Coming Home to Maple Cottage: The perfect, cosy, feel-good romance

by Holly Martin

  Leo thought about what his brother said. Could he really let go of this guilt and move on with his life? If he really wanted Isla to marry him, he was going to have to.

  Chapter Four

  ‘OK, all we have to do is thread the string through the holes in the acorns,’ Isla said. She smiled with love for Elliot as he stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth and carefully poked the red string through the tiny hole she had drilled in the acorn.

  They had spent a fun afternoon the day before with Leo and her mum, walking through the woods and collecting as many acorns as their pockets and bags could hold. When Leo had left to meet Jamie down the pub, Isla and Elliot had painted them all a range of different colours so they looked like beads of different shapes and sizes. They had painted the acorn caps too as they were also going to be beads for their necklaces.

  ‘Hello!’ Leo called as he let himself into her house, the way he always did. He was round her house almost every day, sometimes during the day, sometimes in the evening for dinner, some days even both. She wondered how he managed to run a successful firework display business when he spent so much time with her and Elliot. Not that she was complaining, she loved these times they spent together. It was almost as if they were a proper family.

  ‘We’re in the dining room,’ Isla called and a few moments later Leo appeared. Luke, their puppy, ran around him excitedly as if it hadn’t only been a day since the last time he had seen Leo. Leo threw his jacket over one of the chairs, gave her a kiss on the cheek and followed up by squeezing Elliot in a big hug and kissing the top of his head. She watched Elliot smile at the affection Leo showed him. God, she loved this man. Would it really be the worst thing in the world if she married him? If she lived the rest of her life like this? Being married to her best friend actually sounded pretty great.

  ‘What are we doing?’ Leo said, picking up one of the acorns and looking at it as he sat down on the other side of Elliot.

  ‘Making acorn necklaces,’ Elliot answered.

  ‘Oh cool,’ Leo said. Following Elliot’s lead, he picked up a blue piece of string and threaded it into the acorn as if this was the most normal thing in the world. Maybe it was, now both their lives circulated around Elliot. ‘Now what do we do?’

  Elliot laughed. ‘You need more than one acorn on your necklace. We are making a beaded necklace.’

  ‘Oh right, of course,’ Leo said, a smirk pulling on his lips as he picked up another acorn.

  ‘No, you need an acorn cap next, so they go al-ter-natively,’ he said slowly, to get the word right.

  ‘Alternately,’ Isla corrected. ‘One acorn, one acorn cap.’

  ‘Got it,’ Leo said, a big smile on his face. He was obviously enjoying himself as much as Elliot was.

  Elliot deliberately waited to see which colour cap Leo chose and then chose the same colour for his own necklace. Isla suppressed a smile. Elliot plainly adored him.

  They worked in companionable silence for a while, concentrating on the job in hand until they all had a string of brightly coloured acorn beads and caps.

  ‘These are such a cool idea,’ Leo said, holding his up for a second and then putting it over his head.

  Elliot immediately put his on too.

  ‘It was Elliot’s idea,’ Isla said.

  ‘Ah, good job, buddy,’ Leo said.

  Isla smiled. He was so good with Elliot.

  ‘I’m going to ask Melody if she wants to sell them in her jewellery shop,’ Elliot said as he helped Isla to put her necklace on.

  ‘I bet she will love these,’ Isla said.

  ‘I’d definitely buy them,’ Leo said.

  ‘You would?’ Elliot’s little face lit up.

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘How much would you pay?’

  ‘One million pounds,’ Leo said, which made Elliot giggle.

  ‘We’re going to do some painting next,’ Elliot said. ‘Are you going to paint with us?’

  ‘I love painting,’ Leo said, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt.

  Isla giggled. ‘You might not like this kind of painting.’

  Leo paused halfway through rolling up one of his sleeves, revealing strong tanned forearms. She had a sudden memory of being held in those arms, with his naked body on top of hers. Christ! She shook her head slightly to clear it of those wonderful images. It felt somehow wrong to be thinking of that when Elliot was sitting next to her.

  ‘What kind of painting are we doing?’ Leo asked.

  ‘Why don’t we go outside into the garden and you can see for yourself,’ Isla said.

  Elliot hopped down from his seat and ran out through the back door.

  Leo smiled at her. ‘What do you have planned for me now?’

  ‘Don’t worry, you can just watch,’ Isla said, feeling a little sorry for him. His life had changed beyond recognition since Matthew’s death too and she felt bad sometimes that Leo had never really signed up for any of this. She never wanted to assume that Leo would want to be a part of any of the activities she did with Elliot – she didn’t want to push any of that responsibility onto him – but he’d taken to the role of honorary dad like a duck to water.

  She walked outside, Leo following her and Luke trailing behind him. The sun glinting over the sea made her stop and shield her eyes for a moment. The view from Hot Chocolate Cottage was magnificent. The golden yellow houses of Sandcastle Bay tumbling down the hill, the sea stretching out for miles in front of them, the little boats bobbing out on the water. Matthew really had chosen well when he’d bought this house. The garden was long enough for Elliot and Luke to play in and Marshmallow Cottage, Elliot’s treehouse, was another great addition to the house that Matthew had added.

  The days were getting decidedly nippy now. There had even been frost on the windows and on her car this morning, although the sky was a gorgeous periwinkle blue right now, as if still trying to clutch onto the last edges of summer. The trees, however, had already packed up their bags: most of them were semi naked, with remnants of gold, copper and scarlet clinging onto the brittle branches with no more than a whisper. Most of the leaves were on the floor like a beautiful jewelled patchwork carpet.

  She turned her attention to Elliot, who was already dancing across the large sheets of paper taped to the patio. They had an area about five metres squared to work on and she had already laid out trays of paint in brown, red, gold, and orange.

  ‘We’re going to paint an autumn tree… with our feet,’ Isla said.

  Elliot giggled. ‘But our feet will get dirty.’

  ‘That’s the idea, buddy,’ Leo said. To her surprise, he was already undoing the laces on his boots and stepping out of them. Elliot duly did the same.

  ‘We’ll do the trunk and branches first, so we’re going to step into the brown paint,’ Isla said. In reality, she knew the finished thing was probably not going to look anything like a tree, despite her instructions, but at least they would have fun doing it.

  She watched as Leo gingerly stepped onto the tray, the paint oozing between his toes. ‘Weirdest feeling ever,’ he said.

  He stepped onto the bottom of the page somewhere in the middle and proceeded to walk open-legged up the paper to create two parallel lines for the outline of the trunk of the tree. Elliot stepped into the paint next, squealing with laughter as the cold paint squidged over his tiny feet.

  ‘Step between my footprints buddy, you can do the bark pattern of the tree,’ Leo said.

  Elliot did exactly as he was told, slowly at first and then gaining speed. Leo caught him by the waist as he got around halfway up the sheet.

  ‘We need to do the branches carefully. Do a line here to there,’ Leo pointed. Elliot followed the instructions, putting one foot directly in front of the other as Isla stepped into the brown paint and joined them on the paper. She went up and down the trunk a few times, filling in some of the gaps that Elliot had left behind. The basic tree shape didn’t look half bad with Leo helping to point Elliot in the right di
rections for the branches.

  She stepped off the paper onto a wet towel, which she wiped her feet clean on, and then Leo and Elliot did the same.

  ‘Now the leaves are a bit more… free,’ Isla said, gesturing to the coloured trays at the top of the paper. Elliot ran round and hopped into the red paint. ‘Just go wherever you want to go.’

  Elliot jumped onto the paper and started running around, leaving little red footprints in his wake. Leo chose the orange paint and Isla stepped into the gold and they all started moving around each other, going back now and again to top up on the paint on their feet. Elliot couldn’t stop laughing the whole time, clearly having a whale of a time.

  Isla span round, her hands in the air, and slammed straight into Leo, his hands going instinctively to her waist to steady her.

  She looked up into his caramel brown eyes, alight with amusement, and she had an overwhelming urge to reach up and kiss him. For the briefest of seconds, his eyes glanced down at her lips. God, was he thinking about kissing her as well?

  She realised Elliot was watching them and she slipped out of his arms and took the little boy’s hands, dancing around with him until the top half of the paper was completely filled with different-coloured footprints.

  Isla stepped off and wiped her feet on the towel and Leo and Elliot did the same, Leo bending down to make sure Elliot’s feet were completely clean.

  Elliot turned round to admire their work. ‘Look at our brilliant family tree!’

  Isla smiled. He had got it in his head lately that they were a family, especially after learning about families and family trees at school. Lately, several of the drawings had been of the three of them. He’d recently brought a painting home titled My Family with a picture of Leo, Isla, Elliot and the puppy Luke, although Leo hadn’t seen it. Isla didn’t know what to do with Elliot’s misplaced ideas. She didn’t want to say that Leo wasn’t part of their family because he was, in every way that mattered, even if technically and biologically he wasn’t. But she also didn’t want to encourage those ideas and lump Leo with that responsibility if he didn’t actually want it.

  Leo bent and picked Elliot up, sitting him on his hip. ‘That’s right buddy, our family tree.’ He kissed Elliot on the head and the little boy hugged him tight.

  Isla stared at them, her heart filling with so much love for Leo. When he looped an arm around her shoulders and brought her into the group hug too, she thought her heart might just explode out of her chest.

  God, if he asked her to marry him right then, she knew she would say yes.

  Movement at the back gate caught her eye and Isla looked over to see Karie Matthews, her social worker, standing there smiling at them.

  Isla quickly disentangled herself from Leo’s arms and went over to greet her with a hug.

  Karie had been in their life ever since Matthew had died. She had been round almost every day at the very beginning, helping Isla with the sudden transition to being a new parent. Isla had been terrified that Karie would think she wasn’t doing a good enough job and take Elliot away from her. But all Karie had wanted to make sure was that Elliot was healthy and happy with Isla, and once she saw that he was, the visits had become less and less frequent.

  ‘Hey, this looks like fun,’ Karie said.

  ‘How long have you been standing there?’ Isla said.

  ‘Long enough,’ Karie grinned.

  Isla blushed, wandering if Karie had seen her and Leo practically on the verge of kissing.

  ‘Hi Karie!’ Elliot called over. ‘Do you like our family tree?’

  ‘Very much,’ Karie said. ‘It’s beautiful.’

  Isla noticed all humour had gone from Leo’s face. He always worried when Karie came over.

  ‘You got time for a cup of tea?’ Karie asked and Isla nodded.

  She checked back with Leo, who reassured her, ‘We’ll be fine.’

  Isla smiled, knowing they would be, and followed Karie inside. Karie sat down at the kitchen table, slipping her coat over the back of the chair.

  Isla set about making two cups of tea, wondering what it was that had caused Karie to visit on a Sunday. It had been nearly two months since the last time she had seen her, though she knew the paperwork for making Isla a legal guardian of Elliot was still ongoing.

  Taking parental rights from his mother was an almost impossible thing to do. Despite the fact that Sadie had walked out on Elliot when he was only one, and not bothered to make any contact since, apparently she still had rights. It was a complete legal minefield, with seemingly hundreds of hoops to jump through. Isla and Karie had been pushing to make Isla’s guardianship a legal adoption but the courts were keen to keep things as they were, which technically meant that Sadie could come back any time and gain custody of Elliot. Karie insisted if that happened they would have a strong case to contest it as it would not be in the best interest of the child. Isla just had to hope and pray Sadie wouldn’t turn up. While she thought it unlikely, the threat seemed to be permanently hanging over their heads.

  Isla brought two mugs to the table and sat down opposite Karie, holding her mug to her chest.

  Karie took a sip of her tea.

  ‘I haven’t got a lot of time as I have another visit in half an hour over in Meadow Bay. I know I could have emailed you for the sake of speed, but I wanted to tell you face to face. I have some news.’

  ‘Good news?’ Isla said, realising she was holding the handle of her mug that little bit too tight.

  ‘I think so. A date has been set for your adoption court hearing.’

  Her heart leapt in her chest. ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘It means, that after over a year of trying to locate Sadie, of doing everything possible to try to find her, they’ve agreed to let the adoption go ahead, which will sever any rights she has as a parent. The court hearing is set for November fifteenth but I think really at this stage it’s just a formality. We go there, the judge will listen to all the evidence, we cross the T’s, dot the I’s and Elliot will be legally yours.’

  ‘Oh my god, that’s it. Then it’ll all be over?’ Isla said, her heart thundering through her chest.

  ‘That’s it, once that’s over, there’ll be no more paperwork, no more court visits. You’ll be a family.’

  Isla let out a rush of breath she had no idea she had been holding.

  ‘Oh, thank god. I have never wanted anything as much as I wanted this and I never thought it would happen. You have no idea how relieved I am.’

  ‘Congratulations, I’m happy for you. Elliot couldn’t be in better hands.’ Karie took another mouthful of her tea. ‘I’ll be here a few days before the hearing to go through everything. There will be a few more bits to sign but you don’t need to worry about any of that for now. I’ll drop you an email, explaining it all.’

  Isla nodded, numbly. She couldn’t believe this was finally happening.

  Karie finished her tea and glanced out the window at Leo and Elliot playing in the garden together.

  ‘He’s so good with him,’ Karie said.

  ‘I know, I’d be lost without him,’ Isla said. She watched Leo show Elliot how to do a handstand and his shirt fell down round his chest, revealing a toned, muscular stomach and a thin smattering of hair that travelled from his belly button and disappeared into his jeans. She had stroked her hand down that hair. Once. Many years before.

  She caught Karie watching her and she quickly focussed her attention on a few crumbs on the table.

  ‘Have you accepted any of his proposals yet?’ Karie said.

  Over the last year, Karie Matthews had become a good friend. They had chatted over many cups of tea about Elliot, his occasional nightmares, his grief for Matthew, how he was getting on at school. And with Leo’s constant presence it was only natural that he would crop up in their conversations too.

  ‘No, and you know why.’

  Karie grinned. ‘I know why you think you shouldn’t get married, but I saw the two of you out there and let me tell
you, in all my years of working with families and couples, I don’t think I have ever seen two people so in love with each other as you two clearly are.’

  Isla smiled. ‘We’re friends, he cares about me. That’s as far as it goes.’

  Karie gathered her bag together and slipped her coat back on. ‘Why don’t you ask him?’

  Isla laughed. ‘Because my fragile heart couldn’t take it if he said no.’

  ‘Then tell him how you feel and see if he says it back,’ Karie said as if it really was that simple. ‘Look, things are finally coming together for you now. I’d love it if you could become a proper family. I’m sure Elliot would love it too.’

  ‘Oh, going for the guilt trip now, are we?’ Isla teased.

  Karie laughed. ‘Just think about it. I’ll be in touch.’

  Isla stood up to hug her and Karie let herself out through the back door, waving goodbye to Elliot and Leo as she left.

  Isla sat back down at the table feeling shaky with relief; she couldn’t help the tears that filled her eyes. Although she had thought that Sadie was never likely to come back, she hated this cloud that had hung over them, this threat, no matter how small, that one day she could lose Elliot to a woman who couldn’t care less about him. And now, in just a few short weeks, Elliot would be legally hers.

  She looked up as Leo let himself into the kitchen. Elliot was still playing in the garden with Luke.

  ‘What’s happened, what did she say?’ Leo looked panicked, clearly mistaking her tears for those of sadness rather than happy relief. She quickly wiped her face. He took her hands and pulled her to her feet. He glanced outside at Elliot. ‘There’s no way I’m letting them take him from you. My cousin has a place in Canada, it’s a little lodge in the middle of the woods. We could take Elliot tonight, they’d never find us.’