Their Unexpected Christmas Gift
She’d given up on Christmas miracles… until one landed on her doorstep When Vivian Winthrop finds herself acting mummy to her niece she needs help! Luckily, chef Nick Jackson steps into help. He is a natural with little Ellie… and with Vivian, who starts to wonder if, with a touch of Christmas magic, holiday flings can ever be permanent!
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She’d given up on Christmas miracles, until one landed on his doorstep
Vivian Winthrop is a brilliant lawyer, but family has never been on her to-do list. Until her baby niece is left at the Stone Gap Inn on Christmas Eve. Vivian is thrust into the role of mommy, a challenge she’s completely unprepared for! Luckily, chef Nick Jackson is a natural with little Ellie. And if being near him stirs up delicious—and unexpected—feelings? Maybe a little Christmas magic could turn their holiday fling into something a little more permanent…
New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author SHIRLEY JUMP spends her days writing romance so she can avoid the towering stack of dirty dishes, eat copious amounts of chocolate and reward herself with trips to the shopping centre. Visit her website at shirleyjump.com for author news and a book list, and follow her at Facebook.com/shirleyjump.author for giveaways and deep discussions about important things like chocolate and shoes.
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Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk
ISBN: 978-1-474-09180-0
THEIR UNEXPECTED CHRISTMAS GIFT
© 2019 Shirley Kawa-Jump, LLC
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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To a Christmas I will never forget, with the man
who makes every day better than the one before.
Here’s to many, many more!
Contents
Note to Readers
Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!
Nick Jackson stood under the banner draped across the center of Main Street in Stone Gap, and debated sign sabotage. The entire town was in the process of getting decked out for Christmas. Elves—or rather, Department of Public Works employees in silly costumes festooned with bells—were on stepladders, draping garland over the street lamps. Shopkeepers were pasting images of fat Santas and fake snowflakes in their windows. Others were piping holiday tunes from their sound systems a full three days before the first day of December.
When Nick was young, he’d loved Christmas as much as any other kid, even though his parents hadn’t been the traditional kind who woke up at dawn and had a pajamas-on-the-couch Christmas morning. They’d believed in dignified holidays, with practical gifts like suits and calculators. But for a kid of three, or five, or seven, the world still held magic and promise, and anything could happen. By the time he hit middle school, Nick had given up on miracles.
Until then, Nick had woken up at the crack of dawn every Christmas morning, then dragged his brothers Carson and Grady out of bed. He’d sat on the stool at the kitchen bar, fidgety and anxious and dreaming of finding something cool under the elegant, professionally decorated Christmas tree, like a race car or a skateboard. The three boys would wait through an interminable breakfast served by the cook, who shuffled around the kitchen and grumbled under her breath about being underpaid to make pancakes on a holiday morning.
