Snowflakes on Silver Cove: A festive, feel-good Christmas romance (White Cliff Bay Book 2) (33 page)

He took her face in his hands and kissed her again. ‘Maybe I’ll brush up for next time.’

‘That could be tricky – you do realise I’m not letting you out of bed for at least the next three days?’

‘Excellent,’ he grinned.

‘Besides…’ she lay down on the bed ‘…you already know my favourite position.’

He wracked his brains as he knelt on the bed, kissing her neck. The cobra? The elephant? The one with the pulley? ‘What’s that then?’

Libby smiled, pulling him down on top of her. ‘The good old-fashioned missionary.’

He grinned as he kissed her. ‘Thank goodness for that.’

T
hank
you so much for reading
Snowflakes on Silver Cove
, I had so much fun creating this story and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

One of the best parts of writing comes from seeing the reaction from readers. Did it make you smile or laugh, did it make you cry, hopefully happy tears? Did you fall in love with George and Libby or Amy and Seb? Did you like the gorgeous town of White Cliff Bay?
If you enjoyed the story, I would absolutely love it if you could leave a short review. Getting feedback from readers is amazing and it also helps to persuade other readers to pick up one of my books for the first time.

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I promise to only contact you when I have a new book out and I’ll never share your email with anyone else.

I have two books out this Christmas set in the town of White Cliff Bay, so if you enjoyed this book and haven’t read
Christmas at Lilac Cottage
yet I hope you will love it too. You can find it here.

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful cosy Christmas.

Love Holly x

• @hollymartin00
  
• hollymartinauthor
  

T
he Guestbook

One Hundred Proposals

One Hundred Christmas Proposals

Fairytale Beginnings

W
HITE CLIFF BAY SERIES

Christmas at Lilac Cottage (White Cliff Bay Book 1)

Snowflakes on Silver Cove (White Cliff Bay Book 2)

Tied Up with Love

Beneath the Moon and the Stars

The Sentinel

The Prophecies

T
he timer went
off on the oven and Penny quickly dropped her sketch book and grabbed her oven gloves. Opening the oven door released a waft of gorgeous, rich fruity smells into the kitchen, making Penny smile with excitement. The mince pies looked golden, crisp and perfectly done. She quickly transferred them to a wire rack to cool and gave the warm mulled wine a quick stir as it simmered on the hob.

She looked around at the green-leafed garlands that covered the fireplace and the white fairy lights that twinkled from in between the leaves, the lights that lined the windows also lending a sparkling glow to the room in the dullness of the late winter afternoon. She knew that next door, in the annexe, looked equally inviting now that she had spent hours decorating it in suitable festive attire ready for the new arrivals.

Everything was perfect and Penny couldn’t wait to meet them.

Henry and Daisy Travis had been referred to her by the agency in charge of finding tenants for her annexe. Although Penny would have preferred a single woman like her, the young couple came with great references and no children.

Not that she had an issue with children; she loved them. She had even thought at one point in her life that she might have some of her own but that had passed her by. She just wanted to make friends with people who were at the same point in their life as she was.

One by one all her friends had got married and had children and each time a new child in the town was born it seemed to add weight to her solitary existence. Everyone had someone to love and look after. Penny had a fat, lazy dog called Bernard. The loneliness inside her had grown recently to an almost tangible thing. Whenever people asked if she ever felt isolated up on the hill on her own, she always batted it away with a cheery smile and talk of how she never had time to feel that way with her job. And while it was true that her job as the town’s only ice carver did keep her very busy, she knew she took on a lot of work to try to distract her from how utterly alone she really felt.

She had always lived in Lilac Cottage and she could never imagine living anywhere else. The view over the town of White Cliff Bay and the rugged white coastline that lent the town its name was stunning; she could look at it for hours and never grow tired of it. But the hustle and bustle of the town was a good ten minutes’ drive from where she lived and, although she loved the remoteness of her home, she was starting to hate it too.

Renting the annexe out would be a good way to make some new friends and, even though they would still lead separate lives, Penny hoped they would be able to chat from time to time.

Penny checked her watch again, a nervous excitement pulsing through her. She had cooked lasagne for them and she hoped they could spend the night chatting over the wine and a good meal and really get to know each other.

It was going to be perfect and she couldn’t wait to start this next chapter of her life.

H
enry slammed
his hands on the steering wheel as another red light forced him to stop. In a town that was probably no more than a few miles long they seemed to have traffic lights on every corner and every single one of them had been red so far.

This had to be the worst moving day ever. The expression of you get what you pay for couldn’t be more true today. As the annexe he was moving into was fully furnished, he only needed a small van to bring his other belongings. He’d stupidly hired the cheapest company to move his stuff and now the van was sitting in White Cliff Beach in the furthest reaches of Yorkshire instead of White Cliff Bay in rural Devon.

And what was with the people in the town? They asked so many questions. Stopping for petrol in the town’s only petrol station, stopping at a supermarket, and then a café for lunch with Daisy, he had been accosted by about thirty different people who wanted his whole life story. Daisy was lovely and sweet and would chat to anyone and everyone, the complete opposite to him; he just wanted to tell everyone to sod off and leave them alone.

Daisy was staying with his sister tonight, which was a good job too as he was in a foul mood. All he wanted now was to get to this house, unpack the few things he had brought with him and fall asleep in front of the TV or over a good book.

He just hoped that Penny Meadows, his landlady, wasn’t a talker. Living up on the hilltops all by herself and completely cut off from the town, he presumed she was some kind of hermit and liked to keep herself to herself. That suited him fine. He didn’t want to make friends, he didn’t want to chat to anyone. He just wanted to be left alone.

He turned onto the long driveway leading up to what he hoped was Lilac Cottage. He had got lost three times trying to find the blasted place and when he stopped to ask directions, people seemed to close ranks and send him the opposite way as if they were trying to keep the place hidden. As he drove over the crest of the hill he saw it. The house was a pale purple colour. He had presumed the name Lilac Cottage would come from nearby Lilac trees not the actual colour of the house. It looked like somewhere Barbie might live. With the lights twinkling happily in a multitude of colours from every tree, bush and fence surrounding the home, it just added to the sickeningly cutesy feel. Daisy would love it. He glared at the lights as if they were causing him great offence. Bloody Christmas. Humbug.

T
o my family
, my mom, my biggest fan, who reads every word I have written a hundred times over and loves it every single time, my dad, my brother Lee and my sister-in-law Julie, for your support, love, encouragement and endless excitement for my stories.

For my twinnie, the gorgeous Aven Ellis for just being my wonderful friend, for your endless support, for cheering me on and for keeping me entertained with wonderful stories and pictures of hot men. Although we have never met, you are my best friend and I love you dearly.

Huge thank you to my wonderful, incredible friends Kirsty Maclennan, Megan Milliken and Victoria Stone for the endless support and love. You are amazing.

To my friends Gareth and Mandie, for your support, patience and enthusiasm. My lovely friends Jac, Verity and Jodie who listen to me talk about my books endlessly and get excited about it every single time.

For Sharon Sant for just being there always and your wonderful friendship.

To my wonderful agent Madeleine Milburn for just been amazing and fighting my corner and for your unending patience with my constant questions.

To my editor Claire for helping to make this book so much better, for putting up with all my crazy throughout the whole process, for replying to every single email and for listening to me freak out with complete and utter patience. Thank you to Kim Nash for the tireless promoting, tweeting and general cheerleading. Thank you to all the other wonderful people at Bookouture; Oliver Rhodes, the editing team and the wonderful designers who created this absolutely gorgeous cover.

To Oliver Mallinson and the RNLI for helping me with the details of the lifeboat rescue.

To the CASG, the best writing group in the world, you wonderful talented supportive bunch of authors, I feel very blessed to know you all, you guys are the very best.

To the wonderful Bookouture authors for all your encouragement and support.

And some other gorgeous people who have encouraged, supported, promoted, got excited or just listened; Rebecca Pugh, Lisa Dickenson, Sharon Wilden, Kelly Rufus, Simona Elena, Erin McEwan, Katey Beeden, Maryline, Jo Hughes, Dawn Crooks, Laura Delve, Jill Stratton, Tay Pickering, Emma Poulloura, Aga Klar, Catriona Merryweather, Lynsey James, Lindsay Hill, Ana, Alba Forcadell, Dawn Brierley, Sophie Hedley, Cesca Major, Rachael Lucas, Kat Black, Helen Redfern, Katy Gough, Emily Kerr, Jaimie Admans, Kate Gordon, Pernille Hughes, Louise Wykes, Paris Baker, Silke Auwers, The Blossom Twins, Daniel Riding, Pat Elliott, Shaun, Mark Rumsey, James Brown, Arron Davenport.

To all those involved in the blog tour. To anyone who has read my book and taken the time to tell me you’ve enjoyed it or wrote a review, thank you so much.

Thank you, I love you all.