She wandered through the olive grove for a while longer, lost in her thoughts until it was time to return to the terrace.

She spied Babs and Diego deep in conversation. Babs and Fran had been sparky together, but Babs and Diego’s harmony was mellow and mature, like the olive trees that bore the best fruit.

Carla coughed lightly to announce her presence and walked toward them, watching as Diego picked up his fedora and placed it on his head, twisting the brim to fit. His eyes were narrower and more serious, and Babs’s movements were twitchy. The air held a prickle of tension.

The three of them stood and loitered over the beautiful view for a few final moments until Diego walked ahead to retrieve his car.

“How did things go?” Carla asked Babs.

She replied with a wistful sigh. “We love each other, but can’t seem to move forward. Diego says some matters of the heart are complicated, and I wonder if he is seeing someone else... It would break my own heart if he was.”

“I’ve seen the way he looks at you,” Carla said. “I know you’re supposed to be together. If you both come to England for my wedding, it will give you time to work on things.”

A small smile formed on Babs’s lips. “We might need a stick of dynamite to move us along, but you’re the expert around here.”

Carla was about to protest, but her words made something stir inside her. Pride, happiness...and a feeling she didn’t expect. Relief.

Perhaps she wasn’t such a fraud at matching people after all.

They walked to the car, and Carla shielded her eyes against the light. The sun was a burning ball in the sky, and translucent shapes started to float across her eyes, skewing her view. She suddenly felt floaty and light, like her body might sway on a breeze. The car seemed to be moving farther away from her, even though it was stationary.

“Are you okay, petal?” Babs asked, her voice sounding distant.

“No,” Carla said hazily, falling into a swoon. “I don’t think I am.”

And that was when everything went black.

Twenty

Flamingo

“Carla. Carla?” The woman’s voice sounded far away, as if in a dream.

Carla’s eyes were closed and she could hear someone moving around her, a comforting noise that made her feel like she was being taken care of. She opened one eye in a squint, and the shape of a figure, a man, then a woman, came into view. Her surroundings were all white.

“Am I in heaven?” she asked, trying to sit up. The blur of her vision became clearer.

“Stay where you are. You fainted at the olive grove, next to the car,” Babs said. “I’ve brought you a banana and some water.”

“How are you feeling?” Diego’s voice followed next.

Carla made a visor with her hand against the daylight flooding into the room. She saw whitewashed walls and linen curtains billowing in a breeze from the patio doors. They were open, so she could see the beautiful countryside before her.

A memory trickled back of her body growing heavier, as if filled with potatoes. “Sorry, yes. I remember now,” she said. “I suddenly felt too hot, and too light. I think I must be dehydrated.”

Diego passed her a bottle of water. He had his doctor’s bag at his side and reached into it. “I will take your blood pressure,” he said.

“There’s no need, honestly.” Carla drank the water in one go.

“Let’s check things out anyway,” he offered. After kneeling down beside her, he slipped a band over her arm. “Do you still have any dizziness?” he asked as the band inflated. “You didn’t eat very much at lunchtime.”

“I’m not always hungry in the heat.”

Diego observed her results. “Your blood pressure is a little low.” He unfastened the band and helped Carla to sit up. “Perhaps we should run a few tests...”

She casually peeled the banana and took a bite. “What kind of tests?”

“You’ve been tired and dizzy, you fainted, and you said your appetite has been sporadic.” Diego paused and cautiously glanced at Babs for her support. “Could you possibly be pregnant?”

Carla swallowed a chunk of banana and began to choke. She held a fist to her mouth with tears streaming down her face. “Of course not. I’m forty-two.”

She and Tom were always careful. But then she thought how she had been out of sorts for the last couple of months, lethargic and picky about her food. She’d been making some very strange choices, like deciding to meet men from her past, and had also gained a few pounds. Her periods had been random and light for a while, which she’d presumed was due to perimenopause. (A few of her friends had early symptoms, too.) But surely, she couldn’t be pregnant?

“I can arrange for you to go to the hospital,” Diego said, his eyes full of concern.

“Better to get checked out, petal,” Babs added.

Carla was about to insist she was absolutely fine, but she knew worry would take root in her brain. “Is there a supermarket or pharmacy nearby? Are store-bought pregnancy tests accurate?”

Diego nodded. “Around ninety-eight to ninety-nine percent. I can drive to buy a test now, if you wish to check.”

Carla gripped her empty bottle so tightly the plastic crumpled. “Yes, please,” she squeaked.

Sitting in the bathroom, half an hour later, the three minutes of waiting felt like eternity. Carla focused on the digits on her watch rather than on the white stick resting on its box on the floor. When the time was up, she drew a sharp breath and held it in her lungs. And then she looked down at the stick.

The two pink lines looked like the legs of a flamingo.

Oh god. She was definitely having a baby. Her head began to swim and she grabbed the side of the sink to steady herself.

She wanted to hold Tom in her arms to tell him the news, and the geographical distance between them seemed so wide he might as well be in outer space. They were supposed to be getting married in less than two weeks’ time and she still wasn’t absolutely, completely sure he was the right man to join her at the altar.

“You okay in there?” Babs called, rapping on the door. “Just making sure you’ve not fallen down the toilet or anything.”

“I’m fine,” Carla said, her voice sounding muffled, somehow different already. She got dressed and washed her hands, then opened the door.

“Well?” Babs said, her arms folded tightly. “Any news?”

Carla nodded and burst into tears.

Diego arranged for Carla to visit the hospital in Calella for a few more tests the next day, and he drove her and Babs there. It was the same hospital Carla had attended after her horse accident and she vaguely remembered how the sprawling building resembled a hotel.

A nurse took blood and urine samples and confirmed that Carla was pregnant. Diego discussed dates with her and they worked out that the pregnancy must be around eight or nine weeks along. She’d need to book a scan when she returned to England, and he and the nurse agreed it was fine for her to continue traveling if she wanted to. She should just rest up and take things easy for a day or two.

The world felt out of focus as Carla took a seat in the hospital café, waiting for Babs. Because of her age, this might be her last chance to be a mother, and certainly wasn’t one she’d planned or expected. She laced her fingers across her stomach, swirling her thumbs, and tried to let her situation sink in.

The tiny house she and Tom were supposed to move into wasn’t suitable for family life and she wondered again if she’d still fit into her wedding dress. All their carefully laid-out plans were crumbling into disarray.

She caught sight of a heavily pregnant woman lining up to buy orange juice and thought back to when her mum had been pregnant with Jess. Suzette used to give Carla a running commentary on how her baby sister was developing.