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

by Holly Martin

  ‘I love it, you couldn’t have chosen a more perfect ring,’ Tori said as she angled her hand around so it caught the light. ‘I really do love you, Aidan Jackson, you make me so blissfully happy. I cannot wait to be married to you and have your baby.’

  Aidan kissed her. Melody’s heart filled with joy. Her friend had found her happy ever after.

  The kiss continued and it was clear it was very passionate and Melody felt a bit guilty for watching.

  She turned to Jamie and motioned for him to turn off the video. They had captured the proposal. This was private.

  Jamie looked at his phone and frowned.

  ‘Did you get it?’ Melody whispered. They obviously couldn’t ask Aidan and Tori to do it again.

  Jamie pressed a few buttons and then nodded. ‘Yes I have. I didn’t think I had for a moment. I can’t believe they’re going to have a baby. They are going to make such brilliant parents.’

  ‘I know. That was so romantic.’ Melody was smiling happily as she sat down and leant against the rock, her hand over her heart.

  Jamie sat down next to her. ‘Even I have to admit that was pretty much perfect.’

  ‘That’s what a true love story is supposed to be like,’ Melody said, in a dreamy whisper.

  ‘Is that what you want?’ Jamie said, a note of worry entering his hushed tones.

  ‘With the right man, at the right time, yes.’

  Jamie leaned his head back on the rock, looking thoughtful.

  ‘You don’t need to worry, I’m not expecting that from you,’ Melody said.

  He turned to look at her again. ‘I’m not the right man?’

  She paused before answering. She couldn’t tell him yet that she’d fallen head over heels in love with him and that she’d been in love with him for months. She had to remember she needed to take this slowly.

  ‘I think you could be,’ she said, carefully.

  He continued to watch her and she knew she needed to add more.

  ‘But now is definitely not the right time.’

  He nodded as if he accepted that and she decided to change the subject.

  ‘Let’s see if they’ve finished kissing and then we can offer our congratulations and get out of here,’ Melody said, kneeling up and peering over the rock to check.

  To her horror, however, Tori and Aidan had moved to the beanbag bed that Aidan had brought down to the cave so they could watch the sunset over the sea together. Tori was naked and quickly wrestling the last of the clothes from Aidan as the kiss continued urgently.

  Melody ducked back down before she saw anything else.

  ‘Are they finished?’ Jamie said.

  Melody shook her head. ‘I don’t think they are going to be finished any time soon.’

  Jamie looked at her in confusion and then his eyes widened in shock. ‘You’re kidding.’

  ‘No, I wish I was.’

  ‘We need to stop them before they get too carried away,’ Jamie said.

  A moan drifted down the cave.

  ‘I’d say it’s too late for that.’

  Jamie scrabbled to his knees and peeped over the rock for a second before quickly ducking back down. ‘Crap, you’re right.’

  Melody giggled. ‘You didn’t have to look.’

  ‘I thought you might be exaggerating.’

  ‘That’s one hell of a successful proposal.’

  ‘When I propose to you, I want that kind of reaction,’ Jamie said.

  ‘Make sure you don’t do it somewhere public then.’

  ‘Duly noted.’

  Melody replayed his words. When I propose to you, not if. Her little romantic heart soared with happiness. While the rational side of her brain knew it was just an off-hand comment, her romantic side won out and she couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face.

  Another groan came down the cave, this time from Aidan, which burst her little happy bubble.

  ‘What are we going to do? We can’t go out there and interrupt them, but I can’t sit here and wait till they’ve finished. It’s embarrassing listening to that,’ Melody said.

  ‘It’s worse than that. When they’ve finished, we can’t even go out there then. They’ll know we were here the whole time and heard or saw them at it. We’re stuck here all night now, until they’ve gone.’

  Melody realised he was right. ‘Your lasagne is in the oven.’

  ‘Yes, that isn’t going to be fit to eat by the time we get back. I’ll ask Leo to swing by and turn the oven off so it doesn’t burn.’

  His fingers raced across the screen on his phone as he texted and the moaning got louder.

  Jamie pulled out some earphones from his pocket and plugged them into his phone, then passed her one earpiece.

  She sighed and put it in her ear. Jamie turned on the music and Ed Sheeran started playing. The moans got louder and Jamie turned up the volume. Melody snuggled into his shoulder, trying to get comfortable on the cold stone floor. It was going to be a long night.

  But as he put his arm around her and kissed her head, she thought it might not be too bad after all.

  13

  Jamie leaned his head back on the rock and smiled. The evening hadn’t gone anywhere near as planned. He was cold and stiff, his bum had gone numb, he was hungry. He had listened to his brother have sex three times, which was three times too many as far as he was concerned. He hadn’t had a chance to properly talk with Melody; although they had been whispering a little, they were conscious that they might be overheard, so had sat in relative silence most of the time. The battery on his phone had died as well so they were left without any music. They had resorted to playing a silent game of Rock, Paper, Scissors for the longest time, which wasn’t ideal. It had been a bit of a disaster.

  Except, right now, Melody was fast asleep, snuggled against his chest with his arm around her, and it just felt so right. Her head was rolled back slightly, as if she was looking up at him, and her warm breath on his neck was the most wonderful feeling in the world. He looked down at her, at her long blonde lashes casting shadows on her sun-kissed cheeks. Little freckles had started to appear over the last few weeks on her cheekbones and on the top of her nose. They were cute and he had an urge to kiss every one of them. This close up he could see almost every detail of her skin, the tiny laughter lines around her eyes, the faint, silvery scar just above her eyebrow, probably from some childhood injury – he wanted to kiss that too. Her face was unadorned with any make-up, so she had this natural glow. Her lips were a perfect peony pink, parted slightly now as she slept

  He heard movement from the other side of the cave. He didn’t think his brother and Tori had sat down to eat yet, preferring to spend the night making love under the glow of the moon and stars instead. But if the woman he loved had just said yes to his proposal, he imagined he’d want to spend the night making love to her as well.

  ‘Let’s go home,’ he heard Tori say.

  Jamie’s heart leapt. Finally.

  ‘But the food,’ Aidan said.

  ‘All I want is you and it’s getting a bit chilly now,’ Tori said.

  ‘Let’s take the food home and we can eat some of it in bed,’ Aidan suggested.

  ‘Good plan. This is all so beautiful, I’m sorry we didn’t get to sit down and eat dinner properly.’

  ‘Tonight has been the best night of my life,’ Aidan said. ‘I wouldn’t change a single second of it.’

  Apart from letting his brother overhear him have sex, Jamie thought.

  He heard them move around for a few minutes, presumably getting dressed and gathering the food, before the lights were turned off, plunging him and Melody into darkness. He heard them talking and giggling as they left, until there was only silence in the cave and the sound of the waves lapping onto the beach.

  He waited a few more minutes to be sure that Aidan and Tori had definitely gone, before he decided to wake Melody up.

  He stroked his hand through her hair, which was like silk, but she didn’t stir
. He hugged her gently and kissed her head.

  ‘Melody,’ he said, quietly.

  He felt her stir in the darkness and then her body tensed as she was probably a bit confused where she was. It was pitch black here and he couldn’t see her at all; no wonder she was a bit scared.

  ‘It’s OK, you’re OK,’ he said, softly.

  He felt the tension leave her immediately and he liked that she knew she was safe with him.

  ‘Jamie?’ she said, groggily. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Aidan and Tori have just left. I thought we could go home.’

  ‘Oh.’ Realisation entered her voice as she clearly remembered where she was. ‘I didn’t think they would ever leave.’

  ‘They didn’t even eat anything; they just kept having sex again and again and again. It was torture,’ Jamie said.

  ‘My Eve’s Pudding? They didn’t bloody eat it after all that? We came here for nothing.’

  He smiled at her indignant anger. She hadn’t really minded being stuck here because the proposal had been so romantic, but not eat her beloved Eve’s Pudding and there was hell to pay.

  ‘They took it home with them,’ Jamie said.

  Melody made a noise of annoyance. ‘I should think so too.’

  ‘OK, stay here, I’m going to switch the generator back on so we can at least get out of the cave safely.’

  ‘I’ll come with you.’

  ‘There’s no need for both of us to fall arse over tit trying to get out. And don’t forget, I have a reputation of being a nice guy to keep up. I couldn’t let you go and fumble around in the darkness while I sat here on my butt.’

  ‘Fair point,’ Melody laughed.

  As he moved, he felt his coat, which he’d draped round her, slip off her shoulders. He quickly felt around to pull it tighter around her and accidentally grazed her breast.

  She burst out laughing.

  ‘Groping me in the darkness definitely doesn’t fit with your nice guy image.’

  He laughed. ‘No, it doesn’t. I’ll be getting a reputation as a bad boy. All the women will be falling over themselves to be with me.’

  Melody fell silent and he knew immediately it was the wrong thing to say. Of course it was. Why could he never say the right thing? He knew that this friends with dating thing was supposed to make it easier for him, make him relax more and not worry about what he did or said, but then he made some stupid off-hand joke about other women. He didn’t want anyone else. He wanted Melody. He knew he needed to say something else.

  ‘And then I’ll be fighting them off with a stick. “Sorry ladies, I’ve already found the woman of my dreams, you’re too late.”’

  The woman of his dreams? Shit. That was way too much, too soon. They’d been on two half dates, if this could be classed as such, and he’d just told her she was the woman of his dreams.

  But to his surprise he felt her lean into him. ‘I think if we’re going to cement this bad boy reputation, you grabbing me and kissing me in the cave would go some way towards achieving that.’

  He nearly sighed with relief. He’d somehow pulled it back. He reached down to stroke her face and poked her in the eye.

  ‘Ow,’ Melody cried.

  ‘Shit, sorry. It really is dark in here.’

  ‘It’s OK,’ Melody said, though it really wasn’t.

  ‘Shall I try again?’ Jamie said.

  ‘Yes.’

  He reached out again to find her face and aimed his hands a bit lower to try to cup her cheeks. This time he ended up shoving his finger up her nose.

  Seriously? What the hell was wrong with him?

  ‘Sorry,’ Jamie said again but Melody was laughing, which was something of a relief.

  ‘Why don’t we wait until we get home?’ Melody said.

  ‘Good idea,’ Jamie said. ‘Stay here a second.’

  He scrabbled up and slowly, with his hands out in front of him, felt his way around the rock. Once round the other side, there was some natural light coming in from the entrance to the cave and he was able to see a bit better. He moved gingerly across the cave floor, navigating his way around the table and chairs until he came to the generator, and then spent a few moments feeling around until he found the switch.

  Light filled the cave and he blinked against it briefly before he saw Melody emerging from the rocks at the back, blinking against the lights too. She looked adorable, her hair a bit mussed up, tumbling in curls over his jacket she was wearing. There was something very sexy about Melody wearing his clothes. Despite his promise to wait until they got back to his house, he moved across the cave towards her, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. She started a little at the unexpected gesture before kissing him back, circling her arms round his neck, pulling herself tighter against him.

  He pulled back slightly. ‘I like you in my jacket.’

  She grinned. ‘This do it for you, does it?’

  ‘Strangely, it does.’

  ‘It’s not that strange, lots of guys like the women they’re with to wear their shirts. Well, at least in the books I read they do. I presume that’s based on some kind of fact.’

  God, the thought of her wearing only his shirt made his stomach clench with need.

  ‘I love the idea of you in my bed, wearing only my shirt.’

  That was too soon as well, but her eyes widened with a mixture of fear and excitement.

  She swallowed.

  ‘I’d rather be naked in your bed,’ Melody said, clearly trying to show more confidence than she felt.

  He smiled. ‘That would work too. When you’re ready. There’s no rush.’

  She opened her mouth as if she was going to insist she was ready now, but she seemed to change her mind.

  He stroked her shoulders. ‘Let’s go back to mine. With any luck Leo will have got to the lasagne before it turned black and it will just be a case of reheating it.’

  She nodded. ‘I’m starving.’

  He took her hand, switched off the generator on the way out and they left the cave behind.

  The lasagne was black. Worse than that, it looked like a tray of molten tar. There was an apology note from Leo saying sorry for not getting there in time.

  Melody sighed. As second dates went, this one wasn’t turning out to be a big success either.

  Except she had got to spend the evening cuddled up in Jamie’s arms. And he had told her he wanted her in his bed. That had to count for something.

  ‘Beans on toast?’ Jamie offered as he poked at the burned mess. ‘That’s quick and easy.’

  ‘Sure, let me give you a hand.’ She grabbed a tin of beans, emptied it into the saucepan and put it on a low heat on the hob.

  Jamie picked up the bread bag and pulled out four slices and placed them under the grill.

  ‘So, you have your first jewellery workshop next week. Are you nervous?’

  ‘I am really. I don’t know if anyone will turn up. I kind of wanted to leave it open and flexible for the first one. It’s just a taster and then if they like it they might want to sign up to do a six-week course, focussing on a particular area. I’ve got some leaflets printed off explaining what kinds of methods they will be learning over the different six-week courses and I’ll do a little demonstration of a few different things at the end. I just have to engage them enough in this session for them to want to come back for more. That’s if anyone turns up.’

  ‘I’m sure you’ll get lots of takers,’ Jamie said. ‘Lots of people will be interested in that sort of thing. I’ve run one-day courses myself in the past, focussing on pottery, and I’ve had loads of people attending.’

  ‘Really? Oh, that makes me feel better. It’d be awful if no one turned up. What sort of people came?’

  ‘Mostly the older ladies of the village, they love a bit of craft.’

  Melody smiled and wondered if it was the lure of being taught by the sexy Jamie Jackson that had the old ladies turning up in their droves.

  ‘I am a bit nervous. I have
no idea about their capabilities and experience. I might get people who have done lots of this kind of thing before and others who will have no clue so I’ll have to tailor the course to suit.’

  ‘OK, why don’t you practise on me? I have never done anything with jewellery before so I will be utterly clueless. You can then see what the worst-case-scenario student will be and cater accordingly when it comes to the real thing. I’ll tell you if your explanations and demonstrations are clear enough or give you suggestions if I think the course is lacking anything.’

  ‘OK, that’s a great idea. Thank you.’ She watched Sirius careen into the table leg, bounce off and chase an imaginary foe across the room. ‘And then we have our puppy training class Saturday.’

  ‘I think half the village will be turning up for that.’

  ‘I think it’s lovely that all eleven puppies were rehomed here in the village. It means that Rocky and Sirius still get to see their brothers and sisters. And Beauty still gets to bump into her children.’

  ‘I think it will be chaos with all the siblings meeting each other again, all together in one room. I don’t think there will be much training done in that first session. And we have the sandcastle competition on Saturday afternoon. Fancy being on my team?’ Jamie said.

  Melody smiled. ‘I’d love that. I’ve heard it gets super competitive though.’

  He laughed. ‘Oh it does, especially between families and friends. Everyone wants to prove they are the best at building sandcastles.’

  ‘You know you’re not likely to win if I’m on your team.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know about that. You can be my lucky charm.’

  ‘I’m not particularly lucky.’

  ‘Well I feel very lucky being with you.’

  She felt her smile grow at that.

  ‘Toast is ready,’ Jamie said.

  Melody peered at the beans. ‘These are done too.’

  He placed the toast on two plates and she poured out the beans while he got two glasses of water and took them over to the table.

  She picked up the two plates and carried them over just as Jamie sat down. As she leaned over the table to hand him his plate, she stubbed her toe on the table leg and jerked the plates she was holding in shock. The two slices of beans on toast slithered off the plate, flipped over and landed on Jamie’s lap.