‘You OK?’ Rosa asked.
‘I will be when we get settled.’ Vicki sighed. ‘I’ve booked a table at the café on the front, is that all right? They are dog-friendly and there is a quiet corner if you need to feed Little Ned.’
Together they made their way to the light-filled café and chose to sit in the quiet corner.
Rosa took a sip of coffee and smiled at Vicki across the café table. Hot was sitting on Vicki’s lap and thankfully Little Ned was sleeping peacefully after all the excitement. The expansive Polhampton Sands stretched out in front of them, seeming huge in comparison to Cockleberry’s little bay.
‘It’s full on, isn’t it? Motherhood, I mean,’ Vicki offered. ‘But no regrets, eh?’
Rosa shuffled in her seat awkwardly. ‘I’m struggling a bit, to be honest. I always used to think that women were making a fuss about it being so hard. But it is hard, isn’t it?’
Vicki took Rosa’s hand. ‘Let me guess, it probably seems that every time you pick up something to wear, or reach for your phone, he needs his nappy changing again. If you run a bath, he starts crying, so by the time you get back, the water’s cold. Then you’re so busy feeding him that you forget to feed yourself and after having had say, four hours good sleep a night, you wonder why you are so tired and hungry?’
‘Have you got a camera rigged up in my place?’ Rosa laughed.
‘No, I think you are forgetting I’ve done it twice before and now I have six-month-old twins. Imagine what you are doing times two!’ Vicki took a big drink of her coffee. ‘It is slightly easier as I know what to expect, but I remember when I had Arthur, I felt the same as you, so don’t worry. It will get easier.’
‘I haven’t told anyone this, not even Josh, but I did something terrible yesterday.’ Rosa felt she couldn’t carry on without confessing to someone, and she trusted Vicki with all her heart.
‘Go on,’ Vicki urged.
‘I left Little Ned safely sleeping and went on to the beach with Hot, who needed a poop. I then went quickly over to the Ship to see Luke.’ Rosa gave a moan. ‘I only intended to be gone for literally two minutes. I came back and the baby had been sick all over himself, and he was screaming. He could have choked, anything…’ Tears fell down her cheeks.
‘OK. That isn’t good, but you were lucky this time. He was fine, and I bet you’ll never do it again. In fact, you can’t – they are too young to leave for a single second at this age.’ Vicki was kind, but stern.
‘I know that now. I am such a bad mother.’ Rosa cringed.
‘No, you’re not. It’s all a massive learning curve. We are both lucky to have such good partners – or just imagine how hard it would be. Hats off to all the single mums out there, I say.’
‘Josh is in New York working at the moment. I didn’t realise how much he helped until he went, but I want him to feel he can get on with his own life and for me not to have to rely on him.’
‘That’s all very well, but Little Ned is his too and you will have to rely on each other. Parenting is hard work, and ideally, it takes two.’
Rosa pulled herself together. ‘So, where’s your brood today?’ she asked. ‘I so wanted to see the twins again, I bet they’ve grown so much.’
‘Arthur is at school, Stan is at nursery and my darling Stuart is a full-time house-husband now, so he’s got the babies. I promised him I’d be back by two.’ She reached for her phone, checked the time, then showed Rosa a photo. ‘Here are all the little darlings.’
‘You can tell they are brothers! You are so lucky having Stuart at home, but Josh will be home soon, and I’ve just got one, not four to deal with, so I need to shut up and get on with it.’
‘Yes, you do.’ Vicki laughed. ‘I’ll happily do a house swap.’
‘Does Stuart still do his volunteering on the Lifeboats?’
‘Yes, of course. That’s his outlet for sanity even though it is so dangerous sometimes.’
‘You’ve nearly got a five-a-side already. Josh would be so jealous. Are you going to be one of those women who keeps trying until you have a girl?’
Vicki put a hand to her forehead in mock horror. ‘From now on, I am sticking with animals. If I even suggest having another baby, I beg of you to turn me from the error of my ways immediately. Motherhood is not for the faint-hearted and that’s a fact.’
Rosa laughed out loud. ‘That’s another thing: I don’t think I want another one.’
‘You mark my words, you will. Once he’s through the baby stage, you’ll forget all the difficult bits and just remember the smell of his lovely baby skin and the snuggling into you while he feeds and those little looks between mother and son that are just so priceless. I even missed winding mine and hearing that satisfying first burp.’
‘Let’s see, shall we?’ Rosa looked down at her sleeping bundle, and for the first time saw Josh in him. ‘Aw, he is such a good boy really.’
Vicki put a menu down in front of them, her voice now serious. ‘But Rosa, if he is enough for you, then so be it. There are no rules.’
‘And I’ve been so good at breaking those in the past.’
They both laughed. Rosa carried on. ‘I really want to start working on my charity stuff and there is a potential new opportunity with it, so I am going to put Little Ned into the new church Little Angels nursery every now and then.’
‘It does them good, I think. And you good. A happy mum means a happy baby. I love being a vet. It’s what I do, it’s what I’m good at and I know I’m super-lucky to have Stuart at home – but he even puts Stan in nursery a couple of mornings a week or he’d go mad.’
‘As always you make me feel better,’ Rosa told her. ‘I knew you would.’
‘Good – and remember back to when you were so worried you wouldn’t be able to conceive. You really wanted this baby, Rosa.’
‘Be careful what you wish for and all that,’ Rosa added, then: ‘That was a joke! Are you coming down to the fireworks? Mum is having Little Ned and Hot so I’m free. Well, I say “free” but I might have to help Nate in the café for a bit.’
‘The plan is to, yeah. Stuart’s mum is going to have the babies and we will come with Arthur and Stan.’
‘Excellent. I don’t see you for months then twice in a week. That’s nice.’
‘I’m always at the end of a phone, Rosa, so please do call me if you need to.’
‘I will. Thank you.’ And Rosa felt so supported. ‘Now, are we going to order some cake before mister here wakes up, or not?’
CHAPTER 12
Even Gladys Moore’s beaming face couldn’t raise a smile from Rosa as she dropped Little Ned off at the nursery.
‘What’s up, young lady?’ Gladys took the baby bag from her and placed it on the labelled rack with all the others. Her helper, Claire, lifted Little Ned from Rosa’s arms and took him over to the baby corner, where there were soft coverings on the floor and lots of differently textured things to touch and explore. There were two other babies, one of six months and one of a year, both crawling, and, looking over, Rosa could see that Little Ned was transfixed by them. He’d completely forgotten about his mother already.