Page 5 of Second Chance Summer
Before Lily could offer up another word, two six-year- olds hurtled into the office like an explosion in a Haribo factory. Amelie and Tania were dressed in frocks of pineapple yellow and peppermint green, their hair flying behind them. They were impossibly pretty, a combination of their father’s French Polynesian heritage and Cara’s English rose looks.
Amelie launched herself at Lily. ‘Auntie Lily! We missed you but Daddy said you weren’t feeling very well.’
Lily’s head throbbed afresh but she pulled her nieces to her. ‘All the better for seeing you. I’m so sorry I forgot to meet you.’
Tania looked at her solemnly. Lily swallowed a lump in her throat. She looked so much like Cara. ‘You aren’t going to die like Mummy, are you?’
Lily choked back tears. Her heart was so full, it felt as if it might burst. ‘No, poppet, I’m not. I’m not going anywhere, I promise you.’
She gathered the girls against her, for her own sake as much as theirs, because the world was shifting beneath her. In this moment, the only thing holding it together was them; their warmth, their life force, and through them, the memory of her late sister. Étienne was right. Cara would have wanted her to stay well; to stay alive – for the twins.
Over their shoulders, she saw Étienne and Richie looking at her. Her brother-in-law was tight-lipped. Richie was dabbing his eyes with a tissue.
‘I suppose a nice holiday would do me good,’ she said.
Richie jumped in. ‘Shall I book something?’
‘Yes,’ Lily said. ‘I think you ought to. Somewhere quiet and peaceful and restful, away from all of this for a couple of weeks.’
Richie was already on his way out of the office. ‘I’m on it now!’
‘Make sure it’s got decent WiFi though!’ Lily called after him.
The girls released her. Tania sat in Lily’s Herman Miller chair and started twirling round.
‘Can I play with your toy?’ Amelie said.
‘Of course,’ Lily said, smiling as her niece took the retro stress-relieving pendulum off the desk and started crashing the metal spheres into each other.
Étienne gave her a peck on the cheek. ‘Well done,’ he said. ‘The first step is always the hardest.’
‘Well, I’m not as stubborn as I look,’ Lily said to a raised eyebrow from her brother-in-law. ‘Shall we get out of here? I could join you for pizza at your place?’
‘That sounds like a very good idea. You can watchFrozenagain while I fall asleep.’
‘I can’t wait,’ Lily said, adding earnestly, ‘really. It will be wonderful to spend the whole evening with you all. It’s been too long …’
Étienne touched her arm. ‘I know. Come on, let’s all go home.’
With a farewell to Richie, Lily shrugged on her suit jacket and, for the first time in months, left the office before it was dark. Today had been a wake-up call – one that she needed to heed for the sake of the company’s future.
A week or two of pampering at a nice spa resort would soon set her to rights and then, refreshed and revived, she could get straight back to the office. Even better, she might be able to carry on catching up with emails and keeping her potential new client in the loop in between massages and cocktails.
It was such a brilliant idea, she was amazed she hadn’t thought of it before.
CHAPTER TWO
Three days later
This has got to be one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made in my entire life.
Lily didn’t say the words out loud because there was no point. No one could hear her, and she couldn’t even hear herself. Even though the helicopter crew had supplied ear defenders, the noise was like lying with your ear pressed to a washing machine.
So far, it had taken almost eleven hours to reach this point. A cab from her flat to Paddington, a train journey to Penzance during which she’d planned to do some work but felt too tired and travel sick, and a short taxi ride to the heliport. Now she was on the flight to Tresco, one of the Isles of Scilly.
The helicopter crossing was only supposed to take fifteen minutes but Lily already felt as if she’d been on it for a lifetime – and she still had a short boat journey from Tresco to Bryher to contend with, followed by a speedboat to Stark. Several times, she reflected that she could have been enjoying a cocktail in a New York bar by now. New York, however,would not have been a restful break from the mayhem, whereas Stark definitely should be.
‘The view will be amazing when we come in to land on the islands,’ the woman in the seat beside her had said as they boarded. ‘The colours look like the Caribbean.’
