A Christmas Homecoming: Christmas in Hawthorn Bay\Husband Under Construction by Kathleen O'Brien

Author:Kathleen O'Brien
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The Next Year

JACK KILLIAN WAS EXHAUSTED.

Three hours of sleep just wasn’t enough, not to face a houseful of people, presents, feasting and general Killian mayhem so early on a cold Christmas morning.

But darn it, the assembly instructions for Colin’s bright blue, fourteen-speed bike had been written in some kind of diabolical Martian code. Jack and Sean had still been up, cussing and banging the wrench around, when the grandfather clock in the front hall of Sweet Tides had chimed three.

And then, wouldn’t you know it? Jack’s head had barely hit the pillow when Virginia Lily Margaret Killian had woken up and started whimpering.

“I’ll be fine. You sleep,” Nora had whispered, touching his shoulder.

Yeah, right. As if he would dream of passing up the chance to watch his beautiful wife breast-feed their daughter.

Ginny wasn’t, to be perfectly honest, as beautiful as her mommy yet, with her scrunched-up red face and her patchy wisps of silky black hair. She was only two months old. But when the baby opened her blue eyes and stared dreamily up at Nora while she nursed, Jack saw what was to come.

She would be lovely and smart and stubborn and sweet. And, if Jack Killian could possibly manage it, she would be the happiest little girl who ever lived.

“Dad, you’re zoning out! Come on, open it! It’s from Uncle Ethan!”

Jack rallied, blinking away the sleepy haze. Colin had just tossed a present in his lap, a small box covered in shiny blue paper. He peeled away the wrapping.

“Guitar picks?” He grinned up at Ethan. “You sure these aren’t for Colin?”

Ethan shook his head. “Nope. They’re to go with…” He reached around behind his armchair and pulled out a beautiful honey-pine acoustic guitar. “This! I figured you and Colin could start a band.”

Laughing, Jack accepted the guitar and immediately began plunking out a few god-awful chords. Everyone groaned.

“I’m serious,” Ethan said, pretending to be offended. “You’ll become superstars, and then you can replenish the Killian coffers, which definitely need it, since you were fools enough to give the gold away.”

“Not fools,” Patrick said carefully. His speech was improving every day, but he still had to work at some sounds. “Smart. The gold was cursed.”

Sean, who was sitting next to his grandfather, patted his shoulder approvingly. Then Sean caught Jack’s eye and smiled.

They’d spent a whole lot of time trying to decide what to do with the three hundred bars of gold bullion they’d found stashed inside that arch. At first, they’d been caught up with the usual daydreams—yachts, mansions, trips around the world. Jack wanted rubies and diamonds for Nora. Sean wanted a doctorate for Stacy. They all wanted a college fund for Colin.

But in the end they’d realized they didn’t need any of that. They all made decent money in their careers, and Nora had already provided a trust fund for Colin from the sale of Heron Hill.

With the help of Stacy’s research, they’d pieced together the full history of the Killian men, and decided that, though there probably was no such thing as a curse, there definitely was such a thing as obsession.

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.