Jillian Hart - Jingle Bell Bride

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The Best Laid Plans...

Finishing medical school at the top of her class, Chelsea McKaslin always achieves her goals. Now back home in Sunshine, Wyoming, her Christmas goal is to succeed as a pediatrician. In no way do her plans include Dr. Michael Kramer, despite the fact that he’s everywhere she turns. The standoffish widower keeps his distance from her, as if to protect his adorable daughter and himself. Yet the spirit of the season prevails. Soon Chelsea is bonding with little Macie—and her handsome daddy. Will these three hearts thaw in time for Christmas?

“Guess this means we’ll be working together.”

“I guess so.” Chelsea’s chest tied up in all kinds of knots. Was this good news or bad? Her hand shook as she secured the last string of Christmas lights, leaving a good six inches dangling free.

“I knew Denny was adding a pediatrician to the practice, but I didn’t know it was you,” Michael said.

“It’s been planned for a long time. Denny was my mom’s doctor.”

“I understand.” For a moment, his friendly but cool reserve vanished and the understanding she read in the shadows of his gentle gaze made her defenses stumble. He was a good man, and the smallest of wishes flickered to life against her will, wishes for a strong, good man she could count on.

Not going to happen, she told herself with a twist of regret.

Not that she wanted the hassle of a relationship, she told herself firmly and wrestled the wish away. She had a plan. No involvements, no romance, no wishing for a love that could not be.

Her No Man plan.

About the Author

JILLIAN HARTgrew up on her family’s homestead, where she helped raise cattle, rode horses and scribbled stories in her spare time. After earning her English degree from Whitman College, she worked in travel and advertising before selling her first novel. When Jillian isn’t working on her next story, she can be found puttering in her rose garden, curled up with a good book or spending quiet evenings at home with her family.

Jingle Bell Bride

Jillian Hart

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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To Chelsea Tripp, DVM, DACVIM

God is the Lord, and He has given us light.

—Psalms 118:27

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Epilogue

Dear Reader

Questions for Discussion

Teaser Chapter

Chapter One

Snow tumbled from an unforgiving sky, icy against her cheek as Chelsea McKaslin knelt in the small town’s cemetery. The marker was simple, the white marble hard to read in the falling twilight and the accumulating snow. She swept away the fluffy inches of flakes from the gravestone with her fingertips, her hand-knit crimson mittens a vivid splash of color in a white, gray and dark evening. Ever since her mother had passed on, the world hadn’t seemed as kind or as colorful.

“Hi, Mom.” She laid pink carnations on the headstone, where the name Jessica Elizabeth McKaslin was etched, beloved wife and mother. “It’s me, Chelsea. I’ve missed coming to see you, but I did what you asked. I finished my residency. I stuck it out. It was tough, the last thing I wanted to do after you were gone, but I did it.”

More than anything she wished—she prayed—that her mother could hear her. That her words could lift through the airy snowfall and rise up to heaven as if on angels’ wings. Her faith had been tested over the two years of Mom’s sickness and death, but it remained strong. She still believed. Somewhere her mother was looking down at her and smiling. Her love lived on. Maybe it was in the soft brush of snowflakes against Chelsea’s cheek or the whisper behind the wind, so light it was barely audible. She liked to think so.

“Christmas is not the same without you.” She could hope it would be better than last year with the gaping, painful hole in their lives and in their family. No one and nothing could ever fill the void. “Sara Beth and Meg plan to fix our traditional dinner this year. Johanna has her heart set on a tree. We’re all pooling our gift money to start a scholarship in your name.”

The electronic jingle of her cell penetrated her wool coat’s outer pocket. She fumbled for it, the mitten’s thickness and the numbing cold making her fingers clumsy. The number on the luminous display came as no surprise.

“I’m almost home,” she said, squinting as the snowfall thickened, beating against her face.

“I was worried.” Her youngest sister’s voice sounded crackly. Reception was terrible because of the storm. “I’ve been keeping an eye on the clock and the weather report. Half the county roads are closed, and you should have been here twenty minutes ago. Where are you?”

“Safe. I had to stop by and visit Mom.”

Johanna’s silence said it all. Understanding zoomed across the line, the static unable to diminish the strong bond between them. Chelsea didn’t have to explain how she’d been needing this place of connection to their mother.

“The roads are getting worse by the minute,” Johanna reminded her gently. “I want you home safely.”

“That’s my plan.” Chelsea was good with plans. They had always been her strong suit.

She took comfort in a logical world, in compiling pro and con lists and puzzling out the road ahead. Once sure of her destination, she gave all she had into getting there. That’s how she had gotten accepted to med school and won a coveted residency position. She’d always taken to heart the Bible passage: a man chooses his path and God directs his steps.

“I’m leaving right now,” she promised.

“Good, because they are about to close Grimes Road. I thought you might want a heads-up, that is, if you want to sleep in your old bed tonight.”

“You know I do.” Home. There was no place like it. She’d had her own apartment for years, but her family’s piece of the Wyoming rangeland would always be her real home. Full of memories of love and laughter, made more special this time of year. Christmas had always been done right at the McKaslin household. She thought of her mom, how she always used to be waiting to welcome her daughters, cooking and baking up a storm. They all gained ten pounds every visit, especially if they weren’t careful.

It was hard to think of opening the front door and not seeing her there. Chelsea pocketed her phone, realizing she was shivering. The arctic cold sliced through her coat like a razor, chilling her to the bone. She faced into the wind, blind as the snowflakes struck her with a worsening fury. She really did need to get home while she could.