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

by Polly Babbington

  She closed her eyes and hugged herself as she thought about the night before. Thought about strolling through Pretty Beach with Ollie. Remembered the feeling when he’d taken her hand as they’d walked along in the moonlight.

  The evening at the Pavillion had gone swimmingly, and as Lulu had sipped slowly on her glass of champagne and it had softened the edges of her up and down emotions, she had decided to simply sit back in her chair and enjoy the evening. What had she had to lose?

  The food, the wine, and the company had been everything she’d hoped and any thoughts that she'd had that the conversation might dry up or that there would be any awkward bits simply hadn’t happened.

  They’d simply sat and chatted, eaten delicious food, and finished it all off with a cocktail at the bar looking out to sea. It had been easy and cosy and perfect. The three hours had gone by as if they were three seconds and before Lulu had realised it they were at Ollie’s house, then inside, and he was making them a coffee.

  ‘Anything with your coffee other than this chocolate?’ Ollie had asked as he’d brought two cups of coffee into the sitting room, passed Lulu a small cup, and his hand had brushed hers as she took it.

  You and your honey would be nice. Lulu had laughed to herself as Ollie had sat on the sofa opposite her, she’d crossed her legs and the skirt of her dress had fallen to the side.

  ‘How’s the new house going, then?’ Lulu asked as she sipped on the steaming hot coffee and looked around observing a stack of cardboard boxes in the corner.

  ‘Yeah, good. I’m in now. Thank goodness,’ Ollie had said and he’d then started to relay how he’d thought he was so organised with the move and how he’d naively felt that there wasn’t much to do but how he now seemed to be surrounded by boxes and couldn’t find anything when he wanted it.

  ‘Welcome to my world. I just can’t wait to get a sofa.’ Lulu had giggled and popped one of the tiny dark chocolate squares Ollie had brought in with the coffee into her mouth. As Ollie had leant over and taken a chocolate Lulu had contemplated the loveliness of the evening. Him being right there in front of her, his lovely aura, his gorgeous green eyes, his broad chest. Everything about him and the evening had seemed almost a little bit too perfect at that moment.

  ‘So, let me get this straight. I know we said we wouldn’t talk about exes, but he left you with nothing? Not even a sofa?’ Ollie had asked.

  ‘Indeed he did, and now he’s settled nicely in another relationship and no doubt he’s weaving a web of lies around her too.’

  ‘He sounds grim. He left you with nothing, not even any furniture? Really? Who even does that?’

  ‘Literally, nothing but my, err, vast collection of shoes. The only reason I had the car and my business was because of Willow.’

  ‘I take it you're not on speaking terms now?’ Ollie had asked.

  Lulu had laughed in response. ‘You’re correct.’

  ‘I’m not surprised. And you’ve not met anyone else since then?’

  ‘God, no!’ Lulu had responded with a little more vehemence than she had intended. And at that point she had decided, as the conversation had turned to relationships, to bite the bullet and clarify the situation regarding the tea heiress. ‘And what about you, Ollie? Has there been anyone since your, err, divorce?’ she’d said trying to sound nonchalant.

  Ollie had looked away to the other side of the sitting room. ‘Umm, yes and no. There was someone for a while, but, yeah, no. Not really.’

  Lulu had nodded wondering what ‘not really’ meant and had taken another sip of her coffee and while she sat there rooted to the spot she had really wanted to get up and do a happy dance around the room on hearing that he was not with anyone else.

  Lying in bed thinking about the night before, Lulu opened her phone, ignored two messages from Willow and a missed call from Lottie, pulled up the app controlling the kettle, turned it on, and thought about getting up and going down to the kitchen. Instead, she stared up at the ceiling thinking more about the night before. Thinking about how, right at the very end, they’d laughed about how Lulu had emerged from the side of the house in the bright pink, fur-lined rubber gloves and Ollie had wondered if when he’d knocked her off her bike it had turned her a little bit odd.

  And then, as she’d showed him how her hands were so much better, Ollie had moved over on the sofa, put his hand on her leg and slowly moved it under her dress, and kissed her gently on the lips.

  Ollie had rested his other arm around Lulu’s waist as Lulu had moved closer and as she had kissed him back she felt herself slip away. Slip away to a whole new world. She’d moved her hand up his back as he stroked the back of her hair and as his other hand had caressed her leg, Lulu had taken one look at the pool of honey, taken a deep breath, said a silent prayer to any god who might have had the time to listen and dived, headfirst, straight in.

  34

  Lulu, who was sitting in a camping chair in the garage with her laptop open, a coffee by her side, and a pile of postal satchels, sat going through admin for Lovely Little Things. The shop was ticking along with orders trickling in every day now that her loyal band of customers had seen the social media posts and knew that the store was back online. As her customers started to enjoy the warmer weather, Lulu had packaged up and sent off lovely silky camisoles, straw baskets tied with scarves, and broderie beach cover-ups to far-flung parts of the country.

  As she sat methodically wrapping orders in white tissue paper tied with thick black silky ribbon, she was lost in thought about what was happening with her and Ollie.

  Since the evening at the Pavillion, they had been out for more than a few more dates. When Lulu had been working in Pettacombe, Ollie had met her after work and they’d gone for drinks on Pettacombe Pier. They’d been for coffee one Saturday morning in Maisy’s cafe and they’d taken the ferry to the old cinema in Pearl Beach, where Ollie had put his hand on Lulu’s leg and in the interval had told her how much he loved spending time with her.

  He’d met her at the lane down at the back of the house and looked around the kiosk with her, and had naturally included himself in her plans to spruce it up. And they’d barbecued fish down at the end of the garden and sat enjoying it on the old vintage sun loungers she’d found near the shed. Everything had been easy and simple. Ollie was charming, genuinely seemed to care, and took everything in his stride.

  Closing her laptop and putting the lids back on the Lovely Little Things storage boxes, Lulu smiled as she remembered the cinema date in Pearl Beach. It was then that Ollie had referred to her as his girlfriend, and she’d swallowed to herself and wondered if she should clarify the situation. Deciding that she didn’t need to define it and trying to remind herself that she was more than fine with a casual encounter anyway, she had kept quiet and not mentioned it at all.

  But inside, she had been over the moon and had hugged his words to herself over and over again. Scrapheap Lulu was no more. Someone and someone who no one could deny was a nice catch, liked her and that had made her feel very good indeed.

  It was almost as if someone had taken a magic wand, waved it over Lulu’s head, and sprinkled her in honey. And that had evaporated the hurt, lies, and deceit and everything that she’d found out about Fenton - his debt, his extra-marital affairs, his lies, and his capacity to mow down anyone in his path and not care less.

  Lulu made herself a cup of coffee, grabbed a packet of chocolate biscuits, and with Mabel at her side, sat down by the beach planning her week as she threw pebbles into the water. Three days at the hotel, a builder coming to fix the shingle on the house, a call with her supplier in the South of France, and her next task in the house getting started on the mouldy wallpaper in the sitting room.

  As Mabel chased after a stick, Lulu’s phone rang from Ava.

  ‘Hello, how’re things?’ Lulu asked. Ava was about to fly over to London for one of her coaching conferences and they were counting down the weeks.

  ‘Great. I can’t wait to get on the plane now a
nd get going on it all. And I can’t wait to see you. Have you got your train ticket booked?’

  ‘I certainly have! I can’t wait to see you and I always love the conferences. The nice comfy hotel bed is going to be good too. How’s all the organisation going?’

  ‘Yeah, good, a bit manic. All the crazy last-minute things to do. Not that I do that many of them these days now I have assistants! Woohoo, go me. Who would have ever thought I would say that?’ Ava laughed.

  ‘I would,’ Lulu replied quoting back Ava’s mantra to her, ‘Who are we? We are confident, capable, independent women who can do it on our own.’

  ‘Ahh. In my case it’s worked, though I’m not on my own.’

  ‘Nope and now it seems nor am I.’

  ‘The world works in mysterious ways, my lovely Lulu. How’s it all going, then?’ Ava asked.

  ‘Fine. good. What am I saying? It’s fantastic!’ Lulu giggled.

  ‘Have you done the deed yet?’ Ava chuckled back.

  ‘Nope. It’s been close, but no, I am still yet to take him to bed and lose myself forever.’

  ‘Wow!’ Ava exclaimed.

  ‘Do you think that’s weird? Do I need to be worrying about this?’

  ‘I thought you said you were causal and not going to overthink it?’ Ava joked.

  ‘I know, but now I’m wondering why that bit hasn’t happened?’

  ‘I thought you said you wanted it to be special.’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘Well make it happen then. It’s as simple as that.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Lulu. How long has one of your best friends been in the life coaching business? You must have heard this a trillion times. You’ve been to every single one of my London events and I just say the same thing packaged up in different ways each time.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, I know. You need to take control of your life and make it happen.’

  ‘Precisely. What’s stopping you?’

  ‘I don’t know. I just want it to be really special. I feel like we are really special. I can’t explain it. I know it sounds soppy for a forty-two-year-old woman but when I’m with Ollie I feel like my whole marriage was a farce. Like my life was, I dunno, a fake up until now.’

  ‘That’s pretty powerful,’ Ava replied.

  ‘I know.’

  ‘So what would make it special?’

  ‘Are you counselling and coaching me now?’

  ‘Yup. Ha! How did you guess?’

  ‘Hmm. Under the stars.’

  ‘Under the stars! What, like outside under the stars?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Surely that’s easy enough, isn’t it? Chuck a mattress down on the beach at the end of your house and Bob’s your uncle. Do the deed out there,’ Ava joked.

  Lulu laughed. ‘Yeah, that’s not quite what I had in mind, but hmm, I’ll have to think about something along those lines. He’s coming over Saturday night. I’m going to make it happen then.’

  35

  Lulu opened the picket gate at the bottom of the garden and stood on the strip of grass shelving down to the shingle beach. Looking down towards the shops in the far distance, back to the houses behind, and then out to the boats bobbing up and down in front of her, all her ideas of the beach and the stars vanished as quickly as they had arrived. There was no way it was going to happen down there in the open, her own property and under the stars or not.

  Pushing the gate back open, she walked to the right along the white picket fence until she got to the old brick wall surrounding the property. Two overgrown apple trees butted up in the corner, the sea could still be seen but the little sheltered corner was ideal.

  She’d started hitching the plan for the evening as soon as she’d put the phone down from Ava who had, as usual, been correct. If she wanted things to be a certain way she had to make it happen. Because there was one thing for sure, no one else was going to do it for her.

  And so, she had done first things first and checked the weather, and with a dubious weekend of possible rain on the way, dinner (and hopefully something else) under the stars needed an inclement weather plan. With a little bit of online mooching, she’d settled on an instant-up white gazebo, paid for express delivery, and a day later it had arrived on the porch of Seafolly House along with strings of fairy lights and a set of wind chimes.

  The lawn, which had been strimmed a few weeks previously, had been mowed that morning and from her stash of bits from Lovely Little Things, scented candles, an oversized picnic blanket, and a stack of pastel-coloured cushions were at the ready for the much-anticipated occasion. As Lulu got everything together she felt like it was the event of the decade. Quite possibly the most important event of her life.

  By late afternoon things had come together and Lulu had spent the whole day preparing for the dinner with Ollie. The gazebo was up and festooned with fairy lights, the huge picnic blanket spread perfectly underneath. A plethora of pillows was gathered in the corners and two timber outdoor chairs Lulu had found in the shed were now white and tucked into a tiny table at the back.

  Lulu had pottered all afternoon with nibbles and food and laying the table with linens from Lovely Little Things. A side of salmon with a basil, oregano and rosemary crust along with Hasselback potatoes were prepared and ready to go in the oven. A beautiful vintage glass jug was stuffed with cucumber, strawberries, orange slices and Pimm’s, and slices of halloumi were ready to be grilled.

  All Lulu needed now was the weather to hold and the man of her dreams to arrive.

  Lulu poured a glass of Pimm’s into an oversized stemmed glass, took a huge gulp, and looked down at her flowing back silk ruffle dress. Everything was ready to go, and not just what was going on in the gazebo. Things had been waxed, primped, plumped, and groomed and there was not an inch of her that was anything other than prepared.

  She giggled to herself at the thought of what the night might hold as the front doorbell went, Mabel barked like crazy at the anticipation of a visitor, and Lulu walked calmly to the door.

  As she opened the door she took a deep breath in. Ollie looking gorgeous in a blue shirt, jeans, and the honey skin at the fore, was standing with a bunch of flowers, a bottle of champagne, and a white gift bag over his arm.

  ‘Evening,’ Ollie said as Lulu stepped into the porch and pushed open the outer door. ‘Wow, what’s the occasion? You look amazing and you smell even better,’ Ollie said.

  Lulu smiled, clearly the anticipation of hopefully what was to come was written all over her face. ‘Ahh. Just a lovely evening, umm, under the stars and a nice supper. Nice and casual. Just as I like it.’

  ‘Oh, we’re eating under the stars, are we? How lovely. Let’s hope the rain clouds keep away,’ Ollie said as Lulu looked out the porch door and up at the sky.

  ‘Yikes. I’m not sure if we are going to be in luck. It looks like the heavens are about to open,’ Lulu replied.

  ‘Good job you’ve got an enormous kitchen for us to take cover in,’ Ollie said, as they walked through the house, past the back staircase and through to the kitchen. Ollie put the champagne and gift bag on the table as Lulu poured water into a jug for the flowers.

  ‘These are divine. That florist in the laneway is so pretty. I think I could live there.’ Lulu laughed as she finished putting the flowers into the jug, poured Ollie a glass of Pimm’s and started placing the prepared halloumi into a pan.

  ‘I’ll just do this and we’ll go and sit outside, rain-dependent.’

  Ten minutes later, with Ollie carrying the jug of Pimm’s, the burnished halloumi on a platter, and Mabel trotting along at their sides hoping for titbits, Ollie and Lulu made their way to the end of the garden.

  The sea rolled in and out in the distance, the fairy lights softly glowed lighting up the table below, and the Lovely Little Things candles amalgamated with the fresh sea air to beautifully scent the whole scene.

  ‘You’ve been busy. Have you got something to tell me?’ Ollie asked. ‘Am I going t
o be ceremoniously dumped in a gazebo with chimes ringing in my ears?’ Ollie joked.

  Lulu smiled. So, if he thinks he could be dumped he clearly thinks we are an item. Excellent.

  Ollie pulled out each of the chairs under the gazebo, Mabel sank down onto the cushions on the picnic blanket, and Lulu placed the cheese in the middle of the table. As they chatted about their weeks, the evening flowed easily from the cheese to the main course. With the salmon, potatoes, and salad going down well, they had just finished taking the plates back to the kitchen and came back down with a steamed pudding with a hot sauce, when a roll of thunder sounded from above.

  Ollie looked up at the dark sky and out to the sea in the distance. ‘Looking dodgy. How long do you think we’ve got?’ he said as Lulu served the pudding onto their plates and poured on the sauce.

  I don’t know but I hope it’s long enough...

  An hour later, the heavens had not opened and apart from a few more rolls of thunder, and some whimpers from Mabel, Ollie and Lulu sat on the blankets with coffees. With full stomachs, the jug of Pimm’s long gone, and Mabel snuggled up beside Ollie on the blanket, Lulu was nearly beside herself on what was to come. Just as Ava had advised she had made it happen and every single part of her seemed to tingle with anticipation.

  As they sat there looking down towards the boats bobbing up and down on the water, Ollie pulled the gift bag he’d had with him when he’d arrived out from under the table and passed it over to Lulu.

  ‘A gift! Ooh, thank you. What can this be?’

  ‘Just a funny little something to celebrate new starts,’ Ollie said as Lulu pulled a drawstring bag out and gasped.

  ‘No way! Are these what I think they are? They’re not in a box?’

  ‘I hope so,’ Ollie replied as Lulu untied the cords on the top of the bag to a pair of sparkling ballet flats finished with an extravagant crystal and pearl ankle strap.

  ‘How the heck did you know I’ve had my eye on these for years?’ Lulu giggled.