Bess grinned smugly as she successfully made the dog sit. ‘Good boy, Zeus. See…’ She looked at Nadia. ‘I’m getting in practice with my disciplining skills.’
‘She’s pregnant,’ said Nadia to her sister. And for the first time, it didn’t hurt quite so much.
Monica smiled. ‘Congratulations. And might I say, you’re brave taking on a puppy and a baby at the same time.’
‘It wasn’t planned,’ said Gio.
‘These things never are.’
They let Bess and Gio go on their way and once inside reception, they sat and waited for Archie.
‘I expect Giles is missing his little friends quite a lot.’ Nadia knew it would soon be time for the family to leave and the thought was hard to get to grips with now that the day had arrived. Small talk seemed the best way to get through it.
‘Are you joking?’ Monica grinned. ‘He seems to make friends just like that – he already has a couple from the local park; I’m sure he’ll be talking about more when they come and pick me up.’
Over the last week, the sisters had spent a lot of time together – they’d talked about their childhood, the good, the bad and the ugly parts, they’d cried over the loss of their mother, something they hadn’t done together before now. But mostly, they’d got to know each other again.
And the realisation that Monica was leaving had been hovering in the air the whole time.
Archie arrived shortly after they got back to the airbase and he successfully transferred Bella into her car seat with a little kiss on the top of her head and a whispered, ‘Goodbye, little one,’ from Nadia.
‘Well, this is it.’ Monica’s voice wobbled as they stood next to the car.
Nadia took a deep breath. ‘This is it.’
‘Are you going to start crying, Mummy?’ Giles frowned.
‘Of course not,’ she said, not convincing anyone given the tremble of her bottom lip.
Nadia hugged her sister tightly and held her for a moment while her own tears came, tears not just about the fact she was leaving but also because she had her sister back in her life.
When they parted, Nadia got down to Giles’s level and gave him a tight hug. ‘I will see you soon, I promise. You look after your mummy for me, okay?’
‘I promise. So youwillcome and see me?’
‘My visit is less than a month away.’
‘That’s a-ges.’ He accentuated the start of the word to show just how long he thought he was going to be waiting.
‘It’ll go really quickly. And then after that, why don’t we plan when you’re next coming here? Your mummy suggested we do it before Bella starts crawling.’
He rolled his eyes. ‘She’ll be intoeverything.’That had them all laughing and Nadia fought to hold back tears, happy tears but also tears of sadness that they were leaving.
Monica coaxed Giles into the car and Archie hugged Nadia tightly.
‘It’s been so good to see you; I mean that,’ he said.
‘Thank you, Archie, for never giving up on her like?—’
But he stopped her mid-sentence. ‘You did what you had to do. That’s life, and we can’t change it. No regrets, eh?’
‘No regrets.’
With one more hug from Archie and another from Monica, Nadia finally let the family get on their way. She stayed out front of the airbase building until she could no longer see their car, no longer see three hands waving out of the open windows.
She was about to go inside when she felt a pair of arms slip around her waist. She relaxed into them and closed her eyes against the sunshine.
‘You okay?’ Hudson murmured in her ear.
