Chapter 30 #2
‘Thanks, Stan. I appreciate it.’ Rita deposited the cake in the kitchen, then wandered back across the yard to the barn, key ready in hand.
The yoga class wasn’t for another hour, but she liked to let the morning air freshen the place.
The back doors groaned open. A shaft of sunlight cut through the gloom, catching the dust motes like glitter in a snow globe.
And then that magnificent, breathtaking vista up and over the fields and down to the cliffs and beaches yonder.
How lovely that Emily felt she could confide in her; she had been so candid, and it made her realise that mums came in all guises. Rita’s thoughts then turned to Sennen, whom she realised she hadn’t spoken to in a while and made a mental note to call her.
Thinking back to last night, to her and Paul, making out like teenagers on the beach, she felt a fluttery feeling go through her, like a shiver. It wasn’t just the act itself; it was the way it made her forget, even if just for a few seconds, the mess that was Jago Jenken.
She’d never been this confused about anyone before.
With Jago, everything felt tangled. But Paul?
Paul was simple. Real. Like breathing fresh air after being underwater too long.
Calm waters, to Jago’s stormy and tortured soul, who caused her to feel passion and tension with equal parts longing and frustration.
Whatever it was with the laid-back musician, it had been fun and maybe having a little bit of fun moving forward wasn’t such a terrible thing after all.
She surprised herself with how relaxed she was being about it.
For the first time, she had had sexual relations with a man who wasn’t Archie.
She had thought that it would be a lot harder to do.
That she would have felt a guilt or some kind of angst. But no, it had felt good.
And guest or no guest, she wouldn’t be averse to doing it again.
Rita paused, took a huge breath as she looked down the barn and over the sea view.
Peaceful. Then. Thump! She struggled to realise where the sound was coming from.
Another thump, followed by an unmistakable rustle of hay.
Looking up to the hay loft with its gaudy curtains pulled untidily across, she narrowed her eyes. A curtain twitched.
Rita walked over slowly. ‘Please don’t be a rat,’ she whispered. ‘Or worse, a big fox.’
A head popped out.
‘Jesus Christ!’ Rita nearly jumped out of her skin.
‘Tranquila, Rita, it is just me,’ Teo said croakily, his black hair sticking up at odd angles.
Rita blinked. ‘What are you doing up there? Please don’t say Hilda has chucked you out.’
Another groan, this one deeper toned, came from the hay loft.
Teo’s eyes widened in panic. ‘Don’t look! Don’t look, OK? I… I didn’t mean to… it just sort of happened.’
Rita began to laugh. ‘I’m not your mother. What you do in your private life is your business.’
Jude’s head popped out next to Teo. Rita almost didn’t recognise him, his face looked so different without his glasses on.
‘I’ve seen nothing.’ She comically put both her hands over her eyes. ‘For a moment I thought it might be Annie,’ Rita joshed.
Teo made a retching action. The bookseller looked worried. ‘You won’t tell anyone, will you?’
‘Tell anyone, what?’ She winked.
‘Thank you,’ Jude said. ‘The Seahaven Bay Facebook Gossip Group would dine out on this one for years. BOOKSELLER FOUND FORNICATING IN HAYLOFT WITH FITNESS INSTRUCTOR FOURTEEN YEARS HIS JUNIOR. I’d better go home and get ready to open the shop.’
‘I give you a lift.’ Teo popped his head back behind the curtain.
Rita stepped back into the soft morning light, stretching her arms wide and letting out a long, hearty yawn. The air now hung heavy with the promise of rain, thick and electric.
As she climbed into the Jimny to drive the breakfasts up to the yurts, she did something she hadn’t done in ages: she sang along to the radio.
She felt light, happy. And she liked it that Teo and Jude felt happy too.
They could all just live and let live. Last night was proof that life really could turn on a sixpence.
And maybe, just maybe, Zenya’s moon mantras weren’t quite as woo-woo as she’d thought.
After all, Jude’s wish on a star had definitely come true. Well, at least it had last night.
Rita was already back in the barn in her yoga gear when Teo returned to run his session. ‘Glad we’ve set up in here today, first day of rain in a long time.’ Rita moved a stray cushion onto a milk churn.
‘Yes, perfecto. Let’s see how many leave their yurts after a late night and now this weather. I did go up earlier and see if anyone wanted a lift down, but I got no response.’
‘So, Teo. Now I am fully party to your love life.’ The handsome Spaniard grinned. ‘I realise I don’t really know much about you at all. If you don’t mind me asking, where do you come from? What is your story?’
Teo gave a shy smile and ran a hand through his tousled dark hair. ‘It’s what you English call a mongrel, I think. I’m half English, mostly Spanish. My mother, she is a spirited woman from Sevilla. Met an Englishman, a fleeting romance, a summer fling. She never saw him again.’
Rita’s eyes widened. ‘So, you never knew your father?’
Teo looked a little unsettled as he shook his head furiously.
‘No. No. My mother raised me in Sevilla on her own. She is bajita.’ He put his hand to neck level.
‘Just under five foot, like your Hilda, but has a fire within that lights up a room. I think I must have inherited most of me from her. Her passion, her temper, her kindness, and love for life.’
‘She sounds incredible.’ Rita smiled.
‘Sí, sí. She is.’ Teo nodded, his gaze distant.
‘She taught me to embrace every momento, to find joy in the pequeno. Small, small, I mean. Even when times were tough after my accidente, she never let me feel the weight of the world. Instead, suggested I retrain in something that made me as happy, or nearly anyway.’
‘I’m so happy that you did.’ Rita’s eyes twinkled.
‘It was Mamá who suggested Cornwall actually. Said it was one place in England that I should visit. Wrote a list of places I could surf, one of them being here.’
‘She has good taste, your mother, clearly. It’s funny…’ Rita mused, ‘how our past shapes us, even the parts we don’t know.’
Teo looked at her, his eyes thoughtful. ‘Yes. But it’s also about what we choose to do with it. Our past is a foundation, but we build the rest. All I know, right at this moment, is that it feels right being here in Seahaven Bay.’
‘I’m glad, because it feels right having you here.’ Rita squeezed his arm.
‘I know it sounds a bit… and I use your words here… woo-woo, but this place… it has a pull, doesn’t it? Maybe Zenya has lured us all here to find ourselves or someone else, maybe in my case.’
‘It certainly seems like magic is happening for a few people.’ Rita laughed softly.
Teo looked coy for a moment. ‘Rita. I know it must be hard to talk about but please now that I have shared, can you tell me a little bit about your husband, your Archie.’
‘Well, he had a light in his eye too. Everybody loved Archie. He was fun and would do anything to help anyone in trouble. He was fiercely passionate about us.’ Rita put her hand to her heart.
‘He, too, had a temper; I used to hide and read in the hayloft sometimes, wait until it had blown over, but he was a fair man.’
Teo was listening intently. ‘He sound like a good man.’
Rita nodded. ‘He had his moments, like we all do. He’d disappear sometimes when things got a bit rough on the farm.
I only learned recently from Stan that he’d sit under the Singing Tree and think.
Just like I used to and still do, sometimes.
Whenever he could find time for a beer with his mates in the Winking Pilchard, he would, and despite his mother not always being the easiest of women, he looked after her really well, especially after his dad died. Hence me taking on that mantle now.’
‘Hilda – her barking is worse than her biting, is that what you say?’
‘Nearly.’ Rita laughed and before she could correct him, Teo’s face dropped.
‘And your son? Maybe his biting is worse than his barking.’
Rita took a deep breath and shook her head. ‘Let’s do some yoga, shall we?’
Rita felt a sense of relief when Paul didn’t walk into the barn the morning after their unexpected encounter.
It wasn’t that she regretted what had happened; she didn’t.
But the uncertainty of how they’d both react upon seeing each other again made her hesitant.
And the thought of anyone else discovering what they had done was something she wanted to avoid.
Imagine that in her first online retreat reviews.
Great stay, the owner is a complete harlot.
Just give her a glass of wine, a can of beer and place her under a starry sky and she’s all yours.
Annie, Michael and Lola were already sprawled across the floor of the barn, their yoga mats unfurled as the moist sea breeze gently ruffled their edges.
The rain wasn’t strong enough to have to shut the barn doors – in fact, it felt lovely to have a warm breeze flowing through their space of tranquillity.
Teo, dressed in relaxed linen trousers and a loose white vest, moved with the quiet confidence of someone completely at home in his own body. Maybe because somebody had been completely at home with his, the night before, Rita cheekily thought.
‘Buenos días, everyone.’ He rolled his shoulders. ‘I hope you enjoyed your time on the beach last night. This morning, I welcome you to Hatha yoga. Today, we go slow. We breathe. We stretch. We feel amazing, sí?’
‘As long as old blue eyes himself here doesn’t keep breaking into song,’ Annie announced, putting one hand into her tight yoga top and rearranging her huge breasts.
‘If I hear “Fly Me to the Moon” one more time, well…’ Rita was sure she was actually directing her comments with affection towards Michael.
‘He nearly got a croissant through his flap this morning.’
Lola screwed her face up. ‘Please tell me that’s not a euphemism.’ Everyone laughed.
Michael woke up. ‘Let this poor old bastard feel happy for one minute, at least, can you? Last night was the first time I’ve enjoyed myself for a long time.’
Lola giggled. ‘And at least it was in tune.’
‘Thank you, Lola,’ Michael replied, looking to Annie, who smothered him in baby air kisses.
Teo continued, his voice warm and steady. ‘In Hatha, we balance, sun and moon, strength and softness. No need to rush. This is not a race. We are not on our horses,’ he added with a wink toward Rita, who was at the back about to join in, and smiled back warmly in return.
He stepped onto his own mat. ‘So… we start simple. Sit tall. Close your eyes. Inhale… exhale… forget the to-do list, forget the phone, forget the singing.’
Teo smiled to himself as he stood up and looked around at everybody doing as they were told, serene looks on their faces.
‘This place,’ he whispered when he was alongside Rita, ‘is almost better than the racetrack.’
Michael and Lola walked out of the barn, shaking out limbs and laughing about who would be the most sore tomorrow.
An unlikely friendship, Rita thought, especially considering how much the young woman had despised the filter-free lawyer at first. Annie lingered by the door, rubbing her shoulder with a thoughtful expression. ‘Hey, Rita?’
Rita stopped from tidying away the yoga mats. ‘You all right, Annie?’
‘I’m great, thanks. I just wondered, if it’s not too much trouble, would you… maybe show me where the Reformer Studio is one day? I think I’d like to try it properly. Get a bit fitter, you know.’ Her big personality seemed smaller somehow.
Rita smiled. ‘Of course I will. I’ve been avoiding doing a full session, actually. We’ll go together.’