"Hi," Natalie exclaimed excitedly as she threw open the door for EJ and Nicole at her home directly across the street, inviting them inside. "We're so happy you could make it."
"Well, thank you for having us," EJ said sincerely as he extended his hand for a shake. "I'm Ethan, you've already met Sarah, and these are our children, Belle and Desmond."
"Pleased to meet you all! Come, you must meet everyone else! I promise I'll give you a house tour later on," she called back over her shoulder as she quickly led them through the house front to back. "Right now everyone's in the back yard, dying to meet you."
"Did you hear that darling, people are dying to meet us," EJ leaned into Nicole and whispered into her ear as he also wrapped an arm around her waist to escort her through the house with.
"Boy are they going to be disappointed in you," she quipped sarcastically, though the twinkle in her eye assured him her remark was nothing but playful.
"Alright, first and foremost, I must introduce you to our two rugrats," she began as they set foot outside onto a huge deck surrounding a rather large above-ground swimming pool where two children were seen eagerly swimming to the ladder to exit. "This is our daughter Emma and our son Alex. Emma is seven and Alex is five."
"You were right, pretty close," Nicole remarked, applauding her. "Desmond just turned four and Belle will be eight in a couple of weeks." She turned her attention toward the children and attempted to make an introduction for herself and EJ but all four children were already jumping into the swimming pool, screaming and splashing each other all the way.
Both mothers began to yell the same sentiment about minding their manners after their children at the same time, causing them to chuckle at one another. "I guess we'll have to give them a pass this time," Natalie said, still laughing. "I can't blame them for being excited. They've had absolutely no one to play with since we moved here."
"Oh, when did you move here?"
"We've only been here a month or so ourselves. We were in Sydney and city life with two small children was getting a bit hectic so we settled here, and just in time if I must say so."
"Why do you say that," Nicole asked, throwing a hand up over her eyes to shield them from the sun.
"Well, we just found out we're expecting another little one, much to our surprise."
"Oh, well congratulations! How exciting!"
"Thank you, thank you," Natalie replied appreciatively although it was obvious she did not share every bit of Nicole's enthusiasm.
"Oh," Nicole began in an apologetic tone but the rest of her sentence vanished into thin air as she got lost pondering why that didn't exactly seem to be good news.
Natalie put up her hand indicating she was about to explain. "Oh no, please don't get me wrong. We are absolutely thrilled. It's just that my pregnancies have always been rather difficult and we just recently had a little girl who didn't make it."
"Oh, honey I am so sorry," Nicole said as she hugged Natalie automatically without feeling a need to give the gesture any thought.
"Gosh, I must be the world's worst hostess," Natalie confessed as she wiped a single tear away from each of her eyes with a thumb. "Come on, I think we need to go rescue your husband from Jeff. He's been known to bore people to tears with his ramblings about the decline of the judicial system."
"The judicial system?"
"Yes, he's an attorney, and a damn good one I must say. Honestly, I was only joshing about him boring your husband. He really won't go on about his work unless you engage him about it because he's very modest. He practices family law and he's very passionate about fighting for the best interests of the children and cracking down on domestic violence."
"You must be very proud." A lawyer? Are you kidding me?
"Yes, proud and grateful I suppose because we probably would not have met otherwise."
"Oh, how did you meet?"
"Well, I'm a reporter and I was assigned to cover a court case involving a certain rather famous film star which Jeff happened to be the prosecuting attorney against."
"You don't say," Nicole replied as coolly as she could possibly manage considering that she had literally begun to sweat. The situation had gone from bad to worse so fast that it had to be some kind of joke. How, out of all places, did they manage to move across the street from their very own Australian counterparts? Thankfully little Emma managed to steer her mother's attention away just long enough for Nicole to slip away and hunt down EJ.
"There you are, darling," he said as he slipped an arm around her waist and reeled her toward him, brushing a long strand of her hair away from her cheek with his other arm so that he could plant a kiss there. He followed up with an inconspicuous whisper into her ear. "Be very careful what you tell these two."
"Yes, I know," she spoke quietly, wrapping her arms around his neck to keep the appearance of a happy couple simply sharing a moment. It was EJ's turn to get all tingly inside. "Did he tell you what he does for a living?"
"Yes," he replied, proceeding to rub her back with one hand while they other remained firmly looped around her waist, drawing her as closely to him as possible. "Did she tell you what she does for a living?"
"Yes," she sighed, allowing her head to rest on his chest after surrendering to his embrace. "What are we going to do?"
"Exactly what we're doing right now, sweetheart. We can't exactly run home and avoid them from now on. If we did that they wouldn't be satisfied until they found out why. Just stick to our stories the way we've been rehearsing all day and for the past couple weeks and we'll be fine. Remember, it's not like the whole world is looking for us. Just one person with a lot of connections. They have no reason to question anything we tell them."
"Well what about their son's name being Alex? Dez is confused enough already. What if he's over here playing and doesn't understand not to answer when his name is called? They'll start asking questions then."
"Don't worry about it darling," he said smiling down at her sweetly, well aware that they were now being watched. " I will pull Dez aside in a minute and have another little chat with him and we'll have another family meeting tonight when we go home just to make sure we're all on the same page. Oh, and P.S.-don't look so worried, we have an audience."
"oh-" she began but before she could utter another word or make some other inappropriate facial expression, he kissed her, full on the lips. Although he had been looking forward to this moment all day, he knew he must keep it brief and appropriate for all audiences despite his desire to go for one long enough to shatter the current standing record by far. As completely unromantic as it was, he was careful to time himself so he didn't get too carried away and reluctantly began to pull away after he hit his twenty second mark. To his most pleasant surprise, she put her hand to the back of his neck and firmly drew him back in, doubling the duration from twenty to roughly forty seconds when all was said and done. At that point he had stopped counting. She had never started.
They remained in a close embrace for several seconds afterwards as their eyes searched each other's for whatever hidden meaning might have been buried within that kiss, both drawing the same conclusion that the other's intentions were decidedly more than just for show but EJ decided to not dare bring it up unless she did and Nicole allowed her one slip-up to fly under the radar.
They rejoined Natalie and company, spending the evening sharing prefabricated stories of how they met and fell in love and eventually ended up in Australia, captivating their audience who were completely enthralled with these two people who were obviously very much in love.
Later that night, after the emergency family meeting and the children were tucked into bed, they found themselves not being able to say goodnight and instead opted to pop the cork from the bottle of wine in the gift basket.
They continued to keep pouring glasses as they discussed the day's events and until every drop was gone but not once did one of them bring up the kiss for fear that speaking of it at this point in time would only ruin the moment. They did not run short of topics and it was ultimately the combination of alcohol and the lateness of the hour which finally brought their conversation to an end. EJ had been going on about how Tiffany, one of Natalie's friends, seemed to be miffed at her husband over something when Nicole had tipped sideways and fallen into him after drifting off to sleep.
He held her for a few minutes, relishing every element of being close to her; the warmth of her body on top of his; the sound of her breath; the sweet smell of several combined beauty products which made up her own, irresistible scent. He could have easily remained there all night just like that and that would have been alright by him but he couldn't bring himself to take advantage of her like that, even if he suspected she might be ok with it. Instead, he reluctantly slid out from beneath her and when she didn't stir from his movement, he carried her up the stairs and tucked her into her bed.
For the entire next month their evenings would end much the same way although usually minus the drinking to the point of passing out except for maybe one more occasion. Usually one or the other, more often Nicole, would manage to call it a night and go off to bed on their own accord. For the last six days covering that time span however, EJ would find himself being awaken in the middle of the night when Nicole would quietly slip into his room and beneath the covers with him and fall fast asleep in his arms.