Winter Wishes

by Fern Michaels

  The twinkling lights on her house were an ever-present reminder of the man who helped her through her first Christmas without her father. But now all the festive decorations seemed to be mocking her. Would her neighbors think she was nuts if she opted to start taking things down?

  Perhaps she could start inside tonight and work on the outside tomorrow. She needed to do something to work off her frustrations, and if she kept eating cookie dough, this dress would have to be donated.

  Ruby let herself inside the back door and dropped her purse and keys on the small breakfast table. She reached back and started pulling the bobby pins from her hair, setting them on the table as well. She’d just started raking her fingers through her strands to let her hair down when her doorbell rang.

  Please, please, don’t let this be carolers. She was so not in the mood to hear “Jingle Bells” or any other cheery song.

  The sun had set and it was nearing seven. She’d gone to the early service at the church, but still, who just dropped by on Christmas Eve?

  When she glanced out her front window and spotted a familiar truck in her drive, her heart kicked up. What was he doing here? She hadn’t seen him in days, though he’d sent a few messages just to say hi or ask how her day was. He’d kept the line of communication open, but not nearly like it had been.

  She shook the rest of her hair out, realizing it probably looked like a knotted mess, and headed to the door. With a shaky hand, she smoothed down her dress and pulled in a deep breath.

  Ruby flicked the dead bolt and opened the door. The fact that Knox stood at her door was shock enough, but the fact he had a gigantic dog at his side was laughable.

  “Can we come in?” Knox asked.

  Without a word, Ruby stepped to the side and gestured them in. After closing the door, she turned to face them and got a good look at the dog.

  “Wait,” she said, crossing the room. “Is this . . . ?”

  Knox nodded. “Chance.”

  Her eyes darted from Chance back up to Knox. “You adopted him?”

  When he nodded, tears pricked her eyes. Chance leaped up and mauled her shoulders with those massive paws just as he’d done in the park when they were out for a walk.

  “We’re going to look into obedience school.” Knox laughed as he eased Chance off her.

  “I can’t believe you got him,” she cried as she followed the dog down and buried her face in his fur.

  When she glanced up at Knox, he was looking down at her with uncertainty in his eyes. She had no clue what this meant, but he’d come to her house for a reason.

  “Did you come here just to show me Chance?” she asked as she stood straight up.

  “He’s part of the reason.”

  Hope started to slither through her, but she tried to ignore it. He could be here to say good-bye, so she’d better not start rejoicing just yet.

  “Come on in,” she told him.

  Ruby led him into the living room and Chance immediately jumped up onto her sofa and lay down like he’d been here for years. She couldn’t help but laugh at the oversized dog on her delicate yellow couch.

  “Do you want him down?” Knox asked.

  “Leave him be,” she demanded. “I’m glad he’s not walking around peeing and marking his territory.”

  “Why don’t you have a seat,” he suggested, pointing to the only other chair in the living room.

  “I’m fine.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I can stand.”

  Knox shrugged and remained too far away, but those eyes held hers from across the room. “You may want to be sitting when I tell you that I think I’m in love with you.”

  Ruby felt for the edge of the chair behind her and slowly sank into it. Immediately Chance hopped off the sofa and came to sit at her feet, putting one large paw on her lap. Still staring at Knox after that verbal bomb he’d just dropped, she rubbed on Chance’s ear.

  “You . . . you love me?”

  Now he crossed the room and squatted down before her. “Someone once told me that you don’t always get a second chance.”

  Ruby smiled. “Sounds like a smart woman.”

  “She’s the best.”

  Knox rested his hand on her knee. Chance shifted and gave Knox a lick to the side of the face.

  “Come on, man, cool it or we’re both going to lose her.”

  The room seemed to be spinning as his words sank in. He loved her. He didn’t want to lose her and he’d adopted Chance.

  “Knox?”

  He glanced back to her, a smile on his face. “Can we forget the past several days where I was a fool and too scared to realize how precious you are in my life?”

  Oh, that did it. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Knox reached up and swiped the moisture away.

  “Why now?” she asked. “What made you realize that you . . . that you . . .”

  “That I love you?” he finished. “Because my cockpit was empty. Because I want a dog and Chance is perfect for both of us. Because when I decorated your house I instantly saw me here next year doing the same thing. And then when you told Jax we were friends I was furious with myself because we were clearly so much more. It just took my stubborn mind a while to catch up to my heart.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” she whispered.

  Knox smoothed her hair away from her face and stroked his thumb across her cheek. “Say you’re ready to take this leap with me. Say Chance and I are welcome here because we’re a package deal now.”

  The man she’d so quickly fallen for was using a shelter dog to lay his heart on the line and he was literally on his knees.

  “How did this happen?” she asked, leaning her face into his palm. “How did I get so lucky to have you come into my life and see that you deserve more than being alone?”

  “I was content with being alone,” he replied as he wrapped his other arm around Chance and patted his side. “But you proved to me that there’s still so much living left to do, and nobody has made me want to do that more than you. When I saw you with Chance at the park, something stirred inside me. His name seemed to just smack me in the face. Then the flowers you brought and the fact we were set up on a blind date to begin with . . . it all just seemed like signs.”

  “Do you believe in signs?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “Never did until recently, but these are kind of difficult to ignore. I wanted to fight my feelings for you because I didn’t think I could put myself on the line again.”

  “And now?”

  Knox eased forward and slid his lips over hers. “Now I want to take every risk imaginable if it means I can be with you.”

  Chance wedged his way between them and rested his head on her lap. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you trained him to do that,” Ruby said.

  “If I’d had the time, maybe I would have,” he replied with a chuckle. “But I literally just got him this afternoon and ran to the store to get everything he’d need.”

  Ruby leaned over Chance and nipped at Knox’s lips. “And I suppose you think you two are going to stay here?”

  Knox shrugged. “You surely won’t turn us away on Christmas Eve.”

  “I think I can make room for you both.”

  The corners of his mouth tipped up into a grin, flashing those dimples once again. “That’s going to work out well since I brought a bag for me and all of his stuff is in the truck as well.”

  Ruby couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her as relief and anticipation flooded her. “I didn’t think you’d love anyone the way you did Lydia.”

  Those bright eyes held hers as he continued to palm the side of her face. “Lydia was a special woman. So are you. I never thought I’d find anyone who made me feel this way again. I never thought someone could come into my life and the thought of them leaving made me feel empty inside.”

  He said all the right words. Every single one of them from his heart and directly into hers.

  “I knew you were torn,” she explained as she stroked Chan
ce’s head. “I didn’t want to confuse you more, but I fell for you. I think I fell for you when you steamrolled my decorating and took over. You were so determined to show me there’s nothing to be afraid of when the holidays approach and you’re alone. I needed you more than I thought and . . . I fell in love with you.”

  “Finally,” he declared on an exhale. “I was hoping I wasn’t laying my heart on the line for nothing.”

  There was such a renewed hope curling through her, Ruby wasn’t sure what to do with all of her emotions. She’d wanted someone to come into her life, had wondered if anyone existed who was actually for her. And he was here. Knox was the man she’d been waiting for, and after all this time, their lives had circled back around to join once again.

  “What about Atlanta?” she asked.

  Knox lifted a shoulder. “I’ll call them after the holidays and tell them thanks but no thanks. I have a better offer here.”

  “Another job?”

  “I don’t need a job,” he retorted, his brows raised. “I have you.”

  Ruby rolled her eyes. “Please tell me you’re going to find a job here.”

  “I’m not sure. I was thinking we could eat frozen pizzas, and then when we go out I could just borrow a credit card.”

  She swatted his chest. “Not funny.”

  Knox came to his feet and pulled her up with him. Chance thought that was his cue to hop up as well. The crazy dog literally planted a giant paw on each of their shoulders.

  “I’ll take care of you,” Knox vowed. “I’ll get a job in Haven and we’ll make this work because I’m just crazy enough to believe it will.”

  Ruby smiled. “So, are we a family of three now?”

  Knox glanced to Chance, then back to her. “For now. What do you say about children?”

  Her heart couldn’t swell any more. “I’d say this is the greatest Christmas present I’ve ever had.”

  Knox snaked an arm around her waist and tipped her back as he closed his lips over hers. Ruby wrapped an arm around his neck to hold on.

  Chance’s paws proved to be too much and he got overly excited and knocked them into the chair. Knox landed on Ruby and laughed.

  “Obedience school is a must because he cannot interrupt my alone time,” Knox declared.

  “What are we going to do about tonight?” she asked, looking up at him.

  Desire flooded his eyes as he stared down at her. “I promised to take care of you, didn’t I?”

  Oh, that question held so much promise. Ruby knew he was going to love her, care for her, and be with her forever. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind.

  Knox hadn’t believed in second chances, but she’d known all along that they could be something special together. And to think she’d been worried about that blind date setup. But Knox had been right when he’d told her this would be a Christmas to remember.

  Dear Reader,

  Merry Christmas! There’s something so magical about this time of year, which is why I’m thrilled to be able to bring you Second Chance Christmas. This romance is loosely based on my parents’ meet and happily ever after.

  I so hope you’ve enjoyed your quick visit to Haven, Georgia. This quaint, fictitious town was first introduced in the Monroe Trilogy (Wrapped in You, Caught Up in You, and Lost in You), featuring three gruff yet loyal brothers who came together to honor their late sister.

  Haven will once again be the setting in my upcoming series featuring the small-town airport and the single-father pilot who now runs the place . . . until the late owner’s daughter shows up to claim what’s hers. Look for it in April 2018!

  Thank you for visiting Haven with me. I wish you all a fabulous Christmas and the happiest of holidays!

  Jules

  Finding Colin

  LEAH MARIE BROWN

  Dedicated to Bryan Murphy for giving me the inside scoop on what it was like to be an extra on a movie set.

  And, to my Irish grandfather, Lawrence A. Cumiskey, for teaching me the beauty of self-depreciating humor and the pleasure in telling grand stories.

  And for ruffling my hair and saying nonsensical things like “Rubber baby buggy bumpers.”

  Chapter One

  HORRIBLE BOSSES

  Movie > A Year Without Summer

  By: AngelsFall86

  A mysterious horse and rider appear one night and transport a young woman to a world of dark desires. Rated: Fiction M

  Words: 925

  Reviews: 23

  He came to her on a winter’s night, when the moonlight spilled like quicksilver upon the frozen gardens and the world beyond her father’s walls rested snuggly beneath a new blanket of downy snow. She felt his presence, knew he would be waiting for her even before she wiped away the lacy sheet of ice covering her windowpane. He sat atop a magnificent white stallion, his thick black hair hanging rakishly over one eye, his strong hands clutching the magical beast’s reins. She moved through the dark house as if in a dream, oblivious to the cold, heedless of the dangerous world that might be waiting for her just beyond. She stepped into the garden, her bare feet moving over the gravel path, until the distance and space between them could be filled only with a breath and an unspoken desire.

  “Why have you come?” she whispered. “Are you a burglar? Do you mean to steal something?”

  “Aye,” he said, his Irish brogue thick, his brown eyes sparkling dangerously. “I mean to steal you.”

  “Me?”

  He nodded. “I mean to steal your . . .”

  “Grace!”

  OMG! This is not happening! Please tell me this is not happening.

  I look over my shoulder and realize it is, in fact, happening. Roberta is standing behind me, her flinty gaze focused on the blinking cursor on my computer screen. The only thing worse than getting caught writing fan fic is getting caught writing fan fic by your boss.

  She narrows her gaze.

  “Is that the Dark Desires copy?”

  Wild heat spreads up my chest, neck, cheeks, to the tips of my ears. I put my computer in sleep mode and swivel my chair around, fixing a falsely bright smile on my face.

  “Yeah.” I reach for a stack of papers and pretend to organize them so I don’t have to look into her eyes. “I wanted to read it over one more time before sending it to the Art Department for a galley proof. It’s great. Désir is going to love it.”

  I work at one of the largest full-service advertising agencies in the world, and Désir, a Belgian chocolate company on the verge of breaking in to the North American market with a new line of artisan chocolates called Dark Desires, is one of our biggest accounts.

  Our team has been working overtime since Labor Day to come up with a killer multipronged strategy targeting social media, broadcast outlets, and print media. Roberta has been pinging big-time, stressing over every little detail. Even under the best of circumstances—when all of the planets align, her espresso machine keeps pumping out the dark caffeinated liquid that is her lifeblood, the copy reads clean, new accounts roll in, and the minions that work in the mail room sacrifice lambs to assuage the Beast—Roberta is a horrible boss, a brutal, brutal beast of a boss.

  She snatches the stack of papers from my hand.

  “‘Désir is going to love it,’” she mimics, batting her eyelashes and raising her voice several octaves. “I’m sorry, but did the Wharton School offer a class in fortune-telling for their MBA students? No? Then please spare me your peppy prognostications, Pollyanna.”

  “Of course.” I swallow the bitter lump of indignation in my throat and remind myself that landing a job at Oglethorpe & Larkin right out of grad school is every would-be marketer’s dream. “I am sorry, Roberta.”

  “Remember what I told you,” she says, crossing her arms and tapping her stiletto-heeled foot on the polished concrete floor. “Winners are motivated by doubt; losers by confidence. Are you a loser?”

  “No,” I say, looking her in the eye.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”r />
  She stares at me through her narrowed, emotionless eyes for several agonizing seconds before emitting a doubtful “Hmm,” and stalking back into her office.

  Nike has Just Do It. McDonald’s has I’m Lovin’ It. L’Oréal has Because You’re Worth It. If Roberta Pellett, executive creative director for Oglethorpe & Larkin Philadelphia, had a slogan, it would be Hmm. The one memorable sound that succinctly expresses the essence of Roberta. Doubt. Condescension. Suspicion. Ridicule. It’s all there in that one little close-lipped expression.

  The intercom buzzes. I snatch the handle off the cradle and hold it to my ear.

  “I am out of coffee.” Roberta’s cool, clipped tone fills my ear. “Handle it.”

  “Of course. I will bring you another cup immediately.”

  “No,” she sighs heavily. “I am out of coffee beans.”

  “But . . .” I am certain I filled Roberta’s airtight, stainless steel coffee cask with beans three days ago.

  “But . . . but,” she stammers. “What comes after the ‘but’ is irrelevant. Handle it.”

  She disconnects with a deceptively soft click.

  My name is Grace Elizabeth Murphy. I won a full-ride swimming scholarship to the University of California, Davis, graduated at the top of my class, attended the prestigious Wharton School of Business, landed a job at one of the largest advertising firms in the country before finishing grad school, and . . . I fetch coffee. This is my life. I am probably the only barista in the world who has $62,000 in school loans and an expense account.

  I kick my heels off under my desk and shove my feet into my fur-lined boots, grab my coat, wind my scarf around my neck three times, slide my iPhone and company credit card in my pocket, and brace myself to head out into the harsh, bitter world that is Philadelphia in December.

  I am a Southern California girl by birth and at heart, which means I am genetically wired to hate precipitation, especially the frozen kind.