Hello everyone!
Okay, okay. You can say it.
What in the name of all that's happy am I doing reading a CHRISTMAS book just after Easter and right before May 1?
I'll tell you.
During the holiday season, I stumbled upon a short stories compilation which included Christmas, pets, and kisses (not necessarily in that order, however), and I fell in love with some of the stories in there. In particular with the very first I read, which was why I dusted off the entire thing yesterday and decided, why not?
It's currently cold and unpleasant outside what with all the rain we have going on, but that being said I suppose the festive cheer is what I've been missing.
And I could dearly use some pick-me-up these days.
So, without further ado, allow me to introduce Helen Scott Taylor's Golden Christmas!
The story begins during the Christmas holidays when Vicky, a young widow, is running close to Rosemoor Hall where she rented the gatehouse to spend the holiday in, alone. Her reason? Christmas is always a painful time for her because a few years previously she had lost both her son and her husband because a driver had lost control of their car and went straight at them.
So now she tends to spend holidays alone, and she hasn't actually mourned properly, either, since she flat-out refuses.
Things start changing for her that morning on her regular jog when she spies a man throwing a ball for his golden labrador, Honey, and who seems to be too arrogant for his own good when said ball perches in the tree and the poor dog can't get to it.
Vicky is incensed and about to lay into the guy when she spies the walking cane he uses to help navigate, and she realizes the man is blind.
Chagrined, she fetches the ball herself, and he introduces himself as Jonathan, inviting her along for tea, and also because the poor man has misplaced his migraine medicine which means he's going to be miserable soon enough.
Vicky helps find the box, and then leaves Jon with the promise to look in on him in the evening and let Honey out for a run before bed time, since his migraines are pretty debilitating. She also stumbles upon an old military photo of him in a desert area with a group of fellow soldiers, telling her that the reason he lost his sight is probably army-related.
The next morning, Vicky runs into Jon's cousin, Owen, also learning that Jon's older brother Marcus and his wife are on Mauricius for Christmas, leaving Jon to fend for himself.
Well, at least he WAS, until Vicky came along. Owen invites both of them to Shelly's inn in town, the Fat Goose, for lunch (Shelly being Jon and Marcus' sister), which Vicky is hesitant to accept, but Jon sort of lures her in with the promise of seeing some cute puppies along the way since Shelly's dog, Midnight, had just had a litter.
So, taking the man into town, Vicky does in fact see the puppies - and falls in love with the only golden one in the mix! Nabbing the girl for herself and naming her Jessie, she later shares her heartbreaking story with Jon over lunch, while he shares some details about his past in the army (namely how he was lucky to escape with his life when the bomb his convoy drove over exploded).
The attraction between them just seems to grow further as Vicky admits that the heating seems to be broken in the gatehouse, prompting Jon to offer one of the hall's guest rooms for her to use, and inviting her to dinner. Dinner also leads to him 'seeing' her for the first time (with his hands gently tracing her face) and their first kiss.
This, however, confuses Vicky as she's afraid she's forgetting all about her deceased husband and son, but after nearly driving herself to th ground running, she starts to realize maybe neither one of them would have wanted her to waste her life away.
Slowly, surely, Jon's steady presence and gentle patience thaw Vicky out and she allows him close again, both emotionally and physically, and the two of them share some very happy moments together with Shelly and the puppies over Christmas.
The next hurdle, however, are Vicky's parents, whom she had pretty much sidelined after her tragedy since she couldn't bear to be where her first love began, but with Jon by her side she manages to make it a cleansing visit rather than a heartbreaking one - and also assures her mother that she truly doesn't care if Jon's blind. To her, what matters is that he's a good man.
Jon invites Vicky to move in with him, which she happily accepts, and upon Marcus and Gabriella's return from their holiday, Marcus, too, welcomes Vicky into the family.
Now all that's left is introducing Jessie (the new pup) to Honey (which goes off without a hitch, mind you), and Jon and Vicky both convince Marcus to take the last pup for himself despite the fact this will anger his wife (but then again Gabriella seems to dislike anything Marcus likes on purpose, so serves her right).
With Marcus' blessing, the two then relocate to the gatehouse and renovate it over the next year for their own needs, and on their second Christmas together, twelve months later, Jon proposes to Vicky while Vicky shares that he's going to be a father.
The end!
Gah, don't you just love these sweet and short stories? It was easygoing, had a natural flow, and none of that back-and-forth you see in longer romantic novels. Both Jon and Vicky were reasonable and level-headed enough to talk things through, and the dogs were obviously the stars of the story.
Now I need to get my hands on the other two books in this trilogy, just to see what happens to Jon's male relatives!
xx
*image not mine
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