‘Oh dear, I see. So how long was it under the mat do you think?’
‘Yikes, it’s like nearly two weeks. From the way the card was written, he obviously put it under the door the day after Sallie’s gathering.’
‘So there’s been no contact at all?’
‘Well, no. I only read the card this morning.’
‘Cripes. You’d better get onto that then, as soon as this is finished,’ Juliette said gesturing around to the now beautifully dressed tables.
‘Yes, I must. But I don’t really know what to say.’
‘I’m sure you’ll think of something.’
‘I’m sure I will.’
‘Oh my goodness, Lottie! This is just so very exciting. Wait until the Pretty Beach grapevine gets hold of this!’
‘I’m hoping that it won’t.’
‘Ha! We all know there is absolutely zero chance of that.’
***
Once Dimitri, Juliette, and Lottie had worked their way down the rest of the list, the tables were all ready and looking beautiful and the food stations prepped and ready to go. Juliette went home to get ready for the evening and Lottie and Dimitri went back to Strawberry Hill to shower and change.
Lottie walked into the kitchen and stood against the Aga waiting for the kettle to boil. She took a deep breath in. They had come a long way since they’d decided on a whim to start a pop-up restaurant. But now the day was here, she was anxious at how well it was going to go and tired of organising and attempting to preempt what might go wrong.
When they’d first gone through the idea it had all seemed like a bit of a pipe dream, an idea that someone else did somewhere in a newspaper article online. But here she was with a nearly full event and booking for the next ones well and truly on the way too.
What had started with a list on a notepad was now three venues, six booked events, their own location down at the end of the garden in the outbuildings, a logo, a website, a uniform, social media pages, and a lot of interest and enquiries.
Lottie scrolled through the photos she’d taken of the Boat House cottage all beautifully styled inside and the gorgeous images from outside that were going straight up on the website as soon as they had time and seeing how lovely everything looked felt rewarded for all the hard work she and Dimitri had put in.
In the photos and short video she’d filmed the old tin roof of the Boat House cottage glinted in the sunshine and was topped off with white stepping stones up to the door. The two Adirondack chairs at the front welcomed you in as they looked out to sea and Lottie had stuffed the basket of the vintage bike which was propped up on the porch full with flowers from her garden. The whole scene looked just as she had wanted: an exquisite, secret evening in Pretty Beach. Now all they had to do was keep all the guests happy and make everything happen on time. And all potentially in a heavy downpour of rain.
As Lottie picked up her tea, sat down and put her feet up on the chair beside her the white envelope from that morning caught her eye.
And then, of course, there was that too. That would have to wait until the first Secret Evening was over.
Chapter 38
Lottie and Dimitri had arrived back at the Boat House and as they were going back to the car for the last bits for the fridge, saw Juliette and Luke riding along on their bikes also in the white linen shirts and chinos.
‘Ahh, good timing,’ Lottie said as Juliette and Luke parked their bikes at the back of the little shed next door to the cottage. ‘We’ll go through the list and I’ll get you a few bubbles to start you off.’
Luke, Juliette’s partner chuckled. ‘I might be passing on the bubbles. I’m a bit concerned if I have a few glasses someone might be wearing their dinner on their lap.’
Lottie giggled. ‘Don’t say that. It’s not on Dimitri’s plan. Anyway, you’re in the kitchen with me most of the time. So, you’ll need to pop one of these on,’ Lottie said, taking one of the aprons from her basket and handing it to Luke.
Juliette and Luke followed Lottie through the tiny entrance hallway and Luke stopped right in the middle of the sitting room. ‘Wow! I must say I had my reservations when Juliette was telling me about all this. I just couldn’t envisage it. A pop-up at-home restaurant in a tiny little cottage. But my word, you have done a great job,’ Luke said as he looked at the long trestle table with the overspilling jugs of flowers and the small cafe tables dotted around everywhere else.
‘I know, I did tell you it looked amazing, Luke. It’s sort of cosy and elegant at the same time. And I love the whole cloak-and-dagger aura of it. Oh, and of course the view certainly helps,’ Juliette said peering out the window at the sea in the distance. ‘Gosh, those clouds are starting to roll in, though. Fingers crossed they blow straight on over. I did see it was going to pour down all evening and clear up as quickly as it came.’
‘It really is a very nice setting. Once those fairy lights are on and the wine is flowing this is going to take off,’ Luke said as he popped the apron over his head.
‘Ha! Look at you sounding like a stylist,’ Juliette replied with a chuckle.
‘Right. So I’m on kitchen duty. That’s good. What’s on the menu?’ Luke asked.
Lottie had kept the menu for the supper very simple. Easy for her and uncomplicated for someone who could cook with their eyes shut, but not sounding any of those things to anyone else. Lottie started to explain it all to Luke and what they had to do in the kitchen.
A simple first course consisting of Lottie’s much perfected savoury shortbread with the tomato confit was to be plated up and served to each guest. Roasted chickpea and Italian herb soup to follow would also be served individually. Then each table had sharing parcels of fish, with leeks, Lottie’s exquisite homemade herb butter, and potatoes. The macaroons were to follow, then homemade truffles, tea, coffee, and fresh mint tea. Lottie had thought about everything for ease of serving at the same time as being delicious and was keeping her fingers crossed that it would all go off without a hitch.
Luke read down the menu. ‘These fish parcels sound delicious. A parcel of Pretty Beach freshly caught fish from local waters doused with oil and homegrown herbs. My mouth is watering already.’
Juliette, fiddling with the tie on her apron, popped her tortoiseshell glasses on and ran her finger down the menu. ‘Yum. Freshly baked bread with olives. My favourite. By the way, will there be your famous elderflower wine?’
‘There won’t. Unfortunately, the insurance doesn’t cover alcohol - it’s bring your own. But next time I’m going to offer elderflower cordial, and I haven’t asked you yet, but in the summer I was going to see if you wouldn't mind me using your lemonade recipe?’
‘Of course.’ Juliette clapped her hands together. ‘This really is exciting! Well done Lottie. It’s brill. It’s going to be an amazing evening.’
***
Just as the first few guests had started to arrive, and Lottie and Luke had plated the first course of the shortbread and added little mason jars filled with tomato confit, the heavens opened and rain began to pour down outside. Lottie closed the windows as rain pelted against the glass and covered the windowsill in water.
With the kitchen door firmly shut and Dimitri and Juliette out the front welcoming the guests in from the rain, Luke and Lottie watched Dimitri quickly shuttling people back and forth from the driveway to the cottage under the shelter of a huge black golfing umbrella. First part of the contingency plan in place. Dimitri had already pre-empted people getting wet across the driveway and it potentially pouring with rain, and had big umbrellas at the ready.
Lottie and Luke watched out the window as Holly’s huge black Porsche slowly pulled up by the stream at the far end of the driveway. Dimitri ran over to the car and walked Holly and Xian over towards the cottage under cover of the umbrella. Lottie smiled as she watched Xian take a quick swig from her hip flask and Holly, who was positively glittering in a gold sequin full-length skirt and a huge diamond clasp in her hair, laughed as she tottered o
ver the pebbles.
‘Xian’s already on her Special Drinks,’ Luke said grinning. ‘And by the looks of those bottles of champagne, I think this is going to get interesting.’
‘Luke, I think you’re right. This is going to get amusing if all those bottles of champagne get opened,’ Lottie said as she checked on the string on the fish parcels and Luke tidied the shortbread storage boxes back into the big plastic tubs.
***
Three hours later, one very successful fish course, a misunderstanding with a couple who had forgotten to inform Lottie they were vegetarian and had Lottie racing out to buy red peppers, many bottles of bubbles later, and the evening was drawing to a close.
Lottie had emerged from the kitchen with the handmade truffles to a round of applause from eighteen very happy, full customers. Xian, who had consumed rather a few flasks of her drink, stood up, made a toast to Secret Evenings, and said that the fish was the best she had ever had, whereupon Holly had jumped up too and said that she had better watch out because Lottie’s bread was better than hers. Everyone had clapped and collapsed laughing when Holly had gone to sit back down and very nearly missed her chair.
Luke had outdone himself in prepping and cleaning, and they’d all laughed and joked that his hospital training also worked in the back of a very tiny kitchen down by the sea.
Once most of the guests had gone home with Dimitri walking them back to their cars with the rain still lashing down, Juliette and Luke sat with Holly and Xian as Dimitri and Lottie continued to fold up tablecloths and empty the vases.
‘What a fabulous evening!’ Holly exclaimed. ‘It really was amazing. Just like it sounded on the poster - a little secret, very exclusive event. An event that did not disappoint.’
Juliette nodded. ‘I loved it when everyone started to chat on the big trestle table and they were all over the moon with the food. Who would have thought a simple shortbread biscuit could generate so much conversation?’
‘Yes. It was great and I think we need a Pretty Beach bakery version of that savoury shortbread,’ Holly stated and chuckled as she put on her coat, helped Xian up and picked up her bag. As Holly and Xian headed for the door Juliette and Luke took off their aprons and said goodbye going in the direction of their bikes by the shed.
‘How are you going to get home, then?’ Dimitri asked Holly as they stood on the porch. ‘You’re leaving your car here overnight, are you?’
‘I am. I asked Sallie if it would be ok. Rory’s going to come and get us.’
‘Why don’t you go home with them too, Dimitri? We’re all done here. Everything is in the boxes and in the car. The dishwasher is empty and thanks to Luke the kitchen is clean. All the other dirty stuff is rinsed and stacked in the boxes for when I get home,’ Lottie said.
Dimitri looked back at Lottie. ‘You’ll finish up here on your own?’
‘Yep and then after that, I would love a breath of fresh air. Now the rain has finally stopped I think I’ll sit out there on the chairs looking out to sea for a bit. I need to wind down from the stresses of the kitchen. I’ll be fine. There are loads of people around.’
‘If you’re sure you’ll be okay?’
‘Sure. It’s not too late. You go home with Rory. You look exhausted. I’ll see you at home.’
Lottie finished putting the final bits and pieces into her car and took off her apron. The whole thing had been a raging success apart from the problem with the vegetarians and a group of three who had turned up and missed the first course because they had got off the bus over near Seashells Cottages rather than at the end of the laneway.
Lottie made herself a small mug of peppermint tea, put on her jacket, and went and sat outside in the fresh, night air watching the lights on the water and the seaplanes bobbing up and down, sipping on the tea, and trying to let the buzz from the evening slowly fade away and her brain calm down.
She scrolled through her phone looking at social media and her notifications. There were already a few tags on Facebook where people had posted pictures of the food and an image of the dressed tables on Instagram. A comment from one of the guests on Twitter noted what a fabulous time the evening had been, and a review had already been posted saying it was better than any fancy restaurant hands down.
Lottie smiled to herself, got up from the chair, washed up the mug, and put it back in the cupboard, made sure the cottage was locked, and headed towards her car.
As she was walking towards the car, she suddenly realised her purse wasn’t in her bag next to her makeup bag. Her purse with her car keys in it was in the basket that she’d asked Dimitri to take home.
You’ve got to be kidding me? I’m going to have to walk home after that. Ahhh.
As Lottie kicked the side of the front tyre in frustration, her phone dropped to the ground, her credit cards together with pictures of her boys showered all over the floor, and the phone landed right under the car in the soggy ground.
Lottie crouched down and started to pick up the cards and photos and then peered under the car. The phone was slap bang in the middle and not easy to reach. She would need to crawl commando-style underneath to retrieve it, then she would either have to call Dimitri and get him to come back down or walk home.
Lottie laid on the muddy gravel road and swore. The white shirt which had not had a single thing spilt on it during the whole evening of cooking now draped into the soggy earth.
‘Really? This is a joke. Someone up there is having a laugh with me,’ she said out loud as she crawled under the car, feeling her linen shirt slide on the mud and then stick to her body.
She picked up the phone and slowly reverse crawled her way back out muttering and swearing to herself. Finally emerging from under the car, she looked down at the shirt. A huge line of mud ran all the way down the middle smearing the beautiful white linen with a wide brown smear. As she tried to brush off the shirt she heard a voice.
‘Hello, again!’
Lottie nearly jumped out of her skin with only the light from the streetlights as she sat on the ground and a figure appeared from the dark in front of her.
‘Crikey, you frightened the life out of me!’ Lottie said looking up into the eyes of Connor Bally.
‘Sorry about that. Only I didn’t expect to see a very small woman in a white shirt emerging backwards from under a car in the mud. Although I think from what I’ve seen so far, you do have a habit of crawling around on the floor so I shouldn’t be surprised. Bit odd though at this time of night, in the dark and all the way down here on your own,’ Connor said with a smile.
Lottie smoothed down her mud-stained shirt and for a long moment, she couldn’t think of anything to reply. It was as if her mouth had stopped working as she looked up at him. All she could do was gaze at him and drink him in. The eyes, the jaw, the wide shoulders, the strong ripple of the biceps. Finally, she brought herself back to the moment.
‘Very funny. Actually, I dropped my phone under the car. And the keys to my car are not here... they are at home,’ Lottie replied and let out a massive sigh. The stress of the evening, the strain of the past few years and her aching back getting the better of her. She felt a prick of tears in the back of her eyes and she sighed again.
Connor stepped forward and touched her on the arm. ‘You look in a sorry way. Come on. I’m on my way to the workshop. My car is parked down there. I’ve been to Pretty Beach Fish and Chips for the evening. Come in with me for a bit and join me for a drink if you like? Then I’ll take you home to get your keys.’
If I like? Join you for a drink? Is the sky blue? Am I female?
Lottie looked down at her shirt and self-consciously touched the back of her hair. She probably looked terrible from the heat of the kitchen and she was sure she stank of baked fish too.
Nice Lottie. Really nice. You’re covered in mud and you smell of fish and this delightful specimen in front of you not only looks like he just stepped out of an aftershave advert from Italy he also smells like it too. Oh and then there’s the
watch and the arm and the....
Lottie heard her voice go up a level. Or six. ‘That would be very nice of you Connor. I could do with a drink.’
Chapter 39
Lottie strolled along beside Connor in the moonlight, her heart going ninety to the dozen. As they got to his workshop, he opened the door and led her through a nondescript room laid out like a classroom, through a small anteroom with a bank of extremely serious-looking computers, along a corridor where they passed a room storing a line of black oxygen tanks and diving equipment, until they finally got to a small kitchen at the back with shiny, black subway tiles and a sizeable sink with black taps.
‘Ooh. Very fancy,’ Lottie said with a giggle.
‘Right. What can I get you? A tea, coffee, or something stronger? I’ve a whole beer fridge in there filled with all sorts to tickle your fancy,’ Connor said, pointing to a small alcove with another fridge and a black washing machine and tumble dryer stacked on top of each other.
Tickle my fancy? You’re not wrong there, Mr Bally.
‘It’s all very high tech in here,’ Lottie said as she looked around and then peered out the window down towards the sea. ‘Wow, it looks so beautiful out there now all the clouds have gone. What a glorious night it’s turned out to be. Shame it wasn’t like this earlier. The rain drenched the whole place.’
‘Yep. It has. That rain really did pour down. Right. What shall I get you? I have lots to offer.’
Mr Bally. You absolutely have oh-so-much to offer.
‘I would kill for a coffee. If you don’t mind making me one with that incredible looking machine,’ Lottie said, looking at a shiny, black Smeg coffee machine on the side.
‘Not a problem. Froth on top for a girl often found crawling around on her knees and sometimes stroking vegetables in the dark?’ Connor asked laughing as he turned on the machine.
‘Works for me, Connor. I like a bit of froth on top, actually.’ Lottie giggled.
Or you on top would be nice. Just saying.
Secret Evenings in Pretty Beach Page 14
