Juliette looked at the face looking back at her in the mirror. When she examined it closely and saw the little lines, observing how it was beginning to look older, she often thought about her friend Leza whose job was getting rid of those pesky little wrinkles. She’d met Leza at the hospital and Leza now spent her days injecting the rich of Seafolly and Pretty Beach with things to make them appear as if they were ageless. She smiled to herself as she thought about it - she’d be needing a lot more than a bit of sagging before she let Leza anywhere near her.
She stepped out of her dressing gown, letting it drop to the floor, and climbed into the nearly overflowing bubbly bath, and looked out through the top of the window at the twilight and lights of Pretty Beach.
Five minutes later, she heard Luke’s car pull up outside, heard him open the front door, drop his case in the hall, and jog up the stairs.
He opened the door, stripped off the remainder of his clothes, letting them fall to the floor, and Juliette started giggling.
‘I knew you’d be in the bath. I could smell that bubble bath in the hallway.’
‘So, you started stripping off your clothes on the way up, did you?’
‘I did. I thought you might need some company in there.’
‘Not sure about that, Luke.’
‘You look tired. I’m assuming it was a long one.’
‘It was. Long, but uncomplicated.’
Luke walked over towards the bath. ‘How about the best doctor in Pretty Beach gives the best midwife in the country a foot massage? You look like you could do with one.’
‘I thought the best doctor in Pretty Beach worked at Berts,’ Juliette joked.
‘Cheek!’ Luke said, as he climbed into the other end of the bath, took one of Juliette’s feet and started massaging it.
‘I’ve got so much to tell you. All about A Christmas Sparkle, and Maggie’s horse riding, but I don’t even have the energy to speak.’
‘You don’t need to. I’m quite happy here taking in the view from this end of the bath. I’ve had worse welcomes home from work.’
Juliette leant back onto the old tub and sighed. ‘Bliss. Quite where did I get you from again?’
‘I found you, remember, surrounded by a pool of Baileys and Marmite on your feet.’
‘Wherever it was, I’m so very grateful.’
‘So grateful that you’ll make an honest man of me? Tie the knot?’
Juliette smiled at Luke and laughed, ‘Well, I could maybe be persuaded. One day. I mean, you do have a much nicer bottom than the last one. So, there is that.’
Chapter 16
‘Juliette!’ Luke yelled from the bathroom right at the top of the house.
Juliette was in the garden with the radio on, Maggie by her side with a tiny little watering can and some seeds, and Juliette was kneeling on a cushion weeding around the roses. She stopped and looked up thinking she’d heard something.
‘Juliette! Help!’ Luke shouted again.
‘What the heck?’ Juliette muttered, dropped her trowel on the grass, started running down the path and into the house.
‘Where are you?’ she called out.
‘I’m okay, but I’ve gone through a pipe!’ Luke yelled back.
‘I’m coming up now,’ Juliette shouted and ran up the two flights of stairs to the top of the house, across the floor of their bedroom, and into the bathroom.
‘What are you doing?’ Juliette said as she burst in, observing Luke who was lying on the floor with his whole hand in a gap in the floorboards. His shirt was wet through to the skin and the seat of his jeans dark blue where water had soaked into the denim.
‘Whoever ran the pipes in this house was crazy. I just went to fix this wobbly board and the pipe runs through the joist.’
‘What does that even mean?’ Juliette replied, looking down in confusion.
‘Put it this way, if I take my finger off this pipe the whole house will fill with water.’
‘Ahh, what do I do?’ Juliette said and started to look around wildly and panic. ‘I cannot afford a leak Luke.’
‘Don’t panic is the first thing,’ Luke replied, looking up at her with his finger on the pipe.
‘You need to go around the house and find the water mains, and then switch off the stopcock.’
‘You’re speaking in another language, Luke. I have no idea what you are talking about,’ Juliette replied, her voice rising at an alarming rate.
‘It’s like a tap and might have a red top. It’s probably under the sink in the kitchen.’
Juliette ran all the way back down the stairs and nearly tripped over the bottom step as she got to the hallway. She opened the cupboard under the sink and rummaged around. She studied the pipes, trying to remain calm. Nothing. Either she couldn’t see for looking or it wasn’t located under the sink.
‘Nothing,’ she yelled up the stairs.
‘Look outside in the front garden by the railings and be quick,’ Luke shouted back.
Juliette flew along the hallway, yanked open the front door and couldn’t see anything as she looked across the tiny patio strip under the window and into the bed on the right with the hydrangeas.
Roy Johnson from the council was just getting out of his car over on the other side of the lane.
‘Roy! Roy, can you help?’ Juliette called out.
Roy jogged across the road and opened the black gate.
‘What’s up, Juliette? You look like you’ve had a fright!’
‘Stopcock. Do you know where the stopcock would be? I need to locate it. And fast. Really fast.’
Roy Johnson took one look at Juliette’s face and Juliette could see that he had realised that she was in a panic and then Roy Johnson went into action and took control.
‘Some of the stopcocks on these old places are out the front here, but right at the side,’ he said calmly, and walked over to the right side of the house, bent down behind a hydrangea bush, and pulled back the foliage.
‘I need to turn it off and I need to turn it off as quickly as I can,’ Juliette said, urgently.
Roy Johnson leant down, turned the stopcock tap clockwise, and turned the water off.
He stood up and they heard Luke lean out of the window at the very top of the house and shout down.
‘Thank you! So, it’s out there is it, good to know. Also, I might need an anaesthetic for my finger. Possibly a tetanus, too!’
Juliette and Roy started laughing.
‘Welcome to living in Mermaid Lane, Juliette,’ Roy said and continued, ‘There are lots of other little foibles like that one to get used to. Just wait until you open up that basement.’
Chapter 17
‘Maggie, are you ready? Daddy will be here in precisely two minutes!’ Juliette called from the hallway. Maggie came flying down the stairs, sliding down the bannister with her pink backpack on her back and a sparkly pink baseball cap on her head.
‘All ready!’
‘Okay, did you put Delilah in or not? Just so as I know.’
‘Yes, she’s in my bag,’ Maggie replied smiling.
‘Make sure you don’t forget her when you get dropped off, then. I don’t want to have to go all the way back over there and collect her.’
Juliette slipped on her polka dot gardening clogs and walked out into the back garden with Maggie. ‘Oh, he’s here already. Excellent,’ Juliette said as they saw megawatt-smile Jeremy had let himself in the back gate and was standing at the top of the garden waiting. Maggie went running along the path to him and jumped up into his arms.
‘Everything good with you, Juliette?’ Jeremy asked.
‘Yep, all good, thanks.’
‘The house is positively radiant in this weather. It looks really good, you should be very proud of yourself,’ Jeremy remarked flashing the smile again.
Juliette was being Sparkled; she could feel it. Jeremy himself was radiant, but his still amazing good looks and charm did nothing for her. She wondered how it ever had.
�
��Thank you, actually I am. It was hard work but worth it.’
‘What time is Bella coming next weekend, have you heard yet?’
‘I’m not sure, she’s waiting to see if she’s working on Friday. If not, she’s coming then.’
‘Cool. The plan is they’re both coming to me on Saturday night still?’
‘As far as I know.’
‘Great, I’ll book The Pavillion then. She loves it there, doesn’t she?’
‘Who wouldn’t love it with that view out over the water? I still haven’t been yet myself.’
‘Good point. Right, come on, Mags, let’s get going.’
Juliette smiled as she watched Maggie holding Jeremy's hand and they walked down the cobbled laneway at the back. Jeremy, now with the pink glittery backpack over his left shoulder, and Maggie with the same colour blonde curls as Jeremy looked like the female, mini version of him. Only cuter. And definitely nicer.
Juliette closed the gate, pushed the old rusty bolt across, and walked back down through the garden. She shut all the kitchen windows, locked the back door, grabbed her sun hat from the hooks in the hallway, slipped on her boat shoes, and walked out of the front of the house, basket over her arm, the cool bag she’d got ready the night before by her side.
It was a glorious Pretty Beach day. The pavements and beach teemed with day-trippers, a line snaked out of Holly’s bakery and the oyster shop down at the end of the laneway was buzzing with customers.
Juliette walked all the way through Pretty Beach to the jetty and as she turned the corner stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the boat. The mouldy old boat with the bright yellow roof and dreary grey interior was long gone.
Now what looked back at her was a beautiful white boat. The whole of the outside had been repaired, caulked, and re-painted in a strong, glossy enamel boat paint. She hadn’t got her way, even with the favours, but as she stood there now on the jetty, she had to admit to herself that the boat probably would have looked a teeny bit odd in pale pink. All the wishes coming true. Juliette thought. Only one more left to go.
In white, with the old yellow roof now a lovely sea-blue and a striped blue and white awning at the back, the boat now looked fabulous. Radiant in fact. Juliette shuddered to think what it had cost at the boatyard, but hadn’t wanted to know.
She walked along the timber boards of the jetty and stepped down onto the navy-blue mat with the white anchor on it.
‘Everything okay with Maggie?’ Luke asked as Juliette put her basket on one of the hooks on the side.
‘Yep, all done, and Delilah’s gone too. She loves going out with Jeremy.’
‘Great. Ready for a day out on the water?’
‘I am, we just need to pop this up across the top there.’
Luke looked at Juliette with a frown as she fumbled about in her bag.
‘You didn’t really think you would get away without any bunting, did you?’ Juliette said, as she carefully pulled out a white paper bag containing 3 metres of handmade blue and white bunting.
‘Hmm, it just about passes. It’s not pink, so that’s a plus,’ Luke observed, shaking his head.
Juliette and Luke crisscrossed the bunting across the boat and Juliette stood back and looked at it fluttering in the breeze coming in off the sea, ‘Now we’re ready to go.’
Ten minutes later, and Lottie, Juliette’s friend, came strolling down the jetty in denim shorts, an oversized white shirt, basket over her arm, and sunhat on her head.
‘Oooh, look at you looking all tanned and beautiful,’ Juliette called out as she clambered out and kissed Lottie on the cheek. ‘You look like you just stepped off a beach in Greece.’
‘I’ve spent every day in the garden with my roses and my vegetables. Hence the tan due to all this lovely weather we’ve been enjoying,’ Lottie said, laughing. ‘There's more chance of me flying to the moon than being able to afford to go on holiday to Greece!’
‘Well, you look gorgeous!’
‘I think you mean the boat is gorgeous. It looks fabulous, well done you two.’
‘Nothing to do with me. All I did was slap on a bit of paint in the cabin and put up the bunting. All Luke’s work.’
Luke kissed Lottie on the cheek. ‘No boys with you, then?’ Luke asked.
‘Nope. You’d think one of them would have said yes to a day out on the water, but they are all off doing their own thing. Can’t complain I suppose,’ Lottie replied, holding onto the handle on the right of the boat and stepping in. ‘I’m quite pleased to be honest - it will be nice to have a day of peace. A day of not being a parent for once. It’s been a very long time.’
‘Tell me about it. I must admit, I thought exactly the same thing when Maggie skipped off with Jeremy this morning. Maggie’s had a few little trips out on the boat already, so it’s not like she’s missing out or anything,’ Juliette said, putting her sunhat on and rubbing sun cream into her legs.
‘Rightio ladies. Let’s get this baby up and running. Sit yourselves back there and enjoy the sunshine.’
Juliette and Lottie sat at the back of the boat chatting as they chugged along through the beautiful blue waters of Pretty Beach Bay observing Luke.
‘He really is a sweetheart, isn’t he? What a ride you’ve been on,’ Lottie said, taking a sip of her drink.
‘I know, and I don’t think it’s over yet.’
‘What do you mean? Oooh exciting! Is there the patter of tiny feet? Wedding bells?’
‘Not sure. But there is something in the water. I can feel it in my bones. Not sure if it’s good or bad - I only hope that it’s good.’
Chapter 18
Juliette got out of the bath, pulled out the plug, and listened to the pipes crank and groan as the water made its way back down through the old house. She looked around at the funny old wonky bath and the hole in the floorboard where the pipe had leaked, and said six thousand silent thank-yous that she had listened to Sallie, Shane, and Luke, and gone ahead with the purchase of Mermaid Lane.
Nearly all the wishes she had been carrying around in the back of her mind since the days of the tiny bedsit and an even tinier Bella were coming true. A man who loved her for who she was, a beautiful old house by the sea, and a lovely little family unit of her own. There was the slight mar of Jeremy in the wings, but nowadays even he seemed to fit into it all quite nicely. Everything was going so well that she didn’t even want to acknowledge it, but there was something niggling her, an odd, unprocessed feeling, or thought in the back of her mind that there was something not quite as rosy around the corner.
She couldn't quite shake off the underlying thought and as she opened the wardrobe and stood there in her dressing gown peering in she told herself to stop being silly, and concentrate more on her outfit.
What did you wear to go and meet your partner for a date? She still got the butterflies when she even thought about Luke and the marching trombone band still played whenever they were in bed. She was so looking forward to meeting him for drinks and dinner in Seafolly after he finished work.
Rifling through her clothes, the frills, pretty dresses and ruffles, her mind suddenly plopped back to when she’d been standing in the toilets at work a few months before. What was it those nurses had said? Plump? No, it was frumpy. Maybe it was both. And that was right, they’d said they had thought she had really let herself go.
Juliette looked down at her stomach. Did being happier, more comfortable in her own skin and not constantly worrying about dieting and upkeep mean she had let herself go? She had definitely gained weight, even since then.
She pulled out a pale pink floaty top and put it over her head and turned sideways in the mirror and ran her hand over her stomach. Was she now frumpy? Would Luke with all these doctors and nurses who apparently were throwing themselves at him, suddenly also think, like those nurses in the toilet, that she had dropped her game?
Juliette did a quick shake of her head as if to banish the thoughts. Where was this coming from? All these weird do
ubting thoughts. Luke constantly told her how much he loved her, always complimented her, told her perpetually how much he loved her curves. Alongside he was always joking about her making an honest man of him. That wasn’t a man who thought she was frumpy, was it?
She needed to get a grip, remember how she’d actually felt on the inside when she was hungry all the time, constantly being primped and compare that to now, getting ready to go out with a man who loved her for who she was, all in.
She wondered what to wear, and after trying on a couple of things settled on the black floaty dress from the Christmas dance. It had done her very well that dress, and she’d dress it down with sparkly flat sandals and throw her denim jacket over the top.
She pulled on the dress, did up the tie at the side, doused herself in copious layers of perfume, smudged a thick black line on the top lid of her eyes, and fluffed on shimmering blusher.
She looked back in the mirror when she was ready to go. Plumper, yes, but dropped her game? Absolutely not. The Frump Police could go and take a running jump.
***
Juliette stood at the wharf and watched as the ferry came around the corner. The water glistened as the sun went down, and over on the beach people sat around on deck chairs outside their tiny little beach huts. The smell of barbecues and sea and that ever-so faint whiff of suntan lotion was in the air. Pretty Beach was positively revelling in the weather.
Juliette tapped her travel card onto the pad and made her way up the stairs on the packed ferry. She couldn’t wait to see Luke and go out for dinner. They’d both been busy with work and since the podcast she’d been even busier with the shop.
Juliette held onto the railing at the front of the ferry as it pulled into Seafolly and looked down. There he was, delicious, delectable Luke. Her Luke, who seemed to love her whether she was a frump or not. Luke waved as he saw her looking over at the front, her dress flapping about in the breeze coming in off the sea, her hair flailing out behind her. She went down the stairs and disembarked.
A Pretty Beach Wish Page 6
