Forever Mine (Joe & Ella 2)

“Okay, okay, I get your point you hated me. Why are you reminding me of this now?” He said turning to look my way as he drove.

“Because M

r ‘I’m every Grandma’s dream man’, I got my attitude from my Nan, and the way I was back then is nothing compared to how she can be. She once scared an ex-boyfriend so much he’d refuse to call for me. My Granddad had to drive me over to his every time we met up. He went into a panic attack if he got within fifty feet of our cottage. Mind you Nanna chased him off with a sawn off shot gun when she caught him sitting on our sofa watching a movie with me when I was fifteen. He was only putting his arm around me. She fired blanks at him and everything. Poor guy ended up with anxiety issues. I still see him sometimes in the village when I visit Nan, he totally blanks me and walks the other way”

Joe thought my story was highly amusing.

“It’s not funny, she ruined my love life completely when I was a teenager. You’ll see why I left and moved to the city to attend college and university. If I hadn’t I’d be married to…” I stopped myself realising, my mouth was running away with me.

“…You’d be married to the local doctor who has zero personality and zero sex appeal. Am I right?”

I huffed but smiled.

“I guess. Listen, if she gives you a hard time, it’s because that’s just what she does. Don’t try too hard and don’t take anything personally okay?”

He smiled over at me and squeezed my hand.

“Ella, you’re forgetting who I am. I’m the man everybody loves to hate. The fact I got you to love me is a miracle. I still have to pinch myself to believe that one’s true to be honest. I’m no stranger to hostility, I can take it. This weekend is a chance for me to meet your Nanna Jean so she knows who’ll be standing at the end of the aisle when we get married. Whatever she thinks of me doesn’t bother me in the slightest. It would be nice if she liked me, but if she hates me, that won’t change the fact that I’m still going to marry you, okay?”

I nodded back and returned his squeeze. I liked his positive outlook but it didn’t change the fact that this weekend could still be hell for me, jumping from one camp to another to keep everyone happy. It might well be the most emotionally and physically exhausting weekend in my life so far.

A few hours later we exchanged motorways and fast roads for country lanes and fields. Eventually we turned into the familiar little lane that led to Grandma’s cottage. I directed Joe into a parking space beside Nan’s truck and then got out of the car, my pulse racing faster than a formula one track on race day and my body quaking like a leaf in autumn. Why was it so hard to bring two worlds together like this?

Sensing my fear Joe gave me a tight hug and kissed the top of my head.

“Relax baby okay, it’s one night, two days. How bad can it be?” He had no idea what he was letting himself in for.

We held hands and I led the way along the rough path and through the old gate up to Nan’s front door. I knocked but she didn’t answer. I knocked again and then I heard a shout from the side of the cottage. We exchanged glances and I pulled Joe around to the side of the cottage and then into Nan’s organised chaos of a garden.

Nan was dressed in her navy blue overalls, a head scarf covering her hair and gardening gloves covered in mud on her hands. She was kneeling over a large plant pot and prying out the weeds that had taken hold and cursing them as she did. When she heard our steps she turned and wiped her sweat covered brow with her gloves leaving a streak of mud above her eye brows.

“Hey Nan.” I smiled and dropped Joe’s hand to run over to her and give her a massive hug.

She hugged me back and gasped into my hair.

“I’m so pleased to see you child, I’ve been worrying about you these past few months. I see I had no need to though, you have your glow back.”

She stood back and held my shoulders as she looked me up and down.

“Yes, city life is agreeing with you again Ella my love. You are looking radiant, beautiful.”

Joe had held back, letting us have our moment, but Nan’s gaze moved over to him and her face turned into a cooler, stonier expression.

“So I see you brought your friend with you. Looks like one of those pampered city types. All style and no substance” She whispered to me sounding unimpressed.

“Nan…” I said eyeing her with my best ‘behave yourself’ look, “…this is Joe. He’s my…fiancé.”

“Huh! Is that so?” She said sounding put out and glaring accusingly in Joe’s direction.

Joe stepped forward with his hand outstretched ready to take my Nan’s in greeting.

“Please to meet you Mrs Reid.”

“Huh, a yank hey. My Father hated your lot in the war. My big sister Lizzie didn’t mind you all so much though. I can still remember that accent drifting up from the street through my open bedroom window on a warm summer nights after one of your lot walked her home from a dance. She swore blind that Jimmy was Uncle Harry’s but we aren’t stupid, six months after he comes home and she delivers an eight pound bundle of joy. Who did she think she was kidding?” Nan was glaring at Joe like he was personally responsible. I was mortified.

“Well I apologise on behalf of all us ‘lot’,” Joe said with a smirk on his face, “I hope I can change your perception of my people.”

He was stifling a chuckle now and Nan did not look impressed. She glanced down at his hand and grabbed a spare pair of gardening gloves from her back pocket and thrust them into his outstretched empty one.