Wedding Bells at Butterfly Cove

by Sarah Bennett

  Aaron straightened the corner of the fluffy white rug they’d found for Charlotte’s room then checked his watch. Damn. It had taken him longer than he expected to get everything unwrapped and installed. A high-pitched beep sounded from the kitchen, and he jogged down to answer the demanding summons of the tumble dryer. Hauling out the new sheets he’d purchased for Matty’s bed, he gave them a shake and studied them for creases. Madeline had insisted on ironing the pretty set they’d picked out for Charlie’s room—all bright smiling flowers with cheerful bees and butterflies dancing around them—and he supposed he should do the same for these.

  Madeline had left him to finish off about half an hour before and he’d thought they’d been about finished then, but he’d kept finding things to fiddle with and reposition. Anything to avoid the nervous feeling building inside. What if he’d overstepped the mark? Maybe he should have left it to Kiki to choose what she wanted for their rooms. The last thing he wanted was for her to think he was trying to take over. He just wanted the place to look a bit more welcoming for them all. He shook the duvet cover again and sighed, picturing the perfectly dressed rooms at Butterfly Cove. Shoving clean sheets straight back on the bed might be fine for him, but he suspected that wouldn’t pass muster with either of the two sisters. He dumped the still-warm bedding onto the kitchen table and went to retrieve the iron.

  The phone in his pocket started to vibrate while he was in the middle of folding the ironing board away. Distracted from his task, he fumbled for the phone and the legs on the board began to slide open again. The ratchet clattered and he yanked his hand free just in time to avoid trapping his fingers. ‘Bugger!’

  He gave the board a baleful glare and a kick for good measure. It collapsed to the floor with a crash and he cursed again.

  A faint voice echoed from the handset still clutched in his palm. ‘Hello? Aaron, is that you?’

  ‘What? Oh, sorry, Kiki. Everything okay?’ He flipped the phone to speaker mode and balanced it carefully on the neat pile of ironed bedding before scooping the bundle into his arms.

  ‘Yes, we’re fine. I’m just leaving the supermarket and wondered whether you needed a lift or not?’

  He paused on the stairs. Hadn’t he been supposed to go with her to the shop? He really had let time slip away from him. ‘You should have let me know you were going. I would have given you a hand.’

  Kiki laughed. ‘And interrupt your hot date? I might not be good at lots of things, but the day I can’t manage a trip to the supermarket on my own will be the day I give up for good.’

  There she went again, running herself down. He bit back the need to say anything. Making a joke, even a self-deprecating one, was a damn sight better than being on the verge of tears every five minutes like she had been the day before. ‘You’re right. I’d probably be more hindrance than help, unless you wanted a guided tour of the ready meals section. I’m back at the cottage so you can come straight home if you’re ready.’

  Silence greeted him for a long moment. ‘Home. Yes, I suppose it is. Well, assuming I can find my way back, we should be there in about twenty minutes.’

  Which would leave him just enough time to make Matty’s bed and add a few final touches. ‘Perfect. See you soon.’

  The sound of Kiki pulling up outside gave Aaron the perfect excuse to abandon his aimless flicking through the TV channels. It was closer to forty minutes since they’d spoken and he’d driven himself mad second and third guessing whether changing the bedrooms had been a good idea. What was done was done, and he hadn’t exactly broken the bank in the process. Anything they didn’t like could be replaced easily enough. Cursing himself for making a fuss over nothing, he shoved his feet into an old pair of flip-flops and met Kiki on the doorstep just in time to relieve her of a handful of carrier bags.

  ‘Planning on feeding an army?’ he said over his shoulder as he carried the first load into the kitchen.

  She laughed. ‘I got chatting to Mia and we decided to expand my job description a little bit.’

  He followed her back out to the car. ‘I’ll get the rest, you sort the kids out.’ A couple of the bags gave a metallic clank when he picked them up and he peered inside. They were full of trays, cake tins, and other baking paraphernalia. If she cooks anything like Mia… His stomach gave a rumble of anticipation. ‘You said something about a job description? Have I missed something?’

  Kiki straightened up, with Charlie attached to her hip. The little girl gave him a wave and he blew her a kiss. ‘Hello, gorgeous. Have you had a nice day?’

  ‘We made sandcastles. Mine was the bestest!’

  Matty had let himself out of the other side of the car. He turned to his sister. ‘Mine was bigger.’ Her lower lip stuck out, and he grinned at her. ‘But yours was prettier.’

  ‘Pretty!’ Charlie agreed with a clap of her hands.

  ‘Yes, darling. Very pretty.’ Kiki settled her more firmly on her hip and followed Aaron into the house. ‘I’m going to do some work for Mia. Help her with some cleaning a couple of mornings a week and a full day on Tuesdays to turn all the bedrooms. I’ll also bake a couple of times a week to help her keep on top of everything. It’s not much, but it’s a start, and I’m hoping to find something else in the paper to supplement it.’

  Aaron placed the rest of the shopping on the table and waited while Kiki set Charlie on her feet and sent the children into the living room to play. There was a lightness about her, a flicker of confidence as she talked about her job. It looked good on her, he decided.

  Making a start on unpacking, he paused in front of the cupboard he’d randomly picked for food storage. ‘If you want to rearrange things in here, you’d be welcome to.’

  She shook her head. ‘I couldn’t do that. I’ll work with whatever system you’ve already got in place.’

  He smiled. ‘That assumes there is a system. You’re going to be in here more than me so it makes sense to have things where you’d prefer them.’ Did that sound sexist? Like he assumed a woman’s place was in the kitchen? ‘Not that I won’t be in here, of course. I don’t expect you to wait on me, or anything like that. I just meant that if you’re going to be baking stuff for Mia…’ He forced himself to stop speaking. Really, he should just get a shovel so he could dig himself deeper.

  Her bright laughter assured him she hadn’t taken offence. ‘Show me where everything is for now and I’ll see how I get on, okay?’ Relieved, he pulled open the cupboard doors and gave her a quick run-through of what was where. They had the shopping bags emptied in a couple of minutes and all that remained on the table was a handful of ingredients.

  Kiki took a large frying pan and placed it on the hob. ‘I thought I’d make pasta for dinner. Is that all right with you?’

  A carb addict since his younger rugby-playing days, Aaron’s mouth began to water at the thought of a home-cooked spag bol. From the bundles of fresh herbs and vegetables, it looked like Kiki intended to make the sauce from scratch, not dump a jar of processed gloop on a bit of mince. ‘Sounds heavenly.’

  He folded his arms and leaned back against the counter next to the cooker. They were facing each other and he waited to speak until she glanced up from watching the olive oil she’d poured spread across the surface of the pan. ‘I meant what I said. I don’t expect you to cook for me. I didn’t invite you here to become a glorified housekeeper for me.’

  ‘I get it, but I’ll be making meals for the three of us anyway, so it’s really no trouble. Besides, I love to cook.’ She lifted the frying pan from the heat and eased the oil to the edges with a deft twist of her wrist. ‘I wouldn’t say no if you wanted to give me a hand, though.’ She nodded to the onions, mushrooms and herbs.

  ‘I’m on it.’ Aaron shifted to the other side of the hob, grabbed a knife and a wooden board and began to chop. ‘So, tell me more about what you’ll be doing for Mia.’

  He worked his way through the preparation tasks, handing each set of completed ingredients to
Kiki as he listened to her outline her new job. The familiar task left his mind free to wander and he started a mental list of things she would need that he could help her with—a costing sheet for each of the different items she would make, a basic spreadsheet to keep track of income and expenses, a rating sheet for different cleaning tasks.

  ‘Mia has an account set up at the local wholesaler’s, so you should speak to her about getting an extra card to use. You don’t want to be paying retail prices for ingredients.’

  ‘Oh. I never considered that.’

  He smiled. ‘I’m a numbers freak, it’s what I do. I can put a couple of things together for you when I get back at the weekend.’ She cast him a quizzical look and he racked his brain, trying to remember if he’d mentioned his trip. ‘I’ve got business meetings the next few days so I’ll be staying with my brother in London until Friday. It’ll give you a chance to settle in a bit without me underfoot, sort out your routine and that kind of thing.’

  Kiki bit her lip. ‘I… umm… I’ll need a key for the front door.’

  Stupid idiot! Fancy keep telling her this was her home and not even bothering to give her a key! Aaron raised his hand to smack his forehead and nearly poked himself in the eye with the knife’s handle in the process. ‘Sorry! Sorry, that should have been the first thing I gave you yesterday.’

  He quickly rinsed his hands under the tap then dug around in the drawer he’d been using as a dumping ground for things he hadn’t wanted to lose. Bits of paper, screwdrivers he’d meant to put back in his toolkit and a handful of foreign coins were all shoved aside as he searched. The drawer had taken on the properties of a TARDIS given the amount of crap he’d managed to cram into it. His fingers finally closed around the ring of keys. He pushed the top of the pile down and forced the drawer shut again.

  ‘I think every kitchen in the land has a junk drawer like that,’ Kiki said with a wry smile as he unhooked the spare key and handed it to her. She tucked it in her pocket then turned back to give the sauce a stir. ‘This is ready to go in the oven…’

  Matty rushed into the kitchen, eyes bright with excitement. ‘Mummy, Mummy, come and see!’ He hopped about from foot to foot, showing more animation than Aaron had seen from him even when they’d been playing on the beach the previous day.

  Kiki gave him an enquiring glance and Aaron schooled his features into as blank an expression as he could manage. She tapped her spoon on the side of the pan, then set it to rest on the edge of the sink. ‘I’m busy, darling, can’t it wait a minute?’

  Aaron had more than a sneaking suspicion the boy had been upstairs and seen his room. He bit his cheek to stop a smile and picked up the oven gloves. ‘I’ll sort this out. You’d better go and find out what the excitement is all about.’

  Chapter Eleven

  Kiki wiped her hands on a dish cloth and let Matty grab her hand and tow her out of the kitchen. ‘All right, little man, slow down a minute.’

  ‘There’s stars, and a racetrack, and Charlie’s got a bumblebee!’ He tugged her arm, urging her towards the stairs.

  ‘A bumblebee? Is she all right?’ Kiki followed on his heels, ears straining for any sounds of distress. She’d been stung by a bee once when she wasn’t much older than Charlie and it had hurt so bloody much she’d thought she was going to die. She’d been okay, but the poor bee had died, which had made her cry worse than the pain from the sting. Tender-hearted—that’s what her father had always called her. Neil used less pleasant terms for her natural sensitivity. Weak. Pathetic.

  ‘Look, Mummy!’ Matty tugged her through the doorway of Charlie’s room, his face wreathed in smiles. He was like her, her darling boy, so sweet and sensitive to others that it left him wide open to harm from cruel and careless words. At least he’d be guarded from those while living under the thatched roof of this pretty little cottage.

  He let go of her hand and ran forwards, taking a flying leap to land in the middle of Charlie’s bed. His sister giggled and bopped him on the head with the bright yellow-and-black fluffy bumblebee cushion she’d been cuddling. Kiki could only stare in wonder at the transformed space. The wallpaper was still a dowdy smattering of cornflowers, but it paled into insignificance in comparison to the bold, bright splashes of colour filling the room.

  Her eyes roamed, drinking it in, from the sunny bedding to the hot-pink lampshade covering a new bedside lamp, to the sunshine-yellow paper shade shielding what had been a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. Bright, fuzzy blankets had been draped over the basket-weave chair in the corner, and a selection of Charlie’s favourite toys were perched on the pink-and-yellow-striped cushion covering the seat. Mr Bunny had been given pride of place. The fluffy white rug beside the bed looked so soft and inviting that Kiki wanted to kick off her sandals and bury her toes in it.

  With a handful of well-placed accessories, the room had been transformed from a plain, uninviting adult space to a sunny haven. The stairs creaked, and she looked over her shoulder to see Aaron waiting one step below the landing. His sheepish, slightly uncertain expression brought out a devilish side she hadn’t previously been aware of. She folded her arms across her chest and tried to use her sternest tone, the one the children called her uh-oh voice. ‘Is this your doing?’

  Aaron stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, looked down at his feet and back up. ‘I just wanted to brighten the place up a bit.’

  He looked so crestfallen she couldn’t keep up the pretence for another second. ‘It’s wonderful. You’re wonderful. Thank you.’

  He let out a gasp of what could only be relief and a shy grin lit his face, showing a pair of dimples she’d never noticed before. His normal mega-watt grin quite distracted from the rest of his features, but this softer version amplified rather than smothered the pleasing lines and planes of his cheekbones and wide forehead. In the dim light of the landing, his pale eyes looked more grey than blue. Scruffy hair, casual clothes, broad through the chest and shoulders—such a marked contrast to Neil and his need to be immaculately turned out at all times.

  Handsome.

  The inappropriateness of the thought warmed her face and she turned away before he could notice. They were practically strangers, housemates and hopefully soon to be friends. But nothing more. She didn’t want any more, didn’t need any more. God knew she’d been through enough heartache with Neil; she should be relishing the thought of being on her own for the first time in her adult life.

  Matty ran over and hugged her around the waist, providing a welcome distraction from the embarrassing train of her thoughts. ‘You haven’t seen the best bit yet.’ He scampered away and fiddled with something next to Charlie’s bed. Kiki couldn’t hold back a gasp of delight as the tiny coloured LEDs entwined in the brass rails of the headboard lit up.

  ‘There’s a nightlight here by the door, too.’ Aaron’s voice sounded close to her ear, and she glanced back to find him peeking over her shoulder. His smile had kicked up about a thousand watts. ‘I thought it might help if she wakes up in the night, at least until she’s used to being here for a while.’

  ‘That’s very thoughtful, thank you. I can’t believe what you’ve done to the place in a few hours.’

  He shrugged one shoulder and the shy smile was back. ‘I had Madeline’s help and it was really no trouble. I want you all to be happy here.’

  She looked across at where her children were wrestling on the bed again, play-fighting over the smiley bumblebee cushion, more happy and relaxed than she’d seen them in weeks. ‘I think you’ve already seen to that.’

  Aaron straightened up, spots of colour high on his cheeks, like she’d made him blush with the simple truth. ‘Hey, Matty. Did you show Mummy your room?’

  Surrendering the prize of the cushion for something much better, Matty jumped off the bed. ‘Not yet!’

  Kiki couldn’t believe her eyes. If Charlie’s room was great, then Matty’s was perfect. The blue bedding was covered in every mode of tran
sportation possible—from a bicycle to a spaceship and everything in between. A huge poster covered one wall, displaying a map of the basic constellations and their relative positions in the night sky. A blue and grey rug covered a huge square of the dull carpet. She tilted her head to better study the design and realised it was the racetrack Matty had referred to.

  ‘I’ve got lights, too!’ He flicked the switch beside his bed and soft-blue LEDs shone from the rails of the headboard, which matched the one in his sister’s room. He pointed above them. ‘Look up!’ Stick-on glow stars were scattered across the ceiling.

  ‘I used to love looking at the stars when I was his age,’ Aaron said. ‘And the sky is so clear here because we’re far enough away from any of the big towns or cities to avoid light pollution. I thought Matty might fancy a bit of stargazing one night.’

  ‘Can we? Can we, Mummy?’

  She looked between the two expectant faces, and really, what else was there to say other than yes? ‘It sounds exciting. But not tonight.’ Matty’s face fell and she held up her hand before he could start to protest. ‘You need to go to bed at your normal time. I know you’re not at school, but it isn’t the holidays yet. Ask Aaron nicely and he might find some time at the weekend after he gets back from his trip.’

  Matty’s brow creased and he drew his lower lip between his teeth and started to nibble it. Kiki sighed. She needed to tread more gently. His smiles and excitement had fooled her into forgetting how much change she was throwing at him in rapid succession.

  Aaron crossed the room and placed a hand on Matty’s shoulder. ‘Don’t look so down in the mouth, bud. We can hang out on Saturday and I’ll show you some of the books my dad gave me, which are all about the planets and constellations.’

  Matty stayed silent for a few moments as his gaze danced back and forth between Kiki and Aaron. The cogs in his little mind were clearly whirring, but he kept his face still. A lash of guilt laid a hot stripe across Kiki’s shoulders; little boys of six shouldn’t have to guard their thoughts like that. Aaron must have had the same thought.