by Mara Jacobs
His boots stood in a pile of melted snow, and he flashed to his memory of standing Phee’s tennis shoes out of the puddle at the bottom of her locker so they wouldn’t get wet.
God, why did everything seem to remind him of her and that beautiful, magical, way-too-short night?
He’d been devastated the next evening when he’d gone to the diner only to find that she’d quit her job with no notice and left town. Or so they’d said. The owners of the diner refused to give him any other information about her, not even her last name.
He supposed he didn’t blame them. How were they supposed to know what had transpired the night before? And he wasn’t about to tell them he’d had mind-blowing sex in their bathroom. He’d asked for Buddy, to corroborate his story that he was a friend of Phee’s and meant no harm. But Buddy hadn’t been working that night, or the next morning when Charlie had stopped again on his way out of town.
He stepped into the little room where everybody had thrown their coats and dug around for his. Stepping back into the hallway, his backside collided with someone. So, somebody else was ducking out from the happy nuptials. He turned at the same time that the person behind him did, coming face to face with her.
A vision in a strapless red dress. A tiny blonde. Lizzie’s sister-in-law.
Phee.
“Phee?” He said, shocked. “How? Where?” He raised his hands to take hold of her arms but stopped, as if touching her might break whatever spell had conjured her presence.
She stood staring at him, her mouth open in shock.
She must have recovered before he did, because she blurted out at a rapid pace, “My name is Phoebe Lynn Robbins. I’m staying with my brother, Finn, and his wife at the family farm on Paradise Road. That’s in Houghton. I went to Houghton High School. I shared an apartment in Port Huron, but I’m not going back anyway, so you don’t need that address.” She took a quick, deep breath and continued on, “I’m on Facebook as Phoebe Robbins. I’m on Twitter as at PheebsYooper, but I’m hardly ever on that. My Gmail account is Phoebe Robbins twenty-seven, no spaces. My cell number is—”
“Phee, stop,” he said, this time taking hold of her arms like he wanted. God, she was real. And warm. And soft. And blathering on about stupid stuff.
Stuff like—oh. “That’s right. No way for you not to find me now, Charlie.”
“Oh, I won’t need to find you again,” he said. She looked up at him, hurt in her eyes. He ran his hands down her arms to clasp her hands in his. “Because I’m not going to let you go again.”
“Oh, Charlie,” she whispered. Then she smiled, and his insides melted faster than the snow on his boots.
“I’m Charlie Simpson, by the way. I live here and work at Summers and Beck.”
“You live here? In the Copper Country? I…I can’t believe it.”
It had seemed like some kind of Christmas miracle that they’d found each other at all that first night, but then to find each other again…
“Amazing,” they both said, then smiled.
“Hey, you two,” someone said from behind Phee. “Look up.” They did to find they were standing under a sprig of mistletoe.
They smiled at each other. From the other room, Charlie heard a deep voice declare, “Dearly beloved…” Then he heard nothing but Phee’s gasp as he took her in his arms and kissed her.
“Merry Christmas,” he murmured against her lips, then kissed her again.
She kissed him back, twining her arms around his neck and melting into him. When they finally parted, she looked at him and said exactly what he was thinking, “Best Christmas gift ever.”
Epilogue
Christmas is the day that holds all time together.
~ Alexander Smith
Petey looked at the group gathered around Alison and him. His friends, his family, even Al’s parents on a rare outing from the nursing home where they lived. They sat ensconced in comfortable chairs at the front of the area Al had created for their wedding.
There was only one person missing. He was glad he’d broken Al’s rule and told Zeke Hampton about the wedding. Zeke had wanted to come, but was currently on float with the Navy. Honestly, though, Lizzie was as appropriate to be Petey’s best man as Zeke.
He looked down at his sweet, ballsy Al, a vision in white. Not really a bridal dress, because that wasn’t her style. In fact, he was kind of shocked she’d even bowed to the convention of wearing white. It was kind of like the famous Marilyn Monroe dress, full skirt with a halter neckline. At least that’s what he’d heard her call it. He knew jack shit about necklines.
She was a vision, though, that was for sure. He just couldn’t believe that she’d finally said yes to his proposals. But that was how he’d been so successful in the NHL—brow-beating and tearing down the other guys so that by the third period, anytime they saw him coming, they just got out of his way.
It was kind of like that with Al. By the time she saw him go down on one knee—again—she’d just sighed and said yes.
The minister droned on. Christ, how long did it take to make his girl legally his, anyway? And everybody there had better realize that they were going to get their asses kicked out about twenty minutes after Al and he said “I do.” He was all for having a celebratory toast, but then he wanted to hustle his bride—bride! Holy wah!—up the stairs and into their newly posh master suite.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Charlie come into the living room from the hallway. Petey hadn’t even realized his new buddy wasn’t in the room. Petey did a double take when he saw that the woman coming into the room with Charlie was Finn’s little sister, Phoebe. And they were holding hands.
Well, that was fast. And yet, there seemed to be a familiarity that they displayed with each other. They stared into each other’s eyes, Charlie slipped his arm around Phoebe’s waist and she snuggled into his side, her arm wrapping around his waist.
Petey knew without a shadow of a doubt that in some crazy way, this was the girl that had Charlie moping about since Thanksgiving when he’d gone home. Petey tried to rack his brain as to where Finn’s sister lived. He knew it was downstate somewhere, but he’d thought it was Detroit. But now, he’d bet on Port Huron.
The couple stood behind everyone else, and thus not seen by anyone but Petey and Alison. They looked at each other with dopey grins on their faces, and Petey instantly knew that his friend and Finn’s sister had somehow found each other. And that they felt how he felt about his soon-to-be (come on, already, padre!) wife.
Deeply, hopelessly, forever in love.
~*~
Reviews are very important for an author. If you can, please take the time to leave a review for this book. You can write your review for Totally Worth Christmas HERE.
It’s very much appreciated!
~ Mara
Looking for more holiday romance?
Try
Countdown To A Kiss
(A New Year’s Anthology)
By Mara Jacobs, Colleen Gleason, Holli Bertram and Liz Kelly
Four stories by four authors…one fateful New Year’s Eve
Four kisses at midnight…
Three different sisters…
Two old flames…
One bet that drives it all!
The Devine sisters return to their hometown for New Year’s Eve each year to attend the annual ball. Part of the tradition is their decade-old bet: whoever has no date at midnight has to kiss their nerdy neighbor Lewis Kampmueller.
Tess—burned by love, the glamorous Broadway star isn’t interested in a repeat performance…until she encounters an old flame.
Annabelle—when the local etiquette expert gets caught breaking the law, her heart might have to pay the price.
Grace—the tough FBI agent has an easy time being one of guys, but is she woman enough to keep a man?
Lewis—the shy nerd has made millions over the years…but is he smart enough to catch the woman of his dreams?
Who will lose the bet but win out in l
ove? Four charming stories written by four different authors about one fateful New Year’s Eve.
The champagne is poured. The clock is ticking. Join the countdown!
Available for Kindle
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Mara Jacobs books available for Kindle
The Worth Series:
Worth The Weight
Worth The Drive
Worth The Fall
Worth The Effort
Totally Worth Christmas
Anna Dawson’s Vegas Romantic Mystery Series:
Against The Odds
Against The Spread
Blackbird & Confessor Romantic Suspense Series:
Broken Wings
Anthology:
Countdown To A Kiss
Mara Jacobs is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Worth series.
After graduating from Michigan State University with a degree in advertising, Mara spent several years working at daily newspapers in advertising sales and production. This certainly prepared her for the world of deadlines!
Most authors say they’ve been writing forever. Not so with Mara. She always had the stories, but they played like movies in her head. A few years ago she began transferring the movies to pages. She writes mysteries with romance, thrillers with romance, and romances with…well, you get it.
Forever a Yooper (someone who hails from Michigan's glorious Upper Peninsula), Mara now resides in the East Lansing, Michigan, area where she is better able to root on her beloved Spartans.
Mara loves to hear from readers. Contact her at [email protected]
You can find out more about Mara’s books at
www.marajacobs.com
Table of Contents
Story Description
Copyright
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Epilogue
Please Review this Book
Countdown To A Kiss
New Release Notification
Mara Jacobs books available for Kindle
Author information
