She closed the consultation room door, walked through the surgery, past the staff room, peered into the reception window, and said goodbye to the girls on the desk. She pushed open the door of the surgery, and very welcome fresh sea air hit her squarely in the face. It had been a long day and she was tired.
Juliette walked up to Luke’s BMW and got in and he kissed her on the cheek.
‘How was your day?’
‘Long, but without problems. I always like a nice day without problems. You?’
‘Probably the same, and I needed an easy day without too many complications. They are few and far between these days. I must be getting too old for it all,’ Luke said as he turned on the ignition and checked his wing mirror while they waited for a man with an old lady in a wheelchair file past the back of the car.
‘I can’t wait to get home and sit in the garden with a drink.’
‘Ditto. Long may these light evenings last,’ Luke said, as he saw that the wheelchair was now safely parked near a bright red car. He reversed his car and pulled out of the car park.
‘Yeah, amazing how quickly you get used to the lovely long evenings. I do like it when it gets dark early too, though. I love those nights when you get all tucked up and in the warm for the night.’
‘I think I prefer sitting out in the garden with a beer myself,’ Luke replied, and drove slowly along the laneway. Juliette waved to Holly and Xian who were just coming out of the bakery.
‘We missed the bread then,’ Luke observed, looking at the closed sign on the front of Holly’s shop.
‘Not a problem, I got some out of the freezer this morning. Just call me a domestic goddess.’ Juliette giggled.
‘Ha, you’re perfect, you know that?’
‘Funny. Luke, we need to talk about money. So far you’ve paid for everything since you’ve moved in.’
‘Where did that suddenly come from? It’ll all work out in the wash. Let’s not start talking about all that. Far too boring.’
‘What about your house too? It’s just sitting there empty.’
‘I know, I’ve just been so busy. Look, it’s not a drama. I’ll get around to it eventually.’
‘I just like to have things sorted. Especially things to do with money, you know that.’
‘Let’s just keep it as it is for a bit. We don’t need to delve into all that yet.’ Luke replied and patted Juliette on her leg.
Luke pulled up in Mermaid Lane, put the car into park and they got out and walked up to the house. The hanging baskets either side of the door rammed with pink and white petunias and trailing white lobelia swayed in the wind and the coir doormat with white hearts made Juliette smile as they walked in.
‘You go outside, and I’ll bring out the beers and you can tell me all about the podcast thing and the phone call from what’s his name, Lucian?’ Luke said, touching Juliette gently on the arm.
Juliette walked down the path all the way to the little suntrap at the end and sat down in one of the deck chairs. It wouldn’t be long before Maggie was dropped off, but it was nice to sit in the garden after a day at work and look at the flowers and up at the back of the house in peace. Luke came out of the back door, strolled along, handed Juliette a bottle of beer, and she started to tell him about the podcast.
‘It’s got millions of listeners. Sallie said it multiplied her business and catapulted her into a whole new arena of worldwide customers.’
‘Wow. I suppose if it’s got that many listeners it would do. That’s massive.’
‘I’m lucky to get it by the sounds of it.’
‘So, you’re going to go for it?’
‘I can’t see why not. It’s a bit nerve-wracking, but not really. I chat all day for my job pretty much. That’s the way I looked at it anyway. How hard can it be?’
‘You do and you do that side of your job brilliantly. That’s why so many people feel so comfortable with you. It will be great.’
‘If A Christmas Sparkle can make more money then I will be able to go part-time at some point. I love my job, but I would love to be able to do both.’
Luke rubbed Juliette on the leg and turned to look at her. ‘You know you can go part-time now. I’ve told you the income from my flat in London nearly covers the mortgage on the cottage, so I can pay this one here.’
Juliette didn’t really know what to think about Luke’s nonchalant attitude about money - he really did seem to let nothing worry him and was quite happy to go all-in with their relationship. But Juliette had felt like she’d struggled for so long to do well for herself since she’d left Jeremy that there was a bit of her that was still holding back. What is wrong with me? I have this lovely man offering me to go part-time and I’m not jumping in with two feet?
‘I know you have Luke. I’ll think about it. It’s still very early days.’ Juliette said and hearing the doorbell and assuming it was Maggie being dropped off she jumped up to go and answer the door. She always missed Maggie when she wasn’t at home and she’d planned Maggie’s favourite dinner, and she didn’t want to discuss money any further. In fact, she’d wished that she hadn’t been the one to bring it up in the first place.
Chapter 13
A week or so later and with no further mention of finances, Juliette was on her way to Daisy’s new house over
