“Don’t you want kids?”
“I don’t have any burning desire, no.”
Noah’s mind flashed to Keira. It was easy to imagine having kids with her. The only slight problem was that in his head, their kids would have the run of St Mary’s and the same childhood he’d had. Which probably wasn’t very realistic. When he tried to imagine the scenario in Bristol, he came up blank.
“What time do you need to be at work?” Trystan asked him.
“Four o’clock.”
“We should get going. I’ve got some calls I need to make this afternoon.”
The trip home would give Noah time to ponder what he wanted to say to Keira. One thing was for sure: he didn’t want to end up like Trystan and lose out on something great because he wasn’t willing to do whatever it took to make the relationship work.
Chapter Thirty-Three
After her chat with Mel, Keira felt as though she was in a daze for the rest of the week. Over the next couple of evenings she only managed to exchange messages with Noah. He was working and claimed it was too busy to take a break, but she had the niggling feeling he was avoiding talking to her. Not that she was overly concerned. With her thoughts so jumbled, the break in their nightly phone calls gave her space to think.
Walking out of work on Friday lunchtime, her thoughts were swirling with such ferocity that she paused at the nearest bus stop to sit on the bench. Pulling out her phone, she called Mel.
“You won’t believe what’s happened,” she said, her eyes fixed on a pigeon which pecked at the ground around her feet.
“What?”
“My boss caught me looking up flights to Scilly when I should have been working.” She paused, trying to make sense of her morning. “She wasn’t annoyed or anything, just interested. So I told her how I’d planned on going this weekend … and then I told her how I was thinking of possibly moving there …”
“Oh my god. Did you quit your job?”
“No.” Emotions clogged Keira’s throat and she had to take a couple of deep breaths before she could speak. “Tania said they’d hate to lose me, and if I decided I wanted to leave maybe we could discuss me working remotely.”
“You could keep your jobandmove to Scilly?”
“She said it might need to become a part-time position, but she thinks it’s a possibility.” As the pigeon came too close Keira waggled her foot to shoo it away. “I’m shocked that Tania’s so keen to keep me.”
“You’re great at your job,” Mel said fiercely.
“I always felt fairly replaceable, but apparently not.”
“Are you still at work?”
“No. Tania was excited for me about moving to Scilly. Which made me excited. So I asked if I could take the afternoon off – and Monday.”
A delighted squeal made Keira shift the phone from her ear for a moment. “You’re going to see Noah today?”
“I thought I’d show up and surprise him.” She checked her watch. “I can get a train to the airport and get on a flight at five o’clock.”
“Do you want to borrow money for the flight?”
“I put it on my credit card.” Keira didn’t like to do it but as a one-off she decided it was fine.
“I’m so excited for you. Do you need to borrow anything? Maybe a slinky black dress?”
Keira laughed. “I’m going to Scilly, not Sicily. I’ll dress appropriately this time.” Excitement buzzed in her stomach and she glanced around, realising she was at the wrong bus stop. “I have to hurry so I don’t miss the train.”
“Message me later,” Mel said. “I want a running commentary of how everything goes.”
After promising to keep her updated, Keira set off at a brisk pace. With a sudden clarity to her thoughts, she knew exactly what she needed to do.
* * *