And Nadia and Hudson? They were somewhere in between.
Hudson led her onto the dance floor. He lifted one of her hands in his, he set his other against her waist and their bodies almost touching, Nadia tried to ignore the giddy feeling she had running through her, the feeling that made it near impossible to move.
Neither of them said a word; they just danced.
But as they drew closer to Kate, who was dancing with her dad, Kate caught Nadia’s eye. ‘He’s over there, that guy I told you about.’
‘What guy?’ Hudson asked.
Nadia was about to say she had no idea when she locked eyes with the man who’d come in the back entrance of the marquee. Highlighted by the moonlight, it was hard to know if she was imagining it, it seemed so unreal.
Hudson followed the direction of her gaze. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Archie…’
And then it was as if her feet moved all by themselves.
She’d come out of Hudson’s embrace, walked over to the man, stopped in front of him.
It had been almost twenty years since they’d laid eyes on one another, over two decades since they’d mourned the loss oftheir baby. Standing in front of her now was the same Archie she remembered with the blond hair that had faded, the piercing blue eyes she’d looked into plenty of times, the same habit of biting his cheek nervously when confronted by something he wasn’t sure of.
Her heart thumped; her whole body tensed. ‘What are you doing here?’
When Archie didn’t say a word, Hudson interjected and introduced himself, perhaps to save Nadia from whatever he thought this was. ‘I’m Hudson, good to meet you. You missed the silent auction, I’m afraid.’
‘I’m not here for the auction.’ His eyes never left Nadia, not until a little boy came to his side.
And when Nadia looked at the child, she felt winded. The resemblance was there all right and to see it was confronting.
‘Can we go somewhere and talk?’ Archie asked. ‘It’s important. I wouldn’t have come otherwise.’
Nadia felt Hudson’s arm go around her waist. But she pulled away and turned to face him.
‘I’m sorry, Hudson, I need to deal with this.’
And she watched Hudson slowly nod, disappointment written all over his face as he turned and walked away from her, back into the crowds.
11
With Carys in the lounge playing with her toys, Hudson nipped to the back of the house to the utility room to sort the laundry into lights and darks. The big fundraiser and his night alone in a hotel felt like a distant memory already, even though he’d only left the beautiful country house and his crew mates six hours ago. How quickly he’d come crashing back to reality. He’d collected Carys and Beau from Lucinda’s on his way through, given Lucinda lived in the same direction as Brad, who was catching a lift with him, and the moment Beau got in the car, Hudson got the impression his son would have preferred to spend a lot longer in Cardiff than he’d been able to.
This morning at breakfast, he’d expected to see Nadia. Everyone else was there and met at the agreed time of 8.30a.m., but there was no trace of her and when he mentioned her to Kate, Kate told him that Nadia had gone back to Whistlestop River last night on the minibus with some other people from the town. She’d given up her room just like that, so whatever this guy Archie wanted with her, it had to have been important. And Hudson had a sinking feeling that there was a history between the pair and whatever he had dreamed might happen with Nadiaone day would be just that: a dream. And did he really want to start anything with her now he knew there was another man on the scene? It was a complication he really didn’t need, a fight he wasn’t sure he had the time or energy for, no matter how strong his feelings were.
At least he’d had a good time up until that point. Hudson and the others had made the most of their temporary location and after breakfast, had walked along the coastal path admiring the views, inhaling the fresh sea air before they accepted it was time to set off for home. And he’d done his absolute best to push Nadia out of his mind – not that it had worked.
Beau appeared in the utility room. ‘When’s dinner?’
‘Fifteen minutes or thereabouts. Chicken curry.’ Hudson pushed a pile of whites into the washing machine.
‘Cool.’
Hudson supposed that was high praise or at least acknowledgement. But conversation was over because Beau had already put headphones back on and Hudson saw the flash of his green hoodie as he turned out of the kitchen to go upstairs.
Beau might not be chatty but at least Hudson hadn’t had to ask him to turn his music down since he’d come home. He’d blasted it out on more than one occasion in the past and Hudson swore it was his way of holding up the middle finger to his dad when he was irritated by him. Hudson had ignored it a few times but not when he had Carys to settle much earlier than her older brother. In the end, Hudson had bought Beau a pair of the enormous headphones that seemed so on-trend these days for Christmas and his son had taken to wearing them a lot. Hudson swore they weren’t even connected half the time when he schlepped around the house. They were just a handy way of not having to talk to anyone.
Hudson quickly checked on Carys – she was still playing with a toy bus and all the little people that went inside. He went back to the laundry, put on the white wash.
He thought about that man again. Archie. Where had he popped up from all of a sudden and what did he want with Nadia? Whatever it was, they’d left the marquee, gone outside and he hadn’t seen her since.
