Page 50 of Mending Hearts at the Cornish Country Hospital (The Cornish Country Hospital #6)

Eden hadn’t looked forward to Christmas so much in years. She wouldn’t have bet on Drew being a huge fan of the season, but it turned out he had enough festive spirit to rival Santa Claus himself.

‘So are you going to tell me where we’re going, or do I have to guess?

’ Eden smiled across at Drew as they turned inland from the coastal road that led from Port Kara to Port Tremellien.

In the past week, they’d already been to see the lantern parade in Fowey, and attempted ice skating at the Eden Project.

They were booked in to see the winter wonderland lights at the Heligan Night Garden and, on Christmas Eve, they’d be travelling on a heritage steam train with Santa Claus and his elves.

It was as if Drew was making up for all the childhood experiences that he and Eden had missed out on, and she was loving every minute of it, even if it had been a bit hit-and-miss when it came to her son.

‘It’s a secret. I know Teddie wasn’t a massive fan of the ice skating, but this one is especially for him.

So you’ll just have to wait and see what it is.

’ Drew grinned and tapped the side of his nose, as Teddie chatted away from the back seat in his own little language.

There’d been some developments with his communication in the past few weeks.

He was gesturing a lot more, pointing and waving without being prompted to do so, and he was making a repetitive noise that sounded a lot like mama.

At least that was what Eden was telling herself, even if it was still more of a sound than a word.

He’d also graduated from refusing to watch anything except Paddington , to alternating between that and Peppa Pig .

It had come as a huge relief to Eden, after almost three years of the same show on endless repeat.

‘Teddie’s so lucky to have you.’ She reached out and laid a hand over Drew’s for a moment, which was resting on the gear stick.

Their relationship had progressed to the kind of easy intimacy that made being with him feel as though it was exactly where she needed to be.

‘And so am I. Teddie might not be able to say it yet, but we love you.’

‘I’d say that makes me the lucky one, because I love you both too.’

‘Good because you’re stuck with us now.’

‘I wouldn’t want it any other way.’

It had surprised Eden when Drew’s admission that he loved her had come with such apparent ease in the end, but it probably shouldn’t have done.

Even before he’d said it out loud, it had been evident in the things he did.

It made it much easier to accept what she’d been through with Jesse, because all of that had made her realise that what she and Teddie had with Drew was incredibly special.

They sat in companiable silence as the journey to their mystery destination continued, except for Teddie, who definitely couldn’t be described as non-verbal now, even if he still hadn’t quite found a way of turning sounds into words just yet. And it was Drew who broke the silence first.

‘Have you heard from Sadie lately?’

‘She sent me a text this morning, I’ll show it to you later, but the upshot is that Jesse is doing okay.

He’s going to his therapy sessions, and he and Sadie are booked into have family therapy together in the New Year.

It’s going to be a long road, but she’s hopeful that it can make a big difference to them both.

She wants to come and see Teddie in the spring, but not with Jesse.

She knows we’re a long way from that yet, and even he seems to realise he’s not ready, but seeing Sadie might be a stepping stone. What do you think?’

She was going to speak to Felix about it too and get his take on the idea, but the most important thing to Eden was that Drew was on board. She trusted his judgement more than anyone’s when it came to Teddie.

‘I think that would be good. She seems to really care about Teddie and it’s clear Sadie’s getting more of an understanding of his needs from the gifts she sent him for Christmas. She didn’t get a chance to have much of a family growing up, so I think she deserves a second chance to have one now.’

‘Me too. You really are the loveliest person I know, Dr Redford.’

‘All that and you haven’t even seen where I’m taking you yet, but we’re here now.

’ He grinned again as he pulled into what looked like a farm track, the car bumping in and out of a series of potholes until they reached a barn bearing a sign emblazoned with the words ‘Reindeer Sanctuary’.

Drew parked outside the building, next to a row of other cars.

‘This is where Santa’s reindeers come when they retire.’

‘Is it really?’ Eden laughed and leant forward to kiss him, still marvelling that this was her life now and that she’d found someone as willing to put Teddie first as she was.

‘They’ve got other animals too, including pigs,’ Drew said, when she pulled away from him, sounding almost as excited as she knew he was hoping Teddie would be. It should have been a certainty, given her son’s newfound obsession with Peppa Pig, but there were no guarantees when it came to Teddie.

‘We’d better go and meet them then, hadn’t we?

’ Half an hour later they’d already fed the reindeer with the special food the sanctuary provided.

It was an experience Drew and Eden had enjoyed far more than Teddie, who had clung to his mother’s legs as the reindeer’s head had dipped down towards him, its massive antlers getting far too close for comfort.

Eden wasn’t holding out much hope of Teddie liking the pigs any more than the reindeer, and she put her hand over Drew’s again, as he pushed Teddie’s buggy towards the area of the barn where the pigs were kept.

‘Don’t be too disappointed if he doesn’t even want to look at them.’ She hated the thought of Drew making all this effort and feeling bad because Teddie didn’t turn out to be interested, but she should have known better.

‘I could never be disappointed, spending a day with you two.’

‘Stop being so perfect can you, you’re making me look bad!’ Moving her hand, she tucked her arm into the crook of his and leant up against him until they reached the pigs, who were snuffling around in the straw of their enclosure.

‘What do you think, bubs?’ Eden crouched down beside the buggy and for a moment she thought Teddie wasn’t even going to look in their direction, but then he started to point.

‘I think he likes them.’ Drew grinned as he moved to crouch down on the other side of the buggy. ‘They’re great, aren’t they Teddie? Just like Peppa.’

‘Pep, pep, pep, pep, pep.’

‘Oh my God, I think he’s actually trying to say Peppa.

’ Eden was laughing, her eyes glistening with tears at the same time.

She couldn’t be certain, and it wasn’t the whole word, but given the context, she was as sure as she could be that very soon her son would say his first word, and it would be Peppa, in homage to a cartoon pig.

‘I can’t believe he’s going to say Peppa before he even really says mama, but I don’t care what his first word is. I just want to hear his voice and to know what he sounds like.’ The tears were flowing now, but she was still laughing too, as Drew reached across the buggy and took hold of her hand.

‘Me too, hearing our boy’s voice is the best present anyone could ask for, even if it does mean he prefers a pig to us!

’ And there it was, the future Eden had always dreamed of, in those two simple words ‘our boy’.

Things with Drew had progressed far more quickly than she could ever have imagined possible, but they were soulmates, all three of them, made to fit together so perfectly that it was impossible to imagine a life without Drew in it.

She had everything she’d ever wanted and never really dared to believe she could have.

It was proof that happy endings could come from the most difficult of beginnings, but they still had so much of their story to discover together and she couldn’t wait for the next chapter to begin.