Lindsay McKenna - Coming Home For Christmas

About the Authors LINDSAY McKENNA is proud to have served her country in the U.S. Navy as an aerographer’s mate third class—also known as a weather forecaster. A New York Times bestselling author, she pioneered the military romance subgenre and loves to combine heart-pounding action with poignant romance. True to her military roots, Lindsay is the originator of the reader-favorite Morgan’s Mercenaries series. She does extensive hands-on research, including flying in aircraft such as a P3-B Orion sub-hunter and a B-52 bomber. She was the first romance writer to sign her books in the Pentagon bookstore. Visit her online at: www.lindsaymckenna.com , www.twitter.com/lindsaymckenna and www.facebook.com/eileen.nauman . DELORES FOSSEN Former Air Force Captain Delores Fossen is a USA TODAY bestselling author, and she has received a Booksellers’ Best Award for Best Romantic Suspense, as well as an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award. In addition, she’s had nearly a hundred short stories and articles published in national magazines. Delores is currently at work on her next Harlequin Intrigue novel. Visit her website at www.dfossen.net for news on upcoming releases and more. GERI KROTOW A U.S. Naval Academy graduate and former Naval Intelligence Officer, Geri left her military career to write full-time. She has traveled the world, living in such far-flung places as Whidbey Island, Washington state and Moscow, Russia. Geri enjoys creating love stories for Harlequin Superromance that stand the test of time and have settings that she has personally experienced. She’s lived it, now she writes it! Visit her website at www.gerikrotow.com to join her Loyal Reader Program, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Goodreads.

Title Page Coming Home for Christmas New York Times Bestselling Author Christmas Angel Lindsay McKenna USA TODAY Bestselling Author Unexpected Gift Delores Fossen Navy Joy Geri Krotow www.millsandboon.co.uk

Christmas Angel Christmas Angel Lindsay McKenna

Dedication To my Italian chef friend, Giovanni Scorzo-Andreoli. I’ve been to Italy and I know the food, which is to die for. It was such a delight to find real Italian food in Scottsdale, Arizona! My thanks to Pamela Kimbrough and Vesna Ajic, my lunch buddies, for finding this Italian jewel and the many wonderful meals we share there together. www.andreoli-grocer.com .

Dear Reader Dear Reader , It was a delight and honor to be part of this very special Christmas anthology for several reasons. I want to thank Birgit Davis-Todd, Senior Executive Editor, for allowing this project to become a reality, and especially for asking Mills & Boon writers who are military vets to write the military romance novellas you will read in this book. I was in the U.S. Navy as an AG3 (weather forecaster) and pioneered the military genre in 1983 with Captive of Fate (Silhouette Special Edition). My other two sister writers, Delores Fossen, U.S. Air Force, and Geri Krotow, U.S. Navy, are also military vets, so the readers are getting the real deal. The novellas will have a uniqueness that no one else can produce because we were in the military and understand how it works from the inside out. We’re able to lend an insider’s knowledge to the novellas as a result. With the drawdown and our heroic military men and women finally coming home from Afghanistan, it makes our stories all the more heartrending and poignant. Delores, Geri and I know what it’s like to be stationed somewhere else in the world when the holidays hit. And it’s a very lonely time for everyone because of the separation involved. Christmas is the single most important holiday a military person yearns to be home for and celebrate. And so often it doesn’t happen. The sacrifices our military people make are many. To our military personnel, thank you for your service, your hours alone overseas, so far away from your home and family. And equally, let’s praise those wives/husbands and children who also make those sacrifices in different ways when their loved one is so far away from them. It’s hard on everyone. Just know that you are not forgotten by any of these military women vets and authors here at Mills & Boon. Hooyah! Lindsay McKenna

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

Epilogue

Unexpected Gift

Dedication

Dear Reader

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

Navy Joy

Dedication

Dear Reader

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Copyright

Christmas Angel

Lindsay McKenna

To my Italian chef friend, Giovanni Scorzo-Andreoli. I’ve been to Italy and I know the food,

which is to die for. It was such a delight to

find real Italian food in Scottsdale, Arizona!

My thanks to Pamela Kimbrough and Vesna Ajic, my lunch buddies, for finding this Italian jewel and the many wonderful meals we share there together. www.andreoli-grocer.com.

Dear Reader,

It was a delight and honor to be part of this very special Christmas anthology for several reasons. I want to thank Birgit Davis-Todd, Senior Executive Editor, for allowing this project to become a reality, and especially for asking Mills & Boon writers who are military vets to write the military romance novellas you will read in this book.

I was in the U.S. Navy as an AG3 (weather forecaster) and pioneered the military genre in 1983 with Captive of Fate (Silhouette Special Edition). My other two sister writers, Delores Fossen, U.S. Air Force, and Geri Krotow, U.S. Navy, are also military vets, so the readers are getting the real deal. The novellas will have a uniqueness that no one else can produce because we were in the military and understand how it works from the inside out. We’re able to lend an insider’s knowledge to the novellas as a result.

With the drawdown and our heroic military men and women finally coming home from Afghanistan, it makes our stories all the more heartrending and poignant. Delores, Geri and I know what it’s like to be stationed somewhere else in the world when the holidays hit. And it’s a very lonely time for everyone because of the separation involved. Christmas is the single most important holiday a military person yearns to be home for and celebrate. And so often it doesn’t happen. The sacrifices our military people make are many.

To our military personnel, thank you for your service, your hours alone overseas, so far away from your home and family. And equally, let’s praise those wives/husbands and children who also make those sacrifices in different ways when their loved one is so far away from them. It’s hard on everyone. Just know that you are not forgotten by any of these military women vets and authors here at Mills & Boon.

Hooyah!

Lindsay McKenna

CHAPTER ONE

SNOW TWISTED, TURNED and sparkled around Kyle Anderson as he eased out of the rental car. He closed the door and thrust his hands deep into the pockets of his leather bomber jacket. The cold snowflakes landed in his hair, slid across his jacket and melted upon touching his face as he slowly walked toward the White Sulphur Springs Ranch house. The wind was inconstant and he hunched his shoulders, hearing his combat boots crunching in the foot of snow across the graveled parking area.

His heart squeezed with anticipation and worry. Anna Campbell, the woman he loved and had walked away from, had been in a serious auto accident two weeks ago. She’d been in a coma, though now was recovering at home.