Robby:Can’t get much worse.
Nina:Good setting for it, too.
Robby:Can’t go wrong with a lighthouse, lol. Good things happen to us there.
Nina:Exactly!!! I’m pleased I came. It’s going to be OK.
Nina slipped her phone back in her pocket, picked up her tea and chatted to a woman on her right who looked to be at the same stage. She nodded and chatted so glad that she’d made the choice. She should have known that the lighthouse would make everything okay.
38
Nina had sailed through her pregnancy without any problems at all, to the point that she’d actually wondered what people always went on about regarding it being so hard. She was, however, getting rather uncomfortable as she approached the end and her bump appeared to grow almost by the day.
With a cup of tea in her hand and the mug balanced on her bump, from the sofa, she gazed out over the harbour and watched the boats bobbing up and down and let her mind wander. She thought about the baby, about how excited Robby was, about when she’d arrived at The Summer Hotel, and how Sophie had told her then that it would turn her life around. Neither of them had realised then just quite how much it would do just that.
Before she knew it, she was thinking about Andrew. She had always thought that she would have a baby with him. Now here she was, many years later, heavily pregnant, absolutely blooming, and ready to be a mum but without him.
As she sat and pondered, the little part of her that was still sad about Andrew came to the fore. She brushed it off and imagined that he was looking down at her humongous bump.If he was, she knew that he would say something silly and that she was the size of a house. She chuckled to herself as she remembered standing in his wardrobe, talking to him. Thinking about him and smiling, the baby moved and she felt as if an arm or perhaps a foot was poking through her skin. She laughed and patted her tummy; she was definitely imagining things, but it was as if the baby was joining her in thinking about Andrew. Shelovedhow that made her feel.
Since the wardrobe episode, Nina still often thought about Andrew, she talked to him in her mind and also spoke about him to Robby. She’d had quite a few conversations with Sophie as well about how much Andrew would have loved to have seen her pregnant. She thought more and more about him than she had for a while. She’d pondered when he had passed away, the grief, and how she was now better. With the mug balanced on her bump, she realised that the grief and the feelings were never ever going to go away. But that was actually okay. The difference now to when he’d first died was that she didn’t want it to go away. She still loved the special piece of Andrew that resided in her heart. She would never let that go.
She went through her phone, looking at the pictures of Andrew she kept in a special album. These days, she looked and smiled as the baby kicked away. She continued to think, not too sad and finally finished her tea.
About ten minutes later, she was still in the same position, with the now empty mug balancing on her baby bump and flicked through her phone. She scrolled her WhatsApp messages, clicked on a group, pressed on a link, and re-read some of the baby shower invitation from Birdie.
A Baby Shower for Nina and Her Little One at the deli in Lovely Bay.
Come along to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our Nina & Robby’s bundle of joy.
Join us for an evening of laughter, joy, and sweet surprises. There will be games, treats, and lots of laughter to go around as we shower our Neens with Lovely Bay love.
We can’t wait to celebrate with you.
Please RSVP to Birdie.
Nina hadn’t known about the baby shower. It hadn’t really been her thing. She’d put it in the same bucket as her fateful trip to the wedding shop with her mum and sister. Now it was coming up, though, she was quite looking forward to it. She had to admit to herself that it felt so very nice to be celebrated and loved.
Just as she was heaving herself up from the sofa with the intention of going up, running the bath, and then getting ready to go out, her phone rang. She answered a call from Robby.
‘Hey. How are you?’
‘Hello, yep, I’m okay. You?’
‘Fine. How was your day?’
‘Good. That contract is finished at last. It was a long one. How are you feeling?’
‘Really well. The baby was just kicking while I was lying on the sofa with a cup of tea.’ Nina laughed. She didn’t mention Andrew. No need to rattle on about that.
‘Sweet.’
Nina smiled. ‘It’s the baby shower this evening. Did you remember?’
‘Yep. I did,’ Robby said. Robby was away on a job and wouldn’t be back until the next evening. ‘I hope you’ll be okay. Wish I was there.’
‘I wish you were too, but it’s just one of those things, isn’t it? You’re away in Leeds, and I’m here. We’ll make up for it when you get back. I’m fine, anyway.’
‘Said the person who ended up in a hospital in Bangkok.’
