Christmas at The Heartbreak Cafe (Lakeview Christmas Novel) (Lakeview Contemporary Romance Book 7) (11 page)

T
he carriage bounced
up and down and rattled to and fro. But while the ride around the lake was rocky, Ella didn’t mind.

She was too preoccupied with watching the houses and businesses of the community pass her by. The snow was falling softly as it covered the trees with a light dusting in front of them.

After several minutes of silence, she moved her hand out from under Santa and turned to face him. She tugged at his beard a bit and pulled off his hat. She knew all along that Joseph would make the perfect Santa Claus.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Is it how I manage to fit all those presents in my sled?” he chuckled.

“No. I want to ask you why.”

“Why what?”

“Why did you give Heidi the rest of the money? It’s just too much. I don’t know if I can accept it, Joseph.”

“Well, I refuse to take it back, so there is no use in telling me you don’t want my contribution.” He smiled at her.

“Please, let’s just make this a loan. I will pay you back, every penny with interest.”

“And I wont accept a cent.”

“Be serious, Joseph. I know this is a lot of money we are talking about. There is no way you just had it lying around to give to a friend like me and my lowly little café.”

He stared at her long and hard, unsure of how to proceed. Sighing, he said, “You are not my friend.”

“What?”

“Ella, I love you. I have loved you for nearly two decades now, but I have never had the courage to say it, never found the right moment to tell you. I’m not trying to use this money, this gift, to buy your affection and you don’t have to say it back to me if you do not mean it. You’re under no obligation. But that money is money I have been saving to start a family of my own. It just never happened for me, but now, I know what I want. I want you. I want to be part of
your
family. And I want to help keep this café alive and going.”

She looked at him, studied his face, and searched for an answer. Every bit of her was screaming to say something, but she could only smile and hold his hand. Eventually, she leaned down and nuzzled into the wide expanse of his shoulders. His coat still smelling of pine trees and Christmas.

“If I am going to accept this money, I want you to make me a promise.”

“Yeah, and what is that?”

“You will be a partner. And,” she held up a hand to silence the protest she knew was coming, “I will not take
no
for an answer. We will be partners in the business—you and me.”

“It doesn’t seem like I have much of a choice, does it?” he chuckled, kissing the top of her forehead as they snuggled closer together. They passed the rest of the ride in silence, but it was also full with hope and promise that for these two people past the prime of their lives, each day from hereon would be more meaningful with the other in it.

“Here we are, Ella,” Eric McGrath said as he pulled the carriage to a halt in front of the back door. Already a second group had lined up with Heidi giving out instructions and taking tickets. As they approached, Joseph quickly repositioned his beard and fixed his red hat on top of his head.

Ella led the way as the couple entered the party once more. When Ruth spotted the two, she quickly finished her song and ushered Ella to the stage.

Ella lowered the microphone and spoke, “Now is my favourite time of the evening. For all the boys and girls out there, Santa is here to visit! We will be taking pictures and he’ll be listening to all of your wish lists. Parents, you can enjoy the famous Heartbreak Café Christmas mulled wine while your children are waiting.” She winked. “And it looks like it’s going to be a long queue!”

The crowd burst into applause and shouts of glee as everyone moved to either the Santa line or the food and drinks queue. Ruth began to sing some more.

While everyone was preoccupied, Ella snuck back out to her little office. She again searched her desk for the brown envelope of pictures. While most of them she had put on display, she had kept one to herself—the black and white photo of herself and her husband on the night of their first kiss.

She looked at their faces, so young and full of optimism of the life they had ahead of them. Gregory especially looked as if he could Lakeview and easily the world. It was that smile. She grinned at the thought of him. Running her fingers over the thick paper, she put her lips to the photograph and placed it back in the envelope. She knew in her heart that he would be delighted for her.

It was then that she heard the music start the first few notes of an old familiar song that she remember fondly dancing to with her Gregory. She headed outside, past the well-wishers and in search of Joseph. Unfortunately, she could not find him anywhere. All of the children had finished their turns sitting on Santa’s lap and were preoccupied with the lollipops he had given them. The parents were still hovering over the mulled wine. The rest of the crowd danced in the centre of the room.

That is when she spotted him—Santa suit and all. Walking back to her office, she grabbed her coat and met him in the front. “Joseph Evans,” she chided. “What are you doing out here? Come back inside.”

Joseph turned to face her, shovel in hand. “If you want me to be a co-owner of this café,” he called, “you have to let me keep you safe. First order of business is keeping the paths clear and free of snow and frost. I wouldn’t want anyone fall—”

Before he could say another word, Ella walked towards him, grabbed the white trim collar, and pulled him in for a long, slow kiss.

Such an embrace was the first in a very long time for both of them, but she knew that they would learn and love together.

It was a kiss filled with promise and meaning, a sign of love that had been growing for forever.

And as the snow fell gently around them and festive music played in the background, it was, Ella thought to herself, the first of many, many more to come.

F
rom the Author
:

Thank you for reading Christmas at The Heartbreak Cafe. I very much hope you enjoyed the story.

I love hearing from readers, so if you’d like to contact me to say hello, send feedback or report any inconsistencies or typographical errors (besides the usual UK/US English grammatical discrepancies!) please drop me a line at
www.melissahill.info
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If you’d like to read more novels in the Lakeview series, they are currently available on amazon, or you can download the Lakeview Collection box set & save over 50%.

R
ead
on for a short excerpt of my latest novel, MULBERRY BAY.

E
scape to a hotel
by the beach …

M
ulberry Hotel
, perched on a clifftop above a sweeping bay, was once the heart and soul of pretty Irish seaside town Mulberry Bay.

Run by the Harte family for years, the place itself is almost as beloved as cheery landlady Anna.

The hotel was also once home to thirty-something sisters Eleanor and Penny, and while youngest sister Penny still lives close by, it's been some time since Elle has visited. But following a family tragedy, Elle is forced to return from her busy London life and reassess her past.

When it becomes apparent that the hotel is in dire straits, Elle and Penny are unprepared for the reaction of their father, Ned, He steadfastly refuses to give up the family legacy, revealing that he's given up something equally precious once before.

Startled by their father's surprising revelation, the sisters unite, with the local community behind them, in their efforts to save the hotel - and, in the process, heal the fractures in the Harte family.

P
enny
, hurry up, you’re going to miss it!’ Elle Harte called out excitedly as she sprinted barefoot down the beach, her auburn hair swirling around her face in the breeze. Golden sand and ochre pebbles snaked alongside the deep blue of the Irish sea, little shaving foam breakers dimpling the surface.

Her ten-year-old sister; her junior by two years, strained to keep up. Penny’s shorter legs weren’t as fast and she was getting winded; Elle had always been much more athletic. Cool sand squished between her toes and she pumped her arms furiously, pushing herself to go faster. She didn’t want to miss the ship before it headed down the coast.

‘Elle stop, please,’ Penny called out.

But Elle pushed on for another fifty yards until she stopped abruptly on the strand, one arm extended out towards the horizon, the other shading her eyes. ‘Look at that, it’s just like the pirate ship in The Goonies,’ she called back, referring to the swashbuckling adventure movie that they both loved.

A moment later, Penny finally caught up with her. She pushed her wispy fair hair out of her eyes and clasped a hand on her hip, working to knead a stitch out of her side from the exertion. ‘Did we really have to run like that? I think I stepped on a jellyfish or something,’ she complained, but Elle didn’t answer. She was entranced by the sight unfolding in front of her.

Penny followed her sister’s gaze towards the open water where an 18th century English Tall Ship, complete with three tall masts and billowing sails, was leisurely making its way south off the Wexford coast. The ship, a true original that had been saved, preserved and recently unveiled to the Irish public, had made a temporary home for itself in the water at their hometown Mulberry Bay, just down the beach from where Elle and Penny’s family ran the local hotel.

Perched high on a hill above a sweeping bay, and overlooking the pretty little seaside town with a huge sugarloaf mountain as backdrop, the Bay Hotel’s coastal location and seafront bedrooms were a perfect haven for tourists. For generations the popular hotel had housed visitors from all over the world, as well as weathered some of worst storms the South East coast had seen. Some of Elle’s favourite memories growing up there were of dramatic lightning strikes at sea, while she, her family and entranced guests watched from the windows. She knew that the tourists took memories like that home with them, to be taken out and relived when life got too overwhelming.The hotel was located just a short walk up the coast road from the centre of Mulberry Bay.

There was just one main street in the little coastal town, which led directly to the sandy beach. The street was cobbled with red sandstone and no cars were allowed to drive through, the space being reserved for walking and simply enjoying the pretty little shops and eateries. The lamp posts were old wrought iron style, brightly coloured flower pots hanging from them, in keeping with the town’s tourist heritage status.

Elle knew all the shops in the main street: artisan bakeries boasting homemade bread, charming organic produce shops, little boutiques and craft stores with candles and jewellery made to order: tourist mementoes of time spent at the picturesque seaside town.

The local businesspeople were intensely proud of their produce and the homegrown/handcrafted nature of their wares. Elle loved walking on Main Street in the height of summer; eating ice-cream from Scoops, smells of baking from The Grain Store Bakery, fresh fruit from SunBurst Organics and ground coffee from Pebbles Café mingling in the bright air as tourists wandered down to the beach with buckets and spades and brightly coloured towels and inflatables.

In the winter, it was much quieter and considerably greyer in the absence of bright blue skies and the kaleidoscope of beach accoutrements, and populated mostly by locals. The only thing she didn’t like about Mulberry Bay was its size and the fact that you tended to meet just about everybody you had ever known.

The entire community had been buzzing about the tall ship for the past few days. Elle had already seen the vessel twice, and had used the fact that her sister had yet to see it, as an excuse to get out of their hotel duties early and head down to the beach to watch it leave.

It was coming to the end of the heavy tourist season, and the Bay Hotel had held one of its famed ballroom dancing nights the evening before. Elle and Penny had been in the thick of the organising for days leading up to it. There was always so much to do at the hotel, but even more for any event in the ballroom; polishing the dance floor to a high shine, dusting the enormous glass chandelier, ironing the crisp white table linen, and arranging fresh flowers from the garden in the alcoves, and at reception. As well as a host of other boringly mundane tasks like replacing burnt-down candles in the candelabra, polishing the glassware, and tidying any rogue family-related paraphernalia away from the entrance or common areas.

Still, despite the annoying chores their mother, Anna set them, Elle had to admit that there was a great buzz and energy about the hotel in the lead up to such an event, and indeed at the event itself. Her mother was in her element with all the preparations, though Elle couldn’t understand the fuss about the drinks or the food when ultimately people were coming to dance, and generally tried to hide out in the gardens with her dad, whom she knew felt the same way. But inevitably Anna roped them all into participating, like it or not. And despite herself, Elle did enjoy the excitement and the fact that the bigger events always seemed to put a twinkle in her ever-busy mother’s eye and an extra bounce in her step.

Elle and Penny weren’t allowed to attend on the big night of course, but they routinely sat on the stairs and peeped out at the guests’ arrival at reception below. Women in bright red lipstick and glittering jewellery, looking like peacocks in glorious dresses and shoes that exuded pure sophistication like those women in Dynasty, accompanied by handsome men in smart suits that on closer inspection were usually many of the locals scrubbed up for the night.

Once the dancing got underway, the ballroom itself was a riot of colour and music, as the band - a group of part-time musicians from the town - played waltzes and lively jives well into the night.

Penny, who like her mother adored a celebration, had as a four-year old, nicknamed these events ‘sparkle nights’, and the name still stuck. Elle agreed that yes their hotel could indeed throw a sparkling party, but Mulberry Bay was just a small town, a tiny community, really. Imagine the likes of such of an event in Wexford, or in Dublin even? She could only guess at how sophisticated a party - a proper event - in a big city would be like, but one day she was determined to find out.

‘Isn’t it amazing?’ breathed Elle now, as she watched the boat sail away, fascination thick in her voice.

Penny looked out toward the horizon and shrugged. ‘It’s just a big boat.’

Elle turned to her little sister, a look of amazement on her face. ‘It isn’t just a big boat, Penny. It’s amazing. It’s like a living thing. Can you imagine the places it’s gone? The people who have sailed on it, the adventures it’s been in?’ She wrapped her arms around herself and proceeded to rub her elbows, warding off goose bumps. ‘It just screams excitement.’

Penny considered her sister’s words and turned around, squinting as the setting sun hit her in the face. She shrugged again. ‘Like I said, it’s just a boat.’

‘I can’t believe we’re sisters. Where’s your sense of adventure? You’re just like Mum and Dad. Sometimes I wonder if I’m adopted,’ Elle tisked. Not waiting for a response, she continued. ‘Oh, I wish I was on that boat. I’m destined to see the world. To live a big adventurous life. To get out of
here
.’

Penny cocked her head, seemingly confused. ‘What’s wrong with here?’ she enquired, genuinely curious.

This time Elle was the one who shrugged. ‘It’s fine I suppose. It’s just…I don’t know. It’s so small, isn’t it? Like everyone who lives here has been here forever. It’s as if none of them know that there is this big, huge world out there. Or if they do, they don’t care. I just know that I’m not meant for this place. And as soon as I can, I’m leaving Mulberry Bay, you know.’

Penny’s mouth dropped open, and she stared at her sister, shocked. ‘You mean you’re going to run away?’

Elle laughed. ‘Don’t be such a baby. No, I’m not going to run away. But when I’m seventeen, and finish school, I’m definitely leaving. Only five more years. And then I can go to college, somewhere that isn’t here, somewhere glamorous and sophisticated and exciting.’

Her younger sister pondered this new information and sat quiet for a moment, as if trying to picture a world where Elle couldn’t be found a couple of doors down the hallway from her own bedroom. ‘Do you mean like Dublin?’

Elle looked out toward the horizon, where the ship was fading into the distance, going on to places and ports unknown.

‘Maybe even further than Dublin,’ she said wistfully.

Penny processed this and bit her lip, as if willing herself not to become upset by her beloved big sister’s impending departure.

Noticing the silence, Elle smiled and placed an arm around her shoulder.

‘Hey kid, don’t worry,’ she said (Elle always felt very grown-up and worldly when she referred to Penny as ‘kid’), ‘I’m not going anywhere yet. Besides, you might want to skidaddle one of these days, too.’

But Penny was already shaking her head adamantly. ‘No, I never want to leave Mum and Dad or the hotel. I love it here. Mulberry Bay is my home.’

Elle repressed the urge to roll her eyes—her mother was always telling her that it wasn’t polite. ‘All teenagers do it in the movies Mum, it’s what you are supposed to do, I’m simply expressing myself,’ she had argued.

‘I don’t care if Molly Ringwald walks around with her eyes constantly in the top of her skull. It’s not nice to have a perpetual look of disdain on your face,’ scolded her mother, ending the discussion. Elle had rolled her eyes but Anna didn’t catch it as she had been walking away.

‘Well, OK,’ Elle said, making an effort not to belittle her younger sister’s (misguided) intentions to remain in their hometown forever. ‘You can just come and visit me then. Wherever I’m living. In Dublin or London with my gorgeously handsome and insanely successful husband.’

Penny’s eyes were as big as saucers. ‘But where will you live? And where will you meet your husband?’ she asked, wonder in her voice, as if Elle’s words were law and the future was certain.

Her sister smiled and said flippantly, ‘Who knows? I bet I’ll meet him in college—and we will form a big company together, and make crazy money. And then we can live wherever it suits us. London. New York. Paris. Tokyo even. What with me being a high powered career woman with a big business we might just live in multiple places. We’ll … ah, split our time.’ Elle hoped that she was using that phrase correctly—she had caught one of the characters from Dallas saying it on television the other night and thought it sounded very cool.

‘But you’ll come back here to visit won’t you?’ asked Penny. ‘What about Mum and Dad? And me? We’ll really miss you,’ she added tentatively. ‘The hotel will miss you.’

‘Ha.’ Elle laughed. Whatever about her family, she definitely wasn’t going to miss the hotel and that endless parade of annoying visitors, ongoing chores and constant entreaties from their Mum to ‘behave’. Well, of course I’ll come to visit now and then.’ She wasn’t going to admit it, but she was pretty sure that regardless of where she was living or how rich, successful and worldly she might be, she would of course miss her family too. ‘Or whenever you need me.’

‘Promise?’ questioned Penny, holding out her small finger.

‘Promise,’ Elle agreed, entwining it with her own, and the Harte sisters completed their usual ritual, forever sealing the vow.

E
nd
of excerpt

Continue reading
Mulberry Bay
, out now.

US:
Mulberry Bay

UK:
The Hotel on Mulberry Bay