Winter at Pretty Beach by Polly Babbington (best affordable ebook reader TXT) 📗

at the cottage. David was waiting around the corner in the car, she walked back to it and got in.

‘Well, how was that?’ He looked into the wing mirror, indicated right to pull out and started to drive back in the direction of the Boat House.

‘It was fine even though I’ve never done anything like that before. He’s a character, I’ll have to buy Guy a drink for arranging that for me.’

‘No you won’t, I’ll do that - I’ll do anything for you, you know that.’ He took his eyes off the road and looked at her for a second.

Sallie didn't know what to say and she certainly wasn’t going to say that she would do the same for him too and it was a shame she was married.

She sat there in the huge seat feeling really tiny and quite guilty about it all. He really was rather nice. But it went through her head that nice wasn’t what she had been unknowingly looking for. What she had been looking for were the fireworks that happened whenever she was around Ben.

Chapter 13

The lovely weather wasn’t making Sallie feel any better; a contractor had let her down to fix the heating in the Orangery after it had all of a sudden stopped working - she’d taken a chance and tried someone new from out of the area and knew she shouldn’t have wasted her time. He had supposedly fixed it and then three days later it had broken down again. It was ironic; the Orangery had survived the storm and then the boiler had started to play up, and there was one thing that was crucial to the success of the Orangery and that was heating.

These were the sort of things you didn't appreciate before you had a small business she thought to herself; she needed reliable people around her and with Wayne, Pretty Beach’s most highly recommended boiler man in Spain for a few weeks of sun she’d had to try someone else and was not impressed.

It was bright and cold, the snow was still on the floor, the sky a deep blue and she should have been making the finishing touches to the Orangery with the heating on and making sure everything was running. Instead, she was standing with a cup of steaming hot coffee by the window looking out at the snow and thanking her lucky stars that she’d said no to the first big wedding until well after the run-through for the naming ceremony. A cold bridal party would have been disastrous for her business. She tutted to herself and shook her head, as Nina pushed open the gate with the pram and walked over towards the Orangery.

‘Brrr, it’s freezing,’ she said as Sallie opened the Orangery door to let her in.

‘It’s no better in here - I could wring that bloke’s neck and of course he’s now not picking up his calls or responding to any texts. So, I guess I’m in the queue for the next available engineer.’

‘Along with everyone else whose boiler broke down in the storm,’ Nina said, taking off her hat.

‘Yup. This didn’t break down until yesterday but yeah, I’ll still be on the end of that line.’

Sallie took Ottilie’s hand - she was in her pram in a pale pink bobble hat with a white fluffy pompom on the top, her teeny blonde curls poking out the side. She gripped Sallie’s hand and gave the widest smile.

‘She’s cheered up then. Has the tooth come through?’ Sallie asked as she played with Tillie who was gurgling away happily.

‘It’s just under the gum, won’t be long and I'll have it logged in the baby book and the spreadsheet,’ Nina laughed.

They looked around at the Orangery. Even though it was freezing, Winter sunlight was streaming through the top windows flooding the place with pretty golden shadows.

Sallie walked around the tables and gestured to the chairs, ‘So, fifty people will be fine in here - we’ll put that table up the top for the presents and the cake. Then depending on the food, I’ll set the tables up around that.’

Nina followed her over to one of the tables over near the orange trees in the corner and sat down.

‘I think I might go with the afternoon tea idea - it will be easy enough. I was thinking we could do it as a sort of late afternoon tea running into the evening. That way she can go to sleep in the pram and anyone who wants to carry on for a few more drinks can just stay here. If we’ve sorted out some simple food to serve later everything will be easy. What do you think?’

‘Good idea. You think she’ll go to sleep in there?’ Sallie pointed to the pram.

‘Once she’s had that last feed I think she’d go to sleep anywhere unless she’s got a tooth coming.’

Tillie threw her soft play cow out of the side of the pram and onto the floor as if in protest. Sallie laughed and went to pick up the cow. She loved being with Tillie and hadn’t realised how she’d kept her feelings about having a baby herself tightly under wraps until Tillie had come along. Now, seeing how Nina was with Tillie, and the absolute joy she had brought to all their lives, Sallie had slowly begun to open up the bit of her heart where her beautiful lost baby was, the place that had been firmly closed for a very long time.

‘Decor, what about that?’ Sallie asked, joining her to sit at the table.

‘You know me, design isn't my thing, but I thought Christmas themed - and how lovely would a tree look over there in the corner?’ They both looked to the corner; it was crying out for a Christmas tree.

‘The bigger the better, I think. I’ll get onto it. Hundreds of fairy lights and vintage soft gold would be really nice against the backdrop of all the glass and reflections from the water,’