Chapter 2
‘DON’T YOU WANT TO know what your present is?
’ Noah asked the following morning as they lay entwined in each other’s arms. He had just been telling her about his business trip to Frankfurt, to which she had feigned the required level of interest. She lifted her head and looked at him quizzically. ‘How do you fancy a night in Hastings?’
‘Really?’ Helena grinned. They had been to the seaside town several times before.
There was something about the timeless charm of the old town that Helena had fallen head over heels in love with.
And it wasn’t too far away from their village, Hambleton.
‘Thank you’, Helena said as she pulled Noah towards her and kissed him.
‘I’ve booked a hotel for the three of us tonight.
And I’m going to take you out for a very spoiling lunch.
’ She watched him as he sprang out of bed and threw back the curtains, clearly in a wonderful mood.
For company, Noah at his sparkling best was hard to beat: he was charming, jovial, energetic and passionate.
His muscular body was smooth and lean, his skin olive brown thanks to his Māori heritage.
He had striking aquiline features, green eyes, and the same dark hair as Raffy, but without the curls.
She smiled as he leant over to kiss her once more. ‘It sounds perfect!’
‘Raffy, guess who’s home?!’ Noah called as he walked down the landing and pushed open Raffy’s door.
She could hear the rapturous greeting. Helena listened as they chattered away, stretching languorously before hauling herself up and out of bed.
It was nice to have a co-parent back in the house again.
Leaving Raffy and Noah to it, she closed the bathroom door and turned the shower on.
She pulled her long hair into a bun, inspecting herself critically in the mirror as she did so.
She noticed that her pale skin had acquired a smattering of freckles during the first weeks of summer.
She had inherited her blue eyes, dark hair and pale skin from her Irish mother, Bridget.
The older she got the more she saw traces of her own parents staring back from her reflection.
It was strangely comforting, now that they were both no longer with her.
A wave of grief washed over her. She would never get used to them being gone.
The suddenness of her mother’s death seemed to make it so much harder to accept.
She had died a year before Helena had met Noah.
The absence of the one constant she had always been able to rely on had nearly thrown her over the edge.
Noah had been the chink of light in the dark, a life raft she had clung to.
She hated to think what would have become of her if he hadn’t appeared in her life at that moment.
As she stood under the powerful jets, letting the steaming hot water pummel her shoulders, she let out a contented sigh.
The psychic had been right. Her life had completely changed in the last four years.
She thought back to the life she had had before, in London, working in events, living in a flat share.
Now she was a mum to Raffy, a partner to Noah, she lived in the countryside and had a wonderful home…
it was crazy to think how one chance encounter could have led to all this.
*
An hour and a half later, the three of them pulled up outside their home for the night: a boutique hotel in a crescent of Victorian mansions directly opposite Hastings seafront.
It was a glorious, blue-skied day, scorching hot and perfectly clear.
The storm from the night before was nowhere to be seen.
They pottered along the beach and skimmed stones into the sea before wandering through the old town.
After lunch on the seafront, they took the rickety Victorian lift up to the top of the cliff.
Raffy squealed as they soared upwards, watching the famous black fishing huts shrink before his eyes.
At the top, they stood and gazed at the view.
The small town was tucked into the surrounding coastline as if nestled in the palm of a hand.
The sun bounced off the glistening sea, a thousand pinpricks of shimmering light.
‘Right, who wants an ice cream?’ Noah asked, spying a truck parked several metres away.
‘Me!’ screeched Raffy, racing over to the van.
Soon they were walking along the Downs, Raffy struggling to stop his ice cream from melting all over himself as they made their way through the winding pathways lined with wildflowers.
‘Shall we stop here for a bit?’ Helena asked, noticing Raffy tiring.
Noah pulled a picnic rug out from his backpack and they sprawled out under the shade of a tree, the three of them lying flat on their backs, their heads touching as their legs made the shape of a starfish.
Helena felt Raffy’s small hand reach around to take hold of hers, she gave it a squeeze and smiled, staring up at the jewel like glimpses of blue beyond the canopy of leaves overhead.