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

by Holly Martin

  ‘My brother’s been involved in a motorbike accident,’ Lyra said, as she quickly dialled Michelle’s number.

  ‘Oh my god, is he OK?’ Nix said.

  ‘I don’t know, they called me yesterday morning and my phone was here.’

  She put the call on loudspeaker so Nix could hear. The phone rang a few times and then Michelle answered. ‘Where the hell have you been?’

  ‘I’m sorry, I went away for the weekend and I forgot my phone.’

  ‘You went away and didn’t tell anyone? We’ve been worried sick. Let me guess, you were with Nix.’

  Nix rubbed his hand through his hair awkwardly.

  ‘Michelle, I don’t need a lecture. What happened? Is Ethan OK?’

  ‘We don’t know.’ She sounded tired, emotional, tense. Lyra knew she should have been there to support them through all this. ‘He was unconscious when they brought him in, he went into surgery pretty much straightaway. He has a collapsed lung and fluid on the brain and a ton of other injuries. They’re prepping him now to go back into surgery again this morning.’

  ‘Shit, I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

  She hung up before there were any other comments about her absence.

  ‘I have to go,’ she said, anger, guilt, worry and more guilt boiling up inside of her. She should have been there.

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ Nix said.

  ‘No,’ she snapped, instinctively. ‘I don’t want you there. This is all your fault.’

  ‘What?’ He looked like she’d just slapped him round the face, and for good reason. But now she’d started, all her doubts and fears were rushing to the surface.

  ‘If we hadn’t been traipsing up and down the coast on your stupid treasure hunt, I would have been here. Instead, when my little brother was fighting for his life in hospital, I was lying in bed having sex with you. Do you know how that makes me feel?’

  ‘Look, I know you’re upset, I know you must be worried, but you don’t need to shut me out. Let me help you.’

  ‘I don’t need your help. I’ve been fine all my life on my own, taking care of everything – you can’t be let down when there’s no one to rely on. I don’t need you, Mr No Responsibility. You might not have anyone to look out for, no obligations in life, but I do and I can’t just run away from them like you do. Christ, you are exactly what I’ve been running from all my life and this is why. I never wanted to be like my mum, but one week with you and all my rules, all my standards, went straight out the window.’

  ‘Oh, I didn’t realise you had to lower your standards to be with me,’ Nix snapped.

  ‘This is ridiculous. We were never meant to be together, we’re too different. I like order and rules and a plan and you like chaos and spontaneity. That life isn’t for me and I was an idiot for thinking it was. Soon enough you’d have got bored of me, you’d have wanted someone much more exciting. Like you said, you just needed someone to get back in the saddle with again and I ticked that box for you. Now you can move on, find someone much more thrilling.’

  ‘So this isn’t about Ethan at all, this is about you thinking you’re not enough for me.’

  ‘Just like you thought you weren’t enough for me.’

  ‘Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t bring my crap sperm up in conversation the first time we met. “Here’s your sausage sandwich Lyra, funny story about my sausage.” I’m sure that would have gone down perfectly.’

  She shook her head. ‘I can’t do this. I have to go. This was fun but let’s just draw a line under this now before it goes any further.’

  She grabbed her bag and stormed out the house, getting into the car, slamming the door and bursting into tears. Nix Sanchez was the best thing that ever happened to her so what the hell had she just done?

  Nix arrived at work with his head in complete turmoil. He had no idea what had just happened. They’d spent the perfect weekend together and the thing he’d been so scared of sharing had turned out to not to be so scary after all. Lyra had said she was fine about him not being able to have children. But then Emily had said the same thing when they’d first found out and she clearly hadn’t been fine about it at all. Lyra had been so quiet after they left the boat – had she rethought her decision?

  He popped his head around Clover’s office door and she looked up from her desk. ‘Hi, I just wanted to let you know that Lyra’s brother has been involved in a motorbike accident, she won’t be in today.’

  She nodded. ‘She’s just called in.’

  Of course she had, Nix thought wryly. She’d had horrible news, she’d just broken up with him, and she could still find time to make a call to work to say she would be unable to come in. He shouldn’t have expected anything less.

  He was about to turn away when Clover came round the desk to talk to him. ‘Is she OK?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, not at all. Her brothers and sisters are her entire world, as I’m sure you can imagine.’

  She nodded, studying him. ‘If you need to go and be with her then go, we can cover for you both here.’

  ‘No, it’s fine. It’s not like that between us.’

  He sighed. Not any more it wasn’t.

  ‘Are you sure? Because I got the distinct impression that there was something between you and Sylvia said—’

  He smiled sadly. ‘I think Sylvia sees what she wants to see.’

  ‘Sylvia sees things that sometimes we’re not even aware of. She’s very perceptive, even if that comes across as nosiness. Her heart is in the right place. But if you’re hoping that one day there will be something between you and Lyra, then you need to show her now that you can be there for her.’

  ‘I’m the last person she wants right now. She has her family so—’

  ‘When our dad died and Aria was left trying to run this place, she felt completely alone, even though me and Skye were right here with her. What she needed was the man she loved to hold her hand, but he was staying away out of respect for her grief, because he thought she had too much on her plate to be able to deal with him turning up. But that’s not how love works. You give them space while holding them tight, you listen while they cry and wail and moan, you show them love is unequivocal.’

  Nix didn’t know what to do with this unsolicited advice so he just nodded and gave her a polite smile. ‘Thank you but I think she’s fine without me.’

  When his wife had left him because he couldn’t have children, and then subsequently died, he thought he had hit rock bottom, but this felt worse. With Lyra, he’d had hope for the future for the first time in a very long while and now that hope had gone. His confidence had been shattered when Emily had left him and now Lyra ending it between them had sent him spiralling down that well of uncertainty and doubt. He certainly wasn’t going to pitch up at the hospital and beg her to take him back; he had more pride than that.

  ‘Well, as you’re staying, we have your presentation in a few minutes. I know Lyra isn’t here, but you can present your ideas and Lyra can present hers when she comes back,’ Clover said.

  This wasn’t how their presentation was supposed to go. They had worked on it together and it wouldn’t feel right presenting it without her.

  But they had already changed the brief from two days to one and worked together instead of separately. Despite the confidence Nix had expressed to Lyra about the presentation the day before, he wasn’t sure their bosses would take too kindly to these suggestions. He didn’t want to refuse to do the presentation on top of those things. And maybe it was better that he took the flack for changing the brief now rather than Lyra having to cope with it when she came back after her family emergency. She wouldn’t be in the right frame of mind to have to deal with any disappointment or anger from their bosses.

  He cleared his throat. ‘I just need a few minutes to print out the presentation.’

  Clover nodded. ‘Meet us in the boardroom whenever you’re ready.’

  She moved off in the direction of the boardroom and Nix quickly ran to hi
s office and printed out a few copies of the presentation they’d worked so hard on over the weekend, then stapled it all together. He was nervous. The boardroom seemed so official; normally their meetings took place in the restaurant, but he knew that breakfast was still being served there right now for all the guests, so it perhaps wasn’t the most ideal place for a meeting. But as he gathered his papers together, all he could think about was Lyra and what she must be going through right now, driving to the hospital not knowing if her brother was going to make it. He felt sick for her.

  Should he go?

  He grabbed his phone and looked up where All Saints Hospital was, finding it in north Devon, which was where Lyra had mentioned before that Ethan lived. He typed in a few more things on Google. He could get a fast train from the nearby station on the mainland that would take him to the nearest town to the hospital and then a taxi from there. The train left in half an hour and there wouldn’t be another one for an hour.

  No. She had made it very clear that she didn’t want or need him around.

  He made his way to the boardroom, knocked and Clover opened the door to let him in. They were all gathered up one end and Clover encouraged him to sit next to them at the top of the table.

  He sat down and looked at the smiling relaxed faces of the rest of the team. He hoped he wouldn’t soon be wiping those grins off their faces.

  ‘So, I should probably explain a few things before I go through the ideas for the party. Lyra and I have talked at length about the one-year anniversary celebrations. We wanted to liaise to make sure we weren’t treading on each other’s toes with our ideas and, the more we talked, the more we ended up helping one another, and I’m afraid to say what was Lyra’s ideas and what was mine became very blurred. We now have a plan for the celebrations that we worked on together.’

  Clover frowned a little and Noah and Aria exchanged glances, which didn’t look positive.

  Nix sat forward. ‘I know you were keen to have an events manager but you hired us as the events team and we wanted to show you that we actually make a really great team, just as we are. There is no reason why both of us can’t be a valuable member of the managerial team. Clover, you said you could see both of us shining in the events manager’s position and we intend to do that, but together. We won’t let you down.’

  ‘Well, this is slightly unexpected,’ Aria said.

  This wasn’t going well and Lyra had probably been right; their bosses might not take kindly to the two-night event being reduced down to one. He was going to have to temper this somehow.

  ‘We also thought it might be better if it was a whole-day celebration, with events taking place throughout the day and the night, instead of two evenings – but of course we can change that if you’re sold on two days,’ Nix said. That didn’t sound quite so set in stone as perhaps it might have done before.

  ‘Well, let’s hear what you’ve got,’ Noah said.

  ‘We wanted something that would involve the community, as so many of the successful events here have before. There are a lot of families on the island and locally on the mainland and we wanted them to be a part of the celebrations. We thought we would hold a treasure hunt, with various different clues taking the participants to different parts of the island. In this way we can encourage any holidaymakers in the area to come and the clues will involve many of the local shops to hopefully drive business their way. But it will also include some more of the touristy places on the island, like the beaches, the hotel gardens, the harbour, the fort ruins – everything that will show off the best parts of the island. Once the treasure hunt is over we can hold a barbeque on the beach or in the hotel gardens.’

  Aria smiled. ‘I like it. It’s fun and I love the fact that we are involving and benefitting the local community too.’

  ‘We did some research in the village about what kind of event people would like to see,’ Nix said. ‘And it was about fifty percent who wanted something fun, family-orientated, casual, while the other half wanted something classier, a more formal kind of party. So in the evening we thought about holding a casino and horse-racing-themed night. Guests can dress up, there’ll be champagne and a three-course meal, but it would also be something children could attend too. To end the evening there would be fireworks.’

  He opened up the folder with the details of the plan and handed out copies to each of them. ‘We’ve drawn up a budget for each item of the event and how much it would cost. Of course it’s up to you if you want to go ahead with some or all of these ideas and we can finalise the party accordingly.’

  They all studied the plan for a few minutes and there were a few murmured comments.

  He started drumming his fingers on the table. What was Lyra going through right now? How was she feeling? He hated that she was driving to north Devon in a terrible state. He should have insisted on taking her, regardless of what was going on between them. God, he was such an idiot. It didn’t matter what he was feeling right now, and sitting here feeling sorry for himself wasn’t going to solve anything. He had to be there for Lyra. Even if she didn’t want any kind of relationship with him, he could still be there for her as a friend.

  He looked at the rest of the team and the presentation in front of him. None of this mattered.

  Clover placed her hand over his to stop the incessant drumming. ‘You need to go, don’t you?’

  Nix nodded. ‘I do, I’m sorry, but I have to go.’

  ‘Go?’ Aria said in confusion, but Clover shushed her with a wave of her hand.

  ‘It’s OK,’ Clover said. ‘Go, we’ll sort everything out here.’

  He stood up. ‘I need to get to the train station.’ He looked at his watch, would he have time to call a taxi?

  ‘I can take you,’ Jesse said. ‘I have my motorbike parked round the back.’

  ‘Yes, that would be great.’

  Jesse looked at his watch. ‘You’re lucky that’s it still low tide, or the causeway would be closed.’

  Maybe fate was on his side after all.

  Nix passed Clover a grateful smile as he followed Jesse out the boardroom. He only hoped he’d get there in time.

  Lyra sat on a hard, plastic chair, staring at a stain on the floor. Ethan was undergoing surgery right now but the doctors had said it would be a few hours before there was any news. Naomi, Ethan’s fiancée, had popped home to get changed and get some things for Ethan. They only lived five minutes away and there was unlikely to be any change in that time.

  When Lyra had arrived, the greeting from some of her brothers and sisters had been distinctly frosty. Nothing had been said, but there was a definite undertone. Max hadn’t arrived yet but he was on his way. She felt a small amount of relief that she had got there before him. She’d never hear the end of it if Max had flown all the way from Australia and beaten her to it.

  Her siblings all had their other halves with them, holding their hands, and that amplified what she’d stupidly done to Nix even more.

  She’d felt angry, scared and guilty, but she’d had no right to take it out on him. This wasn’t his fault; he hadn’t done anything wrong. These were her issues, her fears of turning out just like her mum. And she could hardly blame him for pursuing a carefree life, running away from responsibility after his near-brush with death. She glanced over at Kitty; she’d been the same after she’d recovered from the lymphoma – she’d travelled the world, done all the things she’d put on her bucket list. Life was short and it was made for enjoying.

  Kitty caught her eye and got up and sat next to her.

  ‘You OK?’ her sister asked.

  Lyra nodded, even though it was a complete lie.

  ‘Michelle said you were away for the weekend with your new boyfriend.’

  ‘Yes, sorry. I—’

  ‘You have nothing to be sorry about, you’re allowed to have a life. Tell me about him.’

  It felt disloyal somehow to be talking about Nix when Ethan was fighting for his life, but she needed the distraction.


  ‘He’s warm, funny, just really bloody lovely. He created this whole treasure hunt for me, hiding clues in glass bottles all over Jewel Island, and I had no idea it was all him. He set it all up because he wanted to give me an adventure.’

  Kitty nodded. ‘We all need that in our lives.’

  ‘Yeah, we do. I’ve been on at Ethan for ages about giving up that blasted bike, but he loves it, and even after this I wouldn’t want him to lose that passion for something he loves.’

  ‘I agree. So what was the treasure?’

  ‘Some chocolate coins and a cuddly dinosaur and this ring.’ Lyra showed the leaf ring she was still wearing. ‘Because we’d walked past a jewellery shop a few days before and I told him I loved it, so he bought it for me.’

  She swallowed the lump in her throat because what Nix had done was so lovely and kind and she’d thrown it all away because she’d got scared. She had to make it right with him somehow but would he even be interested any more? She had freaked out for no reason. Who would want to deal with that baggage?

  ‘I’m liking this Nix more and more.’

  ‘We have this connection that I’ve never had with anyone before. Nix thinks we might be soul mates or something silly like that. We were each other’s first kiss, many many years ago.’

  ‘Wait, your first kiss was with the kid you sneezed over?’

  Lyra groaned with embarrassment. ‘Yes, that was him.’

  ‘Oh my god, that’s a weird coincidence.’

  ‘It is, isn’t it?’

  ‘And he wasn’t put off by that when he found out?’

  ‘Well, hopefully my technique has moved on a bit since then.’

  ‘True.’ Kitty was quiet for a moment. ‘Finding your soul mate is a very rare thing.’

  ‘Don’t you start. What we have is special but it’s not fate or destiny that brought us together. That’s something that Mum would say and I don’t want to end up like her.’

  Kitty took a sharp breath. ‘Look, Mum was an asshole, we know that. She wasn’t cut out to be a parent at all, but you don’t ever need to worry that you’ll be like her. You are everything that she was not. You showered us with love when she withdrew from our family and then disappeared off round the world, never to return. You were there for us every single day. You were kind and generous, giving your whole life to look after us. You could never ever turn out to be a thoughtless asshole. It’s not in your blood. So allow yourself to cut loose now and again, go away for the weekend more often, believe in soul mates and destiny. Because why the hell not, safe in the knowledge that you are Lyra Thomas, not Mum – and Lyra Thomas is one of the most brilliant, amazing and wonderful women I will ever know.’