Lovely Little Things in Pretty Beach : A magical feel-good romance book to escape with in summer 2021.

by Polly Babbington

  ‘The least I could do after the accident. And then I went and followed it up with the shoe incident. Sorry about that.’

  ‘Really, I’m fine. Once I get this redressed,’ Lulu said pointing to her left hand and then holding up her right. ‘I think this one is nearly ready to come off with some luck.’

  Ollie sighed. ‘Hopefully. Well, have a good weekend then with the house.’

  ‘Thanks. What are you up to?’

  ‘I’m up in town on Saturday night and then seeing a few friends, and then I’m back here on call at the station and then work. It’s all go.’ Ollie laughed.

  Lulu picked up her bag from the footwell. It had been a long time since she had been in a car with a man other than Fenton, and even longer since she’d felt anything for anyone other than him but it felt as if there was something in the air between them. Or was she imagining it?

  Nonsense! Stop it, Lulu. He even toasted to being friends.

  ‘I’ll see you around then, Lulu,’ Ollie said and just as Lulu went to put her hand on the car door handle, Ollie leant over and kissed her on the cheek. Lulu didn’t know what to do, but the kiss definitely erred on the side of friendly. He was hardly pressing the honey skin into hers.

  Lulu attempted to be jolly and friendly. ‘Rightio, yes, I’m sure we’ll bump into one another again.’

  Ollie smiled and as Lulu tried to breathe again, he took hold of the steering wheel. ‘Hopefully no bumping in again or knocking you off your bike. I won’t be able to afford to keep apologising,’ Ollie joked. ‘It’s nice to have a local friend, though. Very nearly a neighbour, too. Not long to go and I’ll be in my new house.’

  Lulu got out of the car and as she walked across the drive to the front door to Seafolly House, she felt as if someone had pulled a plug out of her back, the air had whooshed out of her, and she had slowly deflated all the way down to the ground. A sad, washed up, wrinkly old thing in a pile on the floor by the front door.

  Ollie Cavendish. Green eyes, honey skin and all-around hottie had, in no uncertain terms, let her know that as far as he was concerned, she was nothing more than a local friend.

  20

  Lulu got out of bed, made a cup of tea, put Mabel’s biscuits out, and opened the back door to a beautiful morning. Noting the lawn that Ollie had worked on already needed mowing again, she walked along the path, through the fence at the back and sat with her tea, Mabel at her feet, and looked out at the sea.

  The weather was completely different to the rain the day before and Lulu shook her head in amazement. What a difference weather made; sparkles of sunshine glinted off the sea, rays of light spiked through the clouds, and the warm air seemed to make everything better. Everything except how she had felt at the end of the day before which was aptly described as completely and utterly deflated.

  Taking out her phone, Lulu opened her notes app for her to-do list. Now that she was working part-time she had much less time to do much at all, but now with an income to take care of the basics she felt as if she had a little more breathing space. No budget for Jimmy Choos but enough money to get by, and that seemed to make the uncertainty of the past year feel a whole lot better.

  Reading down the list of jobs she started to plan her day. She had a couple of sales from Lovely Little Things to wrap and send, painting in what would be her bedroom, and a viewing at the kiosk to finalise the termination on the rent. Plus, she’d managed to get through to the surgery while she was making breakfast and she had an appointment with the nurse to check on her left hand.

  Half an hour later, in white jeans, a crisp white t-shirt, a tan leather tote bag, and navy blazer, Lulu strolled out of Seafolly House and made her way to her appointment at the surgery.

  Prepared for a wait, she was instead ushered straight into the nurse when she arrived.

  ‘Hi, Lulu,’ Rachel the nurse said as she led her along the corridor to the treatment room. ‘How have you been getting on with it?’

  Lulu sighed. ‘Hmm, well I’ve not quite rested it as much as I should have and I’m feeling it now.’

  A few minutes later, with the bandage removed and a very angry palm oozing yellow-green pus, Rachel took one look at it and shook her head.

  ‘Sorry I can’t quite remember, you got this in an accident on your bike smashing into a car door, didn’t you?’ Rachel asked.

  ‘Yep, and it turns out it was a family member of my new employer.’

  ‘Ooh, awkward! Where are you working, then?’

  ‘The Sandy Bay Hotel.’

  ‘Wow, very swish! You’re lucky to get in there.’

  Lulu looked at Rachel as Rachel put a clean dressing on Lulu’s palm and wrapped it in a bandage. ‘It seems that way. I didn’t really realise that at the time though. How do you know?’

  Rachel smiled. ‘Doesn't everyone know that? I’m from Pettacombe, not Pretty Beach, so I’m not sure about down here but it’s gold getting a step on the ladder in the hotel there.’

  ‘That’s funny. I was there yesterday filling in for someone,’ Lulu replied.

  ‘Small world, eh? Yeah, my cousin, Maddy works for the Cavendish Group. She’s up in town now, though and absolutely loving it. She started off doing part-time work there while she was doing her A-levels. Then she was spotted by Atlanta Cavendish and the rest is history. She’s having a whale of a time in London and she’s actually just got engaged to someone she met through one of the Cavendish sons.’

  Lulu’s ears pricked up at the mention of the Cavendish family and Rachel continued and screwed up her face trying to remember. ‘I can’t recall how many sons there are but anyway, the one who got divorced, yes, Ollie, that’s his name. Bit of a long story but he knew Maddy from Pettacombe and then once she started working up there he bumped into Maddy in the pub one day. He was with an old mate, his girlfriend’s brother I think, whose younger brother joined them later. The rest is history and the mate, Maddy’s now soon to be husband, is heir to a tea fortune. Quite the experience for a girl from Pettacombe to be moving in those circles.’

  Lulu started to put two and two together. What a small world. So, Rachel’s cousin was engaged to Ollie’s girlfriend’s brother. ‘I should say so. What a story! How lovely for her.’

  ‘Indeed. My mum’s already stressing about what to wear to the wedding.’

  Lulu smiled. ‘I bet.’

  ‘And I’m thinking I might bag myself a nice young heir to something or other,’ Rachel said as she finished with Lulu, washed her hands and pressed a few buttons on the computer. ‘There we are then, Lulu. Try to take it easy if you can and definitely no mowing lawns for a few days.’

  ‘I'll try my best.’ Lulu laughed, got up, said goodbye and walked back out through the waiting room and onto the street.

  As Lulu strolled along back towards Seafolly Passage she couldn't stop thinking about Ollie, how very far his life was from hers, and how later on that day she was going to sit down and do a little bit of digging.

  Lulu peered down into the skip parked on the driveway in front of the garage doors at the old carpet that had come out of her soon-to-be bedroom. As she’d pulled the carpet up with her right hand and prepared herself for a long hard task, the carpet had disintegrated into long thin strips making her job a million times easier and she’d said silent thank yous to the DIY gods. Though still slow-going, after a few hours and many trips up and down the huge sweeping staircase, the carpet was finally out of the bedroom and was now neatly folded in the bottom of the skip.

  Opening the bedroom door, Lulu looked around at the bare floorboards and after much deliberation, a few internet searches on the ease of sanding floors, and kneeling down and inspecting the varnished timber, she’d decided that with a vacuum and clean the floorboards would have to do. Hiring a sander, the dust, the state of her left hand, and her bank balance made it an easy enough decision.

  A few hours later, the bottle green mouldy curtains at the windows were keeping the carpet company in the skip, the various holes in th
e wall had been filled, and the insides of the windows were sparkling.

  Lulu stood back and looked at the huge room, the open windows letting in the freshest air it had seen in a very long time, and with the rotting old curtains gone, light flooded in. It was almost as if the light had waved a magic wand over the whole room making everything in Lulu’s world better.

  Now, Lulu could finally envisage how her new bedroom might look once it was whitewashed and clean and whatever the aesthetics, the thought of getting out of the study and into an actual bed at night made her all the more determined to crack on with the job in hand. Injured palm or not. She was sick and tired of sleeping on the airbed in the study and the only person who was going to make a bedroom happen was her.

  Lulu made her way downstairs, strolled through the kitchen, stepped into the garage, and took the lid off one of the industrial-sized cans of primer. Roughly calculating how much was left she was more or less certain it would be touch and go as to whether or not she had enough for the bedroom.

  After carting the paint, rollers and brushes up the stairs and then going back again for the ladder, her phone started to ring with a Facetime call from Willow. Sitting on the floor of the bedroom she propped up the phone and pressed the button. Willow appeared looking relaxed, tanned, a cocktail in hand.

  ‘Hello to my favourite sister,’ Willow smiled.

  ‘You’ve only got one. So I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not.’ Lulu laughed back.

  ‘What are you up to? How’d the day in Pettacombe go?’

  ‘Ahh, I’ve had better days.’

  ‘Oh dear, sounds ominous. What happened?’

  Lulu laughed. ‘The day went well at work, then I got drenched in a downpour and dropped one of my shoes on the track of the train on my way home.’

  ‘Ha! So you! Oh god, which shoes? Although I don’t know why I’m asking that. All your shoes are investments.’

  ‘Precisely! Nude Jimmy Choos. I felt my heart sink as I dropped it. You’ll never guess who helped me, though.’

  ‘Noooo! Honey Skin? Surely not?’ Willow replied with wide eyes.

  ‘The very one.’

  ‘Wow! The universe is working in mysterious ways with you and him.’

  ‘I don’t think so, Wills,’ Lulu answered with a chuckle.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Firstly, he’s loved up with an heiress, secondly, he in no uncertain terms told me I was his new ‘friend’ and thirdly, he inferred that the only reason he came over for dinner that night was because he felt the need to apologise. So roll all those into one and I’m very much putting him in the not interested basket.’

  ‘Oh. I see. Yes, I suppose you do have a point there. I’ve heard a few things about him since I’ve been in the cafe.’

  ‘Like what? You didn’t say…’

  ‘Ahh, nothing concrete. I just get the feeling that he’s a bit of a player.’

  ‘Right. Anyway, I don’t even know why we are discussing Ollie Cavendish. The whole premise of it is ridiculous, Wills. I never set out to meet anyone when I got back to Pretty Beach and I’ve just come out the other end of an awful divorce. Another relationship, quite frankly, is the last thing I need at the moment.’

  But I do like the honey.

  ‘Pah! You can’t pull the wool over my eyes. Feel free to keep trying, though.’

  Lulu laughed, ‘What?’

  ‘You don’t fool me for a single second. It’s like Steven Bartholemew all over again. I know that look on your face. I’ve seen it three times now. Steven, Fenton, unfortunately, and here again now.’

  Lulu didn’t know what to reply. She knew, and Willow knew. She had been in precisely three real relationships in her life. One was a ridiculous teenage crush on Steven Bartholemew which had not ended up well, and she had been carrying it ever since. The other was two years with a human rights lawyer who was more interested in saving the world than talking to her, and then she’d fallen head over heels with Fenton and look how that had turned out.

  Lulu sighed. ‘Nothing of the sort.’

  ‘Okay then.’ Willow chuckled. ‘I believe you. Not.’

  ‘Enough of all that. Let me show you what I’ve been doing in here,’ Lulu said as she pressed the button to turn the camera around.

  ‘Oh my goodness!’ Willow exclaimed. ‘That is amazing!’

  ‘I know, and I haven’t even started painting yet. All I need now is a bed.’

  Willow tutted. ‘Please let me buy you a bed.’

  ‘No. Don’t start. How lovely is the light in here?’

  ‘It looks like a completely different space. Look at the bath! I don’t remember that being there. Wow, it’s fabulous right in the middle of the room like that,’ Willow said as Lulu moved her phone around the room and then walked into the bathroom.

  ‘Yep. The copper is really faded on the outside, but the inside scrubbed up okay. The plumber told me that people spend a fortune on these baths nowadays.’

  ‘I bet. It’s gorgeous.’

  ‘The ones I’ve seen online are all shiny but I somehow quite like it like this and it’s really comfortable. They don’t make them like this these days and you know how much I like a soak in the tub.’

  ‘I more than quite like it. Blimey, it’s beautiful. And look at the view! Bathing looking out to sea. People would pay for that.’

  ‘Ha! True. Maybe this will actually all be worth it in the end.’

  ‘If you’d just take some money you wouldn’t have to be doing it all yourself.’

  Lulu sighed. ‘We’ve been through this about sixteen times. I’m not taking any money. You’ve already signed me over the house and the kiosk. That’s more than enough for me.’

  ‘I know, but I’m not the one on the tail end of a lying, cheating scumbag of a man who left you high and dry. And we all know I do not need a share in Seafolly House.’

  ‘That’s not the point.’

  ‘I know. I know. Speaking of the kiosk have you been down there yet?’

  ‘Scheduled for this afternoon.’

  ‘Don’t hold your breath but as I said, I think it would be a great place for Lovely Little Things.’

  ‘You really think so? It’s hardly the epicentre of things down there.’

  ‘Ahh, Lulu. You’re still old school Pretty Beach. It’s not just fishermen down there now. That whole strip is always buzzing with people strolling around enjoying the view. The shops are gorgeous now. I reckon it would go well.’

  ‘Hmm. Well, I’ll find out later, won’t I?’

  ‘Yep. Right. Thanks for the catch-up. I hope you bump into old green eyes again. Though please try not to fall in the road in the process or lose any shoes.’

  That afternoon, Lulu finished up in the bedroom, washed, changed out of her painting clothes, pulled her hair into a neat French pleat, put a stack of bangles on her arm, and settled Mabel in the kitchen.

  Locking the boot room door behind her, she walked through the top garden, opened the gate to the back, walked down towards the beach, and along to the lane at the end.

  She didn’t really know what she was expecting with the kiosk. Both she and Willow had not had a whole lot to do with it. Originally it had been where their grandpa had based his fishing rod business and when he had passed away when Lulu and Willow were small, it had apparently been rented out ever since.

  When their grandma had died, Willow and Lulu had inherited anything that was left: the house in Seafolly Passage and the kiosk. Since then it had been rented by the same tenant, whose rent hadn’t been put up for years, and had pottered along quite nicely since with the income sitting in an account neither Lulu nor Willow had touched.

  Strolling along the lane, Lulu looked at the boats bobbing about on the water, watched a mum with a toddler walking down one of the jetties at the back, and gazed at the whitewashed fisherman’s cottages on the right.

  Lulu blinked as she looked around, acknowledging how much the area had changed. When she’d ridden her bi
ke all over Pretty Beach back in the day there had not been much going on at all other than a few fishing shops, an old Scout hut, and a run-down boat shed.

  Lots had changed and Lulu didn’t know which way to look first. The fishing shops had gradually been taken over and now sat attractively in the pastels of Pretty Beach, the cottages, while still tiny, now all looked clean and neat and the Scout hut had been renovated and announced proudly on the noticeboard that it was part of the Pretty Beach community.

  There was one blot on the landscape, and as Lulu peered down the road the same sinking feeling she’d had when she’d first pulled up outside Seafolly House came straight back to the fore.

  Willow had told her she’d not been on this side of Pretty Beach for a while and that the shop had seen better days. What she hadn't told her was that the beautiful old timber clad building had been painted in lilac and a huge purple sign right across the middle was painted with hand-drawn lurid green daisies. As Lulu got closer, the worse it got.

  ‘You’ve got to be actually kidding me. Someone up there is having a chuckle with me, surely?’ Lulu said aloud to herself as she walked along, and the shop came more clearly into view. As she read the sign plastered across the shop, she learnt that it housed a ‘unique mix of hippy styles.’

  As she got closer, Lulu was almost sure, even though the door was shut, and the shop was empty, that she could smell incense from twenty paces and that the little neighbouring shops would not be happy about that.

  The first in the little line of timber-clad shops Pretty Beach Vintage Tackle, a little fishing shop full of old-fashioned fishing gear, looked onto the lane with bespoke leather fishing bags hanging outside. Next door, a shop and artist’s studio selling bespoke lampshades was all decked out in very pale blue, a plant shop with what looked like stacks of herbs had a sign on the door that it was closed, and a handmade deckchair shop had striped fabric hanging in the window. Next door to that a bespoke cake shop displayed naked cakes, chocolate slabs and tall sponges cascading with fruit and flowers. And then slap bang in the middle of it, was Lulu’s shop. The Hippy Hut.