The Eleventh Hour

Chapter 27

As soon as we walked out of Nathaniel’s room, a heavenly smell of food hit me.

Nathaniel seemed to smell it to, breathing in deeply. He looked down at me, sending me yet another playful smile. “I asked Nuala to fix us up an extra special breakfast this morning.”

I already knew what it was, I knew the smell. It was a full English breakfast. Nathaniel knew my love for it. I grinned like an idiot as we headed down the stairs.

I bounded through the archway excitedly, to see Nuala by the stove. “Wow,” I breathed, as I skipped to the breakfast counter with Nathaniel by my side. We took our seats, and I beamed at him.

The look he gave me was strange – he was frowning but smiling at the same time, as though he was trying to work something out on my face.

“What is it?” I asked.

“You get excited about the littlest of things.” He said, still reading my face.

I shrugged, looking away.

“Definitely not spoilt,” he added, and I looked back at him.

Now I was the one to frown. “Huh?”

“Good morning.” Nuala said to us, smiling widely. If I wasn’t already on cloud nine, her smile would have brightened my day considerably. But there was no chance of that.

“Morning.” I beamed, thanking her as she put my tea on the mat in front of me. I took a welcome sip.

Nathaniel had a mug of black coffee. He took a drink, then looked at me and caught me looking at him. He sent me a wink, that went straight down to my groin. I spluttered.

“Happy birthday, Lola Rose.” Nuala said, placing two large, empty plates in front of us. There was something else in her hand – a large red envelope. She handed it to me.

I looked at her with mild surprise. “Oh... thank you.” I said, taking it.

“It’s from all of us.”

I shot Nathaniel a glance as I opened the envelope. I got the impression he didn’t expect this any more than I did, but he was smiling.

I took the card out and my smile impossibly widened, opening it.

‘Happy Birthday’, it read, ‘with all our love, Nuala, Jackson and Jenks’.

“Aw,” I almost crooned, feeling overwhelmed. I looked up at her. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome,” she replied. “I’m guessing you’re hungry.”

“Now you’re talking.” Nathaniel said playfully, eyeing the small platter of bacon on the side.

I snorted at him but did the same thing. “Do you want any help bring it over?” I asked her. It was a habit, my parents did well drilling manners into me growing up.

“It’s fine, you stay there.” Nuala said.

“Let me,” Nathaniel rose out of his seat.

“Oh, thank you Mr Hart.”

My eyebrows shot up. Now there’s something you don’t see every day.

They both came over with bacon, eggs, sausages and toast. Nathaniel sat back down with me as Nuala made a second trip with a small bowl of beans. I couldn’t help but notice that these were all my favourite things in a full breakfast – my mouth started to water.

We plated up as Nuala put a jug of orange juice on the table, before exiting. I dug straight in, almost moaning out loud. I’d definitely, definitely missed this.