ONE DAY WITH YOU

  SHARI LOW

  CONTENTS

  On This Day We Meet…

  9 February 2023

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  10 A.M.–12 Noon

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Noon – 2 p.m.

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  2 p.m. – 4 p.m.

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  8 p.m. – 10 p.m.

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  10 p.m. – Midnight

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Midnight – 8 a.m.

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Epilogue

  More from Shari Low

  About the Author

  About Boldwood Books

  To Caroline Ridding, the best editor and friend a writer could have.

  To Jade Craddock and Rose Fox, who go above and beyond to turn my words into books.

  And to John and our brood, who are, as always, everything. xx

  ON THIS DAY WE MEET…

  Tress Walker, 42 – interior designer, originally from Newcastle, Tress was working in Glasgow on the day she met her husband, Max. Now pregnant with their first, much-wanted child.

  Max Walker, 35 – finance director at Bralatech, raised in Weirbridge and has now returned to live there with his wife, Tress.

  Noah Clark, 35 – paediatrician at Glasgow Central Hospital, Max’s best mate since childhood, just celebrated his eleventh wedding anniversary with his wife, Anya.

  Anya Clark, 34 – sales director at Bralatech, daughter of an American dad and Scottish mum. She met Noah and Max on her first day at Glasgow University and has been with Noah ever since.

  Nancy Jenkins, 66 – widowed after losing her husband of over 40 years, Peter, to cancer. School dinner lady, head of Neighbourhood Watch, force of nature.

  Eddie Mackie, 66 – Nancy’s teenage boyfriend.

  Val Murray, 66 – Nancy’s friend since they met at Weirbridge Primary School a million years ago. Married to Don, the love of her life, and heartbroken that her wonderful man has dementia.

  Big Angie, 50 – another of Nancy’s friends and neighbours, a bus driver and fond of sharing her menopause woes with the world.

  Johnny Roberts, 66 – an old school pal of Val and Nancy.

  Dr Cheska Ayton, 35 – head of A&E at Glasgow Central Hospital and Noah’s friend since medical school.

  Dr Richard Campbell, 44 – head of ICU at Glasgow Central.

  Georgina and Colin Walker, both 66 – Max’s free-spirited parents, who live in Cyprus and love a good time.

  9 FEBRUARY 2023

  8-10 A.M.

  1

  TRESS

  The two furrowed stress lines between her husband’s brows made Tress smile. If he carried on like this, Max Walker was going to have aged ten years before their baby was born.

  He dropped his overnight case on the hall floor and reached for her, his voice matching the anxiety on his gorgeous face. ‘Damn, I don’t want to leave you. It’s such crap timing. I’ll be back tomorrow night, though, so keep that little guy safe and warm in there and tell him to take it easy.’

  The beeping horn of the taxi outside forced a pause before she could reply. Out of habit, Tress’s hand rested on the space-hopper-like curve of her belly. ‘Stop worrying. We’ve still got three weeks to go, and if he’s anything like me, he’ll be late because he’s floating around in there having a chill time to himself.’

  It still gave her a thrill to say ‘he’. They’d thought about waiting until the birth to find out the sex of the baby, but only for about five minutes before dismissing the idea. Max was desperate to know because he couldn’t bear the suspense, and the interior designer in Tress wanted a heads up so she could start dreaming about the perfect nursery. ‘Now go. Have fun. Stop fretting. Be brilliant. Then come home tomorrow night and feel up your wife,’ she teased, stretching over her bump to kiss him on the lips.

  His hand came up to her neck, cupping it, his thumb gently rubbing her cheek. ‘Do you have any idea how much I love you, Tress Walker?’ he murmured, his face still so close she could smell the lingering minty aroma of his toothpaste.

  ‘Enough to get me knocked up and saddle yourself to me until the end of time.’

  He grinned as he kissed her again. ‘Exactly. It was your romantic outlook and sweet tender words of love that got me.’

  Another beep from outside.

  A giggle caught in her throat as she nudged him away. ‘Yeah, well, doesn’t sound like your taxi driver is feeling the love, so move your impressively tight arse so he’ll stop pressing that bloody horn. Nancy next door will take him out with a swift right hook if he carries on with that.’

  She wasn’t wrong. There was a reason there had been no crime in the street since Nancy Jenkins became the head of Neighbourhood Watch for this area of Weirbridge. Originally a quaint village just outside Glasgow, it had now grown to the size of a small town, and with that came the occasional crime. Nancy, who was the most big-hearted sweetheart of a woman, unless she was crossed, knew everyone in the village, so, even though she officially qualified for a pension, a bus pass, and a quiet life, she’d volunteered to protect the streets. Even the local scumballs were terrified of the woman who once caught a thief trying to break into her house and threatened to puncture his kidneys with her knitting needles if she ever saw him again. He was relieved when the police took him into custody.

  Another beep.

  ‘Max stuck his head out of the open front door and shouted, ‘Okay, okay.’

  Tress’s heart melted at the sight of his still-furrowed brow. The conference couldn’t have come at a worse time. As the head of finance for a relatively new tech start-up, he usually worked from their Glasgow office, only travelling to the head office in London once or twice a month. Today, there was an extra journey south for their annual conference, but they’d already agreed this would be his last trip before the baby was born.

  Tress still marvelled that such a sexy guy could have such an unsexy job. Craziest thing was, for someone who could nail a part-time gig as a catalogue model, Max had absolutely no cocky self-awareness or raging ego at all. His genuine niceness and easy laugh had been the first things she’d noticed about him – after his kind eyes and libido-swirling smile – when she’d literally bumped into him in Greggs in Glasgow city centre a few years before. She’d been up in Scotland sourcing tweed for the corporate interior design company she worked for and had popped out of their supplier’s city-centre office for a quick walk around George Square, then nipped into the baker’s for a bite to eat. It was the worst cliché ever. They’d both reached for a tuna crunch baguette at exactly the same time, and then did that whole, ‘You have it,’ ‘No, you have it,’ for at least a minute, before she finally conceded to his chivalry. She got the tuna crunch baguette and the guy at the same time. Meeting the love of her life, marrying him within a year and moving to Scotland hadn’t been on her life-bingo card, but here she was, and she hadn’t regretted it for a single second.

  Her shoulder rested on the door frame as she watched him go down the path, throwing a wave and blowing her a kiss as he climbed into the Skoda Estate for the fifteen-minute ride to Glasgow airport. The taxi took off down the street and she sighed as she made her way back through to the kitchen, then picked up her mobile phone to call her husband’s stunt double.

  Nancy answered on the first ring. ‘Is the baby coming?’

  ‘That’s the first thing you’ve said every time you’ve answered the phone for the last three months. No, he’s not coming.’

  ‘Oh, thank goodness.’ There was genuine relief in Nancy’s voice as she went on, ‘I’ve just got my perm lotion on and if I have to wash it out now, I’ll end up looking like I’ve had an electrical accident while I was changing the plug on my Dyson charger. Did I mention I’ve got a new Dyson?’ she said, in her very best faux-posh voice.

  ‘Only once or twice. Or every time I’ve spoken to you since you got it,’ Tress ribbed her.

  Tress could picture the scene in Nancy’s kitchen, in the next cottage along the road, and it reminded her so much of the kitchen activities in the house in Newcastle that she’d grown up in. They’d moved to the brand-new housing estate there when Tress was a toddler, along with a wave of other families who’d been high on the council waiting lists, and her mum, Julie, had lived there until she’d passed away a few years before. She’d had the same neighbours all her life, families who’d all raised their children together, mothers who’d become friends and support systems through ups, downs, divorces, remarriages, tears, celebrations, pain, happiness, loss and love. Many of them were single mums like Julie, most of them had at least one job, sometimes two or three, and they’d all pitched in to help each other out. It wasn’t perfect, but Tr
ess was grateful for every one of those women. They’d helped raise her, made her childhood as happy as possible, and they’d cared for her mum right up until breast cancer had taken her at the far too young age of fifty-five.

  Nancy had a band of friends who were just like that. In fact, Tress was 100 per cent certain that Nancy’s pal, Angie, would be sitting at her kitchen table right now, handing perming rod papers to her other pal, Val, who would be winding the rods into Nancy’s salt-and-pepper locks. Nancy could never replace her mum, but she’d taken Tress under her wing when she’d moved here, and Tress was beyond grateful for her care, her laughs and her ferocious love of hand-made baby clothes.

  ‘I was just telling Val and Angie that I’ve been stress knitting my heart out this last few weeks. I hope we’re in for a shite summer, because this baby already has fourteen cardigans, twenty-two hats and enough mittens to survive a childhood in Siberia.’

  A cackle of laughter made a muscle in Tress’s side twinge, and she winced.

  ‘What? What was that?’ Nancy demanded.

  ‘Nothing!’ Tress insisted.

  ‘There was something. Your breathing changed.’

  ‘Nancy, your skills are wasted in the school canteen. Is it too late for you to become a police interrogator?’

  ‘Probably not, but I’d miss the caramel cake. Anyway, love, are you sure you’re okay?’

  ‘I’m fine. I was just phoning to say that’s Max away to the airport, so you’re in charge.’

  Nancy didn’t even attempt to hide her disapproval. ‘Still can’t believe he’s leaving you at a time like this.’

  ‘It’ll be fine! I’ve still got three weeks to go and he’s only going away until tomorrow night. I’ll be okay.’

  ‘I know, but that doesn’t mean I won’t spend the rest of the day moaning about that handsome big lump of yours to Val and Angie.’

  ‘I wouldn’t expect anything less…’

  ‘Although Angie says if you ever tire of him, she’ll take him off your hands.’

  That made Tress smile again. Angie was a fifty-year-old bus driver, who took no nonsense from anyone and went everywhere with two hand fans, complaining to anyone that would listen about ‘the change’. She’d chew mild-mannered Max up and spit him out before lunchtime.

  ‘Tell her thanks for the offer, but I’ll hang on to him for now.’

  ‘Sorry, Angie, she’s keeping him.’ Nancy informed one of her nominated hairstylists, before returning to Tress. ‘Anyway, call me every two hours and don’t you dare do anything strenuous. I’ve got my night out tonight, but I’ll check on you before I go. And then tomorrow, I’ll bring some lunch over for you and we can Netflix and chill as you young ones say.’

  ‘Nancy, that means something different from what you’re thinking…’

  Nancy wasn’t listening. ‘Val was saying there’s a new film on there with that Piers Brosnan. Och, I wouldn’t throw him out of bed for leaving crumbs with his Garibaldis, let me tell you.’

  Tress could hear the laughter in the background. ‘You lot are incorrigible. I’m hanging up now in case my child can hear through the womb and is being corrupted as we speak. Thanks, Nancy.’

  ‘Any time, pet. See you later. And don’t forget to tell me how lovely my perm is. Extra points if you say I look like that Madonna lass. We’re about the same age, and I reckon underneath all those fillers and her leather knickers we’re dead ringers. Cheerio.’

  With that little deadpan of conversational wisdom, she was gone, leaving Tress amused as always. After her mum had died, there had been times when Tress thought she’d never have that feeling of belonging again. Julie was an only child, and so was Tress, so with no other family, it really had been just the two of them. Meeting Max had changed that. She was hundreds of miles from where she grew up, but now she had a husband, his friends had welcomed her with open arms, and the women in this village had befriended her. This was Max’s world, but it really felt like it was hers now too.

  Tress dropped her phone on the kitchen table, then made a cup of tea. Plenty of milk. No sugar. It was barely 8 a.m., but she’d been awake for an hour and already she felt exhausted. Knackered but happy pretty much summed up her whole pregnancy. She took her ‘I’m Not Pregnant, I Just Ate All The Pies’ mug – a gift from Nancy, naturally – through to the desk she’d set up in the conservatory, looking out onto the back garden. Room designs were spread all over the vintage mahogany desktop – her favourite find from a day of second-hand furniture shopping in the charity shops on Weirbridge high street.

  Max hadn’t minded in the least that she had wanted to put her own stamp on the place. He’d bought this house off his parents for a knockdown price when they’d retired to Cyprus a few months before she’d met him. The timing was perfect. He’d moved back from a flat in Glasgow’s city centre to the house he’d lived in as a kid, and Tress had quit her job to move from Newcastle to Scotland.

  When she’d arrived in Weirbridge, Max had carried on working, while Tress, with her creative talent for interior design, had focused on the house, transforming the ordinary three-bedroom detached cottage into a gorgeous, open-plan barn-style conversion. Tress had done loads of the work herself: wallpapering, tiling, painting, ripping out the kitchen and bathrooms, re-upholstering and renovating gorgeous old pieces of furniture she found in antique warehouses and second-hand shops. If she didn’t know how to do it, she learned. She’d even done manual labour with the builder as he opened up the ceilings, knocking down walls, laying walnut floors throughout and exposing the original brickwork. The end result was gorgeous. Sometimes she still couldn’t believe that she lived here. Or that, inspired by the gorgeous home she’d created, and years of experience working in design for corporate workplaces and hotel chains, she’d left the company she worked for back on the Day of The Tuna Baguette Tussle, and had now set up her own interior design business.

  She’d kicked off with one client, but word of mouth had helped it grow year by year and she now had a solid client base and enough jobs booked in to keep her busy for the next few months. She specialised in creative solutions on modest budgets and did everything, from new window treatments to full house designs. She hadn’t matched her old salary just yet, but combined with what Max brought in, they were doing fine. Having the baby would be an adjustment, but the plan was to try to fit working from home around the baby’s schedule, and Nancy had volunteered to babysit when she had client meetings, as long as they were in the afternoons, after she’d finished her shifts as a dinner lady at Weirbridge High School.

  Tress was about to sketch out some new design ideas for Mrs Galbraith of Cloverleaf Cottage’s bay window, when another yawn made something in her side twinge. She gave it a rub and was rewarded with a swift kick in the abdomen from the baby. Mrs Galbraith’s bay window could wait. Clearly, her little guy was demanding a quick rest before starting the day.

  Over on the kitchen table, Tress’s phone beeped to signal that the battery was just about done, so she retrieved it and plugged it into the charger on her desk, then gently, she lowered herself down on to the cream linen sofa (£50 second-hand, and £50 for the fabric she’d used to recover it herself) and closed her eyes…

  She wasn’t sure whether it was the sharp pain or the ringing of the landline that woke her, as, in her sleepy fog, both things seemed to happen at exactly the same time.

  Tress let out an involuntary yelp, as she rolled her body up into a seated position, just in time for her waters to break. Oh Jesus, no. Not yet. It wasn’t time. She still had three weeks. Too early. Too early. TOO FRICKING EARLY. Her heart was racing, fear shutting her reactions down, forcing her limbs to freeze, her mind to blank out. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. She needed help.