Emma Kelly needs a Christmas miracle. Nick Shepherd loves his life in Salt Spring Island, where he sculpts in a studio with the grizzled and talented artist Mike Nagorski. Mike's estranged daughter, Emma Kelly, arrives in their quiet haven, and though Nick is immediately drawn to her, he tries to resist his feelings. There may be Christmas magic in the air, but Nick knows it can't last forever...
“Mike’s on a
backcountry camping trip,” Nick explained, crossing his arms over his chest.
Salt Spring Island was mild compared to some of the places he’d lived, but it
was still December and he was wearing only an undershirt. “He’ll be gone for a
few more days.”
“What on earth is
a backcountry camping trip?” Her words dripped with suspicion, as though she
was certain that he was making up an excuse. “There’s snow on the ground.”
“There is,” he
agreed, entertained by the surprise on her face. “Lots of people around here
like to do the whole communing with nature thing. They head off into the woods
and hang out for a while. Even in the snow.”
“Why?” Her tone
was horrified, and Nick couldn’t hold back a laugh. While she’d inherited her
father’s looks, it was clear to him that the similarities stopped there.
He shrugged and,
because he could, reached out to tug at a ribbon of her blond ponytail. She
reached up to bat him away, but then their stares met and she stopped moving.
Click. A connection, one he couldn’t explain, snapped into place so
firmly that Nick could almost hear it. Yeah, there was something here—that
inexplicable something that drew certain people together.
He wanted to kiss
her. The realization was strange. He liked to spend time with women; he
certainly enjoyed having them in his bed, but he wasn’t all that big on
kissing—it was usually all about a means to an end for him.
But this woman? He
wanted, really wanted, the taste of her lips on his own. It was just his luck
that she was his best friend’s daughter.
The sound of tires
crunching over gravel grated in the still air, dissolving the moment. Turning
away, he raked a hand through his hair as the cab he’d called pulled up in
front of the studio.
“You’re insane,
Nick!” The driver was Meg, a twenty-something single mom who had her toddler
daughter Lily strapped in the backseat. “Don’t you know it’s winter? Put some
clothes on! We know you’re sexy, already!”
He barked out a
laugh, not entirely disappointed by the slight stiffening of Emma’s spine. She
felt it, too, that thread between them—he knew she did.
Lauren Hawkeye/ Lauren Jameson never imagined that she’d wind up telling stories for a living… though when she looks back, it’s easy to see that she’s the only one who is surprised. Always “the kid who read all the time”, Lauren made up stories about her favorite characters once she’d finished a book… and once spent an entire year narrating her own life internally. No, really. But where she was just plain odd before publication, now she can at least claim to have an artistic temperament.
Lauren lives in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada with her husband, toddler, pit bull and idiot cat, though they do not live in an igloo, nor do they drive a dogsled. In her nonexistent spare time Lauren can be found knitting (her husband claims that her snobby yarn collection is exorbitant), reading anything she can get her hands on, or sweating her way through spin class. She loves to hear from her readers!
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