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

by Polly Babbington

  Eloise, wanting to time leaving with the fireman leaving, hissed across the table as she pulled her bag off the chair. ‘Quick, Lulu, get up! They’re going. I want to accidentally on purpose bump into him in the foyer.’

  Lulu, a little tipsy from the few glasses of wine, smiled, snapped up her bag, threw it on her shoulder, and pushed in her chair.

  ‘Lead the way,’ she said to Eloise as Eloise scrambled to pull her coat on and dodged between the tables.

  With perfect timing and Lulu following behind Eloise, the two women bumped into the men from the other direction as they got to the door. As Eloise pretended how coincidental it was that they were leaving at the same time, Ollie turned around and saw Lulu standing behind her.

  ‘Lulu! Fancy seeing you here. I didn’t see you when I walked in. How long have you been here?’ Ollie asked with a beaming smile on his face.

  ‘Err, pretty much all night. I came for a drink with an old family friend.’

  ‘I didn’t see you when we came in. Sorry about that, I didn’t know you were here.’

  I cannot say the same. I could pick you out in a darkened room.

  ‘You didn’t come over and say hello?’ Ollie asked with a frown on his face.

  Lulu couldn’t seem to make her mouth move. She frowned and tried to make her brain start operating normally again. What was that galloping in her veins? At least she was breathing again.

  Ollie tilted his head to the side as he held onto the door. ‘Lulu? Are you with us?’

  ‘Yes,’ Lulu replied slowly as she was lost in the green eyes. ‘I…’ Lulu didn't know how to respond. She hadn’t gone over to say hello for one reason and one reason only. She thought that he wasn’t interested and that was too much for her to stand.

  ‘After you,’ Ollie said smiling and Lulu walked through the door and stepped out into the cool dark night. As the fresh air hit her Lulu felt the glasses of wine she’d consumed and looked up at a clear sky full of twinkling stars. She stood there gazing at the sky, a bright star seeming to look back at her from every direction. As the cold air coming up from the water hit her Lulu shivered and folded her arms.

  ‘Here, take my coat,’ Ollie offered, holding out his jacket.

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘You’re shivering. Take it,’ Ollie insisted.

  ‘Don’t worry about it. I’m five minutes from home. I’ll jog back, that'll warm me up.’

  Ollie looked back confused and forced the jacket into Lulu’s hands. ‘You can leave it at the hotel. I’ll pick it up the next time I’m in there.’

  ‘I won’t be in Pettacombe again for a while, I don’t think.’

  ‘Oh, I know that. I meant the Pretty Beach hotel.’

  You know that, do you? How do you know that?

  ‘If you’re sure. Thank you. It really has got chilly this evening.’

  ‘Of course. Be my guest.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Lulu said slipping her arms into Ollie’s coat and inhaling all sorts of fabulous scents.

  Whilst holding onto the railing, Lulu, in her pale pink espadrilles with the prettiest ankle ties, carefully made her way down the steps. She peered into the darkness down the lane towards the back of Seafolly House and Ollie followed her gaze.

  ‘Hmm. It’s looking a bit dark down there. You can’t walk down there on your own.’

  ‘Yes. I didn't realise it wasn't lit. Not a problem. I’ll just have to walk the long way round.’

  Lulu stood next to Eloise who butted in, ‘How are you getting home, Lulu?’

  ‘I’m just going to go back around and down the other side of Seafolly Passage. It’s looking quite dark down the back way, so I’ll give that a miss,’ Lulu replied.

  ‘Do you want to hop in the Uber with me? It’s Rory from the bakery. I can get him to take a detour,’ Eloise asked.

  Lulu looked back at the dark lane and then at all the lights around the bay. The path was brightly lit in the other direction and there were lots of people strolling in the Friday night air.

  ‘Actually, I could do with a walk. I’ll be fine.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Eloise said.

  ‘Yep. All good. Off you go.’

  Ollie turned to Eloise as Rory the Uber driver pulled up and she opened the door to get in. ‘No worries. I’ll walk her home,’ he added. Eloise smiled, got in the car and it slowly pulled away.

  ‘Really, you don’t need to walk me home. It’s not even late and look at all the people around,’ Lulu said.

  ‘I've already caused you serious bodily harm and nearly cost you a very expensive shoe. Do you really think I would let you walk home alone after all that?’ Ollie said with a chuckle.

  Lulu smiled back, trying to remember how to breathe and attempted to tear her eyes away from the vision in front of her. It was not easy. ‘Ha! It wasn’t serious bodily harm. It was just a little graze or two.’

  Lulu could barely take her eyes off him. Everything seemed to have improved since the last time she had seen this member of the Cavendish family. Either she was seeing things, or he was twice as broad, twice as charming, and twice as heart-stopping as he had been when he’d picked her up from the road and saved her shoe on the train.

  Plus, she couldn’t work out whether or not she was completely imagining it, or was there something between them? Because, from her side of the table, she felt like lightning bolts were running back and forth in the air and as if someone had reached inside her ribs and was giving her heart a little squeeze every now and then.

  They began to walk away from the Skiff Club and after the few wines, Lulu concentrated on not talking rubbish and balancing on the espadrilles. Strolling along right there beside her as she looked down at her shoes, she couldn’t believe how she felt, how handsome Ollie was, or how his presence seemed to make her forget about the last year of hell, and actually that she felt pleased that she was alone. Pleased to be rid of Fenton.

  Pleased to be alone! Get a grip on yourself. What the heck am I even thinking?

  Alongside Ollie, all the raw emotions that went with the divorce, the sadness of having to sell the house, the deceit and lies all seemed to pale into the background. All of it seemed as if it was in a life that belonged to someone else. Someone who had left that old life and was walking beside a divine specimen in the moonlight of Pretty Beach.

  Lulu tried desperately to think of something interesting to say, something that made her sound as if she had a brain rather than a mind that had turned to mush.

  ‘How’s the house purchase going?’ Lulu asked, hoping that her voice sounded normal.

  Ollie turned to her as they made their way alongside the water. ‘Really well. I should be in soon as there’s no chain whatsoever. Thank god. I can’t wait to get in now. I’ve been looking for what seems like ever.’

  ‘So, what? You’ll be going up to London at the weekends, will you?’ Lulu asked, wondering how he was going to see the tea heiress if he was in Pretty Beach.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Ollie frowned.

  Lulu realised she’d put her foot in it. Why would she be assuming he would be going to London when he’d told her nothing about it. ‘Oh, I, umm, you know, I assumed that you go up there to see your family.’

  ‘Correct. I do. But once I’m in that house I’ll be staying down here and going up there a lot less often.’

  Oh my god! That means the heiress must be moving in.

  ‘How’s Mabel doing?’ Ollie asked as they crossed over the road, waited for a car to turn in front of them and then turned into Seafolly Passage.

  Lulu felt ridiculously pleased that Ollie remembered Mabel’s name. ‘She’s good. Loving her walks along the beach. We both are, actually.’

  ‘I bet. It’s one of the things I love most about living down here,’ Ollie replied. ‘That and the part-time fireman job.’

  Just thinking about the fireman thing got Lulu’s pulse racing as they walked along under the old-fashioned street lights on the brisk dark night.

 
Five minutes or so in and Seafolly House came into sight and, lit by fairy lights on the porch from Lovely Little Things, it didn’t look anywhere near as bad in the dark as it did in the daylight. A little lamp she’d turned on in the study glowed from the ground floor and the porch almost looked inviting in the pool of light from above.

  As they got to the house Lulu took her bag off her shoulder looking for her keys. ‘Well, thank you very much, Ollie. I’m sure I would have been okay on my own, but you never know, so I appreciate it.’

  ‘Not a problem.’ Ollie smiled.

  Before Lulu could stop herself, she felt her lips moving and heard her voice cutting through the night air. ‘Fancy a coffee, nightcap, or something?’

  Ollie shoved his hands in his pockets and shook his head a little bit and Lulu immediately regretted the offer.

  ‘No worries. Sorry, you must be ready to get off home!’ Lulu added quickly to pre-empt him saying no.

  Ollie smiled. ‘Ahh, go on then. You’ve tempted me. One for the road might be nice.’

  Lulu could barely stop herself from doing a happy dance across the driveway. Maybe if she plied him with drink she could pop him up at the top of the house and never let him go. Keep him up there as a little pet.

  After Mabel greeted them, enthusiastically wagging her tail almost as much for Ollie as she did for Lulu, Lulu led Ollie into the kitchen, took off Ollie’s coat, and hung it on a hook by the kitchen door.

  ‘Wow. Look at the view at night. All the lights out there and the lighthouse sweeping down every now and then. Christ, you couldn’t make it up,’ Ollie said as he peered out the kitchen window and down towards the sea.

  ‘Yes, it’s really much nicer than I had remembered. I never appreciated any of this when I was younger.’

  ‘How are you liking it back here, then?’ Ollie asked as Lulu took two glasses from the dresser.

  Lulu stopped and looked up. ‘Hmm. I can truly say that I wasn’t looking forward to moving back to Pretty Beach, but so far, it’s been nothing but lovely. Obviously, I’m not including the rats in that or the fact that some idiot knocked me off my bike in the laneway,’ Lulu joked. ‘But, overall, I’m starting to feel as if it could be the best thing I have ever done. Well, at least, when one is faced with the situation I was in, anyway.’

  Ollie nodded as he looked out the window. ‘Yeah, I reckon there are a lot worse places to wash up in life.’

  Lulu nodded and walked around the table. ‘Okay, I’ve beer, wine, or a very special handmade brandy from my friend Lottie whose stepdad is Greek. I will warn you though, it is rather strong.’

  Ollie smiled, pulled out a chair and sat down. ‘Greek brandy sounds good to me,’ he said and Lulu pulled open the dresser door, took out the bottle of amber-coloured liquor, and glugged it into the glasses. Sitting down opposite, Lulu sipped her drink and Ollie picked up his glass and took a sip of his.

  ‘Crikey! That’s potent!’ he said chuckling.

  ‘It is.’ Lulu giggled. ‘I did warn you.’

  Just as Lulu put her glass down on the table, Ollie’s phone pinged. He took it out of his pocket and looked at his messages.

  ‘Excuse me, Lulu. I just need to answer this,’ he said pushing his chair out behind him and heading to the back door. A few seconds later with a sigh, he put his phone back on the table.

  ‘Everything okay?’ Lulu enquired.

  ‘Oh yep. All good. Sorry about that. I hate it when people hear a text mid-conversation and look at their phone but I had to get that one.’

  ‘Fine by me,’ Lulu said as Ollie drained the brandy.

  ‘Okay, well thank you for the drink. I’d better be getting off. I've got an early start in the morning.’

  Lulu finished her brandy and pushed her chair away from the table. ‘Of course,’ she said as she turned around and took Ollie’s coat from the hooks and they made their way through the house, and Lulu followed Ollie outside and across the driveway.

  ‘Thanks for walking me home. It’s a dark night. I’m grateful,’ Lulu said looking up at him.

  ‘My pleasure,’ Ollie replied and touched Lulu’s elbow.

  Just as Lulu went to turn away, feeling as if she couldn’t breathe, she was certain that there was something in the air between them. Her chest felt tight, taut, the air explosive. Ollie went to move towards her, and Lulu jumped back as if someone had touched her with a poker and in a split second the moment was gone

  ‘Sorry,’ Ollie said calmly.

  ‘Ahh. No, sorry. Err, look, sorry, Ollie,’ Lulu almost shrieked.

  ‘No worries,’ Ollie said, smiling and putting his hand into the small of Lulu’s back, leant forward and kissed her on the cheek and the honey skin brushed her arm.

  The whole world has stopped turning. My feet are glued to the floor. I cannot move anything. I cannot breathe, blink or speak.

  ‘See you around then, Lulu. Thank you for that very strong nightcap. It was quite the way to end a night at the Skiff Club, sitting in a lovely old house with a gorgeous woman.’

  ‘Be seeing you, Ollie,’ Lulu replied and as she walked back to her doorway and watched him stroll along Seafolly Passage, she hugged herself as all sorts of things went through her mind.

  But there was one thing that she knew for sure. Whatever it was that Ollie Cavendish had, it had stirred something in her that had been dormant, asleep, and under wraps for an inordinately long time. That was indeed if it had ever been in her life at all.

  Now it was waking up, doing something to her heart that felt as if it was being suspended in time.

  As Lulu stood in the doorway under the glow of the fairy lights, she was very glad that the likes of Fenton and his dealings were very much out of her life because Lulu was ready for a whole new storyline.

  22

  It was the Monday after the weekend and Lulu had spent the day at work with little to no drama. No royalty, no guests needing doctors, and no lost shoes on trains. She got home from work, had a nice soak in the bath, put on her huge white dressing gown, lit a few candles in the kitchen, made herself a bowl of pasta, and sat down at the kitchen table with Mabel at her side.

  Pouring herself a glass of wine and putting her pasta in front of her, Lulu slid over her laptop and pressed the button to turn it on. Thirty seconds later, taking a sip of her wine, she typed ‘Cavendish Group’ into the search box and hit return. Reams and reams of results showed up. This was going to be interesting.

  The Cavendish Group owns an iconic collection of unique hospitality venues located at beautiful waterside locations around the world.

  Established by Atlanta Cavendish in London the company prides itself on the bespoke hotelier experience like no other.

  Now with thirty boutique hotels, each offering outstanding levels of comfort and service, the Cavendish Group continues to go from strength to strength.

  Atlanta Cavendish’s vision for exceedingly well-dressed boutique hotels has made a new benchmark in the hotelier industry.

  Lulu scrolled down opening more and more links in new tabs. As she clicked on the first article in a financial magazine, with an interview and picture of Atlanta Cavendish in a crisp white shirt on a bespoke wingback chair, she nodded her head. Reading about how the group continued to be wholly family-owned and in very healthy profit, Lulu began to feel more and more grateful for what she had thought was an insignificant job as a part-time receptionist. Everyone in Pretty Beach was right. Her job was gold.

  The next tab informed the reader all about the Cavendish Group, about its gradual and highly lucrative rise to success, and how working for the group was hallowed ground in the hotel industry. Lulu gulped as she read case studies of employees who had started with the group at the bottom and were still with it twenty years later. Suddenly, Lulu was very pleased that she hadn’t known any of the information she had now gathered before she had gone for the interviews. She was even more grateful that she didn't know the extent of it and the kudos of working for the group before the day
she’d spent in Pettacombe dealing with royalty.

  Further and further she went down the rabbit hole, learning more and more about the Cavendish Group. Nothing that she found was anything other than complimentary on the company’s exemplary financial dealings and admirable reputation within the industry.

  Clicking further along the now multiple open tabs on her laptop, as Lulu tucked into her pasta she read more and more about the Cavendish family. Four sons, two daughters, houses in London and Berkshire, a property in the South of France, an apartment in New York, and a house in Australia.

  Then, opening the next tab, she clicked on images. Pictures of an immaculate Atlanta graced the page. More pictures depicted her two daughters smiling and laughing, and then there was Ollie Cavendish with a glass of champagne in his right hand, a huge smile on his face, and his green eyes looking into the camera. The same green eyes and honey skin she had stared up at when she had been lying on the road in the laneway.

  Lulu sighed as she clicked the right arrow and scrolled through pictures of Ollie and various other members of the well-heeled Cavendish family at numerous events around the world.

  And then there were the pictures of the girlfriend. With an impending sense of doom, Lulu couldn’t stop herself from scrolling and clicking until her mind was awash with everything Cavendish. Oh, to be part of this fabulous world.

  Ollie was what looked like an integral cog in this high-achieving, goal-getting family who had come from a relatively standard start in life to being up there in all the right circles. Lulu, with her heart sinking and more sips of wine, delved deeper and deeper and explored further until she had seen pictures of the Cavendish family in all sorts of scenarios. She knew the elite private schools they had attended, where they went on holiday, and how Atlanta Cavendish was apparently all about family and keeping her offspring’s feet very much on the ground.

  Ha, as if you were ever going to be able to do that.

  And then there was the girlfriend. Cressida Delmey-Brown. Descendant of the Delmey Tea Company, the third most popular tea brand in the world. Cressida had been gifted beauty and brains from what Lulu read. And from the pictures and videos Lulu had seen, didn’t Cressida Delmey-Brown know it.