Seashells at The Summer Hotel Lovely Bay: Romantic contemporary women's fiction.

Chapter 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 first big Lovely 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?’

‘Lock stuff down. The harbour is going to be a mess if the winds are as high as they”re saying they’re going to be.’

Nina pointed out towards the hanging baskets. ‘So, we need to get the baskets in and put things away.’

‘Yep, and we need to turn the garden furniture over and get the window boxes in. I can’t really think what else we need to do. Just look around for stuff that might get damaged. Let’s just hope the electricity doesn”t go out this time.’

Nina rolled her eyes. ‘Fat chance of that. The electricity always goes out, doesn”t it? It’s part of living in Lovely Bay. One of Lovely’s strange little things it does its own way.’

‘It sure does. Listen to you sounding like a Lovely. You’re used to it now and resigned to the fact.’

‘It”s funny. The power outage when it rains was one of the first things I was told about Lovely Bay, and now I’m as resigned to it as everyone else.’

Robby frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

Nina raised her eyebrows. ‘The first day I arrived in Lovely Bay, there was a huge rainstorm forecast. On the boat, Colin told me that I needed to settle in and be prepared for a power outage. He was definitely right because that night, the electricity went off, and I was on my own in The Summer Hotel, wondering what on earth I had let myself in for. The rain poured and poured like nothing I’d ever seen, too.’

Robby”s eyes went wide. ‘Yes, they’re still saying that it’s nothing to do with the weather, but we know differently, don”t we?’

‘It seems like it. Whenever it rains, it happens. So, we”d better get all our power packs charging.’

Robby flicked his eyes over to the worktop, where the plug socket was located. ‘Already done, Neens.’

‘Look at you, Mr Organised!’

‘You’re lucky to have me. Don’t you forget that.’

‘Never.’ Nina pushed herself off her stool. ‘I’ll just go and plug in my laptop and iPad, too.’

‘We need to be charged and ready to sit out the storm.’

‘We do. Never knowingly underprepared.’

A few minutes later, Nina was back with her iPad. ‘It was fully charged anyway, so hopefully, if all goes well and the power doesn”t go out and even if it does, we should be fine.’

‘Great. All good. Let’s hope we don’t get too battered.’

Nina shuddered. ‘Yikes, don’t tempt fate. From what everyone has been saying, I’m slightly concerned about this storm.’

‘Yeah, you never do know how a Lovely storm will turn out. Hopefully, this time, it won’t be too bad. Time will tell.’