Jude’s head popped out next to Teo. Rita almost didn’t recognise him, his face looked so different without his glasses on.
‘I’ve seen nothing.’ She comically put both her hands over her eyes. ‘For a moment I thought it might be Annie,’ Rita joshed.
Teo made a retching action. The bookseller looked worried. ‘You won’t tell anyone, will you?’
‘Tell anyone, what?’ She winked.
‘Thank you,’ Jude said. ‘The Seahaven Bay Facebook Gossip Group would dine out on this one for years. BOOKSELLER FOUND FORNICATING IN HAYLOFT WITH FITNESS INSTRUCTOR FOURTEEN YEARS HIS JUNIOR.I’d better go home and get ready to open the shop.’
‘I give you a lift.’ Teo popped his head back behind the curtain.
Rita stepped back into the soft morning light, stretching her arms wide and letting out a long, hearty yawn. The air now hung heavy with the promise of rain, thick and electric.
As she climbed into the Jimny to drive the breakfasts up to the yurts, she did something she hadn’t done in ages: she sang along to the radio. She felt light, happy. And she liked it that Teo and Jude felt happy too. They could all just live and let live. Last night was proof that life really could turn on a sixpence. And maybe, just maybe, Zenya’s moon mantras weren’t quite as woo-woo as she’d thought. After all, Jude’s wish on a star had definitely come true. Well, at least it had last night.
Rita was already back in the barn in her yoga gear when Teo returned to run his session. ‘Glad we’ve set up in here today, firstday of rain in a long time.’ Rita moved a stray cushion onto a milk churn.
‘Yes,perfecto. Let’s see how many leave their yurts after a late night and now this weather. I did go up earlier and see if anyone wanted a lift down, but I got no response.’
‘So, Teo. Now I am fully party to your love life.’ The handsome Spaniard grinned. ‘I realise I don’t really know much about you at all. If you don’t mind me asking, where do you come from? What is your story?’
Teo gave a shy smile and ran a hand through his tousled dark hair. ‘It’s what you English call a mongrel, I think. I’m half English, mostly Spanish. My mother, she is a spirited woman from Sevilla. Met an Englishman, a fleeting romance, a summer fling. She never saw him again.’
Rita’s eyes widened. ‘So, you never knew your father?’
Teo looked a little unsettled as he shook his head furiously. ‘No. No. My mother raised me in Sevilla on her own. She isbajita.’ He put his hand to neck level. ‘Just under five foot, like your Hilda, but has a fire within that lights up a room. I think I must have inherited most of me from her. Her passion, her temper, her kindness, and love for life.’
‘She sounds incredible.’ Rita smiled.
‘Sí, sí. She is.’ Teo nodded, his gaze distant. ‘She taught me to embrace everymomento, to find joy in thepequeño. Small, small, I mean. Even when times were tough after myaccidente, she never let me feel the weight of the world. Instead, suggested I retrain in something that made me as happy, or nearly anyway.’
‘I’m so happy that you did.’ Rita’s eyes twinkled.
‘It was Mamá who suggested Cornwall actually. Said it was one place in England that I should visit. Wrote a list of places I could surf, one of them being here.’
‘She has good taste, your mother, clearly. It’s funny…’ Rita mused, ‘how our past shapes us, even the parts we don’t know.’
Teo looked at her, his eyes thoughtful. ‘Yes. But it’s also about what we choose to do with it. Our past is a foundation, but webuild the rest. All I know, right at this moment, is that it feels right being here in Seahaven Bay.’
‘I’m glad, because it feels right having you here.’ Rita squeezed his arm.
‘I know it sounds a bit… and I use your words here… woo-woo, but this place… it has a pull, doesn’t it? Maybe Zenya has lured us all here to find ourselves or someone else, maybe in my case.’
‘It certainly seems like magic is happening for a few people.’ Rita laughed softly.
Teo looked coy for a moment. ‘Rita. I know it must be hard to talk about but please now that I have shared, can you tell me a little bit about your husband, your Archie.’
‘Well, he had a light in his eye too. Everybody loved Archie. He was fun and would do anything to help anyone in trouble. He was fiercely passionate about us.’ Rita put her hand to her heart. ‘He, too, had a temper; I used to hide and read in the hayloft sometimes, wait until it had blown over, but he was a fair man.’
Teo was listening intently. ‘He sound like a good man.’
Rita nodded. ‘He had his moments, like we all do. He’d disappear sometimes when things got a bit rough on the farm. I only learned recently from Stan that he’d sit under the Singing Tree and think. Just like I used to and still do, sometimes. Whenever he could find time for a beer with his mates in the Winking Pilchard, he would, and despite his mother not always being the easiest of women, he looked after her really well, especially after his dad died. Hence me taking on that mantle now.’
‘Hilda – her barking is worse than her biting, is that what you say?’
‘Nearly.’ Rita laughed and before she could correct him, Teo’s face dropped.
‘And your son? Maybe his biting is worse than his barking.’
