Book Club Reads: 3-Book Collection: Yesterday’s Sun, The Sea Sisters, Someone to Watch Over Me. Amanda Brooke

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СКАЧАТЬ the one question that was still haunting her. Would the moondial ever show her that she could be a mother and survive to watch them grow? Holly visualized rain trickling down a windowpane. Each raindrop represented an unborn child and, in her mind’s eye, each one trickled towards the same path. Would there be no way to avoid paying her dues to the moondial for the rest of her life?

      Tom finally broke from his pose and looked over to her. ‘We’d survive anything, Hol, I promise. But it’s not going to come to that. As long as it’s still what you want. You do still want kids, don’t you?’

      ‘I do. You wouldn’t believe how much I do now, but …’ stumbled Holly just as the door to the studio swung open, bringing with it a blast of cold air.

      ‘Whoops, am I interrupting?’ Billy was standing at the studio door covering his eyes from the sight he’d just seen.

      ‘It’s all right Billy, you can look,’ Holly said, casually wiping the corners of her eyes in case either of them noticed her newly formed tears.

      ‘I hope he isn’t naked underneath that sheet,’ warned Billy.

      ‘It could be worse, he could be standing there without the sheet!’ Holly laughed as Billy pulled a face of disgust.

      ‘Hey, I take exception to that,’ complained Tom, who was now trying to flex his muscles and hold onto the doll at the same time.

      Holly and Billy stood staring at Tom’s less than manly stance. ‘I think you should pick your models a little more carefully next time,’ suggested Billy.

      ‘I thought us men were supposed to stick together,’ replied Tom, indignantly.

      Holly had a feeling this childish banter could go on all morning. ‘Listen, boys, I’ve got work to do. Billy, you’re distracting my model. What is it we can help you with?’

      ‘I was only dropping by to say hello,’ Billy answered sheepishly.

      ‘So what’s that rolled up under your arm?’ Holly demanded.

      ‘This? Oh, just a little plan for a job I’m doing. It’s nothing much.’

      ‘Hand it over.’ Holly had assumed the tone of a parent chastizing her child and the irony didn’t escape her.

      Billy looked beseechingly at Tom, but Tom was looking equally uncomfortable.

      ‘It’s the plan for the garden, isn’t it?’ Holly asked when neither man made a move.

      ‘Might be, then again it might not,’ muttered Billy, again looking to Tom for help.

      ‘I’ve just remembered, I need to phone the studio,’ Tom said, letting the sheet slip to the ground and tossing the poor baby doll onto the workbench some ten feet away.

      Wearing nothing but boxer shorts, he headed for the door. Billy tried to follow suit, but Holly grabbed him by the shoulder.

      ‘Oh, I don’t think so,’ Holly said. ‘You’ve lost me my model and you’re just going to have to take his place.’

      ‘Me?’ stammered Billy.

      ‘Sorry, Bill,’ Tom said, taking the plan from him and disappearing out the door.

      ‘Didn’t you know I was always after your body?’ Holly told Billy with a mischievous wink.

      Two weeks together was all they had and for that brief time Holly tried hard not to think about the future. Life was all about living in the present. Tom’s next trip was to be his last assignment; he was going to South America to film a piece on the lives of young children who made their living scavenging on landfill sites. The subject matter promised to be as harrowing as he’d encountered in Haiti, and Holly worried how this new assignment would affect Tom. She wondered if he would be in any fit state to deal with the news that she would have to break to him when he returned. Part of her was looking for more excuses to put off her confession, but she knew that one day soon she was going to have to tell him about the moondial.

      It had taken the full fortnight to get Tom looking like his old self, but the hollow anxiety etched around his beautiful green eyes had gradually filled out after copious amounts of rest, relaxation and home cooking, even including Holly’s burnt offerings.

      ‘I’m glad your hair’s growing back.’ Holly was watching Tom run his fingers through his damp, freshly washed hair. It was the early hours of the morning and the taxi was already on its way to pick him up. Holly lay back on the bed watching him pack up the last few things that had actually made it out of his suitcase.

      ‘You do realize that the studio is going to make me get it cut again as soon as I get back from South America,’ warned Tom. ‘While we were in Haiti, they tried to bribe the crew into cutting it while I was asleep.’

      ‘So why didn’t they?’

      ‘I put in a higher bid. You’ll spot a rather large payment at the duty-free shop on our credit-card bill.’

      ‘Well, I hope the crew will be looking after you on this trip too.’

      ‘They will, we’ll look after each other, don’t you worry.’

      Tom sat down on the bed to put his socks on and Holly crawled up behind him and wrapped her arms around him.

      ‘But I do worry,’ Holly said, kissing the top of Tom’s head.

      Tom pulled Holly around so that she was sitting on his knee. ‘I’m going to miss you.’

      ‘You’ll be back soon enough. It’s not for ever.’ As Holly wrapped her arms around his neck and felt her heart beating against his chest, she could also feel it ache. She reminded herself that the decision she was about to take was as much for him as it was for both of them and she tried desperately not to think of the one thing, the one person that made that decision so heartbreaking.

      ‘We could just stay here,’ Tom suggested, pulling Holly onto the bed and kissing her slowly and sensuously.

      ‘Don’t,’ moaned Holly. ‘I’ll never let you go if you say that.’

      ‘I love you, Hol.’

      ‘I love you too,’ Holly croaked, holding back the tears.

      ‘The taxi will be here soon but, oh, how I wish we had more time,’ Tom said, peeling himself from her and reluctantly getting up off the bed.

      ‘We will have more time. One day soon we’ll have the rest of our lives to spend together,’ promised Holly, squeezing her eyes shut against the vision of Libby’s beautiful green eyes staring back at her.

      She lay where Tom had left her, watching him in silence as he quickly dressed and finished off his packing. A solemn knock on the door announced the arrival of the taxi. Tom leaned over and kissed the top of her head.

      ‘By the way …’ Tom said, kissing Holly gently on the lips.

      ‘What?’ she asked, looking up into his green eyes.

      ‘Your breath stinks.’ Tom smiled his beautiful mischievous smile.

      ‘Well, СКАЧАТЬ