Sunlight over Crystal Sands: A gorgeous uplifting romantic comedy perfect to escape with this summer

by Holly Martin

  Lyra groaned. ‘Why would you do that?’

  Her sister shrugged. ‘We’re a team, we always have each other’s back.’

  Michelle answered the call and waved at Frankie. Lyra held up her hand to say hi just as Ethan joined the call.

  ‘Wow, Lyra, you look like shit,’ Ethan teased.

  Before she could respond, Kitty and Max suddenly joined the conversation.

  ‘Oh good, we’re all here,’ Lyra said, dryly.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Frankie said, getting straight to the point.

  ‘Nothing, just a misunderstanding,’ Lyra said, wanting to downplay it. She didn’t want them to think she was like their mum, jumping into bed with someone she’d just met, even though that was exactly what she’d done.

  Michelle was having none of it though. ‘Long story short, Lyra met someone last night, fell in love with him, he lured her into his camper van where she spent the night having amazing sex, and then, when she got up the next morning and went for a swim in the lake, the guy did a runner.’

  There were various cries of outrage on Lyra’s behalf.

  ‘I think lured is a bit of an exaggeration. It’s not like he tricked me into bed, I went willingly,’ Lyra said. Though she couldn’t deny the rest of that summary was true, although it made her sound so naïve.

  ‘I don’t think you’ll find your soul mate by jumping into bed with someone you’ve just met,’ Frankie said.

  Frankie had been best friends with her current boyfriend for two years before they’d finally got together. She was a big advocate of getting to know someone inside and out before even considering them for a relationship.

  ‘That’s bollocks,’ Max said. ‘Me and Zara slept with each other the first night we met, and we’ve been together six years now.’

  ‘Me and Jen were the same,’ Kitty said. ‘Sometimes you just have an undeniable connection with someone and you just know they’re your forever.’

  Lyra smiled. She loved listening to Kitty talk about her wife – she was so completely in love with her.

  ‘No judgement here,’ Ethan said. ‘We’ve all had one-night stands.’

  ‘I haven’t,’ Frankie said.

  ‘Me neither,’ Michelle said.

  And until the night before, Lyra could have said that she hadn’t either. What had it been about Nix that had pulled down all her inhibitions so quickly?

  ‘So anyway,’ Kitty said. ‘This guy just left you, standing in the middle of the field?’

  Lyra nodded and felt the tears smart her eyes again. She took a swig of her tea as a diversion. Nix had said he could trust her and she had and then he’d run away.

  ‘What a scumbag,’ Frankie said.

  ‘Exactly,’ Michelle said.

  ‘I think this comes down to your trust issues,’ Max said. ‘I think you’re subconsciously choosing crappy men because you don’t want a proper relationship for fear of being let down and hurt.’

  ‘I think if Lyra thought he was special enough to go to bed with, then he must have been something extraordinary,’ Ethan said.

  Lyra smiled with love for her little brother. He had a way of seeing things that her other siblings didn’t. He had a real sensitive side.

  ‘What was the sex like?’ Kitty asked without a hint of embarrassment.

  They all had a very open relationship with each other but Lyra still wasn’t comfortable talking to her siblings about stuff like this. Kitty was a counsellor and mostly dealt with couples’ therapy. Part of that involved openly talking about sex, which helped explain why she had no scruples about bringing this up in front of her siblings.

  Lyra cleared her throat. ‘The best I’ve ever had.’

  ‘I’m not sure I want to hear details about my sister’s sex life,’ Max said.

  ‘Don’t be such a prude,’ Kitty said. ‘The point is, sex is almost never great the first time a couple get together. I mean, sure it can be satisfying and nice, but it’s almost never the most amazing sex of your life. That kind of sex only happens when you truly know the person. For you to feel that kind of connection, I guarantee he felt it too. Something else is going on here.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Lyra said.

  ‘You don’t walk away from something like that easily. My guess is that he freaked out over finding something so special. Maybe he hasn’t been in a relationship for a while for one reason or another, and then got scared when he fell in love with you after only one night.’

  ‘That’s what I said,’ Lyra said, almost triumphant that someone else shared that view. ‘Well, the freaking-out part, not the falling-in-love bit.’

  ‘I think the guy is just a git,’ Michelle said.

  ‘We talked about so much, really personal stuff, and he listened to everything I said. He was so patient and kind.’

  ‘What’s his name? Maybe we can stalk him online,’ Frankie said.

  ‘Good idea,’ Max said.

  ‘I’m not stalking him.’

  ‘If you find him, you can ask him what happened,’ Ethan said. ‘I bet your ass he’s regretting running away right about now.’

  ‘I’m not chasing after him. Don’t you think that’s a bit creepy?’

  ‘What if he has a wife and three kids?’ Frankie said. ‘At least if you find out he’s a dick, you can put your feelings to bed rather than raising him up on this pedestal.’

  ‘If you give me his name, I know someone who can get his address for me,’ Max said.

  ‘And do what, go round and beat him up?’ Lyra said in exasperation.

  ‘Tempting. Fortunately for him, I live over ten thousand miles away. I’m just saying, you could go round and—’

  ‘No. I’m not stalking him or turning up at his house. It is what it is, I made a mistake, saw something that wasn’t there. It’s not his fault I saw marriage and a happy ever after. It was a one-night stand for him. So we’ll just draw a line under it and move on.’

  Lyra’s siblings were silent for a moment.

  ‘OK, OK, we love you, that’s all,’ Kitty said. ‘Like Grandad used to say, “What’s meant for you won’t pass by you.” If this is the real thing, love will find a way.’

  ‘I think I just threw up a little,’ Frankie said.

  ‘Shut your face,’ Kitty said and Frankie laughed, not remotely offended.

  ‘Look,’ Frankie said. ‘I think it’s good you found out now that he was that kind of man, rather than in three months’ times when you’d already picked out the wedding dress.’

  ‘That’s true,’ Lyra said, glumly. It would be a lot harder to get over Nix if she’d had all his loveliness for several months.

  ‘I still think he’ll look back on this morning and regret it for the rest of his life,’ Ethan said.

  ‘I still think if you liked him that much, he’s worth finding,’ Max said. ‘And if it turns out he’s still an asshole then at least we know where to send the heavies.’

  Lyra smiled with love for her family. ‘Well, thank you all for your wonderful pearls of wisdom. I’m going to go and drown my sorrows in Michelle’s cakes and we all know that will make everything better.’

  She held up one of the delicious brownies and her siblings all moaned in protest before she pressed the button to end the call. They would all probably continue talking about her now she was gone, but she didn’t care.

  She took a bite of the brownie and moaned appreciatively. ‘These are amazing, you should definitely think about selling them.’

  Michelle arched an eyebrow. ‘Don’t think I’ll let you change the subject that easily. You can’t hide away from love for the rest of your life.’

  ‘I know, but let me change the subject for now, this is all too depressing,’ Lyra said. ‘How’s the house getting on?’

  Michelle nodded and then smiled. ‘Slowly. I love my husband but decorating is not his best quality. It’s not mine either so I can’t complain. We’re bumbling along. We might be finished by Christmas. When are you moving into yours?’<
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  ‘Day after tomorrow, first of July. I can’t wait to get all my stuff in and make it mine. Everything is sitting in the back of my car at the moment outside the hotel. There’s a lot of unpacking.’

  ‘And then you start at your new job on Monday?’

  ‘Tuesday actually. Clover, my new boss, isn’t there on Monday and she wanted to be there for my first day so she asked me to start on Tuesday instead.’

  ‘That only gives you the weekend and Monday to get your new house sorted.’

  Lyra smiled. The house would definitely be sorted before Tuesday, she would make sure of that.

  Then Tuesday would be a fresh start. New job, new home, new beginnings. Definitely no men.

  Chapter Seven

  Lyra walked into the Sapphire Bay Hotel on Tuesday morning with a spring in her step and a smile on her face. It was a gorgeous sunshiny day and she couldn’t wait to start work as a co-ordinator on the events team – so much so, she’d turned up at work twenty minutes early.

  She’d spent the weekend cleaning, unpacking and making her little cottage into a home. Sunlight, her cottage, had the most spectacular view over Crystal Sands, a tiny cove with turquoise waters and white sands. She’d even seen seals playing around in the water the night before.

  The cottage wasn’t in the main village, something she hadn’t noticed when she had taken a virtual tour online. But, sucked in by the incredible view, she’d put a deposit down and paid two months’ rent before she realised that it was in a secluded spot on the opposite side of the island. But actually, she quite liked that. It was peaceful, quiet. And the village and hotel were only a fifteen-minute walk away and she enjoyed a nice walk or a cycle so it wasn’t really a problem. She felt almost sorry for her little car that was parked outside the cottage, it didn’t look like she’d be needing it any time soon.

  The cottage was a little too close to Crystal Stream and Nix’s beavers for her liking, but she guessed he wouldn’t be there that often to check on George and his family and, if he was, he had no reason to come to her cottage. Hopefully, she could largely avoid him.

  She pushed thoughts of Nix away. She was looking forward to starting her new job. Event planning was something she’d done in various different jobs for the last few years, organising parties and weddings down to the finest detail was completely up her street. She was also looking forward to working with Clover and her sisters Skye and Aria. She liked the fact that it was a family-run hotel; family was important to Lyra and she appreciated that it was obviously important to the three sisters too.

  Lyra waved at Clover Philips, who was leaning on the reception desk. Clover was the current conference and banqueting manager at the hotel and due to go off on maternity leave in five or six months. Lyra hoped that Clover and Aria, the hotel manager, would be impressed enough with her work to promote her to that role, even if it was only while Clover was off.

  ‘Lyra, hi.’ Clover came over, showing the tiniest baby bump. She was wearing leggings and a t-shirt, which wasn’t what you’d expect to see a conference manager wearing, although Lyra knew that Clover was also the hotel’s dance teacher, offering classes to the guests and the islanders. It was a weird job arrangement but Lyra guessed it came with the territory of a family-run hotel.

  ‘Hi Clover, it’s good to see you again.’

  ‘You too! I’m excited to be working with you. You’re early, I wasn’t expecting you until ten. I’ve just had a dance class, so I was going to have a quick shower.’

  ‘Oh please do. Don’t worry about me, I’m just keen to start. I can have a wander round the hotel, get my bearings.’

  ‘Oh come in and have a little chat for a few minutes, then I’ll arrange for you to have a tour while I have a shower.’ Clover walked into her office and Lyra followed her.

  There was a dark-haired man in there, tapping away on his laptop.

  ‘Angel, this is Lyra, my new events co-ordinator. Lyra, this is my husband, Angel; he’s also our marketing manager,’ Clover said.

  Angel stood up and offered out his hand. He had eyes that held permanent amusement and Lyra liked him immediately.

  ‘Good to meet you, Lyra. I’ll get out of your way so you two can talk.’

  ‘Oh, don’t leave on my account.’

  ‘It’s fine, I’m happy to work anywhere and this office is small enough when it’s just me and Clover, without adding more people to the mix. I’ll be in the lobby.’

  Angel picked up his laptop, flashed Lyra a warm smile and left.

  ‘Your office is across the other side of the reception,’ Clover said as she sat down behind the desk. ‘I’ll take you there in a few minutes. As we are employing more staff, we ripped out one of the downstairs bedrooms and converted it into an office. It’s lovely in there, you even have sea views. I was tempted to take that office myself and let you have this one, but Angel is right, there’s not really enough room for two of you in here.’

  Lyra sat down. ‘Two of us?’

  ‘Oh yes, there’s two conference and banqueting co-ordinators, so we have two desks in the new office. It’s quite big though, plenty of room to spread out. You’re both starting today so I’ll give you both the tour in a minute. The conference and banqueting side of the hotel is still relatively new. We’ve only been holding events here for the last nine or ten months. We have several weddings booked for this year and a few other events too, but I haven’t really given over as much time as it needs to develop that side of things. So we’d like you both to oversee the organisation and smooth running of the events that have already been booked, but also to try to secure more events for us in the future. We can talk more about that later. Angel has some ideas for marketing and you two can work with him to try to put us on the map.’

  Lyra nodded. There were wedding fayres they could attend, where there would be photographers and florists for the new couples to choose from, as well as locations to have their weddings. If they could get a stand at one of them that could help, especially if they could show photos or videos of weddings that had already been held at the hotel. She dug around in her bag and found her notebook and pen, jotting down a few notes about looking into wedding fayres. Advertising would be key; she’d have a chat with Angel about different things they could do.

  Just then there was a knock on the door and there was a lady who Lyra recognised as one of the receptionists that had been there on the day of her interview. She couldn’t remember her name though.

  ‘Hello Tilly,’ Clover said.

  Tilly, that was it.

  ‘Hey, your new co-ordinator is here.’

  ‘Wonderful, show him in,’ Clover said, standing up.

  Lyra stood up too to greet her new colleague, hoping he or she would be lovely and they could work well together. But all those hopes were immediately dashed as she saw that the man being shown into the office was Nix.

  Nix swore under his breath at the sight of Lyra standing in the office. The first woman he’d slept with in over three years, the woman he’d been unable to forget since that incredible night.

  And suddenly he realised where he’d met her before. She’d been dressed in a suit, her beautiful red, wavy hair pulled neatly back in a bun, just like the first time they’d met, the day of his interview six weeks before. They’d sat together as they’d waited for their interview. He’d said a few words to her but she’d been too nervous and distracted to engage with him properly and he hadn’t exactly been on top form himself. He hadn’t recognised her when they’d met the week before because she had been dressed completely differently, her red hair loose as she sailed past him on the bike, a pretty turquoise dress instead of this very dull suit. Lyra probably hadn’t recognised him for the same reason, plus he’d also been wearing his glasses in the interview.

  And now she was here, staring at him in horror. Life was spectacularly unfair sometimes. He’d been looking forward to this job and now he’d have to see her every day.

  ‘Nix, lovely to see you agai
n,’ Clover said, holding out a hand.

  He turned his attention to his boss and shook her hand, hoping he could somehow block out Lyra, although that wasn’t likely.

  ‘Lyra Thomas, this is Nix Sanchez, your new partner in conference and banqueting.’

  Lyra didn’t make a move; she didn’t even break a smile. It was quite clear that she was about as thrilled to see him as he was to see her. She’d said before that she’d been hiding from her past; it had well and truly caught up with her now.

  He was going to have to be professional about this. But should he admit that he knew her? He could hardly say that the last time he’d seen her, she’d been in his bed, her red hair splayed across his pillow, as he’d made love to her.

  Christ, he rubbed his eyes to get rid of that image.

  Nix cleared his throat and forced a smile on his face. ‘Nice to meet you.’

  Lyra’s eyes widened in surprise.

  ‘Hello,’ she muttered, before looking away and sitting back down again.

  ‘Well, I might as well give you the tour myself and then I’ll show you your office,’ Clover said.

  Of course he’d be sharing an office with her. Fate wasn’t just going to rain on his parade, there was going to be thunder and lightning too.

  ‘Sounds great,’ Nix said.

  Lyra, it seemed, had lost the power of speech altogether as she grabbed her bag and shoved her notebook and pen back inside.

  Clover didn’t seem to notice anything was amiss as she moved out of the office, and Nix and Lyra reluctantly followed her.

  He chanced another look at her as they walked side by side across the reception, trying to listen to Clover as she talked about using the reception area for welcome drinks for various events.

  Lyra appeared to be distraught at seeing him again. She honestly looked like she was going to cry and he just didn’t know what to do with that. She was probably embarrassed while he felt… confused.

  They would have to clear the air at some point, especially if they were going to be working together. But right now, he didn’t want to talk to her at all. He had no idea what he could say to her.