by Jill Sanders
A Silver Cove Christmas
A Silver Cove Novel
Jill Sanders
Contents
A Silver Cove Christmas
Other books by Jill Sanders
Summary
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
New Year’s Eve
Other books by Jill Sanders
About the Author
A Silver Cove Christmas
~ Silver Cove ~
Crystal & Rory
© 2017 Jill Sanders
Other books by Jill Sanders
The Pride Series
Finding Pride
Discovering Pride
Returning Pride
Lasting Pride
Serving Pride
Red Hot Christmas
My Sweet Valentine
Return To Me
Rescue Me
The Secret Series
Secret Seduction
Secret Pleasure
Secret Guardian
Secret Passions
Secret Identity
Secret Sauce
The West Series
Loving Lauren
Taming Alex
Holding Haley
Missy’s Moment
Breaking Travis
Roping Ryan
Wild Bride
Corey’s Catch
Tessa’s Turn
The Grayton Series
Last Resort
Someday Beach
Rip Current
In Too Deep
Swept Away
High Tide
Lucky Series
Unlucky In Love
Sweet Resolve
Best of Luck
Silver Cove Series
Silver Lining
French Kiss
Happy Accident
Hidden Charm
A Silver Cove Christmas
Entangled Series – Paranormal Romance
The Awakening
The Beckoning
The Ascension
St. Helena Vineyard Kindle Worlds
Where I Belong
Haven, Montana Series
Closer to You
Never Let Go
For a complete list of books: http://JillSanders.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
A SILVER COVE CHRISTMAS
DIGITAL ISBN: 978-1-942896-92-0
PRINT ISBN: 978-1-1979437257
Copyright © 2017 Grayton Press
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
ISBN: 978-1-942896-90-6
Created with Vellum
Summary
Having lost the man she loved early on, Crystal vowed to live freely for the rest of her life. But, after her business is threatened due to theft, she hires a private financial investigator to plug the leak. Falling for the tall, dark, and very serious stranger was certain. What she hadn’t expected was for it to be true love.
Rory has lived a life of the straight and narrow. He’s always been an eye-on-the-prize kind of guy. The prize? Retirement in the tropics where he doesn’t have to worry or work. He was prepared to take some hits to achieve the goal, mainly his health, his relationships, and his state of mind. Now this new-age hippy woman wants him to relax. But he’s got a job to do, if his heart doesn’t betray him first.
Prologue
Crystal watched the black casket being lowered into the ground. She held Serenity, her daughter, tight as the little girl cried for her daddy.
Johnathan was gone. Part of Crystal’s heart went with him into the cold ground. She would never love a man like that again. Never.
When her daughter reached up and took her face, she smiled. Here was a different kind of love, a love she felt she could share with any and all, especially her own daughter. Unconditional. Unmasked. Pure. Raw. Forever.
“I know, baby.” She rubbed her hand over Serenity’s blonde hair. It had taken her almost half an hour that morning to get the flyaway mess into its barrettes. Now it was freed and flying every which way. “I miss him too.” She hugged the girl to her chest.
Over her daughter’s head, her eyes met Johnathan’s mother. Martha Harrison came from one of the oldest families in America. Her powerful political reach was something Crystal knew she would have to deal with sooner or later. She’d just hoped it would be later.
Before Johnathan had left them, he’d set in motion a plan for their daughter. Crystal hadn’t agreed to it, but she would remain silent as instructed.
Martha and Carl Harrison hadn’t been pleased, but for the love of their son, they too would remain silent until the time came when Serenity would need her father’s power.
For now, Crystal would have her daughter all to herself. Thankfully, the Harrisons had wanted nothing to do with their bastard granddaughter.
“Let’s go home, baby.” Crystal stood up and carried her daughter to the old car her grandfather had given her years ago.
“Mommy, are we going to live with Granny and Papa now?”
“Yes, baby.” She smiled down at her daughter.
“What about Haven?” The little girl had only known one home her entire life, the massive executive suite at the ritzy East Haven Resort, which Johnathan had owned and run. It was where they had met, fallen in love, and had their daughter. Johnathan had gotten sick shortly after Serenity had been born.
Crystal had overseen the conversion of their rooms into a hospital ward until he passed peacefully in her arms less than three nights ago.
But, because of the arrangement with the Harrisons, she and Serenity were moving back into her parents’ place on the mainland in Silver Cove.
Not that it was a downgrade. Her parents’ home was the largest private home within a hundred miles. Her parents were giving her and her daughter the entire third floor, and they had spent a great deal of time and money in the past two days getting everything ready for their return home.
When they parked in front of the massive place, she noticed that it was already decked out in Christmas lights and decorations. It was less than a week until the holiday, and Crystal knew it was going to be the hardest one in her and Serenity’s lives.
“Come on, baby.” Crystal lifted her daughter’s sleeping body from her car seat. Over the past few years, they had visited her parents on plenty of occasions. Her mother had babysat Serenity often when Johnathan was too ill to have an active six-year-old running around.
As she carried her sleepy daughter up the front stairs, the glass door opened, and she walked into her mother’s waiting arms.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” her mother said as she cried on her shoulder. “You’re home now. We’ll take it one day at a time. You have your daughter to think about, and w
e’ll make this Christmas the most special one she’ll ever remember.”
Chapter 1
Almost twenty-two years later
Crystal laughed as her granddaughter, Aurora, tried to scoot her chubby body towards her.
“You can do it,” she encouraged the almost seven-month-old.
“Mom, it’s still too early,” Serenity said from her spot across the room.
“Don’t be silly.” She waved a hand towards her daughter. “You started crawling around this time.” She encouraged her granddaughter towards her again.
“Crystal.” Ben, her son-in-law, interrupted the moment. They had come over that evening to help her track down a thief.
Earlier that year, she’d hired a new store manager, Kayla Thomas. She’d married Crystal’s nephew Rowan earlier that month and was now Kayla Holley. The wedding had been held in the back gardens at Holley Hall, her home since her parents had perished years before.
The mystery was who had stolen almost twenty thousand dollars from the business that Crystal had started shortly after Johnathan’s death. Serenity’s Attic had been borne out of the ashes of her life and with the help of a very small loan from her parents, which she had paid back within the first year of running the store in downtown Silver Cove.
“Did you find something?” she asked, getting up off the ground and picking up Aurora, to the little girl’s delight. Instantly, her chubby fingers found the locket around her neck and placed it between her gums, which were swollen from teething. Crystal walked over to the large oak desk that had been her great-grandfather’s at one point. Now, the desk held her laptop, which Ben had been staring at for the past hour without a single word.
“I found what Kayla had found. The money disappeared from your accounts, but since the computer at the store that had all the info on it was shot…” He looked up at her over a pair of dark-rimmed glasses. “We’re still thankful you and Kayla survived that whole mess.”
“Go on.” She smiled, trying to block out the night she and her employee, and soon-to-be niece-in-law, almost died at the hands of a crazed wife who believed that Crystal had paid her husband for sex.
“Well, the statements your bank has provided have some information on here, but since I’m not a financial wiz, I couldn’t tell you what it all means, only that several transfers were scheduled from your business account to this account.” He tapped the screen with his finger. “At least I think it’s an account. I haven’t seen bank information like this before. Anyway, the last transfer was shortly before you hired Kayla.” He turned towards her. “You’re lucky you hired her when you did. From what she tells me, there were more transfers scheduled, but because she changed your security measures…”
Crystal smiled and let out a deep sigh. “Yes, who knows how much longer I would have leaked money. Did you know, since I’ve hired her, I’m saving almost a hundred dollars on the electric bill at the store?”
“How did she do that?” Serenity sat up.
“Replaced all the light bulbs with those LSD ones.” Crystal shrugged.
“LED?” Ben chuckled.
“That’s it.” Crystal snapped her fingers. Instantly, Aurora grabbed her fingers and started chewing on them. “I replaced all the lights here, too. I’ve saved almost half on my electricity bill this month alone. Plus, I’m saving the planet.” To her, this was even better news.
“We replaced the lights at the resort almost three years ago.” Serenity smiled. “I did suggest you do the same back then, but… what do I know.”
“Don’t be silly. Back then, those lights were just a fad. Besides, I’d read a report…”
Serenity’s laugh interrupted her story.
“Mom, we’ve heard this conspiracy story from you a hundred times.” She walked over to take her daughter from her arms. “It’s dinnertime.”
Crystal reluctantly let the baby go. If she could, she’d hold the girl all day, every day. But she knew her daughter needed some mommy-daughter time too.
“So.” Crystal leaned closer to the screen. “What do you suggest?”
Ben leaned back. “I might know someone, an old family friend. He used to be an investor, but recently started his own financial security firm in Boston.” Ben sighed. “He’s a little… intense.”
“Will he find my money?” Crystal asked.
Ben looked up at her. “If nothing else, he should be able to find who took it in the first place. Might even save you more money while he’s looking.”
“How soon can he get here?”
Ben looked up at her. “I’m sure he could do whatever he needs from Boston.”
“I’m not going to trust someone hundreds of miles away that I’ve never met before.” Crystal stood straight and shook her head. “I’m trusting, but not that trusting. Not after I’ve been taken like this.”
“Mom, maybe—” Serenity cut off when she met Crystal’s gaze. She turned to her husband. “Maybe you can convince him to stay up here while he looks into this. It’s not like Mom doesn’t have the room to put him up.”
“Yes,” Crystal jumped in. “Besides, with the holiday’s coming, maybe he would like to bring his family up for a mini vacation while he works?”
“He’s unmarried. I don’t think he has kids,” Ben said, frowning at the computer screen. “It may not take him that long. Christmas is still two months away.”
“Still, Silver Cove is known for holiday cheer and is one of the top five places in Maine to spend winter.”
“I’ll ask.” Ben flipped her laptop closed while she waited. “Now?” he asked when he noticed her look.
“There’s no time like the present.” She smiled and patted his shoulder. “Now, I’m going to go in and start dinner.” She glanced over at Serenity who was still feeding Aurora. “I’m making your favorite tonight.”
“Zucchini lasagna?” Serenity’s eyes lit up. Joy spread in her chest so quickly, she almost danced into the kitchen to start the dinner.
It wasn’t that she didn’t care about the missing money, but her store was doing very well for her. It had since the week she’d opened its doors years ago. In recent years, she’d expanded her yoga hours and had remodeled the back area to house two small massage rooms. She had steady employees for both areas. She loved to teach yoga herself, but had two other instructors that could fill in for her. Joe Stoker had been her employee for almost three years. He’d been her on-again, off-again lover for a few months almost a year ago. The man knew how to please a woman, but there wasn’t much upstairs, so she’d found her more recent pleasures elsewhere. As of late, her time had been consumed with her daughter and granddaughter.
Moving around the massive kitchen always reminded her of her own mother and grandmother. Sadness always threatened to surface when she thought about her folks, but she pushed it away and remembered the good times, the laughter and love they gave her and her younger sister, Genie, Rowan’s mother.
She hoped she’d given her own daughter even half of the love and joy that her parents and grandparents had given her. As a single parent, it had been difficult at times.
She’d been so young when she’d met and fallen in love with Johnathan. She’d gotten pregnant at eighteen. She’d instantly fallen in love with Serenity, but watching her soul mate fade away had taken its toll on her. She’d had a few short years with her parents after losing Johnathan, which had helped bring the light back into her core.
Then she’d focused on Serenity and her business, putting her own desires on the side until her daughter was old enough to spend time across the street with her sister, Genie, and her family. Only then had she allowed the desires that had built up to flow freely.
And flow it had. She smiled as she added the finishing touches to the meal. She’d taken many lovers over the years. Most of them she remembered very fondly. Some not so much, but still, she wouldn’t take back a moment of the pleasures she’d had or the knowledge she’d gained.
“You have one of those wicked smiles o
n your face.” Serenity walked in, rocking a sleeping Aurora in her arms.
“I was just remembering some of the good times.”
Her daughter smiled. “There are many more yet to come.”
It was her father’s saying and instantly made her smile grow. “Yes, there are.”
“Can I help?” Ben walked into the room.
“You can help by telling me the number wizard is going to come and fix my accounts,” she said, looking over her shoulder.
“He’s moving a few things around, but says he’ll be on the first train up here on Monday. I’ll pick him up from the Portland station and bring him here.”
“Wonderful.” Crystal clapped her hands softly, as to not wake the sleeping baby. “Lay Aurora down.” She motioned to the folding crib in the corner of the dining area. “Then we’ll eat.”
Crystal sat around the table and felt the excitement of what was to come. She itched to read her cards and charts but knew nothing would have changed since she’d read them that morning. Something was coming. Change was coming.
Rory Sinclair was second-guessing himself. How had he let Ben talk him into heading out of state at one of the busiest times of the year?
Since starting his own company, Sinclair Financial Security, he’d taken a hit to his own pocket book, but he was his own boss. You couldn’t put a price tag on that. Not after some of the jobs he’d held down.
As the train carried him north, he manually changed his calendar around and emailed his clients that he’d be out of town for the next few weeks. In truth, he expected the job to last only a few days, but Ben had convinced him to take a week at East Haven Resort, on him.
Who would pass up a week’s stay at one of the best resorts along the East Coast?
For now, he would be staying at Ben’s mother-in-law’s house, helping her figure out where some of her business money had disappeared to.