A Christmas to Remember
Hayley Wescott
Contents
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About Hero Hearts
A Christmas to Remember
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Preview of All About Trust
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
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About Hayley Wescott
Copyright © 2018 Hayley Wescott and Sweet River Publishing
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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This is a work of fiction. Any references to names, characters, organizations, places, events, or incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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About Hero Hearts
Welcome to Hero Hearts, a historical and contemporary Christian romance series.
Join Annie Boone, Hayley Wescott, Natalie Dean, Cat McGill, Terri Grace, and Kate Cambridge in a world unlike any other; a world where Heroes are honored with unforgettable characters and beautiful, Christian love stories.
The authors of this series are committed to writing stories of faith, hope and love centered in fictional heroes who sacrifice daily to protect and save. A mix of historical and modern-day. We hope you enjoy the Hero Hearts Christian romance series!
~Annie Boone, Hayley Wescott, Natalie Dean, Cat McGill, Terri Grace, and Kate Cambridge
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A Christmas to Remember
A Hero Hearts Christmas Story
1
“And you won’t believe the weather here. It’s seventy-two today.”
“You’re kidding. I’m sitting here wrapped in a sweater by the fire and the meteorologist on channel five is calling for flurries tonight by seven.”
April Summers grinned at her sister’s words. The wind from her open car window was whipping her dirty blonde hair around her face, but she couldn’t care less. She was driving with the window down during the last week of November. She could hardly believe it.
“So let me guess,” came her sister’s voice again. “You’re off to the beach again?”
April flushed a little at the teasing, but it wasn’t enough to squish her elation. “Why wouldn’t I be? When have I ever been able to say that I got to go to the beach the Sunday after Thanksgiving?”
“Most of us are putting up our Christmas trees and getting the snow tires put on our cars, but you know that,” said her sister. “Must be nice not having those things to worry about anymore.”
“You know, you could have come with me, Becky,” April said with another grin. “My place has a whole other bedroom that is basically storage still.”
April couldn’t take her eyes off the scenery. Branson, Missouri had been beautiful, sure, but Georgia was a completely different kind of beautiful. The costal area was a special kind of lovely.
Yes, she’d missed the change of the seasons that year, when all the green of the trees gave way to golds, ambers and rosy shades. She missed the wide expanses of lakes that she and her family would visit in the warmer months. She even missed the low rolling hills and wide expanse of sky above.
Savannah, Georgia, on the other hand, was everything April had expected from a southern town. Everyone was so friendly, and there was hardly a day where someone didn’t stop and greet her on the street. Most of the buildings in town had wide front porches that looked perfect for spending a lazy afternoon drinking sweet tea, and the enormous tree branches that seemed to tangle together overhead were draped with Spanish moss that waved gently in the breeze coming in off the Atlantic Ocean.
While she didn’t live right in the middle of Savannah, she was only a short drive from the city center, and she spent almost every weekend since moving there exploring the sights.
“You haven’t unpacked everything yet?” Becky asked, snapping April’s attention back. She could almost hear her sister rolling her eyes. “Why am I not surprised?”
“You’re avoiding the subject,” April said, slowing down as she approached a red light intersection. There was an old pick-up truck pulled up alongside the road, selling peaches as advertised by a cardboard sign. A dozen for seven dollars—now that was a bargain. April debated about picking some up. She hadn’t been able to get enough peach anything since she’d arrived. She found she loved Georgia’s pride in their produce and in just about everything they did, really. She found it made her love this place all that much more.
“I’m not avoiding anything,” Becky said. “But you know that I can’t move out there with you. Mom and Dad would freak, and so would Tyler.”
“Ah yes, the boyfriend with cold feet,” April said with a small chuckle. “Hear any more rumors about him shopping for a ring?”
“Not in the last few days, no,” Becky said. “But I’m guessing he’ll propose by Christmas.”
“That makes sense,” April said. She inhaled deeply. The salty scent of the ocean was hanging in the air, and she felt like it was calling her name.
The stoplight turned green and she followed after the rest of the traffic heading toward Savannah.
“What about you?” her sister asked. “Any husband material way down there?”
April smirked and sighed. “Not yet. I haven’t been here that long, for Pete’s sake,” April said. “And I’ve been pretty busy.”
“Yeah, going to the beach every chance you get,” Becky teased. “I get that you wanted to be closer to the ocean, but you’re making us all jealous over here.”
April smiled. “Well, that’s not my fault,” she said. “And you know perfectly well that I’ve had more than my fair share of parent-teacher conferences, trainings, and have spent more than a few nights preparing projects for my students.”
“You teach second grade,” Becky said. “How much work could they possibly need to be doing?”
“I want to make a good impression my first year,” April said, somewhat indignantly. “Besides, the front of my classroom is the nicest looking in the wing.”
“Well, good for you,” said Becky, laughing. “No, in all seriousness, I’m really proud of you. I’m sad you had to go all the way to Georgia to get the job you wanted, but I’m glad you’re happy you’re doing what you want to do.”
“Me too,” April said. “It only took me until I turned thirty to really feel like I was starting my own life.”
“Don’t rub it in,” Becky said. “I’ve still got five years to go, if your life is any measure.”
April heard a doorbell through the phone, and the rustling of clothes as Becky unwrapped herself from her stack of blankets. “That’ll be
Mom and Dad. I’ll let you go.”
“Tell everyone I said hi,” April said with a small twinge of sadness. “And that I love them.”
“We love you too, April,” Becky said, and April could hear the smile in her words. “We’ll see you in January, okay?”
“Looking forward to it,” April said. “Bye!”
“Bye,” Becky said, and then she was gone.
There was a faint tightness in her chest as she thought of her mother and father. It had been almost six months since she had seen them all, and she hadn’t quite realized how much she missed them until she knew they were all getting together without her today.
She shook off the momentary loneliness and reminded herself where she was heading. The beach. Solitude. Peace of mind and a break from the monotony of working at the school. Doing what she wanted to do in the place she wanted to do it.
She reminded herself of everything that she had come to love living in Georgia. The school was in a small town, meaning she had smaller class sizes. She liked having the chance to get to know each student individually. She felt it helped make a better impact on them.
She also knew the parents of the students. Well, at least most of them. She was pleased that so many of them were invested in their children’s education, even from such a young age. She found she enjoyed sending update emails to them all, and aside from a few questions about quarterly report cards, she hadn’t had an issue with a single one of them yet. She expected it would happen eventually, but so far, everything had been peaceful in her classroom.
More than once, April caught herself feeling jealous of these families. She’d hoped that by now she herself would be married, maybe even with children. She knew that she was getting older and that she was closing the gap on the time to have children. But she needed a husband to have the perfect family.
It was at this point that she always reminded herself that she hadn’t been in Georgia for very long, and that she was bound to meet someone at some point.
She was just rather impatient most of the time and she needed to keep that in check.
It wasn’t all bad, though. She’d made friends with some of the other teachers at the school where she taught. It seemed she wasn’t the only one who was in her late twenties or early thirties who was still single. She’d bonded with a group of women who took her under their wing. They’d spend Friday nights together going to see movies or having game nights at one another’s apartments. She joined a life group with a few of them and found that she was already better friends with them than anyone she’d known in college and grad school back in Missouri. She supposed it helped that she knew them offline and could see them in person frequently.
April’s stomach rumbled as she saw a sign that she was only a few miles outside of Savannah. The sandwich and snacks she’d packed for herself were sitting beside her in the tiny cooler she’d purchased at the grocery store a few months back. She knew she wanted to wait to eat, so she settled on wrestling a cold water bottle out instead.
She wrestled with the cap, trying to keep her eyes on the road as she propped her elbows on the steering wheel. The car wobbled slightly into the lane beside her, but she quickly righted it as the cap came free. She took a long swig from the bottle, the cold water soothing her throat all the way down.
She sighed as she set the bottle down in the cupholder, returning both hands to the wheel.
It really was a perfect day. She was wearing a brand new pair of aviator sunglasses that she’d bought with one of her first paychecks. She still wondered if she’d spent too much on them, but she loved them so much that she really didn’t care. Her new beach chair that had only been used a half a dozen times was in the back of her SUV, along with her colorful umbrella, pool noodles, and beach bag. It held her sunscreen, towel, and the book she was looking forward to reading, along with a collection of shells that grew every time she visited the coast.
Never in her life did she ever think she’d be able to live a life like this. Getting up on a Sunday morning and packing the car up to head to the beach after church was a dream come true. And in late November, no less. It was so surreal, and it excited her all that much more.
She knew it wasn’t warm enough to swim in the ocean, but she still wanted to walk in the surf in her bare feet, just to say she could. All the locals laughed at her and her enthusiasm over the beach at this time of year. They assured her she’d find a way to swim in the Atlantic all year long even though it was always chilly. Of course the “all year long” part was a joke. Nobody swam in the ocean in the winter—she was sure of that.
She synced her cell phone to her car radio and started playing her “beach vibes” playlist. She turned the volume up, relishing the joy that was filling her heart. She laughed out loud. This was crazy. It was only four weeks or so until Christmas, and she was listening to summer music, heading to the beach to walk in the sand and ocean surf.
With this realization, she decided to put on a playlist of Christmas music to listen to, instead. Since she wouldn’t see snow this winter, she knew she was going to have to work extra hard to get into the Christmas spirit.
She was singing “Jingle Bell Rock” at the top of her lungs as she passed a sign telling her she was only thirty miles from the coast. She could easily spend three or four hours there and still have plenty of time to turn around and head home to make dinner for herself that night.
As she drove along, her mind drifted like the waves of the sea. She thought about what she’d like for dinner, or if she’d rather stop at that amazing barbeque place on the corner near the school. She wondered if they’d even be open, seeing as how Thanksgiving was only a few days ago.
That reminded her that she still had leftover pumpkin bars from Sarah, one of the teachers she worked with, and who invited her over for Thanksgiving with her and her family. She regretted that she hadn’t packed one in her little picnic basket to enjoy at the beach.
Oh, well. Next time.
Something in her rearview mirror caught her attention. Then her heart skipped a beat as she saw a flash of red and blue lights coming up behind her.
That’s not for me, is it? She glanced down at her speedometer and sighed.
But as the police car drew closer and didn’t pull out around her, her stomach dropped.
Busted.
2
It was never the desire of any sane person to want to work on a holiday weekend. It was even harder as a single dad with two kids at home who had spent more time with their aunt than with him during the last week. It didn’t matter one lick to Clay Barber that he got time and a half pay to be out setting up speed traps for drivers on the back roads heading out of Oak Springs. He would have much rather been back home with his kids dragging the boxes of Christmas decorations down from the attic and making colored construction paper rings into garland to help count down the days left until Christmas morning.
Clay sighed heavily as he pulled up behind the SUV he’d clocked going ten miles over the speed limit. Nothing more than a warning was going to be necessary, but he was getting tired of pulling over people who thought they were too good to follow the rules of the road.
He was at least grateful that they didn’t wait to pull over. The sooner he could get this done, the better. Only two hours were left of his shift, and then he could get back home.
Just two hours, and then he could be back with his kids.
He put the car in park and turned to his computer in the passenger seat. This was the third person he’d pulled over that day. Not a record by any stretch, but more than he was used to on a Sunday.
The holiday was definitely the reason. He just hoped he wouldn’t have another self-righteous driver who thought they were better than him.
He put his trooper’s hat on and stepped out of the car.
Closing the door, he caught his own reflection in the recently washed state trooper car.
He was taller than most of the men on the force, standing at six foot four. His shoul
ders were broad and he’d had to go up a size in his shirts ever since he’d started lifting weights about a year ago. Most of his blonde hair was hidden beneath his hat, and his dark sunglasses hid his blue eyes, but they couldn’t mask the somewhat scruffy beard he’d been sporting since the weather started to cool. His sister told him how rugged it made him look, and his kids thought it was funny when he kissed them goodnight and his whiskers tickled their little faces.
The thought made him smirk as he strolled over to the driver’s side door of the SUV.
The window rolled down and Clay was surprised to find himself staring into the face of a beautiful young woman. She had round hazel eyes that stared up at him like a puppy that had been neglected, and her freckled face was as pale as a cotton blossom. She nervously ran her fingers through her long dirty blonde hair as she looked out at him.
“H–Hello there, officer,” she said, stumbling over her words. “I hope there’s not a problem.”
Clay cleared his throat, glancing down at his ticket pad. “My apologies, miss, but do you know how fast you were going back there near that intersection?”
The woman’s eyes widened even further as she glanced down at her dashboard. “I didn’t think I was speeding.”
“I clocked you going fifty-six in a forty five,” he said, adjusting his sunglass. Gosh, but she was pretty. It had been a long time since he’d seen a woman like her. She had a long neck, round cheeks, and full lips. It was hard to tell from there, but she seemed fuller figured. Not that he minded, of course. He’d always preferred a woman who had a little more meat on her bones.
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