A Christmas Gift
A Christmas Gift
A Christmas Gift

A Christmas Gift

Book Two of Three
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Christmas— It’s the most wonderful time of the year… except it’s not. Not for Nicole at least.

A desperate call from her estranged mother takes Nicole to her childhood home of Yuletide Creek, a place she hasn’t been to in over twenty years.

She remembers that the quaint little town transformed into a winter wonderland, the annual tree lighting in the town square and the towns’ folks baking up a storm for the gingerbread and cookie contests among other activities hosted at the Christmas House. But she also remembers the reason she left and never came back.

Surprised at how decrepit and forlorn the old coastal town appears now, she wonders about its future and is convinced her mother should sell the antique shop and retire.

What Nicole didn’t anticipate was the handsome gentleman working for her mother challenging her ideologies of the yuletide season, or the time spent obsessing over the old root cellar hatch in the store that won’t budge and an old jewelry box that belongs in the trash.

When her mother’s store is broken into it’s up to Nicole to find out if the mysterious developer snooping around town had anything to do with it or if her mother’s employee is truly who he says he is.

Is Nicole up to the challenge of finding the true meaning of Christmas in time to forge a path that leads to love, hope and forgiveness? Who knows?

Maybe Yuletide Creek is just the place to restore her joy.

Christmas—the happiest time of the year for most, but not for Nicole.

Chapter 1
Suitcases overflowing with clothes. Empty bookshelves were already gathering dust in the abandoned office. No curtains by the windows.
No silver bells or boughs of holly.
That wasn’t the way Melissa thought she’d be spending Christmas. But how could she expect anything better after all that had happened in the past several years?
Her eyes found the clock still sitting on the pastel walls in the living room every couple of seconds. Every time she thought she was done, she’d remember something else. And time was running out.
“Keys! Keys!” she mumbled to herself and started rummaging around in her purse. It wasn’t there. “Kids! Has anyone seen my keys?” she shouted to Max and Gemma, who were still upstairs. Her heart started to race as she ran from one suitcase to the other.
“Mom!” Gemma screamed. Melissa heard the door bang upstairs shortly before what sounded like a stampede on the stairs, and a frantic Gemma hopped onto the landing and slid over to her. “I can’t find my camera.”
“Have you seen the car keys?” Melissa asked, completely ignoring her, as she turned about the room, reopening suitcases she’d barely closed earlier.
“No,” Gemma replied with unconcern. “My camera.”
Melissa stared at her in disbelief for a couple of seconds before she sighed. “There’s nothing much left to check, honey. We’ve already packed up most of what we’ll need for the trip. Are you sure it wasn’t sent ahead with the other things?”
“I don’t know,” she wailed, her green eyes growing glossy as she stood with her shoulders sagging as she’d just lost the most important thing to her in the world. “Maybe. But I don’t want to go, and then we don’t have it.”
“Gemma, it’s just a camera. Even if we leave it, it’s replaceable,” Melissa replied and threw her hands in the air.
“Yeah,” Max said as he bounded down the stairs looking his calmest. “Not like you ever use the thing.”
“You shut your mouth!” Gemma said as she spun to face him, her green eyes flashing and her dark brown hair swishing against her shoulders from her ponytail. “What else am I going to do in the woods besides take pictures of birds?”
“Children!” Melissa cried and palmed her face. She sucked in a deep breath and smoothed her shoulder-length dark-brown hair backward. It was an exact match to Gemma’s, while Max had dirty-blond hair that looked like Peter’s— his dad.
But he was the last person Melissa wanted to be thinking about.
All she still needed was to get packed rather than listen to her children fussing. “Can you both please just get the rest of your things together so we can go?”
“I don’t even want to go,” Gemma complained. “What’s in Yuletide Creek anyway?”
“Family,” Melissa told her. “And Aunt Elaine is looking forward to seeing us, so let’s just go,” she groaned.
“But why couldn’t we just visit her for the holidays and come back here?” Gemma asked as her face fell.
“Because this isn’t our home anymore,” Melissa replied with a heavy heart. She sighed as her eyes swept the once-vibrant living space and remembered the many times her family had gathered there for family game night. Or movie night. Or had stayed up late the night before Christmas watching movies and drinking hot chocolate.
Now, it just felt empty. There were too many sad reminders of the once-happy marriage she’d had. But it had just been her. Peter had been a good husband for over a decade. They got married soon after Melissa had graduated high school. They’d made big plans for a life together— marriage, the house, car, kids, and the white picket fence. And it had seemed as if it was all coming together for a while. He was a stockbroker, and he seemed to love his job.
But as time waned, the children started growing up, and Max and Gemma were both in high school. Peter decided to call it quits.
That’s right! He just gave up on the marriage. He switched careers to something he said was more exciting than his “dull domestic and corporate existence.” His words had cut her to the core.


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Also in this Series

New Standalone Novel

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Coming out October 14th, 2025

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