Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Christmas Family Wish
    A Christmas Family Wish
    A Christmas Family Wish
    Ebook99 pages1 hour

    A Christmas Family Wish

    By Helen Scott Taylor

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A heartwarming tale of second chances for Christmas.

    When a tree falls on Rachel's house in a storm, the person who rescues her is Ian, the same man who rejected her declaration of love when she was eighteen. She has banished him from her thoughts for eight years, but all her feelings rush back as he plays the white knight and takes Rachel and her son into his home. The young man she once knew is now a wealthy, successful business owner, and more gorgeous than ever. Life has left them both bruised, but can they put the past behind them and start again?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHelen Scott Taylor
    Release dateSep 20, 2014
    ISBN9781311324085
    A Christmas Family Wish
    Author

    Helen Scott Taylor

    Helen Scott Taylor's first novel, The Magic Knot, won the American Title contest in 2008, was a Golden Heart® finalist, and was chosen as one of Booklist's top ten romances of 2009. Since then, she has published other novels, novellas, and short stories in both the UK and USA. Her published works have been finalists in a number of contests including the Holt Medallion, the Lories, the Prism Contest, the Write Touch Award and the Maggies. Helen lives in South West England near Plymouth in Devon between the windswept expanse of Dartmoor and the rocky Atlantic coast. As well as her wonderful long-suffering husband, she shares her home with a Westie and an aristocratic chocolate-shaded-silver-burmilla cat who rules the household with a velvet paw. She believes that deep within everyone there's a little magic. www.helenscotttaylor.com

    Read more from Helen Scott Taylor

    Related to A Christmas Family Wish

    Related ebooks

    Contemporary Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Too late FOR LOVE?

      Jun 8, 2022

      Too late FOR LOVE?
      8 min read

    • Article

      Karen’s CHOICE

      Jul 7, 2021

      Karen’s CHOICE
      6 min read

    • Article

      OLIVIA Newton-John

      Jul 19, 2023

      OLIVIA Newton-John
      7 min read

    • Article

      Open Short Story Winner Tight Situation

      Apr 4, 2024

      When Carol first wakes up, she thinks it must have been a dream. The ringing phone had been distant, muffled as if the landline device had been buried in a bag of something soft like cotton wool - the packing material stuffed so tightly into its bag

      6 min read

    • Article

      O Fortuna, Velut Luna

      Sep 15, 2018

      What is Miss Treece’s trouble, according to a popular notion? The man A has failed to show up. Arousing herself at the restaurant, she fixes her lipstick when her solo supper concludes and takes herself down the stairs situated behind the bar. There,

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Quick Thrill

      May 20, 2021

      A Quick Thrill
      4 min read

    • Article

      Heatstroke

      Jun 8, 2020

      Languid. The word that formed in Rachel’s mind was languid. The figure on the lawn was languid. Its limbs were loose, its joints fluid. Its hands and feet seemed too heavy for the bones that held them. It was draped over the sun lounger, dripping fro

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Education of Mrs. R.

      Sep 6, 2022

      An adolescent shriek woke her. Cockerels, she thought, cockerels, with a wry twist to the word. She lay in the dark listening. There was no use in covering her head; the screaming still came through. The soloist was suddenly submerged in the chorus.

      13 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Jan 1, 2022

      It was an unusual birthday. Colorful banners blanketed the backyard. Kids chased each other through the grass. Adults talked. It all went downhill from there. My little sister was turning five. On her birthday cake, painted in frosting, was a fat, pi

      7 min read

    • Article

      Timespiral

      Feb 1, 2020

      Timespiral
      7 min read

    • Article

      Sifting

      Mar 4, 2024

      CASSANDRA GARBUS is the author of the novel Solo Variations. Her fiction has appeared in Kenyon Review Online, American Short Fiction, Texas Review, Meridian, Louisiana Literature, and The Cortland Review. Lily slumps on the living room couch, absorb

      22 min read

    • Article

      Partners

      Sep 15, 2018

      Enter,” she says, and is obeyed. He’s taller than before, or perhaps he only seems taller now that he’s here, in the house. She walks behind him, moving toward the living room, and wonders if he might be too tall for her house. It soon dawns on her t

      8 min read

    • Article

      Whethervane A Short Story

      Nov 25, 2021

      Whethervane A Short Story
      9 min read

    • Article

      Pleasure Palace

      Sep 1, 2022

      Pleasure Palace
      15 min read

    • Article

      A New Beginning

      Mar 25, 2022

      A New Beginning
      5 min read

    • Article

      Reaching OUT

      Jan 17, 2024

      Reaching OUT
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Joke

      Sep 1, 2020

      Although best known for his 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury was also a prolific writer of short stories, having published his first while still a teenager. This previously unpublished story likely dates to 1950, the year The Martian Chronicle

      5 min read

    • Article

      Super Pooch!

      Nov 4, 2021

      Super Pooch!
      3 min read

    • Article

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time

      Dec 1, 2023

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time
      9 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Play Dead

      Mar 3, 2020

      There was a man, let’s call him Henry VIII. There was his wife, let’s call her Anne B. Let’s give them a castle and make it nice. Let’s give her many boy babies but make them dead. Let’s give him a fussy way of being. Let’s make her smart and sneaky,

      17 min read

    • Article

      THE CYBER Saviour

      Feb 10, 2021

      THE CYBER Saviour
      3 min read

    • Article

      Crossed Wires

      Feb 23, 2024

      Crossed Wires
      5 min read

    • Article

      I Am the Tooth Fairy

      Nov 14, 2019

      I Am the Tooth Fairy
      7 min read

    • Article

      Quiet Night

      Aug 7, 2023

      Quiet Night
      19 min read

    • Article

      Rediscover THIS DAY

      Apr 1, 2021

      Rediscover THIS DAY
      4 min read

    • Article

      Not My Cat

      Aug 21, 2023

      The rise and fall of fur, sunlight rippling across his perfectly groomed coat – it’s enchanting, hard to look away. For 30 minutes, she’s watched the cat sleeping on three blankets, folded and piled on top of one another. She’s cold, but can’t bring

      6 min read

    • Article

      Kiss, Kiss

      Aug 31, 2017

      Kiss, Kiss
      2 min read

    • Article

      Turn To The Angels

      Aug 31, 2021

      Turn To The Angels
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Christmas Family Wish

    4.5/5

    2 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Christmas Family Wish - Helen Scott Taylor

      A Christmas Family Wish

      By

      Helen Scott Taylor

      *

      Smashwords Edition

      *

      Copyright © 2013 by Helen Taylor

      Cover design © Helen Taylor

      *

      The right of Helen Taylor to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

      This is a work of fiction. All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Copyright owner.

      Chapter One

      Rachel Carne lay awake, her heart pounding with alarm, unable to sleep for the noise outside. Wind howled around the house, sending things clattering along the street. Rain pelted the windows in a torrential downpour, drumming against the glass.

      She climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom to peer through the window at her small red car parked in the road. A wooden box skidded past it and banged into another vehicle. Her hand pressed over her mouth. She half expected to find her car wrecked in the morning, but there was nothing she could do except wait for the weather to pass.

      After peeping in on her little boy, she climbed back in bed and pulled the covers over her head. So far Toby had slept through the noise. She hoped he stayed asleep. Her shift at work started early tomorrow. She would feel bad leaving him in day care if he was tired and irritable.

      A new noise started outside, a groaning, wrenching sound as though the very earth was screaming. Rachel's already frayed nerves strung tight with fear. She hated this. Hurricane-force winds were rare in England. In all her twenty-seven years, she didn't remember a night like this before.

      The groaning increased, then her house trembled. A crashing, tearing sound filled the air. The trembling became a shudder, the horrendous noise almost deafening.

      Fear streaked through her. She must get to Toby. Rachel yanked her covers aside and scrambled out of bed, tripping as the loose fabric caught around her legs. She kicked it aside and reached for the light switch. She clicked it up and down with no result.

      Then her little boy's terrified scream cut through the cacophony.

      Toby! I'm coming, sweetheart.

      In darkness, she pulled open her bedroom door. Cold, wet wind hit her, knocking her back a step.

      Her son's terrified wails spurred her on. Tree branches poked through the splintered wood of her son's bedroom door. The old oak tree at the roadside must have blown down and hit her house.

      Frantically she pulled apart the damaged door and pushed into Toby's bedroom. Rain drove through the gaping hole in the wall where the massive trunk laid balanced precariously on the crumbling brickwork, Toby's bed right underneath.

      Breath sawing in and out in painful jerks, Rachel fought her way between the spiky branches, barely noticing the pain as twigs scraped her exposed skin, and rubble and splinters dug into her feet.

      Mummy, Mummy, her son wailed in fright.

      I'm coming, Toby. You're all right, baby. Mummy will be there in a minute. Her sodden nightdress clung to her body as she crawled under the trunk to reach the bed. Rachel snapped off some twigs and blindly extended a hand.

      I'm here, sweetheart. Wriggle out to me. Come on, you can do it, baby. He crawled out from under the trunk resting a few inches above him. If it slipped…

      As soon as her hand grasped his arm, she dragged him from underneath the tangled branches and hugged him against her.

      You're all right, Toby. You're all right.

      He wailed and clung to her as the bitter wind and rain lashed at them. She had to get him to safety. He wrapped his arms and legs around her. Half crawling, half crouching, she fought her way back to the door. She grabbed the door frame as the house tilted and a section of damaged wall collapsed and tumbled to the ground outside with a crash.

      Rachel stumbled, pressing her hand into the soggy carpet to help her stand. She tripped into her bedroom on bruised feet and slammed the door behind her to keep out the wind and rain.

      Toby's fearful cries filled her ears, his little body stiff with terror in her arms.

      Please, God, let him not be hurt. Please. She laid him on her bed and ran her hands over him in the dark. He was so wet from the rain, she had no idea if he was bleeding. She grabbed her mobile phone and switched on the flashlight app. The volume of Toby's screams increased as she shone the blinding white light at him. She stroked back his hair and examined his face.

      Okay, sweetie. It's okay. I need to check you over. There's a good boy. Rachel pulled off his wet pajamas and dried him with her bedcovers. Holding the flashlight above him, she ran a hand all over him, searching for cuts and bruises.

      Miraculously, he was unmarked. You're okay, Toby. You're not hurt. Calm down, sweetheart. She grabbed one of her T-shirts from a drawer and pulled it over his head, then sat on the edge of the bed, hugging him close, rocking him.

      Gradually his crying stopped and he scrubbed his fists over his eyes. The wall fell down and the rain came in.

      I know, baby. Don't worry about it. You're safe with me.

      He cuddled closer. Where's Jimbo?

      Rachel closed her eyes and fought to stay calm. She couldn't go back to Toby's room for a teddy bear. Jimbo is watching over your things until it gets light and Mummy can rescue them.

      Toby pouted but seemed to accept that explanation.

      Let's get you all warm and snuggly in Mummy's bed, shall we? She lifted the covers and Toby crawled inside and curled up. You go back to sleep, baby. She sat beside him and stroked his damp hair for a few minutes until his breathing grew even and she was sure he slept.

      For a few moments she rested her head in her hands, eyes closed, shivering in the chill. She needed to pull herself together, dry off, and change clothes.

      Trembling with a mix of shock and relief, Rachel dragged off her clingy, wet nightdress, gave herself a cursory wipe down, and wrapped herself in a warm dressing gown.

      Thank God Toby was unhurt. Rachel snuggled under the covers and curled around her four-year-old, her heart still pounding. She hugged Toby close, stroking and kissing his hair until she

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1