The Holiday Cottage by the Sea: An utterly gorgeous feel-good romantic comedy

by Holly Martin

  ‘Tell me what?’

  ‘The fruit-picking, it takes place at night.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘The berries are best picked at night when it’s cold. They seem to retain their juiciness when we pick them at night.’

  Tori stared at him. ‘But the whole point of me doing the fruit-picking was that I wanted to be outside for a change.’

  ‘You will be but… at night. It’s only for a few hours each night, so you’ll have plenty of time during the day to enjoy the sun and the sea or go skateboarding or catch up with Melody and Isla. I’m sorry, Emily is normally really good at passing on that information. She must have forgot.’

  He was right. The main point of this break was to spend time with Melody and Isla and, if she had to pick the fruit at night, that would give her a lot more time to spend with her friends during the day.

  ‘It’s fine.’

  ‘You say that a lot, when really it isn’t,’ Aidan said.

  ‘No, it is. I agreed to do the fruit-picking and I wanted to spend some time with my friends. So this really does work out better than I planned.’

  ‘OK, good. We don’t start until Monday night, so you’ve got the rest of the weekend to find your way around, catch up with Melody and Isla and meet some more of the locals. If you give me your car keys, I’ll get your car later once the lane has cleared. There’s milk in the fridge and fresh bread and eggs in the cupboard with some of our famous heartberry jam. Emily has made you some biscuits too, they’re in the tin. Is there anything else you need?’

  He suddenly seemed in a hurry to leave, probably before she found out any other little problems with the house or extra animals that she was supposed to look after.

  Tori shook her head as she rooted in her pocket and handed over her car keys.

  ‘And why don’t you come to the farm tomorrow night, I’ll cook you dinner to apologise for…’ he gestured to the cottage, encompassing all the things she hadn’t envisaged when she had agreed to come here.

  She tried to find the words that would excuse her from what sounded like a bit of a date but couldn’t think of a reason fast enough.

  ‘Seven o’clock OK?’ Aidan asked as he inched towards the front door and to her frustration she found herself nodding. ‘Good, I’ll see you then, if not before, and if you need anything, anything at all, my number is stuck to the fridge.’

  He gave a little wave and headed out the front door.

  She looked around the cottage and its tiny size and cuteness made her smile, the smile growing even bigger when she looked out at the view again, as she envisioned herself sitting out on the patio every morning, having breakfast.

  Her eyes flicked to the fridge where Aidan’s number was scrawled on a blue Post-it note, Sellotaped to the door. Her heart skipped, and she didn’t like the way it betrayed her like that. No relationships, no men, had been her mantra for far too long, yet it seemed that she had herself a sort of date the following evening.

  5

  ‘You have a date?’ Emily all but squeaked at Aidan.

  He took his cap off and brushed his hand through his hair as he tried not to look at his sister.

  ‘With Tori?’ Emily squeaked again.

  ‘I told you, I told you they would be married,’ Agatha called from her corner in the café.

  ‘It’s not a date,’ Aidan said, not entirely sure what he could call it if it wasn’t a date and why exactly he had felt the need to ask her in the first place.

  ‘Sounds like a date,’ his brother Leo said, passing him a smirk as he returned his empty coffee cup to the counter. Leo was the same height as him, with the same unruly dark hair, but although he was big and muscular, Aidan was a lot broader and probably stronger. There had been several occasions when they had been growing up that they had ended up in a physical fight and Aidan had won every time. Well, almost every time. He wondered if they were too old for a fight now because he’d like nothing more than to wipe that smug smile off his brother’s face.

  Leo continued to smile at him as if he knew exactly what he was thinking and didn’t care. That was Leo all over, he didn’t care about risk. He used to be a fireman until a leg injury forced him to take early retirement. Now he found his thrills working in his own firework display company.

  ‘She’s a red-head,’ Emily said, knowingly, and Leo nodded as if he understood, as if the colour of Tori’s hair had anything to do with it. Aidan had only ever been out with one red-head in his life and that had ended in total disaster, so why Tori’s red hair should explain why he had found himself asking her out on a date he didn’t know.

  ‘Is she hot?’ Leo asked.

  ‘Leo Jackson!’ Emily said, her hands on her hips. ‘Whether a girl is hot or not has nothing to do with compatibility or chemistry and personality. And thankfully Aidan has a little more class when it comes to choosing women.’

  ‘Is she?’ Leo asked again, ignoring his sister.

  Aidan didn’t answer because Tori was beautiful; those wonderful large green eyes, that cute little nose, her freckles and heart-stopping smile. But Emily was right, there was more to Tori than that. She was quirky. How many girls did he know who enjoyed skateboarding or origami? She was different, and he liked that about her. He had enjoyed their banter and how easy she was to talk to. But that still didn’t explain why he had asked her out on a date. No, it wasn’t a date.

  ‘I just felt bad about the cottage. You know it has more problems every week and with Beast and probably Dobby turning up on a regular basis, and the fact that her idea of spending long sunny days picking fruit went out the window when I told her we had to pick the heartberries at night, I felt like I needed to do something to persuade her to stay, to show her that her trip to Sandcastle Bay isn’t going to be a totally horrible experience.’

  ‘Is sleeping with her going to be part of the welcome party as well?’ Leo asked, leaning over and stealing a freshly baked cookie from the tray that Emily had just taken from the oven. Emily swiped at his hand, but Leo already had it and took a quick bite before she could snatch it back.

  ‘No,’ Aidan said.

  ‘But you didn’t feel the need to invite Jim, the fruit-picker we had come stay at Blossom Cottage last year, round to your house for dinner,’ Emily said.

  ‘No,’ Aidan agreed.

  ‘Or Stefan the year before,’ Leo said, through a mouthful of cookie.

  ‘Look, she’s good friends with Melody and Isla. They’d both be mad at me if I didn’t make their friend welcome. And then by proxy they’d be mad at you. And you wouldn’t want Isla to be mad at you, would you,’ Aidan said to Leo and had the pleasure of watching him swallow the cookie before he had properly chewed.

  Leo coughed. ‘No, I definitely wouldn’t want that.’

  Aidan smiled, pleased that he had managed to turn the tables on his brother. Leo came across as cocky and confident but there was one person he had a soft spot for and that was his friend Isla. Though why he hadn’t acted on it, Aidan didn’t know.

  ‘It’s dinner with an employee, that’s all it is. It’s not a date, it’s not a prelude to something more. Just dinner,’ Aidan said, not sure if he was trying to convince himself or his family. He glanced over at Agatha who was smiling ecstatically at this turn of events. ‘And what on earth possessed you to tell Tori that me and her would get married?’

  ‘Because you will,’ Agatha answered serenely.

  Aidan resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

  ‘And because you need someone nice, but someone with a bit of fire, to challenge you and bring you out of this funk you seem to have got yourself into. I think Tori will be perfect for you.’

  ‘She’s here for two weeks, she will be spending most of her time picking fruit and any spare time with Melody and Isla. It’s hardly going to be the romance of the century,’ Aidan said.

  Agatha stood up and wandered over to them. She looked sweet and innocent, though anyone who was familiar with her knew this wasn’t the case.


  ‘Care to make it interesting?’ Agatha said, stealing a cookie from the tray too.

  ‘Oi!’ Emily said, though Aidan noticed Agatha didn’t get her hand swiped like Leo did.

  ‘What did you have in mind?’ Aidan said, knowing his mum would clip him round the ear if she knew he had been encouraging Agatha to gamble.

  ‘Fifty pounds you’ll be walking Tori down the aisle within the year.’

  Aidan laughed. Tori was sweet and cute, there was a definite spark between them and he knew they’d both get on well at dinner the following night. But she wasn’t remotely interested in any kind of relationship and neither was he. At best they might end up having a little fun over the next few weeks, which would finish once she went back to London, but there was never any chance of it turning serious and marriage was something he was never going to do again.

  He offered out his hand to shake Agatha’s. ‘Deal.’

  * * *

  Tori walked along the beach towards The Mermaid. She waved at Mark and Mindy as they jogged past in their high-vis gear and then watched the children playing in the sea. She spotted Melody’s mum and Elliot on the beach though they didn’t see her. Elliot seemed happy, despite what had happened over the last year. Sandcastle Bay was an idyllic little haven, and the perfect place to raise a child. Her thoughts turned to Isla and Melody and the new life they had built for themselves here. It was a big change for all of them but, from talking to Melody, it seemed they were both happy here and it was the right decision for them all.

  The pub was quite noisy and filled with people, probably locals and tourists as they swapped stories about their day. For a moment she looked around the pub trying to see Melody and Isla before she spotted them, Melody waving to attract her attention.

  They both stood up to hug her and then they all sat back down.

  ‘How was the sandcastle-building competition?’ Tori asked, taking a sip of the cloudy cider waiting for her on the table.

  ‘Great, we won, but then visual displays are kind of my thing,’ Isla said.

  Tori laughed. ‘I’d expect no less.’

  She looked at Melody, dying to ask about Jamie, but Melody had been embarrassed earlier when Tori had suspected something, so she wasn’t sure whether to push it. They used to tell each other everything, but then she hadn’t exactly been forthcoming about what had happened between her and Matthew either.

  ‘How was the rest of your afternoon at the shop?’ Tori tried instead, and she was surprised to see Melody blushing again.

  ‘It was good,’ Melody said, quickly, a smile filling her face.

  Tori glanced over at Isla and saw she was smirking at Melody’s reaction. ‘Any visitors?’

  Ah, Isla knew something was going on too.

  ‘Yes, a few tourists and Mr Davies came in to buy a present for his wife,’ Melody said, nonchalantly, as if they were genuinely interested in who had come to her shop.

  ‘Anyone else?’ Isla pushed.

  Melody smiled.

  ‘And Klaus invited me to Stormy Skies to look at some new sculptures that he and Jamie had done. Well, mainly I think Klaus wanted me to see Jamie’s new piece, it was very good. It was called ‘Love’ and it was this hurricane-style sculpture surrounding a heart, it was so beautiful,’ Melody gushed.

  Tori looked between the two of them. ‘OK, what’s going on?’

  ‘Melody’s in love,’ Isla said, with all the diplomacy and tact of a big sister teasing her younger sibling.

  Tori looked back at Melody in surprise. In all their conversations over the phone, Melody had never mentioned that she was seeing anyone. Was something more going on here with Jamie than a little crush?

  ‘Oh shush, I am not in love,’ Melody giggled. ‘I just love Jamie’s sculptures. He is so talented. I can appreciate art without there being something else going on.’

  Tori noticed the blush and the fast talking which Melody did whenever she was trying to change the subject.

  Isla smirked and Melody saw it.

  ‘You can stop smiling. You have your own crush I could tell everyone about,’ Melody said.

  ‘Oh, come on, nothing is going to happen between me and Leo Jackson,’ Isla said, and that name jolted a memory. Tori knew that name though she didn’t know why. ‘He’s Elliot’s godfather so of course he hangs around. Leo adores him and he’s someone nice to talk to and have a bit of banter with. It’s never going to be anything more than that. Besides, you know I’m off men at the moment.’

  ‘Hear, hear!’ Tori said, raising her glass to chink against Isla’s in solidarity.

  Isla sighed. ‘That’s kind of depressing actually, that we’ve both been so burned in love that we never want to risk our hearts again.’

  ‘I take it you haven’t heard from Daniel?’

  Isla shook her head. ‘I know I should be grateful for a lucky escape. He dumped me as soon as I told him I would be having custody of Elliot, a few days after my brother had died. What kind of asshole does that? And I get that raising a child who isn’t his isn’t up there on his list of priorities, but we were supposed to be forever, for better for worse and all that. I know we weren’t married but we had talked about getting married and having children some day. I feel conned, as if I didn’t really know the man I dated for two and a half years. It seems like such a waste of my time. He never wanted a serious commitment from me, he never really loved me – he can’t have if he finished things with me so easily. So yes, I feel a bit anti-man at the moment.’

  ‘I still can’t believe he did that to you,’ Tori said. ‘Daniel was supposed to be one of the good guys.’

  ‘I know. I’ve always thought I was a good judge of character and now I’m doubting that ability,’ Isla said.

  ‘Are you still anti-men too?’ Melody asked Tori.

  ‘Me and relationships are not a good mix.’

  ‘I don’t know why you are both so anti-love. I want nothing more than to settle down with a wonderful man who loves me, raise a family with him, grow old and grey together. I know Luc broke your heart when he cheated on you, we were there, we saw how much that ripped you apart. You were so scared about trusting in a relationship after it destroyed your mum when her marriage fell apart. And he knew about that and he let you down. I get why you would be scared about starting a new relationship, I never want you to go through that again. But just because you’ve both had relationships that ended badly, that doesn’t mean you can never be happy with a man again,’ Melody said.

  ‘Men are assholes,’ Isla said, decisively.

  ‘What’s an asshole?’ came a little voice from behind Tori. She turned to see the startling blue eyes and blond hair of Matthew’s five-year-old son, Elliot. His eyes were wide as he looked back at Tori. She’d met him a few times when he was much younger. She wondered if he remembered her, though he was really only a baby then. She couldn’t believe how much he’d changed in the time that had flown by. Of course, she’d seen photos of him over the last year, but he looked more and more like Matthew every day. Elliot was the spitting image of him and Tori wasn’t quite prepared to deal with this younger, cuter, cheeky version of her friend face to face.

  She forced the smile to stay on her face and looked up at the tall man holding Elliot’s hand.

  He had dark curly hair and indigo blue eyes and was so obviously Aidan’s brother; the resemblance was striking. He had that raw sexual magnetism that his brother had, the kind that made someone catch their breath. But whereas Aidan was gentle and laid-back, this man had a bit of an edge to him.

  She glanced over at Isla, who had gone pink, staring at him like one might stare at a delicious chocolate cake, topped with caramel and marshmallows and everything that tasted good, but you knew was bad for you. Judging by Isla’s reaction to him, and as Tori had already met Jamie, this must be Leo Jackson.

  Isla recovered herself and held out her arms for Elliot. He immediately climbed up on her lap and she peppered him with kisses.

 
‘How’s my favourite boy?’

  Elliot grinned and snuggled in closer to her. ‘What’s an asshole?’

  Tori smirked; he clearly wasn’t going to let it go.

  ‘It’s a not very nice word for some horrible men.’

  ‘Oh. Leo isn’t an asshole, is he?’ Elliot asked as he played with the crystal raindrop around Isla’s neck.

  Isla looked up at Leo who was still standing there, not saying anything as he watched the two of them together. She grinned. ‘No, he is most definitely not an asshole.’

  ‘Good to know,’ Leo said as he sat down at the table between Tori and Isla. He turned and gave Tori a smile. ‘I’m Leo Jackson, and you must be Tori Graham. I’ve heard all about you.’

  ‘You have?’ What on earth had he heard, she’d only been in the village five minutes.

  ‘Well, these two talk about you; they tell anyone who will listen how proud they are of you being an animator on all these big films. And Matthew used to talk my ear off about you.’

  That was a punch to the gut. Of course, coming to Sandcastle Bay, she was going to meet people who knew Matthew but she didn’t think that people would talk about him, especially not with her. In everyone’s eyes, she was just his sisters’ friend. And then she remembered why she knew Leo Jackson’s name. In her many conversations with Matthew, Leo had been mentioned frequently. He was godfather to Elliot. Leo wasn’t just someone who had known Matthew. This was Matthew’s best friend.

  ‘Matthew used to talk a lot about Tori?’ Melody asked in confusion.

  ‘Leo mentioned that this morning, when I said you were coming down here. He said that you and Matthew used to be a thing?’ Isla said, dropping another kiss onto Elliot’s head. ‘I said he was mistaken.’

  ‘How were you a thing with Matthew?’ Melody asked. ‘He lived down here, we lived in London.’

  ‘We weren’t a thing,’ Tori said, quickly.

  They both knew about her spin the bottle kiss with Matthew when they were thirteen – it had been the talk of the school – but she had never told them about her teenage crush on him, nor the lovely night they had spent together the first time they’d made love. Making a move on your best friend’s brother was never the done thing and, as they’d never had any kind of relationship in their teens, there didn’t seem to be a lot to tell them then.