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

walked back into her bedroom. She walked over to her drawer, took out a crinkly packet of shaping underwear, pulled it out of the wrapper, and held it up. Maybe going a size down hadn’t been such a good idea after all. There was no way she was going to get the scary looking thing over her tummy. Perhaps it would be a challenge to even get the thing past her thighs. It defied every logical part of her brain that this piece of fabric could stretch enough to do anything to aid her silhouette as it had claimed to do when she had read the information on the website.

Luke came walking out of the shower with a towel around his waist, rubbing his hair, and with the abs on full display. ‘What in the name of God is that?’ Luke said as he saw Juliette holding up the garment in the light over near the windows.

Juliette looked at him and burst out laughing. ‘It’s armour, Luke.’

‘Armour? For what? That’s a torture garment.’

‘Yeah, suck everything in armour.’

‘That does not look pleasant. Why-oh-why would you do that to yourself?’

‘I know. But it will, according to the instructions, totally transform me.’

‘Really! Into what?’

‘Not quite sure on the answer to that, but I will be sculpted into a tabletop flat stomach.’

‘And you need that because...?’

‘I need that because I am not meeting Jack blooming Fitzgeralde looking like a pudding.’

‘The best looking pudding I’ve ever seen, or tasted for that matter,’ Luke said, shaking his head in disbelief at the flesh-coloured, elongated cycling shorts.

Juliette smiled. ‘This contraption will, according to the label, provide me with squeeze-free slimming in all the right places, if indeed I can get it on.’

Luke walked over and touched the fabric Juliette was holding up. ‘And you may also require CPR if you wear the thing for more than twenty minutes. At least I’m qualified I suppose. I’ll be able to save you. Give you the kiss of life. That is one awful looking item.’ Luke laughed.

Juliette slapped him with the skin-coloured shapewear and started giggling. ‘The added bonus of this compared to other ones that I considered is that it won’t rub or irritate the skin.’

Luke pulled on his jeans and put on a shirt shaking his head. ‘Sometimes I really don’t get it.’

‘No, you wouldn’t. Seeing as you are the owner of exceedingly unreal looking abs - you don’t need anything to be sculpted or smoothed.’

Luke laughed. ‘So, you are definitely sure you don’t want me to be around for the showdown?’

‘Nope. I’ll be fine. I would rather you weren’t here.’

‘Okay. Anything further from Mr Sparkles when he collected Maggie this morning after his little hissy fit regarding it all?’

‘No. Nothing further from him either. Though by the look in his eyes he’s scheming something if I know Jeremy. I’m hoping for a nice clear and easy run though.’

‘You’ll reckon he’ll be in and out?’

‘He will be. He won’t have any choice in the matter. I certainly won’t be inviting him in, and I’ve already warned Bella that him coming into the house is not an option. There’s only so far I am willing to be congenial to Jack. Bella’s feelings or not.’

Chapter 53

Juliette put her cup of tea down on the mantelpiece, stood back, and checked how the sitting room looked. She adjusted the huge jug of old-fashioned roses on the windowsill a millimetre to the left, stood back and then moved it a millimetre back again. Ridiculous. What am I even doing? Jack Fitzgeralde won’t even notice whether or not there are flowers in the window as he walks down the path.

After a bit of back-and-forth texting it had been decided that because Bella still couldn’t walk too far and was still delicate that Jack would pick her up from the house and Juliette would meet him then. As the time had approached Juliette had had second thoughts as to whether or not that had been a good idea.

Juliette picked up her cup of tea, walked through the kitchen, and out into the garden. A tree branch which had come down in the storm was right in the middle of the lawn, and a part of the wisteria which had been tied up against the fence had fallen down onto the hydrangea. Overall, there hadn’t been too much damage from the storm, but Juliette was glad she’d taken the time to take down her hanging baskets.

She walked down the path on the right side of the garden and felt her dress slip over her shapewear. It had certainly done the trick. She was smoother. She didn’t know about sculpted, that was taking it a bit far, but at the very least everything was pulled in, and to be seeing Jack again after all the long years of wishing and hoping that he would make an appearance she wanted to be contoured to the best of her abilities.

Juliette yanked back the bolt on the top of the gate to the cobbled lane at the back and stepped outside with her tea. She stopped to say hello to the cat next door and took a pew on a bench a few houses down dedicated to someone could Ada Speedy. She wondered what sort of life Ada Speedy had experienced in Mermaid Lane. Had Ada Speedy had long-lost boyfriends turn up on the scene years later? Had Ada Speedy had a busy life, a full-on job, and a new partner? Or had Ada Speedy spent a quieter existence pottering around in the lane with her flowers?

Juliette sat there thinking about the morning. Once Jeremy had picked up Maggie, and Luke had gone swimming, and both of them had texted her instructing her to call them straight away if anything went wrong with Jack’s arrival, the morning had been peaceful and quiet if tense.

Juliette had vacuumed the whole house, mopped the ground floor with Dettol, and then proceeded to make her comfort fallback chocolate cake. She had a feeling she