Thanks for the reviews. It looks like some of you are starting to get in to this.

Ryan offers reassurance

Meanwhile Ryan was sitting beside Marissa on their bed talking to her.

"Hey. I don't want you to worry." He said as he stroked her back trying to reassure her.

"Ryan it's my mother. You don't seem to realise just what she is capable of. She will do anything and everything to come between us."

"Yeah. But what she doesn't realise is that it won't work. Nothing she does could make me stop loving you and I'm hoping that you feel the same way. Plus we have the combined efforts of all of my family rooting for us. She wouldn't dare try something. I gather she's already experienced a mini rage blackout from Summer. I doubt she'll be keen to try out the genuine thing."

Marissa couldn't help but smile thinking about Summer taking on her mother.

Ryan looked at the small smile. "That's better. Now I'll just go and check but I think Sandy is going to go and deal with your Mum. I have to get to work. There are a heap of people waiting for me to make a few decisions about projects before they can proceed. I'll try to be home as soon as possible. But in the mean time Summer wanted to know did you want to go shopping with her. Apparently she thought you already had it planned and I don't think she wants to give your mother the satisfaction of upsetting your plans."

"Yeah. We had planned to go shopping. I thought I'd buy a few extra clothes that I could leave down at Newport so I didn't keep getting caught down there with nothing to wear." Marissa smiled and raised her eyebrows at him waiting for a reaction.

"Hmm. That's a problem." He frowned as he looked at her.

"What? Won't we still be going down there? I thought you said you went down there most weekends." Marissa asked surprised at the frown on his face.

"I did. But I definitely don't like the idea of you having clothes down there. It would take all the fun out of it." He smiled and kissed her. "I rather like the idea of you with nothing to wear. It makes my job so much easier."

"Exactly what job is that Mr Atwood?" Marissa smiled as she looked at the frown magically disappear from his face.

"You know very well Ms Cooper." His face broke into a big smile just thinking about their time at Newport so far.

Marissa smiled. "I promise that they will only be used when you approve. How's that for a deal?"

"I guess I can live with that. Why don't you take my credit card and have fun." He said as he pulled a card from his wallet and went to hand it to her.

Marissa shook her head. She didn't feel right about using his money. She had intended to talk to him about her paying her way while she was staying with him but so much had happened that she hadn't gotten around to it yet. It would have to wait until they got over all the stuff with Julie. She suspected that he wouldn't want to take her money and she didn't think they needed something else to disagree on just at the moment. Julie was quite enough. "No thanks. I may not be as rich as you but I'm quite able to afford to shout myself a little shopping spree." She looked at Ryan and realised that he seemed disappointed. "Don't worry, I'll let you shout me dinner." she said and leaned over and kissed him lightly. "Now off you go. You've got a company to run. I'll talk to you later."

"You're sure you're fine?" Ryan asked again.

"Yep. Summer and I will go and have a great time. I'll see you here later." She tried to sound positive and upbeat even though she was feeling anything but.

"Okay. And do you still want to go down to Newport for the weekend?"

"Sure." She looked up at him shyly. "As long as I find some clothes I like."

"Forget about the clothes. You won't be needing them." Ryan said as he leaned in and kissed her before making his way out the door. "I'll talk to you later."

---

Summer and Marissa had a great day. They had to go back to the car on a few occasions to dispose of their parcels because they were getting too many to carry.

It was nearly lunchtime so they decided to stop for a snack and something to drink.

Once they were seated at a table with their food Summer looked at Marissa and asked "So you and Chino finally back on track?"

"Yeah. It seems without my mother's interference we were never off track." Marissa replied still unable to forget about the fact that Julie was the reason she and Ryan had been apart for so long.

"But at least you're back together again now. It somehow feels like you were the missing piece in the puzzle. Since you've been back everything has just seemed right." Summer suggested.

"You say that now but remember it also means that my mother is back in the country. And that can't be a good thing." Marissa sighed, thinking that nothing would be the same now that Julie had arrived.

"Just forget about her and concentrate on the good things in your life. Like a certain multi-millionaire that is head over heels in love with you."

Marissa's face started with a small grin and ended with a big smile. She couldn't help it when she thought about Ryan. "Yeah maybe you're right." Then she thought about Julie again and frowned. "Although why he would want anything to do with me still baffles me. I mean I know he thinks that we should give my mother a chance to explain because 'she'll be our children's grandmother' but how can he even think about having a family with me when our children would be part Jimmy and Julie Cooper. Cheats, liars, frauds the pair of them. Perhaps the gene pool should be stopped right here."

"Don't be so hard on yourself. Would you want to have children with Ryan?"

"Of course. But he's perfect." Marissa looked at the smile on Summer's face. "Well, in my eyes he is."

"Okay so you're probably not far off the mark. But I do think your biased." Summer shrugged. "But have you even thought about his parents? And I don't mean Sandy and Kirsten. I mean his biological parents. I don't see a nomination for parent of the year amongst either of them."

Marissa thought about what Summer had said. "No. I couldn't care less about them."

"Exactly. And I doubt that Ryan cares about who your parents are either. Do you think Ryan would make a good father?"

"Yeah…." Marissa felt herself go all misty eyed just thinking about it. "He'd make a great father."

"Well. I think you'd make a great mother so it sounds to me like a match made in heaven." Summer smiled.

"Maybe you are right." Marissa looked at her friend and smiled. She thought about their baby making 'practice' on the flight. "I didn't tell you about our trip yesterday."

"The one to San Fran? Why did something interesting happen? I thought it was for work not pleasure."

"Let's just say we managed to fit in a bit of both." Marissa grinned knowing she now had Summer's undivided attention.

"Exactly what do you mean by that?" Summer asked knowing there was obviously more to the story.

"Well you've heard of the mile high club?" Marissa smiled watching Summer's eyes light up.

"You didn't?" Summer exclaimed.

"Yep. We sure did. A few times."

"But aren't the bathrooms on planes just a little too…. eww to do that?" Summer grimaced thinking of the planes she had been on.

"Well, Ryan had booked a private jet and it even had a bed and a shower." Marissa replied smiling as she remembered the day they had spent together.

Summer looked relieved that they hadn't been squished in a commercial flights bathroom. "And?"

"And what?" Marissa smiled teasing her friend.

"You can't just leave it like that. Spill. What was it like?"

"Well let's just say that I could really learn to enjoy flying if it was always like that."

"But what about Ryan? He's always been scared of flying."

"Let's just say I managed to keep his mind on other things."

"Sounds like it was more than his mind that was occupied. I wouldn't mind betting there were other parts of his anatomy involved."

Marissa laughed. "Yeah you're definitely right there."

"Well I was going to suggest that we make a little stop by Victoria's Secret to purchase a little surprise for our men. But since you two already seem to be at it like rabbits I don't think you'll be needing anything to get him in the mood. Sounds to me like he is always in the mood." Summer suggested.

"Well what do you expect we've got a lot of time to make up for." Marissa replied shyly.

"Yeah you're right. I'm just happy to see you two finally together."

"Well have you had enough to eat? There's no harm in checking out what Victoria's Secret has to offer. Just in case there might be something there that he might fancy." Marissa suggested liking Summer's idea.

"I think what he fancies is you." Summer replied and noticed Marissa start to blush. "But just let me finish my coffee and I'll be with you." Summer added.

"Okay I might just go visit the bathroom while you finish up." Marissa replied.

"Okay I'll watch your parcels. See you soon."

---

Ryan had managed to accomplish a lot since he had gotten to work but now that all of the urgent matters had been addressed he realised that his mind kept straying to Marissa. He was trying to think of a way that he could reassure her that nothing Julie could do would make a difference to them any more.

He came up with an idea and just as he reached for his phone it rang and he picked it up.

"Hey Sandy. How did everything go?" Ryan asked keen to know how things had gone with Julie.

"Well let's just say it was a different way to spend a morning." Sandy replied.

"What happened. Is she actually with you or did she just turn around and go back to England?"

"Well No and …no." Sandy replied giving Ryan a bit of his own medicine as far as confusing answers go.

"What? I don't understand."

"Well she didn't go back to England. It seems she wants to talk with Marissa." Sandy stated.

"I don't think that's going to happen. At least not unless Marissa has a very big change of heart."

"I know that."

"So where is she if she's not with you?" Ryan couldn't imagine what had happened with her.

"Would you believe I dropped her at the Mermaid Inn?" Sandy smiled as he thought about it.

"You what?" Ryan was stunned.

"Well. We were having a little disagreement in the car and it was the only thing I could think of to stop Kirsten from jumping into the back seat and strangling her with her bare hands."

"I'm guessing that it was something to do with me then?" Ryan asked.

"Well as you know, your mother doesn't take kindly to anybody who doesn't admire you and let's just say that wasn't quite the way Julie was referring to you."

Ryan felt his shoulders drop. He didn't know how he would ever get Julie to give him a fair go. "I'm sorry for putting you in the middle of all this. I should have gone out to the airport this morning and tried to talk to her."

"No. I don't think that would have worked. I left her at the Mermaid and told her I thought perhaps it was jet lag that was making her speak so irrationally. She has our number. When she is ready to talk I'll go and get her and we'll get to the bottom of all this. Although, I really can't see how she could possibly justify all that she has put you two through."

"Yeah. I know. But I think somehow we need to give her a chance at least. I'm not sure if I can convince Marissa to talk to her. But we are going to come down to Newport tonight, so I might try and see if I can see her. I'd like to give her a chance to explain at least. Marissa is convinced that Julie will try to break us up again."

"Well unfortunately I think Julie would like nothing more than to be able to do that. She seems to think that if she can talk to Marissa that she will be able to convince her to return to England with her."

"Well if that's the case then maybe I don't want Marissa to talk to her at all." Ryan started to worry that maybe Julie would be able to influence Marissa if she had the opportunity.

"I'm sure you have nothing to worry about. It's obvious that Marissa loves you. I think Julie underestimates just how much." Sandy said wanting to reassure Ryan.

"Thanks. That certainly makes me feel a little better."

"Okay. Well I just thought I'd let you know what happened. I'll call you tomorrow after I have spoken to her again. Oh and by the way… I may have accidentally mentioned that I thought you and Marissa were going at it like rabbits."

"What?" Ryan asked wondering just what they had been discussing for that to come up in the conversation.

"It just sort of came out in the heat of the moment. I just thought I should warn you. I'm really sorry if I have over exaggerated but I just couldn't help myself."

Ryan laughed. "No it's fine. If the truth be told you're not far off the mark anyhow. I'll talk to you soon."

"Okay son. Just look after that girl of yours. It's obvious her mother would do anything to come between you."

"Thanks Sandy. I will." And Ryan hung up.

He sat there thinking for a short time and then picked up the phone again and made a call. After setting everything up, he called Summer.

---

"Hey Chino. What's up?"

"Is Marissa with you?" Ryan asked.

"Well she's actually in the bathroom right at this moment but she'll be back in a minute if you want to talk to her."

"No. I need your help. But it's meant to be a surprise. So if she comes back don't let on that it's me on the phone."

"Okay. What's it all about?"

"What's the chance of you getting her to Tiffany's at 3:30?"

"Tiffany's? Whoa. I guess I can do that. Can I ask why?"

"Well… I was worried that she seems to think that her mother can somehow split us up and I thought I'd like to give her something to show her how much she means to me. Then perhaps she would be a little reassured."

"Chino that's a great idea."

"I thought about trying to pick it out myself but I think that would be a recipe for disaster knowing how fussy she is."

"I'm sure if it came from you she'd love it." Summer said.

"Yeah. Maybe but she might never wear it. I figured letting her pick it out was the better way."

"Aww. Where did you learn to be so romantic and don't even bother saying Seth? He could take lessons from you."

Ryan laughed. "It's Marissa. I've never felt like this with anyone else. You know that. And don't underestimate Seth. He's romantic when it counts."

"Yeah you're probably right. But I can see Marissa coming. So you just want me to have her there at 3:30."

"Yeah. I have booked a private viewing room and I'll make sure I'm there before you. So just tell them who you are. They'll be expecting you."

"Okay I'll see you there."