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

Chapter 27

Sallie didn’t know how to feel - nervous or scared or what. She pulled her coat around her, picked up the coffee tray from Holly and waved over her shoulder as she said goodbye. She walked along the laneway, the air crisp, a morning mist all over Pretty Beach and up the hill to the church in the distance. She held onto the coffee and blew onto her fingers cursing leaving her gloves at home.

The outside of Lucian’s house was sparkling with frost, his scooter draped in a protective cover on the tiny driveway and as she walked up the path his little black cat sat in the window looking out at as if to say ‘who are you and what are you doing in my house?’ She balanced the coffees and knocked on the door and a minute or so later it opened.

‘Darling! How are you? Exciting!’ Lucian took the coffees and ushered her into his tiny little sitting room.

‘I don’t know about excitement - I’m wondering if we have both lost the plot!’ She replied, her voice shaking.

‘Lost the plot! Darling, this is going to be fabulous. You mark my words.’ Lucian replied, bouncing around and stepping into the kitchen.

‘I hope so, with the work you’ve put in...’ she trailed off and followed him into the kitchen.

Lucian had been a workhorse - any reservations that Ben had felt about Sallie working with him were wrong. Lucian had a ferocious attention to detail, put in more effort than anyone she’d worked with before and was very bright. It was a formidable combination and the more they’d worked together, the more she had realised that the success of Where the Heck is Pretty Beach? was certainly no accident.

It had worked out that they had been quite the perfect partnership - Lucian’s technology skills were second to none, his project management excellent and her creative eye and ability to make something from nothing had meant everything on his spreadsheet was done and done well.

Everything so far had gone to plan, with the odd hiccup here and there but they were now ready to launch and she’d arrived at his house to record the episode where they announced the competition for a bride and groom to get married at the Orangery. It was going to be broadcast alongside a big social media push, would be open worldwide and they were hoping the publicity and interest would be enough to justify all their hard work and costs.

It made Sallie nervous though and the more she’d thought about it the more nervous she’d got. It was such a huge undertaking; the broadcast would be downloaded by millions of listeners and reach to far-flung corners of the globe yet it was just the two of them in a tiny little room with a couple of microphones and an app - it gave the whole thing an aura that it all wasn’t quite real.

They walked into Lucian’s tiny alcove office with the coffees, and Sallie sat down opposite Lucian while he checked the equipment.

‘I’ve had so many questions and comments already since the teasers,’ Lucian said as he tapped on the microphone and made sure it was working.

‘I saw loads of comments on the post - it’s amazing what interest there is in Pretty Beach.’ Sallie replied as she sipped on her coffee.

‘Tell me about it - I’ve analysed it many times since starting this podcast and I believe the interest is because it’s many people’s dream to live by the sea, surrounded by people they actually know and have a relationship with. They listen to the podcast and imagine themselves living here in Pretty Beach.’

‘Makes sense, I guess,’ Sallie replied and nervously picked at the side of the paper coffee cup.

‘So, once we’ve got this recorded, I’ll edit it and then you’ll jet off to the USA and be there just after it’s gone live - am I right?’

‘If you’re sure that’s definitely okay? I don’t want it to be like I’m running out at the most crucial point.’

Lucian opened the timeline and replied as he read down, ‘It’s all here - you’ve got everything done that can be done at this point. The Orangery is ready, the decorations sourced and planned, Felicity is on standby for the flowers, caterers booked, alcohol chosen, the heating fixed and double-checked, the videographer scheduled and the ladies in Hong Kong ready and waiting. There’s nothing else we can do between this being recorded today and the entries coming in.’

Lucian patted her on the leg, the perfectly gelled quiff at the top of his head nodding as if in agreement. She got a whiff of his exquisite, expensive-smelling aftershave as he leant forward - his attention to detail about everything was first-class in everything he did.

Lucian gave her the headphones and pushed the microphone over and did a short test-run and then started recording. He’d sent her a brief run sheet for them to follow, but when they’d brainstormed it they’d decided they wanted it to be less old-school interview, more two relaxed Pretty Beach locals having a chat about an amazing Christmas wedding in a vintage building in their beautiful little town.

They started with the story of how the weddings had come about at the marquee at the Boat House - Sallie described some of the beautiful weddings that had taken place there, how the setting was fabulous with the sea behind and then Lucian moved the conversation on to her finding the Orangery.

He followed the brief as she continued to tell the story of finding the Orangery, the injury of her arm and her own weddings and then as they chatted they’d moved onto the renovation story. They talked about how she and Ben had crawled along on the floor scrubbing tiles, pulling down grapevines and making discoveries like the old Italian cider press.

It all made for an inspiring story and just as planned they chatted around the loose plan on the run sheet,