Operation Mistletoe Magic: An Escape to the Country novella

By Nicki Edwards

Christmas is looking grim for Melissa Allen. She has no one to celebrate with because her boyfriend of five years left her for her best friend. And, after losing her home in a fire, she now has nowhere to live. Left without a choice, Melissa accepts the offer to stay with family friends, Rob and Linda Nicholls.

Chris Nicholls is excited about bringing his Aussie-raised five-year-old daughter, Jasmine, home to Lakefield, Ontario for her first white Christmas. The trip is a surprise for his parents, though no one is more surprised than Chris when he finds his childhood best friend in the spare room of his parents' house. Surprise soon turns to delight as Chris has always had feelings for Melissa, feelings that are only getting stronger the longer they are together.

But Melissa has had her fill of heartbreak and isn't willing to fall for a man who is only going to leave. And Jasmine? She doesn't want to share her daddy with anyone.

If Chris has any hope of convincing Melissa and Jasmine they have a future together as a family, he'll need all the mistletoe magic he can get.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicki Edwards
• Release date: Sep 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393384373

Nicki Edwards

Nicki Edwards : AUTHOR OF CONTEMPORARY, HEARTWARMING ROMANCE : Sweet stories set in small towns, filled with life, love and medical dramas. Nicki Edwards is a city girl with a country heart. Growing up on a small family acreage outside Geelong, she spent her formative years riding horses, hand rearing lambs and pretending the neighbour’s farm was her own. After spending three years in a regional city in New South Wales in her 20’s, her love of small country towns and rural life was further developed. ​For years Nicki dreamed of one day escaping to the country with her husband Tim where they would live on land surrounded by horses, dogs, cows and sheep. Unfortunately, that's not likely to happen, so instead Nicki continues to live vicariously through the lives of the characters in the books she loves to read and write. Nicki also dreams of living in Canada, but as that's also unlikely, she keeps visiting and setting some of her books in the country that stole her heart 30 years ago. A voracious reader, Nicki always wanted to be an author. After returning to university as a mature aged student in her mid-30’s to study nursing, she juggled full time study, part time work and raising four small children to achieve her dream of becoming a nurse in 2011. But her other dream - the dream to write - never left. In January 2014 Nicki wrote her first book and was published by Momentum, the digital imprint of Pan Macmillan Australia. Nicki now divides her time between working as a Critical Care Nurse in the Emergency Department or Intensive Care Unit at Epworth Hospital in Geelong or in a busy local General Practice where she works as a Practice Nurse. These are the places where many of Nicki’s stories and characters are imagined. Nicki and her husband Tim live in Geelong, Victoria. They have four young adult children, two spoiled border collies and a Burmese cat. Life is always busy, always fun and definitely exhausting, but Nicki wouldn’t change it for anything. Nicki loves to hear from readers and can be contacted via her website www.nickiedwardsauthor.com

Book preview

Chapter 1

There was no doubt about it. Someone had painted a red bull’s-eye in the centre of Melissa Allen’s heart, and they had faultless aim.

A month earlier her perfect little world had tilted, slid, then slipped right off its axis. Now it lay shattered at her feet like a glass snowdome.

The police car turned down the gravel road and slowed to negotiate the fire trucks and rubber-necking neighbours. In the back seat, Melissa squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists into balls at her side. ‘How bad is it?’ she asked.

‘It’s bad,’ the young police officer sitting beside her replied softly. She touched Melissa lightly on the shoulder. ‘Are you sure you don’t have anyone you can call?’

Not anymore.

A hollow ache of loneliness attempted to envelop Melissa. She let out a small sigh and looked across at the policewoman. The newly graduated officer hadn’t grown up in the small village of Lakefield and wouldn’t know anything about Melissa’s personal life.

‘My brother’s overseas and my parents live in Florida.’

And who cares where Andrew is.

‘Can we contact them for you?’

Melissa clutched at her purse on her lap and squeezed. ‘Even if they wanted to help, they wouldn’t be able to.’

Melissa’s parents were old and had moved south to the States in search of a warmer climate. She rarely saw them, and these days only kept in touch with the occasional phone call and less occasional visit. Her brother Justin lived in Dubai and she couldn’t recall the last time she’d seen him in person. She made a mental note to Skype him and let him know what had happened.

The car pulled to a stop and Melissa braced herself. When the two police officers had arrived at the hospital to break the news that Melissa’s house had burned down, she’d been doing her best to distract a two-year-old boy who needed an intravenous cannula inserted into his arm while mentally planning what she was going to do after work that day. Relaxing in front of the fire with pizza and a good book was top on her list.

Instead, with barely a word, she’d calmly set down the bottle of bubbles she was blowing and numbly gathered her bag and keys. She had followed the officers to the police car in a trance, ignoring the concerned looks on the faces of her colleagues.

For the entire twenty-minute drive from Peterborough to Lakefield Melissa determined that she would hold it together and act brave no matter what confronted her. But the second she gazed out the car window, shock slammed against her chest and a cry escaped. She gaped in disbelief at the scene in front of her as though it was a set from a Hollywood horror movie.

The older policeman had told her that very little was salvageable, but nothing could have prepared Melissa for this. The front of the little weatherboard cottage barely looked damaged, but the entire rear end of the house that backed onto the lake lay in a soggy mess of smouldering charcoaled timber. It was unrecognizable as her beautiful little home.

Tears threatened and panic fluttered in her chest and flapped its way up her throat. Where would she live? What about her clothes and her things? Would insurance cover it? She pushed the worries back down and wiped at her eyes. The questions could wait. So could the answers.

She stepped out of the car and the icy claws of winter grabbed at her neck and squeezed. The piercing shriek of a hawk drew her attention and she glanced into the leaden sky to watch it climb, circle and climb higher before disappearing out of sight in the darkening sky. She grimaced as thick white flakes began to fall. Wrapping her scarf tighter around her neck she buttoned up her coat over her nurse’s scrubs and tugged her woollen hat lower over her ears. She avoided the pitying looks from her neighbours and forced herself to walk closer to the burned-out ruins of her cottage. She didn’t know whether to cry or scream. Or both.

‘I’m really sorry, Melissa,’ the policewoman said gently, keeping step beside her.

Melissa puffed out her cheeks and exhaled in a rush. ‘Story of my life,’ she replied.

So much for bad things only happening in threes.

The first thing that went wrong happened back in the middle of November when Melissa was told her contract at the hospital wasn’t being renewed after the New Year. She was gutted. She loved her work as a paediatric nurse, but the small hospital where she worked was closing its children’s ward. The timing sucked, but she’d shrugged off the blow and kept smiling. She was a good nurse, and finding another job shouldn’t be too difficult, even if it meant going to one of the much larger hospitals.

Things skewed further a week later when her car was stolen from the front of her house one night. Since then she’d slept with one eye open and had even been online looking at rescue dogs for protection. Problem was, a Doberman would take up too much room in her little house and as cute as the idea of a puppy sounded, the idea of toilet training in winter lacked appeal.

The absence of a car was a nuisance, but Lakefield wasn’t large, and Melissa had managed by catching the bus into Peterborough for work or walking wherever she needed to go locally. She liked to look on the bright side of things. Her former car was a rust bucket and insured for more than it was worth so there was no point complaining about the inconvenience of not having her own wheels. Once the insurance claim was through, she’d buy a much nicer car. Win-win.

But two weeks ago, on the first of December – a date she’d never forget – her entire life nosedived, plummeted, then hit rock bottom, producing a tsunami of ugly tears.

Andrew McIntosh, Melissa’s long-term boyfriend – the ‘love of her life’ boyfriend, her very own Dr. McDreamy boyfriend, her ‘I-can’t-wait-to-get-married-to-you-one-day-Melissa’ boyfriend – dumped her without warning. Dropped her and ran off with Ashleigh Noble, Melissa’s former best friend who hadn’t lived up to her name.

And now this. The lakeside cottage she’d scrimped and saved for had evaporated in a wispy plume of smoke into the late afternoon sky.

Breathe in, breathe out, she commanded herself as she gazed at the mess before her. It’s just a house. She could replace her stuff. And she wasn’t hurt. At least not physically.

She stood on her front lawn and surveyed the mess. Earlier that morning pristine white snow had blanketed the grass. Now, the heat of the fire had melted the snow and the water from the firehoses had washed it down the street toward the lake where it streaked the road like rivers of volcanic ash.

A burly fireman approached her. He wore a helmet, the collar of his coat was turned up around his ears and his face was covered in soot, but she recognised him anyway. Everyone knew and loved Rob Nicholls. He was partially retired now from his veterinary practice, but still worked one day a week as well as volunteering for the fire brigade. Growing up, Melissa had enjoyed more meals around the kitchen table in his home than she had in her own, but it had been years since she’d last spoken to him.

‘Hey love,’ he greeted her gruffly. He yanked off his gloves and stuffed them into his pocket. ‘Sorry about your cottage.’

Melissa nodded mutely.

‘Looks like an electrical fault. Did you leave your Christmas tree lights on when you went to work?’

She bit back the retort at his gentle rebuke. Didn’t everyone leave their lights on this time of year?

‘Yes,’ she mumbled.

He wiped at his face with the back of his hand, further smearing the grime across the bridge of his nose. ‘It’s an old cottage. I’m sorry but we