It was a comfort to know that something so major for Nadia hadn’t been just a joke to her sister – that was how Nadia had felt and it had given her a pain she couldn’t tolerate, an urge to get away that she couldn’t ignore.
‘I’m glad you found each other, Archie.’
‘Really?’
‘In an odd way, yes. I didn’t see it, not until now, now you’re here. Seeing you worry and the fact you’re doing everything you can for Monica shows me that it wasn’t for nothing. I just hope she does the same for you in return, that this isn’t a game for my sister.’
‘I swear, if I thought that, I wouldn’t even be here.’
They watched Giles for a while until Nadia admitted, ‘I’m happy in Whistlestop River, Archie, have been for years, but in the moments I’ve let myself, I’ve wondered whether things could’ve been different.’
‘That’s human nature. Thewhat if?question.’
‘Do you ever…’
‘Think about us?’
‘Well, yes. I mean, there was a baby.’
‘I’ve never forgotten what happened, Nadia. Never.’
‘Did you tell Monica?’
‘I had to. I wanted to be honest with her from the start and I expected the same in return.’
‘Did she care?’
‘Of course she cared. But she also knew you wouldn’t want her to try talking to you about it.’
‘No, I wouldn’t have wanted that.’ She would’ve closed the door in her face, physically and metaphorically.
‘She did care,’ he said. ‘I can promise you that. She asked whether I wanted to walk away, said she’d understand if I did because of my friendship and history with you. I’m sorry, Nadia, but I didn’t want that. I’d fallen for her by then, I couldn’t imagine not having her in my life.’
She looked over at Giles, who leapt off the climbing frame and came barrelling over. Archie handed him his juice without even asking whether he wanted it. He downed it in a few big, thirsty gulps.
‘You want some time with your iPad?’ Archie asked his son.
But Giles was already running away back to the playground.
Archie smiled. ‘I guess that’s a no.’
‘He’s a lovely little boy. And look…’
Another boy about Giles’s age had arrived and already he and Giles were racing together around the base of the climbing frame.
‘He is, and Monica adores him, which makes this so hard because I’m starting to wonder how she can stay away from him for so long. But if her head is in a similar space as it was when she came back from England last time then perhaps she’s not thinking straight at all.’
‘Do you think she’d do anything that might put the baby at risk?’
‘Apart from travelling over six hundred miles so close to her due date, you mean? No.’
Giles’s giggles had them both grinning as they turned to watch him and the other little boy on either end of the seesaw, sending it high enough in the sky that their little bottoms came off the seat each time it was their turn to go up.
‘I’m going to have to go back home to Switzerland soon,’ said Archie. ‘I have work. I just hope she gets in touch with me before that but I can’t stay on indefinitely, much as I’d like to.’ He turned on the bench to face her. ‘I’m sorry about everything, you know. I’m sorry about the way things were in Switzerland and that you felt you had to leave.’
She looked him right in the eye. ‘I don’t regret it. That might sound harsh but I don’t.’
‘I understand why you left and Monica does too.’
