Chapter 19
NINETEEN
Rita had just got in from feeding the animals and was tucking into tea and toast at the kitchen table when it happened.
Ping!
She paused. Email alerts usually heralded spam, a newsletter she never signed up for, or a flash sale on beauty products she didn’t need.
But something about this ping felt… different.
With a deep breath, she reached across the table for her laptop.
She tapped the trackpad and squinted at the inbox.
Subject: Booking Confirmation – The Seahaven Bay Retreat
She stared at it. Then blinked. Then stared again.
Booking… confirmation. She whispered aloud then gasped. For there it was. A real person by the name of Emily Budd had booked the month-long Sea, Breath, and Soul Escape. She’d even paid in full. There was a message, too:
Hi! I found your retreat on Instagram and fell in love with it instantly. I’m so excited to spend a whole month by the sea. Hope there’s decent coffee! Emily x
Rita let out a stunned laugh. Her hand flew to her mouth. ‘Oh my God.’
She whirled around the kitchen, emitting little screams, pulse racing. This wasn’t just someone saying ‘interested’ or asking how far it was from the station. This was a real booking. A real guest. Someone who’d looked at the photos, read her blurb, and decided yes.
She had imagined this moment so many times during late-night doubts and early-morning ‘what am I doing?’ spirals. But now it was real, it felt entirely surreal.
She did a little jump on the spot, a ridiculous half dance that caused Henry, who was sleeping in his bed, to open one eye then close it again with a harrumph.
She grabbed her phone, and clutching a tea towel like a victory flag, opened WhatsApp. She tapped out a message.
RITA
Guess who just got her first ACTUAL guest booking!!!!
A reply came almost instantly.
KELLY
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I’M SCREAMING. I’M CRYING. I’M SO PROUD OF YOU MY FRIEND XXX
Rita grinned. She typed back one-handed while pouring herself a celebratory glass of non-alcoholic elderflower fizz, the one she’d been testing for guests.
She sat back down at the table. She had done this. Against all logic and fear and through all-consuming grief, she had created something. Rita Jory, once the woman who could barely get out of bed, who didn’t know where she ended and her sadness began, had set up her own business.
The Seahaven Bay Retreat was officially (well, nearly – because she could really do with four more guests) open for business.
Her hand rested on the edge of the table, her thumb tracing the grain in the wood. There was a hum in her chest, like something deep and joyful trying to make its way to the surface. But it wasn’t joy alone. It was everything.
She didn’t realise she was crying until a tear dropped silently onto the table. Then another and another, until she found herself full-on sobbing.
Then behind her through the open front door, she heard a voice. ‘Rita. Oh, Rita. No. No.’
She quickly wiped at her cheeks with the sleeve of her cardigan before turning, but it was too late. Teo stood in the doorway, barefoot and gentle as ever, wearing loose cotton trousers and a faded T-shirt with the word NAMASTE peeling across the chest.
‘I’m OK,’ she managed, her voice cracking.
The handsome Spaniard didn’t speak at first. Just walked over, placed a hand softly on her shoulder, and crouched beside her.
‘Rita,’ he soothed. ‘You do not cry like this because something is wrong, am I right, please say I am right.’
She let out a shaky laugh through the tears. ‘I think I’m happy. Honestly, I think I’m so happy. It’s just… it’s all a bit much. You know.’
‘You are happy and sad at the same time,’ he said with a wise little nod. ‘That is how healing feels.’
She looked down at him, her heart full and aching. ‘Do you think he’d be proud? My Archie, my husband, that is.’
Teo nodded thoughtfully. ‘I expect he’d be proud of you whatever you did.’
Her chest tightened, but this time it didn’t break her; it lifted her. She let out a long breath, nodded, and sniffed loudly.
‘Come,’ Teo said gently, rising to his feet and handing her a piece of kitchen roll from the side. ‘The sun is up, the sky is blue and my beautiful Rita, she need to feel grounded. You are coming with me to the orchard.’
Rita dutifully followed the young Spaniard out through the back door, into the cool hush of early morning.
The orchard was bathed in soft, pearly light, dew clinging to the grass like scattered jewels.
Teo led her to the clearing between the trees, where the grass had been flattened from his own previous yoga session.
‘Lie down,’ he crooned. Rita, feeling hypnotised by this charming man, did as instructed, not even caring that she was lying in the damp.
Teo knelt beside her, guiding her limbs until she lay completely still, with her palms facing upwards and her feet falling naturally outward.
‘Now close your eyes and breathe normally.
Focus on releasing tension from your foots up to the top of your head.
‘Savasana,’ Teo whispered, in his special tone, the one as if nothing in the world could ever truly be urgent. ‘Savasana.’
At first Rita resisted, thoughts spinning around her head at one hundred miles an hour.
‘Flow with the breeze, just flow, just relax,’ Teo soothed.
Rita felt her body grow heavy, her eyes closed, the breeze brushing her face like perfect kisses. And for a few glorious minutes, she let herself just be. No worries, no lists, no more grief dragging behind her like a shadow.
Teo continued his soothing mantra. ‘Just breathe. Just peace. Just now.’
Then, all of a sudden: chug-chug-chug-chug. The unmistakable sound of Archie’s old tractor cut through the stillness like an unexpected thunderclap.
With a deep sigh, Rita opened her eyes. Teo took her hand to help her up. ‘I think your cowboy is here.’
Rita groaned softly as she sat up. ‘He’s not my cowboy.’
Teo nodded wisely. ‘So, I overhear your good guest news. I shall go and tell Zenya, sí.’
‘Thank you, Teo, you really are a star.’
Rita sloped across the courtyard, her hair everywhere, tear streaks still evident. But she felt younger somehow, as if the burden of the last few months had been gently lifted. Like a natural beauty was shining from within.
She couldn’t help but smile back at Jago’s lopsided grin as he climbed down from the tractor, pushing his wild dark curls back to show off his piercing green eyes. ‘Hope I didn’t interrupt some kind of sacred ritual.’
‘You’ll be the first on my list if there’s a public flogging.’ She quickly wiped at her face and scraped at her hair to try and get it into some kind of order.
Jago laughed. ‘Here I am going out of my way to help you again and all I get is full-on abuse.’
Rita pointed to the trailer attached to the tractor. ‘What you got on there, anyway? I’ve got enough yurts, thanks.’
‘Hold your horses, madam.’ Jago peeled back the tarpaulin covering the long, unidentified item with a flourish.
‘Stan told me you needed somewhere for the guests to eat. It’s a marquee and a couple of long bench seats.
My old man used to use it for family parties, but being on my own now, I don’t seem to have had time to follow that tradition. ’
Rita blinked, her throat tightening. ‘Why are you being so good to me? I know that you and Archie were never the best of friends but I kind of never asked why?’
Rita was sure that she could see a tear in big Jago Jenken’s eye. He looked away and coughed loudly.
Avoiding her gaze, he began unstrapping the frame. ‘I just thought it might help.’ His voice tightened. ‘No big deal if you don’t want it.’
‘You’ve already helped with the yurts, fixed some fences and are paying for Stan to help me… and now this?’
And just like that, her composure cracked for the second time that day.
Maybe it was the savasana; maybe it had loosened something deep inside her, unknotted a part of her she’d been holding tight for too long.
Whatever it was, the tears came again before she could stop them.
Quiet at first, slipping down her cheeks in silence, then with that awful hitching breath that a big sob courted.
‘Oh God.’ She wiped her face with her sleeve. ‘Ignore me. I don’t know what’s up with me today. I was on cloud nine earlier.’
‘Hey.’ His voice had lost its usual swagger. He took a cautious step forward.
Rita turned her face away, wiping at her cheeks with the back of her hand like it might undo the moment, but it was too late. The crack had widened. She felt exposed, embarrassed by the rawness of it all.
Jago didn’t try to joke, didn’t offer some clumsy one-liner. He just stood there for a second, uncertain, then closed the distance between them.
‘Rita, tell me. What’s going on?’
She shook her head and sniffed. He reached out, slow, and deliberate, placing a hand gently on her arm.
‘You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to,’ he said, his voice soft, encouraging.
And that’s when she looked up at him, like really looked.
His face wasn’t mocking or smug or amused.
It was open. Concerned. And maybe something else too.
The silence between them stretched, and in it, something shifted.
Jago brushed a thumb beneath her eye, catching a tear.
The contact was feather-light. She didn’t move. Maybe she couldn’t.
Then his hand moved to her chin, cupping it gently, like he was giving her every opportunity to pull away. But she didn’t. And before she even had a chance to think if she wanted to, it was happening. Jago Jenken was leaning in to kiss her.
It was soft, tentative. There was no swagger in it. Just warmth. Sincerity. And something that felt a little like longing. For a moment, Rita kissed him back.
But then panic flared in her chest like a struck match. She stepped back sharply, breath catching, eyes wide.
‘I – I can’t, Jago, it’s too soon. I’m so sorry. It’s just… What are you doing?’
He froze, hurt flickering across his face so quickly that Rita missed it. Then he nodded once, jaw tightening.
‘Yeah. No. Of course not. What was I thinking?’ He took a step back, clearing his throat. ‘I should go.’
He turned and headed back to the tractor, boots crunching against the gravel. She watched him climb in and drive away, the marquee and benches rattling on the trailer, the released tarpaulin flapping in the breeze.
Rita stood frozen, heart thudding, lips tingling from a kiss that had not only taken her completely by surprise but had left her unsure what to feel.