‘Indeed. Right done with that?’ Cally said, pointing to Eloise’s coffee cup.
‘Yep.’ Eloise pushed the cup into the middle of the table.
‘Right then, enough of this heavy talk. I say we go and find ourselves a proper Lovely Bay ice cream.’
‘Ooh, just what I fancy. I need a chocolate flake in mine.’
‘I can sort that. Then we can sit down by the pier and people-watch, like the nosy old biddies we are at heart,’ Cally suggested.
Eloise laughed. ‘Lead the way, Cal,’ she said, standing up and grabbing her bag. ‘You sure know how to show someone a good time.’
4
It was a warm, Lovely Bay kind of evening. Cally was on her way to the manor for supper with Logan. She strolled along with a Thermos cup full of hot blackcurrant in her hand, enveloped in the sights and sounds of Lovely all around her. Rounding a corner, she noted the change in pavement to cobblestones as she arrived in the vicinity of St. Lovely church. Its beautiful old spire pointed up into the evening sky and she stood for a moment, taking in its blue nave door and huge summer floral wreath attached to its front. Even Lovely’s church seemed to just be that little bit prettier than any other she’d ever come across.
She held her head up to the sky and inhaled. The evening sun felt nice on her skin, a soft breeze rustled through the leaves and the sky above seemed to shimmer in pinks, golds, and all manner of orange hues as the sun began to go down. It was as if Lovely had been dipped in a golden glow that only seemed to exist in the third smallest town in the country. Each time it happened, it surprised Cally just how beautiful it was.
Taking a sip of her hot blackcurrant, she then inhaled another deep, long, luxurious breath full of the smells of long summer days as she listened to the backdrop of a Lovely eveninggoing about its business. There was a far-off hum coming from the River Lovely, children playing in a garden next to the church, a lawnmower somewhere in the far distance, and the occasional bark of a dog. Everything about Lovely appeared as if it was revelling in the warm weather and showing off its finest: hanging baskets bursting with blooms every which way, saturated grass lawns in front gardens, window boxes dancing with petunias and lines of roses tucked up beside white fences and spilling over old stone walls. Cally would take Lovely when it was showing off its summer coat, that she knew for free.
Starting her walk again, she chuckled to herself as she remembered back when the weather had been bitterly cold and she’d been on her way to the manor to work for Nina and her company A Lovely Organised Life. That morning, she’d been full of strife and stressed up to her eyeballs about trying to find somewhere to live. She’d been so worried about the potential of finding herself homeless that with her head spinning with worry, she’d taken an almighty tumble on a frosty cobblestone and ended up face down on the pavement covered in mud. Now, both the chilly temperatures, slippery pavements, and her head full of stress were but a distant memory. She wasn't going to be welcoming them back anytime soon, or so she thought. She was on an upward course away from a life of caring for other people and on the cusp of lots of new happy things, she hoped.
About ten minutes later, as she approached the manor, as she usually did, she stopped for a few seconds, absolutely in awe of its magnificence. The spectacular house sat regally raised in the distance as if casting its eyes down on the mere mortals of the world. Cally remembered how she’d felt that first cold-as-ice morning when she’d arrived at the gates with a blackcurrant-stained top. Then, she’d taken in the size of the house and had not quite been able to compute that people actually lived somewhere as palatial. Now, she came and went as if it wascompletely normal. A tiny little bit of her had become part of the woodwork.
As she got closer to the house and the panel beside the huge black gates, she remembered that first morning when everything had sparkled in frost. She’d pushed one of the buttons and wondered what might happen next. A fancy-pants posh voice had spoken to her out of the tinny speaker in the brass panel in the wall. She recalled how she’d been mistaken for a new cleaner from the agency, and had not wanted to correct the posh voice. When the gates had opened, she’d felt quite literally as if she had been entering another world. As she’d walked up the long driveway, said hello to a gardener, and looked up at the house in awe, she’d felt as if she’d been cast in a BBC period drama. That morning had been the second time she’d ever laid eyes on Logan. He’d appeared behind her on the drive in his car and had stopped to say hello. It had turned out to be the continuation of the sliding doors moments that had ended up in the two of them becoming a thing. A thing she liked very much indeed. A thing she wasn’t going to let go.
Since that driveway meeting, the prevailing few months had been a wild ride ofthingsCally had never even dreamt about. Some she’d not evenknownabout. Her eyes had not only been well and truly opened to the manor house but a whole new way of living. All of it had been different and eye-opening compared with the sheltered life Cally had led, most of which had involved caring for her mum, her brother, and her grandma and not doing much else at all. Out of everything that had happened since she’d walked slap-bang into Logan’s world, the most astonishing thing was that she now realised how the other half lived. Part of her wasn’t sure what to think about it or how it made her feel.
As she pushed Logan’s code into the pad and waited for the gates to clunk and clang and slowly open inwards, she smiled to herself at how, firstly, she was now part of the actual comingsand goings of Lovely Manor and, secondly, at how quickly she’d got used to it. She’d liked how the other half lived and had decided to have a slice of it.
Not to say that she felt as if she belonged.Nothinglike that at all. When she was around the manor and Logan’s family, she felt like a duck out of water most, if not all, of the time, but she had learnt to get on with it. She’d spent way too much brain power stressing that she and Logan were worlds apart and eventually had just sucked it up and decided to see where the journey took her. Logan had told her in no uncertain terms that he loved her for who she was, not where she came from, and she’d decided to tuck that into her heart and run with it. Sometimes, though, when hobnobbing with the upper classes, it wasmucheasier said than done.
Lost in thought as she walked up the drive with the manor house silhouetted against the brilliant oranges and pink hues of a Lovely sunset, she made her way past various gardens, followed the sweeping drive to the right, then strolled to the left of the house, past the stables and eventually to one of the residential cottages dotted in the grounds. The cottage, surrounded by beautifully tended roses with climbing pale pink Austins around the door, was where Logan lived part-time when he wasn’t in town. With its exquisitely tended hanging baskets and a gravel pathway lined by blooming plants buzzing with bees, the feeling that Cally was in a picture book continued as she got to the front door.
Letting herself in, she slipped her shoes off on the doormat and took in, as she had many times before, the stealth wealth of the place and made her way through the hallway to the kitchen. Logan was standing leaning on the worktop with his phone in his hand when she pushed open the kitchen door. His face lit up when he looked up and saw her. ‘Hey, how are you? Looking gorgeous as per usual.’
‘Great, thanks. You?’ Cally inhaled the smell of garlic and herbs as it wafted through the air. Her stomach rumbled in anticipation as she pulled out a chair and sat down. ‘How was your day?’ Cally asked, resting her chin on her hand.
‘Busy, as usual,’ Logan put down his phone and fully turned his attention to her. ‘I had back-to-back meetings, but I got through them without too much trouble. The highlight was definitely the weather, though. I managed to sneak out for a bit and enjoy the sunshine at lunch. Long may it last. How come everything seems better when the sun shines?’
‘I don’t know but somehow it does. The town looked stunning in the evening light. It took my breath away over by the church there. The colours in the sky are amazing.’
Logan nodded. ‘It’s one of the things about Lovely you can’t really put your finger on until you see it—how everything seems to shimmer. One of the gardeners said it’s something to do with the position on the coast and how the land lies. Not sure about that, but it probably is. I mean, what do I know about stuff like that?’
Cally chuckled and tucked away her thoughts about having gardeners.If only. More than a few pot plants on a rented balcony would be nice.‘Who knows, but whatever it is, it works for me. I still pinch myself that I get to live in Lovely, to be quite honest.’
‘How was your walk?’
Cally nodded. ‘Close to perfect. It did the trick.’
Logan lifted his chin in the direction of the window and the garden. ‘It felt as if the whole garden was bathed in that pinkish Lovely glow about ten minutes ago.’
‘Yes. I saw it, too. I love that glow.’
‘Works for me. Your head is clear, then? The workday is well behind you?’ Logan asked.
‘Yup. The fresh air has done me the world of good.’
Logan walked around the kitchen table and kissed her on the cheek. ‘Good.’
