When You Walked Back Into My Life (36 page)

The baby had also healed the rift between her and Prue. The day after Thea was born, her sister had arrived at the hospital with a huge basket of flowers. They had held each other for a long time in silence. Neither of them, it was clear, had any desire to rake over the painful past.

It was Simon who had paced with Flora through the early labour pains, driven her to the hospital, held her hand as she screamed abuse at him and the nurses when the pain got too hard to bear. And it was Simon who had held Thea in the crook of his arm and gazed at her as if she were his own.

She had asked him time and again during her pregnancy if he could ever accept Fin’s child as his, and he had always replied that he didn’t know. But in the event the bonding between him and Thea had seemed to happen naturally. Flora had yet to meet Jasmine, his own daughter. Her mother had taken her to America for the summer to visit relatives. Flora was nervous of how the little girl would react to her, but she was determined to try and forge the same bond with her as Simon had with Thea.

‘I’ve been dying to show this place to you,’ the doctor said as he set down her lime and soda, his Coke. ‘It started
as a cinema, but the kitsch decor is pure Fifties. Isn’t it heaven?’

‘I love it. Some of the dancers are brilliant.’

‘Yeah, and some of them are dire.’ He pointed to a young guy stumbling over his partner’s feet just beneath their table.

Flora laughed. ‘That’d be me.’ She had vowed she wouldn’t,
couldn’t
dance tonight. She had only come along for the ride. But now she was here she knew she wouldn’t be able to resist.

It almost made her dizzy, being away from Thea, out in the loud adult world again, her breasts tingling at every thought of her baby, the song-beat drowning out conversation and thought.

‘We won’t stay long. I know you’ll worry. But let’s have a couple of dances … when you’re ready.’

‘Make it a waltz,’ she said, ‘it’s the only one I have any idea how to do.’

When ‘You Light Up My Life’ came on, Simon grabbed her. ‘Now or never!’

They stepped onto the dance floor, Simon expertly manoeuvring her between the other couples. Flora did little else but press herself against him, cling to him, let him lift her round … her feet, for the most part, obeyed his own. After a while she stopped worrying, just gave herself up to the moment.

‘You … light up my life,’ Simon sang in her ear, ‘you give me hope … to carry on …’

She looked up at him, and for a second they were suspended in that sea of movement, looking into each other’s eyes for what seemed like an eternity. He smiled, and dropped a quick kiss on her mouth, then swept her off again, round and round across the polished maplewood floor.

Huge thanks to my agent, Laura Morris, and my editor, Jane Wood. To Katie Gordon, Robyn Karney and all the Quercus team. To my wonderfully supportive family and friends and particularly to T.S. and Enid Grant-Govan.

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