A Pretty Beach Wish

by Polly Babbington

  I don’t really fancy going out.

  Okay, no dramas, see you when you get home.

  Juliette headed to the seating area to check the times for the train and send a text to Daisy to check that Maggie was okay. As she sat down on a long sofa a loud, brash ringtone went off from a woman’s phone on the sofa next to her. The woman answered the phone putting it on speaker and started speaking loudly so that everyone in the vicinity could hear the whole thing. Grrrr Juliette thought, do you really think anyone wants to listen to your conversation?

  ‘The thing is, Joanne, I said to her, look, Eliza, you're going to lose him if you carry on like this.’

  The other voice continued. ‘Really! Did you? You’re right, though. She’s been like it for, what, years? Can you imagine what it’s like living with her? Nightmare. What a miserable existence. Lazing around doing nothing. Always tired.’

  ‘I know. It was about time someone said something. Look at the times she’s let me down when we were meant to be meeting up. Let alone all the texts an hour before when she was supposed to be coming over for dinner, and I’d prepared everything. And twice I’ve been sitting in the pub waiting for her to arrive, and I get a message to say that she’s now changed her mind and she can’t come out. I know she had all that stuff going on, but at some point, you do have to give a little bit back to a relationship.’

  ‘You’re so right, Kirsty! Look what you did for her. Taking her children to school for over a year. Not even a bunch of flowers to say thank you. Blimey, without you where would she be?’

  ‘I know. I didn’t want flowers, and she did have a rough time, so I just wanted to help, but it’s merely got to the point where I’m all give, give, give and she’s all take, take, take.’

  ‘Yeah. There’s helping and there’s being taken for a ride.’

  ‘We all have our problems to deal with in life, Joanne. Look at me - arriving home to my husband on the kitchen worktop with the woman from the off-licence. That wasn’t pleasant, but I had to carry on. No one took my children to school every morning for a year. I had to turn up at the school gates and pretend not to notice the sniggering and the looks.’

  ‘Yeah. You’re a trooper. You were right to say something. John will get fed up with her too - he’s only been with her for a while. You have to keep the spark alive, right? Surely he’s going to pull the plug on that soon. Moping around in her dressing gown and lounging around...I mean really? It’s all got really old now. I reckon he’ll get fed up and do a runner sooner or later, find someone with a bit more energy, which won’t be hard.’

  ‘Well, I’ve said it now and I’m not doing anything else. She has to learn to help herself.’

  Juliette finished checking the times for the train but couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation that had just played out in front of her.

  She blinked her eyes and felt like someone had just hit her on the head with a sledgehammer. Maybe she really should think a little bit more about Luke and how he was feeling about the last few months.

  Chapter 41

  Juliette sat propped up on Maggie’s bed with her arm around Maggie, Delilah the dolly tucked in between them and finished reading Maggie a story.

  ‘Can I read for a while longer?’ Maggie asked as Juliette closed the shutters at the window and pulled Maggie’s curtains.

  ‘You can. I’ll pop up and check on you later. Night, darling.’

  ‘Night.’ Maggie said pulling a large picture book out from under her bed and cosying Delilah up next to her.

  Juliette walked out of Maggie’s bedroom and went up to the next floor to her bedroom. She had a quick shower, put her hair up, spritzed herself with perfume and put some makeup on. She checked the time on her phone. An hour until Luke would be home - plenty of time for her to get everything ready.

  Since she’d heard the woman sitting on the sofa behind her at the museum chatting to her friend, Juliette hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what they’d said about their friend. It had jolted Juliette into contemplating what Luke had been going through the last few months. Indeed, the time since she’d known him. Had it all been Juliette, Juliette, Juliette? She didn't need to spend too much time analysing the answer to that question. Yes, it unquestionably had.

  She looked in the mirror at the pale blue floaty linen top with the ruffles on the sleeves and nodded to herself. It had. It absolutely had. She had been completely and utterly self-centred. First of all, there'd been the situation with her parents’ passing away. Luke had been a rock through that. He’d supported her every single step of the way. She couldn’t have asked for anything more from him. Then, the boat accident where he’d sat with her for hours, done everything from childcare including liaising with Jeremy, to shopping, and he’d spent a lot of time sitting beside her pouring over websites about Bella’s recovery. He’d been there beside her through everything, quietly giving her support and she’d taken it with open arms and not given anything back.

  She stood there and thought about what Luke had done over the last few months further. He’d driven Bella back to Oxford, lugged furniture around Bella’s room to make it easy for her to get in and out of bed, and he’d ordered her a specially designed backpack to distribute the weight better for all of her books.

  And Juliette hadn’t said a thank you, not even once, for any of that. Not that she’d been rude - of course she’d said the perfunctory thank yous at the time. But not sincere ones. Not proper acknowledgement that she felt grateful for him to be in her life. She’d been so wrapped up in it all, how sorry she was for Bella, and how it just wasn’t fair that she had thought that Luke could look after himself. In fact, if she really was honest with herself, she’d not given a hoot about Luke, what he wanted or how he felt.

  Now, though, she suddenly realised how self-absorbed she’d been - what the two women in the museum had said had hit home with Juliette as she’d sat on the train on the way home to Pretty Beach that afternoon. She’d recognised that a lot of what they said had been right. How long would someone put up with being treated as if they were not that important?

  Luke had taken on two of her children, moved in with her, helped her with her business and been there whenever she needed someone to lean on and what had she done for him? Not a lot.

  As she’d thought about it more and more, she’d felt appalled with herself. She couldn't think of anything much at all that she’d done for him. She’d even taken out her phone, started a list and horrified, couldn’t think of much other than making him a cake and watching him at an Open Water swimming event - and even at that she’d complained that it was early and cold.

  The more she’d mused it the further she’d cringed. Luke had even bought her the very expensive bike, had the heart necklace engraved with lovely things, and the most she’d done was make him a picnic to take to the beach.

  On the afternoon after the Lellery meeting, she’d sat looking out of the train window all the way home mulling it over and thinking that it had to change. She had to show Luke that she appreciated him in her life. Make him feel wanted, loved. Or as those women had discussed he would be off. There was something big in the back of her mind that she’d been thinking about for ages. She wasn’t quite ready for that yet, but she was ready to treat him to something nice.

  So, she’d thought about what Luke actually liked doing. He could take or leave going out for fancy meals, he was much more interested in strolling down the pub, and he wasn't one for gifts. She did know something that he did love and every time she’d made him a roast he’d sat back and said how much he loved it, loved being part of that feeling of family, and home and comfort that comes with a roast.

  Therefore, she had decided to say thank you and do something nice, she would do a lovely roast and they would have an evening to themselves. She’d planned it all meticulously and asked Luke a few loaded questions about his favourite roast, to which he’d replied chicken with Yorkshires and a lemon meringue pie. She could do a roast with her
eyes shut so that was easy enough, and one of Daisy's best and very much perfected dishes was lemon meringue pie.

  Juliette had called Daisy and asked her if she wouldn’t mind making the pie and Juliette had picked it up on the way home from dropping off Maggie. She’d made the Yorkshire batter earlier in the morning and had par-boiled the potatoes so that everything was ready.

  Juliette walked out into the garden all the way down to the end to the little herb patch which she’d planted not long after she’d moved in. She knelt down and picked large handfuls of thyme, rosemary, and oregano to stuff in the chicken, and then stepped back into the kitchen. The chicken was out on the side getting to room temperature, and the oven was on. She stuffed two lemon halves in the chicken, stashed every orifice with the fresh herbs, tucked garlic cloves in here and there, and doused the whole lot in olive oil and salt and pepper.

  Juliette took a large pink jug from the dresser, stepped out of the back door, and down the path to the shed at the end. She opened the shed door and after a few minutes of rummaging around, lugged the old trestle table they’d rescued from Roy from the council out of the shed door. She dragged it over to the small undercover area at the side of the shed, covered it in layers of vintage tablecloths, and placed the jug in the centre. She took a pair of secateurs out of the shed and walked down the lawn snipping off bundles of dahlias, roses, and larkspur.

  She walked back to the table, plonked all the flowers in the pink jug, popped two vintage chairs either side and stood back. Something was missing and as twilight descended, she remembered the jam jars with tea lights she’d used the first time Luke had been over for dinner in Seapocket Lane. She was fairly confident that they were tucked in the back of the shed in a packing box still waiting to be opened after the move.

  She went back into the shed and rummaged around until she found right at the back behind the lawnmower the still to be unpacked moving boxes. She looked for the one marked ‘outdoor decs’ and opened it up to find the wired jam jars tied with string neatly wrapped in bubble wrap.

  Fifteen minutes later the tea lights hung from the pergola roof over the trestle table covered with vintage linens, and as Juliette stood back and looked at the table topped with the jug of flowers and all the tiny little tea light lanterns hanging from the ramshackle pergola roof, she broke into a huge smile.

  Juliette was back, her energy levels had returned, and it felt very, very good.

  Chapter 42

  Juliette checked on the chicken and roast potatoes and took a deep breath in. She loved that smell. That comforting smell of home and security and the simple notion that a chicken slung in the oven was roasting away to itself filling the air with its desirable smells, cloaking everyone in the vicinity in comfort. She closed the oven, went out into the hallway, and checked in the mirror. Not only did she feel better she looked a million times better than when it had seemed like the life had been sucked out of her. Then, her whole aura seemed tired. It was like after the accident her face had worked out how much her heart had been hurting and written it all over it. But the woman looking back at her now looked brighter. There was a look around the eyes that was cheerier and vibrant.

  The ringtone for Bella started buzzing in her pocket. Juliette pressed to accept the video call and waited for Bella’s face to appear.

  ‘Hi Mum, how are you? You look good. Really well!’

  ‘Thank you. Darling, I’ve got my makeup on... so I look alive.’ Juliette laughed, holding her phone out in front of her.

  Bella smiled and adjusted the camera and Juliette could see that she was in the office of the hotel next to the pub where she worked. When Marie from the pub had heard about the accident she’d told Bella that there was a spot coming up in the office doing admin if Bella would like it and Bella had almost bitten her hand off and replied that yes, she would love it.

  ‘Are you still at work?’ Juliette asked.

  ‘Yep, I’m doing a late shift on reception now I’ve been trained on how to use the booking software too.’

  ‘Won’t that be tricky with your foot?’ Juliette asked, her voice brimming with concern.

  ‘No, it’s all good. They moved in a stool for me and put everything I need on the desk beside me. There’ll hardly be much going on anyway on the evening shift tonight, everyone is checked in, so it’ll just be the usual questions and stuff. And then Marie has booked me a car home later.’

  ‘That’s good. Wow, what lovely people to work for. They really are taking care of you.’

  ‘I thought that too, so I said thank you to Marie and told her how grateful I was. She replied back that if she gets good staff, she treats them like gold to try to hang onto them as long as possible, so she doesn't have to go through the pain of another highly-academic student with very little savvy up top!’ Bella said chuckling.

  ‘I see. Yes, I suppose that would be true. It’s no wonder she has such a good business with an attitude like that.’

  ‘Yep. Anyway, I was actually calling for a reason.’

  Juliette’s heart skipped a beat. She wasn’t sure about Bella’s tone and braced herself for news on the toes.

  ‘Oh dear. Are you having more pain?’

  ‘No. Not at all. Thank goodness. The opposite in fact. It’s actually feeling a lot better this week. Look, I'll get straight to the point - I’m meeting up with Jack again.’

  ‘Right.’ Juliette didn’t know what to say. She’d known that Bella and Jack had been texting, but she was surprised that Bella was going to meet him again. She tried to keep her face from showing anything other than happiness for Bella.

  ‘Is that okay with you?’ Bella said, frowning down into the screen of her phone.

  ‘Darling, I have already said - it’s up to you whether or not you see Jack. It’s not up to me.’

  ‘I know, but I want to make sure you know about it, and that you are good with it.’

  ‘I’m fine, Bella. You do whatever you want to do. What made you change your mind then? I thought you said you weren’t going to see him again,’ Juliette replied, trying desperately to keep her voice level and casual.

  ‘Nothing much, really. When I told him about the accident and he was really concerned it took me a bit by surprise. I showed you the messages. Then all the texts back and forth since I’ve been back in Oxford and, I don’t know, I just thought I might like to see him again. Maybe see where it goes. Sort of give it a chance.’

  ‘Great. Yeah, good idea. I mean, what have you got to lose?’ Juliette said, thinking to herself that with Jack’s commitment record not being that stellar Bella had everything to lose, but there was no way she was going to throw that into the ring.

  ‘Precisely.’

  ‘So, when are you meeting him?’ Juliette enquired.

  ‘He’s coming up tomorrow. We’re going to the pub for lunch,’ Bella replied.

  ‘Excellent. Well, let me know how it goes.’

  ‘Will do. There’s another thing, though...’

  ‘Right.’ Another thing with Jack Fitzgeralde? This didn't sound good. The more his name came up the more Juliette felt uncomfortable.

  ‘He said that he’d really like to come to Pretty Beach one day. See where I was brought up.’

  Chapter 43

  Juliette put the phone down from Bella and looked back in the mirror. The face looking back at her that was showing the slightest signs of being cheery just about five minutes earlier, wasn’t quite as happy now. Jack flipping Fitzgeralde in Pretty Beach? Really! She sighed out deeply. Ahhhhhhhh. The cheek of the man. Wanted to see where Bella grew up? Shame he hadn't thought about that eighteen years before. Ten even. Heck, twelve would have been acceptable. But no, he waltzes back in and wants to get involved now. Fabulous. Absolutely fabulous.

  Juliette slipped her phone into her pocket and walked back into the kitchen, opened the cupboard of the dresser, and took out a bottle of Pimms. She grabbed a vintage hobnail jug from the shelf and glugged the Pimms into the bottom of the jug. Jack
Fitzgeralde in her little town? Her little town where she was contented and happy with Luke. Her little town where she’d settled and made a life for herself when he hadn’t wanted to know. Grrrr. Why couldn’t he just mind his own business?

  Juliette chopped a chunk off a cucumber, finely sliced it into rings, cut a handful of strawberries in half and broke off mint leaves from a bunch she’d brought in from the garden. Jack flipping Fitzgeralde. She tore the mint into shreds, her mouth set in a grim line, and rammed the strawberries, cucumber, and mint into the jug, poured lemonade over the whole lot and put the jug into the fridge. Jack Fitzgeralde wanted to be involved now when he’d run off, and left her to fend for herself all those years ago. Left her alone with his baby. In a dreary, damp bedsit. Grrrr. She wished that Jack Fitzgeralde would go and take a running jump. Preferably under the nearest bus.

  As Juliette slammed the fridge shut, she heard the key in the front door and the door open. Luke was home and she wasn’t going to let Jack Fitzgeralde and his antics ruin her night of making up for the last few months to Luke. As she listened to Luke’s footsteps cross the hallway, she tried to put Jack and his idea of visiting Pretty Beach to the back of her mind. She heard Luke put his bag on the hallway dresser and he strolled into the kitchen with a smile.

  ‘Wow, something smells nice!’ Luke exclaimed as Juliette stepped in from the utility room. ‘Oh, and you look fabulous! What’s the occasion? Have I forgotten something?’

  ‘The occasion is us, Luke. You and me in the garden with a roast chicken and a lovely evening. Celebrating us, and me saying sorry for the past few months.’ Juliette said with a smile.

  ‘Sounds good to me. This is a change of heart and I love it. So, what’s on the menu?’