Page 8 of A Very Crumbleton Christmas
Jack shrugged. It wasn’t very likely anyone would spot him enjoying a Christmas dip in Crumbleton Sands! If they did… well… it was on her for sending it to him in the first place!
Grabbing the hat from the pile, he yanked it onto his head with a grin. It was time for this Santa to swim!
Heading downstairs, Jack left the front door on the latch behind him. The last thing he wanted to do was lock himself out. He could only imagine what a locksmith would say – faced with a call-out from a wetsuit-wearing film star in a Santa hat!
Striding through the swirling snowflakes, Jack made his way around the back of the house and through the garden. Then hopped over the low bit of fence and jogged up and over the dunes that separated his property from the sea.
The sound of the crashing waves sent a buzz of energy coursing through his body, and Jack let out an excited howl as he ran towards the water… low at first but then louder and louder as he neared the sea.
Jack loved every trip to the beach. It didn’t matter that he was down there two or three times some days, every single visit was like a reset for his soul. Today felt even more magical than usual as soft flakes drifted around him and the waiting waves beckoned him forwards. There wasn’t another soul in sight - the sands were completely deserted.
Jack had never been one of those slow waders – and he set off at a gallop, darting towards the cold water – the white pompom of his Santa hat dancing merrily as he went.
‘Wheeeeeee!’ Jack’s voice came out a high-pitched cry of delight as the first hit of ice-cold salt water made its way through the fabric of his swim shoes. Two seconds later, he dove into the waves, head-first.
Spluttering and as he surfaced, Jack realised that had been a rookie move… his hat had washed clean off his head.
Giggling to himself, he swam after it as it drifted just out of reach and pulled the drenched material onto his head. Splashing around like a lunatic, Jack lifted his face to the sky and howled in pure delight as snowflakes kissed his cheeks.
There was no way he’d be able to do this in California – for one thing, he’d not be able to make it down the beach without having to stop for a billion selfies before he even reached the water. For another, there was always paparazzi… and he was pretty sure that Aimee wouldn’t be too pleased about a bunch of photos of him behaving like a toddler.
‘Woohooo!’ he cheered, just for good measure, before striking out across the bay as the snow swirled overhead.
CHAPTER 3
CAROLINE
It 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!
