Geoff and Nicole eventually walked into the Diner brushing sand of each other. They were giggling and holding hands.
"Hello Darls!" Irene called out. "You just missed your Dad and Ella." She said to Nic.
"Is she ok?" Nic asked quickly.
"She seemed ok. I gather she hasn't been feeling well lately. Picked up a bug didn't she?" Irene said cryptically and nodded back towards the kitchen.
"Yeah. My dad was a bit peaky too!" Nic said.
"Yeah, well I'm going to be covering a few of his shifts too!" Irene confirmed with a nod.
Geoff laughed at the faces Irene and Nic were pulling at each other.
Colleen walked out of the kitchen.
"Hello you two lovebirds!" she began.
"Hey Colleen. " Nic said.
"Can we get some coffees please?" Geoff asked her. He kept Colleen talking while Nic and Irene scooted off to a table out of earshot of the other woman.
"How was she, Irene?" Nic asked quickly, "I thought maybe Rachel would keep her in for a bit." She confessed.
"She's not doing ok, that's for certain. I gather that she doesn't want you to worry about her so you need to stick a smile on your face when you see her otherwise she's just going to feel worse." Irene told her.
"I know. I really try. I keep distracting her with wedding stuff and showing my latest designs to her but I just take one look at her and want to wrap her in cotton wool. I would rather go through this instead of her." Nic said for the first time, and realising just how true that statement was.
"Strike me!" Irene said. She patted the other woman's hand unable to hug her in front of Colleen without tongues wagging.
"I know Irene. I keep surprising myself. It's Geoff's fault his goodness keeps rubbing off on me." Nic said and then blushed. "Oh you know what I mean!" she said with a quick grin.
Geoff arrived with Coffees and sat next to them.
He winked at Nic.
"I've just told her we are having a circus theme to the wedding and she needs to wear a costume. She's over the moon at the moment and I think she's planning to come either as a clown or the ringmaster." Geoff said.
Nic laughed.
"See that's Ella's influence on us!" Nic told the other woman.
"Your Dad's definitely met his match in that one." Irene said. She stood up quickly and swiped discarded pots from an adjacent table. "Did I ever tell you he used to wink at me from the kitchen?" she asked the girl.
Nic laughed.
"No you didn't!" she said.
"Well when he first pitched up he was sleeping in his panel van and he was supposed to be my new partner. Well he seemed a very dicey character to me but I was persuaded to give him a month's trial. And blow me if he didn't wow everyone with his cooking." Irene told them. "There was I, still not convinced but he would look at me through the hatch, this was back in the old diner and he would just give me this beaming smile and next thing you know he would wink at me!" she laughed at the memory.
"Yeah, that sounds like my Dad." Nic sighed. "Before…" she began and broke off.
Geoff took hold of her hand and gave it a squeeze.
"Ella has brought him out of his shell a bit." Irene said softly. "Anyway Darls I better get back to it before the ringmaster cracks her whip at me!"
Nic took a sip of her coffee and smiled slowly.
"Circus theme? Now why didn't I think of that?" she asked Geoff.
"Oh no you don't!" Geoff warned her. "It's bad enough that your Dad has had to get a mortgage to buy you a dress with making him hire clowns and circus elephants!" he grinned.
She poked him in the ribs.
"Oi, I told you that dress was from Ella. I couldn't say no it would only have upset her!" she tried to keep a straight face as she said it but one look into his blue eyes and she melted. She laughed out loud.
She pulled out her wedding planner and started looking through it.
"I'll speak to Colleen about a cake in a bit." She said distractedly. She looked at him. "Can you remember when I gave Annie a load of my clothes?" she asked him with an embarrassed groan.
He laughed.
"Yeah," he grinned, "Sorry about losing you that bet!"
She blushed.
"That's ok I made another one later." She looked at him straight in the eye. "I bet Aden that I would marry you one day!" she said.
Geoff choked on his coffee.
"You so didn't!" he groaned.
She looked at him over the rim of her cup.
"No I didn't." she said with a sigh. "But I wish I had, can you imagine what I could scam out of him?"
Geoff laughed and found himself reaching out and holding her hand.
"Anyway, I have a tonne of clothes that I will need to sort through before I move out of the house. Do you think Annie will be offended if I offered them to her again?" she asked him seriously.
"I don't know Nic, to be honest anything you could get her to wear would be an improvement on the Beige dress she seems to be superglued into!" he said.
"You noticed?" she asked him.
"I know I'm mostly clueless about clothes Nic but that I have noticed!" he grinned at her.
"I wouldn't say you were clueless you liked that black number I used to wear." She fluttered her eyelashes at him.
He laughed.
"Was that the lace one or the velvet one?" he asked grinning.
"Now I'm really impressed you actually remember two of my favourite outfits!" she grinned back.
"Nic I have to say seriously that you look beautiful in everything you wear." He looked deep into her eyes and whispered the comment.
She blushed before walking around the table and kissing him slowly and thoroughly. He placed his hands on her waist and kissed her back.
"Have I told you I love you lately?" she said.
"No you haven't and please don't call me lately!" he grinned at his own joke.
She laughed and placed another kiss on his lips.