Cool. Thanks xxx
***
Twenty minutes later, the fast train pulled into the station and Juliette and Bella waited until the very end when all the other passengers had already alighted from the train. Juliette stepped off onto the platform and then helped Bella down. They walked slowly all the way through the station and waited for Daisy’s car to appear as the driving rain splashed from puddles all over the pavement onto their feet. Daisy was waiting a street away, Juliette phoned her and a minute later she pulled into the collection area of the train station.
‘Hop in, ladies. Good call to wait until everyone got off. It was pandemonium when I got down here five minutes ago. Cars parked willy-nilly. You can’t make it up sometimes. No wonder there are accidents. I took one look at it, drove around the roundabout and waited for all the lunatics to leave.’
‘They'll all be out tonight for sure. Everyone drives when there’s a spot of rain,’ Juliette said as she helped Bella into the car as the pouring rain pelted against the car and sloshed up from the gutters.
‘How are you feeling, Bella?’ Daisy asked as Bella stretched out her foot into the passenger footwell and put her bag on her lap.
‘I’m fine and it’s all looking positive. So, we’re really pleased, aren’t we, Mum?’
‘We certainly are. The best news to get in the circumstances. We couldn’t have asked for better.’
‘So, what else is going on this weekend, then? Where are we going to celebrate that good news?’ Daisy said to Bella.
‘Well, obviously there’s tomorrow. Not sure how that’s going to go,’ Bella replied as the windscreen wipers swished back and forth on the windscreen and Daisy indicated right, looked in her mirror and pulled away. Daisy peered over at Bella with a confused look on her face.
‘Oh, I assumed Mum would have told you?’
‘Nope. Told me what? I’ve hardly spoken to your Mum, have I, Sparkles? I thought we would be going for lunch or dinner or something with you being down. Sorry, I’ve been so busy with work this week, I haven’t checked.’
‘Yes, I’d love to go out, but not for lunch,’ Bella replied.
‘Okay, why’s that then?’
‘Because, depending on the storm and whether that affects the train, Jack is coming to visit Pretty Beach.’
‘Ahh, that’s tomorrow, is it? Sorry, my mistake. Yes, I did know he was coming to Pretty Beach. I just didn’t know when,’ Daisy responded and tapped on the steering wheel not really sure what else to say.
Chapter 50
Juliette sat in the back of the car and waited for Daisy to park, helped Bella out, and got all the bags out of the boot. They all walked slowly to the front door, and Bella hobbled along carefully in the thick, humid pre-storm air. Juliette looked up at the dense, black clouds starting to roll in from the coast and nodded her head.
‘Everyone is right. It looks like this is going to be a big one,’ Juliette stated.
They walked into the hallway, Daisy strolled through to the kitchen to put the kettle on, Bella sat down at the pink table in the corner, and Juliette stepped out the back door onto the terrace.
‘Wow, it’s already starting to blow everything around,’ Juliette called through, as the hanging basket brackets creaked, and she could see the shed door banging away to itself right down at the end of the garden. ‘Come out and have a look, Daisy.’
Daisy stepped out onto the terrace and looked up at the back of the house and the swirling heavy clouds above. ‘It’s coming in very quickly - the forecast was right for once.’
‘Yeah, it is. I need to go down and ram that shed door shut. I hope those trees are going to be okay,’ Juliette said looking up at the dubious looking angles of some of the branches on the trees on the left-hand side of the garden.
Juliette walked all the way down the path, shut the shed window, wedged the door shut and double-checked the bolt on the back gate. She walked slowly back up, the wind whipping her hair about her face, and helped Daisy take down the remaining hanging baskets.
Daisy checked through the window to see that Bella wasn’t listening. ‘You didn’t tell me he was coming tomorrow! I’m surprised we haven’t had a full-on meeting to analyse and dissect this.’
Juliette whispered back, ‘Trust me, we would have. I need more than a meeting for this. I need anaesthesia of some sort to get me through it. I gave birth to a rather large baby without any pain relief, but the thought of this makes me want to throw up. I can’t believe it’s actually happening. Jack is actually coming to Pretty Beach.’
‘When did she tell you then? She said in the car she was surprised I didn’t know?’ Daisy asked as she stood on a patio chair and carefully unhooked a basket full of petunias.
‘The night before last. Then I was manic at work yesterday, and I had a full-on talk with Luke about it, and then this morning I did my appointments and got straight on the train for the check-up. I haven’t had a chance to talk to anyone about anything.’
‘I still can’t believe he wants to come to Pretty Beach and to meet with you. The pure audacity of the man,’ Daisy said rolling her eyes.
‘I know,’ Juliette agreed, shaking her head.
‘Maybe you should have said no.’
‘To be honest I thought about it, and I thought about calling him and making it into a big drama. Telling him to get as far away from Pretty Beach and Bella as possible, and then I thought it through more prudently. It will be better once he’s been and gone. I’m going to just get it over and done with.’
‘I suppose it is the best idea.’ Daisy nodded.
‘In the long run if he’s in her life now it will come up again. She’ll want him to be around
