Caro's Gift (Small-Town Christmas Wishes Book 2) Read online

  Caro’s Gift

  Small-Town Christmas Wishes Series Book 2

  Jean C. Gordon

  Upstate NY Romance

  Caro’s Gift

  Copyright ©2019 Jean Chelikowsky Gordon

  Cover art by Cindy Flores Martinez

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author-publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, places, and events portrayed in the book are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  * * *

  Much thanks, as always, to my critique group,

  BFF (Colleen, Chris, and Thomasine),

  and my editor Jena O’Connor,

  Contents

  About the Series

  About the Book

  The Letter

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  About the Author

  More from Jean C. Gordon

  About the Series

  Welcome to Snowflake, Colorado—a small town where wishes come true! When six old high school friends receive a letter that their fellow friend, Charity Hart, wrote before she passed away, their lives take an unexpected turn. She leaves them each a check for $1,500 and asks them to grant a wish—a secret wish—for someone else by Christmas. And she wants it to be special.

  The request sounds simple. After all, they were secret angels in high school together. That’s why Charity chose them. But the friends soon discover that it isn’t as easy as it seems. With the clock ticking, will they make it happen in time?

  Join Mia, Caro, Nate, Taye, Sara, and Holly as they travel down the road to making a wish come true—and take a detour that leads to finding love.

  Books in the Series

  Mia’s Gift (Small-Town Christmas Wishes Series Book 1) by Cindy Flores Martinez

  Caro’s Gift (Small-Town Christmas Wishes Series Book 2) by Jean C. Gordon

  Nate’s Gift (Small-Town Christmas Wishes Series Book 3) by Jackie Castle

  Sara’s Gift (Small-Town Christmas Wishes Series Book 4) by Kimberly Rose Johnson

  Holly’s Gift (Small-Town Christmas Wishes Series Book 5) by Josie Riviera

  Taye’s Gift (Small-Town Christmas Wishes Series Book 6) by Pat Simmons

  About the Book

  Friendship, memories and wishes are powerful things and in the small town of Snowflake, Colorado they combine to form a memorial to a lost friend. Following her death, Charity Hart left six of her close high school friends, including Caro Price, $1,500 each and an assignment to use that money to grant someone else’s secret wish by Christmas.

  Temporarily back in Snowflake to help her beloved grandmother recover from an illness, nurse practitioner Caro is on the hunt for a recipient for her secret angel gift. A chance encounter in a specialty store focuses Caro’s interest on a red-headed little girl fascinated by a nativity scene.

  Caro’s grandmother has matchmaking on her mind as she pushes Caro and her neighbor, Simon Novak, together. It turns out that Simon coaches the little redhead’s older brother at the high school. With Simon’s help, Caro tries to learn more about the family and it quickly becomes apparent that the widowed mother and her two children are struggling financially.

  But is there more going on than meets the eye, for Caro sees flashes of fear in their eyes. Christmas is the season of wishes, and Caro, with God's guidance, is determined to make one little girl’s dream a reality! And, maybe, just maybe, fulfill a dream of her own!

  The Letter

  Dear Mia, Caro, Nate, Sara, Holly, and Taye,

  I’m sure you’re wondering why I wrote this letter. After all, some of us said everything we wanted to say the last time we spoke. I treasure those last words. But it seems my health has taken a turn for the worse, and so here I am, writing this message.

  When I look back at my life, one of my favorite memories is the time when we were all in Bible club in high school together and we decided to become secret angels during our winter break. For me, it was during my senior year. We each bought a gift for someone else and secretly gave it to them for Christmas.

  We had so much fun trying to figure out who to give our gift to and what the gift would be. And when we gave it to the person we had chosen, they never knew who it was from. That was the best part of all.

  You probably don’t know this, but I was a secret angel every year after that because I enjoyed it so much. This year, I set aside the money to do it again, but it seems I might not get the chance. If you’re reading this letter, it means that I didn’t.

  So, I’m asking each of you to take the money that I saved and be my secret angels for me. I’ve chosen you because I know you would understand how much it means. I’m giving each of you a check for $1,500. Please use it to grant a wish for someone else in time for Christmas. Make it special.

  P.S. If you’re unable to do this, I understand. Refuse the check, and my lawyer will donate it to a worthy cause.

  Love Always, Charity

  Chapter One

  Caro Price opened the door to the This and That Shop, her mind and heart heavy with her long-time friend Charity’s last request. A request she and five of her high school Bible club friends had just heard about at the Green and Son’s law office. While she had once considered the five others close friends, she’d rarely seen any of them after her first couple of summer breaks from college. A pang of regret pricked her. She’d severed the roots she’d worked so hard to establish as a teen. Things had seemed so simple then. She didn’t know if she’d ever get that feeling of belonging back again.

  She scoured the variety store’s displays for the blue and silver tinsel ropes her grandmother was sure they’d have. How on earth could she honor Charity’s request—to secretly make a real difference in someone’s life by Christmas—with the holiday only six weeks away? She hadn’t lived in Snowflake since she’d left for college fifteen years ago. Even with her grandmother’s updates, she didn’t know enough about what was going on here to choose someone to be a secret angel to.

  “Mommy,” a red-haired little girl shouted. “Look. It’s our Jesus people. The ones that got lost.”

  “Hope, please come over here and try on these boots.” A woman about Caro’s age with slightly darker red hair lifted a pair of pink and white snow boots and motioned the little girl to her.

  “But Mommy, you gotta see.” The little girl picked up and waved what looked to Caro to be a ceramic figurine of the Madonna.

  “Careful. Put that down before you break it.” The woman rushed over and took the piece from the girl’s hand.

  “Can we get it, Mommy? Daddy said he was going to find our Jesus people … before he got dead.”

  While the mother gathered the little girl to her, a tall boy who looked to be in his early teens walked toward them. Something about him was familiar, but she didn’t know any kids that age in Snowflake, or back in Aurora, for that matter.

  “Like that was ever going to happen,” he muttered under his breath as he passed by her.

  The woman lifted her head and her teary eyes met Caro’s. Caro busie
d herself rummaging through the pile of garlands on the display. The shop was an eclectic combination of new, gently used—as she suspected the boots the woman held were—and overstock items with some antiques thrown in.

  She finally found what her grandmother wanted, but something made her linger. So she turned her attention to a display of holiday socks, remembering how when she was a child, her grandmother had bought each of them a pair of socks for every holiday. Impulsively, she picked up a pair with reindeer for each of them, one in red and the other in black. When was the last time she’d done something impulsive? Certainly not in the ER, where her work was crisis management on the best days and life and death on the worst. Here in Snowflake, away from the hospital, she could breathe again.

  The shop bell rang, and Caro looked up to see the woman and two children leaving. She meandered over to the nativity scene. It was beautiful, the figures glazed in vibrant colors.

  “Lovely, isn’t it?” The store clerk startled her, making Caro glad she hadn’t been holding the figure she’d been reaching for.

  “Yes, it is. May I ask where you got it?” The little girl’s words bounced around her head.

  “From an estate sale.”

  Then it probably wasn’t the actual nativity scene the little girl had been talking about. But one like it.

  “It was made by a local artist, now deceased, in the early 1900s, one of several.”

  Caro nodded and lifted the tag attached to the creche. $299!

  “Are you interested?” the clerk asked.

  “No just curious. Thank you.” Curious and looking for an easy out for her friend Charity’s request. But, like the secret angel gifts they’d made in high school, Caro believed any gift she made with Charity’s money—if she chose to keep the money and make a gift—should make a real difference to the recipient. She wasn’t sure giving the little girl the nativity scene fit that bill. Caro had a sad feeling that the little girl’s family might need more practical help to brighten their Christmas. Besides, Charity had left $1,500 each for their gifts. Despite the way the little girl—Hope she’d thought the mother had called her—had tugged on Caro’s heartstrings, she had to think bigger.

  Caro checked out and drove back to her grandmother’s house. A glance at the dashboard clock told her she’d been gone far longer than she’d anticipated. Grandma had said she wouldn’t do anything the doctor or physical therapist had told her not to. Still, Caro had thought she’d be gone an hour or less, and it had been almost two hours. That was a long time for Grandma to stay put, despite her healing broken hip.

  “Hi,” she called stepping out of the light snow that had just started and into her grandmother’s warm kitchen.

  “In here,” her grandmother called back.

  Caro toed her boots off and slipped on the shoes she’d left on the mat by the door. Good. Her grandmother was still in the living room where Caro had left her to read while she was gone.

  “I found the tinsel you wanted, but that and the meeting at the law office took a lot longer than I’d expected.” Caro stopped short in the doorway to the living room waving the This and That store bag. A man was standing over grandma in her recliner rocking chair frowning at Caro.

  “Your grandmother said you left nearly two hours ago.”

  Caro’s heart pounded. “Did something happen, Grandma, that you called…?” She stopped, not knowing who the bearded man guarding her grandmother was.

  “My next-door neighbor,” her grandmother cheerfully filled in.

  The man gave up his frown to talk. “She didn’t call. I got some of her mail by mistake and came over to give it to her.”

  Caro studied his face, feeling as if she knew him.

  “And,” he continued, “I found her in the kitchen dragging a step stool with her walker to the counter to get something out of the cupboard.”

  “I thought I’d make myself some tea. The canister on the counter is empty, and the new box is on the upper shelf.”

  Caro placed her hands on her hips. “Grandma, you said you wouldn’t try to do anything you’re not supposed to while I was gone.”

  Her grandmother’s eyes twinkled. “And you said you wouldn’t be gone more than an hour.”

  “The attorney took longer than I’d expected. You could have called, and I would have skipped the This and That shop.”

  “No, I need the tinsel ropes you found to drape around the upper walls in here as I always do for Christmas. What I have is so old it’s lost its sparkle.”

  The man’s laugh interrupted their conversation. Caro didn’t know what was so funny. She and her grandmother turned to him.

  “I’m sorry.” His mouth twitched as he tried not to grin. “You remind me of my students. An explanation for everything.”

  His smile cooled her pique and totally changed his face, making him look even more familiar. No, it couldn’t be. Not Snowflake’s professional football claim to fame, and her and her middle school friends’ secret crush. What would he be doing teaching here?

  “Yes,” her grandmother said. “Simon teaches high school history.”

  Caro’s face heated as it had at the sight of him back when she was a freshman at Snowflake High, and he was a senior. Under the guise of doing their homework together after Bible club, she and her friends had sat out on the football field bleachers to watch the guys practice while waiting for the late activities bus to come. He’d often been their main topic of conversation.

  “You’re Simon Novak,” she blurted.

  “Of course, he is,” her grandmother said. “Don’t you remember I told you he bought the Anderson’s house when they retired and downsized to a condo?”

  “No.” She didn’t remember that. But she did remember not watching where she was walking in the cafeteria, bumping into Simon, and dumping her lunch on him. And she remembered slipping on some ice on the school sidewalk and falling on her behind. The guys who’d been with Simon had laughed as they walked by, but he’d given her a hand up. She’d been too tongue-tied to do anything but nod when he’d asked if she was all right. Caro blinked her eyes to blank out memories of any of the other embarrassing incidents she’d inadvertently incited in front of Simon her first year of high school

  “Caro, Caroline Price. I didn’t connect you with Mrs. Becker … Ruth,” he said.

  Yep. It had been too much to hope that she’d been forgettable enough to have faded from his memory.

  * * *

  Caro Price? Simon searched the pretty face under the sleek chin-length blond hair for any signs of the too-thin bookish girl with glasses, braces, and long nondescript blonde-brown hair he’d known in high school. The girl who seemed to bring a cloud of calamity with her. At least whenever she’d been in his vicinity. The constant razzing from his teammates had led him to work out a daily routine where he avoided crossing paths with her at school.

  “Your grandmother has told me that you’re a nurse practitioner at one of the hospitals in Denver,” he said to return the conversation back to where it was before he and Caro had recognized each other.

  “Yes, in Aurora, actually. In the ER at UCHealth.”

  “Must be challenging work.”

  She pressed her lips together as if weighing her next words. More stressful than challenging lately. “Yes, challenging but rewarding.”

  “Ah, kind of like teaching high school students.”

  “I’d guess so.” Long-time teachers suffered burnout, too.

  “So, then, are you looking forward to your holiday break here as much as I am to l the school district’s winter break?” He snapped his mouth closed, before any more inane teacher-nurse similes could escape and make him look as uncomfortable standing there talking as he felt.

  “I do intend to enjoy my time with my grandmother.”

  “I’ll head home and leave you to that, then.”

  “Wait,” Ruth said. “I thought you were staying for lunch with us.”

  Simon didn’t remember agreeing to lunch, but
he hated to disappoint Ruth, when she’d been so nice to him since he’d moved in next door. He glanced at Caro, who’d assumed a neutral expression. As long as Ruth didn’t have any matchmaking ideas.

  “I can stay, but I don’t want to get in the way of your catching up with Caro.”

  Ruth waved him off. “We got all caught up over Thanksgiving dinner, and she’ll be here through New Year’s.”

  And he’d be next door a lot longer than that. But he wouldn’t question her logic since he’d been taught to respect his elders. “Okay, I’ll stay.”

  “Good.” She clapped her hands together. “You can help Caro in the kitchen, since I’ve been ordered off my feet. There’s leftover turkey and cranberries for turkey salad sandwiches. Some stuffing, too, if you want it.”

  He dutifully followed Caro into the kitchen. He’d been the one who’d ordered Ruth off her feet after he’d found her on the stepping stool.

  “I think we’ve been set up,” he said after the kitchen door swung closed behind him.

  Caro laughed, the sound taking a chink out of the front he’d already put up when he’d suspected Ruth’s motive.

  “She means well. Are you good with turkey salad?”

  “I know she does, and I’d rather have turkey and stuffing.”

  Caro removed the turkey from the refrigerator and took a carving knife from the wooden knife holder on the counter. “I’m surprised Gram didn’t invite you and the rest of the neighborhood to join us for dinner Thursday. The turkey she had delivered was certainly big enough.” Caro bumped the refrigerator door shut with her hip and raised the platter to him.