Page 13 of The Wisteria Tree Cottage

‘Yes, that will be awesome,’ Star said, excitedly.

Meadow smiled at Bear with complete love as he chatted happily with her daughter.

She spotted Greta and Felix, their grounds crew, walking in together to grab breakfast and Meadow waved at them. Greta gave her an exaggerated thumbs up in return, gestured to her and Bear and gave her another thumbs up. She must have said something to Felix because he also gave her two thumbs up. Meadow watched them go to the counter in confusion. She always had breakfast with Bear, Heath, River and Indigo so that felt like a weird reaction to seeing the two of them together.

‘And you never know, we might see the Wishing Wood wolf,’ Bear said, mysteriously.

Meadow rolled her eyes. It was Heath who had started this silly rumour the week before. He’d been on his way back from the pub after a pool competition and he said he saw a wolf running through the trees. He said he’d only had one pint and was adamant about what he saw but obviously no one believed him. But then at least two different guests had mentioned about seeing a wolf in the trees too over the last few days. One had even captured a very grainy, shaky video of something grey, white and furry, but it was too far away to really see what it was.

‘I really don’t think we need to worry about wolves here,’ Meadow said.

‘I’m not worried,’ Star said, excitedly. ‘I’ve never seen a wolf before, I’d love to see one.’

Meadow smiled at her brave, brilliant, clever girl. She loved her so much. When she’d talked with Bear about her dating and the potential match being OK with her having a child, she knew now how important that was. But despite what she’d talked about with Heath last night on their walk, she knew she needed much more than that, she needed someone who would love and adore Star as much as Bear, Heath and River did and that was a tall order. For now, she would enjoy meeting different men and going out on dates but it would always be at the back of her mind if any of the relationships started turning serious.

‘That would be cool to see a wolf,’ Bear said. ‘But we don’t have any wild wolves in this country. I’m not sure what people are seeing but it’s not a wolf. It could be a white deer, we’ve seen that a few times in the area. I can’t think what else it could be.’

‘A yeti,’ Star giggled.

‘Now that could be a possibility. But if Bigfoot is out there, we’ll catch him on the webcams.’

Star clapped her hands together excitedly.

‘What’s going on?’ Heath said.

He bent to give Meadow a kiss on the cheek and then moved to sit on the other side of Star, giving her a huge hug and a kiss. Star moved to sit on Heath’s lap so she could hug him properly. Heath kissed the top of her head, holding her tight. Star used to be a real daddy’s girl when she was small, always going to him for cuddles. It had never failed to make Meadow smile so much to see them together. As she’d got older, Star seemed to need less cuddles but, sometimes, she would still sit on their laps like she used to.

‘We’re going to trap Bigfoot,’ Star giggled.

Heath nodded seriously. ‘That sounds like fun. Although I kind of feel sorry for poor Bigfoot.’

‘We’ll let him go if we catch him, we just want to get a selfie with him,’ Star said.

Meadow loved her overactive imagination.

‘We’re setting webcams up in the woods so if your wolf is out there, we’ll see him,’ Bear said, clearly mocking his brother.

‘Oh, you tease me now,’ Heath said, obviously not taking any offence. ‘But when you see him, you’ll be laughing on the other side of your face.’

‘Bear thinks you saw a white deer not a wolf,’ Star said, practically, climbing down from his lap to resume her breakfast.

‘I’m pretty sure I could tell the difference between a deer and a wolf,’ Heath said. Bear made drinking motions over the top of Star’s head and Heath grinned. ‘Even then.’

‘We’re actually setting up webcams to try to capture foxes, badgers, stoats and voles,’ Star said.

‘Now that sounds like a much more sensible idea,’ Heath said. ‘I’ve seen a few foxes in my time here, plenty of rabbits and squirrels, but I’ve never seen a stoat or a vole and I’ve only seen a badger once or twice.’

‘And a wolf,’ Star said.

‘Yes, let’s not forget that,’ Heath said. ‘It’d be good to see them on the webcams. And you’ve definitely chosen the right person to set it all up for you. I’m sure there isn’t a single thing about webcams, night-vision and motion sensors that Bear doesn’t know about.’

Bear looked momentarily stunned at the compliment from his brother.

Just then River, Indigo and Tierra arrived. They went to get their breakfast first and then came and joined them. Tierra was clutching something in her tiny hand.

‘This is my brother,’ Tierra said excitedly, thrusting the picture of their unborn baby under Meadow’s nose.

Meadow slid an arm around Tierra to look at the photo. ‘Wow, look at him, he is going to be huge.’

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