Now he’s brought this up, I might as well straighten things out. ‘You didn’t have to jump in too; I’m a much stronger swimmer.’
He wiggles his eyebrows. ‘Maybe I was subliminally hoping you’d save me?’ He laughs. ‘If there’s a fantasy question coming, as a teenager mine was always me getting into difficulties in the shallows, and you coming to rescue me with your lifesaving skills.’
I despair that boys never grow up. ‘If you tell me that included mouth-to-mouth, I may have to push your face in the cream bowl.’
He looks wounded. ‘I’m laying myself bare here. Is it too much to hope you daydreamed about me?’
For a second I wonder if he can actually see inside my head. I clamp my teeth together and give a silent curse that he can still wind me up so easily.
‘I haven’t told you my surprise yet.’
His smile fades. ‘Of course, I’m sorry for butting in before you’d had your turn.’
I purse my lips. ‘If you keep winding me up, you’re never going to hear it.’
His voice is soft. ‘Nothing I’ve said today has been a wind-up, Maevey.’
I give the head shake that deserves. ‘All those years with you and Sav, I can spot them from Truro.’
His chest rises as he sighs. ‘I can’t speak for Sav, but as an adult I’ve found there are critical times where the truth works better than messing about.’ He pauses. ‘I’ve learned to be serious when I need to be.’
I can’t decide if he’s being pompous or open.
At least this sidetrack has given me time to think up an easier answer.
‘No prizes for guessing– my biggest surprise was landing my job at the wedding shop.’ I take in his sigh. ‘Why are you frowning?’
He pulls a face. ‘I honestly thought you’d say Nemmie.’
I take a breath. ‘It obviously was her, but as you’d gone for something current, I did too.’ I wait, and when he doesn’t push me, I carry on. ‘Would you like to know what happened?’
He leans back in his chair and looks at me. ‘If you feel ready to tell me, I’d like that.’
I pull a face. ‘If you’d like the truth, it’s best you hear it without the benefit of years of embellishments added around the bars of St Aidan.’
‘Exactly.’ He leans across the table and squeezes my hand, and when he lets it go, for a moment I wish he’d held on.
The breath I drag in is so deep my head spins. ‘It’s pretty straightforward. Seven months after you left, I collapsed after work one night with a really bad tummy ache. My boss rushed me to Truro hospital, thinking I’d got appendicitis, but the abdominal scan showed a baby.’ I can see his eyes widening, but now I’ve started I have to keep going. ‘I was thirty-two weeks pregnant without knowing anything about it and I’d gone into labour. After that all hell broke loose. Somewhere down the line they decided Nemmie wasn’t getting enough oxygen, so they moved in and did an emergency C-section. Then, after she was born, we were both ill. She was taken to the special care unit, and I had sepsis and was hooked up to a drip. But in the end, it all worked out, and here we are.’
Lando blows out his cheeks. ‘And you had no inkling at all?’
I shake my head. ‘My periods weren’t ever that regular, and though I’d gained a couple of pounds, I put that down to coming home to Mum’s full fridge. It was lucky it happened when it did as I’d been to Barcelona on a hen party only two weekends earlier.’
‘Jeez, Maeve.’ Lando’s eyes go wide. ‘Do women often give birth without knowing they’re pregnant?’
I shrug. ‘There are around three hundred cases a year in this country, so it’s not that rare. They call them cryptic births.’
He’s looking at me intently. ‘So did people know locally?’
‘I didn’t broadcast it, because it was so bizarre I didn’t think anyone would believe me. But the truth has strange ways of getting out, and by the time Nemmie came home a few weeks later it was already old news.’
He’s blinking and shaking his head. ‘It must have been such a shock.’
I laugh, because even now there are no words to describe it. ‘Next level. We were lucky to have Mum because it was years before I stopped feeling I’d been hit by a thunderbolt.’ I shuffle in my seat. ‘So we’ve both done two surprises now! What’s next?’
His fingers are around mine. ‘Thank you, I appreciate you sharing.’
I frown. ‘I’m pleased I’ve finally told you.’
