The Christmas Wish, page 1
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Books. Change. Lives.
Copyright © 2021 by Sharon Sala
Cover and internal design © 2021 by Sourcebooks
Cover art by Aleta Rafton/Lott Reps
Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks is not associated with any product or vendor in this book.
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
(630) 961-3900
sourcebooks.com
Contents
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
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
Epilogue
Excerpt from Somebody to Love
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Back Cover
Prologue
From the day Wade Montgomery bought the house Bridgette Knox grew up in, he had dreams of one day bringing her back to it as his wife. But over time, it was beginning to dawn on him that her dreams and his dreams did not coincide.
Wade had never considered himself a player, but he’d never thought of himself as a loser, either. And yet in the past six months, Bridgette had laid waste to his ego, his hopes of ever having a relationship with her, and his decision to come back to Blessings. If he had not promised his uncle Dub to manage Truesdale’s Feed and Seed store, he might have already thrown up his hands and called it quits.
***
On this morning, he’d just finished shaving and paused to look at himself in the mirror. His aunt Nola called him a dark-haired version of Thor. He knew she was referring to some Australian actor named Hemsworth, but Wade didn’t see it. He just saw himself. A guy with blue eyes and a dimple in one cheek. Still, he wondered what it was about him that turned Bridgette Knox into an ice princess. He’d gotten the cold shoulder from her so many times he was beginning to get a complex. He just considered himself a normal single guy in a small southern town, trying to get the attention of the only girl he cared about, and he wasn’t so sure she would throw water on him if he was on fire.
Bridgette—sweet Bridgette—had become his waterloo. She had an excuse every time he asked her out, so he quit asking.
He was trying to come to terms with the fact that maybe it was because he just wasn’t her type. She was the biggest failure of his adult life, and it was killing him.
He left home in a mood, and it stayed with him all the way to the feed store. When he saw her car parked in her usual place, his gut knotted, but there was still a tiny seed of hope that had yet to die.
Maybe today is the day she sees me.
***
Bridgette Knox, a.k.a. Birdie to the people who knew her longest, had a dilemma.
She had a major crush on her boss, but it was complicated. They’d grown up together, but then he’d moved away when they were still in high school, only to show back up in Blessings six months ago to manage the feed and seed store where she worked.
She’d been the bookkeeper there since graduating from high school. She loved her job, and she would always have a soft spot for Dub Truesdale for hiring a nervous teenager with a head for numbers and a glowing letter of recommendation from her business teacher.
But Dub’s retirement took them all by surprise, and the guy who haunted Bridgette’s dreams, and made her heart flutter just from a simple look, was now her boss.
It made everything weird.
Sometimes she thought Wade felt the same way about her, because he seemed so friendly, and then she’d talk herself out of it because he was friendly to everyone.
So she admired him from afar and kept her feelings locked up tight. The only man she’d been attracted to in years was now the man she answered to at work, and the dilemma remained.
***
Bridgette was feeling sorry for herself this morning as she pulled up into her parking spot at work. Her steps were dragging as she went in the side door and into her office. She stowed her things and went up front to say hello to the crew and see what, if anything, was new on the day’s docket.
It didn’t take long for her to get caught up in the customers coming and going, and fending off the teasing she got from being the only female employee on the place.
She was leaning on the counter, listening to one of the old farmers relating a story about his wife and a mean rooster and, like everyone there, waiting to see how the story ended.
“She didn’t put up with all that spurrin’ and floggin’ long,” the old man said. “She went after him like a heat-seeking missile, wrung his dang neck, and bam! Chicken and dumplings for Sunday dinner.”
Bridgette was still laughing when she saw Wade walk in the store.
***
Wade came in with car keys in one hand and his coffee in the other. The first person he saw was Bridgette. She was standing behind the counter among a half-dozen men, her black wavy hair framing that pretty heart-shaped face, and something inside of him snapped.
“Bridgette, when you are finished with what you’re doing, please come to my office,” he announced, and moved past her with long, steady strides.
She blinked, said her goodbyes to the customer, and headed down the hall, wondering what was wrong.
The door was open.
She walked in.
“Close the door, please,” he said.
Bridgette’s heart skipped a beat as she pushed it shut.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I don’t know!” Wade said. “You tell me!”
She was stunned. Wade was never mad at her.
“I don’t understand what you’re getting at,” she said.
Wade dropped down in the chair behind his desk and then looked up at her.
“Neither do I. You’re friendly and funny and engaging with every person in Blessings except me. Are you mad because I bought the house where you grew up, or do you just dislike me? I really need to know.”
Bridgette was in shock. “Of course I don’t dislike anything about you. I am not mad, and no, I do not hate you. That’s ridiculous.”
Wade shoved his hands through his hair in frustration.
“Then, do you just want me to quit asking you out? To just leave you alone? I need to know so I can turn loose of this dream I had, or find out what the hell is wrong and fix it.”
Birdie was shaking inside. She had to ask, but was afraid to hope.
“What dream?”
Wade stood. This was where it could get messy. “The one where you and I go on dates, and fall in love, and live happy ever after.”
Birdie gasped. “I had no idea… You never said…”
Wade threw up his hands in disbelief. “Bullshit, Bridgette. How many times have you rejected my invitations?”
There was a lump in her throat and a knot in her stomach that kept twisting tighter and tighter.
“I thought that was you just being friendly. I didn’t want to get hurt…and you’re my boss. I never… It didn’t seem right to…”
His voice softened, and then he sighed. “Well, I was being friendly because that’s how relationships start. And Dub is still everyone’s boss here. I’m just the nephew who agreed to be manager. Did working for me put me out of the running? Because if that’s all that’s holding you back, I’ll quit my job.”
Her eyes welled.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to say. No, I don’t want you to quit. Am I fired?”
“Oh, for the love of God! No, you’re not fired. What kind of a monster do you think I am? If you don’t want anything to do with me personally, then I get it. But six months of giving you time to grieve the loss of your mother, and the loss of your family home, is all I’ve got. Your job is fine. I’m fine. You’re fine. I guess all I need to know is…am I wasting my time dreaming about you and me ever having a future together?”
Bridgette’s hands were wadded into fists and clutched against her stomach. She knew her voice was going to shake. This was like something out of a fairy tale where the prince with the glass slipper finally found the princess it fit.
“No, you’re not wasting your time.”
Wade sighed, then ended the distance between them when he hugged her.
“Dammit, Bridgette. I did not mean to make you cry. I adore you. I always have…pretty much since first grade. What do I need to do to make it right with you?”
She looked up. “Kiss me?”
So he did.
***
Two weeks later, they were sitting in Granny’s Country Kitchen, waiting for the waitress to bring them their ticket for the meal they’d just eaten. What had taken six months to begin between them had gone into full bloom in two weeks, and it showed.
People in Blessings were starting to talk about Wade and Birdie—Birdie and Wade, but Peanut and Ruby Butterman were the first to ask, when they stopped at their table to say hello.
“Hey! I’m sure seeing a lot of you two together these days. Is there something going on here that I don’t know about?” Ruby asked.
Wade grinned. “Now, Ruby…you always know what’s going on in Blessings before it happens.”
Ruby shrugged. “It’s not my fault. Sitting in a chair at a hair salon is almost the same as being in a confessional, but you haven’t confessed a thing, and I’m asking… Are you two—”
“Girl, let them be,” Peanut said, and tried to steer Ruby toward the exit.
“Oh, it’s okay,” Bridgette said. “We are doing our best to become ‘something,’ but not before Wade dared me to stop pretending I didn’t know he existed.”
“I was getting desperate,” Wade said.
Peanut glanced at his wife, remembering their own journey and the struggle it took to get where they were today.
“I know the feeling. I’ve been there. And now that Ruby has satisfied her curiosity, we’re getting out of your hair,” Peanut said.
Ruby winked, and then they were gone.
Wade eyed the rosy flush on Bridgette’s cheeks.
“So we’re working on something, are we?”
“That’s how I see it,” Bridgette said.
“Then what else can I do to make that something become our thing?” he asked.
“Make love to me.”
Wade felt like he’d been punched in the gut. He pulled a handful of bills out of his pocket, tossed them down onto the table, and got up.
Bridgette grasped his hand, holding on tight as he pulled her through the dining room and out into the night.
“My place or yours?” he asked, as Bridgette reached for her seatbelt.
“Mine is closer,” she said.
Wade drove out of the parking lot and headed across town. He’d been dreaming of this for so long he had the scenario down pat, and then Bridgette up and knocked him off his feet.
When he pulled up into the parking lot at the Cherrystone Apartments, he was seriously glad hers was on the first floor, because his legs were shaking too much to climb stairs.
She got out of the car holding the key and, with his hand on her back, unlocked the door into the foyer.
A long hallway ran the lower length of the building, and a set of stairs beside it led to the second floor. Her apartment was the last one on the left at the end of the hall.
Wade glanced down at her as they walked, marveling at the calm on her face. He felt like a lit fuse.
Once inside her place, they abandoned their coats on the sofa and moved toward her bedroom. It was the calmest approach to coming undone that Wade had ever experienced, and it felt right.
But once inside, the bed might as well have had flashing red lights, because it was the only thing he saw—until Bridgette began taking off her clothes, and then all he could see was the beautiful woman who’d stolen his heart.
He stripped as she turned back the bed, and then they were lying on their sides, face-to-face. He slid his hand over her belly, up across the mounds of her breasts to the curve of her cheek, then leaned over and kissed her.
“I don’t have words for how much I love you,” he said.
Bridgette sighed. “Then show me. I ache from the want of you. Make love to me, Wade.”
And so he did, tracing the shape of her with his hands, and then his lips, finding the places on her body that made her breath catch and feeling the rapid rising of her pulse beneath his fingertips. And then, with all the grace and restraint he could muster, sliding inside her as she wrapped her legs around his waist—keeping time with the rise and fall of her body as she met him thrust for thrust, until all of their restraint was gone.
Wade went deeper, faster, winding her up so tight she finally broke, leaving him one step behind as he shattered within her embrace.
The next level of “them” had just happened, and it was perfect.
Chapter 1
Six months later
Jacksonville, Florida
Sixteen-year-old Duff Martin was missing, and his older brother, Allen, and his mother, Candi, were in a panic. His bed hadn’t been slept in, Allen’s car was gone, and it appeared some of Duff’s clothes might be missing.
Candi was hysterical.
“Oh my God! What happened? Is this because of last night? We have to call the police!”
“And tell them what, Mom? He took my car and ran away? So do you want him reported as a car thief? Dad’s already in prison. We don’t need to send Duff down that road, too,” Allen said.
Candi sat down on Duff’s bed, her shoulders slumped, tears running down her face.
“It’s all my fault. Last night, when we began talking about your daddy going to prison, Duff freaked out. I still don’t know what I said that set him off.”
“He was just six when Dad was sentenced. How much of all that did you ever tell him?” Allen asked.
Candi shrugged and wiped her face. “At the time? Not much. He was too little to understand. And then over the years, he never asked for details. He just knew it was for theft.”
Allen sat down beside her and gave her a quick hug. “What exactly were you saying right before he blew up? Do you remember?”
Candi sighed. “Lord…I don’t know. I mentioned seeing Selma Garrett’s obituary, and he asked who she was, and I think I said…she was the woman who accused Zack of stealing her jewelry. And then Duff got this funny look on his face and asked, ‘What jewelry?’”
“Oh yeah,” Allen said. “And I added they were family heirlooms, valued at over a quarter of a million dollars, that went missing while Dad was painting at her house.”
Candi nodded. “Something about that set Duff off. When he jumped up from the table all pale and shaking, then started hitting himself on the head and crying, I knew something was wrong. I should have talked to him last night, but he wouldn’t let me in. And now this!”
“But why would that have upset him? After all this time? And what about all that would have made him run away?” Allen asked.
“I don’t know, but he’s gone, and I’m scared of what might happen to him,” Candi said.
“Does he have access to money?”
Candi gasped. “His college fund!”
“Quick, Mom…check his bank account,” Allen said.
Candi pulled up their joint account, checked it, and groaned.
“There’s a thousand dollars missing.”
Allen nodded. “Okay, then he’s not about to go robbing some Quick Stop for money. Call him to see if he answers.”
“Yes, yes,” Candi said, and quickly sent Duff a text.
Allen gave her a hug. “Okay. We’ve reached out. Now we need to wait and see if he responds. The bottom line here is that he’s sixteen, so he’s a minor. He wasn’t abducted, so the cops will call him a runaway. And the only way the police will get involved is if we press charges for him taking the car, and I’m not going to do that. Something is going on with Duff. He’s a good kid, and I’m not going to fly off the handle here and make a bad thing worse.”
