Stolen Kiss (The Turners of Copper Island #2)

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Heidi

H eidi rounded the home birthing tub in the middle of Patty Homer’s front room. Patty was breathing deeply while she clutched onto the side of the birthing pool. A sheet was over the pool to keep her naked body shielded, but the only people in the room were Heidi, another birthing nurse, Mr Homer, and the tropical fish. It wouldn’t be long before Patty would have any inhibitions about who saw what. She was going to have a baby.

Heidi had always known she wanted to be a midwife. Seeing the mothers through their pregnancy and be there when they gave birth was life affirming. She longed to be in Patty’s position one day. Although Heidi swore she would go to a hospital and take all the drugs available. The brave women that refused pain relief were goddesses, in her opinion.

“It’s nearly time, Patty, not long now,” Heidi said, rubbing her back.

Patty’s husband was biting the skin around his nails, looking like he was ready to chew his thumb right off. They had gone through a hell of a lot of heartache before this baby had grown to full term. Heidi had every faith they would have a screaming baby in their arms in the next half an hour, but there was nothing Heidi could say to stop both of them from worrying.

“Okay, here we go,” Heidi said. “Deep breaths.”

The nurse next to her gloved up. Heidi liked working with the same team so they could work seamlessly. But there were peak times when midwives flew in to help from time to time. Thankfully, this wasn’t one of those times. She was gloved up and looking between Patty’s legs. She gave Heidi the nod, and they went to work. Baby Homer popped out twenty minutes later and both mother and father bawled louder than their baby son.

Heidi sat on the edge of the dining room chair, looking at the happy family, hoping that would be her one day. Not that she had a boyfriend. Heidi was very much single. She smiled through tears of happiness and congratulated the parents.

A few hours later, Heidi arrived at her small two up-two down in a street three rows back from the quayside area and flipped on the light. It was September, and she couldn’t believe how fast the year had gone. The nights were already drawing in, and she looked forward to big jumpers and fluffy sock season. Heidi lived alone in her terraced house and that was the way she liked it. She wanted a family, but until then, living in her own space was good enough.

Her phone rang and Freya Riley’s name flashed up. Her best friend. Heidi may live alone, but she had a large circle of friends. She knew what this call was about.

“Girls’ night, one hour,” Freya said and hung up.

Heidi chuckled at her friend’s message, brokering no room for arguing or refusal. What also made her chuckle was that Freya lived next door. Also alone. The houses were too small to house share. So they waited for the right time and bought houses next to each other. It was fate that both the houses had come up for sale at the same time. Heidi’s parents lived a few minutes’ drive away, and so did Freya’s. On the same road. There wasn’t a time when the two women didn’t live within shouting distance of each other.

It was Friday night, and as tradition, was the party night of the island. The night before the gig racing, there was a party in the local pub, The Anchor. It wasn’t the only pub, but it was where the younger generation gravitated. Those who wanted a quiet pint went elsewhere, leaving the rest of them to make as much noise as they wanted.

Showered, dressed in faded jeans, a white t-shirt and a jumper slung over her handbag, and no jewellery. She was good to go. One lash swish of her mascara brush in the downstairs hall mirror and she was just in time before Freya hammered on her front door, scaring the life out of her and avoiding poking herself in the eye. The downstairs hall light was much better than her bathroom one. She’d meant to go to Mr McKenzie’s store for weeks to get a better bulb.

Opening the door wide, she let in Freya.

“You’re going to need shoes, babe,” Freya said, coming in and kissing her on the cheek.

Freya was more glamourous in her clothing choices and would never hear of wearing jeans. She was a school teacher and always wore skirts and high heels. Tonight she had skin tight black trousers, a white silk blouse with poofy sleeves, knee-high boots with a low heel and a black jacket with her sleeves rolled up and the long sleeves of her blouse cuffed at the wrist. She wore long gold jewellery that disappeared into her cleavage. Her handbag was crossways over her body, with the bag resting on her hip.

“Hey, lovely. You look sensational.”

“So do you, your hair looks fantastic,” she said circling Heidi.

It should. Heidi spent an hour curling her hair to get the perfect bounce. The ever present breeze. She wasn’t expecting to meet anyone tonight because he never came into town, so she told herself her perfect hair was for her. And that was a big fat lie. The other lie she told herself was that she wasn’t counting how many days he’d been on the island and not come to see her.

It was ninety-eight days.

Roughly speaking.

Heidi’s leather ankle boots were at the door, alongside all of her shoes. She had dedicated the under the stairs cupboard to all her precious shoes she rarely got to wear because of spending many hours driving around the island taking care of the mums or doing routine health checks. It didn’t stop her from buying pretty shoes.

“It’s the last thing I put on, you know that,” Heidi said.

“I do, but I still like being bossy, a force of habit from teaching kids all day.”

Freya had taken up residence in the armchair near the unlit fireplace. Freya knew Heidi wasn’t really ready, and she’d be waiting another ten minutes for Heidi to gather herself to leave. She had to change her bag from day time bag with everything she owned for just in case purposes to going out for a session and maybe not getting home until dawn.

“I wonder if Archer and Jason will be out tonight?” Freya said idly.

“What about Luke and daisy too?”

“They’re leaving tomorrow for their college courses, so I doubt they’ll come into town.”

“How do you know?”

“Luke told me,” she said as she flipped through the TV magazine.

Heidi stayed quiet, itching to know if Luke had indicated if Jason would actually show up.

“I doubt it, then. They’re probably eating up at the house before they get split up. They never come into town, anyway.”

“Archer has. We’ve seen him in The Anchor loads of times over the last few months. Archer’s been back for six months and Jason came back for the wedding three months ago and hasn’t left.”

“He also hasn’t been in town either.”

“And how would you know this, young lady?” Freya asked, waggling her eyebrows.

Busted.

“Maggie talks about the Turner siblings all the time when I go up to the Hall to see Miss Turner for her check-up. If I don’t go down for a cup of tea, then I get a telling off the next time I go. She sits me down, feeds me cake and tea and then tells me everything about all four Turner siblings.”

“Really? How rude, I never get cake. I get biscuits, though, homemade. They’re my favourite.”

“So that’s the only reason I know. I have not sought any information. Jason has avoided me for eleven years. He can keep going for all I care.”

Freya gave Heidi a knowing look because each time Heidi drank too many shots, she was crying on Freya’s shoulder in the small hours, lamenting her broken heart over Jason Turner.

“If he’s not out tonight, then he will defiantly be at the gig racing tomorrow,” Freya said.

“We’ll see,” Heidi replied.

Heidi tossed the blue button into a jar on her windowsill and pulled on her boots. Each time she helped deliver a baby, she dropped a button in the jar. Pink for a girl, blue for a boy, and white for the babies who were born angels. There were no white buttons, and she wanted to keep it that way.

“Aww, cute they had a little boy,” Freya said as she looped her arms through Heidi’s crooked elbow.

“Come on sappy, let’s get drunk.”

Heidi pulled her door shut, automatically locking it and they walked hand in hand, swinging their arms to the pub.