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

own with his laptop playing tiling tutorials on the side and quite a lot of swearing. The result was stunning.

Now, though, it needed dressing up - she had a deadline to get The Gin Room finished, styled, photographed and up on social media before the competition was announced. She looked at the open shelving, opened the box on the floor from Jeddos with the delivery of gin and started to add all the different shaped bottles to the shelves. Jeddo had helped her comb through small boutique gin brands from independent distillers and chosen a few others with pretty, interesting looking bottles. Interspersed between the gin she placed vintage bottles she’d collected from car boot sales and the Italian jam jars she’d found that had belonged to Lucia’s grandfather.

On either end of the bar Sallie filled large, rustic preserving jars with dried herbs she’d collected from the beds outside and all along the bar displayed interesting things she'd found around the place - large shells from the beach, coloured pieces of sea glass, interesting little pieces of driftwood and dried seed pods.

She stood on top of the bar underneath the hanging baskets overhead planted with masses of trailing plants, and lined up a long row of vintage jam jars, placed old-fashioned ice buckets and tongs in the middle of the bar and stacked a huge pile of small, antique silver platters on the left to use as little trays for drinks.

After a few hours, an aching back and surrounded by herbs, she’d turned on the old lights stood back and there it was the Gin Room had finally come to light - the long lines of gin glinted in the light, the bursts of green popped against the white subway tiles, the fans whirred gently overhead and the old fruit crates behind gave it all a rustic almost homely feel.

Chapter 26

Sallie pulled the French quilt over her legs, clicked her mousepad and scrolled through endless shows on Netflix looking for something to watch; she was tired from all the work getting ready for the competition and needed something to watch to switch off and zone out - she’d spent the day getting the decorations sorted and trying to source a vintage sleigh to use as decor for the wedding.

It had been bitterly cold, it was dark early and the potbelly stoves were full of wood and roaring with heat. She’d been so busy with it all, it had stopped her from missing Ben but when she sat down at night it felt strange to not have him with her.

She checked the time and then checked the time in Alaska - she still hadn’t got her head around the different time zones. It was mid-morning there - Ben would be up, sorting out the planes and starting out on the schedule. She might just catch him in his coffee break. She tried video calling him but he didn’t pick up and the time in the left-hand corner showed that the last time he had checked in was when they had spoken that morning.

She suddenly missed him - after years of being alone, coping on her own and having no one to turn to, he had, almost overnight, become her rock. The debrief at the end of the day, someone to wake up beside in the morning, just having him caring about how she was and what she did had become something she relied on, something she loved.

She pulled off the quilt, put on her slippers and as she was pouring a little nip of hazelnut liqueur into her hot chocolate her message app notification started to buzz.

‘Hey beautiful, how are you?’ There he was, her gorgeous pilot of a husband, in a different timezone, dashing in his Pretty Beach pilot’s uniform.

‘Hello! I was just this minute thinking about you. I’m good - just getting everything ready for the Orangery. I’m missing having you here to bounce ideas off. Well, not just that I’m just missing you all round really.’ She smiled into the screen of the phone.

‘Well, it’s morning here and I’m just about to have my coffee and sit down - it’s all go! So, do you think you’ll get it all done? We are needing you jetted over here so we can practise baby making this month.’ He winked through the phone screen and chuckled.

‘I think so - just waiting on Phia and then we can book the flights.’ Sallie replied, laughing as he put his hands together as if saying a prayer.

‘I really hope it works out - you’ll absolutely love it here, it’s so you.’

‘Tell me what it’s like then. Have you been exploring?’ She asked, propping her phone up on a cushion and pulling the French quilt back up over her legs.

‘I’ve not had a lot of time, but the main street is full of little timber-clad shops, the bar is right out of a cosy mystery series and the local characters... well, let’s just say it’s all just as you would imagine and like those pictures we found online - only in real life.’

‘It sounds divine,’ Sallie replied, smiling down the phone at her handsome husband.

‘It is - just say the word and I’ll get Charlie to book the tickets. I really want you to make it Sals, I love you so much and it will be wonderful to be here with you.’

‘Me too - okay, I’ll let you know as soon as I know. Rightio, I’m going to call it a night, I’m ready for bed. It’s been so cold here.’

‘I know, I have to get back too,’ he lifted his coffee cup up and blew her a kiss, ‘Speak in the morning, love you, night.’

‘Love you too, night.’ Sallie replied, closing the app and walking over to the kitchen. She put her mug in the dishwasher, checked the doors downstairs were locked, and went and got into bed.

As she snuggled down under the duvet she made a decision that she was going to