She walked around the front of the car and across the pavement. A door opened up and a very tall man with trendy tan shoes, a navy bow tie, checked shirt and tank top called out.
‘Be careful of the ice on that bit there!’ He said, and pointed to a glistening patch of ice near the gutter.
‘How are you guys? How dreadfully exciting is this snow? Nice to meet you - Lucian McIntyre of Where the Heck is Pretty Beach?’ The tall man called out from the front step of his house.
Sallie and David ascertained that this was Lucian, a friend of Guy’s, whose podcast Where the Heck is Pretty Beach? a podcast all about life in the little town, regularly hit the top of the podcast charts all around the world, and was interviewing Sallie about the Boat House.
David raised his eyebrows and whispered, ‘Guy said he was a character... he wasn’t wrong.’
Just then Sallie’s text bleeped; she took her phone out of her bag, it was Ben. He’d popped into town to sort out some paperwork and she knew he’d be texting her when she’d said David was taking her to be interviewed with Lucian.
Just checking you’ve made it ok for the chat with Lucian on the podcast, enjoy!
Thanks.
Looking forward to getting home. Miss you. BC.
Me too.
The snow crunched under their feet and a blustery wind swirled around them as Sallie and David walked across the road and Lucian stepped out onto the pavement.
‘You must be Sallie. Can I just say... your place is stunning, I can’t wait to come and see it!’ Lucian said.
Where the Heck is Pretty Beach? had started a few years ago as Lucian McIntyre’s funny, quirky, little podcast broadcasting what happened in the sleepy backwaters of Pretty Beach. It had started off with a handful of listeners, and then taken off, which had promptly rocketed Lucian right to fame. The podcast was now at millions and millions of downloads, there was a book in the works and a lot of revenue in advertising. Guy knew him through a friend and he’d loved the story of Sallie and the Boat House. He’d taken one look at what she was doing with the Orangery and had put the feelers out to find out if she’d like to come and get interviewed. She’d nearly bitten his hand off - a reach and following like his was advertising she would never be able to afford.
Lucian McIntyre held out his hand and went to kiss her on the cheek at the same time. He ushered them over the road and they entered a tiny hallway, then through a room where every single surface was neatly piled with magazines, files and books and into a tiny side room, not much bigger than a cupboard where all the equipment was set up. It wasn’t much to look at; there were a couple of huge microphones, a tablet, and a phone.
Lucian flourished his hand around and smiled at them.
‘This is it, all done via an app, just a couple of microphones, you and me.’ He said with a chuckle.
They had a brief run-through, a bit more of a chat, discovered that they both came from the same area and got a coffee before it got underway. She sat opposite him with the coffee and once they’d gone through the gist of the interview, he’d asked her if she was ready and they’d begun.
‘I’m here today with a fabulous local who goes by the name of Sallie Broadchurch. Sallie has restored an old boathouse, runs a gorgeous wedding events company and has, wait for it, just opened a scrumptious Orangery at Pretty Beach right on the bay. I can tell you I have seen it, and I’m ready to move in - it is ah-may-zing! So, Sallie do you want to tell me and all the lovely podcast listeners out there how you got started with it all?’
Sallie took a deep breath and started to tell her story. She’d rehearsed it all in her mind and left out the bit where she was on a very low budget, and instead added in all sorts of bits and pieces about the high-end fittings, the setting, and how the place had a magical secret feel all of its own.
The interview trundled on at a quick pace and Sallie couldn't believe how well it was going, this Lucian was either genuinely kind or he owed Guy some money. He gushed on about the pictures, talked about how much the bay was indeed a magical place and that he was so excited about coming to stay in the old boathouse cottage.
‘So how can our lovely listeners be part of it?’ Lucian spoke into the microphone looking over the top of it at Sallie.
‘Well they can see all the pictures at the Boat House Pretty Beach website and they can catch up with the Orangery on social media.’
‘You have achieved so much darling. I remember seeing that old Boat House and it looked so unloved, now it looks like a dream holiday spot and the Orangery, oh my!’ Lucian spoke into the microphone, giving Sallie the thumbs up sign at the same time.
‘Thank you, Lucian, it’s been hard work but I have a background in property and so it’s very much been worth it to start to restore one of Pretty Beach's historic buildings.’ She spoke into the microphone, her initial nerves long gone.
He closed off the podcast and switched all the equipment off. She let out a huge sigh, took off her headphones and sat back in her chair - it was much more tiring than it looked being interviewed.
‘Thank you, you’re very kind to feature my little business,’ she said and smiled at him.
‘I'll do almost anything for Pretty Beach, love the place. It’s how this whole podcast thing started in the first place. Anything that adds to the paradise world of Pretty Beach my listeners want to hear about. They lap it up, and when they lap it up darling the pennies go up - it really is as simple as that.’
‘Oh right, I see,’ Sallie replied, nodding. ‘We’ll get the giveaway sorted then, and obviously if you really would like to come and stay, be my guest at any time.’
‘I might have to take you up on that.’ He lowered his voice to a whisper, ‘Got a little boyfriend popping down soon, he will love it.’
She said thank you again, Lucian kissed her dramatically on the cheek and they arranged for him to text the dates he was available to stay at the cottage. David was waiting around the corner in the car, she walked back to it and got in.
‘Well, how was that?’ He looked into the wing mirror, indicated right to pull out and started to drive back in the direction of the Boat House.
‘It was fine even though I’ve never done anything like that before. He’s a character, I’ll have to buy Guy a drink for arranging that for me.’
‘No you won’t, I’ll do that - I’ll do anything for you, you know that.’ He took his eyes off the road and looked at her for a second.
Sallie didn't know what to say and she certainly wasn’t going to say that she would do the same for him too and it was a shame she was married.
She sat there in the huge seat feeling really tiny and quite guilty about it all. He really was rather nice. But it went through her head that nice wasn’t what she had been unknowingly looking for. What she had been looking for were the fireworks that happened whenever she was around Ben.
Chapter 13
The lovely weather wasn’t making Sallie feel any better; a contractor had let her down to fix the heating in the Orangery after it had all of a sudden stopped working - she’d taken a chance and tried someone new from out of the area and knew she shouldn’t have wasted her time. He had supposedly fixed it and then three days later it had broken down again. It was ironic; the Orangery had survived the storm and then the boiler had started to play up, and there was one thing that was crucial to the success of the Orangery and that was heating.
These were the sort of things you didn't appreciate before you had a small business she thought to herself; she needed reliable people around her and with Wayne, Pretty Beach’s most highly recommended boiler man in Spain for a few weeks of sun she’d had to try someone else and was not impressed.
It was bright and cold, the snow was still on the floor, the sky a deep blue and she should have been making the finishing touches to the Orangery with the heating on and making sure everything was running. Instead, she was standing with a cup of steaming hot coffee by the window looking out at the snow and thanking her lucky
stars that she’d said no to the first big wedding until well after the run-through for the naming ceremony. A cold bridal party would have been disastrous for her business. She tutted to herself and shook her head, as Nina pushed open the gate with the pram and walked over towards the Orangery.
‘Brrr, it’s freezing,’ she said as Sallie opened the Orangery door to let her in.
‘It’s no better in here - I could wring that bloke’s neck and of course he’s now not picking up his calls or responding to any texts. So, I guess I’m in the queue for the next available engineer.’
‘Along with everyone else whose boiler broke down in the storm,’ Nina said, taking off her hat.
‘Yup. This didn’t break down until yesterday but yeah, I’ll still be on the end of that line.’
Sallie took Ottilie’s hand - she was in her pram in a pale pink bobble hat with a white fluffy pompom on the top, her teeny blonde curls poking out the side. She gripped Sallie’s hand and gave the widest smile.
‘She’s cheered up then. Has the tooth come through?’ Sallie asked as she played with Tillie who was gurgling away happily.
‘It’s just under the gum, won’t be long and I'll have it logged in the baby book and the spreadsheet,’ Nina laughed.
They looked around at the Orangery. Even though it was freezing, Winter sunlight was streaming through the top windows flooding the place with pretty golden shadows.
Sallie walked around the tables and gestured to the chairs, ‘So, fifty people will be fine in here - we’ll put that table up the top for the presents and the cake. Then depending on the food, I’ll set the tables up around that.’
Nina followed her over to one of the tables over near the orange trees in the corner and sat down.
‘I think I might go with the afternoon tea idea - it will be easy enough. I was thinking we could do it as a sort of late afternoon tea running into the evening. That way she can go to sleep in the pram and anyone who wants to carry on for a few more drinks can just stay here. If we’ve sorted out some simple food to serve later everything will be easy. What do you think?’
‘Good idea. You think she’ll go to sleep in there?’ Sallie pointed to the pram.
‘Once she’s had that last feed I think she’d go to sleep anywhere unless she’s got a tooth coming.’
Tillie threw her soft play cow out of the side of the pram and onto the floor as if in protest. Sallie laughed and went to pick up the cow. She loved being with Tillie and hadn’t realised how she’d kept her feelings about having a baby herself tightly under wraps until Tillie had come along. Now, seeing how Nina was with Tillie, and the absolute joy she had brought to all their lives, Sallie had slowly begun to open up the bit of her heart where her beautiful lost baby was, the place that had been firmly closed for a very long time.
‘Decor, what about that?’ Sallie asked, joining her to sit at the table.
‘You know me, design isn't my thing, but I thought Christmas themed - and how lovely would a tree look over there in the corner?’ They both looked to the corner; it was crying out for a Christmas tree.
‘The bigger the better, I think. I’ll get onto it. Hundreds of fairy lights and vintage soft gold would be really nice against the backdrop of all the glass and reflections from the water,’ Sallie mused. ‘Another occasion to dress up, how exciting.’
‘Yeah, I was thinking about that. I’ve no idea what to wear. Maybe a cream wool dress, then I’m done.’
‘Me too, I’m going to get either a dress or a blazer and some wide-leg trousers - keep it simple and comfortable.’ Sallie replied.
‘By the way, I forgot to ask how the podcast went. I love that show, I used to listen to it before I moved here. So, what was Lucian like?’
‘Oh my, it was a hoot. He’s a character - a bit crazy, very flamboyant and lovely too. That podcast is listened to by millions. I thought he might be a bit, what's the word, up himself, but he was great. Loves Pretty Beach. He’s coming to stay in the cottage soon with his new boyfriend.’
‘That’ll be great publicity for the Orangery,’ Nina replied, bouncing Tillie up and down on her knee.
‘I couldn't even buy it, to be honest. He’s a big-time influencer now - I had a look at his media pack and it’s thousands of pounds for him to even mention a brand, let alone the slot I got on the show. So what a stroke of luck that Guy knows him.’
‘Luck and hard work go together really well,’ Nina nodded.
‘Talking of Guy, how’s that going?’
‘Ahh, time will tell. He’s definitely moved out of the family home now even though his wife decided after their break that she did want to carry on with the marriage. I bet she’s gutted.’
‘I bet. What an idiot. So are you two moving any further on?’
‘Just friends... for now,’ Nina replied and did the fluttery thing with her eyelashes.
Chapter 14
Sallie was having trouble sleeping. There wasn’t a problem dropping off, not at all, in fact the opposite. It was about three-thirty when she would wake up, toss and turn and stare up at the ceiling thinking. It was ridiculous and not even as if she was worried about anything or had anything on her mind. It was mainly the business - she wanted to get the Orangery up and running but the burn had slowed it all down and then the weather had turned. It wasn’t as if she had to worry about money - that was covered. So why was she constantly awake in the middle of the night?
The first few times it had happened she’d woken Ben up too by disturbing him. When it carried on and she kept waking him it was concerning - if he was getting up early to fly, he needed to be alert and not awake half the night. After it happened for a few weeks in a row, they’d made a loose plan that if he was getting up at five for a flight then he would sleep in the spare room.
The insomnia between three and four was driving her insane - she’d even thought to herself that she might as well have a newborn, or at least look after one in the early hours - she could fit in a few feeds while she was waiting to go back to sleep.
She got up and pulled the curtain back and opened the window. An ice-cold wind whistled through the room. She blinked her eyes at the sparkling white all over the ground outside the window, the thick layer of snow on the roof next door and the tops of the boats anointed in the white powder. She sighed - at least there was snow. Snow made everything better.
There was one thing that was going over and over in her head. She’d had an idea about the Orangery; it had come to her just after the podcast recording with Lucian. When she had arrived home from the meeting, she’d researched a bit more about the podcast and her mind had begun to whir. Lucian had fundamentally played down his popularity - each podcast episode had been downloaded millions of times. His social media accounts had millions of followers with extremely high, worldwide engagement. She felt very lucky that he’d been gracious enough to interview her and include her business on his podcast, but once she’d seen his numbers, she’d wondered if she could leverage it further.
Her mind had gone over it again and again and she’d brainstormed a few ways to make it work for both him and for her; his following loved everything about Pretty Beach and she wanted to get more international tourists into her brand so it would be super beneficial for them to collaborate somehow. And now that she had the Orangery nearly up and running, the flat over the cottage garage ready to go, the marquee and the cottage at the Boat House she had a lot more avenues to fill up - and a lot more ways to make money.
She came up with a few different ideas - she was already doing a free stay for Lucian and his boyfriend at the cottage in exchange for the podcast interview and she’d sent him a special bottle of very expensive whisky as a thank you. She thought about a special offer to give to his followers but there was nothing special about that - every other brand gave special voucher codes out every other day. Then browsing the internet a couple of days later she'd come across a post of a live feed of a mother giving birth - she’d watched the baby being born right
there and then on the internet in disbelief.
It had blown her away that someone would want to broadcast the birth of their child on the internet, especially after what had happened with her own birth and losing the baby. But it had given her the idea that maybe through her own and Lucian’s social media followings, they could run a competition for a wedding and stay in Pretty Beach and broadcast the ceremony live on social media. She’d gone over it in her head and had quickly realised that it would be great for both of them - Lucian would be offering a great prize in the very place his podcast was set and she would be gaining a huge, targeted advertising audience.
She lay there looking out at the white scene laid out in front of her, mulling over the live streaming idea. Her mind went into overdrive further as she gazed out the window. It would be magnificent - a huge tree in the corner, a bride in a simple dress and white fur, the Orangery adorned with fairy lights and a surprise wedding for the main party. They could live broadcast the whole thing online, giving them both content and new viewers and hopefully providing her with the marketing she needed to really get the Orangery going.
The more she thought about it, the better it got - a live broadcast from the Orangery at Pretty Beach for a Christmas Winter wedding in the snow.
Chapter 15
Sallie walked along the laneway and made her way up to Holly, who, dressed in a glitzy black ski jacket with gold piping, was waiting outside the front of the bakery and looking down at her phone.
Sallie approached, said hello, kissed her on the cheek and they made their way all along the laneway, stopping here and there to chat and saying hello to Nel who was on her way to work.
They arrived outside the beautiful old door of Maisy’s cafe, knocked their boots against the doorstep to bang off the snow, pulled open the door and were hit by warm air and the cosy smell of wood from the fire. Sallie pulled off her beanie, sunglasses and scarf, and looked around for Nina, who was sitting in the corner tucked up next to the wall.
Winter at Pretty Beach Page 5
