Winter at Pretty Beach by Polly Babbington (inspirational books txt) 📕

dress A and dress B, choose the decor etcetera, etcetera. Lucian, you’re a genius,’ Sallie laughed.

‘My darling, how do you think I got a tiny little podcast like Where the Heck is Pretty Beach? in a tiny little town to be one of the most popular podcasts in the world?’

They sat there for another hour or so by the fire with a couple more drinks, some spare paper and a pen from behind the bar and started to brainstorm ideas for it all. They filled four sheets with ideas, plans and a list of people they would need to contact and employ.

They would have a matter of weeks to get everything sorted - to put out a competition, find a suitable couple, work out all the logistics, find the right people to run it all and start the countdown to a live-streamed wedding at the Orangery in Pretty Beach.

Chapter 17

Sallie took the pregnancy kit out of the bag, opened the box and the foil wrapper and pulled out the stick. She’d done enough of these over the years - memories came flooding back to her, and even though she knew the road was filled with all sorts of ups and downs she’d finally admitted to herself that she did want a baby. Even after what had happened, being around Nina and Tillie had confirmed how she felt. She’d tried to convince herself that what would be would be, but in the back of her mind she was desperate to get pregnant. She was only several days late, which was nothing unusual, but she’d suddenly had the urge to know.

Leaning up against the sink, Sallie waited and remembered the feeling from before; the not knowing, but the thinking that you were and then the stick saying yes or no. It was like the little stick was a magic wand in control of the destiny of the rest of your life. She stood there looking at the instructions on the back of the box, the ones she’d read many times before, thinking about the fact that she was late, had a heaviness in her boobs and had been unusually tired and had suddenly thought that maybe she was pregnant. They hadn't been seriously trying (no taking temperatures and monitoring levels), but they hadn’t been using anything to stop it either, and she knew Ben was hoping that she would get pregnant, and that it would be soon.

She waited a few minutes and looked into the window on the stick. Nothing, no blue cross. She was not pregnant. Sallie sighed and looked in the mirror, tears welled up and she plonked herself down on the toilet seat. She was well aware it didn’t always happen when you wanted it to, but she was also aware that they didn’t have too much time on their side. The clock was ticking and getting pregnant wasn’t going to be as easy now as it had been in her younger years. Hearing Ben come in downstairs, she threw the box in the bin, washed her hands and walked out of the bathroom.

‘Hey beautiful, you okay?’ He looked up at her as she walked into the kitchen and sighed.

‘I’m fine.’ She decided not to tell him; she’d rather just wait and see what happened next month. It wasn’t like it was the first time - she had been almost convinced when they’d got married that she was pregnant but a few weeks later she wasn’t and she’d been just so disappointed then that she’d tried this time not to think about it too much.

He walked over to her and put his arms around her waist, ‘I’ve got some news. I’m not sure you’re going to like it. The tender has come through and we won it - I’m going to have to go to Alaska with work for a bit.’

‘Oh no, it’s not going to be like last year again, is it?’ She looked up at him disappointedly and ran her fingers through the hair at the back of his neck.

‘No, it will only be the one trip. But, I was thinking, maybe you could come with me?’

‘What, right in the middle of getting the Orangery ready and the competition? I mean I know there aren’t that many events booked, but I just don’t think I can make it happen...’ She trailed off.

‘Yeah, I thought as much. Maybe we can work it out and you can pop over for a bit then?’

‘It’ll hardly be worth it though, once I get there,’ Sallie said.

‘The fast train makes a difference, connects quickly to the airport and then, well, you’d be in Business Class,’ Ben said, looking down at her.

Sallie sighed, ‘I don’t really care about that.’

‘I know you don’t. It makes it a lot more comfortable though and you can work all the way.’

‘I’ll speak to Nina. Actually, I could ask Juliette to help out possibly. She’s right there and if she can oversee any of it that would be okay. But then there’s the boathouse cottage, that will need someone available with any problems with that.’

‘Okay, let’s sit down and have a look at the timescales for everything later.’

Sallie nodded and sat there thinking to herself, a trip would be nice. She loved Pretty Beach even more in the cold weather but getting away for a bit just before all the Christmas things would be good.

***

Ben walked out of the toilet holding the pregnancy test box, she must have left it on the side of the sink. He held it up with a questioning look on his face.

‘Nope, nothing, I wasn’t going to tell you, I’m a bit late according to the calendar, but maybe I got the dates wrong.’

‘Oh no,’ he said, disappointed, ‘Don’t worry, gives us a lot more opportunity to practise,’ he joked.

‘Not if you’re in another country.’ She smiled back at him, ‘You know what though, time isn’t on our side. I think we’ll need to possibly get some help if it doesn’t happen in