The Christmas Wishing Tree: An Eternity Springs Novel

by Emily March

  When the family swept him into the circle for a group hug, he was truly glad he had made the trip.

  The final reveal of the afternoon was Brick and Lili’s box. Showman and fundraiser that he was, he whipped his family into a frenzy of last-minute check writing before opening the box. Blue balloons sailed out . . . and so did pink.

  “Very funny.” Brick cast Jenna an annoyed glance. Despite all his campaigning, it was obvious he was ready to find out if his child was a boy or a girl. “Now where’s our real box?”

  But beside him, Lili started to giggle. “This is our real box. Use your brain, Callahan.”

  It took him about ten seconds, but then the color drained from his face. Frantically, he grasped his wife’s hand.

  Brick’s father Mark fist-bumped his twin brother, Luke, and said, “I knew it. I just knew they were having twins.”

  For the next hour, Devin watched and waited for his chance to talk to Jenna. That chance never came.

  The woman was avoiding him.

  Oh, she spoke to him. She was cordial . . . friendly even. But anytime he came close to cutting her from the herd, she managed to flitter off to another group or invite a different crowd to join her. Man, but that chapped his butt. He finally abandoned his efforts to speak to her privately at the baby party and waited at her house for her to come home. That never happened.

  Turned out she and Reilly had made plans to go tent camping somewhere in Rocky Mountain National Park for the remainder of the holiday weekend. He’d completely missed them.

  Devin returned to Australia with about a ton of torque in his jaw and emotions he couldn’t name swirling in his gut. He called her the first time three days later. She didn’t answer. He tried again the next day and again the next. Had she blocked his number? Finally out of patience and disregarding the time difference, he began calling once an hour. If she hadn’t picked up by three a.m. her time, he’d conclude that she’d blocked him. Then it would be on to Plan B, whatever that was.

  She picked up at two p.m. her time and spoke without preamble. “Devin, you have to stop this. I can’t bear it anymore. It’s bad enough that people around here talk about you all the time, and everywhere I go I see something that reminds me of you. Now after the Maternity Springs party, I’m afraid you’re going to pop up unexpectedly every time I go into town. I can’t even escape you at night! You haunt my dreams. Do you know how many times I’ve woken up in the middle of the night believing my bed was rocking because my dreams about the Windsong are so vivid? You can’t call me, Devin. I’m trying very hard to find that Eternity Springs healing spirit, but so far the only spirit is a ghost and that ghost is you. I wish . . . well . . . it doesn’t matter what I wish. Please, Devin. Stop calling me.”

  The call disconnected.

  In the quiet of a peaceful Queensland morning, all those thoughts and questions that had swirled in his heart since even before Bella Vita coalesced into a single truth.

  He loved her. He was in love with Jenna Stockton. With a capital L.

  Okay, then. Now that he had the answer, what did he want to do about it?

  On the last Saturday in October, Jenna offered Sarah Murphy a hand to help her rise to a seated position on the exam table. “Everything looks good, Sarah. Your blood pressure is a little higher than I’d like and we will keep a close watch on it. But everything appears to be right on schedule for your little peanut.”

  “I shouldn’t have called you. This is my third time around. You’d think I’d know what I’m doing.”

  “You were absolutely right to call me. I want you to always err on the side of caution, Sarah.”

  “Because I have a geriatric pregnancy,” she grumbled.

  “Because you are my patient and friend,” Jenna gently chided. Then, to lighten the mood, she added, “And you make the best cookies in the world.”

  Sarah wrinkled her nose. “Or I did until you suggested I cut back my hours. Due to my geriatric pregnancy and everything.”

  “I suggested you pay close attention to your body. Work when you feel like it, but have backup for when you don’t.”

  “I had so much energy yesterday, I couldn’t believe it. If this were December, I’d have told Cam to get ready. But October is too soon.”

  “Yes, we need your peanut to bake a few more weeks for sure.”

  “I was definitely baking yesterday. I made a few cakes for the Fall Festival. Quite a few of them. When I started feeling so strange today, I worried I might have overdone it. I only made one batch of cookies this morning before I started feeling weird. Celeste came over for coffee, and we talked about Maternity Springs, which led to reminiscing about the contest Angel’s Rest sponsored that I won. The grand prize was a trip to Australia, and that’s what brought Cam back into my life. Talking about that made me miss Devin, so I made his favorite cookies. Figure I’d send them along with the cakes to the festival tonight. Experience has proven that you can never have enough.” She paused a moment, then said, “Is it okay if I go?”

  “Listen to your body, Sarah. It will tell you.”

  “Okay, I will. You’re going, I assume? With Boone?”

  “Boone and I are not going together. We’ve decided we need to stop attending town events together no matter how convenient it is. People keep insisting we’re a couple, and we’re not. However, I am attending the Fall Festival. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” The Fall Festival was the annual fundraising event at the school that featured carnival-type games. “I been hearing about it since Reilly and I first visited Eternity Springs.”

  “We are nothing if not traditional here in Eternity Springs and the full-contact cakewalk has become a prized one.”

  From outside in the hallway, they heard a panicked Cam. “Sarah? Sarah! Where are you?”

  Jenna motioned for Sarah to remain where she sat. She hurried to open the exam room door and said, “She’s fine. The baby is fine. She’s in here.”

  Later that evening she walked the hallways at Eternity Springs Community School trailing after Reilly and Michael and other friends whose hands were full of tickets. Surrounded by new friends and acquaintances in the school, an uncomfortable melancholy filled Jenna. She recalled the love that had resonated in Sarah’s voice as she’d spoken of her reunion with Cam, and the expression of devotion on Cam’s face as sought his wife in the clinic’s hallway. Jenna remembered how Gabi and Flynn had held hands almost the entire time during their most recent appointment. She thought back to the way that Daniel and Shannon Garrett had giggled like children when they’d watched their baby turn somersaults during one of the sonograms.

  Would she ever share a moment like that with someone else?

  It’s really too bad that she and Boone had agreed they’d never be more than friends and neighbors. He was a great guy, and every so often, she sensed that he was as lonely as she. There was a story there, but he wasn’t sharing. Guess Eternity Springs wasn’t working its mojo on his broken heart any faster than it was on hers.

  Despite her melancholy, Jenna enjoyed herself at the festival. After she saw Reilly off to the community center for the big children’s slumber party, she prepared to join the other adults for cleanup following the final event of the evening—the adults-only cakewalk during which the Romano siblings and their friends would battle over the chance to win Maggie Romano’s prized Italian cream cake.

  Boone stopped her at the door as she stepped into the library where the contest was to be held. He had a strange look in his eyes as he said, “Jen . . . because you’ve become such a good friend, I’m prepared to make this sacrifice.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “He’s going to hurt me.” Boone then took hold of her chin, lifted her face, and kissed her. Then he put his arm around her shoulder and escorted her toward the ring of spectators before joining the participants on the field of play: Brick Callahan, Josh Tarkington, Zach Turner, Lucca Romano, Gabe Callahan, Daniel Garrett, Chase Timberlake, Flynn Brogan, and
. . .

  Devin Murphy.

  Twenty

  “Who starts a fight at a cakewalk?” Jenna demanded before slamming her front door in his face.

  Devin wasn’t about to let that stop him. He opened the door and stepped inside, then followed her to the great room where she paced like a caged lioness. He glanced around. According to what he’d gleaned from the Internet, Jenna’s house was a four-bedroom, three-bath, six-year-old log cabin built as a second home for an architect out of New Mexico. “Nice digs.”

  She whirled to face him. “You smashed Maggie’s cake!”

  “Yeah,” Devin grimaced, then wished he hadn’t. The movement hurt his swollen eye. “That was unfortunate. But since I was the winner, the only person I hurt was myself. Besides, I scored pinwheels.”

  “You broke Boone’s nose!”

  “Well, he deserved that. He put his mouth on my woman.”

  Jenna sucked in a breath, and then narrowed her eyes. “Your woman?” She took three steps toward him then punched him in the chest with her index finger. “Your woman! Did you just say ‘your woman’?”

  His mouth quirked. “Yeah.”

  “You arrogant, conceited, loathsome”—eyes flashing fire, she shouted—“cake killer!”

  Cake killer? Good one.

  “Why are you here? No, it doesn’t matter. I don’t care. I’m getting over you. I want you to leave.”

  “Not until we talk. I’ve allowed you to avoid talking to me for the past two months and that was a huge mistake.”

  “Allowed? You didn’t allow me to do anything, Devin Murphy. What do they have in the water in Cairns that has turned you into a troglodyte? Haven’t you heard? Alpha males are politically incorrect.” She put her palms against his chest and shoved him hard.

  “Let’s keep politics out of it. This is romance.”

  “Romance! This is not romance. This is . . . this is . . .”

  “Love. This is love, Jenna.”

  She went still. He took her by the shoulders and held her, his grip firm. He met her gaze with a steady one of his own. “You turned my life upside down and you have brought me to my knees. I love you, Jenna. I can’t live without you. I want you to marry me. Please marry me.”

  Speechless, she stared up at him, her wide gray-blue eyes shimmering with tears.

  “I can give you and Reilly a good life. The business is doing great. One of the reasons it took me two months to get here is that I have a deal cooking with a group of investors that will set us up to make great things happen.”

  “You want us to move to Australia with you?” she asked.

  “I do. Not before the babies are born, of course, but after Christmas. I’ve looked into it. We’ll have some hoops to jump through, but you’ll be able to practice medicine. I want to give the ocean to Reilly like Cam did to me. I want to give him brothers and sisters.”

  “Plural?” she squeaked.

  “I’d like at least three, but it’s negotiable. Say yes, Jenna. I know you’re crazy about me.”

  “Somebody’s crazy,” she muttered, not yet willing to relent.

  Devin decided to tease her a little more. “This thing you have with Boone was just an effort to get over me. Maybe in time, it would have worked, but I wasn’t stupid enough to give you time, and despite Big Tex’s taunting kiss, I know I’m not too late. Reilly told me he doesn’t sleep over.”

  “You did not ask him that!” She slapped his shoulder. “No. I didn’t.”

  Devin grinned and took her back into his arms. “I didn’t have to ask because I know you love me too.”

  “You are so conceited.”

  “I am so in love with you. Head over heels, until death do us part, in love. Marry me, Jenna. Say yes. Repeat after me, ‘Yes, Santa.’”

  “Santa?” Her lips curved.

  “You didn’t think this was plain old Devin Murphy who just proposed marriage, did you? I’m Santa Claus, and it’s my business to make wishes come true.” He slipped his arms around her and pulled her against him. Gazing intently into her yes, he kissed her once lightly. “Believe, Jenna.” He kissed her again. “Believe in me.” He kissed her a third time. “Believe in us.”

  She hitched in a breath and licked her lips. “Yes. Yes. I’ll marry you.”

  He gave a murmur of triumph as he closed his mouth over hers. The homecoming of the taste of her soothed away all the aches in his body and soul. “I’ve missed you. Oh, woman, how I have missed you. Where’s Reilly?”

  “A sleepover.”

  He drew back, and a smile of pure delight spread across his face. “I love the boy like my own, but damn, do I have timing or what? Which way is your bedroom?”

  He lifted her into his arms and carried her from the room whistling “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.”

  Jenna had stars in her eyes the following morning when she woke snuggled in Devin’s arms. A glance at the clock showed she’d slept half an hour later than her usual six a.m. wake-up time after sleeping very little during the long, delicious hours of the night. Now, she’d better get her sated little self in the shower and dressed because Reilly would home before she knew it.

  Ten minutes later she stood at the stove frying bacon and reliving moments of the previous night. In the middle of the night in the darkness of her bedroom, he had painted her a picture of Australia, of Queensland and Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, so vivid that she’d all but seen the images on her ceiling. They spoke at length about his charter operation and the opportunities that had come his way in the past few weeks. His excitement was infective.

  “The boats make the Windsong look like the S.S. Minnow—after it wrecked on Gilligan’s Island,” he’d told her around two in the morning. “We’ll have personal use of one of them too. I’ll take you to Tahiti and Bora Bora . . . all over the South Seas. And we have more than five hundred national parks in Australia. Reilly is going to love it.”

  Jenna hoped so. Reilly was the only real reservation she had. He had sunk his roots quickly in Colorado. How would he feel about picking up and moving? He wouldn’t be happy about leaving Eternity Springs, but he would be getting his number-one wish in the deal—a dad. He would adjust, wouldn’t he?

  Hands came around her waist and lips nuzzled her neck. “Mmmm. Bacon.” Devin nipped her.

  “Are you calling me a pig, Devin Murphy?” Jenna asked as a thrill ran down her spine.

  “I was talking about breakfast, but now that you bring it up your sexual demands last night might be considered excessive.”

  “They might be, hmm?”

  “Have I mentioned how much I love bacon? Any chance I can get some scrambled eggs to go with it?”

  “You’ll find a carton of eggs in the fridge. Get to crackin’.” When he leaned over to peer into the fridge, she swatted him on the butt with a wooden spoon, and then laughed when he shot her a narrowed-eye scowl. She’d have laughed at just about anything at that moment. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d been so happy.

  She started humming a certain Christmas song along to the sizzle and spit of the bacon. He cracked eggs and sweet-talked her into making biscuits.

  “It’s amazing how taking care of one hunger can work up another,” he observed just as an unfamiliar ringtone sounded from her bedroom. “That’s work. It’s midnight at home. Wonder what this is about?”

  “Take your time.”

  She had just put a sheet of biscuits in the oven when Reilly opened the front door. “Hey, Mom. How is Sinatra? Did he do okay without me?”

  “He did great. I put him outside a few minutes ago and he’s probably ready to come in. How was the sleepover?”

  “It was soooooo much fun.” He went to the back door and called his dog. A few moments later he was sitting on the floor playing with the puppy as he rattled on about the movies they’d watched and popcorn fights and on and on. When he finally ran down, Jenna decided the time had come to broach the subject uppermost in her mind.

  She rinsed her
hands and wiped them on a dishtowel, then said, “Hey, hot rod. I need to talk to you about something.”

  “Uh-oh.” Warily, he looked up at her. “That’s never good.”

  “No . . . this is good. Really good. Reilly, remember when you made the first phone call to Santa a couple years ago? Do you remember what you asked him for?”

  “Well . . . yeah. I told you about that. I asked him for a dad.”

  “Well, this is my really great news. Reilly, Devin asked if he could be your dad. He asked me to marry him.”

  Reilly put his puppy aside and went up on his knees. Hope filled his voice. “Devin? Devin is going to be my dad? I love Devin! This is the best news ever!”

  He pushed Sinatra off his lap and leapt to his feet and threw himself against his mother for a hug. “Michael’s brother is going to be my dad! So does that make me and Michael brothers? Oh, no.” Reilly pulled away and looked wide-eyed up toward his mother. “He won’t be my uncle, will he, like with Dr. Lori’s baby? He’s real obnoxious about being an uncle.”

  Jenna laughed. “I’ll have to look into it to see what the relationship will be. I wouldn’t worry about it though, Reilly.”

  “Okay. Oh, I’m so excited. I wanted a dad more than anything, even more than I wanted Sinatra.”

  “I know.”

  “When is Devin coming home to live in Eternity Springs? Will you have a wedding? Do I have to wear a tie?”

  “Yes, we will have a wedding and yes, you’ll have to wear a tie. And no, Devin is not moving back to Eternity Springs.” Jenna drew in a bracing breath, sent up a quick, silent prayer, and explained. “Devin has asked us to join him in Australia.”

  It took a moment, but the light in Reilly’s eyes died. “You mean . . . like . . . move there?”

  “Yes.” Jenna told him about the five hundred national parks and the rain forest and the Great Barrier Reef. She told him that Devin loved him and loved her and wanted them to be a family. “He says his dad—Michael’s dad— gave him the ocean, and he wants to give that to you too. It’s his favorite place in the world and he wants to share it with you.”