All The Little Moments Read Online Free

coming from his cot. She padded softly over, and even she was thrown by the cuteness of the toddler, sprawled on his back, pacifier discarded to the side. She pulled the blanket up over him and ran her fingers over the silk of his hair. He really was the sweetest thing, this little boy who moved with a vengeance and had a vocabulary of less than ten words. He was never going to know his father and mother. His future had just been inexorably altered, the man he would have grown into changed. Nature versus nurture was about to take point.
    “Aunty Na?”
    She turned.
    Big eyes stared at her from Ella’s pillow.
    Walking over, she squatted next to the bed, resting a hand on the blankets. “What’s up, Ella Bella?” she asked in a low voice, anxious not to wake Toby.
    “Do you have to go in the morning?”
    Anna smiled softly. “I do. But I’ll be back very soon.”
    “And then we’re all going back home?” Ella scrunched up her little face, still trying to wrap her head around all the changes. “You, me and Toby?”
    “Yep. Is that okay with you?”
    Ella’s face remained blank. She didn’t respond but rolled over to face the wall, little hand gripping Anna’s.
    Anna sat for a few minutes, waiting for Ella’s breathing to even out and her grip to slacken. Then she made her way out the door and pulled it closed quietly. Jake had always laughed and said Ella was a miniature Anna in personality. Apparently he wasn’t far off. She leant against the wall, eyes closed. A long, slow breath left her body.
    What was she doing?

    “So, you’re doing it?”
    Heart pounding, Anna nodded.
    They both sipped their wine, Hayley almost gulping hers before licking her lips, “And, uh—when do you need to go back?”
    Anna tried to calm herself down. It had been a long day, flying back home and trying to organize everything as quickly as she could. None of that had been helped by the fact that she had spent an hour on the couch alone waiting for Hayley to come home, going over and over what she had to tell her. “I spoke to my boss at work today; he’s supportive.” She let out a long breath. “I’m thinking within a week, depending.”
    Hayley leant forward, putting her wine glass down on the coffee table and turning to look at Anna. “Depending on what?”
    “On us.”
    Hayley licked her lips, taking her time to answer, as if she was carefully thinking out her response. “Does it have to be so soon?”
    “My mum thinks the sooner the kids get settled back into normal—”
    “Nothing will be normal for them.”
    “No. It won’t.” Sighing, Anna ran a hand over her eyes. “But she thinks the closer we can get them to it, the better.”
    Anna clung to her wine. This was unfair. They had both built a life avoiding exactly this situation. But where Anna had no choice in it, Hayley did. “This isn’t something we ever wanted.”
    Hayley nodded again.
    “You don’t have to—we can just—I can go. And you can stay.”
    With a sigh, Hayley reached for her wine again. “I just—you’re right, this isn’t anything I ever wanted. I was just promoted. But—we—what if we try? I can’t promise anything. But what if we try? I’ll still live here, but I’ll come on and off and see how we go. I’ll come in a few weeks or so and we’ll try distance.”
    Barely daring to breathe, Anna stared at her. “You don’t have to do that.”
    “I want to.”
    Relief bloomed in Anna’s chest and she kissed Haley before pulling back to try to lighten the mood. “I almost had a tantrum at my mother.”
    Hayley smirked, bringing a hand up behind Anna’s neck, pulling her close. “I don’t blame you. Can I throw one?”

    The next six days were full of boxing up items, seeing friends before she left, sorting out lease payments, and overseeing last-minute handovers at work. Hayley was only home late in the evenings after long days at her firm. Anna kept busy with organising and packing up her life and then by pushing