A Pretty Beach Wish by Polly Babbington (funny books to read txt) 📕

‘Ahh, we’ll wait and see. Right, come on then, let’s get going on this cake.’

Juliette took the ingredients for her chocolate cake out of her bag and started to put them on the worktop. Daisy had asked her round to bake her infamous, and very easy, chocolate cake to be topped off with her even more infamous, what she referred to as, ‘cloud icing’.

‘You’re sure you don’t want to do an episode with me for the vlog?’ Daisy asked.

‘Nope, I’ve no desire to be on a video on the internet,’ Juliette replied chuckling.

As Juliette turned on Daisy’s cream KitchenAid and it whirred the chocolate cake mixture around and around, she looked up at the open shelves above. Daisy had somehow persuaded Syd to leave some of his highly acclaimed pickles and jams behind and she had even convinced him to do a segment on her show from his allotment.

The shelves were now laden down with all sorts of dishes, jugs, china, tins, and cups for Daisy’s food styling. Pots full of wooden utensils, all sorts of Cornishware stacked up and displayed, and piles and piles of vintage plates in all different shapes and sizes.

The shelves went all the way to the top of the high ceilings, and to the rows of Syd’s pickles, jams and chutneys Daisy had added her own collections of sauces, powders, spices, oils, and dried herbs from her travels. Mason jars full of all different sorts of sugar, jars of English mustard and vintage French conserve jars held more of Daisy’s prized food possessions.

Huge jugs of lovely tea roses stood on the worktop squeezed in beside a plethora of kitchenalia - pretty vintage cafetieres, old teapots, stacked up wooden chopping boards and vintage bottles. Daisy had clamped lamps to the side of the shelves and the whole place was lit in a soft white light.

‘This place was made for you and your vlog Daisy,’ Juliette observed as she looked around the kitchen.

‘I know. It didn’t even need anything doing much. Just a few of my pretty bits.’

‘It really does look fabulous. It’s all I’ve heard about from Maggie. Aunty Daisy’s this, Aunty Daisy’s that. I think she actually thinks that little room up there is hers.’

‘It might as well be. The rate I’m going I’m not going to be filling it with anything else. I’m never going to meet someone, so the chances of babies in that room are extremely slim.’

‘Don’t say that. You never do know. You never know what’s around the corner, and as you said, there is definitely something in the water. I only hope that it’s good.’

Chapter 20

Juliette drove down Strawberry Hill, then along the laneway, and around the back into Mermaids. The road was packed with cars and there were no spaces outside her house. She found a spot a few spaces down, reversed parked in and put the car into park.

She sighed out heavily. Luke had called her to say he was running really late at the hospital and didn't know when he would be getting home. Jeremy’s mum had messaged her to say that she wouldn’t be able to pick up Maggie from horse riding as planned because she’d fallen over and hurt her ankle.

As Juliette gathered her things from the car she mentally went over what she needed to do before she picked up Maggie - check and reply to the email from Lellery, get the dinner in the instant pot to save stress later, and, if she had time, get Maggie’s uniform out and ready before arsenic hour. If she dropped one of her balls at that time everything hit the fan and it did not end up pretty.

Juliette locked the door of her car and as she walked along the pavement with her bags noticed a bright red Volvo parked outside her house. A woman got out of the car and slammed it shut and started looking up at the house. Juliette walked past the woman, stopped, and leant over to open the gate.

‘Hello!’ The woman dressed in a bright yellow fitted peplum top and a tight black pencil skirt and heels, said as she approached Juliette.

The woman came closer as Juliette struggled with the latch on the gate and Juliette looked around.

‘Sorry, I thought you were talking to someone else. Can I help you at all?’

‘Yes. I’m the daughter of the previous owner of the house. I thought it might be you who got their hands on it,’ the woman said, and Juliette all of a sudden realised who it was standing on the pavement in front of her. Nicky Jenkin. The daughter of Mr Jenkin who had owned the house before Juliette. How could she have not recognised her? Her mind flashed back to the day she and Maggie had come along Mermaid Lane all bundled up in their hats and scarves with the note enquiring about buying Mr Jenkin’s house.

‘You are, are you? Apologies I don’t recall,’ Juliette replied, finding it very hard not to show her disdain for the sharp, angular, brightly dressed woman standing in front of her.

‘You had a note with you and a little girl,’ the woman continued.

Of course, Juliette remembered. She also recalled how Nicky Jenkin had pointed one of her long talons at her and ignored Maggie. Juliette pushed open the gate and stepped up onto the path. ‘Sorry, I don’t remember.’

‘You said you wanted to buy the house. I couldn't see why anyone would want to live here, but by the looks of what you’ve done to it, you’ve turned it around. Pretty Beach is still a bit of a dump, though. I’m down here on business - I’m looking at an investment property in Newport Reef. Now the hospital is built, and the fast train is here, the area is the next place to take off.’

‘I would have thought you would have known that last year, then, when you were at this house.’ Juliette