ Jackson asks Jameson when his punk of a brother finally answers the phone. They were all meant to meet up to try their tuxedos, but he was nowhere to be found, and his phone was off.
‘Are you in a foreign country?’ Hudson quips.
‘I’m sorry, something came up and I had to stay behind in Amsterdam for another day-’
‘And your manners skipped your common sense that you couldn’t even call to let us know or the person who was waiting to fit you?’
‘I said I’m sorry-’
‘Bullshit Jameson.’ Hugo has had enough. ‘You either want to marry this woman, or you don’t. We have stood by you all while you sprung her on us, without even bothering to tell us anything. If you are not all in with her as she obviously is all in with you, then let her go right now and stop this madness.’
‘I didn’t spring her on you!’
‘Who goes into the Moulin Rouge and comes out with a fiancé?’ Jacob asks.
Silence descends on the call almost immediately, as if the gods of brotherhood are trying to deescalate the tension.
‘I am all in.’ Jameson’s tone is almost too quiet.
‘You sure have a funny way of showing it.’ Jackson says and his brother tsks.
‘Did you call Doctor Yomi?’ Hudson asks but his brother does not answer.
Jameson knows he is being a dick, and he is getting it from all sides right now. Sawyer called to give him a piece of her mind for not going to the fitting and now his brothers. He had no reason to stay in Amsterdam for longer than planned, his meetings wrapped up already but here he is, starring out of the hotel window in the Nine Streets and being an absolute idiot. How does he tell his brothers he did not want to go home to his fitting because he wanted to be close to her. This was not supposed to happen. They have an understanding and there is a method to this madness, their time is finite and yet he does not care. He finds himself drawn closer and closer to her like a moth to a flame and if he burns, he’ll happily dance in the embers.
He is thinking less and less about Brandy and that scares him to death because of what it means.
‘I’m sorry okay. I’m sorry.’ Jameson says the only thing he can. ‘I’ll make it up to you.’ With that he hangs up his phone and books the next train to London. Fuck this.
Ten pm and Sawyer is still answering emails from her editor when the doorbell rings. She checks the ring camera and it’s Jameson. She debates whether to answer the door or pretend to be asleep, but something tells her he will likely camp out there until she decides to let him in, so she answers.
‘Hi. What are you doing-’
‘I’m sorry about the fitting.’ Jameson holds out a bunch of flowers to her, flowers he’d had picked in Amsterdam, wild tulips to be exact, and in his other hand he holds a picnic basket of some of the best foods he’d bought specifically for her. ‘I am so sorry.’
‘Come in.’ she stands aside for him to walk in, and her heart will not be still. ‘Have you eaten?’
‘No. I’m starved.’
Sawyer nods, trying to catch her breath, all she did was let him into her house not run a marathon.
Jameson observes Sawyer; she is flustered by his presence in her home but is hiding it or trying to hide it well. ‘I came with a basket of food, but they are all fresh stuff that needs a pot to be put on an Aga or something. Can we order takeout?’
‘Sure. Hakkasan?’
He smiles; she knows him well enough. ‘How mad are you at me?’
Sawyer shrugs because she is pretty mad; not simply because of the fitting but because her feelings are jumbled and then there’s Marcel and his bullshit. She cannot breathe to save her life, and she really needs Jameson to come through for her because this was his harebrained idea anyway. Yes, she willingly went along with it and it is too late to back out now, but she really needs him to get on board. ‘It’s fine it’s just a fitting.’
‘It’s not just a fitting and it’s not fine. I was an idiot and I’m sorry.’
‘Why did you miss it?’
‘I wanted to stay close to you.’ Jameson answers as honest as he can, too tired to be anything else. ‘I know what we have is-’
He does not have the chance to finish his statement because Sawyer’s lips are on his. She will not let him ruin this perfect moment with any quantifiers. They will quantify in the morning.
Needless to say, she never got round to ordering Hakkasan and by the time they came up for air, it was 2am.
Jameson reaches out for Sawyer, but she is not there, on the other side of the bed and it gives him a fright at first thinking he’d dreamt their whole night together. He hears noises from somewhere in the apartment, so he gets out of bed, throws on his pyjama bottoms and heads towards the sounds coming from the kitchen where he finds her, cooking, muttering to herself in French and moving her head in rhythm to a song only she can hear he surmises. He observes her for a spell. He’s never seen her like this, unguarded and in her natural habitat; she looks as cute as she is charming. Her hair is up in a haphazard bun atop her head; her lithe athletic body is covered up in Minnie Mouse PJs. She looks happy. Feels happy and he is happy seeing her this way. She places the slightly toasted brioche bun on a plate, spread one half with English mustard and the other with butter, she places grilled tomatoes, lettuce, onions, burger and melted cheese on one bun before topping it with the other. Just how he likes it. She goes to look in the fridge for something when she catches a glimpse of him and almost passes out.
‘Merde!’
‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’
‘What the fuck Jameson!’ Sawyer pats her chest where her heart is doing a marathon a minute having been caught off guard like that. ‘Why are you sneaking up on me?’
‘I’m sorry.’ He reaches out and envelopes her in his arms for a spell willing her to settle, and she does before extricating herself from him. The moment is all too brief, and he hates the feeling of his empty arms. ‘I woke up and you weren’t there, so I came looking for you. I’m sorry I scared you.’
Sawyer looked him over, his toned six -pack goes into the deep cut V that fades into his pyjama bottoms. She knows what he’s packing, she’s helped him unpack it last night.
‘What are you doing?’ Jameson tries to ignore the fact that she just gave him the sexiest once over so quickly.
‘We never got round to ordering your dinner, so I thought I’d make something for you to eat.’
‘At this hour?’
‘I couldn’t sleep, and I feared you might expire if I didn’t feed you after-’
‘All that energy I expended?’
‘Yes.’ Sawyer blushes. ‘Sit. Do you want a beer?’
‘No thanks just water would do.’
She places the plate before him alongside a bottle of ice-cold Fiji water.
Jameson takes a bite of the burger and savours ‘this is good babe.’
‘Thank you.’ Sawyer says, pleased with his reaction.
‘Have some.’ Jameson offers and she shakes her head. ‘Why not?’
‘I can’t eat meat this late.’
Jameson considers, tucking away that information, ‘what time do you have to be up tomorrow?’
‘Or later today. I have a late start, so I’ll be out of here by ten. One of my authors has a breakfast reading in Knightsbridge so I’ll stop by there before heading to the office. I have a couple of other meetings there, then I’ll come home about two and take my calls from here.’
‘You don’t have to do that because of me.’
‘My fiancé is in town, and I would like to spend some time with him.’
That word, fiancé, it’s loaded but with a pleasant connotation for him. ‘I would like that too.’ He wolves down the burger, washes up the plate, downs the water and hand in hand they head back to bed. Jameson gets out of bed again to brush his teeth before returning to the bedroom and planting a kiss on her lips. ‘I didn’t think you’d appreciate the onion breath.’
Sawyer giggles as she snuggles closer to him. This is the first time he is spending the night in her home, and she very much loves this feeling.