Page 3 of Lessons in Love at the Cornish Country Hospital

‘You’re not an awful person, love, and I understand it, I really do. I hated the idea of my kids spending any time with Rachel and Graham, but if I’d tried to stop it, I think it would only have played into Rachel’s hands. As it is, Beth and Drew have seen their mum and Graham for who they are. That’s why it’s us who the kids choose to spend time with when they can, and it’s also why Beth and Tom ask for your advice about Albert. You’re more of a grandmother to him than Rachel ever will be, and both of his parents can see that. Your girls love you and nothing Chloe does could ever compete with that. Just try to be glad she makes so much effort with them. From what I’ve seen of Mike, it’s lucky they’ve got Chloe.’

‘I know she’s good with them, but that makes it worse in a way. They want to go to their dad’s to see her, rather than him, especially Zara. It’s like Chloe’s her idol and, as much as I hate myself for admitting it, I’m jealous. Not of Chloe and Mike, because I couldn’t give a damn about him, but of Chloe andmy girls. I know it’s stupid and selfish.’ Wendy shook her head, and Gary wrapped his arms around her.

‘No it isn’t, it’s just hard, that’s all. But the longer it goes on, the more you’ll get used to it. In the meantime, I understand, and I’m here if you want to get it all off your chest.’

‘What would I do without you?’ She pulled away from him slightly as she spoke, hoping he realised how grateful she wasthat he’d come back into her life. It wasn’t always easy for her to say; it had been so hard for her to trust her feelings, never mind trusting anyone else, after what had happened with Mike. But Gary had broken down those barriers over the past eighteen months. He’d encouraged her to go after the promotion to head of housekeeping at the hospital, and she’d had the privilege of seeing him interact with his patients on quite a few occasions. Gary was a staff nurse, and ten times the man Mike would ever be. Sometimes she felt like tracking down her old neighbour, Julia, and thanking her for being the catalyst that got Mike out of her life, and brought Gary back into it. Only somehow she couldn’t put that gratitude into words yet, at least not to Gary. So she had to find other ways to show him just how much he meant to her. ‘I didn’t even ask you how your day was, but I’ll make it up to you. I’m going to cook your favourite tonight.’

‘Chicken parmesan?’ Gary grinned as she nodded. ‘Have I told you before that you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me?’

‘Far more often than I deserve.’ She leant forward, kissing him gently before pulling away again. ‘Now tell me about your day.’

‘It was busy, as always, but there was a particularly difficult incident. We had a new mum come in, who’s now in a critical condition, but it came out of nowhere. Danni was looking after her, and I think it hit her even harder than it normally would, because of the baby.’

‘I remember those days; the hormones made me so emotional it scared me sometimes. Poor Danni, and that poor woman. The idea of ever having to leave the girls behind was always my greatest fear.’

‘That’s why I try to remember to be so grateful for all we’ve got.’ Gary pulled her back towards him. ‘And being grateful for having you back in my life is the easiest part of that.’

‘I love you.’ It had taken her over a year to finally say those words, and that must have been hard for him, but it had meant all the more because of how certain she’d needed to be in order to say them. She really was incredibly grateful for the new life she had, and she didn’t want to let anything Mike or Chloe did spoil that. But some things were easier said than done.

When Gwen had first asked Wendy if she wanted to join Miss Adventures, she’d wrinkled her nose and desperately tried to think of an excuse for why she wouldn’t be able to get involved with her friend’s latest pet project. Gwen was a retired midwife, who now ran the Friends of St Piran’s charity and managed the hospital shop, which was staffed by volunteers. She was also known by everyone as the wisest woman in the Three Ports area, who was never afraid to offer advice, or reveal a tiny bit too much information about her personal life. She had more energy than most people a third of her age, and did everything from performing with her husband as children’s magicians, to teaching belly dancing classes with the aim of helping mid-life women reclaim their body confidence. So any club set up by Gwen, aimed at encouraging women to embark on new adventures, was bound to be fun, exciting and quite possibly dangerous. But that wasn’t the reason why Wendy had hesitated. It was because Gwen was so hard to live up to. She was almost twenty years older than Wendy, but she was a thousand times more fearless, and she grabbed hold of life like it might run out at any moment. She was the person Wendy most wanted to be like, but was scared she’d never come close to.

‘I can tell by the look on your face that you’re running through a hundred reasons why you can’t possibly meet up withus once a fortnight, but you do know it’s okay to do something for yourself, don’t you?’ Gwen had fixed her with a look, and she’d known she’d been rumbled. She’d also known that Gwen would find a way to dismiss any protest she might try to make, so in the end she didn’t bother. Meeting up once a fortnight for dinner or drinks couldn’t do any harm, after all. Just because she went along, she didn’t have to join in with any of the adventures that were cooked up during their get-togethers. She had no intention of suddenly signing up for a tandem parachute jump, or paragliding along the Jurassic Coast. It was just some time out to chat to other woman who were over fifty, and who understood one another because they were going through the same thing, or they had done in the past. It didn’t mean she was suddenly going to start belly dancing, or that she’d follow Gwen’s recent suggestion and sign up to be a life model at the Three Ports College, so that she could see herself in a different light and become more body positive. Even the idea made her want to put on three extra pairs of tummy control knickers, and every item of clothing she owned. She could never be like Gwen, so a bit of vicarious risk taking would just have to do.

‘What’s it going to be?’ Gwen gestured towards the tiki bar behind her, just minutes after she’d arrived for the latest meeting of the Miss Adventures club. ‘We’ve got to make the most of still being able to sit outside during September, and pretending we’re in the Caribbean somewhere.’

Gwen’s garden really could have doubled for a beach bar. There were festoon lights strung from posts around the seating area, where guests could choose to lounge in swinging chairs, or even a hammock. Wendy had nearly ended up on the floor when she’d sat heavily on a chair, not realising it was going to move and send her hurtling backwards, looking and feeling like a beetle stuck on its back. But what made Gwen’s garden feel even more like a beach bar, was the fact that it overlookedthe harbour in Port Agnes in one direction, and the end of the main bay in Port Kara in the other. It was a beautiful house that had clearly had decades of love poured into it by Gwen and her husband. The walls of the hallway were lined with photographs of the family she and Barry had built together, and the many adventures they’d shared in their fifty-plus years of marriage. It was a testament to what a long and happy relationship could look like, and it was what Wendy had always dreamt of for herself. Her own parents had modelled something similar, maybe with a few more ups and downs than Gwen and Barry appeared to have had – at least from the outside – and certainly with less adventure. But it had still been Wendy’s idea of perfect, and she’d grieved the loss of that imagined future more than the loss of her husband to another woman. The truth was that things had been far from perfect with Mike for years, and she couldn’t remember a time he’d ever looked at her the way that Barry looked at Gwen, or her mother and father looked at one another, with pure love in their eyes. The stupid part was that she had that now. Gary had given her that same sort of look almost from the moment they’d reconnected. So, even though grieving for a life with Mike that had never existed was ridiculous, she still couldn’t seem to shake it off.

‘I’ll have one of your Long Island Iced Teas, please Gwen.’ Caroline, another member of the Miss Adventures club, smiled. ‘I got a little bit addicted to them on our cruise.’

‘I’d love to do a world cruise.’ Connie somehow managed to lean forward in her swinging chair without tipping out of it. Gwen collected friends easily and, according to Connie, meeting Gwen had got her through a prolonged stay at St Piran’s following a serious accident. ‘There’s so much for Richard and I to catch up on, and that feels like a really good way to cram a lot of places into one trip.’

‘It was amazing.’ Caroline had the wistful air of someone longing to be back in the place she was talking about. ‘We’re looking to book another one, but with Esther and Joe getting married we need to wait a while. Although, seeing my daughter as happy as she is now is better than a hundred world cruises.’

‘Danni is thrilled about the wedding too.’ Connie was still leaning forward in her chair, throwing caution to the wind. ‘And with her and Charlie about to make us grandparents, I don’t know when we’ll fit in a cruise either.’

‘So much exciting stuff going on for everyone,’ said Frankie. She was Gwen’s best friend and worked as a midwife at both the midwifery unit in Port Agnes, and the maternity department at the hospital. ‘I’ve got a little bit more good news to celebrate. My daughter, Nadia, is expecting too!’

‘That’s amazing.’ Gwen swept her friend into a hug. All this baby news was exciting, but there was one upcoming birth Wendy was still dreading, despite the promise she’d made to herself and Gary to focus on their own lives. Mike had let their girls down way too often, but now she was scared he might suddenly become father of the year with this new child. Part of her hoped he would, for the baby’s sake, but she didn’t want the girls to have to witness that and feel second best. All the times over the years when they’d asked if Daddy was going to make it to sports day, or to their school play, or even if he was going to get home in time to go on a planned weekend camping trip, and he’d let them down. They couldn’t have forgotten those things, because Wendy never had, and she didn’t want her girls to feel ‘less than’ in any way. Mike had done that to her, but it would hurt far more if he did that to their daughters. The fact that Chloe was expecting Mike’s first son made that seem all the more likely, and Wendy wished she didn’t resent his new girlfriend for that as much as she did.

‘Looks like the world cruise will be on hold for all of us for a while then, while we take on grandparenting duties!’ Connie was Charlie’s birth mother, and she’d been reunited with her son a couple of years earlier, after almost four decades apart. She and his father Richard had reunited too, and a new grandbaby was the perfect culmination to a story that had stretched across years of pain and longing for Connie. Her happy ever after with Richard was all the sweeter for all they’d almost lost, and that shone from her face every time she spoke about her family.

‘I think that might be true, but I have come up with a more low-key idea we could do for our first group adventure.’ Gwen moved behind the bar as she spoke.

‘Is that Gwen low-key, orreallow-key?’ Caroline laughed.

‘That depends on how the weekend plays out.’ Gwen had a typically mischievous look on her face. ‘It’s a vineyard in the Loire Valley. Apparently, it’s got beautiful uninterrupted views for as far as you can see. There’s a gorgeous cabin we could rent, with a hot tub on the deck, and fabulous brasseries within walking distance. There’s also zip-lining, hot air ballooning and horse riding nearby, for anyone who fancies it.’

‘That’s all still sounding a bit tame for our Gwen.’ Frankie moved closer to the bar. ‘I’d expect striptease lessons, or a naked bungee jump at the very least.’

‘Oh God, I’ll be wearing my boobs as ear muffs if I try that!’ Caroline grinned.

‘Like I said, we can see where the adventure takes us, but I don’t want to put anyone off before we’ve even got going.’ Gwen caught Wendy’s eye for just a second. ‘Caroline wants a Long Island Iced Tea, but what about everyone else? A few drinks and I’ve got a feeling I can persuade you all into a weekend away.’

‘I don’t need a drink to persuade me.’ The words were out of Wendy’s mouth almost before she realised she was going to say them, but she didn’t want to take them back. She loved beingwith Gary and spending as much time with him as she could, but she was never going to put her whole life into one person again, the way she had with Mike. She’d spent years making sure she was free to seize upon any time her ex-husband had deemed fit to share with her, letting people down and losing friendships along the way. This was her chance to rebuild that, and she wasn’t going to let it go. Gary would never ask her to do that anyway, he was such a different man to Mike. But this was one promise she’d made to herself, which she was absolutely determined to keep.

3

Danni cradled her bump with one hand, and clasped Charlie’s hand with the other. This was the fifth scan she’d had, after a decision had been made to give her extra checks following the twenty-week scan, when the baby’s measurements had indicated that he was very slightly on the small side. Despite Danni having a huge bump, the baby was measuring in the bottom 25 per cent, so the size was almost certainly down to her carrying a lot of water. The midwife didn’t seem too worried about that, or the baby’s growth, and had reassured Danni that the measurements were likely to be due to a combination of factors. She’d said it was probably down to Danni having put on so little weight overall, the stress of her job, and most depressing of all, her advanced maternal age. Given how relaxed the midwife had seemed, Danni had been surprised to be offered so many additional scans. She wasn’t sure if she was getting so much attention because she worked at the hospital, but they certainly seemed to be pulling out all the stops. Either way, she wasn’t going to turn down the extra checks; not when she was carrying a gift she’d feared for so long she’d never be given.

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