Christmas at the Second Chance Chocolate Shop

’Tis the season for second chances …

Serena Hunter loves her new life in the sleepy Devonshire countryside! It’s a world away from her crazy past as the wife of American bad boy rock star, Ritchie Dangerfield.

Now she spends her days making delicious chocolate using milk from the local dairy and she finally feels that everything is back on track. That is, until her handsome ex-husband arrives in the village to win her back …

Away from the limelight, Serena gets to know Ritchie all over again and wonders if maybe a second chance at love is the Christmas miracle she’d been dreaming of all along?

A fabulously festive read to curl up with this Christmas. Perfect for fans of Caroline Roberts, Cathy Bramley and Heidi Swain.

Also by Kellie Hailes

The Cosy Coffee Shop of Promises

The Big Little Festival

Christmas at the Second Chance Chocolate Shop

Kellie Hailes

ONE PLACE. MANY STORIES

Contents

Cover

Blurb

Book List

Title Page

Acknowledgements

Dedication

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

Endpages

Copyright

To you. Yes, you. You reading this. Thank you. So much. It’s a constant source of surprise and joy to think that someone I have never met would take the time to read something I wrote. Thank you for taking a chance on the residents of Rabbits Leap.

Laura Hancox – I’m so glad my cousin brought you to stay with us. You’re an absolute gem, and I thank you for taking the time to set me straight on milking practices and to all my farming questions. Your animals are lucky to have you, as am I.

Writing can be a lonely experience, which makes me incredibly grateful for my team of cheerleaders who urge me to keep going, and to never stop. Merilyn, not only are you the best boss EVER, you’re a dear friend who gives the best advice. Susie Frame - you give the best pep talks, and are one of the most generous and kind souls I’ve ever met. Natalie Gillespie – can you imagine how Kiwi my books would sound if it weren’t for you? Aaron aka The Husband – your faith in me amazes me. Thank you.

Lastly, but never least - because a good editor is to be treasured, and I’ve been lucky to work with great ones – I can’t thank Rayha Rose and Charlotte Mursell enough. At times this felt like the never-ending book, but your kindness, support and wisdom got me there in the end.

For Serena. Once known as Petunia.

You stormed into my head six years ago demanding I write about Rabbits Leap.

I’m glad to set your story free, but I’m sad to see you go.

CHAPTER ONE

One more day. One more sleep. Her dream was so close she could almost taste it. She could certainly smell it…

Calm swept over Serena as she worked the solid nibs into the melted chocolate. The two meeting, melting, blending together. The decadent aroma – rich, sweet, with a hint of bitterness – steadying her mind. Centring her. Reminding her of all she’d achieved, all she still planned to achieve.

Increasing the pace of her stirring, Serena scanned the ingredients before her. Dried cherries. Miniature white marshmallows. Pistachio nuts. All soon to be married with the dark chocolate, cooled down, and turned into Christmas rocky road, then bagged and sold tomorrow when she opened the doors of her very own chocolate shop.

Finally. She allowed herself a small smile. Her whole life she’d been trying to find out who she was, what drove her, how she fit into the world. She’d left Rabbits Leap as a teenager to seek adventure, excitement – a life opposite to in the one she led at home. And the life she had sought out, she’d experienced in spades. Yet here she was, back home, in the village she’d been so desperate to leave, happier than ever.

At least that’s what she repeated to herself every moment the gloom set in, threatening to derail her plans. Threatening to send her running back to the person who she’d devoted herself to for so many years, probably only to realise the devotion was one-sided.

Happier than ever.

An automated alert – high-pitched and cheerful – rang through the air, punctuating her point.

Another online order. Another customer wanting to indulge in the artisan range of chocolates she’d spent hours dreaming up, concocting, then perfecting. Proof she’d made the right decision to leave Ritchie, to return to Rabbits Leap, to start afresh.

Now she just had to prove that to those who doubted her. Those? More like ‘she’. Her mother had barely spoken to her since she’d announced she’d leased the old milkshake shop and the rooms above, and was leaving the family farm to pursue her dream as a chocolatier.

Their relationship, rocky at best, was at an all-time low.

‘Hello? Anyone here?’

The throaty tones she’d known so intimately for a decade filled the shop’s front room and drifted into the kitchen.

Serena’s heart slammed against her ribcage, shattering her sense of calm. That couldn’t be the voice she thought it was. That voice was meant to be in a recording studio. On the other side of the world.