Gingerbread Wishes

By Linda Carroll-Bradd

Tora can’t wait to sell the family bakery run by generations of Hammond women and seek excitement outside of Dorado, Texas. She's continued the tradition out of love but now that her mother and grandmother have relocated to Arizona for Gram's health, Tora thinks the time has come for her to spread her wings.

Widower Jordan Dawson, the town’s star quarterback from a decade ago, returns to his hometown with plans to develop a sporting goods store. He also hopes experiencing a small town Christmas will cheer up his five-year-old daughter, Jenna, still recovering from the loss of her mother.

Will the spark of interest Tora sees in Jordan’s eyes be the excitement she’s looking for?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inked Figments
• Release date: Dec 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781940546025

Linda Carroll-Bradd

After years spent in the administrative support field, Linda decided to exercise another part of her brain and write a novel. She loved reading romance and figured that's what she'd write. Easier said than done. After years of workshops and RWA chapter meetings, she finally saw her manuscripts place in contests. Twelve years after her first writing class, she sold a confession story. From that point on, she couldn't be stopped and is always pleased when her sweet contemporary and historical stories find homes. With interests as widespread as baking, crocheting, watching dog agility matches, and reading thrillers by Swedish authors, Linda is the mother to 4 adult children and grandmother to 2 granddaughters. She currently lives in the southern California mountains with her husband of almost 34 years and their two spoiled dogs.

Book preview

Gingerbread Wishes

Book 1, Sugar & Spice Bakery series

By

Linda Carroll-Bradd

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

Copyright © 2012, Linda Carroll-Bradd All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute or transmit in any form or by any means without express permission from author or publisher.

Published by Inked Figments

Cover artist: Tamra Westberry

Formatted by Author's HQ

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN: 978-1-940546-02-5

First printing December, 2013

This book is copyrighted intellectual property. Purchasing this e-book gives you the right to one copy for your reading enjoyment. The purchase does not grant resale rights, sharing rights (either individual file sharing or sharing through peer-to-peer programs) auction or contest prize rights, or rights of any kind to sell or give away a copy of this book.

Doing so is considered piracy and criminal copyright infringement—an illegal act in violation of U.S. Copyright Law and can be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is punishable by a maximum of five years in federal prison in addition to a $250,000 fine.

Please respect Linda Carroll-Bradd’s right to earn a living from her creative endeavors. If you have knowledge of misuse of this e-book, do not hesitate to contact Inked Figments at [e-mail].

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Recipe for a Gingerbread House

Excerpt: When Lonely Hearts Meet

Other Christmas stories by Linda Carroll-Bradd

Gingerbread Wishes

Will mixing one lonely baker and the town’s prodigal son with spices and laughter make a tasty recipe for love?

* * *

Dedication: To those who love the wonderful surprises Christmas may bring

* * *

Welcome to Dorado, Texas…

A small town located in the rolling hills about an hour or so north of San Antonio. Of course, getting there depends on how fast you drive, and if you travel the freeway or the back roads.

Here you’ll find the friendliest folks who care about the community, the businesses and, most of all, the residents. And some aren’t too shy to ask about you and yours—no matter if you’re just passing through or staying a spell.

Dorado was first just a stop on a stagecoach line that ran a twice-weekly loop in the interior of Texas during the 1850s. Then settlers arrived, claiming ranch lands and raising cattle. Population grew when the great cattle drives of the 1870s and 1880s passed only a few miles outside of town. A few families (namely, the Pallatons, the Matsons, and the Fremonts) track their heritage back to those early years.

Many residents will claim that the heart of Dorado is a bakery in the center of town. The Sugar & Spice Bakery has been a family-run business since 1890 when teenaged Magda Volker sold baked goods from her father’s dry goods store. Most folks’ memories only stretch as far as remembering the owners as the current three generations of Hammond women—Sonja, Raina, and Tora.

Grab a cup of coffee and maybe your favorite bakery treat. Settle in to enjoy Gingerbread Wishes, a Christmas-set story of how Tora Hammond and Jordan Dawson found each other.

~Chapter One~

With decisive moves, Tora Hammond taped a For Sale sign to the inside of the front window of the Sugar & Spice Bakery—a simple act that could lead to all sorts of exciting possibilities, but one that still brought a hard lump to her throat. Don’t think about it.

My new life starts today. She turned and proclaimed her vow to an empty room that contained a dozen small circular tables and white wrought-iron chairs. The 1950s soda shop décor had been her idea and she loved the retro look. Gooseflesh rose on her arms and a wisp of breeze brushed her cheek. She instinctively ducked, thinking she’d angered an old family ghost. Maybe the sensation was caused by her guilt at the monumental life change she had planned.

Through the front window, headlights blazed wavy trails along the shop windows on the opposite side of the main street of Dorado, Texas. Larson’s Shoe Repair, Henderson & Henderson-Accountants, Speedy Cleaners, Morgan’s Clocks. The imposing granite block Texas Prospect Bank building claimed the corner of First and Prairie Streets.

For as long as she could remember, she’d gazed at life through the plate glass window of the family-owned bakery. Granted, the breadth of the view had changed over the years as she moved from peeking around Gram’s long skirts to stretching on tip-toes to gaze over the counter, to bumping elbows with her jeans-and-sweaters clad Mama, and now having free rein as she ran the entire shop by herself.

Through those years, she’d baked and donated thousands of dozens of cookies, brownies, and coffee cakes to raise funds for everything from football bleachers to band uniforms, to specialized equipment for the town’s ambulance. Whatever was needed, the townspeople could count on delicious donations from the women of the Hammond family. Daily, except Sundays, she’d greeted people as they grabbed a breakfast pastry and scurried to their jobs or dropped by for a treat between errands. She’d given advice on the size and style of their wedding cakes, invented specially shaped cakes for their baby showers, and eventually for their children’s birthday parties. Each time using the same age-old family recipes, and all from behind the oak-trimmed display case built by Tora’s beloved grandfather, Nils.

She ran a hand along its edge, worn smooth and darkened from years of wear. Her throat swelled at the realization she’d lose this tangible connection to a much-loved and much-missed gentle man.

The cell phone in her apron pocket chimed like a xylophone. Tora dug it out, glanced at the display showing her best friend’s name, and then tapped the rectangle marked accept. Hello, Krissy.

So, did you hang the sign?

Krissy’s voice sounded high and breathy, and Tora knew her friend hoped she’d changed her mind. "Yes, I put it up. No telling when,

Reviews for Gingerbread Wishes

[nancyluebke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this short and clean romance. It was pretty fast moving with a nice ending. Would like to read more of this series. Nice if you don't have time for a long read. I think I received this for free and voluntarily chose to review it. I've given it a 4.5* because it left me wanting to know more.