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One Winter's Sunset: The Christmas Baby Surprise / Marry Me under the Mistletoe / Snowflakes and Silver Linings
Rebecca Winters
Cara Colter
Shirley Jump
A second-chance worth fighting for! With an aching heart, Emily Watson knows her marriage to Cole is in trouble. But one last night together is set to change her life and her marriage for ever…When single dad Rick Jenner and his daughter stumble upon Andrea Fleming’s toy shop, he can’t get Andrea's beautiful eyes out of his head. And she is irresistibly drawn to this twosome in need of a little miracle….Casey Caravetta never expected to see Turner Kennedy, the first man to break her heart, at her best friend’s wedding. Back then, they were living on borrowed time, but now they have an another chance…
About the Authors
New York Times bestselling author SHIRLEY JUMP didn’t have the will-power to diet, nor the talent to master under-eye concealer, so she bowed out of a career in television and opted instead for a career where she could be paid to eat at her desk—writing. At first, seeking revenge on her children for their grocery store tantrums, she sold embarrassing essays about them to anthologies. However, it wasn’t enough to feed her growing addiction to writing funny. So she turned to the world of romance novels, where messes are (usually) cleaned up before The End. In the worlds Shirley gets to create and control, the children listen to their parents, the husbands always remember holidays, and the housework is magically done by elves. To learn more, visit her website at www.shirleyjump.com (http://www.shirleyjump.com).
REBECCA WINTERS whose family of four children has now swelled to include five beautiful grandchildren, lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the land of the Rocky Mountains. With canyons and high alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore. They, plus her favourite vacation spots in Europe, often end up as backgrounds for her romance novels, because writing is her passion, along with her family and church.
CARA COLTER lives in British Columbia with her partner, Rob, and eleven horses. She has three grown children and a grandson. She is a recent recipient of an RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award in the ‘Love and Laughter’ category. Cara loves to hear from readers, and you can contact her or learn more about her through her website: www.cara-colter.com (http://www.cara-colter.com).
One Winter’s Sunset
The Christmas Baby Surprise
Shirley Jump
Marry Me under the Mistletoe
Rebecca Winters
Snowflakes and Silver Linings
Cara Colter
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-08533-5
ONE WINTER’S SUNSET
The Christmas Baby Surprise © 2013 Shirley Kawa-Jump, LLC Marry Me under the Mistletoe © 2013 Rebecca Winters Snowflakes and Silver Linings © 2013 Cara Colter
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, 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 publisher.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Table of Contents
Cover (#u5f080c1b-e599-57b9-adb1-162aed23cb34)
About the Authors (#ulink_42c6c85c-cae6-57fb-840e-f60e01177b7b)
Title Page (#uc7f161f8-be5a-5254-850a-85ed54343c25)
Copyright (#u99a11c2b-9787-5107-9056-30c836939c46)
The Christmas Baby Surprise (#ulink_25989af6-afae-574f-b277-4345208495e5)
Dedication (#u0ed852bc-68c9-5d1c-9b9f-0e013180a00b)
CHAPTER ONE (#ua93acf04-5f49-5cdc-a01a-85258815c068)
CHAPTER TWO (#u2fed13fe-0250-5958-b10f-7f425a44e782)
CHAPTER THREE (#ud9d5fd21-3efd-5c4a-86fc-ccdfad4b4e47)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u2cc3a5e9-cead-5d56-a10b-8d30ae2aa459)
CHAPTER FIVE (#ua24ba7ca-e27d-5ecf-be09-8b4768639a3a)
CHAPTER SIX (#u96ab0562-26b7-5369-acf1-088941e29ea9)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#u63af3f8f-2140-5530-a594-9b978423d6d5)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#ud820df90-f73d-5db2-9e65-e7bd9862b26c)
CHAPTER NINE (#ucd335a65-2d51-562a-9766-919b52f80575)
CHAPTER TEN (#u7d3ea2f7-68af-571d-84c0-e1f250c1abd0)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
Marry Me under the Mistletoe (#litres_trial_promo)
Dedication (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWO (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
Snowflakes and Silver Linings (#litres_trial_promo)
Dedication (#litres_trial_promo)
PROLOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWO (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
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)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
The Christmas Baby Surprise (#ulink_243f1366-b2a6-51c3-aa45-0c3059e708f0)
Shirley Jump
The secret to mend their marriage
With an aching heart, Emily Watson knows her marriage is in trouble. She wants it to work more than anything in the world, so walking away from Cole is the hardest thing she’ll ever do. But one last night together is set to change her life and her marriage forever.…
Needing time to think, Emily returns to the one place that always feels like home: the Gingerbread Inn. It is the perfect setting to work out what to do with her little secret.
And when Cole finds her, and her growing bump, he realizes that this Christmas, some things are worth fighting for.…
To my husband, who makes everything better
with his smile.
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_43e1c736-9b7e-50e2-a005-eb99c7062e07)
WHEN EMILY WATSON ran away from her life, she did it in style. A pair of dark brown skinny jeans, four-inch heels, a shimmery cream shell, all topped with an oversize green cardigan belted at the waist. The clothes were designer, the shoes custom-made, but Emily didn’t care. The labels had never mattered to her, and a part of her missed the days when she bought jeans at the Goodwill and topped them with a ratty T that had been washed until the cotton became soft as silk.
She threw a couple suitcases into the trunk of the Volvo she’d bought, even though Cole had hated the big boxy car, then drove away from the house that no longer felt like home. Four hours later, she wound through the hilly roads of Brownsville, Massachusetts, then past glimmering Barrow Lake, until the big leafy trees parted, exposing the long gravel road that led up to the Gingerbread Inn. A small hand-painted sign with a wooden arrow pointing up the hill announced the inn, the familiar marker faded by time.
She rolled down the window and took in a deep breath of fresh, sweet fall air, along with the sense of being home. At peace. Finally.
The tires of Emily’s Volvo crunched over the gravel, sending pebbles scattering to the side. Anticipation filled her as she made her way up the road. Finally, she was back here. In the one place where life made sense, the one place where she had found peace, and most of all, the one place where she hoped to find herself again.
She put a hand over her belly. Too soon to feel anything more than an almost-imperceptible curve beneath her pants but Emily had taken to talking to Sweet Pea, as she’d dubbed the baby inside her. “Almost there, Sweet Pea.”
And there, Emily vowed, she would start a new life. She’d left almost all remnants of her old life behind, to come here and get some time to think, plan, strategize her next move. Because no matter what, Emily Watson refused to return to the status quo. Or return to Cole, the man she had once loved. The man she had married—and now was ready to divorce.
Once upon a time was a long, long time ago. The years spent in a lonely, unfulfilling marriage had taught Emily that fairy tales should be reserved for the foolish.
The two-story Georgian-style inn came into view. Shaded at first by the late-fall sun above, it looked sad, lonely, dark. As she drew closer, Emily slowed the car. The anticipation built, then as her eyes adjusted and she saw the full view of the inn, her anticipation imploded into disappointment. What had happened?
The once white gingerbread trim had faded to a dingy gray. Paint peeled off the wooden clapboards, and the wraparound front porch sagged in the center, as if the inn was frowning. Weeds sprang up among the stones of the walkway, and the landscaping that had once been so beautiful it had been featured in a local gardening magazine had become overgrown and tired.
But that wasn’t what hit Emily the hardest. It was the red-and-white For Sale sign tacked to the building, hanging a little askew, as if even the Realtor had lost hope.
She parked, got out, but didn’t take a step. What was she supposed to do now? She’d counted on staying at the Gingerbread Inn, not just for an escape, but as a way to find closure and connection. A long time ago, she had formed her best memories here, with Andrea and Casey and Melissa—
Oh, Melissa.
