‘Where is everybody? We’ve barely seen a single soul since we left the hotel,’ Lottie said sipping on her coffee.
‘I know. How strange. I guess it’s not the school holidays yet and the tourists have yet to arrive.’
‘I suppose so. I thought it would be busier up here, though. It’s usually buzzing with walkers.’
Lottie strolled along beside Connor the wind in her hair and they both looked out all the way along the coast, past Seafolly Bay and over toward Newport Reef.
Connor put his hand up to shade his eyes and pointed all the way down to Newport.
‘Look at that. I never knew you could just see the old cathedral spire from up here.’
Lottie followed Connor’s gaze. ‘Oh yes. I can just about see it. I haven’t been in there for a while.’
‘I’ve never been in there at all. You’ll have to take me. Show me the sights of Newport Reef.’
‘I’d be happy to,’ Lottie replied her voice going up a notch.
I would like to do more than show you around a cathedral, can we make that clear?
Lottie and Connor continued to walk along the grassy cliff making their way to the lighthouse, the sounds of the waves crashing onto the narrow slip of sand below them. As they got to the lighthouse with not a soul around Lottie stopped and peered up.
‘I always forget how lovely it is, how white and how tall.’
Connor looked up at the glistening lighthouse and the shiny dome at the top. ‘It really is quite majestic. You just don’t get the feel for it from down in Pretty Beach.’
They walked around the lighthouse and stood leaning over the fence at the edge of the cliff, watched the sea coming in and out and a tiny fishing boat far off in the distance bobbing about on the ocean.
‘What a beautiful place to live. I’m so glad I ended up here,’ Connor said.
‘Same here and I’m counting my lucky stars that I’m going to be able to stay and to keep my house.’
‘Through your hard work you will. Where is the next event?’
‘At the bookshop.’
‘So you’ll be all ready to go next week with that, won’t you?’
‘I certainly will. Though this one will be a bit easier because we can set it all up the night before.’
‘Your friend Juliette is waitressing again, is she?’
‘Actually, she’s not. She’s on call. Her partner Luke is assisting in the kitchen and I’m waiting to hear from one of Holly’s girls to see if she can help out.’
‘I’ll do it if you like?’
‘You!’ Lottie spluttered imagining six foot two Connor in the tiny bookshop waiting on people hand and foot. He didn’t strike her as the type.
‘Don’t sound so surprised. I waited tables through my engineering degree at university and I can tell you now I was darn good at it. I used to earn a fortune in cash tips. Those were the days.’
‘Sorry. You just don’t look the type to me.’
‘I can assure you I can hold a stack of six plates on one arm, and hold a tray of drinks over my head and twirl with it too.’
Lottie started laughing. ‘Really, Mr Bally? Well, you’re on, then. Welcome to Secret Evenings in Pretty Beach. I’ll make sure you have an apron.’
They walked over towards a small group of trees and sat down leaning up against a tree trunk and looked out over the water. Lottie closed her eyes and let the sun warm her skin and felt the ocean breeze blowing back her hair.
Connor leant over as Lottie opened her eyes. He put his hand on her leg, moved forward and kissed her gently on the lips, his hand caressing her sun-warmed skin, and Lottie hooked her hand around Connor’s neck, and with the sound of the ocean in her ears, fell into the pool of shimmering gold.
Chapter 51
Lottie came in from the greenhouse on the day of the dinner with Connor and felt a flutter of excitement in her stomach, together with tiredness from the week that was and the week coming up. It had been full throttle with Secret Evenings and the renovation of the outbuildings, and it had seemed as if every second of her time was allocated to something other than herself. She’d been preparing food for her dinner round or the functions, just about keeping on top of the garden and working in the outbuildings for any remaining hours she had seven days a week.
She walked through the kitchen, up the stairs to the top floor, into her bedroom, and then into the large bathroom on the far right. The huge, old slipper bath sat right in the middle of the room, looking out through a floor-to-ceiling bay window to the sea far off in the distance. Copper taps came up and over the bath from the floorboards and three substantial vintage mirrors hung on the facing wall bouncing light from wall-to-wall. All the hard work was more than worth it to save this beautiful house she thought as she looked around.
Lottie turned on the taps on the bath, poured in a long stream of bath salts, and sat on the old bentwood chair next to the bath watching it fill up.
She glanced over at one of the antique mirrors and looked at herself. In the back of her mind, she’d not wanted to be impressed with the results after the visit to Dr Leza. She’d wanted to believe that she didn’t care that much about how she looked. Wasn’t bothered about such superficial things and much more interested in her vegetables and cooking. But the image looking back at her had changed all that. She didn’t think she’d ever see herself in Pretty Beach Beauty for anything more radical but a few hours of pampering and a little bit of time for herself had improved her self-esteem exponentially. As she leant forward, her elbow on her knee, chin in her hand, she smiled. Who would have thought? Going on a date. Going on a date with someone who had catapulted into her world one morning and changed the way she was imagining her whole future.
She continued looking at the image in front of her as the bath slowly filled up and the air filled with the scent of the bath salts. She might be looking a lot more vibrant on the outside but the last few months had started to catch up with her. The sides of her temples ached, her spine felt locked up, almost frozen, and her feet ached from standing making dinners or gardening. She’d even had enough of her vegetables and that was saying something.
Lottie climbed in the gorgeous hot, scented bath and wondered about the evening. Wondered where they were going to go for dinner. All she knew was the meeting place. Connor had said he would take care of everything else but to make sure that she had a jacket in case it got cold.
Lottie slipped under the hot water, stretched her back and closed her eyes. Her mind wandered further and further with thoughts of Connor. What would happen? What would they talk about? How would it end up? More importantly, where would they end up?
The weirdest thing about it all was that she didn’t feel any caution. On the few dates she’d been on since Charlie, she’d held back and not wanted to give much away, and certainly not get too involved. But with Connor, it was as if she’d known him in another life. Being around him was like she’d come home and Lottie wasn’t sure what that meant.
As she finished rinsing off the smoothing elixir serum Kimberly the hairdresser had passed onto her via Juliette, and wondered if it would make her hair shine as much as it said on the back of the vial, Lottie pulled out the plug on the bath and wrapped herself in a huge white towel.
Half an hour later with freshly blow-dried hair, her new white underwear in place, the pretty top, and her trusty silky, narrow-legged black trousers, Lottie had one more thing to decide. Earrings. This occasion required her favourite and hopefully luckiest earrings of all.
Lottie pulled out a box from the back of her drawer and opened it. Inside sat her three most treasured pairs of earrings. All set with twinkling diamonds, all insured, and all pieces she loved.
She ran her fingers over them and settled on her most cherished teardrop earrings covered in diamonds, and carefully fastened them to her ears. Ready to rock the world.
***
As Lottie walked down the laneway and headed towards Pretty Beach wharf to meet Connor, she fel
t her earrings dangling in her ears and butterflies in her stomach as she approached the meeting point. She opened her small black clutch bag, took out her travel card for the ferry and walked down the planks of the wharf to where she saw Connor standing leaning on the railing looking down into the water.
As she approached him he looked up, held out his arm, pulled her gently to him and kissed her on the cheek. Lottie enjoyed being doused in the gold as she kissed him back.
‘You look stunning,’ Connor said with a smile and looked at the earrings. ‘Everything about you is glittering.’
‘Thank you. So do you. So where are we off to, then?’ Lottie asked with a huge beaming smile of anticipation and waving her travel card in front of her.
‘You’ll have to wait and see, but I hope you are going to love it. I think you will.’
Lottie nodded her head. ‘I’m sure I’ll love it,’ she replied and tried, but failed, to keep her voice on an even keel, and tried to stop her mind imagining him without his shirt on, running her hands over his chest and feeling his strong arms on her back.
Lottie and Connor stepped onto the ferry and sat right up the top at the back and chatted as the old ferry meandered in and out of the beaches and along the coastline. When Connor made no move to get off in Seafolly Bay, Ladybird Cove, or Darling Beach, Lottie had decided that they must be going to Newport Reef.
‘I haven’t been on this slow ferry route for, gosh, a very long time,’ Lottie observed as the ferry horn sounded, and the diesel smell mixed with sea air swirled around them.
‘I know. It’s always quicker to just go straight through to Seafolly and Newport Reef on a limited stops service, isn’t it? But I love this one. Twice as long, but if it’s a nice day a much better ride.’
‘Yup,’ Lottie said nodding and touched her earrings as she looked out to sea.
Just as the ferry turned the corner and chugged over towards the wharf at Pearl Beach Connor got up.
‘Here we go. This is us.’
‘Pearl Beach? I haven’t been here for ages! Great. I love it here,’ Lottie remarked.
Lottie tried to think of a restaurant in Pearl Beach and couldn’t come up with anything memorable. She hadn’t been out to eat for a long time and especially not in Pearl Beach so it wasn’t as if she was knowledgeable about the Pearl Beach restaurant scene anyway.
They hopped off the ferry, gazed at the colourful fishing boats bobbing around in the harbour, and started to walk through the narrow cobbled streets. As they passed by, Lottie looked up at the Victorian clock tower lit up with spotlights.
‘I had forgotten how lovely it is here. I used to bring the boys here for day trips when they were little. There’s a really good playpark just over there behind the bandstand. That brings back memories.’ Lottie smiled.
‘We’re headed right that way.’
‘Ahh! I’ve got you! Yes I know, there’s that lovely old pub down there by the canal.’
Connor smiled and Lottie decided to throw caution to the wind and put her arm through his. The gold seeped into her arm. She loved being beside him, walking along as if they were an item. It felt both amazing and strangely odd at the same time. It had been so very long since she’d been part of anyone else.
An item? Get a grip. You’ve not even been out on the first date yet, girlfriend.
Lottie and Connor walked all the way through the coach light lined town, over the beautiful park, past a couple of pubs brimming with people out for a drink and then down a small alleyway until they reached Pearl Beach Canal.
The canal was buzzing with people walking along the towpath, pretty little colourful canal boats tied up to the sides were lit up with lights and doused in flowerpots brimming with colour.
Lottie looked at the cosy pub with curved windows tucked behind the pavement on the other side of the canal. She peered at the lock further down on the right with the footpath running across the top and presumed they were heading to the pub restaurant via the lock.
Connor, after stopping and looking all the way down the canal turned left instead of right and started to walk down the towpath.
‘Oh, I assumed we were going to the pub over there,’ Lottie said pointing to the little pub opposite.
‘Nope. We’re not, but keep guessing.’ Connor chuckled.
‘I’ve no idea now. That was my last guess! As far as I know there’s nothing down this way for a while,’ Lottie said trailing off as they followed along behind a couple with a pram and an old dog.
Lottie fell into step beside Connor as the canal path narrowed and the trees overhead curled towards each other and a soft breeze blew Lottie’s hair around her head.
Lines of neatly parked canal boats stood beside the path and Lottie pointed out the ones she loved and the ones with the best floral displays with no idea where they were going to end up. She hoped it was soon because she’d been busy all day and was ready to eat. But with no sign of a restaurant or pub coming up she assumed that they were walking to the next pub which she’d already worked out was a good twenty minute walk away.
A beautiful black canal boat covered in lights tucked next to a huge willow tree came into view as they turned a corner.
‘That one is beautiful! Oh, to ride along on a canal boat like that! I’ve always fancied it. I always wanted to take the boys on a canal holiday, but never did get to it!’ Lottie exclaimed as she looked at the pretty boat in front of them which sat there drowning in pots full of flowers and lights strung across the top.
‘I’m glad you like it. Because that’s where we’re going for dinner. A twilight canal trip and then dinner for two.’
‘What? Wow! This is amazing. I didn’t even know about this boat. And here I was thinking we would be going to a pub.’
‘Yeah, Lottie. You are way too special for a pub as our first date. There has been a lot of deliberation about this and I needed to be at the top of my game.’
Lottie beamed, pursed her lips together, and thanked the heavens and anyone else who happened to be listening that she’d shaved her legs, seen to her lady parts, and was wearing her new underwear.
‘I hope you’re ready for a little trip down through the canal.’
‘Absolutely. This is delightful. Thank you,’ Lottie said clapping her hands together as they got to the front of the boat.
Lottie and Connor were greeted by a man with a huge white beard and possibly even bigger tummy wearing a navy-blue and white striped apron and was accompanied by Janey his wife, also in a striped apron, who was as skinny as he was rotund.
‘Good evening, people. Freddie Porter here and the wife Janey. Delighted to meet you both!’ the man bellowed from the deck of the canal boat.
Lottie smiled, they all shook hands and Connor helped Lottie to carefully step onto the canal boat where she saw a tiny little black table sat at the very back set with pretty china and a vase of flowers. Sitting on every available surface tiny little tea lights glittered in old washed out jam jars.
‘Drinks?’ Freddie boomed and pointed to a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket perched on a shelf on the right.
Lottie was astounded by the beautiful canal boat covered in shimmering lights, the huge man who looked as if he could possibly capsize the whole shebang in one go and the skinny woman who was skipping around behind him.
‘Yes, please. I’d love a glass of bubbles,’ Lottie replied.
‘And what about you, Sir? A gin and tonic? A beer? Or bubbles for you both?’ Freddie roared at Connor.
Lottie saw Connor stifling a chuckle at the whole scene including Freddie’s bellowing and whispered to Lottie, ‘This is hilarious. I booked us in for dinner for two with a ride along the canal. I wasn’t expecting a larger than life comedy show too.’
‘He’s priceless,’ Lottie whispered back as she watched Freddie untying a rope from the side of the canal and then grabbing the champagne bottle and slowly pouring the champagne into two chilled flutes.
‘Rightio, you two. Here are your dri
nks. Now, I’ll get you to sit down the back there and we’ll get going,’ Freddie informed them. ‘Hold on to your hats!’
Lottie and Connor did exactly what they were told and ten minutes later they were watching the world go by alongside the canal. Almost by magic, the sun began to make its final dip down and the whole sky turned into a wonderful heady mix of dark pinks and burnt oranges. Beautiful crimsons and purples swept in and out of view above them as Connor tipped Lottie’s glass and the whole canal and canal boat were engulfed in a pink-orange glow.
‘Cheers, Lottie. I’m very glad I met you.’
Lottie heard her voice go up. ‘Same here, Connor.’
‘Even though I did think at the time that you were a teeny bit odd with the asparagus stroking,’ Connor joked. ‘First time I’ve had a woman show me how to stroke an asparagus.’
‘You’re not wrong, it was a bit odd. I always tell my boys though - it’s always good to be a bit different.’ Lottie giggled and took a huge swig of her champagne.
‘You know what? I think you might just be correct,’ Connor replied and did the same with his drink.
As Janey pottered around and placed a board with a beautiful ripe brie and caramelized plums on the little table in front of them, Lottie sliced off a piece of cheese and topped it with the plum and popped it into her mouth. Her mouth exploded with the fabulous combination.
‘Goodness. This is outstanding. I’m going to need the recipe for this plum concoction. It’s out of this world.’
Connor did exactly the same and leant over to Lottie. ‘Oh wow, yes it is. Apparently they make everything themselves. It was one of the things that swung it for me. I thought that they might meet your high standards.’
‘It shows. I’m taking notes.’ Lottie laughed as the boat slowly drifted down the narrow canal and the burnt orange sun began to fall away in front of them.
As Lottie sipped slowly on the bubbles and they watched the lights dancing on the water, she started to feel her whole body unwind and her brain decompress. It felt amazing to be sitting on the canal boat with Connor watching the world go by. Like a regular woman who was part of the real world. Not the Lottie who always said no to going out and spent weeks talking to her plants. She breathed a huge sigh out and looked up at the colours in the sky.
Secret Evenings in Pretty Beach Page 20
