Christmas Mom Tryouts

By Samantha St. James

TRYOUTS TO BE A MOM?Jason McLane needs a wife...or to be more precise, a woman who'll love and care for his children. But most of the widower's dates (when he has time to date) sneak away when they find out he has six kids. So Jason decides to try online dating—with one caveat. The candidate will be trying out for the Mom job. At his home. With his children.Natalie Calloway loves kids. But most of her dates sneak away when she tells them she wants a large family. The pitying looks from her sisters, all happily married and with children, are getting to be a bit much. So Natalie resorts to online dating. FATHER OF SIX LOOKING FOR WIFEWhen Natalie reads Jason McClane's profile bid, she stops short. Sure, she's almost twenty-nine with no real boyfriend prospects, but a ready-made family? Then again, time's running out if she really wants to have a big family.When two candidates show up at once the fun begins. Between the children's antics, the Moms-to-be and their foibles, the stable hand's unwanted advice, and the happy-go-lucky, trouble-causing puppy, what could go wrong?

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Rose Publishing
• Release date: Dec 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781522300571

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Christmas Mom Tryouts

Samantha St. James

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

Christmas Mom Tryouts

COPYRIGHT 2017 by Samantha St. James

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or Pelican Ventures, LLC except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version(R), NIV(R), Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Cover Art by Nicola Martinez

White Rose Publishing, a division of Pelican Ventures, LLC

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White Rose Publishing Circle and Rosebud logo is a trademark of Pelican Ventures, LLC

Publishing History

First White Rose Edition, 2017

Electronic Edition ISBN 978-1-5223-0057-1

Published in the United States of America

1

Jason needed a wife.

He eyed his children sitting around the table eating supper. The three oldest were creating catapults out of stainless steel forks. Soon peas would be hurtling across the table. The three youngest slapped mounds of mashed potatoes with their spoons and giggled like lunatics as spud projectiles fanned into the air like creamy fireworks.

Their mother had been gone only a year, and his happy home had slipped into chaos and disarray.

He shuddered. He needed to break the news to this rowdy brood, but he was more terrified of his children today than he’d been when he’d fallen off the roof at thirteen. On his way down, he’d been sure he was about to die. How many times had his mother drilled into him that he was gonna fall and break his neck? That day he’d thought her words were prophetic.

Facing his six children with this latest news was far worse than facing the fast-approaching hedgerow that lined his childhood front-room window.

A ball of flying mashed potato drew his attention and he watched it splat on the wall.

This had to stop. He had to do it soon. Tell his kids. Christmas was fast approaching, and he didn’t think he could face it alone.

Sure, his mother could help some, but he couldn’t impose on her too much. With his two youngest brothers still at home and his three sisters and their kids coming this year, Christmas would be busy at his mom’s, too.

Maybe he could forego all the Christmas preps here and just descend on his parents, six kids in tow. He stared hard at his children. No, he couldn’t do that. No Christmas tree, no decorations, no lights, no stockings here? Much as he dreaded the holiday, he couldn’t go that far.

His progeny would probably shoot him—if they knew how. He looked at them again. Yep, they knew how to shoot things. He vaguely recalled a stuffed bear that had committed some wartime misdeed when the boys were playing and then was duly executed for his crime. In a flash of inspiration, and because of the wailing of the owner of the stuffed bear, Jason had been able to give the bear a full pardon for dereliction of duty, just as Abraham Lincoln had done for his son.

But knowing his kids, his own demise would be more likely to involve fire and blowing up stuff.

He shook his head free of irrelevant things. He was avoiding making the announcement. When had he become such a pushover?

Stop, he didn’t speak loud.

The kids immediately set down their utensils and gave him their undivided attention. They hadn’t quite forgotten their manners; evidently they’d just put them on hold.

Now, how could he break this to them gently?

He glanced around the table. Six pairs of eyes, bright, intelligent, and terrifyingly astute, waited expectantly. Even three-year-old Adam gave him a look that scared him right down to his bones—as if Adam knew what Jason was about to announce.

He’d just have to dive in, no equivocating, no trying to make it sound better than it might be.

We need a mom. I’ve put an ad online looking for one, and the first applicants should be contacting me soon.

What? Stone, Larissa, and Joe shrieked it together.

You advertised for a mom without telling us? Ten-year-old Larissa was ready to cry; he recognized that look.

Dad, why’d you do that? The fourteen-year-old tried to be mature. Stone took the role of oldest brother