Winter Wishes Read online

  Books by Fern Michaels

  Stand-Alones

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  Fancy Dancer

  No Safe Secret

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  When the Snow Falls

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  A Winter Wonderland

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  Making Spirits Bright

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  Books by Susan Fox

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  “Caribou Crossing”

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  Faking It

  Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation

  Winter Wishes

  FERN MICHAELS

  SUSAN FOX

  JULES BENNETT

  LEAH MARIE BROWN

  ZEBRA BOOKS

  KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

  http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  ZEBRA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2017 by Kensington Publishing Corporation

  Christmas Kisses copyright © 2017 by Fern Michaels

  Blue Moon Harbor Christmas copyright © 2017 by Susan Fox

  Second Chance Christmas copyright © 2017 by Jules Bennett

  Finding Colin copyright © 2017 by Leah Marie Brown

  Fern Michaels is a registered trademark of KAP 5, Inc.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  Zebra and the Z logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-1-4201-3572-5

  eISBN-13: 978-1-4201-3573-2

  eISBN-10: 1-4201-3573-2

  Table of Contents

  Books by Fern Michaels

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Christmas Kisses

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Blue Moon Harbor Christmas

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Second Chance Christmas

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three
/>   Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Finding Colin

  Chapter One - HORRIBLE BOSSES

  Chapter Two - ELEVEN LUNATICS

  Chapter Three - ONDINE

  Chapter Four - SAVING MR. BANKS

  Chapter Five - TRIAGE

  Chapter Six - A WINTER STORY

  Chapter Seven - CRAZY HEART

  Chapter Eight - DAREDEVIL

  Chapter Nine - ORDINARY DECENT CRIMINAL

  Chapter Ten - A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  NEED TO KNOW by Fern Michaels

  FLY AWAY WITH ME by Susan Fox

  LOST IN YOU by Jules Bennett

  OWNING IT by Leah Marie Brown

  Christmas Kisses

  FERN MICHAELS

  Chapter One

  Meredith Clark yawned and squirmed in the driver’s seat when she saw the sign for Nashville. Not Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville, Kansas. Not for the first time did she second-guess her method of deciding where she’d go once she left Las Vegas. Taping a map of the United States to her bedroom wall, closing her eyes, spinning around a couple of times, then walking toward the map with her index finger pointing was, perhaps, not one of the best ideas she had ever had.

  But, she reminded herself, it didn’t matter where she went. Nashville, Kansas, was as good as anywhere. If she didn’t like it, she could leave. But she’d promised herself she would give it a try.

  She had spent more than ten years literally dancing to everyone else’s tune. She had saved her money because dancing, especially in the glitzy, theatrical productions Vegas was known for, was a precarious business at best. And job security was laughable. One injury—and she’d had a few over the years—meant she couldn’t work, and there was always another dancer eager to take her place in the line.

  But this past year had made up her mind. After yet another ligament tear, followed soon after by the collision with a drunk driver, which had messed up her knee even further, she had had it. Not to mention there’d been hints that, at barely past thirty, she was getting a little too old to be a producer’s top casting pick.

  The signs were all there. It was time to move on. So she’d collected the substantial monetary settlement from the other driver’s insurance company, waited until she’d healed as much as the orthopedist decided she was going to, packed up her recent college diploma with a major in English, pointed at the map, and said, “Bye-bye, Vegas. Nashville, here I come.”

  She didn’t have much to show for the years she’d spent in Vegas, and nothing to hold her there. She wouldn’t miss the condo she shared with two other dancers. Or the kind of guys who seemed destined to do nothing but profess to love her, then leave. The glitz, the glamour, the sequins, the elaborate costumes? The celebrities, the casinos, the bright lights? None of it held the appeal it had once had for her.

  Meredith signaled for the exit ramp to Nashville and thought, Small-town middle America, here I come.

  Chapter Two

  Meredith’s car’s GPS guided her to the house she’d found for sale by owner on Craigslist. She pulled into the driveway and parked behind a navy blue SUV. The house was exactly as pictured in the ad. The SUV must belong to the owner, she figured, who had agreed to meet her here. She’d texted him at her last stop for gas.

  The SUV was unoccupied, so she opened her car door, phone in hand, ready to text him again and let him know she was here. But she didn’t have to because just then she spied him loping around the corner of the single-car garage.

  She’d never spoken to him, but somehow she’d created a mental image of him from their brief e-mails and texts. She had pictured a checked flannel shirt and overalls. Perhaps a pair of baggy jeans that showed a little too much skin when he bent over. He’d told her he had renovated the house himself, so she’d thought he’d look a little more like the construction worker of her imagination.

  You read too much, she admonished herself. She had a bad habit of conjuring up ideas about people with very little information to go on. She did it with customer service representatives she dealt with only on the phone. Or pitchmen in radio ads. She would create a whole scenario about them just from listening to their voice. She’d done the same thing with this guy based on his e-mails and texts. And her imagination couldn’t have been more wrong.

  The jeans, though, she got right. But they fit him. He looked comfortable in them. Maybe they were his favorite pair. The flannel shirt she got right, too, but it was a solid gray, and underneath, he wore a black thermal shirt against the chill in the November air.

  “Meredith?” he said as he approached, his hand outstretched. “Meredith Clark? Hi. I’m Noah.”

  She took his hand, and hers got lost in the warmth of his. She smiled automatically because that’s what she normally did at an introduction. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said, because, once again, her internal autopilot saved her.

  He released her hand. “Ready for the tour?”

  She liked his smile. She liked everything about him so far, she decided as she followed him to the front steps. The fact that she liked him probably meant that he was married. Or at least spoken for. She had a bit of a history of being attracted to men who were, for one reason or another, unavailable.

  Noah pushed the interior door open and held the storm door so she could walk in ahead of him. He stopped behind her because she hadn’t given him much room. She thought she could feel his body sending heat in her direction. But that was surely only because of the temperature of the empty room.

  She tugged her jacket more tightly around her and rubbed her upper arms as she moved farther into the living room. “There’s a fireplace!” she exclaimed. She crossed the wood floor to examine it.

  “It’s not very big,” Noah said. “And it’s gas. But it will put out a bit of heat when it’s on.”

  “Nice proportions,” she said as she crossed the room and turned to face him. Already, she was envisioning a sectional sofa, a coffee table, end tables, and lamps.

  “Kitchen’s through there,” Noah said, indicating an arched doorway.

  “Oh, this is gorgeous.” Meredith ran her hand along the countertops, noting the new gas range and the stainless-steel farmhouse sink.

  “Concrete countertop,” Noah said. “The cabinets are oak.”

  “Room for a table and chairs,” she noted.

  A big window looked out over the backyard. There was an ancient swing set that looked sturdy despite its age. The lot backed up onto a wooded area.

  “I have to see this back porch.” She fiddled with the door, figured out how to unlock it, and stepped outside. Noah followed, taking a seat on the low wall that surrounded the porch.

  Again she envisioned how she could make this place her own. Resin furniture, comfy cushions, maybe a swing or a glider. Hanging plants, trailing vines, and flowers in the summer. That is, if she could find some that would survive her brown thumb.

  “The land behind the yard is part of the county’s conservation plan. Nothing will be built there.”

  “I do like my privacy,” she joked. His eyes were dark blue, she noted, and she got the feeling they didn’t miss a trick. She liked his quiet presence. He wasn’t trying to hurry her along. In fact, he acted like he had nothing better to do than be here with her.

  They went back inside. “This used to be the dining room,” Noah informed her. “But you can use it however you want.”

  Design ideas began clicking through Meredith’s mind again.

  Down the hall were two bedrooms with a decent-sized bathroom between them. Next to the bathroom was space for a stackable washer and dryer. That would certainly be convenient. One of the rooms, meant to be the master, she supposed, had a big, custom-designed closet with lots of storage. The window looked out over the front lawn.

  “That’s an oak tree,” Noah said, looking over her shoulder at the bare tree with giant, naked branches. “I
t’ll give you a lot of shade in the summer.”

  “And a lot of leaves on the ground in the fall.”

  “But raking them is good exercise.”

  She looked at him, wondering if she ought to be offended. “What are you implying?”

  “I’m not implying anything,” Noah said evenly, refusing to take the bait she had offered. “You look like you’re in pretty good shape, so you probably work out regularly. I was merely pointing out that raking leaves is good exercise, a benefit, if you will, of having that oak tree in your front yard.”

  “It’s not my front yard.”

  “Well, not yet.” Noah grinned at her. “Come on, admit it. This house is perfect for you.”

  “What I’ll admit is that you seem desperate to sell it.”

  They meandered back to the living room, where he turned to her and said, “You caught me. I would like to sell it because I’d like to buy another fixer-upper. This was my grandmother’s house, so it’s kind of special to me.”

  “Your grandmother’s? And you’re selling it? Why don’t you live here?”

  “I spent many good times here, trust me, but it’s not home to me anymore.”

  Meredith frowned, wondering at the meaning behind his words. “Can I let you know?”

  “You’re not going to commit?” Noah’s tone sounded teasing, but she sensed that he was disappointed.

  “I’d like to sleep on it. Could we meet tomorrow?”

  “There’s a coffee shop on the north side of the square called the Grind. Ten o’clock?”