1
Nina stirred her coffee, smiled, and reflected on things. Life was pretty good in Lovely Bay, really rather good, actually. She watched as Robby stood flipping pancakes as if his life depended on it and inhaled the smell of salty, fresh sea air breezing in through the window. Looking around at what had become her and Robby’s regular Saturday morning routine, she sighed. A cafetière full of freshly brewed coffee, a local radio station playing in the background, breakfast smells, open windows, and decompressing from both their work weeks. Pretty nice as mornings went. That thing called life was treating Nina Lavendar fairly well.
Nina widened her eyes and nodded. ‘It looks as if you're mastering the art of pancakes.’
‘I'm getting there. Got to keep my skills up, haven't I? Can't have you thinking you married a one-trick pony.’ Robby joked.
When the pony looked as Robby did, Nina didn’t really care. Add a few straps and she was there with bells on. She laughed and bantered back, ‘I'd never think that. You've got at least two tricks, as far as I can gather. Pancakes and putting croissants in the oven.’ There were other tricks she quite liked; going to the moon sprang to mind.
Robby put a plate in front of her, added a sugar bowl and spoon next to it, and sliced a couple of lemons into quarters. ‘Only two tricks? I'll have to work on increasing that then if I am to remain a married man.’
Nina took a pancake from the stack, put it on her plate, squeezed on a generous helping of lemon, and then sprinkled on a liberal amount of sugar. She loved Saturday mornings and the unremarkable everyday life things since she’d moved to Lovely Bay. With the sea outside the window and her new existence, the little mundane bits of it all made her heart sing. The mundane things in her old life had consisted of sitting in her tiny flat on her own, looking at a ledge full of garden pots and drowning in grief. Oh, how that had changed. Bye-bye debilitating grief, hello happiness. ‘Ahh, I’m so pleased it’s the weekend. I love our easy mornings when we just hang out and don’t do much at all.’
‘Same. The best part of the week as far as I’m concerned.’
‘So, what's the plan for today?’ Nina asked. ‘What are we up to?’
Robby shook his head. ‘I don’t mind at all.’
‘All I have planned is to make a chowder at some point and I’m meeting Nancy at The Summer Hotel later. What do you fancy doing?’
‘I thought maybe we could walk along the coastal path. With that storm coming in soon, we might as well make the most of the weather and get out.’
‘Good idea. Pop down the high street and see what’s going on down there.’
Robby nodded. ‘Yeah, let’s just wander.’
‘I like the sound of that. If we head for the high street, we can stop and do a bit of shopping so we know we’ve got everything in before the storm hits.’
Robby frowned. ‘It’s your firstbigLovely storm, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah, there was that one just before Christmas, remember? I don’t think that was too bad, though, from what I’ve heard. Birdie said that was nothing compared to some of the big ones Lovely has been through in the past. Do you agree with that?’
‘Yup, that was really just a massive dumping of snow and a bit of ice thrown in for good measure. Not a battering like they say we’re going to get at some point this weekend.’
Robby topped up their coffee mugs and Nina sighed as she looked out the window. ‘Shame about the storm. It feels like the sun has just come out, too. I love it when the sun is shining in Lovely. It's the little things, isn't it?’
‘It is.’
‘I love living here…’ Nina said, trailing off, lost in thought as Robby started to clear up their plates, rinse them, and put them in the dishwasher.
‘Penny for them? You floated off in a world of your own for a bit.’ Robby asked a few minutes later.
‘I was just thinking about our wedding day. Do you remember the wildflowers? It feels like ages before they’re back again. I love it out the back of the hotel there with the wildflowers and seashells.’
‘Yeah, they were nice. I remember the state of your chin that day, too. How could anyone forget that?’ Robby joked.
‘Ha, yep, fancy me tripping over and turning up looking like that.’
‘Certainly made us remember it.’
‘It was a beautiful day, wasn't it? Everything was perfect, even the bits that didn't quite go according to plan.’ Nina sighed as she reminisced.
‘It was.’
Robby closed the dishwasher, pushed a few buttons, and turned it on. ‘Right, let’s get going then, shall we?’
‘Yep. What do we have to do to prepare for this storm?’
