Merry Kisses (Riverbend Romance 5)

Copyright

Title Page

Riverbend Romances

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Thank You

Sneak Peek

About the Author

Copyright © 2015 Valerie Comer

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1988068046

ISBN-13: 978-1988068046

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, except for brief quotations in printed or electronic reviews, without written permission of the author.
 

This is a work of fiction set in a redrawn southeastern BC, Canada. Any resemblance to real events or to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Cover Art © 2015 Hanna Sandvig, www.bookcoverbakery.com.

First edition, GreenWords Media, 2015

MERRY KISSES

A Riverbend Romance Novella 5

Valerie Comer

GreenWords Media

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Welcome to Riverbend!

Riverbend, BC, is the quaint Canadian town you wish you were from, where everyone knows everyone, seasons are celebrated, and love is in the air.

Riverbend and Castlebrook are fictional communities.

Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons, Shoppers Drug Mart, Chapters, and Save-On-More Foods are real Canadian businesses.

In Canada, a stocking cap or beanie is called a tuque (rhymes with fluke). Distance is measured in meters and kilometers, and temperatures are in Celsius. And in British Columbia, yes, beginning drivers are required to have a magnetic L (for learners, first level) or N (for novice, second level) on the back of the vehicle.

Here are the five seasonal Riverbend Romance Novellas.

Secretly Yours: A Winter Riverbend Romance Novella (1)

Chef Lindsey Solberg agrees to cater the church’s Valentine’s Day fundraising banquet as a favor to her teen sister, but she’s shocked to discover the bad boy from her high school days is now Riverbend’s youth pastor. Seriously? How could he have changed that much?
 

Nick Harrison has prayed for years for an opportunity to make amends. Now Lindsey’s back in Riverbend and won’t give him the time of day. What’s a guy to do except leave a trail of gifts from a secret admirer?

Lindsey’s heart takes a beating when she realizes the boy who was never good enough is now a far better man than she deserves.

Pinky Promise: A Spring Riverbend Romance Novella (2)

Kelly Bryant’s young daughter wants a daddy and sets her sights on her new best friend’s single father. The man may be charming, sweet, and a believer, but Kelly is embarrassed. She extracts a pinky promise from her six-year-old to stop proposing to men on her behalf.
 

Ian Tomlinson isn’t looking for a wife but does need care for his daughter during spring break the week after his move to Riverbend. He hates to ask Kelly — and plant ideas in the girls’ minds — but he’s rather low on options.

How can two single parents fall in love for real with a pair of mini-matchmakers pushing from both sides — pinky promises or not?

Sweet Serenade: A Summer Riverbend Romance Novella (3)

River guide and canoe builder Reed Daniels stands by as his lifelong friends pair off. After all, he’s waited this long for the right woman… what’s a little longer? But when newcomer Carly shows up at the gang’s bonfire, he’s mesmerized. Could she be the answer to his prayers?

Water-sport enthusiast Carly Thorbergsen is starting over in Riverbend. Hired as a canoeing and hiking guide, she’s ready to focus on work and leave the personal stuff behind. That is until the competition, Reed Daniels, offers her a ride in his cedar-strip canoe. No resisting that!

But no matter how much they have in common, Carly can’t erase her past, and Reed is bound to discover the truth. When a date finds Carly and Reed running rapids on the outside of the canoe, they come face to face with the real reasons their new relationship might capsize.

Team Bride: An Autumn Riverbend Romance Novella (4)

Sarah Jamieson has avoided weddings since a traumatic stint as a flower girl, but reluctantly agrees to stand up for her best friend. Only why does the best man have to be one of those confident, life-of-the-party types? Even worse, why does the bride make her promise to go on one date with the guy? Easy enough to agree, because she’ll make sure he never asks.

Corbin Morrissey takes his responsibilities for Team Groom very seriously, but coaxing smiles out of the maid-of-honor is harder — and more addictive — than he expected. To his surprise, she agrees to go out. There really isn’t any way a date to the Fall Fair could go amiss. Is there?

Can Corbin convince Sarah he’s ready to settle down and make her the head of her own Team Bride, or will their past keep getting in the way?

YOU ARE HERE: Merry Kisses: A Christmas Riverbend Romance Novella (5)

Fired from her retail position for saying
Merry Christmas
to a customer, Sonya Simmons chafes at the over-commercialization of the season and the difficulties of finding a new job. If only she’d actually said
Merry Christmas
instead of
Merry Kisses
to the tall, good-looking man buying enough toys for at least a dozen children. How embarrassing!

It was fun to fluster the pretty toy store clerk, but Heath Collins, the mall’s volunteer Santa Claus, hadn’t meant to get her fired. When his elf assistant comes down with a bad cold, Heath offers Sonya a few days’ work, only to discover she believes Santa is nothing but a liar and a fraud instead of an opportunity to make a difference in children’s lives.

Can Sonya and Heath embrace each other — opinions, traditions, and all — in time to share merry kisses for Christmas?

CHAPTER 1

“Merry Christmas!” The young mom loaded big bags of toys into her buggy.

Sonya Simmons smiled back. “I hope your holidays are wonderful.”
And that you can pay off your charge card soon.
She turned to the next customer in the long line waiting to check out of Toy Treehouse. “Good afternoon. I hope you found everything you were looking for?”

The elderly woman nodded. “I have a little something for each of my great grandchildren right here.”

“That’s terrific.” Sonya slid the toys across the scanner and into a waiting bag. Why did everyone have to try to out-buy everyone else? Why was Christmas so commercial?

The woman paid and shifted the bag into the cart. “Thanks so much, dear. You have a merry Christmas, all right?”

“You, too.”
 

“Look what I found for my granddaughters!” The next customer held up two fashion dolls with princess gowns.

“Oh, they’ll love those sparkly dresses.” Sonya smiled at Mrs. Bryant from River of Life Church. “These are from you, not from Santa, right?”

“Yes.” The older woman sighed. “Santa has been curtailed in my grandchildren’s lives.”
 

Nice some families had the good sense to do that.

Mrs. Bryant tilted her head to one side. “I haven’t seen you in church lately.”

Of course she’d notice and comment. “I’ve been scheduled to work a lot of Sundays with Christmas coming on.” Oh no, she’d said the word. A furtive glance over her shoulder revealed Deborah four tills over bagging for Annie. “You can see how busy we are, and we aren’t even in full swing yet.”

Mrs. Bryant leaned closer. “Surely your boss would let you have some Sundays off if you asked. The store can’t be that busy of a Sunday morning.”

Sonya shook her head. “I’m not asking for favors. Is this everything for you today, then?”

The customer’s lips pursed as her eyes narrowed to a point beyond Sonya’s shoulder. She slid her debit card through the machine.

“Please don’t say anything to Deborah,” Sonya whispered, leaning across the counter. “I need this job.”

“As you wish. Merry Christmas, Sonya.”

Sonya patted the bag of dolls. “Merry Princesses.” Mrs. Bryant didn’t seem to notice.

She began scanning the next customer’s selections. “Did you find everything you were looking for?” Then she glanced up and caught her breath.

Tall, dark, and handsome was only a trite starter phrase. The man in front of her was all three, but so much more. Brown eyes twinkled above cheeks and a chin that had missed the razor for a few days. A jaunty Santa hat perched on his dark brown hair.

Why did he feel the need for a Santa hat? Why was Santa in
everything
to do with Christmas?

“For today.”

Sonya blinked. “Pardon me?”

The man’s grin widened. “You asked if I’d found everything.” He indicated the packages heaped on the conveyor belt. “I’ve got today’s list covered.”

She took in the mound. No single toy was expensive, but they were going to add up. What was it with people and their need to buy so much junk? And why couldn’t she have found a job less tied to the commercial aspect of Christmas? “Today’s list?” Oh, good grief. She sounded like an idiot echoing him.

“I checked it twice.”

“But...”
Never mind. Scan the toys, Sonya. He’s just a cute guy. You’ve seen them before.

Men his age — around thirty, she’d guess — weren’t the most common customers in Toy Treehouse. The occasional few were usually accompanied by a young woman with a baby stroller.

Sonya scanned a talking doll followed by a 1500-piece puzzle followed by a baby rattle. Wait a minute. He was too young to have this many kids with such varied ages. She snuck him a furtive glance.

He grinned at her, eyes twinkling.

Conversation. She should make some. “Wow, you’ve got a big family.” She should also think for a few seconds before opening her mouth.

“That’s where the evidence seems to lead.”

Maybe he was a doting uncle with plenty of cash, but his Carhartt work jacket didn’t give that impression. She could head back into safe territory with a question like
Do you think we’ll have snow before Christmas?
but that would mean saying the C-word. Also, what did it matter what he thought? There’d either be snow, or there wouldn’t.

His jacket hung open, revealing a navy Henley-style shirt, untucked over faded jeans. He slid his card through the slot and glanced up, catching her watching him. A slow smile crossed his face, lighting up those eyes again, brown like hot cocoa. Except if her morning drink gleamed at her that way, she’d toss it in the sink. But his eyes? Different kind of sink. The kind where she might disappear and drown.

His grin widened.

Sonya ripped her gaze off him and handed over his receipt. “Thanks for shopping at Toy Treehouse.”

“I’ll be back.”

“Me, too.” Oh, Sonya. Dumb, dumb thing to say.

He chuckled. “Maybe I’ll see you again then.”

“Maybe.”
 

Sonya watched him push the cart toward the exit. Why did it feel like he meant something beyond him buying more trinkets for his children? A guy with that big a family shouldn’t be making the knees of toy store cashiers weak. He obviously already had as much on his plate as he could handle and, while she liked children as much as the next woman, she wasn’t going to take on someone else’s abandoned dozen. And then there was the Santa hat.

“Miss? I’m in a hurry here.”

Sonya swung to the next customer in line as heat shot up her cheeks. “Sorry.”

* * *

Heath Collins couldn’t resist. He loitered in the wide corridor of Riverbend Mall outside Toy Treehouse, watching for a certain cashier. She hadn’t been here yesterday or the day before, but now she was in sight, smiling at a customer. She turned away, her long brown braid swinging over her shoulder. His heart beat faster. She was so attractive even in that crazy green uniform with a giant giraffe design curving over her right shoulder.

He fingered the list for a party at one of the town daycares. The staff member who’d been in charge had called in sick, and they’d been happy to turn the list over to him. If he timed this right, he’d be at till #5 just before closing — his best chance at trying for some small talk and trying to get to know her a little.
 

Couldn’t hurt to make an effort, right? He hadn’t been able to get her off his mind since he’d been in a few days ago.

Sonya
. That’s what her badge said, smack on the horns of the giraffe. No trouble remembering her pretty name, or the fact she wore no rings.

Heath pushed a cart to the section of the store where action figures climbed both sides of the aisle. Left to his own devices, he’d have gone down to Chapters, the big bookstore just down the mall, and bought books for all the kids. But then he wouldn’t have seen Sonya again, so maybe action figures were good, after all.