The Little Village of Happiness: A gorgeous uplifting romantic comedy to escape with this summer
Page 28
Andrew rolled onto his side and placed a kiss on her bare shoulder. ‘You know, the last time we made a toast we toasted to making love under the stars?’
She laughed. ‘Oh that’s your game, bringing me down here? Is that picnic basket filled with condoms instead of food?’
Andrew sat up, opened the picnic hamper and pulled out a condom. She laughed loudly.
‘There is food in there too,’ he said. ‘For after.’
She shook her head. ‘You’re so sure of yourself.’
‘I am now. That’s because of you.’
She smiled with love for him and as he lay back down next to her she kissed him, slowly undressing him as he removed her own clothes. He rolled over on top of her, still kissing her.
He moved back onto his knees as he ripped open the condom and a firework exploded in the night sky above them.
‘Oooh,’ Willow said as the sky glittered with gold.
Andrew leaned over her, bracing himself on his forearms as he positioned himself between her legs.
‘You’re going to miss the show,’ Willow said, watching another firework send cascading silvery stars through the darkness behind Andrew.
‘I’ve got something much more beautiful to look at. You can tell me all about it.’
As the fireworks exploded above them, one after the other, Willow signed the words for the different colours that sparkled above the sea. Although she stopped when she realised Andrew was just watching her, smiling.
‘Did I get it right?’
‘You are perfect, in every single way.’
He slid carefully inside and she wrapped herself around him. As the fireworks lit up the sky in a riot of colour he started to move against her, his eyes locked on hers the whole time.
‘I never did give you a Secret Society gift, did I?’ Andrew said. ‘It doesn’t seem right that you’re the only one in the village not to get one. I’ll have to rectify that.’
‘But you did,’ Willow said, reaching up and stroking his face. ‘You gave me the gift of happiness.’
The End
Afterword
If you enjoyed The Little Village of Happiness, you’ll love my next gorgeously romantic story, The Gift of Happiness, out in October.
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A note about Andrew
When I started writing Andrew’s character, I knew almost straight away he was going to be deaf. As vividly as I knew he had dark hair and blue eyes, I knew he was going to be deaf too. But then I got worried about doing his character justice. I’m not deaf, I have no deaf people in my family, could I really comprehend what it was like to be hearing impaired or to have no hearing at all? But a very good author friend said that if we are scared to write what we don’t know, then when will it stop? Should I not write about men because I’m a woman, should I not write about children because I’m an adult, should I not write about dogs and cats because I’m a human? She said being fearful of misrepresenting a certain way of life could drive further wedges between our differences, keeping us apart rather than bringing us closer to a society of true understanding and equality. And I knew she was right and I had to write Andrew as I always envisaged him.
So then I researched the hell out of it, more so than I ever had before for any other character. I had a deaf friend at university and while we are not really in contact anymore, I remembered what she told me and some of that helped to shape Andrew’s past. I spoke to a lot of people in the Deaf community who were more than happy to share their experiences of growing up deaf, using hearing aids, sign language and all the good and the bad stuff in between.
A lot of people obviously had very different experiences of being deaf. For example, one person said it would be very unlikely that a person that had been born deaf could be cured so well with hearing aids that they had no problem speaking, she said that it was more likely that Andrew had learned to speak and then went deaf when he was older. Other people I spoke to said it was fine that Andrew was diagnosed very early in his life before he could talk. So while for some, Andrew might not be a true representation of their experience of being deaf, he is a character made up of lots of people’s experiences.
The one sticking point I had while telling the story was with British Sign Language (BSL). The language has its own structure, so for example when you’re describing something you always start with the setting. ‘There was a small boy called Rob standing on the bridge in the park,’ would be signed something like, ‘Park, bridge, small boy, Rob, standing.’ I obviously couldn’t have conversations like that in my book as the reader wouldn’t understand what the characters were saying so I had to use a bit of poetic licence while interpreting the sign language.
I have to say that the research paid off, at least for me. While writing Andrew’s character and trying to ensure he was as real as possible, I completely and utterly fell in love with him and I hope you did too.
Also by Holly Martin
The Summer of Chasing Dreams
Sandcastle Bay Series
The Holiday Cottage by the Sea
The Cottage on Sunshine Beach
Coming Home to Maple Cottage
Hope Island Series
Spring at Blueberry Bay
Summer at Buttercup Beach
Christmas at Mistletoe Cove
Juniper Island Series
Christmas Under a Cranberry Sky
A Town Called Christmas
White Cliff Bay Series
Christmas at Lilac Cottage
Snowflakes on Silver Cove
Summer at Rose Island
Standalone Stories
Fairytale Beginnings
Tied Up With Love
A Home on Bramble Hill
One Hundred Christmas Proposals
One Hundred Proposals
The Guestbook at Willow Cottage
For Young Adults
The Sentinel Series
The Sentinel (Book 1 of the Sentinel Series)
The Prophecies (Book 2 of the Sentinel Series)
The Revenge (Book 3 of the Sentinel Series)
The Reckoning (Book 4 of the Sentinel Series)
A letter from Holly
Thank you so much for reading The Little Village of Happiness, I had so much fun creating this story and the beautiful village of Happiness. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did enjoy it, and want to keep up-to-date with all my latest releases, just Sign up here. Your email will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.
One of the best parts of writing comes from seeing the reaction from readers. Did it make you smile or laugh, did it make you cry, hopefully happy tears? Did you fall in love with Willow and Andrew as much as I did? Did you like the gorgeous little village of Happiness? If you enjoyed the story, I would absolutely love it if you could leave a short review. Getting feedback from readers is amazing and it also helps to persuade other readers to pick up one of my books for the first time.
My next book, out in October is called The Gift of Happiness and is set in the same village, this time following Ruby and Jacob’s story.
Thank you for reading.
Love Holly x
Acknowledgments
To my family, my mom, my biggest fan, who reads every word I’ve written a hundred times over and loves it every single time, my dad, my brother Lee
and my sister-in-law Julie, for your support, love, encouragement and endless excitement for my stories.
For my twinnie, the gorgeous Aven Ellis for just being my wonderful friend, for your endless support, for cheering me on, for reading my stories and telling me what works and what doesn’t and for keeping me entertained with wonderful stories. I love you dearly.
To my lovely friends Julie, Natalie, Jac, Verity and Jodie, thanks for all the support.
To the Devon contingent, Paw and Order, Belinda, Lisa, Phil, Bodie, Kodi and Skipper. Thanks for keeping me entertained and always being there.
For Sharon Sant for just being there always and your wonderful friendship.
To everyone at Bookcamp, you gorgeous, fabulous bunch, thank you for your wonderful support on this venture.
To Kirsty Greenwood, thanks for answering all my questions with unending patience.
Thanks to the brilliant Emma Rogers for the gorgeous cover design.
Thanks to my fabulous editors, Celine Kelly and Rhian McKay.
Thanks to Alexandria for help with formatting.
A huge thank you to Cath, Helen Edwards, Audrey Dickson for all your help. Thanks to BATOD, BDA, Action on Hearing Loss and the Royal Association for Deaf People for pointing me in the right direction.
To all the wonderful bloggers for your tweets, retweets, facebook posts, tireless promotions, support, encouragement and endless enthusiasm. You guys are amazing and I couldn’t do this journey without you.
To anyone who has read my book and taken the time to tell me you’ve enjoyed it or wrote a review, thank you so much.
Thank you, I love you all.