Page 1 of The Wisteria Tree Cottage

CHAPTERONE

Meadow walked out of her treehouse and stood on the decking looking out over the sea, enjoying the rare quiet of the morning as she nursed her cup of coffee. It was another gloriously hot day and the sea was a gorgeous teal, sparkling in the early morning sunlight.

She glanced at the tattered old purple notebook on the table, her diary from when she was seventeen, the year her life had changed. She’d found it a few days before stuffed in a box and had spent some time since then reading it. She smiled. Young Meadow had had hopes and dreams, she was going to be a fashion designer of the world’s most glamorous dresses, she was going to have a shop of her clothes in every major city across the globe and every famous woman would want to wear her beautiful outfits.

Meadow smiled as she glanced around the wood which was her home. Life had turned out completely differently but she knew she wouldn’t change it for the world. She lived and worked at Wishing Wood, a luxury treehouse resort on the south coast of Wales filled with magical fairy-style treehouses that guests could come and stay in. The guests were always so enchanted with the place when they came here for the first time. Every treehouse had so much character: wonky turrets, round windows, spiral staircases and an abundance of fairy lights everywhere. Meadow lived in a treehouse herself built around a beautiful old wisteria tree, which bloomed with incredible purple flowers every year. Across the little rope bridge from her treehouse was another treehouse where her ex-husband, Heath lived. Their daughter Star would happily spend some nights with him and some nights with her, just wherever took her fancy. Meadow adored Heath, he was her best friend. In fact she had been best friends with all three of the Brookfield brothers for as far back as she could remember.

Despite the fact that her life was nowhere near what she had dreamt when she was younger, it was pretty much perfect. She loved her job as manager of the Wishing Wood treehouse resort, she enjoyed helping the guests to have the most magical holiday possible. She loved living here in the woods with Heath’s brothers, Bear and River, along with River’s daughter Tierra and fiancée Indigo. They were a team, a family, and she wouldn’t want to be without any one of them. But more than anything in the world she loved being a mum to her brilliant, clever daughter Star.

It was funny, seventeen-year-old Meadow had never thought about children other than someday, far off in the future she thought maybe she would have some, but when she had found out she was pregnant shortly after her seventeenth birthday there was no question in her mind that she wasn’t going to keep the baby. Star had changed her life completely but there hadn’t been a single day in the last seven and a half years that she had ever regretted that decision. And there was not a better place in the world to raise her daughter, living here in the middle of all this nature, playing on the beach with her every day, Star’s wonderful uncles and cousin to love and support her.

Up until a few months before, life had just ticked along, they were happy. The brothers would go out on dates now and again, although she never did, but none of them had ever found someone they wanted forever with.

Until Indigo Bloom crashed into their lives with her purple hair and the small matter of carrying River’s child from a one-night stand. After a bit of a bumpy start to their reunion, it was clear for anyone to see that River and Indigo were now completely head over heels in love with each other. What they had was that forever kind of love and it had made Meadow start to look at her own life and how it had always been completely lacking in that department.

Heath was a wonderful father to Star but getting married purely because she was pregnant had been a stupid decision. They had never had a romantic relationship, they had simply been two best friends who had raised Star together. A few years after Star was born, they had separated, at Meadow’s insistence, so that Heath could live like any other man in his early twenties, date other women, lead the life he should have had if they hadn’t married. He and River had built the treehouse next door and he’d moved in so he could always be close to his daughter. He had dated and that was totally fine but she had never wanted to.

A movement caught her eye and she looked over to the top of the steps that led up from Pear Tree Beach. There was a topless man walking through the trees, evidently wet from having a swim, and although she couldn’t see the man’s face as it was hidden under the leaves of a tree, she knew who it was, her heart and body responding to him before her brain could even identify him. Bear Brookfield, Heath’s youngest brother and the man she’d been in love with for probably most of her life. Young Meadow had just two dreams, according to the diary she’d found: become a fashion designer and marry Bear Brookfield. He came into view and he immediately looked up, maybe instinctively knowing she was there too. He flashed her a big smile and a wave and she waved back. She couldn’t take her eyes off him as he walked back to his own home, his broad shoulders, his strong, muscular arms, his tanned skin wet from the sea. He was beautiful, there was no denying it, but her love for him went way deeper than that.

There were a few reasons why she hadn’t wanted to date before now, but Bear was one of those reasons, or rather several of them. He had broken her heart when she was seventeen, when he’d slept with Milly Atherton, the girl who’d made her life a living hell at school, and she’d never wanted to put her heart out there again for fear of getting hurt. But despite that, she had never ever stopped loving him. He had been her first kiss what felt like a lifetime ago but she was a hundred percent sure he had never thought of that kiss again like she had, especially after what had happened with Milly Atherton, and he just saw her as his friend, nothing more.

But maybe it was time to move on. Having seen how happy River and Indigo were together, she’d decided it was time to find her own happiness. Her divorce to Heath had finally come through a few weeks before and now felt as good a moment as any to let go of the heartache of the past and move on once and for all. She finished her coffee and went back inside to finish getting ready for the day.

CHAPTERTWO

‘Smoking or non-smoking?’ Heath asked as he tapped away at Bear’s computer.

‘It sounds like I’m looking for a hotel room rather than someone I’m hoping to spend the rest of my life with. I just want someone lovely, is there not a box for that?’ Meadow said, finishing the details of a booking on her own computer.

‘You’d think there would be, but sadly you have to answer a million stupid questions and then Connected Hearts will supposedly find your dream match. Do you care if they smoke or not?’ Heath said.

Meadow sighed. ‘I suppose I’d prefer it if they didn’t.’

‘This is the point of all this. If you’re looking for someone to have a bit of fun with, then none of this stuff matters, but if you’re looking for someone to be your soul mate, your husband, your life partner, then why not be picky? You don’t want to settle, you want the perfect man. And I’m not saying they have to be exactly six foot three, weigh exactly fifteen stone of pure muscle, have blue eyes, be a heart surgeon and speak five languages kind of perfect, but if something like them smoking turns you off, then you should absolutely put that on your dating profile.’

‘OK,’ Meadow said, doubtfully.

This all seemed so convoluted. Surely people didn’t really meet their soul mates through online dating. What was wrong with walking into a pub and your eyes meeting with a handsome stranger’s across the room? Although she hadn’t actually been in a pub without Heath or Star for a long time. Or ever met anyone in that way.

‘As your ex-husband I have no right to tell you who to date – I want someone who is kind and respectful to you and Star, but other than that I have no stipulations – but I have to say, I would prefer whoever you end up with didn’t smoke around our daughter. We manage her asthma really well right now with her inhalers and she’s never had an attack. But I wouldn’t want it to be aggravated by someone who smokes.’

‘No, I agree with that,’ Meadow said. ‘It’s just that some of these questions seem so petty. Like that one on ethnicity. Do people really choose a life partner depending on the colour of their skin? That’s horrible.’

‘Thankfully most people don’t care what colour skin the people they date have, or what country they come from, or their faith, but for some that would be a deal-breaker. Anyway it’s good that you’re open to meeting a range of men and you don’t have too many rules or requirements for your perfect match. It will make the search easier. Besides, you’ve done all the hard stuff with your introduction note, that was warm, funny and chatty. Most people will read that rather than bother looking at these tiny questions. I do think it’s a bit weird though that this dating site doesn’t allow photos.’

‘Connected Hearts is about finding that real deep connection with someone, not choosing a partner based on their appearance. I quite like that. There’s this new dating event happening around here and one of the dates is dating in the dark. You have a meal in this completely dark room and you chat to your date but you have no idea what they look like until after.’

‘It certainly brings a new meaning to the term, blind date,’ Heath said. ‘Anyway, I have to go to work. We’re making great progress with the wedding chapel treehouse, but I know River would like it finished by the end of the summer.’

‘We’ve had some enquiries already since we put a few teasers out as Facebook ads. Bear ran some “Coming soon” promos with some confetti and some wedding ribbons and flowers but nothing more than that, but we must have had ten or fifteen phone calls about it already. I’ve told them what we intend to offer, a beautiful place to get married, but I’ve said right now it’s a bit up in the air as to when it will be finished and I will get in touch with them as soon as I know. We also need to get it registered as an official wedding venue too, which is quite hard to do when it’s just a few pieces of wood.’

‘Hey, it’s a bit more than that,’ Heath said, clearly affronted. ‘The basic shell is there, although the roof isn’t finished. I also think that River would like to marry Indigo there. He said the other day how he couldn’t think of a better place to tie the knot and with Indigo nearly six months pregnant, I think River would like to do it before the baby comes.’

‘I guess that makes sense. How wonderful though that they might be our first wedding. I’m so excited about holding weddings here. There is something so beautiful about getting married in the middle of the trees, surrounded by nature. I remember when I was a child I went to my mum’s cousin’s wedding. It was a Wiccan ceremony held in the woods. There were candles and flowers and they did the traditional handfasting. My parents thought it was ridiculous, but I remember thinking it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Ever since then I’ve always wanted to get married outside in the woods too. It was a childhood dream and not something I ever grew out of. Building that little wedding chapel treehouse here in the woods is a great way to offer that kind of ceremony to people who want something more natural and simple.’

‘Maybe if this online dating malarkey works out, you can get married here too.’

‘That may be a little while off since I haven’t even been on one date yet, but maybe one day I will.’

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