A Pretty Beach Wish

by Polly Babbington

  ‘Been up to my eyes, Holly. What with all Maggie’s extra-curricular stuff, the house, and then A Christmas Sparkle, not to mention my actual job, I’m running around like a madwoman most of the time. What is that saying about chasing your tail? Anyway, I’m doing that almost all the time.’

  ‘Woah. Sounds busy. Better than sitting around being bored though; boredom breeds bad things in my mind. However, I know what it’s like working those long hours, and then taking on extra work in the evening. When I started the second bakery, I was working nineteen-hour days, and that was on a good day. People always ask me how I got a string of bakeries. Was it luck? Nothing about luck in it. All about hard work.’

  ‘Exactly, and that’s precisely what I tell my girls too. I only thought the other day you make your own luck. I’m always banging on to them about working hard. Telling them the importance of getting your head down and getting on with it. Aren’t I, Maggie? You have to work hard at school, don’t you?’

  Maggie looked up from a game she was playing on Juliette’s phone, smiled and nodded at Juliette, ‘You always say that Mummy, you tell me to work hard and then you give me a kiss on the top of my head.’

  Juliette and Holly laughed, and Holly continued, ‘It shows. They are both lovely and especially you, darling Maggie. You should be very proud of yourself, Juliette. It’s the hardest job in the world. I remember those days with Rory only too well.’

  ‘Thank you. Anyway, enough about me, what have you been up to?’

  ‘Pah, that’s a good question. Not a lot with mum being unwell, just looking after her and running the business. What about you? Anything to tell? Any new purchases?’ Holly asked with a knowing smile, and followed it up with a little chuckle, as she looked at the menu for Maisy’s cafe.

  ‘I don’t believe it! How do you know?’ Juliette replied and slapped her hand on the table.

  Holly cackled. ‘How do I know what? I didn’t say I knew anything.’

  ‘I can tell by the look on your face. You know about the boat.’

  ‘You mean Sandy’s boat?’ Holly replied and laughed out loud.

  ‘Oh my god, you do know. Blimey, you can’t move around here without someone knowing your business. Who told you?’

  ‘Ed likes a beer, does he not?’

  ‘Yeah, but Ed has nothing to do with it. True we hired the kayaks the day Luke first saw the boat online, but we didn’t mention anything to Ed.’

  ‘But Ed’s wife’s sister is the daughter of Sandy the owner of the yellow-roofed boat.’

  ‘Well I never. So, I am right. You cannot move without someone knowing your business around here. This funny little world of Pretty Beach where everyone knows your name and what you’re up to!’

  ‘You don’t need me to tell you that! How long have you lived here? And you know what gossip goes around in that surgery. You’re right in the thick of it yourself in there. There must have been some stories in the staff room of that place. I’d love to be part of it in there. In fact, I’d pay a subscription, ha!’

  Juliette nodded and laughed in agreement. ‘You’re not wrong. It’s been jaw-dropping at points what you learn in that staff room. May I add too, that not all of it has been nice.’

  ‘So, Luke and his lovely bottom are buying it?’ Holly asked, leaning across the table.

  ‘If it all goes to plan, yep. So he’s told me. He seems on a bit of a mission with it. Who am I to stop him? They say it’s good to have a hobby in your life, don’t they? And he has a lot to deal with at work.’

  ‘They absolutely do. That’s one of the reasons I go to the Marina Club. I look at that as a little hobby, a little time away from it all.’

  Juliette nodded and smiled at Holly.

  ‘And you’ll be painting it pink?’ Holly said giggling and closing her menu and placing it back down on the table.

  Maggie looked up from the phone and added, ‘Mummy would like to - she loves pink!’

  Juliette laughed and replied, ‘I certainly do Maggie.’

  Then Juliette lowered her voice, ‘I haven’t worked that bit out yet, Holly. Luke’s said absolutely not, but then again Luke likes, how can I say, favours, and I know how to work my magic, Holly. You’re not the only person in Pretty Beach with powers, you know.’

  Chapter 7

  Juliette opened the door, looked all the way down Mermaid Lane, and was pleased to see that there was a gap two doors along for the delivery men for the arrival of her new pale blue velvet sofa with the turned legs and big, squishable cushions.

  The delivery of the sofa was huge for Juliette, seeming to signify all sorts in her life; the fact that she was living the dream in Pretty Beach, the fact that she was financially doing okay, but, more importantly, the fact that all the hard work she’d put into A Christmas Sparkle and all the extra shifts she’d taken on at the hospital meant that decisions like buying sofas were nowhere near as hard as they used to be.

  Before she’d moved to Mermaid Lane, before Luke had moved in, and when A Christmas Sparkle had not been doing quite as well, decisions about money were not that hard because it was quite simple - there was only just enough to go around.

  Now things were a little bit easier, and she loved the brainpower that had released. Loved that she had one less thing to worry about. She went back into the living room and put the huge, old vintage shutters back on their latches. The room looked beautiful in the dappled morning sunlight, and with the gorgeous old fireplace, stripped floors, and ornate ceiling rose in the centre, the room itself didn’t need much at all in terms of decor. However, in the vastness of the room with its high ceilings and big windows, her two linen sofas had looked somewhat lost, and Juliette had known exactly what was needed to make it all cosy.

  Juliette had been stalking the sofas being delivered for a good few years. In fact, she’d been eyeing them up since she’d left Jeremy. Jeremy had liked retro-modern grey modular sofas and their house together had been full of them. It had been even worse in other parts of the house and Juliette shuddered at the thought of the black leather sofas in the cinema room - they made her cringe.

  In those days, in the house with Jeremy, Juliette had secretly lusted after beautiful down-filled sofas she could sink into and binge watch a box set on Netflix at the end of the day. Those days with black leather sofas and lit-up cinema rooms were long gone now though, and Luke couldn’t care less what he sat on or how anything looked. Except possibly his abs, she liked that he cared about those.

  As she pushed her linen sofas back to allow for the new ones, that old life with Jeremy, the constant dieting to keep herself to his tastes and the enormous pressure to look good seemed so very far away.

  Luke was about as different from Jeremy as chalk to cheese. The only time he ever commented on how she looked was to tell her how much he loved her. When she’d once mentioned that she’d felt uncomfortable because her jeans wouldn’t do up, he’d nonchalantly mentioned that one of the first things he’d loved about her when they’d got together was the soft plumpness of her skin.

  How to make a woman feel good, she’d thought. Turn around all the notions we are fed by the media to be slim, to look a certain way and give it a different perspective, at least a Luke perspective - that he loved her softness. She’d clung to his words and hugged them to herself.

  Juliette looked out the window, and when she couldn’t see any signs of the lorry, she made a cup of tea, and went and sat out on the front step in the sunshine. White hydrangeas she’d discovered under the weeds were now thriving all the way down the right-hand side of the tiny front garden. The old black railings which had been crumbling in places and peeling all over had been repaired. She’d spent a few weekends with a can of undercoat and then a can of black paint and as she sat there now admiring them, they gleamed in the sunshine.

  Juliette sat on the step with her tea and observed the comings and goings of Mermaid Lane. She watched as Roy Johnson from the council opened his gate, gave a cheery wave, and got into his
car to go to work, and the ginger cat from a few doors up walked along the top of the railings and meowed hello.

  A couple of school children walked past on the way to Pretty Beach Primary, and Juliette thought to herself how nice it would have been if Maggie could walk to school. There was no way that was going to happen - Jeremy was insistent that Waterlock Prep was the only school for his daughter, and as long as he was paying for it, Juliette fell in line.

  She walked back into the house, through the hallway and put her mug in the dishwasher when the doorbell went.

  ‘Good morning!’ A voice called out as she walked back through the hallway and opened the door.

  ‘Helloooo!’ Juliette said.

  ‘Oh, it’s you, Jools!’ Juliette’s friend Harry said as he saw it was Juliette who had opened the door. ‘Of course, it is, I haven't got my brain in gear this morning. Sparkles on the delivery address and all that, duh...’

  ‘Hello Harry, wow, not on the boat?’

  ‘Ah, unfortunately not - Nathan’s been let down three times in the last month by staff and a full load today so he called me up. You know what it’s like, blood is thicker than water and all that. So, I’m delivering furniture for most of the day, in fact most of the week.’

  ‘Sounds like hard work. It’s good to see you.’

  ‘And the same to you. We need a catch-up, a pint in the Smugglers.’

  ‘We do indeed.’

  ‘Right, my lovely, can’t stop and chat. If I get behind on this first drop I’ll be chasing my tail all day.’

  ‘Okay. Shouldn’t take you long - it’s just in here in the living room at the front.’

  Juliette watched as Harry half jogged back to the van parked a few spaces down the lane, and she propped open the gate. A few minutes later, Harry and two helpers were carrying the first of the two huge, plastic wrapped sofas along the road.

  Juliette looked at the sofa as they started to carry it up the path. ‘Oh dear, it looks much, much bigger than I anticipated. I hope I’ve got my measurements right.’ Juliette shook her head and thought that there was no way that the sofas were going to fit.

  The delivery men lifted the sofa over the front railings, turned it onto its side to get it through the front door, and as they slowly moved into the house, they all stopped and rested the sofa onto the hallway floor.

  ‘Woah! This is unreal Jools. You’ve done old Mr Jenkin proud. Blimey, you must have spent a fortune. I remember this place was filthy and falling down almost when it went up for sale.’

  ‘On the contrary, Harry. Just about everything has been done on the tightest budget. This sofa here and its sister is my one indulgence.’

  ‘You’ve made a mighty fine job of it. I just love these old Mermaids houses. I used to walk along this lane on my way to school,’ Harry said looking up at the ceilings. ‘I’d kill to buy one of these and get out of the new estate.’

  ‘Harry, it’s one of the best decisions of my life. We absolutely love it here.’

  ‘Glad to hear that. Ah, yes, how are you getting on with the new doctor?’

  ‘Swimmingly actually. Couldn't be better,’ Juliette replied, beaming.

  ‘Wedding bells in the air are there?’

  ‘Not at the moment, but we’ll have to see about that,’ Juliette replied and smiled.

  Chapter 8

  A couple of days later, Juliette clicked the button on a video call, and a few seconds later her friend Daisy appeared on the screen, her hair piled up and tied on the top of her head with a huge blue scarf. She was surrounded by moving boxes ready to move out of her flat and holding a large roll of brown packing tape in her left hand.

  ‘How are you getting on?’ Juliette enquired, looking into the screen on her phone.

  ‘Not too bad.’

  ‘Are you all packed up now?’ Juliette continued. Daisy had been on the phone the day before panicking that she wasn’t ready for her move back to Pretty Beach and her flat was far from being packed up.

  ‘I was still packing at midnight!’

  ‘Oh dear. So sorry I couldn’t get up there to help you out.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous, it’s fine. Yeah, I’m done now. Every single thing I own is in a box and everything is stacked in the living room ready to go when the removal team arrives. It was the best advice to do it like that, thanks. Now I can semi-relax. Just the actual getting there to do.’

  Juliette had moved more than a few times over the years and had quickly learnt that removal people differed vastly. She’d learnt through experience that if you did your bit right at the beginning, the whole thing went a lot more smoothly. She’d advised Daisy that having everything packed the day before pretty much down to your toothbrush meant that when the team arrived all you had to do was get to your new place with a small bag, a change of clothes, a kettle, and things to get you overnight. Not that it mattered so much in Daisy’s case because when she arrived in Pretty Beach she was staying with Juliette and Luke for a few nights, anyway.

  ‘I’ll be leaving once they are all packed up so I should be in Pretty Beach about lunchtime. So, I’ll get to you sometime in the evening.’

  ‘Okay. I probably won’t be here until the evening, almost certainly actually. The key is in the usual place. I’m going straight from work to the school.’

  ‘All good. Can’t believe it’s actually happening now the day has arrived. I’m really excited now the day has come.’

  ‘Me too! We can’t wait to have you here. I’m so thrilled! Maggie is beside herself. She must have asked me forty times when she’ll be able to stay with Aunty Daisy for a sleepover.’

  ‘Ha, well it won’t be long - there’s not too much to do in the hut. I reckon I’ll be in by the weekend, don’t you?’

  ‘I would think so. A quick coat of paint here and there and even that you could get away with not doing.’

  ‘I thought that, but I might as well as long as you don’t mind me staying with you for a few days?’

  ‘Of course not. I’ve just made up the bed in the spare room. Nice pale pink sheets freshly sprayed with lavender and ironed just for you.’

  ‘Ooh, that sounds like heaven after the last few days I’ve had. I’ll sleep like a baby tonight. I might need one of your vodka and homemade lemonades in the garden just to top it all off.’

  ‘I made a new batch at the weekend, so you’re in luck.’

  ‘Oh, sorry, I almost forgot. What happened with the boat?’ Daisy asked and looked through the phone screen to Juliette whose phone was leant up on a pile of cookery books on her kitchen table.

  ‘Yes, we got it! Luke’s sorting out the insurance and all that stuff today. All we need to do now is get it looking a bit prettier.’

  ‘Have you persuaded Luke yet on the colour?’

  ‘Not yet. I’m working on it, but it’s not looking hopeful, Daisy. Luke’s so laid-back he’s almost horizontal. Not it seems, though, about pink boats. I had a thought about it, though...’

  ‘Yeah. What’s that?’

  ‘A vlog from you on the boat. Cooking something out on the sea, a beautiful Pretty Beach day. How glorious does that sound?’

  ‘Oh yes! Pure gold.’

  Chapter 9

  Juliette got out of the shower in the tiny little bathroom all the way up at the top of her house and with her towel wrapped around her looked out over the sea. It looked somewhat calm; not that she really had any idea about all things nautical and if it really was calm, but it was blue and flat and that seemed good enough to her.

  She dried herself off, pulled on her denim shorts, a navy-blue linen shirt lined inside the cuff and neck with a tiny ditsy print, and pulled her hair up into a high ponytail with one of Maggie’s scrunchies.

  Luke, only in boxers, walked into the bathroom. Juliette swallowed at the sight of the god standing right there in front of her who she had somehow managed to bag. Here he was walking around her bathroom virtually naked and she was loving it.

  ‘Ready?’ Luke asked.
>
  ‘Yep. I just need to grab my jacket on the way out. Not sure how warm it’s going to be out there on the water.’

  ‘It’s forecast to be warm, but it’s questionable if I believe that, so good idea,’ Luke replied, closing the weather app on his phone.

  ‘You’re not ready, though!’ Juliette said looking at him in his boxers.

  ‘Quick shower and I’ll be ready in a jiffy,’ Luke said smiling and turning on the taps of the shower.

  Fifteen minutes later they walked all the way down through the house. Daisy, whose move to Pretty Beach had gone well, was in the garden with Maggie and was babysitting Maggie and taking her to watch a film in Newport Reef in the afternoon.

  Luke and Juliette said goodbye, kissed Maggie and opened the gate onto the back lane. They pushed their bikes through the gate and cycled along the old, cobbled lane behind the houses in Mermaid Lane. Ten minutes later, they were at the jetty. Juliette stopped pedalling and put her feet down on the floor.

  ‘Which one is it? I can’t see it.’

  ‘Right down on the left at the end, tucked back in the corner. It’s hard to miss with the roof.’

  Juliette followed Luke’s instructions along to the end of the pavement and they locked up their bikes at the top of the jetty. They walked all the way along the creaky old silver-grey timbers until they got to the boat with the bright yellow roof. Juliette tried to keep her real reaction quiet as the boat came clearly into sight. The old boat was dirty, ugly and with its hideous colour roof was the worst boat out of all of them by a long way. She had to hide her disappointment and pasted a smile on her face.

  ‘Luke, that’s some yellow. I’d forgotten how bright it is. How, umm, horrid it is! It’s fluorescent! Who even owns paint that colour?’

  ‘Ha, well you’re not going to believe this. I now have the story on how the roof came to be that colour. I forgot to tell you. Sandy told me the other day.’

  ‘Go on. This is going to be good. I can tell by your voice and there must be some sort of explanation for paint that colour. I wouldn't even know where you can purchase it.’