The Cottage on Sunshine Beach: An utterly gorgeous feel-good romantic comedy

by Holly Martin

  ‘He loves you, I know he does.’

  ‘Then he needs to actually say it,’ Isla said.

  ‘I’m ready!’ Elliot announced loudly.

  Melody had turned to go and see her nephew perform when the shop door opened again and Aidan Jackson walked in. The eldest of the Jackson brothers, he was probably the tallest too. He had this easy, laid-back attitude that he shared with Jamie, but whereas Jamie was quiet and shy, Aidan had a confidence that Jamie just didn’t have. She adored Aidan, especially as he had made her best friend Tori happier than Melody had ever seen her.

  ‘Hey Aidan, you OK to browse for a bit? I have a very important magic show I need to watch.’

  Aidan grinned. ‘A magic show? Looks like I walked in at the right time.’

  Melody smiled as they all walked over to see Elliot perform.

  ‘Welcome to the greatest show in the world,’ Elliot said, taking a little bow, and Melody’s heart swelled with love for him. It hurt that her brother, Matthew, was not going to be around to watch Elliot grow up, to see his little personality grow and change.

  ‘Here we have a coin, just a normal ten pence,’ Elliot indicated a ten pence sitting on top of a red piece of card with a glass upside down next to it. ‘I’m going to make it disappear before your very eyes.’

  She had to smile. He was obviously reciting some practised lines that Leo had probably taught him.

  He slid a tube over the glass and then moved the glass over the ten pence. He picked up his magic wand and swished it over the glass.

  ‘Abracadabra.’

  He lifted the tube away from the glass and, sure enough, the ten pence had vanished.

  Melody, Isla and Aidan clapped.

  ‘And now for the knotted rope trick,’ Elliot said, unfazed by his adoring audience. ‘Here is a knotted piece of rope.’ He picked up a rope with a knot in the middle and tugged it on both ends. ‘See that the knot won’t come out.’ They all nodded dutifully. ‘Melody, hold the knot loosely inside your fist.’

  Melody did as she was asked, the ends of the rope hanging down either side of her hand.

  Elliot swished his magic wand over her hand and then tugged one of the ends of the rope so it slid from her hand completely knot-free.

  ‘Elliot, that was fantastic.’ Melody clapped as the others joined in with their applause and he took another little bow.

  ‘I’ll have more tricks soon.’

  ‘I’ll have to come back for that,’ Aidan said.

  Melody turned back to him. ‘Did you come in to see me or is there anything in particular you wanted?’

  ‘Well I’m glad you’re both here, maybe you can help me,’ Aidan said, his eyes falling on Elliot. It was clear he didn’t want to say anything in front of him. ‘I, erm… would like to buy a ring for Tori.’

  Melody’s heart leapt, and she let out a little involuntary squeak. ‘A… special ring?’

  ‘Yes, really special, the kind that I would get down on bended knee to find.’

  She gasped, her hands going to her mouth. Tori and Aidan were completely in love with each other, anyone could see that, so it wasn’t a total surprise that he would want to propose to her, but it was a little earlier in the relationship than Melody would have expected. They had only been going out for about two months. But they were so perfect together. Some couples, you just knew they were going to be together forever, and Tori and Aidan had so obviously found their happy ever after with each other.

  She wanted to step forward and give Aidan a big hug, but she couldn’t do that. In fact, she was too afraid to speak at all because whatever she wanted to say would be too obvious. Elliot was terrible at keeping secrets so they couldn’t talk freely about this. She was so excited for Tori. Her best friend was going to get the happy ending Tori had never thought she’d have. Melody looked at Isla, who had a massive grin on her face too.

  ‘I’m so happy for you,’ Melody said, unable to contain her joy. She glanced at Elliot, who was looking at her in confusion and for good reason. Poor Aidan was trying to be subtle so that big secrets didn’t get spread by loose lips and Melody was practically giving the secret away. ‘I mean that I’m happy that you’re going to buy one of my rings.’

  Isla let out a giggle that turned into a snort. ‘Melody is very attached to her rings, she always loves it when they go to a new home.’

  ‘Yes, it makes me so happy when people buy… special rings.’ Those last two words were delivered in no more than a squeak. Oh god, Tori was going to get married. She had to rein in her emotions otherwise she’d be a gibbering wreck within the next few minutes.

  Elliot sighed and took Aidan’s hand. ‘There are some nice rings in this cabinet here.’

  He led Aidan across the shop to a cabinet filled with rings made from large gemstones. They were beautiful statement rings that she was proud of but definitely not the kind of thing that Aidan was looking for to propose to Tori.

  ‘I like this one,’ Elliot said, opening the cabinet and sliding on one that was a large raw untreated cluster of iron pyrite or fool’s gold. He flashed it around on his right middle finger. ‘I think Tori would love this one.’

  Aidan nodded. ‘It is a beautiful ring, but I was thinking something a bit smaller.’

  Melody smiled with the ease with which he could talk to Elliot, but then he’d had plenty of practice with his niece Marigold, Emily’s daughter.

  Elliot sighed and took the ring off and put it lovingly back into the cabinet.

  ‘We have diamonds, some of them are very small.’ Elliot pointed to what was traditionally the engagement ring section. ‘And they’re very special. I’ve seen lots of women get excited about those rings.’

  Melody shook her head though Aidan didn’t see.

  ‘Not diamonds, I need something really special and unique,’ Aidan said, and Melody gave a little sigh of relief.

  ‘Well, what’s her favourite colour?’ Elliot said.

  ‘Yellow,’ Isla said.

  ‘No, it’s green,’ Melody said.

  Aidan shook his head. ‘Blue, like the sea.’

  Suddenly galvanised into action, Melody stepped forward. ‘We have several blue rings that might suit your needs. We have this fluorite ring, which is a beautiful turquoise colour but has been cut so it has that polished look of a sapphire. It’s set in a diamond circle and on a platinum band. Although if you prefer yellow gold or some other kind of metal I can easily change that for you.’

  ‘That’s very nice,’ Aidan said as Elliot slipped it onto his finger and turned it around so it caught the light.

  ‘Or we have this blue moonstone…’ she trailed off as Aidan’s face lit up as she passed him the ring. This was perfect for Tori, unique, rare, beautiful. It had so many different shades of blue all swirled together that glinted in the sun as Aidan held it in his hand. Three tiny marcasite beads sat either side of the moonstone, setting off the blue and the silver of the band perfectly.

  ‘I could swap the marcasite for diamond if you wish.’ She knew a lot of people liked there to be diamond somewhere in the engagement ring, even if it wasn’t the main stone.

  ‘No, this is perfect.’

  Elliot peered at it. ‘It’s nice. Though are you sure you don’t want the gold one I had on first?’

  Aidan grinned. ‘Quite sure. Now we need to keep this a secret OK, no telling anyone, especially not Tori. We want her to be surprised when I give it to her.’

  Elliot nodded. ‘I promise.’

  ‘And no telling Marigold either,’ Aidan said, referring to Elliot’s best friend.

  ‘OK.’

  Melody took the ring back off Aidan and checked the size. Tori had bought several rings from her over the years so she knew her size and this was a perfect fit. She polished it on a cloth and popped it in a box.

  ‘When are you going to… give it to her?’ Isla said, coming over to admire the ring and nodding with approval.

  ‘I’m not sure, I have a plan but I’m not sur
e when it will happen yet. It’s a little bit weather dependent.’

  ‘Well, if you need any help,’ Melody said, keen to be there when he popped the question, though she knew that he might want to do it privately.

  ‘I might take you up on that,’ Aidan said.

  ‘Bring Tori for dinner tomorrow night, around seven,’ Isla said. ‘Leo will be there too, so you won’t be the only man. Jamie and Melody are coming as well.’

  That was news to Melody, though she didn’t have any other great plans and Isla probably knew that.

  ‘Sounds great,’ Aidan said.

  ‘And if you wanted to, um… ask Tori any special questions during dinner, I could bring some champagne just in case,’ Melody tried.

  Aidan laughed. ‘I think if I had any questions for Tori, I might ask her a bit more privately.’

  ‘I don’t think she’d like that,’ Melody said. ‘The more public the better.’

  Aidan looked worried. ‘Really?’

  ‘Oh, don’t listen to her,’ Isla said. ‘Melody just wants to see it. You do it how you want to do it, although if you can film it, we’d – well Melody especially – would be eternally grateful.’

  ‘You spoil all my fun, but yes, I suppose Tori would prefer it to be done privately,’ Melody said.

  Aidan sighed with relief.

  ‘Just you, her, some romantic music,’ Melody smiled, dreamily, as she imagined the wonderful romantic proposal that Aidan had planned for her best friend. ‘Maybe you’d ask her under the stars, dancing barefoot on the sand.’

  ‘Will you leave the poor man alone to plan his own… question,’ Isla said, glancing over at Elliot who was now trying on a tiara with a pearl necklace and posing in front of the mirror.

  ‘Sorry, you’re right. I’m sure you have something amazing planned,’ Melody said.

  ‘Well, I hope so,’ Aidan said, fishing out his wallet as Melody rang up the sale on the till. He slipped the ring box into his coat pocket and waved goodbye to them. ‘See you tomorrow night. Thanks for the help, Elliot.’

  Elliot waved goodbye as he wrapped another beaded chain around his neck and Aidan left.

  ‘Elliot Rosewood,’ Melody teased, putting her hands on her hips. ‘Are you intending to try on every item in the shop?’

  Elliot grinned. ‘Yup.’

  ‘And why aren’t you at school?’ Melody suddenly realised the time; it was only just after lunch time.

  ‘Today was the last day. I don’t go back now until September. Last day of term always finishes at lunch time so all the teachers can go on holiday early.’

  Melody laughed at that summary.

  ‘And we had an appointment with Karie again, she gave me some chocolate buttons.’

  ‘Did she? That’s nice of her,’ Melody said and turned back to Isla. ‘How did it go with the social worker?’

  ‘Oh fine,’ Isla said. ‘They’re really happy with his progress.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Karie thinks we might be able to make the adoption legal soon as they still can’t find his mum. Sadie seems to have completely disappeared off the face of the earth. Last time anyone heard from her she was in Australia but now they think she might be in Thailand. The powers that be in charge of our case would prefer to keep my guardianship as a residence order just in case Sadie comes back and suddenly wants to play at being mum of the year. Stripping her of her parental responsibility is a huge legal headache but I would prefer to make it all formal so Elliot stays with me permanently.’

  Melody’s heart dropped. ‘They can’t take him away from you.’

  Isla shook her head. ‘They have no intention of doing that. They want the best thing for Elliot and he is happy with me. Karie loves Leo too and can see how good he is for Elliot. As long as Sadie stays lost, there won’t be an issue. I just don’t want her to come back in a few years and try to take him. I doubt she ever would, she’s never been the maternal type and I can’t see that the courts would rule in her favour anyway, as she walked out on him four years ago, but I hate having all this hanging over our heads. Karie thinks, as it’s been over a year and we still haven’t been able to make contact with her, we might be able to push for a formal adoption soon so we’ll have to see.’

  ‘God, I hope you can get it sorted soon,’ Melody said. ‘It’s crazy that she walked out on him, never made any contact with him since, and the law says she still has parental responsibility. Surely she gave all that up the day she abandoned him.’

  ‘You’d think, wouldn’t you. Apparently, we have to protect her human rights or some other such crap. I’m not too worried. She has no interest in Elliot, she made that perfectly clear when she walked out of his life. I just want it all sorted legally so it can’t come back to bite us.’

  ‘I get that.’ Melody let out a heavy sigh. ‘God, there are times when I wish Matthew had never met that woman. Apart from the fact that she gave us this wonderful little man.’

  ‘I miss Daddy,’ Elliot said, simply, as he tried on a sapphire choker.

  Melody winced that he had overheard their conversation. His hearing was fine-tuned to any conversation he shouldn’t be listening to. She wasn’t concerned that he had heard them talk about Matthew, but she certainly didn’t want him to worry about this legal nightmare that Sadie had left them with. She knew Isla talked to him often about Matthew so that he wouldn’t forget him and to help him come to terms with his father’s death. It was important that they were all open about how Matthew’s death made them feel so Elliot would know it was normal to have these emotions.

  ‘I miss him too,’ Melody said, honestly. ‘There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him.’

  She waited to see if Elliot wanted to talk about him some more. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn’t. She did miss Matthew; she used to talk to him most days when she was in London and he was living down here. Being a twin, they had shared this close bond all the way through their life and some days it was still hard to believe she would never see him again.

  She wondered what he would make of this sort-of date she had with Jamie that night. He and Jamie had been good friends. Would he have been delighted for them or would he have played the protective brother card and told Jamie he wasn’t allowed to kiss her until her wedding night? She smiled at that thought. He had always looked out for her. When their dad would tell her off for being clumsy, when their dad left and their mum fell apart, Matthew was always there for her. Now she had to pay him back through his son, be there for Elliot in any way that she could.

  Elliot simply nodded and turned his attention back to the jewellery he was trying on. He so rarely cried for Matthew. He had been four when Matthew had died just over a year ago and although initially he’d had nightmares, still did sometimes, he had adjusted very quickly to living with Isla instead. The counsellor had said that children of his age didn’t really have an understanding of death and were much more accepting of it. Melody bit her lip as he tried on a bracelet. It would be wonderful if she could just switch off from her grief like that too.

  She decided to change the subject away from the adoption nightmare. She turned back to Isla.

  ‘Hey, have you heard the gossip about Mum?’

  ‘No, what’s the news?’ Isla said.

  She looked at Elliot but as his attention was elsewhere she didn’t think he would be listening.

  ‘Apparently, according to the grapevine that is Agatha, she’s dating Trevor Harris,’ Melody whispered.

  ‘Nooo! Really?’

  ‘I know, that’s what I thought. I never thought she would date anyone ever again. She always seems so angry at everyone; how did she mellow enough for Trevor to ask her out on a date?’

  ‘She’s not angry at me,’ Elliot said as he pinned a large emerald brooch to his chest.

  Melody cringed that Elliot had overheard that too. She had seen her mum get frustrated with Elliot on several occasions, but he never took her seriously, always finding her grumpiness something to giggle at. And when
he laughed at her, Melody sometimes saw a glimpse of her old mum, the one who used to play, bake and laugh with her children growing up. She was obviously very fond of Elliot. He was the only one who could get under her skin, make her let her guard down. Melody was glad that Elliot saw that side of her and not the bitter woman Melody had come to know.

  ‘It’s true,’ Isla says. ‘Elliot seems to mellow her. I think things are starting to change with her. I came round to her house the other day to collect Elliot and they were making cakes together and actually laughing. Either Elliot is having a positive influence over her or someone else is.’

  ‘If he makes her happy, then I’m happy,’ Melody said, referring to Trevor. ‘He seems very serious though. She doesn’t need any more help taking life seriously.’

  ‘Who knows what they get up to behind closed doors,’ Isla said, which Melody hoped was suitably vague enough for Elliot. ‘They could be learning the ukulele, belly dancing or have a whole host of… toys and, um, paraphernalia underneath the bed.’

  ‘She has a toy in her drawers next to her bed,’ Elliot said, simply, as he pinned a sapphire-studded fascinator to his head.

  ‘Oh god, I don’t want to know,’ Isla muttered, quietly.

  ‘It’s bright pink with glittery bits and knobbly lumps down the side. It buzzes when you turn it on, but I think it’s broken as it didn’t seem to do much more than that, except for spinning around a bit. Not sure why it was in her bedroom though. I didn’t ask her because I’m not allowed in her bedroom.’

  Melody felt the laughter bubble up in her chest as Isla stared at him in shock.

  ‘Then why were you in there?’ Isla eventually said. ‘If Nanny asks you not to go somewhere in her house, then I expect you not to go there.’

  Elliot had the grace to look suitably embarrassed. ‘Because I’d picked her some flowers and took them in there to leave by her bed as a surprise, but then I knocked the vase over and water went everywhere. I grabbed loads of toilet paper to clean it up and I opened the drawer to make sure no water had gone in there and saw the pink toy.’