Page 12 of One Day at a Time

Weirbridge was in the middle of a collection of small, scattered villages, with lovely schools that attracted families looking for a slower, safer life outside the city. Spring was always the busiest time of the year for the village’s one estate agent because it was when families moved into the area to secure spots in the schools for the next term.

‘Would you want to stay here if you could find a place?’ Jessie had asked. ‘Be honest, love, I won’t be offended. Your chair is here for you for as long as you want it, but there would be no hard feelings if you felt it was time to move on. I wouldn’t half miss you, though.’

That had made Maddie smile again. ‘Thanks, Jessie. And yes, I definitely want to stay, at least for another couple of months, until my head is a bit clearer and I’ve made a plan.’

‘Well, I’ve got two spare rooms and you’re very welcome to one of them,’ Val had said breezily. ‘My last lodger, Sandra, moved out last month, so the Hotel for Waifs and Strays has a vacancy.’

‘The number of people that have lived with you over the years is incredible, Val. The Scottish Tourist board should have you on their website,’ Hugo had teased her.

‘Och, there isn’t even a minibar, and housekeeping can be temperamental,’ Val had quipped.

Her mum had told Maddie many stories over the years of Val helping people out when they were stuck. Val ran a bereavement group, and her pal, Bernadette, was a nurse who helped women remove themselves from abusive relationships, so there had been many who’d been given a much-needed roof over their heads until they got back on their feet. She knew exactly how most people were doing and stepped right in when she was needed. If a family in the village fell on hard times, Val was the one discreetly showing up with groceries and new trainers for their kids. This was why the whole village regarded her as a national treasure. And now the national treasure was offering her a home.

Maddie had felt an immediate surge of gratitude. ‘Really, Val? You wouldn’t mind?’

‘Of course not! To be honest, I’d enjoy it, pet. Gets way too quiet rattling about in that house by myself. As long as you don’t mind that Jessie here, Moira Chiles and Nancy from next door come every Thursday night to watchThe Clansman,’ she said, referencing a hit TV show about sixteenth-century Highland warriors that was a big favourite around here, for two reasons. First of all, Moira, one of the other villagers, was mum to Ollie Chiles, who used to be the lead actor in it. He’d left the show now, but there were enough topless men in kilts to retain its faithful fanbase. And secondly, Alyssa’s actress sister, Ginny, had moved to Los Angeles and taken over Ollie’s starring role, so there wasn’t a person in the whole county who didn’t claim to have some kind of personal connection.

Maddie didn’t even have to take time to think it over. ‘Then I’d love to, Val. Thank you so much.’

That had been two weeks ago, and now, here she was, following an assortment of vehicles to her new temporary home.

This would give her more time to make the right decision about what her next move in life should be. She just hoped that her mum continued to send some divine intervention to point her in the right direction.

6

ORLA

Orla noticed Keli leaning backwards so that she could peer over the garden fence, and was about to ask what she was doing, when Keli volunteered that information. ‘Okay, so I know your ovaries have been the subject of conversation all afternoon, but I just need to tell you that mine have just done a backflip. Who, in the name of the holy Chris Hemsworth, is that?’

Orla leaned forward, then immediately blushed when Aidan from next door spotted them staring and waved from the depths of his garden room office.

‘That’s Aidan. But I’m not letting you near him for your own good. He has enough women going in and out of that house to start a conga line.’

She waved back, mortified that he’d seen them. Damn, she hadn’t even realised that he was in there. It was Keli’s birthday and Orla had invited Keli, Yvie and Emmy over for the afternoon to celebrate with Prosecco and an afternoon tea on three-layer stands that she’d picked up in Home Bargains at the weekend. Not that she was indulging in the Prosecco, just in case… The weeks between ovulation and the start of her periods were nothing but angst and hope. At least the merriment today was taking her mind off it. Although, she did feel bad that they were probably pissing off the neighbour with the noise they’d been making. It was rare that they all managed to wangle the same day off, so there had been much enthusiastic chat, endless laughter, two choruses of ‘Happy Birthday’ and there had been a definite screech when Keli had announced that her brother, Noah, and his wife, Tress, had bought her tickets for a Coldplay concert in Miami as a birthday gift.

‘Yep, that’s single life, ladies. I can spend ridiculous amounts of dosh on a gig and I’ve got no one telling me it’s a bad idea. Other than my mother, of course. Gilda needed a lie-down in a dark room before she could even discuss it.’

Orla’s first thought had been that her mum would have had exactly the same reaction. Her second had been a pang of envy that Keli had her mother nearby. Orla had worked with her long enough to know that Keli spoke to her lovely mum, Gilda, every day, there was usually a night out to the cinema or a restaurant every week and huge Sunday lunches with their whole extended family and friends were compulsory. Both Keli’s parents were from Ghana and the food they served up was incredible. Orla had joined them on a few Sunday afternoons when Kyle was working overtime and they’d been some of her favourite days, although every time, it did cross her mind that her own mum would love it too.

‘How’s your mum doing?’ Yvie asked, reading her thoughts.

‘She’s grand. I spoke to her this morning. She came back from Africa and now she’s in Romania and they’re heading towards…’ There was a pause as they waited for her to fill in the blank.

‘Towards?’ Emmy prompted her.

‘I’ve no idea, because that’s when she got cut off. Happens all the time. She really needs to get a better phone.’

Yvie reached over and lifted a large slice of Victoria sponge from the top layer of the cake stand. ‘Or, you know, a hobby that she can do at home? Much as I think she’s fricking fabulous, you must worry.’

‘I do, but she loves what she does now. To be honest, she’s always been like that. Even when she was nursing, she was always setting up support groups and doing fundraising drives for any cause that she felt passionate about. That’s how she found me, actually. Twenty-eight years ago, she was raising money for an adoption charity, and I was about to come into their care.’

Emmy was curious now. ‘Did you ever think about tracing your birth parents?’

Orla shook her head. ‘No. It was a closed adoption so that means there’s never been any contact. I don’t hold any ill feeling towards them, but I just think everything worked out the way it was supposed to. I’ve honestly never felt a need to track them down because as far as I was concerned, my mum – Nula, that is – was all I needed.’

‘I once watched one of those DNA tracing shows on TV and a mum and daughter in America were looking for each other,’ Emmy went on. ‘And it turned out that they worked together. I mean, what are the chances of that? Out of the whole population of the country. It was incredible.’

Yvie paused on the cake. ‘No way!’