A Family for Christmas (Contemporary Romance Novella)

By Helen Scott Taylor

A sweet, heartwarming tale of love and family for Christmas.

A lonely career woman stranded in a blizzard, a disillusioned man who has cut himself off from women. When he rescues her from the snow and takes her into his home, the spirit of Christmas and his little girl's love work their magic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Helen Scott Taylor
• Release date: Oct 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301515356

Helen Scott Taylor

Helen Scott Taylor's first novel, The Magic Knot, won the American Title contest in 2008, was a Golden Heart® finalist, and was chosen as one of Booklist's top ten romances of 2009. Since then, she has published other novels, novellas, and short stories in both the UK and USA. Her published works have been finalists in a number of contests including the Holt Medallion, the Lories, the Prism Contest, the Write Touch Award and the Maggies. Helen lives in South West England near Plymouth in Devon between the windswept expanse of Dartmoor and the rocky Atlantic coast. As well as her wonderful long-suffering husband, she shares her home with a Westie and an aristocratic chocolate-shaded-silver-burmilla cat who rules the household with a velvet paw. She believes that deep within everyone there's a little magic. www.helenscotttaylor.com

Book preview

A Family for Christmas

By

Helen Scott Taylor

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Copyright © 2012 by Helen Taylor

Cover design © Helen Taylor

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Smashwords Edition

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The right of Helen Taylor to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Copyright owner.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to my critique partner Mona Risk for her invaluable input, to my editor Pam Berehulke for her usual thorough job, and lastly thanks to my cover artist Su Kopil from Earthly Charms who created the beautiful book cover.

Chapter One

The windshield wipers slashed madly to and fro in a useless attempt to clear the huge, fluffy snowflakes. Eve narrowed her eyes and leaned forward. Her fingers clenched around the steering wheel as she tried to see where she was going.

Her gaze darted down to her speedometer—ten miles an hour. At this rate she didn't stand a chance of making her performance evaluation on time—the most important appointment of the day—the one that could affect her future prospects with the accounting firm where she worked.

She should have cleared her schedule for the afternoon so she didn't miss the meeting with the firm's senior partner. All six partners had a say as to whom they would invite to join the partnership, but the senior partner had a lot of influence. It was important to impress him, and missing her evaluation wasn't going to earn her any brownie points. A sigh hissed out between her gritted teeth, and she raged inwardly at the unfairness of life.

The snow battering the glass eased. She stared out across the bleak white moorland—not another vehicle or person in sight. Thank heavens she was cocooned in her toasty warm car and not out there.

Her gaze flicked back to the road and her headlights gleamed off animal eyes. Eve stamped on the brake. As if in slow motion, the rear of her car fishtailed to the side. With a horrible thunk, her back wheels dropped off the edge of the road into a ditch. The vehicle came to a shuddering halt, and the engine died. The sudden silence beat at her ears. Heart thumping, she raised a trembling hand to her chest.

When her pulse settled down and her breathing returned to normal, she turned the ignition key and sagged with relief as the engine burst into life. She eased her foot down on the gas and tried to drive forward. The back wheels whined as they spun, but the car didn't move.

Wonderful. Just wonderful. She wouldn't make her appointment now. She pulled her phone out of her bag and checked for a signal. Thank heavens there was one. Up here in this god-forsaken wasteland of a place, she half expected to be in a mobile phone dead zone. She dialed her firm's Plymouth office and explained she was unable to make her evaluation meeting due to the weather, and rescheduled it for Monday afternoon.

Once that was done, she released a harried breath and stared out the windshield as the snow slashed against her car. All she could do was call roadside assistance and wait to be rescued.

She dug out the phone number from her glove box, dialed, and waited. After holding for ten minutes, she was finally put through to talk to someone. She explained where she was, what had happened, and gave her contact details.

We'll get a man out to you as soon as possible, the call center operator said, but we're very busy at the moment so it might not be until tomorrow.

Tomorrow! Eve stiffened in shock. What do you expect me to do? Sleep all night in my car?

I'm sorry, madam. The bad weather has meant we've had a lot of calls in the last few hours. I suggest you walk to the nearest town and find somewhere to stay.

Eve's eyes widened as she gazed at the endless empty miles of nothingness outside. There wasn't even one dot of light in the murk that might suggest a house. I'm in the middle of Dartmoor, she replied, far more patiently than she felt. "There are no towns. And it's snowing like mad."

Well, perhaps you'd better wrap up warm and stay in your car, the woman said.

Yes. Thank you for that pearl of wisdom, Eve muttered and cut the connection.

She sucked in a breath and turned to peer out the back window, hoping for a sign of civilization. Although she was pretty sure she hadn't passed any houses for miles.

She didn't know what to do next, so instead her mind wandered back to the cause of her accident. Some kind of animal had been out there. It was probably long gone, but…

Eve turned on the wipers again. Her headlights were now useless as the angle of the car made them shine into the darkening sky. She switched them off, let her eyes adjust, and surveyed the road. A tiny form moved in the whiteness. A lamb? It couldn't be. Surely farmers didn't breed lambs to be born in December when the weather was likely to be bad?

Had her car hit the poor little creature? She squinted harder, but couldn't see clearly through the blizzard. There was nothing else to do. She would have to climb out