Three Christmas Wishes

By Eve Paludan

Three people make heartfelt wishes on Christmas Eve, and their lives will never be the same…

Three Christmas Wishes is an inspirational sweet Christian romance novella.

In Three Christmas Wishes, Ryan Walker, a mall security guard, is planning to be alone again on Christmas. Due to heartbreak and loss in his life, he can't seem to muster up any Christmas spirit. But when he meets a lost boy and his sweet mother, Ryan's painful past rises up and he struggles to choose the right path. It's a love story you may never forget.

Blessings of the Christmas season to you and yours. May the true meaning and spirit of Christmas bring you tidings of comfort and joy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eve Paludan Books
• Release date: Jul 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393328735

Book preview

Three

Christmas

Wishes

by

Eve Paludan

THREE CHRISTMAS WISHES

Published by Eve Paludan Books

Copyright © 2013 by Eve Paludan

All rights reserved.

Book cover design: David H. Doucot

Christmas House Picket Fence (cover art): Marilyn Gould

Editor: Phoebe Moore West

Any similarity or resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental, or is used in a fictitious manner.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Three Christmas Wishes

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Books by Eve Paludan

About the Author

Dedication

For Dana Bokelman

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Dear Readers:

Three people make heartfelt wishes on Christmas Eve, and their lives will never be the same...

Three Christmas Wishes is a Christian-themed sweet romance novella. It’s squeaky clean, except for a little bit of kissing and hugging.

In Three Christmas Wishes, Ryan Walker, a mall security guard, is going to be alone again on Christmas. Due to heartbreak and loss in his life, he can’t seem to muster up any Christmas spirit. When he meets a lost boy and his sweet mother, Ryan’s painful past rises up as he struggles to choose the right path. It’s a love story you may never forget.

Blessings of the Christmas season to you and yours. May the true meaning and spirit of Christmas bring you comfort and joy.

Much love,

Eve Paludan

Three Christmas Wishes

RYAN WALKER GROANED as the exuberant strains of Deck the Halls blasted through the mall. It felt like the hundredth time he’d heard this carol today and it grated on his nerves more every time, until he felt like he might actually lose it. The constant barrage of Christmas music, which he had once loved, reminded him of the second-worst day of his life.

The carols were great for the Christmas Eve mall rats who would spend their final shopping hours rushing around desperately for last-minute gifts while devouring some sort of junk food on a stick. As for him, he craved the soft, breathy sound of the snowfall outside.

Hey, girls! No running! Ryan called out authoritatively after a couple of teenagers. They giggled out their apologies as they headed toward the food court in a race-walk that belied his order. He breathed a sigh of relief when the girls arrived at the Orange Julius and got in line without knocking over anyone or slipping on the highly polished floors.

For Ryan, who was working a twelve-hour shift, the repetitiveness of the music was just another irritation that added to his current frustration. And to his pain. Seven years ago, after he’d been shot on the job as a city beat cop—and while he’d endured a physical and emotional rehabilitation that had sent his law enforcement career into a tailspin—his wife had suddenly died of a heart attack. His shock at suddenly losing her had been the worst day of his life... much more painful than the two gunshot wounds.

Now alone in the world, and with his law-enforcement abilities significantly reduced, he’d sold his house at a loss, moved away from the inner city, and taken a less-stressful job as a security guard in an upscale suburban mall that was across from the apartment complex where he now lived. It was a simple life, but empty of the passion for law enforcement that he had once enjoyed. His security guard job at the mall didn’t require much more than to show up on time, pass a monthly drug test, and keep the peace.

Sir, where’s the family restroom, please? I’ve got to clean them up before a photo with Santa, asked a harried shopper, who held the hands of two whimpering kids. Twin girls were decked out in matching plaid holiday dresses with beribboned hairstyles, but they had chocolate smeared on their faces. Double trouble, he thought.

He gave her directions to the facilities, as he did several dozen times per day. The restrooms were tucked behind the food court and not easy to find, despite the small signs pointing that way.

Thank you, sir. Merry Christmas, she said and headed off with her girls.

Merry Christmas, he said to her back. It seemed like people said the words, but didn’t mean them. The mall was a popular place to shop and hang out for families, teens, and the senior citizens’ mall-walking clubs. Besides shoplifters and kids playing on the escalators or throwing things from level three to level one, there was not a whole lot of danger here. He liked it that way, so he kept the job.

Being a mall security guard wasn’t much of a challenge, not like his old job as a city beat cop, but it supplemented his partial disability income. His job as mall cop also kept him distracted from the darkest parts of his mind, the parts that replayed his shooting that had left him with a limp and made his gun hand too shaky to ever be a real cop again. The shooting had happened on Christmas Eve while he had attempted to take down an armed-robbery suspect in a liquor store, but had failed. He and the suspect had shot each other, but the other man had run out of the store leaking blood, and had never been caught. Shot in the leg and in the hand, Ryan had been unable to pursue him, but he would never forget that man’s face as he’d ditched the ski mask once he cleared the security cameras and looked back through the front store window at Ryan, who was writhing on the floor and bleeding profusely.

His boss, Martin, phoned him, which brought him out of his dark reverie.

Ryan here. What’s up, boss? he asked when he answered the call.

An old lady slipped and fell on the down escalator, over by the Christmas wrapping kiosk. She bumped her head and cut it open. A physician’s assistant, another shopper, is helping out by applying pressure. Cover for me while I wait with her for the EMTs.

Want me to bring the first-aid kit and give you a hand? Ryan offered.

"No, we’re good. The old lady says she’s fine and it looks like it’s going