Christmas under a Cranberry Sky

by Holly Martin

  Pip lifted her onto the horse’s back and laughed as Wren rode it like a professional cowboy.

  She moved back to Gabe’s side and kissed him on the cheek. ‘I love you.’

  Gabe smiled. ‘I love you too.’

  After Wren had tired of riding on the horse and they’d said their goodbyes to Father Christmas, they started making their way outside. Pip found herself next to Neve.

  ‘I am sorry I lied to you,’ Pip said and Neve smiled.

  ‘It’s OK. Besides, you’ve made my brother happier than he has ever been in his life and I can’t possibly hate you for that. You’ll take good care of him, won’t you?’

  ‘I promise.’ Pip hesitated for a moment. ‘What about your happiness?’

  ‘I’m going to go and see Oakley after Christmas. I should never have let him go and we really need to talk.’

  Suddenly a noise filled the air, a deafening, ear-splintering sound like a machine gun and Pip looked up as a helicopter flew overhead.

  It landed on a huge expanse of grass just past the main reception and well away from the lodges.

  ‘Who the hell is that?’ Gabe said. ‘They shouldn’t be landing there.’

  The rotors stopped and the door opened. A huge blond man stepped down who looked to Pip like someone she recognised.

  ‘Who is that?’ Pip asked, as the man walked across the snow towards them.

  Neve stood frozen still next to her, her face as white as the snow on the ground. She clearly recognised the man too, but she couldn’t find the words to say who he was.

  Gabe put his arm around Neve’s shoulders. ‘That’s Oakley.’

  * * *

  Neve and Oakley’s story can be read in Book 2, Christmas Under a Starlit Sky, out in October. Read on for the first chapter.

  Christmas Under a Starlit Sky

  Exclusive extract

  Chapter 1

  When Neve envisaged seeing her ex-boyfriend for the first time since their break-up, she had never imagined it playing out like this. She kind of thought, if she ever saw Oakley Rey again, she would be dressed in a sexy, floor-length dress and looking utterly fabulous. She wouldn’t be standing there with tears falling down her cheeks at seeing him again and she wouldn’t be dressed as an elf with red and white tights and oversized green pointy shoes with bells on the ends.

  She couldn’t believe he was here. He should be at some super-glamorous, glitzy party in California but instead Oakley Rey, Hollywood superstar, was climbing out of a helicopter on the tiny remote Juniper Island, the northernmost island of the British Isles.

  She wiped her eyes and watched him stride across the grass towards her. Her heart physically ached. There was a part of her that wanted to run straight into his arms, but it was outweighed by the part that had her pointy elf shoes glued to the ground. He looked amazing. Incredibly he had bulked out in the nine weeks since they had been apart, somehow looking so much bigger and more muscular than she remembered. He looked strong, confident and every inch the Hollywood star.

  His eyes locked with hers as he moved towards her and it was almost as if they were the only people in the world before she suddenly remembered that she was standing in the grounds of the Stardust Lake Hotel. Her unexpected reunion was about to be witnessed by probably half the guests as they all peered out their windows to see who had arrived in the black, sleek helicopter. It was Christmas Eve, every lodge at the hotel had been taken up by the guests and journalists that had arrived for the grand opening a few days before. And worse still, her family was standing there with her.

  Her mum and dad stood frozen to the ground to the right of her, while Gabe, her brother, had his arm round her shoulders, trying to offer some comfort at the shock of seeing Oakley again. She heard Gabe’s girlfriend, Pip, asking quietly who the man was and Gabe telling her it was Oakley, confirming that she wasn’t having some kind of hallucination. No one moved, no one said anything, and there wasn’t a single word in her head that she could utter to encapsulate her feelings over seeing him again.

  In the end Neve’s four-year-old niece broke the silence.

  ‘Oakley!’ Wren squealed with delight and ran forward to greet him as Neve herself should have done. Wren launched herself at him and Oakley dropped his bag and caught the bundle of arms and legs and threw her up in the air before catching her again. She let out a shriek of joy and giggled as Oakley threw her over his shoulder and hung her upside down. He adored Wren, always had, and the ache in Neve’s chest grew to something almost tangible as she watched them play and laugh together. He would make a wonderful father. One day – he was too young now. At twenty-six, his lifelong dream of being a movie star was about to be realised and a child would get in the way of that.

  With Wren still slung over his shoulder, Oakley walked up to them so that he was within touching distance. Every bone in her body screamed at her to take that last step, lean her head against his heart and feel his arms around her, with his head resting on top of hers as he always used to hold her. But she couldn’t.

  For a second, all his confidence seemed to falter at a lack of any reaction from her, but as he clocked the tears in her eyes, he smiled, sadly. ‘Hey, Freckle,’ Oakley said, softly.

  His voice, his name for her on his lips. It was enough to send the tears straight back to her eyes again. How could she ever think she could let this man go?

  When there were still no words forthcoming, Gabe cleared his throat. ‘Hi Oakley, erm. . . It’s good to see you again.’

  Oakley tore his eyes away from Neve to address her brother.

  ‘Hey, Gabe, I think this belongs to you.’ Oakley handed over a giggling Wren to Gabe. ‘I hope you don’t mind me landing there. We were heading to the airport when I saw you guys walking over to the hotel. I didn’t want to waste any time getting to my girl.’

  My girl. Neve swallowed, painfully.

  The helicopter suddenly took off with an ear-splitting noise and as it faded into the distance, silence descended on them again.

  Gabe spoke again, clearly trying to fill the gaps. ‘We weren’t expecting you. All our lodges are full. We have houses down in the village where you could stay for a few days but I think we’ve filled a few of them for the New Year’s Eve ball. We could—’

  ‘You don’t need to worry, I’ll be staying in Neve’s house,’ Oakley said, simply.

  Her heart thundered against her chest at that thought.

  ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ Gabe said, clearly uncomfortable about him showing up like this and not knowing what Neve’s reaction to it would be. She couldn’t help him out. She had no idea what her reaction should be either.

  Her mum, Lizzie, stepped forward and to Neve’s surprise she embraced Oakley in a hug. ‘It’s so lovely to see you again. We’re all heading over to have some lunch. You’d be very welcome to join us but I expect you and Neve have some talking to do.’

  Lizzie stepped back and then with meaningful looks at the rest of her family she ushered them all away from Neve and Oakley.

  Luke, her older brother, hovered for a moment, his hand on Neve’s back. ‘You OK?’

  Neve nodded. Luke gave Oakley a meaningful glare then walked after the rest of his family, leaving her alone with the man who had stolen her heart.

  Oakley stared down at her, his face breaking into that gorgeous heart-stopping smile. ‘You don’t look too happy to see me. I did promise I’d spend Christmas with you, you know I never break a promise.’

  She cleared her throat. ‘That was before we broke up.’

  He stepped closer, so close she could feel his warmth, his wonderful scent that reminded her of sweet roasted chestnuts, close enough to see the flecks of toffee gold in his warm chocolate eyes.

  ‘We never broke up, Freckle, we were just. . . taking a break.’

  She wanted to kiss him, to lean up and press her lips to his. How could she feel this way? She’d chosen to break up with him and it had been nine weeks. She was supposed to be over him b
y now. It wasn’t supposed to still be hurting like this. She had missed him so much.

  Clarity came when her eyes found the small scar on the side of his head. The scar she knew he’d got while filming a scene in his latest movie. Mere days after she had read about it online, she had switched on her computer to find that he had been rumoured to be seeing the pretty red-headed doctor who had stitched him back up. One of many women he had been linked with over the last few weeks. She didn’t know why she tortured herself daily with reading the Google alerts for him, but he was like an addiction for her and if she couldn’t be with him then that had been her poor substitute.

  She stepped back out of his proximity and immediately felt cold without him.

  Unperturbed, he turned and grabbed his bag. ‘Which way to your house?’

  ‘You’re not staying with me. I have one bed and one shower.’

  ‘Looks like we’ll have to share then,’ Oakley said, walking off.

  She marched up to him. ‘We are not sharing anything. Lord knows whose bed you’ve been sharing for the last few weeks! I’d like to keep my sheets clean, thank you very much and—’

  She let out a yelp as he wrapped a hand round her waist and tugged her up against him, his brown eyes shadowed by his eyebrows as he scowled at her. ‘Is that what you really think? That I’ve been working my way around the female population of California in your absence? There’s been many a woman who has flashed me a pretty smile and her phone number or in some cases her room number. Not one of them interested me. Not one of them made my pulse race like you do. Not one of them made me laugh as hard as you do. They weren’t you and being with them would not even have scratched the surface of what I got from you so there was absolutely no point. You are the only one I want and I’m here to get you back.’

  He released her and walked away towards the lodges.

  She watched him walk up the path ahead of her. He made it sound so simple when in reality it wasn’t. He lived in California, she lived here at the Stardust Lake Hotel. He was about to become a huge Hollywood star, she was a hotel manager. Their worlds couldn’t be any further apart. And the biggest problem was the secret she carried inside of her, the secret she had kept to herself for the last ten days. If he knew that he would run a hundred miles away from her.

  He turned back briefly. ‘Which house, Freckle?’

  They needed to talk, she knew that. As Neve noticed a few guests peering out their windows at what was transpiring, she knew they needed to talk in private and the only way she was going to get that was by taking him to her house.

  She pointed. ‘That one in the corner with the holly wreath on the front door.’

  He turned and walked towards it.

  She would tell him and let the cards fall where they may.

  * * *

  Adam Douglas looked out of his office window as the helicopter took off, shattering the tranquil peace of the island for a second time. Oakley Rey was here and while he was happy for Neve that they would hopefully be able to sort out their differences, he had a good mind to go down there and give Oakley a piece of his mind for landing so close to the hotel. If only he could get off the phone. He watched Oakley talking to Neve and decided for her sake to let it go. He tuned back in to what was being said on the other end of the line.

  ‘. . . I’m ever so worried,’ said Deborah, the owner of the chocolate shop in the village.

  Adam sighed and rubbed his head. ‘How long has Ivy been missing?’

  ‘Well, as I said, she always goes out for a walk at about seven in the morning. She’s normally back after an hour. We’ve been so busy with the shop I didn’t realise she hadn’t come back. We’ve been round to her house but there’s no answer.’

  Adam glanced at his watch. Ivy, the woman who ran the painting shop, had been out for nearly five hours. The hotel had an agreement with the villagers that their shops must be open between the hours of ten and six and although he didn’t know Ivy personally, he knew that all the shop owners in the tiny village were reliable and wouldn’t just not open unless there was a really good reason for it. It was freezing outside – if she had gone out for a walk and fallen over somewhere, she’d be at risk of hypothermia now as well as any injuries she had sustained from the fall.

  ‘I’ll get a search party together, any idea where she goes?’ Adam asked.

  ‘No, I don’t, I’m afraid.’

  ‘OK, can you keep an eye out for her and if she comes back to the village, can you call through to the hotel and let us know?’

  ‘Of course, I’m sorry to bother you, I didn’t know who else to call.’

  ‘It’s no bother.’

  He finished the call and phoned through to the reception asking Iris to contact the boys from the maintenance team, the porters and round up anyone else who was free. He asked her to put together some basic rescue bags including blankets, water, a walkie-talkie, some snacks and a first aid kit.

  He pulled his coat and snow boots on. There were never problems like this to sort out at the hotel he worked at as deputy manager in London. The worst thing he had to sort out there was a mistake with a reservation, a wedding not up to the high standards of a bridezilla or men who were using the hotel for extramarital affairs and their wives finding out. He had been on the island for four days, on a secondment from the London hotel to help Neve with the opening of Stardust Lake Hotel, and he was already realising how different life was going to be for the next few months on this tiny island.

  The hotel accommodation was made up of lots of ski lodges instead of rooms, and instead of spa facilities and a pool there were snowmobiling and sledging activities and a giant ice palace where the New Year’s Eve ball was to take place in a week’s time. The only way onto the island was by boat or plane, whereas normally everyone who arrived at the hotel in central London came by taxi or a chauffeur-driven car. The weather was brutal – it had snowed every day since he had arrived and the cold coastal winds were harsh and cruel. And he had Shetland ponies that ran riot around the village, apparently stealing things from the villagers and the tourists.

  The village was another thing to contend with. He had met many of the villagers a few days before – wonderful, colourful, mostly elderly characters. Many of them telling him excitedly about the predicted spectacular show of the Merry Dancers over the Christmas period. It had taken him a while to realise that they were talking about the Northern Lights. Deborah had told him the meanings of the different colours. He remembered that a red aurora was a foretelling of love, which brought a whole new meaning to the expression, ‘Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight’.

  The town called Christmas was to be an almost year-long Christmas and winter-themed market. Most of the people in the village were islanders who had lived there all their lives. Gabe Whitaker had come along and converted all their houses into wooden ski lodges and somehow persuaded them all to run individual little shops selling crafts and food straight from their front rooms. Although they were supposed to be independent shops, Neve had explained to him that the islanders were to be treated almost like hotel staff and would need to be looked after, especially the older folk, who might need hand-holding during the first few weeks of the hotel opening.

  And that was another thing that was causing him a headache. Neve. He’d known her for eight years and she was the most organised and efficient person he knew. Nothing fazed her, she never got upset, she was fiery and took no crap. But since he’d got there she had been in a complete state, crying all the time, she’d been sick several times as well and, although he knew she was upset because of her break-up with Oakley, he strongly suspected she was pregnant and that was the reason why she was an emotional wreck.

  And now he had a missing old lady to contend with too.

  He ran down the stairs to the reception and spoke to Iris and Jake, the receptionist and porter, co-ordinating the search. He grabbed his rescue bag as Iris made up a few more and then headed outside, just as Gabe, Luke and their parents wa
lked up the steps with Pip and Wren, probably heading for lunch.

  ‘Ivy Storm has gone missing,’ Adam said, not bothering with any preliminaries. ‘She went out for a walk around seven this morning and hasn’t come back. I’ve organised a search of the island, around the south, east and north. Can you guys take the west side and I’ll cut through the middle road?’

  Gabe’s dad, David, scooped up Wren. ‘We’ll take care of Wren, you guys go and find this lady.’

  Gabe looked at his parents apologetically and Adam knew that he had planned to spend the whole day with Pip, his parents and his daughter.

  ‘Sorry, Princess, I won’t be long,’ Gabe said, pressing a kiss to Wren’s forehead.

  ‘It’s OK Daddy, you need to find Ivy and make sure she is safe,’ Wren said, with all the wisdom of someone five times her age.

  Iris came out and handed bags and walkie-talkies to them. Luke agreed to take the coastal path and Gabe and Pip said they would head to the west.

  ‘Shall I go and get Neve?’ Gabe asked.

  Adam looked over at Neve and Oakley, who were standing talking to each other as if they were the only people in the world that existed.

  ‘No, they need to talk. We can handle this one without her.’

  He watched as Oakley marched over towards Neve’s house and Neve followed him.

  He turned back to Gabe, Pip and Luke and they all split up in search of Ivy. Adam headed towards the road that cut straight through the middle of the island. Snow started to fall again and he looked up and cursed the sky. He only hoped they would find Ivy soon.

  ORDER HERE!

  * * *

  Christmas Under a Starlit Sky

  * * *

  Step inside a beautiful winter wonderland where love, laughter and cosy nights by the fire will make this Christmas one to remember.