Ain't This Life So Sweet | Joanne

Chapter Twenty

"To Joe,

Thank you for leting me stay with you in your howse with my mama. I had the best tim in London and I carnt wait to stay agen soon.

I drawd you a picher of me and you making pancakes. It was so much fun and you are so funny. I carnt wait for you to fly to Austrayleea and see me agen. I hope we can mak pancakes.

My mama will be sad wen I go back to grandma and grandpa and I will be sad too. Plees luck aftar her and tel her I wil see her soon and that I love her SOOOOO much.

Mama dus not no I am riting this leter to you.  I hop she will not be sad with me but I want to ask you a seecret kwestchun. My mama loves you becos you are so grate and I no you will love her forevver. I do not hav a dad but I wud be verry happy if you wer my dad Joe. I love you Joe.

Love from

Emelia Scarlett Buswell

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

///

It had been two months since Emelia had flown back to Australia.

Two months and Joe still read her letter every day.

Dianne had read it, too. He was never going to hide it from her.  For Dianne, it just proved that she had fallen in love with someone truly special. Someone worthy of being the father her daughter had never had.

"Hey", Dianne snuggled into Joe's side as they laid in bed. Since Emelia had gone home, Dianne's stuff had slowly emigrated across London and into Joe's apartment and she had been spending more and more of her time there.

She held his hand, playing with his fingers as she spoke. "Did Emelia call you earlier?"

"Yeah. She wanted to hear the scarecrow story again before bed."

Dianne smiled. "She loves that stupid story. To be fair, I love that stupid story too."

"It's not stupid. It's creative." Joe corrected her, grinning. "And I love it too."

Dianne rested her head on Joe's chest.

"Do... do you ever think about the future?"

"What do you mean? Are we talking aliens or what I'm having for dinner tomorrow or..."

Dianne chuckled. "No. I mean, like, our future. Us. And Emelia."

"Every day", Joe admitted.

"Really? What do you think about?" Dianne couldn't hide her surprise. Joe turned to face her and smiled.

"I think about it all. I think about the adventures we can go on. I think about going to Disneyland with her. I think about me and you drinking wine on the beach near your mum's house while she plays in the sand. I think about helping Emelia with her homework. I think about putting her to bed. In her own bed. I... I think about everything. She asked me to be her dad, Di. I'm taking that pretty seriously. I want to be what she needs. I want to be what you both need."

Dianne smiled. "You know, I never thought you were going to be the guy to change my life. I thought it would just be me and her, and that I'd never find anyone who could love us both. Especially a scrawny, English roof thatcher who lives on the internet."

"I do, though" Joe admitted. "I really do love both of you."

The two of them sat in silence for a moment.

Dianne spoke first.

"Joe?" She asked. He looked at her. "How... how seriously have you thought about Emelia coming here? Like, permanently."

Joe smiled. "I've been looking at schools. I've been reading up on helping kids with transition from one country to another. I've... I've really thought about it. Why?"

"Because she called me just after you told her the scarecrow story. She called me to say goodnight and she asked me if she could come and live with us."

Joe wrapped his arms around Dianne and hugged her close.

"Is that OK?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

Joe moved away, before leaning in and romantically kissing her on the lips.

"That's more than OK. That's incredible."

///

"Open your eyes."

Dianne took her hands away from her face to find herself stood in the middle of a spacious, modern kitchen.

"Joe, what is..." She looked around, speechless.

Joe took her hand. "So. I put in a call to a friend who works in property. This... this isn't on the market yet. He sent me some pictures and I thought we both needed to see it."

Joe had surprised Dianne with a romantic Sunday lunch in a leafy part of South London, followed by a walk through a local park. On their walk, Joe had stopped outside a beautiful Victorian detached house and told her he had a surprise for her.

"Do you want to have a look around?"

Dianne basically jumped into the next room. It was clear how excited she was.

"Ah, there's so much space in here! I could do yoga in here!"

The house had been completely refurbished. Every room was stunningly beautiful.

As they got to the bedrooms, Joe turned to Dianne and smiled as he opened one of the doors.

"So this is the master bedroom." Dianne looked around, opening cupboards and doors.

After a few minutes, she stepped back into the corridor. Joe opened a door on the opposite side of the landing. "And this..." the room was large, bright and airy. "Well, this would be Emelia's room".

Dianne grinned. "Oh my god, she'll love it!"

"So, is that a yes?" Joe smiled. "To the house?"

"I mean, I love it. But I have a mouse living in one of my kitchen cupboards and I have to keep my saucepans in my wardrobe so..."

Joe laughed, before taking a deep breath. "I've wanted to ask you for so long to move in with me. I mean, you basically have. But I want it to be official." Dianne smiled at him. "But, I also want you to be happy. And I don't think you'll be happy until your baby girl is here. I don't want to turf Byron out on his ear to give her a room of her own, so I thought maybe we should upgrade? There's room for people to stay as well. Plenty of room. And the schools around here are really good and there's a gym nearby and I think there's a..."

Dianne cut Joe off with a kiss.

"Joe" she looked up at him and smiled as they broke apart. "You don't need to convince me. It all sounds perfect."

She kissed him again.

And again.

And again.

Joe smiled at her.

"What?" she asked, brushing stray strands of red hair off her face.

"You look happy."

"I am happy, Joseph. You make me so, so happy."

Joe smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulders as they both stood and looked at Emelia's new bedroom.

"I love you so much."

"I love you too."

- THE END  -