Page 52 of Her Dom's Secret Past

Chapter Fifteen

Anabelle

Saturday seemed to drag. I’d packed a bag for the next few days and was now looking forward to spending time at John’s place. He’d told me all about it, but I wanted to see it for myself. It sounded unbelievable. Finally, Charlie and I locked up the shop at four and walked outside. John was waiting, leaning against the bonnet of his beautiful car. Naturally, Charlie had to stop and admire it. The two men then spent the next ten minutes ignoring me and discussing things under the hood that I had no idea about.

What was it with men and cars?

There was a very slight break in the conversation when the two of them stopped talking to draw breath. I jumped in, smiling, and asked if we were ready to go. They both had this same confused stare—“uh who’s she?” Then they came back to the real world and John apologized. I laughed.

“I imagine he’ll take you for a spin, Charlie, but not now because I really want to get home.”

The looks on their faces were priceless—I’d read them right. A drive around the block was their next plan. A lot of feet shuffling, handshakes, and then an air-kiss for me, and Charlie walked off. John opened the door for me and we finally headed off. Thirty minutes later, we turned off the M1 at Mount White and drove toward the river. Six minutes later we pulled into a long drive. My first glance of the house was a few sheds then, of all things, a huge chicken coop before my first sight of the house.

Reddish stained wood among the trees. I spied the river and then the house was revealed in all its glory, nestled on the side of a large rocky yet tree-covered hill and overlooking the river. John parked the car underneath a double-sized carport and helped me out of the car.

“I’ll put the car in the garage later.”

John took me on a tour. I didn’t think I shut my mouth the whole time. It hung open in absolute amazement as I fell in love. The place was like some huge log cabin built on steroids, with wide, covered decks all around and lots of glass sliding doors and walls. There were odd corners where the house had actually been built around the massive sandstone rocks and we came across them all through the house. It was simply amazing.

The great room was, well, great. Enormous but very welcoming. Then we walked into a kitchen that any chef would be envious off. Next a sitting room—two walls made from large river stones ending in one of those large rocks and of all things, a glass room for wine!

There was also a very large empty room at one of the corners of the house on this level. It had its own half-bathroom and two walls opened onto the deck. John told me he had no idea what to use it for.

Bedrooms, several of them, each with their own luxury bathroom. Then the main bedroom wing. Yes, a whole wing only for John. I was sure my whole unit could fit in his actual bedroom, but it was gorgeous. The wooden log walls had all been painted in a soft cream, the floors a polished wood. Two walls were glass and could be opened onto a wide deck. It reminded me of the holiday villa. We could lie in bed and watch the world go by, although it was higher up.

Then there was the master bathroom. Okay, I figured I could spend a day in there. Enormous shower, huge spa bath, his and hers basins, I could hold a party in there. More glass, in fact, the shower and bath looked out over the river. The dressing room and walk-in made me envious.

Before I sank into absolute jealousy, John led me out through another sitting room with an enormous fire, and then down some beautiful sandstone stairs. This level had a sauna, a media room, and a full bathroom attached to another empty room, beat me what for. Out through the glass doors onto another covered deck was a swimming pool. We went back upstairs and John opened one of the sliding walls and I could see outside. There was a large, mowed grass area leading down to the boathouse and pier. The rest of the land was natural bushland, complete with huge rocks. Yep, this place was huge with a capital H.

“Down on the bottom level is the pump house, garages, storage. Didn’t think you wanted to see that.”

“My God, John, this place is… hell, it’s enormous.”

“Yeah, I know, probably a bit too big, but when you’ve lived all your life in tiny apartments you want to be able to spread.”

“Wow, you’ll certainly be able to spread.”

“True, but big question. Do you like it?”

“Like it? No, I love it!”

He grinned at me like a little kid and pulled me into an embrace.

“I did notice something strange. Where’s the furniture. There’s hardly any.”

“Yes, well, slight problem. I needed to buy a lot but haven’t.”

“Why on earth not?”

“This is going to sound stupid.” He seemed embarrassed as he continued, “When I came back and couldn’t find you, I had this crazy idea that if I held off buying most things, I’d find you.”

“That’s crazy!”

“But it worked.”

I craned my neck to peer up at him and shook my head. He winked.

“Didn’t it?”

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