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Coming Home For Christmas
RaeAnne Thayne
Can Christmas heal the past and present a new beginning? Elizabeth Hamilton has been lost. Trapped in a tangle of postpartum depression and grief after the death of her beloved parents, she couldn’t quite see the way back to her husband, Luke and their two beautiful children…until a car accident stole away her memories and changed her life. But now, seven years later, Luke finds her in a nearby town and brings Elizabeth back home to the family she loves, just in time for Christmas. Being reunited with Luke and her children is better than anything Elizabeth could have imagined. As they all prepare for Christmas, Elizabeth and Luke are drawn ever closer. Can the hurt of the past seven years be healed over the course of one Christmas and bring the Hamiltons the gift of a new beginning? • • • Readers love Coming Home for Christmas love forgiveness and second chances. True Christmas Spirit Compelling, emotional, and sure to touch your heart, Coming Home for Christmas is a must-read this Christmas I don't think I've ever read anything quite like this. Unputdownable!!
Hearts are lighter and wishes burn a little brighter at Christmas...
Elizabeth Hamilton has been lost. Trapped in a tangle of postpartum depression and grief after the death of her beloved parents, she couldn’t quite see the way back to her husband and their two beautiful kids...until a car accident stole away her memories and changed her life. And when she finally remembered the sound of little Cassie’s laugh, the baby powder smell of Bridger and the feel of her husband’s hand in hers, Elizabeth worried that they’d moved on without her. That she’d missed too much. That perhaps she wasn’t the right mother for her kids or wife for Luke, no matter how much she loved them.
But now, seven years later, Luke finds her in a nearby town and brings Elizabeth back home to the family she loves, just in time for Christmas. And being reunited with Luke and her children is better than anything Elizabeth could have imagined. As they all trim the tree and bake cookies, making new holiday memories, Elizabeth and Luke are drawn ever closer. Can the hurt of the past seven years be healed over the course of one Christmas season and bring the Hamiltons the gift of a new beginning?
Also available from RaeAnne Thayne (#u6f2a8054-74a2-5c8b-854c-89d0406f3f48)
Snow Angel Cove
Redemption Bay
Coming Home for Christmas
RaeAnne Thayne
Copyright (#u6f2a8054-74a2-5c8b-854c-89d0406f3f48)
An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2019
Copyright © RaeAnne Thayne 2019
RaeAnne Thayne asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Ebook Edition © August 2019 ISBN: 9781474099004
Note to Readers (#ulink_80e12f4e-314c-5593-b97a-c43c4ad79712)
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Praise for New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne
“[Thayne] is a rising star in the romance world. Her books are wonderfully romantic, feel-good reads that end with me sighing over the last pages.”
—#1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber
“Entertaining, heart-wrenching, and totally involving, this multithreaded story overflows with characters readers will adore.”
—Library Journal on Evergreen Springs
“RaeAnne Thayne is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.... Once you start reading, you aren’t going to be able to stop.”
—Fresh Fiction
“Thayne’s realistic characterization grounds the hope of falling in love with the trials and tribulations that so often come with it.”
—BookPage on Serenity Harbor
“RaeAnne has a knack for capturing those emotions that come from the heart.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Her engaging storytelling...will draw readers in from the very first page.”
—RT Book Reviews on Riverbend Road
“Tiny Haven Point springs to vivid life in Thayne’s capable hands as she spins another sweet, heartfelt story.”
—Library Journal on Redemption Bay
To all the amazing readers who have contacted me asking for
Luke and Elizabeth’s story.
Also, to all who have suffered traumatic brain injuries and the
family members and caregivers who love them.
Contents
Cover (#ud2147330-803a-575f-a3ce-3be7a8268e71)
Back Cover Text (#u6ce516f1-71ef-542e-8b78-707647dc1cea)
Booklist (#u2c226f90-7f6b-55d4-8965-6a5ebd061bc5)
Title Page (#u16f963f0-3faa-5d18-bbf6-b758143e397a)
Copyright (#u11b264f1-182e-5a3a-b384-db7f025c0b17)
Note to Readers (#u7df013d2-52d9-58e3-aab2-b28635475da7)
Praise (#ufc93d3b1-ac02-546e-b292-31146e944f6e)
Dedication (#u24654ab2-1979-59f7-b57a-869a7b5eef1f)
Chapter One (#ud0db42e6-d333-509f-a896-6ef4721d4a44)
Chapter Two (#u17202691-6d82-5bfa-b378-a961baed4832)
Chapter Three (#u7db310ef-06ea-53bc-b893-e402024352f4)
Chapter Four (#uadbd2cd4-7a79-505f-80cf-a6ed0a69ae0a)
Chapter Five (#u98836825-851e-51a7-a097-82eda32796ea)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#u6f2a8054-74a2-5c8b-854c-89d0406f3f48)
This was it.
Luke Hamilton waited outside the big, rambling Victorian house in a little coastal town in Oregon, hands shoved into the pockets of his coat against the wet slap of air and nerves churning through him.
Elizabeth was here. After all the years when he had been certain she was dead—that she had wandered into the mountains somewhere that cold day seven years earlier or she had somehow walked into the deep, unforgiving waters of Lake Haven—he was going to see her again.
Though he had been given months to wrap his head around the idea that his wife wasn’t dead, that she was indeed living under another name in this town by the sea, it still didn’t seem real.
How was he supposed to feel in this moment? He had no idea. He only knew he was filled with a crazy mix of anticipation, fear and the low fury that had been simmering inside him for months, since the moment FBI agent Elliot Bailey had produced a piece of paper with a name and an address.
Luke still couldn’t quite believe she was in there, the wife he had not seen in seven years. The wife who had disappeared off the face of the earth, leaving plenty of people to speculate that he had somehow hurt her, even killed her.
For all those days and months and years, he had lived with the ghost of Elizabeth Sinclair and the love they had once shared.
He was never nervous, damn it. So why did his skin itch and his stomach seethe and his hands grip the cold metal of the porch railing as if his suddenly weak knees would give way and make him topple over if he let go?
A moment later, he sensed movement inside the foyer of the house. The woman he had spoken with when he had first pulled up to this address, the woman who had been hanging Christmas lights around the big, charming home and who had looked at him with such suspicion and had not invited him to wait inside, opened the door. One hand was thrust into her coat pocket around a questionable-looking bulge.
She was concealing either a handgun or a Taser or pepper spray. Since he had never met the woman before, Luke couldn’t begin to guess which. Her features had lost none of that alert wariness that told him she would do whatever necessary to protect Elizabeth.
He wanted to tell her he would never hurt his wife, but it was a refrain he had grown tired of repeating. Over the years, he had become inured to people’s opinions on the matter. Let them think what the hell they wanted. He knew the truth.
“Where is she?” he demanded.
There was a long pause, like some tension-filled moment just before the gunfight in Old West movies. He wouldn’t have been surprised if tumbleweeds suddenly blew down the street.
Then, from behind the first woman, another figure stepped out onto the porch, slim and blonde and...shockingly familiar.
He stared, stunned to his bones. It was her. Not Elizabeth. Her. He had seen this woman around his small Idaho town of Haven Point several times over the last few years, fleeting glimpses only out of the corner of his gaze at a baseball game or a school program.
The mystery woman.
He assumed she had been there to watch one of the other children. Maybe an aunt from out of town, someone he didn’t know.
Luke had noticed her...and had hated the tiny little glow of attraction that had sparked to life.
He hadn’t wanted to be aware of any other woman. What was the point? For years, he thought his heart had died when Elizabeth walked away. He figured everything good and right inside him had shriveled up and he had nothing left to give another woman.
