The Little Beach Café

Sarah Hope

Description

Love, friendship and new beginnings… It’s all waiting for Pippa Jenkins at The Little Beach Café…

When Pippa’s aunt leaves her a cafe by the beach, it doesn’t take her long to jump at the chance of a new start. Waving goodbye to mounting debt, threatening bailiffs and never-ending shifts at a job she hates, she and her young son, Joshua, prepare for their new life.

But as Pippa strives to make her new business a success, the arrival of her ex makes her question everything. Will she succumb to his charms, or will Joe, the local plumber, be able to repair Pippa’s heart?

A heartwarming tale of new beginnings, perfect for fans of Holly Martin, Jessica Redland and Polly Babbington.

Sujets

• Sea Stories
• Mashups
• Wholesome
• Women
• Reino Unido
• 21st century
• Friendship
• Contemporary history
• Workplace
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Woman
• United Kingdom
• The Women
• Great Britain
• Clean
• Contemporary
• International
• Romance
• Fiction
• Royaume-Uni

Informations

• Publié par: Boldwood Books
• Date de parution: 05 août 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781805490920
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE LITTLE BEACH CAFÉ


SARAH HOPE
CONTENTS



Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Epilogue


Acknowledgments

More from Sarah Hope

About the Author

About Boldwood Books
For my children,
Let’s change our stars.
xXx
1

Pippa Jenkins flung her handbag onto the scratched laminate floor, ignoring the thud it made. So what if it woke her crabby neighbours? They were probably in a comatose state anyway, the amount of weed they smoked.
Sinking into the deflated cushions on the sofa, the sheen of rain covering her jacket soaked into the worn blue fabric, turning patches of it into royal blue smudges. She tossed the letters she’d scraped from the hallway floor onto the low coffee table in front of her and put her feet up, gently knocking the collection of empty crisp packets, toy cars and Lego bricks onto the floor.
Closing her eyes, she calculated that she had precisely six hours and fifteen minutes until her mum dropped Joshua off on her way to work so that Pippa could do the school run. After that, she had the grocery shopping to do and, hopefully, an hour spare to make a dent in the list of housework duties forever looming before she’d have to drag herself back to the restaurant to stand another twelve-hour shift.
There must be more to life, and motherhood, than this. Since Joshua’s dad had run off with the tart downstairs, she hardly even saw Joshua any more. Her mum dropped him off so she could take him to school and then after school, his care reverted back to her mum until the following morning. She used to have time to spend with him, to be a mummy, now all she seemed to be doing was working, cleaning and snatching an hour here or there to sleep.
She refused to open her eyes, she knew the living room was a complete mess, toys were still laying on the floor where they had been abandoned three days ago when it had been Pippa’s day off and she had actually been able to see her son for more than an hour in one day. She could sense the clothes jeering her from the laundry basket, telling her that, yes, they had been clean but because she had forgotten to hang them up two days ago they would need washing again to get rid of the unmistakable musty, damp smell. She could almost feel the dust particles rising up from the TV stand, windowsills and the old pine cabinet she stacked toys inside, when they managed to get there, that was.



* * *
Pippa forced her eyes open, the continuous drill of the doorbell told her that her mum was outside with Joshua. Pushing herself up out of the sofa cushions, she pulled her coat tighter around her, she really must change the tone of her alarm so it actually did its job and woke her. That way she’d be able to put the heating on before Joshua was dropped off to change into his school uniform.
‘Morning, Joshie. Hi, Mum. How’s he been?’ Pippa ruffled Joshua’s light brown hair and picked him up, hugging him tightly.
‘He’s been a good boy, as usual. He’s not had much sleep though, I’m afraid. He had a bad dream and woke up crying for you.’ Maggie slipped his book bag through the open door before kissing Joshua on the head.
‘Thanks, Mum.’
‘You’re welcome. I’ll pick you up from your club tonight, Joshua. Bye, love.’ Maggie patted Pippa’s arm and turned away, heading back down the stairs.
‘Come on then, Joshie, we’d best get a wriggle on and get you ready for school.’
Shutting the door behind them, Pippa carried Joshua’s small body to the sofa and sat down with him on her knee.
‘Hey, Nana said you had a bad dream last night. Do you want to tell me about it?’
Joshua shook his head and bit his bottom lip.
‘Oh, my little lad. You know dreams can’t hurt you, don’t you?’ Pulling him closer, she wrapped her arms around his body.
Laying his head against her chest, he wound his small arms tightly around her neck. ‘I just wanted you there, that’s why I got upset, not because of the dream.’
‘Oh, darling. It’s my day off in two more days and then we get to spend the whole time together. Maybe we could go swimming and down the park? What do you think?’
‘You never used to work this much. Not when Daddy was here.’ Joshua yawned and rubbed his eyes.
‘I know, but things change. It won’t be like this forever.’
‘Promise?’ Joshua held out his little finger ready to link with Pippa’s.
‘I promise.’ Pippa linked fingers with Joshua, mentally crossing her fingers at the same time. She still had at least two and a half thousand pounds worth of arrears to pay for the flat, thanks to Joshua’s father’s gambling problem. She should have seen it coming, she shouldn’t have trusted him with the job of paying the rent, not after the first time. On the bright side, at least the rest of his debts were in his name only. ‘Right, come on then, time to go and get your uniform on.’
‘Are you getting changed too, Mummy?’ Joshua swivelled around on her lap and looked into her eyes.
‘Umm...’ Pippa checked her watch. ‘Wow, is that the time? No, we’ve only got ten minutes before the bus comes. Off you go and get changed and I’ll make your packed lunch.’ Pippa lowered Joshua to the floor and smoothed down the pale pink skirt with the small black apron she was still wearing.



* * *
As she rounded the open stairwell up to the flat, Pippa could feel the tension on her thin plastic shopping bags and knew she only had moments until the handles broke or the bottoms dropped out.
‘Excuse me.’ Pippa shuffled to the side and stepped around the young bloke who lived in the flat below. Why he chose to sit on the cold concrete steps to smoke never failed to amaze her. Pippa bit her tongue to stop herself from telling him he should be smoking that stuff either in his own flat or out in the open somewhere, not in the stairwell where young kids had to walk through and inhale his poisonous fumes. It just wasn’t worth it. Last time she’d said anything he’d hurled a torrent of abuse and that night Joshua’s bike had gone missing from outside the flat.
Once inside, she kicked the door shut and lowered the bags to the floor, a tin of beans rolling across the floor as the thin plastic finally gave up. After putting the milk and cheese in the fridge, she turned her back on the rest. She’d unpack it after a coffee.
With a mug of coffee in hand, Pippa flopped onto the sofa, scooping up the letters from yesterday. She flicked through them, just as she had thought, bills, bills and more bills. All addressed to Mike, thank goodness.
Taking a sip of coffee, she flicked the TV on, settling on a generic morning show. She’d just have a few minutes to herself before the caffeine kicked in and she had to start on the housework.



* * *
‘Drat.’ Pippa woke up to a hammering on the front door, she must have dropped off. The dregs of cold coffee dribbled from the mug in her hand forming a new mark on the sofa. ‘OK, I’m coming.’
Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she pulled the door open. Two men stood outside, one tall and slim, a cap pulled down, half covering his eyes, the other short and heavyset, a dragon tattoo curling above his shirt collar. Both wore the same dark blue jackets with white shirts.
‘We’re looking for Mike Cherington,’ the heavyset one grumbled in a low voice.
‘He doesn’t live here any more. Can I ask who’s looking for him?’ Pippa kept her hand on the doorknob and slid her foot behind the half-open door, making sure she stood in the gap between the door and the wall.
‘We’re from Burton’s Bailiffs, we’re acting on behalf of The Framwell Garage. We’re here to collect some bad debt owing to them.’
‘The Framwell Garage? Where even is that?’
‘Up north. Is Mike Cherington in?’
Great, so he was still running up debts and using their address. ‘I’ve already told you, he doesn’t live here any more.’
‘Where might we find him?’
‘I don’t know. He ran off with the woman downstairs, leaving me and his kid in a whole load of debt thanks to his gambling addiction.’ Stepping back she began to close the door.
‘With all due respect, miss, we encounter a lot of clients who have supposedly left town. Now if you don’t mind.’ Mr Heavyset put his foot against the door before Pippa could close it.
‘Seriously, he really isn’t here. As I said, he ran off with the tart downstairs and I haven’t seen him since. Believe me, if I knew where he was I would gladly tell you his exact whereabouts. In fact, I’d take you there myself so I could get him to repay the money he owes me. Now if you don’t mind, please remove your foot so I can shut the door and get ready for work.’
‘I’m afraid it’s not as straightforward as that. You see, miss, we have it on good faith that Mike Cherington is on the tenancy agreement for this flat. Is that right?’ Mr Heavyset waved a photocopy of the tenancy agreement in front of Pippa’s face.
Grimacing, Pippa held tightly to the doorframe, her knuckles turning white. So much for client confidentiality. She bet that if she hadn’t been so behind on the rent the bailiffs would never have been able to get hold of it.
‘Which means, we have every right to seize goods on this premises unless you can prove without a doubt that they are yours.’ A slow grin spread across Mr Heavyset’s oily face.
‘Only if I let you in, which I will not do.’ Pippa grinned back, she knew her rights. ‘Now, please remove your foot from my doorway so I can shut the door.’
‘Well, not exactly. You see eighteen months ago the lovely Mike Cherington let us in and set up a repayment plan with us, agreeing to pay a certain amount each month until the debt was paid off. Unfortunately for you, he has stopped paying them which leads to us coming here and seizing his goods.’ Mr Heavyset folded his arms in front of him.
‘No, th