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

She needed sustenance, comfort, something to get her head around the text conversation she’d just had with Bella. She made herself a whipped cream topped hot chocolate, sprinkled on some chocolate shavings, and took a packet of biscuits out of the cupboard.

She proceeded into the sitting room and sat down on one of her new pale blue squishy sofas, leant her head back on the cushions, and looked up at the intricate pattern on the huge ceiling rose above her head, letting her mind wander about it all. She needed to decide how to best handle herself in this Jack situation and do the right thing by Bella. She had to keep in mind that it was Bella who was the most important in this situation, and not her. It was not Bella’s fault that Jack had behaved the way he had all those years ago.

She sat there looking up at the ceiling rose thoughts swirling through her mind and nodded to herself. Yes, it was time. Time to see what she could find out about Jack Fitzgeralde. If he was about to sneak his way back into her life she was going to try and find out a bit more about him. She had always vehemently avoided searching out anything about him on purpose, never sure where it was going to lead, not allowing herself to even go down the route of Jack and where he was at in his life. Not being able to bear that perhaps he now had a family with somebody else. But now push had come to shove, Bella and her well-being was very much involved, and Juliette wanted to be armed and ready with knowledge.

Bella had just told her all about the lunch she’d had with Jack and how lovely he had been - lovely and charming apparently. Lovely and slimy, more like, Juliette thought as she pulled over her laptop, opened up the lid and turned it on.

As she listened to her laptop whir, she typed in her password and wondered why the sudden interest from Jack in Bella’s life. Why the sudden interest in how she’d grown up? Why would he have even mentioned that he wanted to visit Pretty Beach?

Juliette typed Jack Fitzgeralde into the search bar and not a whole lot came up at all. She then looked at Bella’s friends’ list. Yes, of course, he’d already wormed his way in there. She opened up his profile. Did something miss a beat? It absolutely did. That face, the one she’d fallen hook, line and sinker for all those years ago in the Cotswolds. The one she’d dreamt about and fantasised about spending the rest of her life with. The face that had dropped her and her baby like a tonne of bricks and got on with the rest of his life.

She clicked on his profile wondering whether or not it was on private, and seeing that it wasn’t something went down her spine. Anticipation? What even was it? She started to scroll through the multiple posts. The many, many posts. Wow, Jack Fitzgeralde liked to post a lot. Wow, Jack Fitzgeralde liked himself a lot.

She scrolled through reams and reams of posts - his new shirts from some fancy shop in Savile row, him in the first-class lounge at Heathrow, his new car which made Juliette smirk to herself, what a surprise a very flash Porsche, in red no less, his very nice new house, his stay in Dubai in an exceedingly tall hotel. She carried on scrolling. Yeah okay, we get it, Jack, you’re good looking, yeah, you’re rich. Whatever.

The plethora of posts also revealed that he was into car racing, that he sponsored a team... and it appeared that the team was fairly successful. Jack Fitzgeralde on a podium at a racetrack with a huge bottle of champagne. Jack Fitzgeralde with a girl in a tight red dress holding an umbrella over his head. Jack Fitzgeralde with a branded baseball cap and racing shirt in front of a huge car.

On and on and on it went. And it appeared that Jack Fitzgeralde was very much not short of cash. At least there was that. At least he had appeared back in Bella’s life and was not after something like money, that would have sucked even more.

It also appeared that those same movie star good looks had not faded over the years. And didn't he know it.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Bella again.

I bet you’re still up???

I am. Of course you knew.

Just wanted to check again to see if you are okay with me seeing Jack? I’ve been thinking about it more and I’m worried it’s going to make you sad and upset.

All good, Bella. I’ve already told you that.

There was no way that Juliette was going to tell Bella that she’d, spent the last hour down a social media rabbit hole and now had even more reservations about Jack than she had had when he’d appeared out of nowhere at her parents’ funeral.

And you don’t mind if he comes to visit Pretty Beach? I was thinking maybe for lunch. He could come down on the fast train and then leave.

Up to you darling.

Would you like to meet him? I thought it might be a bit more comfortable for everyone if we got that out of the way soon. What do you think?

Juliette stared down at her phone. She just didn’t know what to type back.

Chapter 46

Juliette stood in her underwear and looked down at herself with a mild feeling of panic. She’d put on masses of weight since the accident taking comfort eating to whole new levels. There had been many chocolate spread episodes standing up against the worktop looking out onto the garden late at night. And many more where she’d shovelled in as many carbs as fast as she could spoon them in.

Ever since she’d left her ex-husband Jeremy, who had liked her to ever-so-nicely adhere to his requirements