‘Serina…’
Serina blinked then turned to face her mother.
‘What?’
‘Could you come outside for a minute? I want to speak to you about something. Privately,’ she added softly with a surreptitious glance Allie’s way.
The heat hit them both the moment they stepped outside the door.
‘Better make this quick, Mum,’ Serina said as she moved back into the shade of the building’s eaves. ‘Or we’re going to melt away.’
‘I’m not sure I can be quick. To be honest, I’m not sure where to even start.’
Serina was taken aback before the penny dropped. Her mother wanted to say something to her about last night but didn’t have the courage. She’d never been one of those mothers to voluntarily bring up the subject of sex. If it had been left up to Margaret Brown, then Serina would never have learned the facts of life. She grew up, grateful that she lived in the country, and had been able to work things out for herself. Her father had been of a similar ilk, a shy man who wasn’t given to conversations or confidences about private matters. Serina wasn’t surprised that she was an only child.
‘I’m beginning to get worried about you and Nicolas,’ her mother blurted out at last.
‘In what way?’
Her mother’s face twisted into a mask of concern. ‘I’m worried he’s going to break your heart again. And don’t go telling me that he didn’t break your heart all those years ago. You can lie to Felicity if you want to. I wouldn’t expect you to tell your daughter the truth.’
Serina’s heart skipped a beat. ‘The truth?’
‘About you and Nicolas in the old days. I knew you were way more than just good friends. I knew you were sleeping together, right from the first night you went out with him. It was there, in your eyes, the next morning. You looked…different. Older.’
‘Mum, I…’
‘Oh, it’s perfectly all right,’ her mother interrupted. ‘I’m not judging you. I never judged you. I understood exactly what you felt for that boy.’
‘You did?’
‘I felt the same way about a boy when I was around the same age. I was simply mad about him. Couldn’t keep my hands off him.’
‘Goodness!’
‘There was nothing good about him, I can tell you. He was a wicked lad and he broke my heart. I was never the same after he dumped me. I couldn’t bear for another boy to touch me for years. And then I met your father.’ Tears filled her eyes. ‘If it wasn’t for your father I would never have gotten married, or had you. His tenderness was my saving grace. Plus his shyness. He was nothing like Hank. For which I was eternally grateful.’
‘What… What happened to this Hank?’
‘Got killed on his motorcycle when he was twenty-one. I still cried when he died. But I think it was more for my own sorry self than for him.’
‘Oh, Mum. I had no idea.’
‘How could you? I never told you. I’ve never talked to you at all much about myself, or even about you. When Nicolas left Rocky Creek I knew you were heart-broken. But I was afraid to talk to you. Afraid you might tell me what you’d been doing together. Afraid I might tell you what I went through. And I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want you to be ashamed of me.’
‘Ashamed of you! Why would I be ashamed of you?’
She flushed a beetroot red. ‘The things I did with Hank. They were wicked.’
‘Were they really, Mum? You loved him, didn’t you?’
‘More than I thought was ever possible.’
‘There, you see?’ She put her arms around her mother’s shoulders and held her close. ‘Not wicked at all. Just in love. Like Nicolas and I were. Like we still are.’
Her mother lifted wet eyes to Serina’s. ‘He loves you? He said that?’
‘Just this morning, before he kissed me goodbye.’
‘And he’s going to stay this time?’
‘Only for the next week. But he’s promised to visit often.’
‘Do you think you might get married one day?’
‘No, Mum. I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.’
‘You’re a very brave girl, Serina, very brave and very strong. Did I ever tell you that?’
She had, actually. At Greg’s funeral. But Serina thought it wasn’t quite the right moment to mention that. Instead, she steered her mother back inside, where she made her a cup of tea, after which she surreptitiously carried her mobile phone into the ladies’ and called Nicolas back.
‘I thought you were never going to call,’ he said sharply. ‘I was getting worried.’