Ice Creams at Emerald Cove: A heartwarming feel-good romantic comedy to escape with this summer

by Holly Martin

  Continuing with this half a relationship when he was in the same country in many ways would be worse than what they had now. If he was going to be with her she wanted all of him.

  She was an old-fashioned girl at heart and she wanted the big love story, she deserved to have that. To have someone love her unconditionally.

  Suddenly Bea burst into the café and, to judge from the huge smile on her face, this was definitely not a girl who had just found out her mum was having another baby. Skye wondered whether Jesse would tell her. It was a difficult decision and not one she envied him having to make. The chances were Bea would probably never see her mum’s Facebook posts – teens weren’t interested in Facebook any more. It was all TikTok and Snapchat and other much cooler forms of social media for them.

  Skye plastered a smile on her face; she didn’t want Bea to know there was a problem.

  ‘I’ve found the door the key belongs to!’ Bea said.

  ‘You have? Where?’

  ‘It’s at Kendra’s bakery,’ Bea said.

  ‘But you’d asked Kendra if there were any locked doors in her bakery and she’d said no?’

  ‘She was right, kind of. It opens a hatch in the floor. She had a cupboard over it and had no idea it was there. Something fell down behind the cupboard and when she pushed the cupboard out the way, she found the hatch and called me immediately. We’ve tried the key in the lock and it fits,’ Bea said, excitedly.

  ‘And what’s behind the hatch?’

  ‘I don’t know, I insisted we had to get you and Dad first. Where is he?’

  ‘I… I don’t know,’ Skye said, honestly.

  ‘Oh.’ Bea’s face fell.

  ‘Look, I’m sure he won’t mind if we go and take a quick look,’ Skye said. He certainly had bigger things to worry about right now than what was behind an old hatch. ‘Let’s go and see.’

  The smile was back on Bea’s face immediately. ‘Come on then.’

  Jesse stood on the shores of Emerald Cove, skimming stones into the sea. He had hurt Skye and he hated that and right now he was more annoyed about that than about Ginny. He was going to lose Skye. Either because he couldn’t give her what she wanted and move to the UK or because he pushed her away when things got tough. One way or another he was going to lose her.

  ‘I presume by the way you’re angrily throwing those stones that you’ve heard.’

  Jesse turned round to see Sylvia watching him.

  He frowned. ‘You were the one that told Skye?’

  ‘Yes I was, I thought you should know.’

  ‘And how do you know?’

  ‘That’s… a bit complicated to explain and probably now isn’t the best time.’

  Jesse turned away to face the sea again, resuming his stone-skimming – well, his poor attempts at doing it anyway.

  Sylvia moved to his side and expertly skimmed a stone across the calm waters. He watched it bounce five times before it sank between the waves. He sighed.

  ‘I understand that you feel angry and you have every right to,’ she said. ‘And I in no way want to defend Ginny, because what she did to you and Bea was appalling, but she had the crappiest start to life.’

  He turned to face her. ‘What are we talking about here?’

  ‘I don’t know all the details but I’m fairly sure she and her brother were beaten and they certainly would have seen their mother being abused on a regular basis. Her mum felt trapped in her marriage and I wonder if Ginny felt the same.’

  His eyebrows shot up. ‘I would never have hit her.’

  ‘I know, and I’m sure she knew that too. I just want you to know that whatever you did or didn’t do, I don’t think it would have made any difference for her. She ran away from home when she was seventeen and then to be married with a child a few years later, I imagine it was all too soon for her and she didn’t feel ready for it.’

  He sighed. ‘Skye said the same thing.’

  Sylvia smiled. ‘She’s a wise one.’

  ‘She is.’ He resumed his stone-throwing. Weirdly, knowing a bit more about Ginny’s past did make him feel a bit better about it. Maybe it hadn’t been his fault after all. He sighed. ‘Right now, I’m angrier at myself than I am at Ginny. I hurt Skye when she told me. All my life whenever I was hurt, which happened a lot more than I’d care to admit, I’d withdraw, shut everyone out, deal with it on my own. When Skye told me about Ginny I pushed her away.’

  ‘You always hurt the one you love,’ Sylvia said. ‘You do love her, I presume?’

  ‘Of course I do.’

  ‘And have you ever told her that?’

  He paused and then shook his head.

  ‘She probably needs to hear that,’ Sylvia said. ‘I read Walter’s notebook and it just breaks my heart that my mum and him couldn’t have worked it out when they both loved each other so much. Walter always regretted not telling my mum how he felt and my mum never found anyone else after him. If he’d told her he loved her, she’d probably have stayed, or maybe they could have both left together. Don’t lose Skye because you haven’t told her how you feel for her.’

  He knew she was right. ‘I heard her talking this morning. I heard her say she thinks I’m only coming here because of the job and that hurt too. I’m moving halfway across the world for her and she doesn’t see that – but I guess that’s because I’ve never told her how I feel about her.’

  Sylvia nodded and skimmed another stone perfectly across the sea, this one bouncing seven times.

  ‘And I still don’t know if I can move here,’ Jesse said. ‘I can probably get a two-year visa for me but I can’t bring Bea and there’s no way I’m leaving her behind.’

  Sylvia stared at him, as she thought. ‘Bea has dual citizenship, doesn’t she?’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘Because I know Ginny was born in the UK before she moved to Canada as a child.’

  Jesse frowned. ‘You do know a lot about my ex-wife.’

  ‘Well, I should, I’m her grandmother.’

  He stared at her, his eyes going wide. ‘What?’

  ‘It’s a long complicated story, one I was going to save for another time when you hadn’t just found out Ginny is pregnant again.’

  He didn’t know how to process this. Sylvia was Ginny’s grandmother, Bea’s great-grandmother. Suddenly the reason that Sylvia had been hanging around with Bea so much – and how Sylvia had known Ginny was pregnant – made sense.

  ‘So you’re in touch with Ginny?’ Jesse said. He wasn’t really sure if he wanted this connection to Ginny in Bea’s life.

  ‘Not at all, we’ve never met or spoken. She ran away from her parents at a time when me and her mum were not in contact. Matilda, her mum, has never spoken to her since. But I know people who are good at finding people and I occasionally stalk Ginny’s Facebook. I’m sure she has no idea that I do that.’

  Jesse let out a sigh of relief. He hated that Ginny had cut Bea out of her life completely, but he certainly didn’t want to welcome her back in.

  ‘The point is, Bea could live here if she was staying with a relative, at least on paper. A great-grandmother perhaps,’ Sylvia said. ‘My sister has American grandchildren who have dual citizenship with the UK and they were able to come here and stay with her for a year when their dad died and their mum fell to pieces. She went over and collected them but there certainly weren’t any issues with them coming here.’

  Jesse’s heart started to race as he realised the surprise of this latest revelation meant that he had completely missed the point. Had the solution to his problem been right under his nose all this time?

  ‘If you want me to sign some papers or write a letter to prove she’s coming to stay with me I’m happy to do that,’ Sylvia went on. ‘I can even meet her at the airport if that helps and then bring her here to Skye.’

  His mind bubbled over with new possibilities. Both the immigration lawyers he’d spoken to had asked if Bea had relatives she could stay with in the UK, because he
r dual citizenship meant she could stay here as long as she had someone in her family to stay with. Of course, all of this was just so she had somewhere officially to stay. In reality she’d be living with him and Skye. He’d had to say no at the time but now it looked like he had a solution.

  ‘Madison could bring her over,’ Jesse said, as he thought. ‘I don’t think we’ll need you to meet her at the airport but for any paperwork or if any authorities ask we can give them your details to confirm.’

  ‘I’m happy to help in any way I can.’

  ‘I need to tell Skye. If I can come here maybe she will see that I’m committed to her.’

  ‘You need to show her that you want to be part of a team, that you want to let her in so she can be there for you, and that you’ll always be there for her. You need to show her that you’re in this forever, regardless of the job. And, for the love of god, tell her that you love her.’

  He smiled slightly at that. Telling Skye he loved her was probably the most important thing he could do right now. He hadn’t been able to be there for Ginny in the way that she wanted but that wasn’t his fault; she’d clearly been dealing with her own issues that she wouldn’t let him help her with. She had pushed him away just like he had with Skye. But Sylvia was right, if this was going to work, he had to let Skye in. He was going to make damned sure he was there for her and always would be.

  He smiled as he realised what he had to do.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Skye hurried down to the village with Bea. They walked into the bakery and it seemed word had spread in the short time that Bea had run up to the café and back. Seamus was there with Kathy, and they were both waiting in the kitchen with Kendra.

  ‘Well, this is a bit exciting, isn’t it?’ Skye said. ‘I always wanted to find a secret passageway in the hotel when I was growing up, but we never did. And here’s a secret room that no one knew about.’

  Seamus shrugged as if he wasn’t really that bothered about it at all, although the very fact he was standing there contradicted that.

  ‘While I think it’s quite fun to find a secret door, I doubt whether there is anything down there. I’ll go down and have a look if you want, save you ladies getting dirty,’ Seamus said.

  ‘No way,’ Bea laughed. ‘I’m definitely going down there. There might be a smugglers’ tunnel down there and treasure; chests filled with rubies and doubloons.’

  ‘If there is a smugglers’ tunnel down there, then I expect it more likely to have barrels of rum than anything else,’ Kendra said and, to Skye’s surprise, Seamus laughed nervously. Oh, this was definitely worth a look.

  ‘Come on then, Bea. You were in charge of finding what that key opened, you should have a look first,’ Skye said.

  Bea moved forward and put the key in the lock. It turned easily and Skye helped her lift the hatch. They all peered down into the darkness and, rather excitingly, stairs disappeared into the gloom.

  ‘Is there a light switch?’ Kendra asked.

  Bea reached inside and a second later light filled the stairs, although they couldn’t see any further than that.

  ‘I bet there’s rats and spiders and all sorts of nasties down there,’ Seamus said. ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to take a look?’

  Kathy nudged her husband, in confusion. ‘Seamus, let the girl have some fun.’

  Bea looked at Skye and Skye nodded her encouragement. Bea started going down the steps and Skye quickly followed. There was another light switch at the bottom and Bea flicked it on, lighting up the whole room.

  ‘Oh!’ Skye said, softly, as she looked around the walls of the cellar. In the middle of the room were several large copper vase-like tanks which she strongly suspected were stills. Pipes led off them to various tanks and other chambers. There were jars of what looked like juniper berries, large bottles containing mystery liquids and various other tubs, and pots of different herbs and spices. Along the walls were maybe hundreds of dusty bottles on shelves, many of which looked to be full of dark-coloured liquid.

  ‘What is this place?’ Bea asked. ‘Is it a wine cellar?’

  ‘I think we’ve found an old gin distillery,’ Skye said.

  ‘That’s exactly what it is,’ Seamus said, from the bottom of the stairs, as Kathy and Kendra moved down behind him.

  ‘Was this what you were worried about them finding?’ Kathy asked in confusion.

  ‘I didn’t know it was here, but I knew it had been on the island at some point and I knew it had strong connections with the bakery,’ Seamus said. ‘So when I heard you’d found a secret door here, I knew there was a very good chance it could be this.’

  ‘You knew?’ Skye said. ‘Why didn’t you want us to know?’

  He sighed. ‘Well, back in the day Jewel Island was known for its highly illegal trade in homemade gin but those rumours turned to myth and faded away completely over the years. I was kind of hoping to keep it that way. I don’t want the reputation of Jewel Island brought into question. I know a lot of people on the island still make their own homemade gin but we’re not allowed to sell it. Our own Walter was quite the prolific and celebrated gin-maker.’

  ‘Oh wow, that’s amazing,’ Skye said. ‘But this is a huge part of our island’s history, we should celebrate it not hide it away. No one is going to look at Jewel Island unfavourably because of it. It’s a fascinating glimpse into life here seventy years ago.’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Seamus said.

  ‘We can’t edit our history so only our good bits show,’ Kathy said. ‘We are where we are now for all the good, the bad and the ugly.’

  ‘That’s true,’ Seamus said.

  Skye looked around the room before pulling one of the bottles from one of the shelves. There was very dark liquid inside and bits of leaves and other things floating in there but she had no idea what it was. ‘As interesting as all this is, it doesn’t help us find out what the secret ingredient was in the rhubarb pie.’

  ‘Well, yes it does,’ Seamus said. ‘Walter mostly made rhubarb gin and, so people wouldn’t know what it was when he was discussing it in public, he called it his—’

  ‘Secret ingredient,’ Bea said.

  Skye turned round to see Bea was holding a bottle in her hand, this one with a label wrapped around it. Bea held it up for Skye to see and, sure enough, the words ‘Secret Ingredient’ were scrawled on the side.

  ‘It was a running joke, you see,’ Seamus said. ‘He talked about it being the secret ingredient so often that in the end he decided to actually call his gin that.’

  It all made sense. Both Kathy and Kendra had referred to their rhubarb gin as their secret ingredient; it was obviously something that had been passed down through the generations.

  ‘Are you telling me that the missing ingredient in our rhubarb pie is actually rhubarb gin?’ Skye said.

  Seamus shrugged. ‘Our little pudding parade is not looking so wholesome now, is it?’

  Skye sighed. They could hardly serve up pie laced with tons of gin. Unless they did one for the adults and one for the children. Finding the secret ingredient hadn’t solved their problems at all.

  Suddenly her phone rang in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw it was the doctor’s surgery calling.

  ‘I… erm, have to take this, excuse me,’ Skye said, quickly going back upstairs into the bakery. She answered the phone.

  ‘Skye, it’s Dr Lomax.’

  ‘Hello?’ Skye said in confusion.

  ‘I wonder if you could pop in for a chat.’

  Skye frowned. ‘Did the test results come back already?’

  ‘No, nothing like that. It’s really nothing to worry about but I just need to have a quick word.’

  ‘OK, when?’

  ‘Now would be good,’ Dr Lomax said.

  ‘That sounds… urgent.’

  ‘No, I assure you it isn’t anything bad, just come on in and we can have a quick chat.’

  ‘OK, I’ll be there in five minutes,’ Skye said.


  She hung up and immediately phoned Jesse. His phone rang and rang and then connected with the answerphone.

  She sighed with frustration and hung up.

  She went back down to the cellar. ‘I have to go, I have, umm… a meeting. Bea, I’m trusting you not to drink any.’

  Bea laughed and Skye turned and hurried out of the shop. She walked along the street towards the doctor’s surgery and tried calling Jesse again, and again it went through to the answer machine.

  She thrust her phone back in her pocket and walked into the reception. The receptionist ushered her straight in to see Dr Lomax and then shut the door behind her.

  Dr Lomax smiled. ‘Skye, please sit down.’

  Skye did as she was told.

  ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘Nervous.’

  Dr Lomax laughed. ‘I meant, health-wise.’

  ‘Oh. Oh god, did Jesse tell you to call me?’

  ‘No, I haven’t spoken to him, why? Are you feeling OK?’

  ‘I’m fine. Well, I’m so tired lately, emotional, and I can’t stop eating, especially savoury stuff. Aria thinks I have worms.’

  Dr Lomax smiled. ‘That’s a common misconception that you’re hungry if you have worms, but that’s not the case at all. No, what you’re feeling is very common.’

  Skye frowned. ‘It is?’

  ‘Skye, you’re pregnant.’

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Skye stared at her in shock, blood roaring in her ears, her heart racing, her breath heavy.

  She shook her head. ‘No. No, I can’t be.’

  ‘The blood test shows increased hormone levels in the blood and can give us a rough idea of how many weeks pregnant you are. It’s not exactly accurate as people have different hormone levels anyway but I would estimate that you are somewhere between three or four months pregnant.’

  Skye gasped, tears filling her eyes. ‘You’re wrong, the test is wrong. You said it’s not accurate, it’s thrown out some weird result.’