The same weight as Noah! What were the odds? Different time of day, though. Noah had been a teatime baby. Johnnie’s message was accompanied by a photo of Keira with Arlo snuggled against her and my breath caught. It was exactly like the photo I’d had when Noah was born. In fact, I could easily be looking at myself. Georgia and I looked very similar and Keira looked just like her mum so, by default, bore a strong likeness to me.
I really didn’t want to get upset. This was a happy moment and Arlo wasnotNoah. Keira wasnotme. These were two very separate things, but that didn’t stop a few tears escaping. I tensed when I heard the sound of dog paws skidding on the floor outside. I hadn’t heard Rosie arrive home, although the front door was so far away and the walls so solid that I never did. She pushed the door open and caught me wiping my cheeks.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked, her expression concerned.
‘They’re happy tears. My great-nephew has arrived.’
I passed Rosie my phone so she could see the photo.
‘He’s so cute. Gosh, Keira looks so like you in this photo.’
That released another tear, which I swiped away.
‘Did I say the wrong thing?’ Rosie asked, sitting down on the sofa beside me. She looked so genuinely concerned for me and it felt like the right time.
‘They’re not just happy tears,’ I admitted. ‘Yes, Keira does look the spit of me in this photo and it’s an almost exact match for one I had when my son was born.’
‘Your son? I didn’t realise you had any children.’
‘Just the one – Noah – but he died when he was eighteen from a drug overdose.’ It still felt so alien saying those words – partly because I didn’t usually tell new people and partly because I still couldn’t believe my son had been a drug user.
‘Oh, no! I’m so sorry.’
‘His dad and I had no idea he was in with a bad crowd and had got into drugs. I wanted answers – someone to blame – and it drove a wedge between us. I lost my son but I also lost my husband soon after. We had such a good marriage, you know. Never thought we’d end up divorced.’
‘That’s a lot to handle all at once.’
‘It was and the truth is I didn’t handle it well at all. Anyway, Keira having a boy born on the same day of the week as Noah, weighing the same as him and looking like him in the photo has brought it all rushing back, which is why I’m in here reading instead of working.’
‘Do you want to talk some more about it?’ Rosie asked.
It was so kind of her to offer, but that was hardly a surprise as everything Rosie had done since I’d met her had been kind. She was such a lovely person – as were all her friends and family – and I’d held back on them, not sharing the most important things there were to know about me for fear they might look at me differently. But they weren’t like that and opening up just now hadn’t been nearly as hard as I’d anticipated. Any other day and I might have accepted her offer but I was feeling a little too fragile today.
I smiled at her gratefully. ‘Thank you, and I might take you up on that one day, but I’d prefer a distraction today. Tell me something to cheer me up. Any more news about Autumn and Dane’s books?’
‘Nothing new since the contract was signed, but I do have some good news from Mam and Dad. He’s moving in with her.’
‘Aw, that’s lovely news. At Horseshoe Cottage?’
‘Yes. I don’t think I could have wished for a better partner for her because he completely gets it. He’s got this big house in Grasmere which he loves, but he loves Mam more. He knows that this is the place she feels happiest and safest so he’s willing to sell up and downsize massively for her.’
‘Sounds like true love.’
‘As I understand it, it was true love from the moment they met and, if people hadn’t interfered and lied, he’d never have left. He says they’re magnets and they were pulled apart when they shouldn’t have been but the connection was so strong that they were always going to be drawn back to each other. Isn’t that sweet?’
I nodded my agreement, smiling at her. Magnets. Where had I heard that phrase recently? And then it came back to me. It was when Mum had asked me over the phone why I’d split up with Graeme. I’d said we’d wanted different things and she’d suggested that the ‘thing’ I wanted was Flynn and that he was my magnet.
Was he?
* * *
Later that evening, I was in bed reading when there was a knock on my door.
‘Would you like some more good news?’ Rosie asked when I called to her to come in.
‘Always.’
‘Autumn’s just FaceTimed me. Dane asked her to marry him tonight.’
