An Alaskan Family Christmas--A Clean Romance by Beth Carpenter

Author:Beth Carpenter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-08-13T15:28:22+00:00

* * *

CHRISTMAS MORNING, NATALIE was awakened by squeals of delight. Darn, she wished she’d been there to see their faces when the girls discovered Santa had come. But it didn’t look like she’d missed much when she stepped into the living room. The girls had dumped their stockings on the coffee table trunk and were exclaiming to their mom over every treasure they discovered. They hadn’t even noticed the presents under the tree yet. Gen looked happy, too.

Debbie came into the room and moved some dough she’d left in a cool spot near the window to a shelf over the stove to rise. She chuckled, watching the girls. “Nothing like kids to make Christmas complete.”

A few weeks ago, Natalie would have disagreed, but now she was picturing future Christmas breaks with Brooke, watching her baby grow and change. Before they knew it, the baby would be as old as Maya was now.

Russ and Tanner climbed down from the loft. “Did Santa come?” Tanner asked in an innocent voice.

“He did! Look!” Evie pointed at everything that had come out of her stocking.

“How about that. And look, the other stockings aren’t empty either.” He lifted the stockings from their hooks and passed them to their owners. He smiled when he handed Natalie her borrowed stocking.

“But how? I wasn’t even supposed to be here.”

He winked. “Santa magic.”

Natalie reached into the stocking to pull out a pair of red-and-green-striped socks, a tube of lip balm, a few foil-wrapped chocolate truffles and a small box tied shut with a red ribbon. Maya came running over. “Miss Natalie, did you get something good?”

“I sure did.” Natalie turned to catch Tanner’s eye. “Best Christmas presents ever.”

“Come see what me and Evie got.”

“Okay.” Natalie tucked the box into her pocket, but before she allowed herself to be dragged across the room, she looked back at Tanner to whisper, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he mouthed.

An hour later, the girls had opened, examined and enthusiastically approved all their Santa presents including brand-new sleds. A note signed by Santa mentioned another surprise was waiting for them when they got home to Anchorage. Maya was playing with her unicorn family, while Evie was busy using fabric markers to color the animals on a printed pillowcase.

Debbie pulled a braided loaf filled with dried cherries and nuts from the oven. “It’s a little too brown on the bottom. The oven must have been hotter than I thought.”

“It smells wonderful,” Natalie said as she poured a second cup of coffee.

“Let me get the icing on, and we can munch on slices while we open presents.”

They gathered around the tree. Maya dived underneath to pull out an oddly shaped package covered with crumpled wrapping paper and tied with enough red ribbon for a dozen packages. Evie tugged on one end of the package. “It’s from me, too!”

“I know. Don’t tear it.” Both still holding on to the package, they presented it to Tanner. “It’s from both of us,” Maya announced.

“I wonder what it is.” Tanner pulled Evie and the package into his lap while Maya stood at his knee.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.