‘Thank you. That was beautiful. You’re beautiful.’ He stroked his fingers over the top of mine and my heart began to race. I knew what song I wanted to play him. What I wanted to tell him but couldn’t. Norah Jones. ‘Come Away with Me’. It would be just as perfect, but the realisation was also completely terrifying. This was not meant to be happening. He was meant to be a fling, but now even the excuses I had for not wanting more were vanishing. Even though he still hadn’t told me about his mother, he was trying. He was trying so hard…
I moved my fingers so slowly over the keys that his hand stayed over the top of mine, and I found the opening chord. Did I dare?
‘Hey, sorry to interrupt.’
At the sound of Noelle’s American accent, I yanked my hand off the piano. Nick and I both turned, spinning in opposite directions on the stool to face her.
‘I’ve been looking for you all over.’ She moved further into the room. ‘Was that you playing?’
I nodded. Words certainly were dead to me at that moment. My heart was still thundering.
‘It sounded amazing.’
I grimaced at her, because that was all I could manage and she looked between Nick and I again, a small frown tugging at her eyebrows. ‘Should I go?’
‘No. It’s fine.’ Nick stood up and I felt a little tear inside immediately at the absence of him. ‘I’ve got to go wake up my nan anyway.’ He glanced down at me, his face pale, two bright spots of pink on his cheekbones. ‘I’ll see you later?’
I nodded again and he made it across the room in a few strides. Noelle watched the door shut behind him and then hurried over to me.
‘Jeez, are you okay? There were some seriously intense vibes in this room, and you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Or…was he about to propose or somethin’?’
She reached the piano and I managed to find my voice – and my bones and muscles – again.
‘Nothing like that.’ My laugh was high enough to shatter glass. I closed the lid to the piano and stood up, tucking in the chair. ‘Everything’s okay. Don’t worry.’
‘Okay, gotcha. Butt out, Noelle.’ She gave me a mock salute. ‘Look, sorry for asking this. I know it’s not the normal way things work around here but I missed breakfast because I was exhausted from last night. Then I went down to the village to check on Rachel and the baby and missed lunch too and nowhere was open, which seems a bit crazy. Anyway, I amstarving. You don’t have a snack I could grab, do you?’
‘Oh God, of course. Come with me.’
I led her out into the lobby and into the kitchens. Neeta didn’t even look up at us; she was a blur, moving from workstation to oven. There was a low-lying cloud of steam and things hissing and timers going off. Whoa. Maybe I should be in here helping, rather than playing the piano and making goo-goo eyes at a man.
I shook my head. ‘Actually, Noelle, could you wait in the office and I’ll bring something in for you?’ As soon as Noelle disappeared, I approached Neeta, but didn’t get too close as I didn’t want to get basted or shoved in the oven by mistake. ‘Can I help you with any of this, Neeta?’
She shook her head, eyes locked on a long pan she had on top of the hob, and was scraping and mixing, beads of sweat at her hairline.
‘Not now. Would take too much time to explain. Easier to just get on with it. No offence.’
‘None taken.’
I ducked into the fridge, grabbed a plate of leftovers and salad for Noelle and left the kitchen: off the hook, but not feeling particularly great about it.
Chapter Fifteen
Noelle was sitting on the swivel chair, investigating the stationery on my mother’s desk, but not the notebook or papers. I wasn’t sure whether that was her drawing the line with her own nosiness, or just because she had a fetish for stationery.
As I came through the door, she dropped the highlighters and spun towards me, eyes wide when she saw the heaped plate of food I had for her.
I pulled up the straight-backed chair my mum kept in there for staff to sit on when they were having a meeting and Noelle descended on the food. After a minute or two she came up for air, swallowed a large chunk of bread roll and grinned.
‘God, that’s better. I was ready to start gnawing at the furniture. Thank you.’
‘No worries. How are they all doing then?’
‘Rachel and the baby? Oh, they’re great. That girl is a trouper. I love that about doing deliveries. It’s always the cute, quiet ones that are absolutely stoic and just get the hell on with it y’know? Although, I don’t blame a single woman for screaming and swearing and demanding all the drugs available. I certainly will if ever I have kids.’ She crunched down on a carrot stick.
‘How many babies have you delivered then?’
‘Oh, wow, I have no idea. Hundreds. First, I was assisting and then I got to deliver them myself. But it wasn’t for me. I always knew I wanted to write – my parents just insisted I have a back-up career and it’s true, of course, you gotta pay rent. Ain’t no long-lost relatives leaving me a pot of money unfortunately. Plus, I can always go back to being a midwife, if the writing dries up. Babies and death are two industries that will never go outta business.’
