Page 15 of A Very Crumbleton Christmas
‘Yeah?’
‘Do you think we can start over?’ she said. ‘Would you mind pretending you never read any of those stupid things I wrote about you?’
‘Hm…,’ said Jack. ‘As you asked so nicely, I guess we could do that. It’s Christmas, after all, right?’
‘Right,’ said Caroline, the relief evident in her voice.
‘While we’re apologising for things,’ said Jack, shifting a stack of scripts out of the way so that he could place her cup of coffee in front of her, ‘sorry about the state of the place. I wasn’t expecting guests! I’ve not been back long and, to be honest, I’m still getting over the jetlag.’
‘Is that what the mad cold-water swimming is about?’ said Caroline, sipping her coffee and letting out a contented little sigh that, for some reason, did something strange to Jack’s stomach.
‘Swimming? I mean… yeah, it does help,’ he said, ‘but I just love it. I’m in and out of the water all the time when I’m here.’
‘Weirdo,’ said Caroline.
‘I’ll take that as a compliment,’ said Jack.
‘You definitely should!’ said Caroline.
‘So,’ said Jack, sliding into a seat opposite her and raising his mug, ‘here’s to unexpected guests.’
Caroline mirrored him.
‘Now,’ he said, ‘tell me more about this Christmas lights thing!’
CHAPTER 5
CAROLINE
‘Oh!’ said Caroline, staring at Jack in surprise. She hadn’t been expecting him to voluntarily bring the subject back around to her supremely cheeky request so soon! ‘Sure, what do you want to know?’
‘Well… what would I have to do?’ he said before sipping his coffee with obvious relish.
‘It’s not hard, Jack,’ laughed Caroline. ‘I promise even you’ll be able to manage it!’
‘Even me, eh?’ said Jack, with a broad smile.
Caroline pursed her lips. Shereallyhad to stop insulting the poor guy. It wasn’thisfault that she was still busy overcompensating for her enormous crush by being an even more enormous cowbag!
‘The lights have been on for a while now,’ she said, ploughing on and doing her best to ignore the way his wide smile was making her stomach turn somersaults. ‘So I’ll turn them off, and then you turn them back on. Ceremonially.’
Jack let out a snort of laughter and Caroline frowned. ‘What? It’s tradition!’
‘Okay – so I’dceremoniallyturn them back on,’ said Jack, his eyes twinkling. ‘Then what?
‘Then you’d need to say a few words,’ said Caroline, bracing for his reaction. She had a feeling that this was where he was going to put his foot down and tell her to sling her hook. If Jack was here to lay low, there was no way he was going to agree to make a speech in front of the whole town, was there?!
‘So… when’s this little shindig meant to be happening?’ said Jack.
Caroline blinked. He still hadn’t said no… not outright anyway.
‘It’ll have to be soon,’ she said.
‘Yeah, I gathered that much!’ laughed Jack. ‘What with Christmas being just a week away!’
‘I know,’ said Caroline. ‘Total nightmare. It’s not usually this late – I had to cancel the first time around because of a storm, and I haven’t dared to set another date until I can find a willing victim… erm… I mean… volunteer.’
‘Well, that makes sense, I guess,’ said Jack, taking a thoughtful sip of his coffee. ‘You know, I’ve always thought the night before Christmas Eve is magical – and perfect for this sort of thing. Everyone’s in full-on festive mode, but they haven’t started to retreat into their little family groups yet.’
