A Place Like Home: Christmas Shorts

By Yolande Kleinn

Alan only agreed to work on Christmas Eve because he spends the holiday alone. He's no scrooge—if anything he's a hopeless romantic—it's just that his best friend's complicated life means celebrating in January, when Jamie can visit. But instead of an empty house, Alan finds a surprise waiting for him: Jamie has arrived ahead of schedule, daughter in tow. And for the first time in years, Alan's delighted to be home for the holidays.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Yolande Kleinn
• Release date: Dec 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781946316226

Yolande Kleinn

Yolande Kleinn may be a shameless dreamer and a stubborn optimist, but she is also a proud purveyor of romance and hijinx. Excitable, fastidious and a little eclectic, she spends every spare moment writing the stories she wants to read. If she can drag other people into the pool along with her, then so much the better.

Book preview

A Place Like Home

by Yolande Kleinn

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The worst thing about winter is how early the sun goes down.

Alan trudges cautiously along an icy sidewalk, through what is admittedly a beautiful neighborhood. Fresh snowfall blankets the entire city, rendering the glittering holiday decorations bright and festive. The dark sky adds to the effect, all the tiny white lights shimmering like fireflies and strings of rainbow bulbs glinting across roofs and lawns.

It's not the worst consolation prize, but it's not enough. Alan went to work in the gloom before dawn, and left to an evening-dark horizon. Never mind how much he hates the cold—he'd give a kidney just to experience a few minutes of sunlight at the end of his workday.

His own driveway, when at last he reaches it, is covered in enough snow to make him glad he took the bus downtown this morning. Hopefully by tomorrow, every identical garage along the block will be plowed out—but tonight, Alan would need to salt and shovel just to get his car off the street.

Exhausted as he is from a week of overtime—finance is always a nightmare right before the holidays—Alan doesn't notice the warm glow pouring out his windows. Hell, it's Christmas Eve, and glinting light assails him from all directions as he navigates knee-high drifts to reach his front door. How can he be expected to notice just one in an identical line of townhomes, even if this one does belong to him?

He notices once he steps through the door, though. Soft light emanates from the living room at the top of the stairs, oddly patterned from the string of rainbow lights on his tree.