In the Spirit of...Christmas and A Very Special Delivery: In the Spirit of...Christmas / A Very Special Delivery
Heartwarming stories of holiday romance by RITA Award-winning author Linda GoodnightIn the Spirit of…ChristmasFor his daughter's sake, widowed father Jesse Slater returns to Oklahoma to reclaim the family ranch. But their home is now a Christmas tree farm…run by a woman whose faith will change their lives forever. A Very Special Delivery Molly McCreight has met the man of her dreams! But with her painful secret, how can she hope to spend the holidays–let alone the rest of her life –with single father Ethan Hunter and his precious baby girl?
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Praise for RITA>® Award winning author Linda Goodnight and her novels
“Linda Goodnight’s sweet story, In the Spirit of…Christmas joyfully portrays the true spirit of the holiday season.”
—RT Book Reviews
“This unique story has an uplifting and healing conclusion.”
—RT Book Reviews on A Very Special Delivery
“Linda Goodnight does her protagonists justice with her sensitive writing in A Season for Grace.”
—RT Book Reviews
“From its sad, touching beginning to an equally moving conclusion, A Touch of Grace will keep you riveted.”
—RT Book Reviews
In the Spirit of…Christmas & A Very Special Delivery
Linda Goodnight
LINDA GOODNIGHT
Winner of the RITA>® Award for excellence in inspirational fiction, Linda Goodnight has also won the Booksellers’ Best, ACFW Book of the Year, and a Reviewers’ Choice Award from RT Book Reviews. Linda has appeared on the Christian bestseller list and her romance novels have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Active in orphan ministry, this former nurse and teacher enjoys writing fiction that carries a message of hope and light in a sometimes dark world. She and her husband, Gene, live in Oklahoma. Readers can write to her at [email protected], or c/o Steeple Hill Books, 233 Broadway, Suite 1001, New York, NY 10279.
Contents
IN THE SPIRIT OF…CHRISTMAS
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
Epilogue
A VERY SPECIAL DELIVERY
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
Epilogue
You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace, the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
—Isaiah 55:12
Dedicated with love to my aunts and uncle: Bonnie, Pat, Carmalita and Robert. I’ll never forget how you stood, a wall of family, supporting me at my first book signing and at every signing since. You’re the best!
Chapter One
Leaning over the steering wheel of his blue-and-gray Silverado, Jesse Slater squinted toward the distant farmhouse and waited. Just before daybreak the lights had come on inside, pats of butter against the dark frame of green shutters. Still he waited, wanting to be certain the woman was up and dressed before he made his move. She had an eventful day ahead of her, though she didn’t know it.
Aware suddenly of the encroaching autumn chill, he pulled on his jacket and tucked the covers around the child sleeping on the seat beside him, something he’d done a dozen times throughout the night. Sleeping in a pickup truck in the woods might be peaceful, but it lacked a certain homey comfort. None of that mattered this morning, for no matter how soul-weary he might be, he was finally back home. Home—a funny word after all these years of rambling. Even though he’d lived here only six years after his mother had inherited the farm, they were formative years in the life of a boy. These remote mountains of southeastern Oklahoma had been the only real home he’d ever known.
Peace. The other reason he’d come here. He remembered the peace of lazy childhood days wading in the creek or fishing the ponds, of rambling the forests to watch deer and squirrel and on a really lucky day to spot a bald eagle soaring wild and regal overhead.
He wanted to absorb this peace, hold it and share it with Jade. Neither of them had experienced anything resembling tranquility for a long time.
The old frame house, picturesque in its setting in the pine-drenched foothills of Oklahoma’s Kiamichi Mountains, was as it had always been—surrounded by green pastures and a dappling of scattered outbuildings. Somewhere a rooster heralded the sun and the sound sent a quiver of memory into Jesse’s consciousness.
But his memory, good as it was, hadn’t done justice to the spectacular display of beauty. Reds, golds and oranges flamed from the hills rising around the little farm like a fortress, and the earthy scent of pines and fresh air hovered beneath a blue sky.
“Daddy?”
Jesse turned his attention to the child whose sleepy green eyes and tangled black hair said she’d had a rough night too.
It was a sorry excuse of a father whose child slept in a pickup truck. And he was even sorrier that she didn’t find it unusual. His stomach knotted in that familiar mix of pain and joy that was Jade, his six-year-old daughter.
“Hey, Butterbean. You’re awake.”
Reaching two thin arms in his direction, she stretched like a kitten and yawned widely. “I’m hungry.”
Jesse welcomed the warm little body against his, hugging close his only reason to keep trying.
“Okay, darlin’. Breakfast coming right up.” With one eye on the farmhouse, Jesse climbed out of the truck and went around to the back. From a red-and-white ice chest he took a small carton of milk and carefully poured the contents into a miniature box of cereal.
