The Beach Cottage

Book 2: Coral Island

by Lilly Mirren

Genres: Women's Fiction; Romance; Second Chance Romance; Family Drama; sweet romance; Friendship Fiction; A sweet beach read; Beach read; australian romance; clean and wholesome romance

Synopsis

She says that she’s his daughter. Could the shocking claim be true?

Beatrice is speechless. It’s something she never expected — a secret daughter. She and Aiden have only just renewed their romance, after decades apart, and he never mentioned a child. Did he know she existed?

Their budding relationship may not survive a scandal this big.

Penny’s brother comes back into her life along with her high school nemesis, his best friend. There’s one rule her brother has always held his friends to — no dating his sister. But she’s an adult now, does the rule still stand?

Plus the friend has information about the photos that were found hidden inside the cottage walls. However, his revelation may uncover more questions than answers.

Taya’s coming to terms with the new competition in town, an upscale resort built by her very own father. It could mean the end for the Blue Shoal Inn.

Then Beatrice’s ex-husband comes back into the picture and throws a spanner into the works with a shocking announcement.

The Coral Island series is full of family drama, sweet romance, renewal, mystery, and friendship. This is the second book in the series and ends on a cliff hanger. Be sure to read book 1, The Island, before starting this one.

 

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Release date: October 11, 2022

Publisher: Black Lab Press

Sample

Chapter One

The girl looked just like Aidan Whitlock. Especially those long, spindly legs. That’s what ran through Beatrice Rushton’s mind when the teenager confronted them on the beach beside the roaring flames of a bonfire at her housewarming party. The cottage was lit up by the glow of a few lights she’d flicked on before she stepped outside to greet her guests. She’d also lined the pathway down to the beach with solar lanterns. 

Guests meandered along the path, drinks in hand as they chatted and laughed. Several milled around the food table where she’d laid out a spread of finger foods, including olives, cheeses, crackers, breads and dips.

None of that mattered in the moment. The party faded into the background of Bea’s thoughts as she turned her focus back to her boyfriend and the girl standing before him.

What had she said?

You’re my dad.

Bea glanced around at her group of friends — Evie, Taya and Penny all gaped, eyes wide. 

Aidan took the teen to one side and spoke to her in hushed tones, one hand on her shoulder, his head bent low towards hers. Bea no longer had the comfort of his arm around her shoulders. She was the outsider, looking in on a private conversation between two people she didn’t know. She thought she knew Aidan, but in that moment, he seemed a stranger to her. She shivered in the cool night air and hugged herself as Evie came up alongside her.

“Are you okay?”

Bea nodded. “Of course, I’m fine. I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding. She must be about fifteen or so. Aidan was married fifteen years ago, and I know he wouldn’t have cheated on his wife. We’ve had so many conversations about my marriage breakdown, and he’s always expressed disgust at Preston’s affair.”

Evie patted her arm. “I’m sure you’re right. He’ll get to the bottom of this. Perhaps she made a mistake. What was her name again?”

“She introduced herself as Grace Allen and said her mother’s name is Kelly Allen. Aidan’s never mentioned a Kelly to me. Has he said anything to you about her?”

Evie shook her head. “I didn’t really see much of him fifteen years ago. He lived in Brisbane then.”

The girl reached for her long, golden hair and twirled it between her hands while Aidan said something to her in a muffled tone. Bea wished she could take a few steps closer without being obvious. Perhaps then she’d be able to hear what they were saying to one another.

Her certainty wavered — maybe Aidan had been unfaithful to his wife. If so, that would change everything between the two of them. Bea’s heart had been broken by her own husband’s unfaithfulness. She wasn’t sure she could stomach Aidan having done the same thing, especially when his wife had died of cancer several years later and wasn’t there to confront him over it.

She shouldn’t jump to conclusions. She’d give him a chance to defend himself. To tell her what’d happened. But she couldn’t get over how much like him the teen girl looked — even the way she held herself, the way she looked up at him with a barely veiled rebelliousness flashing in her eyes. It was all so Aidan. Memories of him as a teen boy helping her sneak out of the house, or urging her to leap off a cliff into the ocean before following, or giving her a cigarette to try for the first time, flashed before her eyes. This girl was the spitting image of him. With a sigh, her shoulders slumped, and she turned on her heel to stride back in the direction of the cottage. 

There was no point fighting it. Aidan had a daughter. 

“Where are you going?” Evie asked, jogging to keep up with her.

“Let’s get out of here. I can’t bear to stay a moment longer.”

“But it’s your party,” objected Taya with a frown as she hurried after them, with Penny close behind.

“I don’t care,” Bea replied. “I’ve got to go.”

* * *

Grace Allen. 

A name that Beatrice Rushton wouldn’t soon forget. She paced back and forth in her bedroom, worrying a fingernail with her teeth. She stared at her phone where it rested on the dresser against the wall. Why hadn’t Aidan called?

She’d left the party at her own beach cottage, with guests exchanging puzzled looks and the fire still burning, food on the tables and drinks cooling in buckets. She, Taya, Evie and Penny had all headed back to Evie’s place, a small timber house only a few hundred metres away from her bookshop, to spend the night. 

They’d debated what the revelation could mean until the wee hours of the morning over glasses of wine and in between bites of cheesecake and chocolate. They’d raised so many questions, and Bea’s anxiety levels rose exponentially with each hour that passed until finally, she’d declared herself exhausted and headed to bed on the couch in the den.

Before she left the party, she’d locked the cottage door and left Aidan with the key. He promised to clean up the beach and send the rest of the guests home. She’d had to feed and water the pademelon that Penny had brought back from the wildlife refuge, then took it up to her father’s house so he could care for the creature for a few days. She didn’t have the capacity to care for it and was hardly home lately. He seemed quietly excited at the prospect and was already putting together a meal of leaves and vegetables when she left.

“Good luck,” she’d whispered as she pulled the door shut behind her with a sigh of relief.

She’d forgotten to pack pyjamas or a toothbrush. Hadn’t thought of anything much other than getting out of there. The idea of facing anyone after what’d happened was more than she could take.

They’d all seen it. Been witness to her humiliation.

She pressed both hands to her face and rubbed her eyes. This was insane. Why didn’t he call? Surely he knew they had to talk. If nothing else, she wanted the truth. It might mean their relationship, as young and tender as it was, wouldn’t last. But she deserved to know. He had to understand that, given the fact that her own husband had lied to, cheated on and stolen from her, she wouldn’t stand for secrets in a relationship.

Maybe she shouldn’t have left. Instead, she could’ve stayed and listened to the girl’s explanation. It might have been a joke, but she didn’t wait around to find out. Perhaps it was nothing, or maybe she’d misheard. No, she’d definitely heard her say the words, “I’m your daughter.” And the similarities between her and Aidan were difficult to ignore.

This was Aidan Whitlock she was talking about. Aidan, who’d never had children. At least, that’s what he’d told her and everyone else. His wife had died of cancer five years earlier. They’d been happy, he’d said. She vaguely recalled him mentioning that there had been ups and downs in their relationship, but any married couple could say the same thing.

She’d left Evie’s place at first light and headed home. Aidan had left the key beneath her door mat and she found the party supplies neatly stowed in her kitchen, the dishes and glasses washed, and everything in its place. At least Aidan was a neat freak even if he did cheat on his wife. That was something, she supposed with a half-hearted smile.

If she didn’t get out of the cottage, she’d go crazy thinking about it. Perhaps Aidan needed time to process what’d happened. She could give him that. It wasn’t as though they’d been dating for very long. They were both adults—both had a past. No doubt he had some kind of explanation for what had occurred the previous evening. And there was no point in her wasting valuable energy pacing a path into her newly polished floorboards over it.

She showered quickly and dressed in a floral cotton frock with a matching belt. Breakfast was a bowl of homemade muesli and oat milk. She’d decided to go off dairy for a while to see if it would help with the constant congestion she’d had since she’d returned to the tropics. She’d forgotten how many allergies she could experience when living back in humidity and with thousands of blooming plants and trees around her every day of the week.

The news stories she flicked through on her iPad while eating did little to distract her. There was so much going on in the world, it was likely to give her indigestion if she took it all in. So instead, she turned off the iPad and made herself a coffee with her new coffee maker. Aidan had bought it for her as a housewarming gift for the cottage, and as the dark liquid poured into her enormous blue mug with World’s Greatest Mum written on the side, she couldn’t help thinking about how kind he’d been to do it. 

Her ex-husband, Preston, had never bothered to buy her an espresso machine. In fact, he’d called the idea of ordering one wasteful because he didn’t enjoy drinking coffee. But Aidan had purchased one without even asking her about it first and set it up in the cottage for her to enjoy. There were so many differences between him and Preston that she hardly knew where to start — but thoughtfulness was certainly one of the key distinctions.

After breakfast, she stepped outside and surveyed the cottage, her hands pressed to her hips. It was perfect. An idyllic beach cottage. She’d hired a contractor to renovate it when she moved to the island a year earlier after her husband left her for another woman. Coral Island was her childhood home. She’d spent so many years in the city that it took her a while to adjust to the idea of moving back here. But now that she’d established a life for herself on the island, she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, and wondered why it’d taken so long for her to return. 

The cottage was painted white with blue accents. It was nestled among spindly bushes, sea grasses and pandanus trees behind the dunes that lined a private cove with white sand, azure waters shushing gently to shore and black rocky outcroppings marking either end. It’d been her home after she was born, up until her parents built a much larger house for their growing family on the headland above. Then it had fallen into disrepair after her mother died. 

Dad didn’t have the heart to rent it out to strangers since it’d been one of her mother’s favourite haunts. But now it was Bea’s home and she couldn’t be happier with how the renovation had worked out — there was a modern kitchen and two bathrooms, as well as fresh paint and a large, sturdy verandah that looked out over the beach.

She spun around and strode forwards through the sand. She often took a walk along the beach in the mornings, as it gave her a chance to think about the day ahead and clear her thoughts. The morning had already heated up, and she was bathed in a light film of sweat when she came puffing back up the beach to the cottage half an hour later. Aidan’s truck was there, parked beside the cottage. She hadn’t locked up before she left, so she washed her feet at the tap on the side of the cottage then went right inside to find Aidan sitting at the kitchen table, sipping a cup of coffee.

He smiled up at her, half happy to see her, half hesitant. She understood the sentiment — she wasn’t exactly sure how to broach this subject with him herself.

“Hi,” she said.

He stood to greet her, kissing her forehead awkwardly.

She pushed away from him and filled a glass with water from the tap, downing it in two long gulps.

“I thought you might be walking.”

“You know me well.”

He nodded. “I thought we should talk about last night.”

“Good idea.” She sat opposite him at the table.

“It seems I have a daughter.”

Beatrice arched an eyebrow but didn’t speak.

He offered her a wan smile. “I’m sure you gathered that much.”

“I thought maybe she was a fan at first…”

“Not a fan. It turns out that an old relationship resulted in a pregnancy I knew nothing about.”

“But weren’t you married?” She asked the question as gently as she could. She didn’t want to make any kind of judgement about his relationship. They’d barely spoken about his marriage until this point. After all, his wife had died, and he’d grieved her a long time. It wasn’t exactly a topic Bea felt comfortable raising in casual conversation.

He rubbed his chin. “Yes, I was married. But we were separated. It was long before she got sick, and we tried to work things out. But she told me it was over, that she couldn’t keep going the way it was, with me so focused on my career. She felt lost, she was lonely, she wanted to go home to live with her parents. We fought a lot. It was a difficult time for me, but she moved out and I thought my marriage was over. I really believed that.”

Bea inhaled a slow breath. “I knew you’d never have cheated on your wife that way.”

“Thank you,” he replied, relief written across his face. “I don’t want there to be any confusion because of how your husband treated you. But the fact is, I did cheat. We weren’t divorced, but I thought we were on our way towards divorce. The affair showed me how much I loved my wife — I missed her, I wanted to work things out. So, I broke off the affair with Kelly and went to see my wife, begging her to try again. And we did. The rest is history.”

“And Kelly?”

“I never heard from her after that. She told me she was moving back to Adelaide to be with her family, and that was the last time we spoke.”

Bea stood and paced to the other side of the kitchen, then back again. “This is crazy. You have a teenaged daughter, and you knew nothing about her?”

“Nothing.” He raised his hands in mock surrender. “I swear. But honestly, I’m kind of excited. I know the timing isn’t great, but I thought I’d never have children. I’d come to terms with it. Heck, for a long time I even told myself it was for the best, that I could give my career my full attention. But I’ve always wanted a child.”

“She’s almost grown.”

“I know.” He shook his head. “I’m trying not to be angry at Kelly for keeping her from me. I missed out on so much.”

“I’m sorry,” Bea simply said. She reached out a hand to Aidan, and he took it, squeezed it.

“Thank you. I really want to spend some time getting to know her. I’ve missed her entire childhood. I can’t think about anything else right now.”

Bea nodded. “Of course. I understand.” She could see it in his eyes. He was breaking up with her before they’d even had a chance to try. But she couldn’t argue—she didn’t want to get in between him and his daughter.

“I knew you would. We can revisit things when I’ve had some time to process it all and get to know Grace a little better.”

“We’ll talk then.”

Bea swallowed around the lump in her throat as she watched Aidan walk away. He climbed into his truck and waved goodbye, then backed out of her driveway. She stood staring after him, her eyes full of tears.

Their reconciliation had been too good to be true. All this time, she’d wanted to take things slowly between them so she was ready and wouldn’t hurt him. But she hadn’t realised it would be him who’d hurt her, and so soon.

With a shake of her head, she walked back to her bedroom to take a shower. She had a busy day planned, and there was no point standing around moping. There was work to be done.