“I called every five-star hotel in the city until I found where Sophia Loren was staying.”
“Very enterprising.”
Sasha walked to the window and stared out at the view. Giselle waited.
Finally Sasha turned, planted her feet apart as though preparing for action. Giselle braced for whatever was coming next. It wouldn’t be good.
“How could you do that again?” Sasha’s voice was equal parts anger and distress.
Giselle’s pulse picked up a notch. “I know how it probably seems to you—you’re his sister, but it’s not what you think.”
“You’re telling me you didn’t make him fall in love with you and then leave? You didn’t break his heart again?” For just a flash, Sasha looked twelve years old again. Twelve years old and hoping Giselle would make everything okay.
Giselle joined Sasha at the window.
“Listen, Sasha, I love Jake.” I love Jake? A tingling, raw awareness flooded her veins. Of course she loved Jake, but a relationship was impossible. They were now too different. Lived different lives, on opposite sides of the world.
“I know and he loves you. So what’s with the disappearing act?”
“It’s personal, Sasha.”
Sasha threw her hands in the air. “Jake won’t talk about it either.”
“Then leave it alone. This isn’t about you.” She moved away, trying to put some distance between her and Sasha and her confronting words.
“Like hell it’s not. I love you both.”
“Sasha—” She placed her hands against her ears. She didn’t want to hear this. Sasha didn’t know what she was talking about. Sasha couldn’t know that Giselle was unlovable. She’d repelled her own mother.
“Does this have anything to do with your mother’s abuse?”
Sasha’s words hit her so hard, she backed into a chair and sat down.
“He did tell you.” Giselle wanted to be angry, but her words came out in a whisper.
Sasha took the seat across from her. “Jake didn’t tell me. Dad did.”
Giselle’s eyes widened. “Your dad?”
“Yes, when I visited him yesterday, I told him about you turning up and then disappearing again. He broke down. He told me how you’d come to him for help. That he’d already known something wasn’t right but he did nothing. He was in love with your mother and just couldn’t process that a mother could do that to a child. He simply blocked it from his mind. When I told Jake, he told me about the scars and what you’d told him.”
Giselle couldn’t speak. “You believe me?” she whispered.
“Of course.” Sasha took both of Giselle’s hands in her own. “I’m so sorry that that happened to you, Giselle, but what are you going to do, let that dictate your life? Drive you from Turtle Beach permanently? Are you going to spend your life running away when things get tough?”
Giselle flinched. She wasn’t running away. There was no possibility to make things work. “That’s not the issue.”
“Yeah? Then what is? That Jake’s not good enough for you?” She gestured to the luxurious surroundings. “That he’s never been good enough for you? That Turtle Beach isn’t good enough for you?”
“Sasha, how can you think that?”
“What else am I supposed to think? You’re here and probably about to leave the country and the man who is desperately, hopelessly in love with you is an hour away by plane.”
“I couldn’t ask Jake to leave. The whole town would fall apart without him.”
Sasha smiled. “Thought you didn’t care about the place.”
Giselle stood and walked to the window. The view blurred. This was all too confusing.
“It would never work,” Giselle whispered. “Our lives are opposite in almost every way.”
Sasha walked over and placed a gentle hand on her arm. “That’s what you have never understood. You are Jake’s world.”
The words banged into her brain with such force she stepped back. Giselle stared at her friend, blinking stupidly. Could that be true?
Sasha walked to the door. “Do the right thing, Giselle. Turn around and come back. I don’t want to have to track you down in America. That would be just too many hotels to call.”
Giselle stared at the door for long minutes after Sasha left. Thoughts tumbled over in her mind. Nothing made sense. She opened the minibar and poured herself a glass of white wine. But she couldn’t drink it.
She surveyed the beautiful suite. Here she was again. Alone in a hotel room with a glass of wine for company. She tipped the wine down the basin in the marble-lined bathroom and stared at her image in the mirror. She may have run from her mother, but her mother’s cruelty was still governing her decisions. Making her run away from anything emotional. Making her feel unlovable. Making her believe she didn’t deserve to be loved. Truly loved.
To own the warmth of love divine, is the dream I have for me. With the truest of all loves, I will finally be free. The words danced through her mind to a haunting melody.
She snatched up her guitar and sat in a chair by the window. Her fingers tingled, desperate to find a melody to the words. The lyrics and music poured out. She had to write fast to capture it all. With every word, with every note, with every melody, she left the past behind and allowed the possibility of a new future to emerge.
Jake stood at the front of the hall. The large space glittered with Christmas decorations. Reds. Greens. Silver. The committee had done a great job creating a festive atmosphere for the Christmas Gala concert.
He scanned the crowd, pretending to check everyone had their seat, but stupidly he was searching for Giselle. She’d helped make this gala a success. It was possible she might turn up, wasn’t it?
Jean waved from across the room and walked over.
“This is incredible,” the hospital general manager said. “How did you do this?”
“Giselle Harrington magic,” Jake said.
With Giselle’s work on social media, the concert had sold out in two days. The committee had been forced to move the concert to the largest venue in the town. With the extra tickets and the bumper trade they were doing with raffle-ticket sales, this would be the most successful fundraising event he’d ever helped organize. Giselle may have disappeared again, but she had left a special parting gift. The money she donated to the hospital and the children’s charities. To protect vulnerable children. They may never have a life together, but in their own separate ways, they were making the world a better place.
But clinging to his shallow justification didn’t ease the ragged rift in his heart. Giselle didn’t love him. Didn’t want him. She’d left again with no way to contact her. Her actions had made it abundantly clear that he would never be a part of her life. He loved her too much to disrespect her decision and chase her like a lovesick groupie.
“She’s a very special girl, that Giselle.”
Jake didn’t trust himself to speak, so he simply nodded. He’d told Giselle he loved her, but it hadn’t been enough. Giselle had gone. It really was time to put his love in a box and bury it once and for all.
Sasha walked onto the stage. The crowd settled. Jake took his seat in the front row. Sasha was usually the MC of community events. She could always wow a crowd with her enthusiasm and quirky sense of humor.
“Welcome, everyone, to the Christmas Gala concert in support of establishing the proposed new fracture clinic. We have an action-packed evening for you tonight. But before we start on the advertised program, I have a very special guest to introduce.”
Jake frowned. The program was already full. What was Sasha up to?
“Please welcome our very own Giselle Harrington.”
For a moment, Jake’s heart failed to beat, then it took off in a bang.
Giselle walked onto the stage with an acoustic guitar. His fist flew to his mouth. She was so incredibly beautiful. The shimmering silver sequined gown hugged every gorgeous curve. She sparkled like the Milky Way on a warm summer’s night.
> The crowd stood and roared. He couldn’t move.
Giselle scanned the front row and found his eyes. She smiled. A smile that lit a stunningly warm glow in his heart.
“Thank you for that lovely welcome.” She settled herself on the stool in front of the microphone. The crowd took their seats. The excited buzz dropped to a hum.
“Twelve years ago I fled Turtle Beach. I ran because I thought I could never have love. I’d been told I didn’t deserve love. It took this close, caring community to teach me that love was where it had always been. I simply had to trust that I deserved it. Jake Carlton.” She smiled the sweetest smile. A warm, luscious tingle spread through his body. “This song is for you.”
Giselle strummed the guitar and began to sing. Within seconds the room was motionless. Every person mesmerized by Giselle’s dulcet, hypnotic voice. But it was the words she sang that spoke directly to him. She didn’t take her eyes from his and in that moment he knew he’d been right when he’d kissed her in kindergarten. That this was the only girl for him. That Giselle Harrington was his and he was hers. He brushed the wetness from his eyes. His heart was so full of love, it struggled to beat.
She put the guitar aside and held the microphone with both hands.
“So now there is nothing,” she sang. “Nothing keeping me from loving you.”
She bowed her head. The audience leapt to its feet, shouting and whistling. Jake stood slowly, unsure if his body would function. He walked up onto the stage. Giselle didn’t move. She didn’t run. She waited. Waited for him.
He took her face in his hands. “I don’t want to spend another second on this Earth without you.”
Her eyes flooded with tears. “You won’t have to.”
His heart blazed with pure, heavenly joy. He kissed her long and deep.
Suddenly the whoops, the cheers, and the whistles penetrated.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said.
“On one condition.”
“Anything.”
“That you’ll stay by my side for the rest of my life.”
He kissed her. And in that moment he knew that Giselle had finally found her way safely home.
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
He scooped her up in his arms and carried her into their future.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Twelve months later…
Giselle sat on the living-room floor of her old home surrounded by shredded Christmas paper. The children from the crèche played happily with their presents, many of their faces still smeared with remnants of their Christmas feast. The Christmas Eve breakup party had been a raucous success.
She looked around the room. Gone were the spotless cream walls and perfectly positioned furniture. One whole wall featured a colored mural of Australian fauna and flora. Kangaroos. Koalas. Echidnas. Eucalyptus trees. Banksia bushes. Golden wattles. The furniture was all rough and tumble.
She smiled. Moving the crèche to the main house had worked out well. There was much more space, and after some renovations, there were much better facilities. A ball rolled across the floor. She picked it up and rolled it back to the little girl who’d lost it. The child giggled and bounced the ball on to her mother. The children’s joy and enthusiasm had driven away all of Giselle’s demons.
Jake appeared at the doorway. “Hi, everyone.” His eyebrows arched. “Wow, Santa really went to town this year.”
Giselle laughed and picked her way across the room. “Well, Santa wants children to be happy.”
Jake kissed her lightly on the lips. “Well done, Santa,” he whispered. Then he grabbed her hand. “Bye, everyone.”
The room echoed a chorus of goodbyes.
Jake led her to his truck.
“Where are we going?” she asked. “We only have a few hours before we have to be at Sasha’s.”
“Loads of time,” he said.
A few minutes later they were driving out of town. Jake turned off the main road.
“We’re going to the Lake House?” she asked.
“Just a quick stop. I think I left my water bottle there last time.”
She frowned. Funny time to be looking for lost property.
“Tony rang with some exciting news,” she said.
“Do tell.”
“The new album just hit platinum.”
He squeezed her knee. “That’s fantastic.”
Her US tour had gone so much better than expected. They’d had to add lots of extra tour dates. It had been exhausting but she hadn’t minded. Jake had sat in the front row every night. It was as if she’d been performing solely for him.
Jake pulled up in front of the Lake House entrance.
“Come with me,” he said. “It’ll be beautiful at this time of day.”
“Sure,” she said, smiling. She’d follow him anywhere.
She shadowed him through the lantana tunnel to their special lakeside paradise. A picnic blanket lay on the grass and a silver bucket held a bottle of champagne and two glasses. The neck of the bottle was wrapped in Christmas tinsel. Her heart gave a flutter of delight.
“What’s all this?” she asked.
“I thought it’d be nice to have a pre-Christmas drink.” He took her hand. “Just the two of us.”
“I like your thinking, Jake Carlton.”
Jake poured the champagne and handed her a glass. The cool, slim stem of the flute felt good against the simmering heat of the Australian summer.
Jake held his glass aloft. “To us,” he said, clinking his flute with hers.
She smiled and sipped the sweet bubbles.
“Happy Christmas,” Jake said, holding out a small wrapped package.
“Champagne and presents? I always knew you were my kind of man.”
He simply gave her a beautiful, heart-melting smile.
She tore off the Christmas wrapping paper. A small red ring box fell into the palm of her hand. She looked up into his eyes.
“Jake,” she breathed.
He took the box from her hand, knelt on one knee and lifted the lid. A diamond ring sparkled a rainbow of colors in the afternoon sunlight. A lightning flash of happiness blazed through her veins. Her hands flew to her mouth.
“Giselle Harrington.” Jake’s deep voice infused her name with such love and tenderness her whole body quivered. “I’ve loved you since we were six years old. I will love you forever. Marry me?”
Her heart overflowed with love. “Yes. Yes. Yes.” She flung her arms around his neck, clinging to him. Never, ever wanting to let him go. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
She’d say the words every day. It had taken a lifetime to find love. She’d been searching and searching for it since the day she’d run away. Now she had everything she’d ever wanted. Jake, loving her, and the freedom to spend the rest of her life loving him. True, real love.
And it had been waiting here the whole time, at home.
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoy reading Giselle and Jake’s story as much as I did writing it. This is my first ‘small town’ romance and I loved creating the town and its various characters. I live in the small regional town of Byron Bay on the east coast of Australia and this famous tourist destination was the blueprint for Turtle Beach.
Giselle Harrington was such a fun character to write. We have lots of amazingly talented Australian singers who’ve struck success overseas. Natalie Imbruglia, Kylie Minogue, Delta Goodrem are just a few successful Aussie exports. These songbirds were the inspiration for Giselle’s character, but Giselle’s tragic tale is entirely her own. And Jake…well, I fell in love with Jake almost as soon as he appeared on the page. I hope you do too.
If you’d like to stay in touch with all my new releases, events and other news, please sign up for my newsletter. I hold regular subscriber competitions so you might also WIN!
So, I hope you have fun in the little town of Turtle Beach and enjoy this story of a second chance at love.
Jennifer
Jennifer St George is a bestselling romance author whose sexy stories feature courageous, career-minded heroines and strong heroes in glamorous international settings. She has six books published with Penguin Book’s digital-first imprint, Destiny Romance.
After completing a couple of business degrees, Jennifer spent the first 25 years of her career in the corporate world travelling the globe. Some career highlights include launching Guinness beer in Russia; reaching 40 million people through a publicity campaign that ‘gave away’ a pub in Ireland; and racing cars around a Japanese racetrack. Many of the exotic locations she’s visited feature in her stories.
Amongst her many passions, Jennifer loves running, swimming, drinking great coffee and travelling the world. She now lives in gorgeous Byron Bay, Australia and writes to the sound of the waves with a view of the beach. She’s an active member of the Byron Bay Writers Festival Board and loves helping to bring authors from all over the world to her gorgeous corner of Australia.
Jennifer loves to hear from readers! Drop her a line at [email protected] or head to her website, Facebook page or chat on Twitter.
Table of Contents
ALL SHE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS ~ RACHEL BAILEY
CHRISTMAS WISHES, NEW YEAR KISSES ~ MICHELLE DOUGLAS
BABY, IT’S HOT OUTSIDE ~ LOUISA GEORGE
HER CHRISTMAS COWBOY ~ HELEN LACEY
SLEIGH BELLS IN THE SAND ~ STEFANIE LONDON
MILLIONAIRE UNDER THE MISTLETOE ~ KANDY SHEPHERD
HER SMALL-TOWN CHRISTMAS WISH ~ JENNIFER ST GEORGE
Hot Christmas Nights Page 58
