A Mom For Christmas
A Christmas ReunionNoah Carlisle is surprised to see first love Beth Montgomery back in Dover. Beth left their small Mississippi town—and him—years ago for a ballet career. Now the only female in Noah's life is his daughter, and he won't risk their future for a temporary reunion with Beth. Home to rehab her knee, Beth counts the days to resume her career—until she sees her long-ago beau. Celebrating Christmas with the handsome man and his adorable child, Beth wonders if the dreams worth chasing were always right in her own backyard. Can she stay and be Noah's second chance and his daughter's Christmas wish—a gift-wrapped mom under the tree?
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A Christmas Reunion
Noah Carlisle is surprised to see first love Beth Montgomery back in Dover. Beth left their small Mississippi townâand himâyears ago for a ballet career. Now the only female in Noahâs life is his daughter, and he wonât risk their future for a temporary reunion with Beth. Home to rehab her knee, Beth counts the days to resume her careerâuntil she sees her long-ago beau. Celebrating Christmas with the handsome man and his adorable child, Beth wonders if the dreams worth chasing were always right in her own backyard. Can she stay and be Noahâs second chance and his daughterâs Christmas wishâa gift-wrapped mom under the tree?
It was like old times.
They were talking again, like when they were teenagers. But Noah wasnât the same. The lanky, nerdy teen was now a man. A father.
He glanced over at her, his blue eyes clouded. âWhen I found out youâd joined the ballet company and never bothered to tell me, I figuredââ He stared straight ahead, his jaw flexing.
Beth longed to reach out to him. Years ago sheâd shut him out of her life. And then so had his ex. All heâd wanted was to make a family with his little girl, and his dream had been shattered.
âIâm sorry, Noah. I didnât mean to cut you out of my life.â
âWe canât go back and change the past, Beth. But we can learn from it.â
âCan we call a truce? For Chloe? After all, itâs Christmas.â
Finally he looked at her. âSure. For Chloe and for Christmas.â
Wasnât that what she wanted? So why did her heart still ache? Because just like old times, being friends with Noah wasnât enough.
LORRAINE BEATTY was raised in Columbus, Ohio, but now calls Mississippi home. She and her husband, Joe, have two sons and five grandchildren. Lorraine started writing in junior high and is a member of RWA and ACFW, and is a charter member and past president of Magnolia State Romance Writers. In her spare time she likes to work in her garden, travel and spend time with her family.
You shall have no other gods before Me.
âExodus 20:3
To Jovetta Ealy, a woman after Godâs heart, and in loving memory of her sons, Marco and Willie.
To Jon Young, who shared his structural
engineering expertise with me, and who, when I told him what I wanted to do to my hero, didnât blink, but proceeded to tell me how to make it happen.
To Katie Lohr, the ballerina the Lord
literally placed in my car. Her knowledge and experience with ballet and with Ballet Magnificat added so much to Bethâs story.
Dr. Brad Kennedy, DC, who always
has the perfect solution to any injury I decide to inflict upon my characters.
I couldnât have written this book without
the three of you.
Contents
The air in the enclosed stairwell reeked of age, and the timeworn wooden stairs creaked with each step. The glass in the old-fashioned door rattled in protest when Bethany Montgomery grasped the knob and pushed it open.
She stepped from the narrow staircase leading to her apartment above her motherâs real estate office and inhaled deeply. Even here in the broad recessed entry of the downtown building, the air was tinged with the scent of degrading metal and aged wood. The tiny black-and-white octagonal tiles on the floor from over a hundred years ago completed the picture. Everything in her hometown of DoOver, aka Dover, Mississippi, was old. And at the moment she felt the same. Old, worn-out and irrelevant. And in need of a major do-over.
Unlocking the door to the right, she entered the office of Montgomery Real Estate, her mood sinking another level. She didnât want to be here. Not in Dover, not in the office and not in Mississippi. Her life was in New York, dancing with the Forsythe Ballet Company as principal ballerina for the last six years. Sheâd been living her lifelong dream, the culmination of a journey started when she was five and her mother had taken her and her sister to see a production of The Nutcracker in New Orleans.
Now it was all gone. Ended by a torn ACL complicated by years of overuse and damage sheâd paid little attention to. Her neglect had finally caught up with her. There would be no lead roles from here on, and even a spot in the corps de ballet was doubtful. Instead she was forced to come home and work for her mother. The doctors and physical therapists had all declared her days of classical ballet over.
She refused to accept that. Others had recovered from this kind of injury and gone on to perform for years. She would be like them and she wouldnât stop working until she was on stage, en pointe, and once more at the top of her profession.
Beth switched on the lights, booted up the computer and scanned the small office, her gaze landing on the wall of family photos. Her throat tightened as she looked at her portrait. It was her first professional photo, and she was dressed in a white tutu, en pointe posed développé croisé devant, looking like a graceful bird. Absently she rubbed her leg, remembering the pain of the last nine months and that moment when sheâd landed and heard the horrible popping sound in her knee.
