Winter at Pretty Beach by Polly Babbington (best affordable ebook reader TXT) 📗

well rugged up though, is it cold?’ She asked, taking in the scarf, hat and coat.

‘It’s not warm, Sals, we might have to buy you another coat if it continues to snow. It started a few days ago and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down at the moment.’

He picked up her case, took hold of her hand and led her out of the airport. The automatic doors opened, icy air blasted into them, and sleet sheeted down as they hurried across the road and into the car park.

Ben opened the boot of the car with the key fob, put her suitcase in the back and opened her door. Sallie climbed into the huge SUV and he jumped in the other side, turned on the engine and the radio came on.

‘Weather warning - huge snowfall for this time of year predicted over the next few days. Keep an eye on your weather charts folks, check your tyres and watch out for the snow.’

Sallie looked at Ben with wide eyes. He took his eyes off the road and looked back at her, chuckling.

‘Well you do love snow, Sals, you brought it with you.’

As she sat there beside him driving along the deserted road, Sallie remembered the day she had first been on a date with him and as it always did, it made her heart leap and little butterflies dance in her stomach. Driving along with him now on the way from the airport to the little cabin he’d rented, she felt almost overwhelmed with love. The whole journey had been amazing (who wouldn’t say no to being pampered in First Class?), but it was more the journey over the last few years that she felt grateful for as she sat next to him in the huge American car. The money was a fabulous little extra, but she’d done without it before and could again.

Ben leant over the huge console and put his hand on her leg, aware of her brain ticking over.

‘What are you thinking about beautiful?’ He asked gently.

‘Oh, nothing really, you know just, well, all this and just us,’ Sallie replied, suddenly a lump in her throat and all of a sudden, a tear in the back of her eyes.

She rarely cried - after the stillbirth she’d almost felt like she was all cried out, and had used up every tear she’d ever had. But now all of a sudden she was overcome with emotion, being in a completely different environment to Pretty Beach, the long, tiring journey, and then looking over at Ben Chalmers driving along with her. Who even was she? She thought.

‘Are you okay?’ He said, sensing her mood.

‘Yeah, yeah, sorry, just exhausted I suppose and well, I just love you.’

‘I hope so - you just married me... twice. I love you too beautiful. Think you might have had a little too much First Class wine - we need to get you to the cabin, a nice bath and tucked up in bed asleep.’

‘How come you always seem to know what I need?’ She looked back at him sitting there in the beanie looking gorgeous.

Ben looked at her confused, as if wondering why she didn’t understand and replied simply, ‘Because I love you Sals, obviously.’

She put her hand on top of his and smiled through the tears and swallowed the lump in her throat.

‘I can’t believe it all, Ben. I’ve just flown to another part of the world on my own, I have my own business, a national newspaper wants to follow my story and I have you. Like I am someone now, something, not just a nobody in a low-paid job and of no consequence. People actually value what I say, do and think. I felt like I was a nothing for so long after the divorce and now I am someone again. People like what I do, heck... they like me.’ She trailed off and looked out the window at the freezing cold scene outside whisking past the tinted window.

‘You certainly could never have been of no consequence, beautiful - it takes all the people to make the world go round,’ Ben replied and took hold of her hand and placed it on his leg leaving his hand on top of hers.

They drove along in silence, the snow falling heavily, the whole landscape white, cold, the sky black, deep almost - she had thought the stars in Pretty Beach were impressive, but these were on another level. It was as if the road had had a deep, low, jet-black ceiling painted onto it with gold glittery stars stuck on as an afterthought... only it was real and it seemed to fall down and meet the edge of the earth.

They turned off the motorway, pulling down onto a smaller road - it was just like the long, straight roads she’d seen on American movies, and by the looks of the destination signs lined up on the road it was a long way to anywhere. The Alaskan trees and cabins she’d seen online lined the road, huge snowy mountains sat back in the distance and it felt like she’d arrived in a whole new world.

They passed small timber cabins sat on large lots with perfect lawns, huge SUVs and quaint post boxes at the end of each drive. They sped along past rows and rows of cabins until Ben slowed the car and pulled onto a driveway, put the car in park and switched off the engine. He looked over at Sallie who was sitting leaning forward peering through the windscreen with her mouth agape at the cabin, the mountains behind and the starry sky encasing it all. It was the most picture-perfect cabin she had ever seen - like someone had plucked it out of a children’s picture book and dropped it into a small road on the outskirts of an Alaskan town.

The small A-frame log cabin was topped with a layer of snow and sat alongside a long row of cabins and