Sweet Noel Read online

  Sweet Noel

  Indigo Bay Christmas Romances Book 2

  Jeanette Lewis

  Contents

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  Welcome to Indigo Bay

  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

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue — One Year Later

  More Indigo Bay

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  Books by Jeanette Lewis

  About the Author

  Chapter One

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  Hi Bookworms!

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  Join my VIP reader’s club and receive a free copy of my sweet romance Horses, Hayrides, and Husbands. As a member, you’ll be the first to learn about special contests and giveaways, free book days, story trivia, and works in progress. There’s no obligation and I typically send only one email per week.

  Old grudges and ornery cowboys are meant to be broken.

  Misty Epperson has her hands full with a toddler and a full-time job helping Ty run The Epperson Foundation, the charitable organization he founded with his lottery jackpot. But all the chubby baby cheeks and conference calls in the world can’t drive away the emptiness hovering over her heart. She yearns for love, but Misty is wary. The last time she gave her heart away, it was returned to her battered and broken.

  When Misty meets Clydesdale wrangler, Travis Harper, she’s drawn to his quiet strength and easy smile. But Travis quickly makes his hatred of rich people known and Misty’s brother is one of the richest men in the state. When Ty interferes with the Clydesdale’s grazing pasture in the name of environmental protection, will Travis consider it guilt by association or can Misty break this sexy cowboy with the giant chip on his shoulder?

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  Sweet Noel

  Indigo Bay Christmas Romances Book 2

  Neither is looking for love, but is love looking for them?

  * * *

  Gina Andrews never imagined she’d be a single mother forced to move back to Indigo Bay and live with her parents. But she’s managing, all the while holding on to hope that her ex-husband will wake up to what he’s missing and agree to try again.

  Noel Hamilton is a professional drifter and artist, in that order. He’s happy going wherever the wind takes him. He seeks freedom, art, and serenity.

  When Noel meets the business end of Gina’s car and ends up in the hospital, he realizes he’s going nowhere fast. And when Gina’s mother steps in to help him, Gina and Noel are thrown together to stew in their mutual dislike.

  But slowly, things change and as Indigo Bay prepares for the Christmas season, Gina begins to wonder if this year could be her sweetest Noel ever.

  Welcome to Indigo Bay

  What is the Indigo Bay Christmas Romances series? It’s a continuation of the popular Indigo Bay Sweet Romance and Second Chance Romance series with tons of fun for readers! But more specifically, it’s a set of books written by authors who love romance. Grab a mug of hot chocolate, drop into a comfy chair, and get ready to be swept away into this charming South Carolina beach town.

  The Indigo Bay world has been written so readers can dive in anywhere in the series without missing a beat. Read one or all—they’re all sweet, fun rides that you won’t soon forget. Also, as special treats, you’ll see some recurring characters. How many can you find?

  1

  Gina pulled into the familiar driveway in Cinnamon Hills, South Carolina, and killed the engine. Janice Millstead, her former mother-in-law, always went all-out for holidays. The two-story Victorian-style house was fully decorated for Thanksgiving, with pumpkins lining the porch and a garland of curly willow and autumn leaves woven through the gingerbread detailing. Gina knew that tomorrow, Janice would begin swapping out the autumn decorations for Christmas, and the entire house would sparkle like a piece of glass in the sand.

  Janice was one thing Gina missed about her marriage. She’d been close to her former mother-in-law, but in the nine months since the divorce, Janice had made it clear that her loyalty was with her son, Lee, and not a cast-off daughter-in-law.

  Lee and the boys, to be fair. Janice and Reid Millstead doted on their grandsons, and who was Gina to deny them the opportunity? Especially when the visitation schedule had been ordered by the court. Lee got Thanksgiving this year. She got Christmas.

  Gina plucked her phone from the center console of her car and pulled up Lee’s number. She typed out a quick text.

  I’m here.

  An ache pounded in her chest. Thanksgiving was yet another bullet point in a long series of firsts this year, and she’d dreaded each one. She and Lee had divorced last February, deliberately timing it so the boys would have almost a year to adjust to their new situation before they faced the holidays. It seemed like a decade since she’d signed the divorce papers, and back then, it’d been easy to believe this time would never come. But it had, and each day in the calendar took her away from the comfortable life she’d known with Lee and onward toward a boatload of milestones she’d never wanted to reach.

  First night moving back in with her parents in Indigo Bay. First time using her maiden name again. First birthday alone. First time at a parent/teacher conference as a single mom. And now, first Thanksgiving alone.

  Well, not alone. She’d been with her family. But her boys were with Lee, so she might as well have been alone. The sting of missing them had been constant, a hovering sadness that hung low like the fog on a misty morning. But that was the deal. At least she could look forward to Christmas.

  Her phone buzzed, and she picked it up. It was Lee.

  They’ll be out in a minute.

  Gina sent a simple thumbs-up emoji back. She leaned into the headrest and closed her eyes. In her long experience with Lee, “a minute” could mean two minutes or two hours. He’d keep them inside until he was ready to let them go and not a moment before.

  That was how it had always been. They played by Lee’s rules. Even the divorce had been his idea. Funny how you needed two people to agree to a marriage, but only one to decide on a divorce. But then, you couldn’t force someone to stay married when they clearly wanted out. How could that be fair?

  Gina’s attention drifted in the wash of the lights coming from Janice’s autumn décor. Orange and gold wound with warm white lights and gold-wired bows tied among the leaves, vivid against the ashy gray of the curly willow. Last year, she’d helped her mother-in-law hang this same garland along this same porch the day after Halloween. The sight was weirdly normal, like the past year hadn’t brought so much turmoil and sorrow.

  It felt like everything from that life should have been destroyed with the divorce. But life went on, even though it seemed to have left her behind.

  The front door finally flew open, and her boys barreled out. Gina pulled her attention back and watched as they exchanged hugs with Lee and then Janice on the porch. Jordan was eight now and showing signs of entering a growth spurt. Arthur, at age five, was still chubby cheeked, with wide blue eyes that were at once full of childlike innocence and dashed with pain someone so young should not endure. The boys were holding bags of something, most likely treats from Grandma’s pantry. Janice loved to spoil her grandchildren, just like she’d spoiled her children. Maybe that was part of the pro
blem with Lee.

  Gina’s smile was genuine as the boys threw open the doors of the car and climbed in, one on each side. Arthur’s cowlick was back with a vengeance. No matter how much water or gel she used on it, the hair refused to be tamed, and Arthur finished every day looking like he’d just tumbled out of bed.

  “How was it?” she asked.

  “Great!” Jordan blurted. “I ate almost an entire pumpkin pie by myself. And Grandma gave me these.” He held up a plastic bag full of homemade rolls.

  Gina’s mouth watered. Her own mother was a terrific cook, but no one could match Janice’s homemade dinner rolls. How many times had she sat at a family dinner in this house and eaten the same rolls drenched in butter? A pang hit her heart. She was not welcome there anymore, and she knew it.

  “An entire pumpkin pie?” she asked, pushing away the sadness. Her therapist had told her to focus on the positive, and she was gradually getting better at steering her thoughts in an optimistic direction—at least around the boys. “Impressive,” she told Jordan. “Are we talking slice after slice, or did you just belly up to the entire pie and go for it?”

  He giggled. “Slice after slice. But next time I’ll ask Grandma to make me one of my own. I’ll bet I could eat it all.”

  “Next time” would be Thanksgiving with Gina, probably at her parents’ house in Indigo Bay, but she wasn’t about to burst his bubble. “I’m sure Grandma would be happy to make your own special pie,” she told her son. “Both buckled?”

  She twisted in her seat to check the road and their seat belts, then looked back to the house. Her throat went tight. Lee still stood on the porch, lifting one hand in farewell.

  “Wave to your dad,” Gina instructed.

  Lee was wearing a pair of khakis she’d bought him at the mall in Charleston and hemmed by hand. Lee had short legs, so she’d always had to hem his pants. She’d tried to act like it was no big deal, but he was sensitive about his height. Gina never wore heels around him, since that would make her taller than he was. Even on their wedding day, she’d worn flats.

  Paired with the khakis, Lee wore a red plaid button-up and a tie the boys had given him for Father’s Day last year. That could be a good sign. If he was still wearing the clothes from their marriage, maybe he wasn’t entirely ready to move on. Maybe he was having second thoughts—remembering how good they’d been together. They’d been happy once; maybe they could be again. It was the idea she’d been secretly clinging to since the divorce.

  She forced a smile and waved quickly at her ex-husband, then backed out of the driveway. Lee returned the wave halfheartedly, but it was enough to lift Gina’s spirits. She wouldn’t push. Lee never reacted well to pressure. He’d have to come back around on his own, and in the meantime, she would do her best to be patient.

  The boys chattered about the day, filling her head with memories of other Thanksgivings as she made the series of the slow turns to take them out of the neighborhood and to the highway. It was a two-hour drive from Cinnamon Hills to Indigo Bay on a normal day, but with Thanksgiving traffic, Gina expected it would take much longer.

  “Can we listen to Christmas carols?” Arthur asked from his seat directly behind her.

  “Sure.” Gina jabbed at the buttons on the radio, searching through the stations.

  “It’s too early for Christmas carols,” Jordan moaned loudly. He sprawled across his side of the car, straining his seat belt to its limits. “Besides, they’re lame. Let’s listen to something good, like OneRepublic.”

  “Christmas carols are good,” Gina said evenly. She pressed a few more buttons and finally found a station. “Frosty the Snowman” burst from the speakers.

  “No!” Jordan let out a frustrated howl. “This is so dumb.”

  “I like it,” Arthur shot back.

  “It’s a baby song,” Jordan insisted.

  “Stop it, both of you,” Gina ordered, turning the radio down. “You just got in the car and you’re already fighting.”

  “But Mom, he likes stupid stuff,” Jordan said.

  “Do not,” Arthur said. “You’re a bully.”

  “Stop!” Gina took the next turn a little faster than normal, and the boys went quiet. At least she had their attention. “We’ll do a Christmas carol and then a OneRepublic song. Deal?”

  “Why does he always get his way just because he’s the baby?” Jordan mumbled.

  “No more complaining,” Gina said. “Tell me something good about today.”

  “Dad has a girlfriend,” Arthur said after a moment of silence.

  Gina gasped, the air rushing into her lungs so fast it hurt. Her eyes pinned Arthur’s in the rearview mirror. “What did you say?”

  “Dad has a girlfriend.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “She was there today,” Jordan said, with all the carelessness of a young child who doesn’t consider parents could have feelings. “She’s nice.”

  Gina felt her cheeks flush with heat. “He brought her to Thanksgiving dinner?”

  “Yeah,” Arthur said casually, as if those words didn’t have the power to cut straight through to Gina’s heart. “Her name is Kim. She’s pretty.”

  “Pretty how?”

  “Mom, look out!” Jordan screamed.

  Gina whipped her attention back to the road, but it was too late. A man had appeared out of nowhere, stumbling from between two parked cars. Gina stomped on the brakes, and there was a squeal of the tires and then a muffled thump as the bumper of the car struck the man’s legs. She met his shocked gaze through the windshield for a split second; then he was gone, crumpling to the asphalt in front of the car.

  2

  “Oh no!” Gina gasped. “Oh no, no, no.” She threw her door open and struggled out of her seat belt, then ran around the front of the car with her heart in her throat.

  The man lay on his back, both hands clutching his knee. He was rolling back and forth in pain, groaning loudly.

  “Sir? Sir?” Gina knelt beside him. “Are you hurt?” Stupid question. He was obviously hurt. It was just a question of how badly.

  The man’s eyes were glassy. “My knee. Something’s wrong.” He exhaled heavily, and Gina caught the strong, acrid scent of alcohol on his breath.

  “Hold on. I’ll call an ambulance.” She leaped to her feet and held out both hands, motioning for him to stay down. “Don’t move, okay?”

  “Mom, what happened?” Jordan demanded when she got back to the car.

  Gina swiped her long hair off her face. Her hands were clammy as she reached for her phone in the console, and her fingers stuck to the screen as she typed in the unlock code. “It was an accident. You boys stay here.”

  She hurried back to the man, dialing on the way. Her brain spun, every worst-case scenario racing through her mind. Her voice shook as she told the dispatcher what had happened.

  “It’s …” She squinted to read the numbers on the houses. “Twenty-one twenty … I think we’re on Valcourt Lane. I can’t remember.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “He came out from between some parked cars, I don’t know—I didn’t see—”

  “Ma’am, please try to stay calm,” the dispatcher said in a cool, detached voice. “The ambulance is on the way.”

  “I could call my ex-husband,” Gina offered. “He’s at his parents’ house for Thanksgiving. He could probably be here in a few minutes.”

  “No, don’t call anyone else. Just stay on the line with me,” the dispatcher said.

  “They’re coming,” Gina told the man on the ground.

  His eyes were squeezed shut, and his knuckles were white where he clutched at his knee. There was no blood, and Gina couldn’t see anything because of the fabric of his worn jeans, but something was very wrong.

  “Can I get you anything? Water or …” She trailed off, aware of how ridiculous she sounded. How about a cocktail while we wait? Or maybe I could have my boys bring you a dinner roll? Turn on some OneRepublic?

  “I have a blanket in the back of
my car. Are you cold, or I could put it under your head?”

  “Lady, unless you’ve got morphine or something else to dull this pain, I’m not interested.” His voice was gravelly, and he spoke from between clenched teeth.

  “I …” She sat back in surprise. “Of course I don’t have morphine.”

  “Then shut up, will you?” the man growled. Along with the ripped jeans, he wore a pair of battered sneakers and a T-shirt topped with a camo army-style jacket. His brown hair was long and thick, and his beard hadn’t seen the sharp side of a razor in quite a while.

  “I’m—” Gina stopped herself. She’d been about to apologize, but the voice of her brother Ben rose in her mind. Ben was a police officer and always had plenty of tips; including never apologize at an accident—a judge could see it as an admission of guilt. “I’m Gina,” she finally said.

  The man just looked at her, eyes glazed with alcohol and pain. The pain appeared to be winning.

  “Mom! Are you okay?” Jordan came around the front of the car. When he saw the man lying on the ground, his mouth dropped open.

  Gina jumped to her feet. “I’m fine. The paramedics are on their way. Get back in the car.”

  Jordan’s gaze fixed on the man. “What happened? Who is that?”