A Pretty Beach Wish by Polly Babbington (scary books to read TXT) 📗

favourite girls!’ Jeremy said, and gave Maggie a hug and then put his arm around Bella and kissed her on the cheek.

‘Daddy, you forgot Delilah!’

‘Silly me. Of course I wouldn’t forget Delilah,’ Jeremey replied, chuckling.

Juliette kissed Maggie, gave her a huge hug, and went to walk down the path while Bella stood chatting to Jeremy and then followed her back to the car.

‘Enjoy your day out on the boat then, darlings,’ Jeremy called out as Juliette clicked the remote to unlock the door.

‘We will, thanks,’ Bella replied looking back and waving.

‘Thanks Jeremy. We’ll be back from the boat early evening.’

‘Okay. Have fun! I’ll text you later, Bella.’

Juliette and Bella got back into the car and made their way back to Pretty Beach through the busy traffic. They finally got back to Mermaid Lane, collected their stuff for the boat and walked all the way through Pretty Beach to the jetty.

‘Ahh, it’s so lovely to be back and to be spending the day with you. I’ve missed you so much.’ Bella said.

‘I’ve missed you more!’

‘It’s a shame Maggie didn’t want to come out,’ Bella said.

‘I know. She wasn’t going to be persuaded though, was she? To be fair she’s been to the boat with us so many times now while we’ve been doing it up that I think the novelty has worn off a bit.’

‘Yeah, maybe. She really didn’t want to come.’

Luke was already on the boat, pottering around cleaning the windows, together with Holly who was sitting out at the back a huge sun hat keeping the sun off her face. Luke waved as Juliette and Bella walked along the jetty.

‘How was the traffic coming into Pretty Beach? I heard it’s quite busy already,’ Luke asked.

‘It was. We had to queue at all the roundabouts on the way in.’

‘Everything okay with Maggie?’

‘Yes. Jeremy was in high spirits on this lovely day, wasn’t he, Bella?’

‘Yeah, he always loves the sunshine.’

‘Don’t we all,’ Luke replied as Bella held her head up to the sun and took a deep breath in. ‘Ahh, the fresh sea air of Pretty Beach, so very different to Oxford.’

‘And you’ve got a whole weekend of it ahead, and a great weather forecast too,’ Luke said smiling as Bella jumped into the boat and sat down on one of the little benches at the side.

Juliette kissed Luke and started to take the French bread and vanilla buns out of her basket and put them on the side table. She poured water in the stove-top kettle and put it onto one of the tiny little burners. She unwrapped the vanilla buns while the kettle boiled, and when it whistled to signify it was ready, she poured the boiling water into a cafetiere with ground coffee in the bottom.

Five minutes later, she'd pushed the plunger down on the cafetiere, poured the coffee, and handed it out to Luke, Bella and Holly.

Holding his coffee in one hand, Luke slowly pulled out and away from the jetty. Holly, Bella, and Juliette sat at the back of the boat with their coffee and buns. None of them really said anything as they all sat and looked out to sea. A deep blue sky peppered with puffy white clouds went past overhead and every now and then a seagull squawked and swept down into the water.

‘What a beautiful day to be out on the water,’ Holly said, sighing and closing her eyes held her head up to the sun.

‘It’s divine,’ Bella agreed and pulled off her t-shirt, put her towel along the top of the bench seat and got her Kindle out of her bag and laid down to sunbathe.

‘It must be at least ten minutes since you had your nose in a book Bella,’ Juliette said smiling.

‘I know. I was getting withdrawal symptoms,’ Bella said, giggling.

‘What are you reading about today, then?’

‘The role of the gunners in the war.’

‘Sounds riveting,’ Holly replied, laughing.

Juliette smiled and they all waved as their friend Harry went past in his fishing boat, and they could just make out Ed over at the kayak hire shop loading a few tourists into the water.

‘Pretty Beach on a nice day. Nothing better,’ Juliette said and let out a contented sigh.

‘What about the Maldives?’ Luke shouted over with a joke and a wink to Juliette.

‘I couldn’t tell you as I haven’t been, but right now I don’t think there are many places in the world I’d rather be,’ Holly said, rubbing extra sun lotion into her legs and adjusting her hat so that it covered her face.

‘You went there on honeymoon, didn’t you Luke? So you’d know,’ Juliette teased.

‘I did. There’s nothing like a day out on the water,’ Luke called out and all three of them at the back nodded in agreement.

***

A very big lunch, quite a lot of sunbathing, a bout of fishing, and about six hours later they headed back across Pretty Beach bay to the jetty. All Juliette’s thoughts of life and its surprises were far out of her mind as they all kicked-back, relaxed and enjoyed the coastal air.

Luke pulled carefully into the berth and Juliette started to potter around the deck putting things away, folding up towels and popping her bits and bobs into her basket.

‘I’ll take all this washing up and do it in the big sink up at the club, shall I?’ Bella asked whilst Luke started to tie things up and check the engine.

‘Yep. There’s no point fiddling around and trying to do it in here, thanks,’ Juliette said and passed the washing up bowl over to Bella.

Bella hopped off the boat and walked up towards the amenities block and ten minutes later came strolling back along the jetty, barefoot, a shirt over her bikini, and with the washing up bowl in her hands.

Juliette turned her gaze to Bella and watched her step over a gap in the timber boards and make her way back to the boat.

Bella, her hands full with the washing up bowl, went to step onto the boat and