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

by Polly Babbington

  Lulu walked into the kitchen and started to methodically move all the cans of paint, paintbrushes, and drop sheets into a big plastic tub to take home. As she swept the kiosk floor her mind moved again to Ollie. It was all very well having these grand ideas of sweeping gestures where she would march up to his front door and flourish the printout of the picture at him, but another to actually do it.

  Going over the scene in her head, she actually realised that she would look firstly, immature, secondly, ridiculous, but thirdly, and mostly, like she cared way too much.

  On her hands and knees scooping the final bits of dirt and dust into the dustpan before she hoovered, she sat back on her heels and took out the picture. Sighing, she shook her head and folded it up.

  Really, Lulu? Presenting a printout of your supposed boyfriend with another woman? What, precisely, is the point of that?

  As she usually did Lulu dissected the whole thing further and further. With a piece of paper and pencil she’d found in the kitchen drawer she brainstormed the whole thing and came to the conclusion that none of it made sense. If Ollie really was keeping her and the tea heiress on the go at the same time, he was making a lot of effort on her part. Making over the conservatory? The huge bunch of flowers? It really was a lot of effort to go to. Unless of course, it was one thing doing the talking: guilt.

  She took out her phone and texted back Ava from earlier.

  I had decided to arrive on his doorstep & confront him with a printout of the phone pic. What do you think????

  The three little dots flashed for what seemed like ages as Lulu leant on the kitchen worktop and looked across the yard to the water.

  Yeah. Dunno.

  Dunno! You took all that time to come up with dunno?

  Sorry :)))

  I thought you were meant to know what to do in these occasions being a life coach and all that. Hahaha!

  I am. This has thrown me. The flowers and the conservatory. Come on, Lulu.

  I’ve just come to the same conclusion. Conmen do do these sorts of things though.

  Conmen? Where has that come from? He’s a conman now? What else have you found out?

  Nothing. I saw it in the paper. A man who conned a business woman out of nearly a million pounds. She had no idea.

  I don’t think that’s what’s going on here.

  I know. It just made me realise that you never do know.

  You don’t. But I don’t think it’s that. What are you going to do?

  Not sure. Right now I’m in the middle of the kiosk and it’s taking my mind off it all. Then I’m going home to do a bit more gardening.

  How are you getting on in the kiosk?

  Really well. Not long and the signage for the front will be done.

  And a grand opening?

  On the way. I’m thinking a little pop-up first.

  At least you have something else to think about!

  I have more than enough to think about. Trust me on that.

  I bet it’s going to be fabulous.

  Yes, Lovely Little Things in Pretty Beach, the store, is very nearly here.

  44

  Much later on in the day, with her hair scraped up on top of her head and old clothes on, Lulu had got well stuck into the front garden. With Mabel supervising, she’d gone like the clappers with the strimmer, a mess of brambles outside the sitting room was now in a pile down the side of the garage, and the beds on either side of the porch had been cleared.

  Lulu was now covered in dirt and grass, but the ripping out of weeds and snapping off of brambles had done its job and she felt a million times better.

  As it started to get dark, she had decided to call it a day and go and have a shower, she walked out of the driveway to survey her afternoon’s work.

  Standing on the pavement she looked up at Seafolly House. It still had a long way to go and the shingling was still in need of further repair but the house was beginning to smile again. Lulu stood with her hands on her hips and as she leant over the wall to pull out a few last weeds she heard someone walking up the road. Mabel started to bark loudly and wagged her tail excitedly. Pushing herself up, Lulu turned to the left and Ollie was strolling along having obviously come from the alleyway at the end.

  Lulu didn’t know what to think. The last time she had seen him he’d been with the tea heiress looking to her like the cat who had got the cream.

  ‘Hello! I’ve been texting you! Is there something wrong with your phone?’ Ollie said as he leant over the wall and stroked Mabel.

  Wow! He’s good. He’s really, really good. He should get an Oscar for this performance. Lulu thought and dumbstruck at the front of the man didn’t reply.

  ‘What do you think of the conservatory? I bit the bullet and went for it. I got a couple of blokes in. Lulu?’

  Lulu continued to just stare ahead.

  ‘Oh, dear. You’re obviously not pleased with it. I thought you would be happy about the lack of droppings and such.’

  ‘Yes. Yes, I am. Thank you. You didn’t have to do that, Ollie.’

  ‘I know I didn’t. I wanted to do it. You’ve worked so hard.’ Ollie beamed.

  Lulu didn’t smile back as she sat down on her front wall. In that moment, everything had become too much. The house, Ollie and what he was playing at, the new job, being on her own in Pretty Beach, moving her whole life to a new start.

  Ollie put his hand on Lulu’s leg and she flinched and pulled away. She just looked at him and didn’t know what to say.

  ‘What on earth is wrong?’ Ollie asked.

  ‘Nothing is wrong. I thought you were in Berkshire with your family for the weekend.’

  ‘As I said in my text, it was a little white lie as I knew you were away. I had the whole weekend lined up and then on Saturday night, I had a call from my mother in town. One of her good friends was in a freak accident. Did you read about it? That boat that blew up on the Thames? Absolutely terrible. Anyway, I sort of used to see the daughter. They’re old family friends really, and my mum asked me to come up as the daughter, Cressida, was in a very bad way. She just went off and no one knew where she was.’

  Lulu slowly nodded and looked up into Ollie’s green eyes. Ollie’s what now seemed to be very genuine, honest eyes.

  ‘Yeah. So, she’d taken herself off to some bar and had been drinking for hours. I found her and took her back to the family home. It didn’t end well. They actually called a doctor eventually, as she was in such a state. She had to be sedated.’

  Lulu nodded again and a small smile formed at the edges of her mouth.

  ‘You really aren’t looking right, Lulu. Shall we go inside?’

  ‘No, no. I’m fine, Ollie.’

  ‘You don’t look it. Come on. You must have had a busy weekend. How about I run that beautiful old bath for you, make us something to eat and, well, ahem, I could get in with you?’

  Lulu put her hand still in its old gardening glove on Ollie’s leg and looked up at him and Mabel let out a huge sigh.

  ‘Ollie. I need to tell you something right now before we go on. I need to get things straight.’

  Ollie frowned. ‘Right, go ahead.’

  ‘Before we do any baths, or carrying to beds, or surprise conservatory makeovers, or dinners down by the sea, I want to make things very honest between us.’

  Ollie nodded. ‘This is sounding all very serious, Lulu.’

  ‘That’s precisely it. I am serious. I’m really deadly serious. I’m not in this to muck around. I wasted too many years of my life doing that and I’m too old to do it again. I only want to be part of this if we are clear.’

  ‘Clear?’

  ‘Yep. Clear on one thing. Ollie, I love you. I have since I went tumbling to the ground on my bike and I don’t want to continue if you don’t feel the same. It’s as simple as that, really.’

  Ollie gently rested his hand on top of Lulu’s. ‘Well, where has this all come from? Did you get a knock on the head while you were in town? I thought it was completely o
bvious from the word go from my end,’ Ollie replied. ‘I don’t just, you know, go out with any old Tom, Dick or Harry. I’m very fussy.’

  ‘You did?’

  ‘Yes, of course! Lulu, I love you, too.’

  And as Ollie kissed Lulu gently on the lips with her hand in her pocket, she quietly crumpled up the piece of paper from the printer. Then she took a deep breath in and let herself slip delicately into the biggest pool of golden honey she had ever seen.

  Beautiful Little Things in Pretty Beach

  The delightfully romantic story of Lovely Little Things continues as Pretty Beach eases its way into summer with the next part in the trilogy, Beautiful Little Things. Strap yourself in as we go on a gorgeous ride with lovely Lulu Drinkwater, follow her trials and tribulations and her new life by the sea.

  We immerse ourselves back into the next part of Lulu’s story and catch up with her as she begins to find her feet in the town she grew up in.

  Far from her life being over and ending up alone, Lulu’s life is ticking along very nicely and she settles into long, happy days in the sweet little seaside town. Her romance with Ollie Cavendish goes from strength to strength, her business potters along quite nicely and her new job is full of surprises.

  But not everything is as simple as she thought, and when a blast from the past arrives in Pretty Beach, Lulu yet again wonders how her life seems to always end up so very complicated.

  Get ready to fall in love again with the utterly delightful town nestled on the coast and Beautiful Little Things in Pretty Beach.

  ‘Polly Babbington creates magical books.’

  Notes for Polly B.

  Did you enjoy the utterly gorgeous world of Pretty Beach?

  I’d really appreciate a review… long, short, in between or a star rating would be fabulous!

  You can leave your thoughts on Lovely Little Things here.

  Books for Babbettes

  Find all my books here.

  The Boat House Pretty Beach

  Summer Weddings at Pretty Beach

  Winter at Pretty Beach

  A Pretty Beach Christmas

  A Pretty Beach Dream

  A Pretty Beach Wish

  Secret Evenings in Pretty Beach

  Secret Places in Pretty Beach

  Secret Days in Pretty Beach

  Lovely Little Things in Pretty Beach

  Beautiful Little Things in Pretty Beach

  Love Polly

  Oh, to live surrounded by Lovely Little Things. Oh, to walk out the door in fabulous sky-high heels, everything just so. Oh, to slowly bring to life an old house by the sea.

  I got the idea for Lovely Little Things from a story about an entrepreneur who started up a (now v. v. successful) retail accessories business. The article was on a financial website I was reading one day while I was sitting in the waiting room for the doctors.

  I don’t know how I came across the article but I had seen the shops and really enjoyed the business success story. I love reading about women in business (successful or not) and this story planted a seed that became Lovely Little Things.

  Once I began to delve into Lulu I loved her approach to the business - how it had grown by word-of-mouth, how her customers were loyal and engaged and how her carefully thought out and curated goods made the whole Little Things brand something to be coveted.

  I imagine the Lovely Little Things goods to produce in every way in terms of quality, performance and how they arrive. In stark contrast to many things nowadays (a certain homewares/lifestyle chain I used to love springs to mind) where products very much look the part but are poorly mass-produced, fall apart and don’t live up to expectations.

  I wrote this book in unusually chilly weather and was sustained, oddly, by a rather large amount of spicy rice crackers. Bags and bags of the things. Not at all healthy especially when washed down with a can of soft drink. Yes, correct, my jeans no longer do up.

  Lulu’s character evolves as the series continues and she moves away from her old life, the ghost of Fenton fades and she embraces everything Pretty Beach. Even though we don’t learn too much about Lulu’s marriage (it wasn’t exactly calling me), Fenton’s obsession with mod cons and new things actually stems from a couple I once knew. Everything in their life was replaced every couple of years and to a strict timetable - electrical goods, cars, kitchens, furniture etc. Holidays were bigger and better than anybody else’s and being seen in the right places was paramount. I don’t know how or why this memory popped up in this book but I thought it was in contrast to the lifestyle, houses and world of Pretty Beach, and so before I knew it, there it was on the page.

  I’m sitting here typing these notes in a cosy, soft, grey, longline cardigan, a new sea salt reed diffuser on my desk, my planner open by my side. BBC Radio is on and I’m scheming (which actually means ideas are going around my head at 400mph) a new series involving an old building on the Seafolly side of PB.

  I guess that’s it from me. Come and say hello on Instagram or Facebook (or join us at my reader group) if you like.

  Oh, and please, if you have a minute, I would really appreciate it if you wouldn’t mind leaving a review (click here).

  Love

  Polly

  PollyBabbington.com

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