The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club(70)

‘Yes. I’m ready,’ Jo said finally and she looked across at Lucy and Elizabeth. Their faces were full of love and apprehension and Jo wondered if she could find the words she needed to say to them. She felt as if her whole body was brimful of emotion, a toxic mixture of the inevitability that lay ahead, the love that she knew would never die for these two extraordinary women and the gratitude for a life that could lead to this utterly sublime sense of peace and appreciation. ‘I really am ready now,’ she whispered and with that she started the long swim back to the shore.





31


Dan


Dan figured there wasn’t much point returning to the cottage while the swim was taking place. He’d only just have walked back when he’d have to turn around and walk down again. The community centre committee had organised a welcome home celebration for the swimmers when they returned from the beach. Already the whole village had turned out to applaud the women. At this hour of the night, the pubs and hotel were closing up, but they’d all been canvassed for donations and between Lucy and Elizabeth, they had managed to garner enough sparkling wine and hot punch to ensure that the welcome would be warm.

The beach was striking, with lit lanterns marking out the route down to the swimmers in the distance. He threw his jacket over the wall and sat next to Niall and Zoe, enjoying the atmosphere. The women really were very lucky. To be fair, he’d arrived here in the stormiest weather. Warm days like they’d had for the last few weeks seemed to transform the village to a whole new realm of beauty.

It reminded him of being a kid – long summer days spent hanging out with nothing much to do but feel the sun on his face. He thought of the women at the far end of the beach and wondered, for a moment, if perhaps his mother might be one of them. He could see the group of women making their way back across the sand. They were a raggle-taggle bunch and he imagined Elizabeth at the front of them leading them along with Jo being chauffeur driven by Lucy in the off-roader. He was glad he’d been able to make some small contribution.

His mobile knocked him from his thoughts. He looked at his watch. It was almost one o’clock in the morning. The number buzzing insistently on his mobile wasn’t instantly recognisable, but he answered it anyway, his voice wary of bad news at such a late hour.

‘Hey, writer guy.’ It was Harry, his agent from London and it sounded as if he was in full-blown party mode. Dan imagined him, stationed in some trendy club, surrounded by the most beautiful people and making this final work call out of hours amidst the movers and shakers on their wind-down at the weekend. ‘Sorry about the time. I’m in New York at a trade fair so everything is a bit all over the place.’

‘Hey, yourself. Shouldn’t you be cutting deals and making us both some money?’ he asked.

‘I think I’ve done my bit for the week actually.’ He sounded happy. ‘I just wanted to tell you that your book is creating such a buzz that already it’s being fought over by some of the biggest editors around.’

‘And of course, you told them?’

‘I told them put something in a proposal for us. It’s out on submission and I’ll be letting everyone else know on Monday that we’re officially going into talks on it.’

‘That’s good. What are they like?’

‘Honestly, top and bottom of our wish list, but they don’t know that, so it’s good. We’re going to be looking at top dollar, but I have a feeling knowing you, you’ll go for one over the other because they’ll treat this with the kind of loving care it deserves.’

‘So, we’re on the way to having a book deal.’ A ripple of excitement was beginning to bubble up in Dan.

‘Yep, it looks like it and not just one if we can agree on the details.’

‘That’s great news. I think it deserves a bit of celebrating,’ he said and then he realised, that was exactly what Harry was going to set about doing.

‘I would say big, big celebrations. They want it badly and I think this could really be a whole new vista opening up for your work. And you know, now that the publishing industry has made such a big thing of it, there’s a good chance we’ll have the movie companies hammering down our doors by the middle of next week.’

‘Harry, you’re the best. Have I told you that lately?’ He was making fun of his friend, but they both knew, so far, they’d been a winning combination. It looked as if their luck was holding still. Dan hung up the phone and thought about going back to the cottage. He had a couple of cans of beer in the fridge and the remains of a bottle of red wine in the cupboard. He was glad he was here, that he’d gotten this news tonight; it wouldn’t be much of a celebration there on his own. He jumped from the wall and headed across to the hotel before closing time. There was no reason he couldn’t bring along a couple of bottles of decent champagne and see if he could talk Elizabeth, Jo and Lucy into sharing a drink with him to celebrate. In fact, this was such good news; he would buy a glass for everyone in the village.

‘Dan.’ Jo welcomed him with as much warmth as ever when he arrived at the reception the village had set up for the swimmers. ‘I’m so glad you came. I wanted to thank you for that fancy car you organised for me today.’ She was beaming, smaller and more fragile than before, but there was an unmistakable light shining from within her, so it was impossible to imagine it being extinguished.