“That’s just flour!” Nikki said, laughing.
“Seriously, though, I’ve never seen Will so happy,” Simone looked over at me and I pretended to be asleep.
“He’s like a different person these days. That is thanks to you. I was wrong and I am happy that I was wrong about the two of you because that means that it is right and meant to be!”
I hoped it was not just the alcohol talking but that Simone was truly on board with us. I needed her support.
Chapter 27
Nikki
So, THIS was happiness.
Waking up each morning, with a smile, even when Will wasn’t with me. Even when it was freezing cold, and I had to get up very early to ensure the breakfasts were ready for the guests and the heating worked properly. Checking my phone for the message that was there each morning. Or if it was too early, I would read the one from the night before:
Good night gorgeous.
The messages made me smiling and kept me going throughout the day. Whenever I thought of them, I’d smile.
“Ugh, you’re disgusting,” Allie would say if she caught me smiling to myself. “Wait till you’re fifty months pregnant and unable to sleep at night because literally no position is comfortable!” Allie was taking a lot of strain with the pregnancy. I popped in to see her at least once a day, to keep her updated on what was happening at the inn but also to check on her. We’d become friends and I was fond of her.
“Don’t get married, don’t have babies,” she would advise, her pretty face bloated and red.
“What’ll I do instead?”
“Travel!” she said. “Have a fabulous career!”
“Doing what?”
“Start a travel company and do tours for single women! Take them on drinking trips to strip clubs where men with big… biceps… dance all night!”
I would laugh, make her some tea, and rub her feet.
“How’s Will?” she’d ask, her voice laced with scorn, and I’d laugh.
“He’s fine, things are good.”
But they were more than good. We saw each other every weekend and, in the week, I was too busy running the inn to notice his absence. I enjoyed the work and the guests, even though they could be a handful. I once had a guest complaining that her room didn’t get enough sun and this was making her depressed. Apparently, she needed 2.3 hours of sitting in the afternoon sun, reading her book, to make her happy. But we were fully booked and there was no other room to offer her. In the end, I arranged a special seating area in the living room for her, screening it off with house plants, so she could have some privacy.
“You’re good at this,” Allie said to me once.
“I want the guests to be happy,” I said.
Maybe it was because I was in love and being loved back, I wanted everyone to share in my joy.
The only small wrinkle in all this wonder was Zoë.
Will had thought another nanny might help and perhaps it did. But after she has already been told about our engagement, her attitude to me turned colder than Elsa in Frozen. She was mean and hostile and no matter how much Will told her that he and Jade were never getting together, she seemed to blame me for ruining her idea of the perfect family.
The first weekend I was back visiting Will, I found one of my best tops shredded to bits by the cats. Will apologized profusely, saying that the cats must have somehow found it and played with it. They were apparently going through a destructive phase.
I suspected they weren’t to blame but didn’t say anything.
Then, a few weeks later, I found my fluffy towels stained with make-up and what looked like blood.
“I’m sorry,” Zoë said, feigning regret. “I think Sarah used those towels to clean up. She must have forgotten they were yours.”
Sarah was the new nanny.