Forever Mine (Joe & Ella 2)

Ella xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He responded within a minute.

To:

From:

Title: Me too...

I play them in the car most days.

Love you.

Joe (I’d rather give my kisses in person than in an email.) x

P.S When am I meeting your Nan??

Holy crap, I hadn’t thought about my Nanna, but he was right, he’d have to meet her sooner rather than later. Problem was I had absolutely no idea what Nan would make of Joe. Would she like him or kick him out within the first five minutes of meeting him? I couldn’t second guess it. I couldn’t avoid it forever though so I emailed Joe back.

To:

From:

Title: Anytime…

You can meet her whenever you’re free. Just give me a date and I’ll make it work. We’ll have to travel to her though, she refuses to come to the city.

Your Ella (infinite kisses whenever and wherever, now let me get on with some work xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)

Over a few more emails we decided we’d head down to see her on the weekend, and I gave her a quick ring to make sure she wasn’t off doing some sky diving course or making Sunday lunch for the entire village the coming weekend. She was so happy to hear from me and started telling me all about the local gossip, totally oblivious to the fact I was at work and couldn’t chat so freely. I cut her off halfway through a blow by blow account of Audrey’s latest bunion operation and told her she should hold off on telling me all her news so we’d have something to talk about when I saw her on Saturday at lunchtime. I also told her I wouldn’t be alone, that I was bringing a ‘friend’, but I left it at that. I didn’t want to give her days to scheme and form a plan of attack on Joe when she met him. If she knew he was coming she’d have invited her core group of friends around to interrogate him, probably have a bank of ridiculous questions at the ready, and a whole heap of tasks for him to do to prove he was worthy of her granddaughter. If I knew one thing it was that Joe was not a hoop jumping kind of guy. I had to tread lightly where they were both concerned because both were volatile, feisty characters and both of them were insanely protective of me. Oh Lord, this was going to be a weekend from hell if I wasn’t careful, I thought.

29

When Saturday morning came we loaded up Joe’s Range Rover ready with our supplies for the long trip and headed off to the motorway that would lead us to my Nanna Jean’s. I was so nervous I couldn’t stop fidgeting as we drove in the fast lane speeding towards a weekend of doom. Joe reached over and took my hand as I was shredding a tissue into a million pieces into my lap.

“You’re nervous angel, why? I won’t embarrass you I promise.”

He had a cheeky grin, but he sighed when he saw I didn’t respond and kept my head down and my face neutral. I glanced out of the window to avoid looking at him.

“She’s not a push over you know. My Nanna is a hard nut to crack sometimes.”

“Older ladies love me…” I turned to face him at that little confession, my eye brows raised to mock him.

“…I mean Grandma’s love me, I’ll have her eating out of my hands in minutes you’ll see.”

I shook my head and laughed.

“Nan hasn’t eaten out of anyone’s hands ever, not even Granddad’s; so I wouldn’t count your eggs just yet Joe.”

He wasn’t listening though, his confidence was way off the charts as always. The idea that a female might not like him was a foreign concept. I thought it best to remind him of a few things.

“You remember when we first met? How much I hated you?”

He threw his head back laughing.

“You pretended to hate me, I saw through it all along.”

“Oh really!” I chuckled. “Funny, because I remember it very differently. You were an asshole and I hated you. End of.”