Page 71 of Minha Dona

Helena took her eyes off the road for a split second, just long enough to see that Caitlin was serious, then looked back again at the traffic. They’d escaped the outskirts of São Paulo by now and were on the coast road, the Atlantic a teasing late afternoon presence glimpsed between the trees from time to time.

“With flying colours. She told me not to screw this one up.”

“Thank goodness. Wouldn’t it have made for an awkward trip to the beach house if you’d had to dump me so soon?”

Helena glanced over again to see a grin plastered across Caitlin’s face. She broke into her own smile.

“Don’t relax too much. You’ve still got the sister test on Friday. Mariana is much harder to impress than Isabella.”

“I’m more worried about Juliana…”

“Her, you don’t need to worry about. You’ll see when you meet her, but I guarantee you’ve passed her test already.”

They drove in companionable silence for a few minutes.

“How much further?” Caitlin asked.

“About forty minutes. You can sleep if you want.”

“I don’t want to sleep. I want to see it when we arrive.”

“I don’t want to overpromise what it’s like. It’s just… my parents’ holiday home. Nothing much.”

“Last time you told me that was about your apartment. You seem to have a habit of underpromising, not overpromising.”

Helena smiled and drove on. The car ate up the kilometres, the city getting further behind and the beach, Helena’s one true happy place, getting closer. Next to her Caitlin watched the scenery roll by, one hand resting on Helena’s leg where it had ended up somewhere a way back on the road and hadn’t moved since. Helena tried to ignore it but Caitlin’s touch, after last night, simply triggered something wonderfully distracting inside Helena… she’d lived up to her promise, and when it had built to Caitlin on top of her, sliding the strap-on into her, deliciously slowly while Helena held on tight, naked bodies pressed together… feeling exceedingly good didn’t do it justice. She knew she couldn’t get enough, could never have enough, of this incredible woman who’d come into her life.

They reached the town just after six, driving through the centre where the restaurants and bars were doing a steady trade… certainly not bad for a Wednesday evening when it was term time for all the schools and holiday trade would be low. The town was popular with the professional classes in São Paulo, with a growing sprawl of elegant holiday villas and low-rise apartment buildings stretching out from the centre along the coast.

Helena turned off the main road into a smaller one that wound through trees. There was the familiar glimpse of walls and gates, with the properties here set back from the road. It was private and discreet.

“This is the street,” Helena said, slowing. “Our place is at the end.”

She pulled through the open gate and up the short drive, stopping in front of the beach house. It was a substantial property if she was being honest with herself, five bedrooms in the main house, open plan downstairs with a long veranda facing towards the garden and sea. Whitewashed walls, terracotta roof, tropical garden that was kept under control by the gardeners coming every Monday and Tuesday… her happy place. The pool was visible around the side, an inviting freeform patch of water.

“Helena,” Caitlin said. “This is not a beach house. This is a compound.”

“It’s one hundred percent a beach house. Just a large one.”

“With a pool house that’s bigger than my first apartment.” Caitlin was peering through the windscreen at the smaller building visible next to the pool with its own terrace. “That’s where we’re staying?”

“Yeah. The main house is for Mariana and the others when they arrive on Friday. I claimed the pool house when I knew you were coming.” Helena cut the engine. The silence was immediate and complete… no traffic, no city hum, just the distant sound of the ocean through the trees and the chorus of insects in the garden. “Come on. I’ll show you around.”

Helena flicked a switch on the side of the house and the outdoor lighting came on, illuminating the path through the garden down to the pool as well as the pool itself. They carried their bags down to the pool house in the gathering sunset.

The pool house was simple yet comfortable… one bedroom with a king-sized bed, a bathroom with walk in shower, and a small kitchen and living area that opened on to the pool terrace and looked across the garden beyond to the trees and glimpses of the sea. The furniture was beach house furniture, wicker and light cotton, and the floor was wooden, all of it designed to get either wet or sandy without anyone caring.

Caitlin walked through slowly, touching surfaces, looking out of the windows, absorbing the space. She opened the terrace doors and stepped outside, and Helena heard her take a deep breath.

“I can hear the waves,” Caitlin said.

Helena came up behind her and wrapped her arms around her waist. “The beach is just through those trees. We’ve got a wall with a gate in it, then you’re there. It’s a fifteen-minute walk into town along the beach, or shorter along the road.”

“I don’t think we’ll be using the road, will we?”

“No. We’ll go to town tomorrow night for dinner.”

Caitlin leaned back against her. “Your parents had this place when you were a child?”