Caramelized Pecan Cookie Holiday Hideaway

By J.W. Garrett

Sunny Yates, a witch, laid off from her job in the city, relocates to her late grandmother's hometown to focus on her new business venture. She rediscovers her magical roots and a nostalgic cookie recipe, and sparks fly after a collision meet-cute with handsome business mogul Noah Russell. He seems perfect for her, but how can she tell him she's a witch?

Home for the holiday, Noah discovers he's responsible for firing Sunny but doesn't reveal it for fear she'll back away. She awakens something within him he thought long dead, turning his measured, sensible world upside down.

Both at a crossroads, can they learn to trust each other with their truths during the magical Christmas season?

• Language: Unknown
• Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
• Release date: Dec 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781509238873

J.W. Garrett

J.W. has been writing in one form or another since she was a teenager. She currently lives in Florida with her family, but loves the mountains of Virginia where she was born. Her writings include poetry, short stories, and YA Fantasy. Watch for book two in her YA Fantasy series, Realms of Chaos, which will be out June 2019. When she’s not hanging out with her characters, her favorite activities are reading, running and spending time with family. You can join her mailing list and receive a free short story introduction to her YA Fantasy series by visiting her website at www.jwgarrett.com. J.W. would love to hear from you! Please consider leaving a review at your favorite site, or feel free to drop a note at her website. Thanks for reading!

Book preview

She watched as a young man approached Mr. Russell, newspaper in hand. A stoic facade washed over Noah’s face as he stood, shook hands with the stranger, then autographed the paper.

He made the local and national news again. So many times now I’ve lost track.

Sunny made a mental note to check her mail. Read up on the man. Her postal service had just begun three days ago, and she’d signed up for the local paper. With any luck she’d get a copy.

Thank you for the information. Sunny grabbed her book purchase. I can’t wait to sample some coffee and read in that nook over there—she gestured—sometime soon. My boxes await, and they won’t unpack themselves.

Please do come again.

Oh, I will. I love the ambiance of this place. Warm. Cozy. Inviting.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sunny stepped to the doorway, adjusting her things in her arms, then putting them all in the nearby chair. She had been here long enough to shed her coat and scarf and gloves. Now she had to don them all again before stepping outside. Head down, adjusting her gloves and gripping her bag with her purchase, she took a step. In the span of a few seconds, the bells danced above her head, the door held ajar by a masculine hand. And she leaned into a door that suddenly wasn’t there. Then she was flying. And not in the levitating manner she was used to.

Caramelized Pecan Cookie Holiday Hideaway

by

J.W. Garrett

Christmas Cookies

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either 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.

Caramelized Pecan Cookie Holiday Hideaway

COPYRIGHT © 2021 by J.W. Garrett

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

Contact Information: [e-mail]

Cover Art by Jennifer Greeff

The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

PO Box 708

Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

Publishing History

First Edition, 2021

Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-3887-3

Christmas Cookies

Published in the United States of America

Dedication

To my grandparents who taught me everyone has a story to tell.

Sunny? I’m sorry. Really…

Her boss’s face didn’t look sorry. In fact, Laura’s mouth slid upward in a perfect imitation of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland.

Suits her… Maybe I could freeze it like that for a couple hours. Just one tiny flick of the wrist and done. Sunny Yates dropped into her desk chair and swiveled away from her computer monitor. Damn it! Four weeks until Christmas… I’ve never been fired, she announced quietly, more to herself than the woman in front of her.

Not fired. Laid off, Laura corrected, laying a sagging cardboard box on Sunny’s desk.

Semantics.

Once this interim team gets rolling, we’ll see. I’m hopeful we can bring you back by June, July at the latest. How’s that sound?

Condescending, that’s the word. Yeah… Sunny needed to eat, to pay rent in between now and then. Small little issues in the real world that needed to be dealt with. The woman’s perky voice grated on Sunny’s nerves. She rubbed at the throbbing pain mounting above her eyes.

She didn’t need to hear the words again. They had cut enough the first time around. While shuffling through papers on her desk, she muttered a quick spell. Immediately Laura started sneezing—the loud and wheezing variety—one right after the other. Now who was smiling?

"I’ll…achoo, achoo… Oh my…achoo." She raced from the room.

Sometimes being a witch came in handy.

Sunny’s gaze scanned the Manhattan skyline. Drawn to the view, she rose and strolled the few steps necessary to take in the magnificence of the city from high above the melee and crowded streets below. This, she would miss. When she’d landed the position here at One Perfect Life, the magazine of her dreams, in her mind, she had made it. Had crossed over that invisible boundary to success.

Since Sunny graduated at NYU, she’d always had a plan to go it alone, to start her own business eventually. Steadily she’d been working to get there. Was this the right moment, though? Her hand might be forced either way, but she could try scrying tonight and maybe get a murky glimpse of what waited for her. Things weren’t ever what they seemed when one peered into the future, though. So many variables were constantly shifting, and one’s worldly prospects ever changing from one minute to the next. Her grandmother had taught her at a very young age to be careful, fully mindful, with such strong, volatile magic.

Outside, the icy chill of the day