Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
CAROLINE
I t was just as well Caroline knew the road to Crumbleton Sands like the back of her hand. She was only halfway there when the snow stopped messing around and started to fall in earnest. It was now swirling around the car like it was on a mission to confuse her, and she was thoroughly regretting her rash decision to turn up on Jack Jones’s doorstep unannounced… mostly because she wasn’t entirely sure she’d actually get there.
‘Lee did warn you,’ she muttered, gripping her steering wheel as she leaned so far forward in her seat that she practically had her nose pressed against the windscreen. Unfortunately, it didn’t do much to help her see through the drifting snow.
Caroline’s mum had always said that her stubbornness would get her into trouble one day. Somehow, she had a feeling this might just be that day! If she’d thought for a moment that the weather would turn this bad so fast, she wouldn’t have set off in the first place.
Probably.
‘Since when did Lee start talking sense?’ she huffed. The day she started taking that idiot seriously was the day hell froze over.
Caroline winced.
Poor choice of words there!
This might not be hell, but it was definitely starting to freeze over!
She flipped her windscreen wipers up to triple speed and strained her eyes as she crept across the junction that would lead her towards Crumbleton Sands. With any luck, the closer she got to the sea, the calmer the snowstorm would be.
Ten minutes later, Caroline’s knuckles had turned white. Still, she’d managed to make it safely across the marshes and was now crawling along the coast road towards the property Jack Jones had bought as his holiday home.
Caroline had never seen snow like this so close to the coast before. As treacherous as it was driving through the swirling flakes, she couldn’t stop herself from taking regular peeks across the dunes towards the sea. It was absolutely stunning and completely deserted.
Wait… maybe not completely…
‘Is that someone… swimming?!’ she gasped.
Her eyes had just snagged on two spots of colour cutting through the grumpy-looking waves. It looked like someone was out there with a swim float and… a Santa hat?!
‘What a nutter!’
Caroline shivered and quickly focussed back on the road. She had enough to worry about without landing the car in a ditch just because she was watching someone brave the waves in the snow!
Now that she was almost at her destination, Caroline’s stomach was busy reminding her that she was about to do something spectacularly silly. She hadn’t considered what she’d actually do when she got to Jack Jones’s house. Would there be a security guard? Gates? Maybe there’d be one of those intercom things where she had to announce her arrival and wait for one of Jack’s lackeys to buzz her inside.
‘Might as well face it… I’m doomed,’ sighed Caroline, wishing she’d managed to extract more information out of Lee before she’d dashed off on this fool’s errand.
No celeb in their right mind would let some random visitor wander into their home after turning up unannounced – let alone a member of the press.
Maybe she could do a bit of a drive-by first. That would give her the chance to figure out the lay of the land and make a plan. Of course, it might be a good idea to leave her car elsewhere and walk the rest of the way to the house - but considering the sky was thick with snowflakes and the road was getting more slippery by the second, she really wasn’t up for that!
As she approached the stunning seaside property, Caroline slowed down even further so that she could have a good look. From what she could remember, the house had a vast front gate – an imposing metal affair with spikes along the top…
‘Okay, I wasn’t expecting that!’ she gasped.
The gate stood wide open. If she was brave enough, there was nothing to stop her from pulling right into the driveway.
‘No point chickening out now!’ she muttered.
Yanking at the indicator stalk, Caroline pulled through the open gateway before she could change her mind.
She was about to knock on Jack Jones’s front door. The Jack Jones. The one she’d had a crush on ever since she’d watched that first awful flop of a film. Jack Jones, who she’d basically torn limb from limb in the paper on a number of occasions.
Get a grip, woman. It’ll be fine – there’s no way he’ll know about that!
Drawing the car to a stop on the paved driveway, Caroline killed the engine. Then she took a deep breath and clambered out before her nerve deserted her.
The driveway was already turning slick with snowflakes as they started to settle, and Caroline sent up a little prayer of thanks that she was wearing flats. Moving gingerly towards the glossy red front door, Caroline took another deep breath as she peered around for an intercom to announce her arrival… or a camera… or anything high-tech.
‘Really… just a doorbell?’ she whispered. ‘Well, here goes nothing.’
Reaching out a shaking finger, she pressed hard on the metal button and then strained her ears.
Nothing.
No resulting trill of a bell deep inside the house. No footsteps. Nada. Just the not-so-distant sound of the waves crashing against the shore.
Caroline frowned. Perhaps the bell wasn’t working. Maybe she should just call it quits and leave?
‘Maybe not!’ she muttered, her signature stubborn streak rising to the surface.
Reaching out again, she rapped hard on the shiny red paint, tapping out a jaunty little beat. Then she cringed. What a great first impression to give a film star!
After listening intently for several long seconds, Caroline let out a disappointed sigh. There were still no signs of life from inside. Either Jack Jones wasn’t in, he’d spotted her pulling up and was currently hiding as though his life depended on it, or Lee had been pulling her leg and the man wasn’t even in the country – let alone this house! The third option seemed to be the most likely – especially considering the gate had been left open.
If Lee had been messing with her and she’d risked her neck on the slippery roads for nothing, she was going to wring his neck… but then… there were lights on inside.
Caroline hammered on the front door again, not being quite so demure and cutesy about the whole thing this time around.
Still no answer.
Well, she clearly wasn’t going to get to meet Jack Jones today… but maybe she could sneak a peek inside while she was here.
Turning her back on the front door, Caroline crunched her way along the narrow strip of honey-coloured gravel that ran around the house. She made her way towards the enticing beam of golden light that spilled through one of the ground-floor windows.
Cupping her hands against the glass, Caroline was just about to have a good look inside when the sound of swift footsteps made her jump back as though the house had just smacked her in the face.
Only just in time, too!
A figure came jogging around the corner, wearing a wetsuit and a sodden Santa hat.
‘Hi!’ she squeaked.
She definitely had resting-guilt-face right now.
The man came to an abrupt halt. He blinked at her a few times – maybe in surprise, or possibly because salt water was dripping from the Santa hat straight into his eyes.
‘Hi!’ he said – frozen to the spot.
Was she hallucinating right now, or was she staring at Jack Jones? The Jack Jones… film star… mega-crush. Caroline cleared her throat, doing her best to keep her eyes on his face. It was a very revealing wetsuit!
‘Hi!’ she said again, this time her voice a faint tremor.
‘You’d better come in.’
If she hadn’t actually seen his slightly blue lips moving, Caroline would have thought the words were just a figment of her imagination.
‘In?’ she murmured.
Jack Jones simply gave her a broad, slightly mad-looking grin as he headed straight past her towards the front door, the white pompom on his hat dripping as he went.
‘Make yourself at home,’ he called over his shoulder as he disappeared inside. ‘I’ll be with you in just a sec.’
Caroline blinked. This couldn’t be happening… maybe she’d slipped on the snow and banged her head? She gave the back of her hand a sharp pinch.
‘Ouch!’
Okay, so this was real, then? Jack Jones had just appeared in a wetsuit and invited her into his home without even knowing who she was?
Weird… but… okay!
Turning and getting a face full of snowflakes in the process, Caroline shook her head and hurried towards the front door before Jack Jones could come to his senses and change his mind.
The man in question was nowhere to be seen – the only sign of him was a trail of wet footprints leading inside – so Caroline stepped into the blissfully warm hallway and closed the door behind her. The sound was echoed by another door slamming somewhere overhead.
‘Okay, wow,’ said Caroline, shaking the snow from her hair and staring around the vast entrance hall.
The floor was a mosaic of colourful tiles, an old-fashioned glass lampshade hung overhead, and the staircase swept up to the first floor in a glossy wooden curve. The house had an air of grandeur about it, but not in the way she might have expected. It was more old-school charm than LA designer chic. There were a couple of slightly tatty rugs on the tiles, and a sturdy wooden bench sat against one wall. There were a couple of empty cardboard boxes piled beneath it, along with a pair of discarded Wellington boots.
Caroline was surprised. The place somehow felt more like a family home than the fancy-pants holiday pad of a movie star. She desperately wanted to have a look around the rest of the place to see if the other rooms were the same… but she really should wait here, shouldn’t she?
‘He said make yourself at home!’ she muttered.
But no… he’d probably just meant she was welcome to perch on the wooden bench so that she was out of the snow.
Probably!
Caroline shrugged. Someone was bound to be watching her every move on a hidden security camera. If she wandered somewhere she wasn’t supposed to, she was sure they’d turn up and put her straight. Besides, she was a reporter… it was practically her duty to snoop!
Before she could talk herself out of it, Caroline crept to the far end of the hallway. To the right, she could just make out signs of a kitchen through a panelled glass door – a very expensive-looking coffee machine sat on the far side of a slate-topped island.
Hmm… maybe not! There had to be somewhere more interesting to have a nosey around than the kitchen!
‘How about in here?!’ she whispered, choosing the nearest heavy wooden door. Keeping her fingers crossed that she wasn’t about to walk in on a bunch of security guards watching her every move on a bank of monitors, she turned the handle and pushed her way inside.
Phew!
There wasn’t a security guard in sight.
‘Gorgeous!’ breathed Caroline, as a wave of warmth from a vast fireplace washed over her.
Jack Jones’s living room exuded an aura of cosiness, and sure enough, it didn’t give off designer-holiday-home vibes either. It had a high ceiling, complete with a beautiful plaster rose. Warm light bloomed from multiple vintage glass shades and twinkled off a handful of baubles that dangled from the branches of a humongous Christmas tree on the far side of the room.
The tree stretched all the way to the ceiling, and its scent hung heavy in the air. Judging by the open cardboard box on the floor next to it - and the fact that about eighty per cent of the tree’s branches were still bare – Jack Jones must have only just started to decorate it.
‘Or one of his staff, more likely!’ she murmured.
Near the tree, standing at an awkward angle away from the walls, was a familiar-looking, empty bookshelf. She recognised the heavy piece of furniture from the back room of Geraldine’s antique shop. So – Lee hadn’t been pulling her leg after all!
Caroline shivered. The few minutes she’d spent pottering around outside had left her chilled to the bone, though she had a feeling the shivering had more to do with getting an eyeful of a certain movie star in a seriously clingy wetsuit!
Wrapping her arms around herself, she shot a longing look at the handsome wood burner set inside the immense stone fireplace. Sidling over to it, she turned her back to the flickering flames and started to toast her bum.
She shivered again. To think – somewhere above her head, Jack Jones was having a shower!
As though in answer to the thought, the distant sound of a rich baritone singing a Christmas song reached her ears. Someone was clearly enjoying their shower! Caroline grinned as her brain began to work on catchy headlines for a tell-all exposé…
Spotted! Hollywood Hunk Dons Wetsuit for Christmas Dip - Caught Crooning Carols in Shower Serenade!
Breaking: Star Caught in Wet and Wild Christmas Swim – Shower Carols Included!
Caroline giggled and shook her head.
‘Stop it!’
She wasn’t about to start gathering snippets for an all-access story… no matter how much her journalistic senses were tingling with potential. That sort of thing really wasn’t her style. Besides, for whatever reason, the man had trusted her enough to let her into his house. It was only fair to return the favour by being a model guest. She’d simply sit and wait for him to reappear.
Caroline glanced at the collection of cosy sofas gathered around the fireplace, all three of them angled to make the most of its warmth. They weren’t in the best shape – and one of them looked decidedly worn. There was even a small tear on the armrest, barely covered by a fleecy tartan blanket.
Well… she had three to choose from and there was no one around to watch… so she might as well give them all a trial run!
Bouncing down onto the nearest one, Caroline snuggled into the corner. Not bad – but it was a bit too spongy for her taste. She scrabbled to her feet again and made for the deep-blue monster directly opposite the fireplace. This sofa was absolutely vast – and would probably make an excellent spot for an afternoon nap. In fact, the sight of it was making her more than a bit jealous. Her own settee was a tiny two-seater, and it was impossible to stretch out on it properly. She always ended up with a cricked neck or a dead leg after nodding off on it.
‘Still not quite right,’ she murmured from her prone position. It might be vast, but it needed more cushions to burrow into.
Hauling herself back to her feet, Caroline dived onto the third and final sofa. It might be the most threadbare of the lot – complete with that little rip, but…
‘Perfect!’
Grinning at the fact that she’d basically just turned into the Goldilocks of sofas, Caroline ran her palms over the worn cotton covers and let out a contented little sigh. She’d be happy to spend her entire life in this spot. It was the perfect distance from the wood burner – not too warm, not too cool, and she could see the dancing flames through the little glass windows. But it wasn’t just that which made this her top sofa pick - she also had an unrestricted view of the sea through the windows on the opposite side of the room.
Fire and waves all in one view? Count her in!
With another happy little sigh, Caroline slipped off her shoes and tucked her feet up underneath her as she snuggled back into the cushions.
‘Comfy?!’
Caroline whipped around, only to find Jack Jones staring at her from the doorway.