Lovely Little Things in Pretty Beach : A magical feel-good romance book to escape with in summer 2021.

by Polly Babbington

  No doubt you’ll be wearing your own specially tweaked clothes?

  Oh yes. Lottie, we’re not all like you and can wear what we want. I have to do a little nip and tuck here and there to give the illusion that I’ve lost that stone that I’ve been hanging onto for dear life for the past four years.

  Ha! You’re hilarious.

  Actually, the way I’m going falling off bikes and spending twelve hours a day doing manual labour, the weight with any luck will slide off on its own.

  Talking of bikes so what actually happened?

  Hmm. I collided with a car door!

  Lottie sent a wide-eyed emoticon. Yikes! That must have been scary.

  It was. The bloke who opened the door tried to ask politely if I was going too fast, which I wasn’t.

  Who was it? Local?

  No idea. Said his name was Ollie.

  Oh well. At least you're okay.

  Yep thanks, Lottie. I’ll speak to you later.

  Will do. Be careful! Don’t do too much with those hands like that. Take it easy!

  Lulu closed the cover on her phone and thought about the accident. As she had told Lottie about it she had realised that she knew nothing about Ollie. She’d been too wrapped up in herself to ask any questions, and now as she thought about him she was very much regretting it.

  After Lulu had bathed in a shallow tub of water, with her hands in plastic bags, and she had successfully washed without getting her hands wet, she was now standing in the garden wondering how on earth she could get some progress on the weed clearing. According to her list, she needed to work every day in the garden if she wanted to get anywhere at all.

  She picked up the strimmer, turned it over to see how she would be able to hold the handle with the bandaged hands, and turned it back again with a sigh. There was no way she was going to let the injury stop her progress in the garden and so she went back into the kitchen, rummaged around under the kitchen sink, found her cleaning bucket, and wondered what would work to protect her hands.

  She had plenty of pairs of latex gloves and a few pairs of gardening gloves but nothing offering padding for her cut and bandaged palms. After a few attempts, she folded two clean tea towels into thick squares, taped them on top of latex gloves and then walked into the garage to find the rubber gloves with the fur that Willow had left her for a joke.

  Finding the bright pink gloves where she'd left them, she smiled as she realised that they were perfect to go over the makeshift padding on her palms. Once the bright pink elbow-length gloves were on, she walked back through the kitchen and boot room, opened the back door, stepped onto the terrace, and picked up the strimmer with the padded palms.

  With her makeshift protection in place, she was just about able to hold the strimmer. Turning it on, she started the laborious and back-breaking job of strimming through the thick weeds at the top section of what would once have been a glorious lawn.

  Half an hour later, with another patch of weeds strimmed, throbbing palms and the gash in the back of her leg also feeling it, she put the strimmer down, took off her sun hat, and sat down on the terrace.

  Just as she was looking down at the thickly padded pink rubber gloves and contemplating removing them, she heard the old ship’s bell at the front of the house ring. Sighing and deciding she couldn’t be bothered to walk all the way through the house to answer the door to a salesman or meter reader, she sat back in the chair staring at the growing patch of strimmed weeds and then gazed further out to sea.

  As she was trying to decide between going to make a cup of tea, doing a bit more strimming or changing her plan to accommodate her injuries and starting the coat of primer on the dresser in the kitchen, a voice called out from the side of the house.

  ‘Hello. Anyone home?’

  Lulu tutted, and with the big pink padded gloves, pushed herself up from the chair and headed to the left side of the house where a wide alley led all the way to the front emerging to a wide gate beside the drive. As she peered around the corner and looked down beside the garage, the voice came again. A voice she suddenly recognised.

  ‘Oh, great, you are in. Good. I didn’t want to leave it without letting you know,’ Ollie said holding something up in the air. As Lulu approached him, Ollie’s eyes opened wide. ‘What in god’s name have you got on your hands?’ Ollie exclaimed as Lulu appeared in front of him in the padded pink elbow-length rubber gloves with the rim of leopard fur around the wrists and elbows.

  ‘Rubber gloves,’ Lulu stated as if it was obvious what she was wearing. Ollie looked at Lulu’s hands as she held them up.

  ‘Err, bright pink leopard fur rubber gloves with huge palms. Okay then. Each to their own. I don’t think I’ve ever seen gardening gloves such as those but I’m always open to new ideas,’ Ollie said with a quizzical look and smile on his face.

  ‘I can’t afford the time to stop work, so I had to find a way to pad my hands,’ Lulu explained as she stood on the other side of the gate. ‘Anyway. What can I do for you? Do you need insurance details or something? Have you found some damage to your car?’ Lulu said in an offhand tone.

  Ollie blinked and stood back. ‘Umm. No, well yes, but that’s not why I’m here.’

  You’re here to ask this tired, grumpy, and very over it divorcee out to dinner are you? Pigs might fly, Mr Honey Skin.

  ‘I actually came to return this,’ Ollie said holding up a key. ‘You left it in the centre console of my car yesterday, and seeing as I’ve just been to view a house in the next road this morning I thought I would drop it in on my way past.’

  Lulu coughed, realising she had sounded fairly rude considering this outstanding specimen with the green eyes and honey-coloured skin who was now standing in front of her had picked her up off the road and taken her to the doctors the day before.

  ‘Oh, right! Yes, crikey that’s the key to the bike’s battery and there is only one. It made a note of that on the instructions and at the time I thought I better not lose the thing.’

  Ollie stood back as Lulu tried to pull the bolt across the gate with her huge padded pink hands. As she struggled, he leant over. Lulu sighed and tried to stop herself wincing as she moved her hands away and watched him pull over the bolt. Watched him lean over, it had to be noted, with a very well-toned, sun-kissed forearm.

  ‘Err, whatever it is you’ve been doing in those gloves, and god knows I can’t work it out as you are also covered in grass stains, I really don’t think it’s a good idea. Those were no small injuries on your hands. And that graze on your cheek is looking sore.’

  ‘You’re probably right, but I am on a mission to get this house done. I’ve worked it all out down to the last minute. At the rate I’m going if I take any time off between now and the end of the nice weather, I am up for one very cold and very uncomfortable winter.’

  ‘Right. You can’t take a couple of days off though to rest? Surely? I saw the state of your hands yesterday and didn’t you say that the nurse said to let them heal?’

  ‘Correct, she did. No rest for the wicked in my neck of the woods though,’ Lulu replied with a small smile.

  Ollie frowned. ‘What is it you are doing, then, in those huge, errm, pink gloves?’

  Lulu pointed to the whole of the house, garden, driveway and back towards the sea with her left gloved hand. ‘I have all of this place to do. This morning I was attempting to strim more of the weeds out the back but with these impediments, it’s not going quite as I thought it would. It’s a long, slow job normally. These make it ten times slower and now I’m in pain too.’

  Lulu stood back as Ollie pushed the gate, it scraped along the ground and caught on the plethora of weeds growing from every orifice around them. Ollie looked up at the house and peered down the alleyway to the back. ‘It’s a beautiful house you’ve got here, Lulu. I can give you a hand with the strimming if you like. I’ve got a few hours to kill this morning. I think I may be, well, umm, better equipped as it were than you are to use a strimmer at the moment,’
Ollie said looking at Lulu’s hands.

  You’re very well equipped indeed, and I wouldn’t say no to trying some of your equipment.

  ‘Oh, you’re fine. Thanks for the offer though. I don’t need any help. I was about to change jobs to painting, actually. I also have a lot of that to do as well.’ Lulu laughed.

  ‘How about you get those gloves off, make me a cup of tea, show me around the house, and I do a bit of strimming? I bet I can do in no time what’s taking you ages with that, umm, handicap you’ve got there with those pink gloves. I’m a dab hand at gardening. And I’d love to see inside one of these big old Seafolly Passage houses for myself, if you wouldn't mind giving me a guided tour,’ Ollie said with a smile.

  I would quite happily give you a guided tour my friend and not just of the house.

  Lulu tried not to gulp as Ollie rolled up one of his sleeves. It wasn’t as if she had been living with a goblin for the last ten years but goodness, this Ollie was extremely easy on the eye. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t used to seeing a lovely toned man in her life - Fenton was nearly as obsessed about his physique and its wellbeing as he was about new cars and mod cons, but this Ollie was in a whole other league. A league many, many levels above the likes of Fenton. And there were ripples. Very nice ripples.

  Lulu blinked and swallowed as she led Ollie along beside the house.

  How does one even get ripples on ripples? She thought, desperately trying to keep a check on herself, but it really was quite pointless. She couldn’t stop staring at Ollie and could just about barely stop her chin from dropping to the floor. And the breathing. That had seemed to have taken on a mind of its own too.

  11

  Lulu picked her way through the weeds down the alleyway at the side of the house, wishing that she had decided to at least attempt to do something to her face that morning. At least she had a hat on and a bra, though she would have been a lot happier if her highly-researched sucky-in knickers were pulled up nicely to just under her boobs and her miracle blurring cream was perfectly applied all over her face.

  As they made their way down the side alley through the weeds and towards the back garden, glimpses of the sea began to come into view.

  ‘Oh, wow! Look at the view,’ Ollie said as he peered over the weeds at the end of the garden to the sea beyond. ‘You’re sitting on a goldmine here. How long have you lived here? I’ve never seen a house down here for sale. The estate agent, Shane Pence, told me you pretty much have to wait for someone to die to get one and even then, they normally just get passed to the next generation.’

  ‘Hmm. Shane Pence would know and he’s absolutely correct. Someone did die for this to become available - my grandma.’

  ‘Oh right. Sorry. Me and my big mouth,’ Ollie replied, shaking his head.

  ‘All good. It was years ago now. The house has been sitting here for a long time and now, well, it's my turn to live here. I’ve just moved in really, as you can see.’

  Ollie put his hand up to shade his eyes and looked up at the house and gazed at the multitude of chimney pots. ‘It could be stunning. Not for the faint of heart though. There’s a lot of work to do here.’

  ‘Indeed there is! Right, cup of tea then? I was just about to make one.’

  Ollie smiled and nodded as Lulu started to peel off the pink gloves and led him across the terrace, through the boot room and into the kitchen.

  ‘Goodness! This is outstanding! The original kitchen, fancy it still being intact.’

  ‘It is. Yes. I bit the bullet and painted the timber cabinets. Some would call it sacrilege but it was so dark and gloomy in here and it was wearing years of dirt.’

  Ollie walked around the kitchen and peered at the cupboards and then at the windows as Lulu filled the kettle up with water and flicked it on.

  ‘Crikey, this is gold. It’s so hard to find a house that someone hasn’t made dreadful modern changes to. I’ve been looking for a while now down this way.’

  ‘Hmm. I suppose you’re right. I didn’t even really consider that, and I’ve come from a house where everything was renewed every few years to keep it up to date.’

  ‘Oh, okay. What, you were up on the new estate outside of town, were you?’ Ollie asked as he ran his hand along the dresser on the far side of the kitchen.

  Lulu coughed. ‘Not quite. I was up in town and, errm, well I was married to someone who liked everything to be modern and new. Not that the house itself was new, it was a lovely old place but everything inside it was. And I mean everything. Including, in the end, I suppose, a new one of me.’

  Ollie sat down at the kitchen table and Mabel laid down right beside him as Lulu gingerly picked up the kettle and poured the water into the teapot. ‘You were married?’ Ollie asked as he stroked Mabel on the head.

  ‘Yep. Past tense. I am newly divorced and it wasn’t pleasant. Not pleasant at all. Although, I don’t know why I’m saying that - I guess there is no such thing as a pleasant divorce.’

  ‘Ahh. Sorry to hear that. Welcome to the club. I know the feeling.’

  ‘Oh! Okay. You look too young to be as weary as me, though.’

  ‘Everyone seems to assume I’m young for some reason. Good genes apparently.’

  You’re telling me. Genes, honey skin, green eyes, errr, ripples. Whatever it is, I wouldn't be complaining.

  ‘Well, lucky you. I only wish I could say the same thing. So, that makes two of us who are divorced then.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Ollie sighed. ‘Yep I’m part of divorcee land and it’s quite bleak out there after a while.’

  ‘Sorry to hear that. It really is not very nice even if you sort of feel relief and wanted it… as I suppose I did, really,’ Lulu noted.

  ‘Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s a weird feeling. Though I’m a few years in now and you do get used to it.’ Ollie laughed.

  ‘Yep. Right, okay, enough of divorces. I’m just going to pop to the loo, then I’ll pour out the tea and we’ll go down to the end of the garden if you like. I’ll show you what the house backs on to.’

  Lulu walked through the house, wincing at the pain in the back of her leg, up the stairs to the first floor, and into the bathroom. She looked into the old cracked mirror over the fireplace and gasped. Her usually immaculate hair had tiny bits of grass cuttings from the strimmer dotted throughout the front, there was a grass stain on her cheek, and the miracle blurring cream would have been a very welcome addition to her makeup-free face.

  She stood there considering whether it was worth trying to salvage something from her appearance, and after picking out weeds from her hair and peering at the bags under her eyes, she decided that there was little point and pulled her hair off her face and tied it on top into a messy bun.

  Just a little dab of Chanel behind the ears. Chanel helps everything.

  Walking back into the kitchen Lulu smiled, stirred the teapot, took out two mugs and then went to get the milk from the garage.

  ‘Your fridge is in the garage?’ Ollie asked.

  ‘Yep. At the moment, until everything is sorted,’ Lulu replied. ‘Can I offer you a chocolate croissant to go with your tea?’

  ‘You absolutely can. I haven’t had such a good offer in a long time,’ Ollie joked.

  Five minutes later, after removing the croissants from the freezer, warming them in the microwave and pouring the tea, Lulu led Ollie out of the house. They strolled through the first section of the garden, and down to the picket fence at the end where the gate opened out to the back part of the property and shelved gently down to the beach in the distance.

  Lulu walked over to a couple of old chairs she’d found in the shed, put the plates with the croissants on the arm of the chair, and sat down.

  ‘Wow, you have some work to do here,’ Ollie said as he looked around.

  Lulu sighed. ‘I know. I think it will be worth it in the end, though.’

  ‘Worth it! You’re kidding me, aren’t you? This place is unbelievable! Lulu, if that kitchen is anything to go by, it�
��s going to be outstanding when it’s done.’

  Lulu laughed. ‘When being the operative word. In a very long time, by which stage I will be over the hill and not able to enjoy it.’

  ‘Ahh, not at all. So, what’s the plan then? When are you getting the builders and decorators in? Are you waiting for them to complete other jobs or something?’

  ‘Err, nope, no builders lined up. I’m just going to potter along with it and do it myself as I go.’

  ‘What? How are you going to do the outside on your own?’

  ‘Oh sorry, no, not the outside. That is what I am going to get some help with. All the old shingling needs to be fixed and the roof and then I’m going to get the whole place painted. I just wanted to get in first and get my feet under the table as it were. See how it all feels and then decide what to do. Make sure to make an informed choice on what I spend my money on.’

  Ollie tucked into his croissant. ‘Mmm, these are good and so is this tea.’

  ‘The tea is from Fortnum’s. I only crack it out once a day and treat myself to it whenever I can. There's nothing like a Fortnum’s delivery when you’re down in the dumps,’ Lulu joked. ‘The croissants are from Holly’s bakery in the laneway. Isn’t everything from there amazing?’

  ‘Is the sky blue? It’s the best bakery in the world, isn’t it?’ Ollie said laughing. ‘Even my extremely fussy mum rates it.’

  ‘You’re not wrong. It goes by its reputation and Holly’s leadership.’

  ‘Yep! I was told by Shane Pence she is the unofficial Mayoress of Pretty Beach.’

  Lulu giggled. ‘I don’t know about unofficial. I think everyone knows she runs the place. I can just about remember when she arrived here all those years ago.’

  ‘I bet it was all very different then,’ Ollie said.

  ‘Oh yes, indeed it was,’ Lulu replied as she finished her croissant and took a sip of her tea. ‘Anyway, what about you? Where do you live?’

  ‘At the moment I’m staying in Pettacombe. Just near the pier, but I’m actively looking to move to Pretty Beach. However, it’s so tightly held, trying to actually buy a house is not quite as easy as it sounds. I might end up in Seafolly Bay.’