Rina’s hair had been a mess when we met at Sofia’s the week before, so either she was a hypocrite, and slightly rude to boot, or there was more toast stuck in there. She did look a lot less dishevelled this morning.
‘It’s really not. Forget I said anything. There’s a brush in my bag if you change your mind.’
Feeling a prickle of apprehension about this irregular coffee-mum meet-up, I went upstairs and swapped my leggings for a slouchy, cream knit-dress I’d worn earlier on in my pregnancy, that wasn’t too unflattering to my deflating bump and had buttons so I could breastfeed, and thick tights. Instead of brushing my hair, I twisted it up into a bun and even added a dab of concealer under my bloodshot eyes before grabbing a jade fake-fur coat left over from an advertising shoot.
‘Wow. You do not dress like a woman who lives in a place like this,’ Rina said when I met her in the hallway.
‘I’ve had the clothes since way before a baby decimated my housework schedule.’
‘Oh, gosh, no, I don’t mean the mess,’ she scoffed, carrying Bob to the car. ‘But I’m surprised that someone who clearly has impeccable taste and values aesthetics would choose an interior as beige as an Aldi buffet. Plus, that outfit is pure city chic.’
I opened the back door, finding Jock and Mitch snoozing in their car seats.
‘I’m renting the cottage and haven’t had the energy to do much with it yet.’
‘Where were you living before?’ Rina asked once she’d jammed Bob’s seat between the other two and strapped him in. ‘And, more to the point, how did you end up in this place?’
‘I was in Sheffield. Not having a car meant it was hard to view places in person, and it looked a lot better online.’
As Rina reversed out of my drive and started heading down the lane towards the main road, I didn’t add why I’d left Sheffield, or how, when frantically searching for a place to live, the cottage was the first place I stumbled across that was affordable, fully furnished and immediately available. Crucially, it was also far away from anyone else, but not so far I couldn’t afford a taxi to get me there.
‘What brought you to Sherwood Forest?’
I shrugged. ‘I came this way with work a couple of times, and to a wedding at Hatherstone Hall. It seemed as nice a place as any, and a lot cheaper than the Peak District, which was my other option.’
Rina gave me a shrewd glance. ‘Escape to the country?’
She didn’t add the obvious: while pregnant, and alone.
I wanted to reply with something light-hearted, make a reference to the fresh air or peace and quiet, but I’d heard these coffee mums sharing, witnessed the depths of their friendship, and I’d missed that so fiercely I ached. I might not be ready to reveal everything, but I wasn’t going to deny that she was right.
‘I’d left the business I helped run, under difficult circumstances, but also happened to share an apartment with the CEO.’
‘Awkward.’
‘Yeah. Sheffield has always been home, so I thought a new start was the best option. Or a break, at least.’
‘Right.’
‘How long have you lived here?’ I asked, redirecting the conversation to avoid her next question, which was surely about Bob’s father.
‘I grew up in Middlebeck, a tiny village a few miles from here. When I married Alex, he wanted to live in the city so we rented a place not far from the church, which is how I met Sofia. When everything imploded, I moved back to Middlebeck. Mitch was about six months.’
‘That must have been tough.’
‘Yeah. Thankfully, I have family right around the corner who I only want to throttle half the time. Also, Sofia and the others were ridiculously good at bringing around meals and helping out, making sure I didn’t lose it altogether.’ She glanced at me, eyes serious. ‘It’s been close, a couple of times. I couldn’t have got through it without them.’
‘Yet you still manage to work, even with two small boys?’
‘Do you know the Enduring Life series?’
‘The anime?’ Kieran used to watch the show about a girl travelling through time, trying to find each generation of her family and save them, or something like that.
‘It’s also a set of manga books.’
‘You’re not the author?’
She grinned. ‘Best-selling author and illustrator, these days, thanks to Netflix.’
