Love Often Comes in Surprising Packages
A Christmas Blessing
Widowed Jessie Adams was about to give birth, and she needed help—fast! Unfortunately, the closest ranch in her small Texas town belonged to her late husband’s brother, Luke, who didn’t know a thing about delivering babies. And though this charismatic rancher was her only hope, he was the last person Jessie wanted to be stranded with in her time of need.
Natural Born Daddy
Jordan Adams proposed a marriage of convenience to single mom Kelly Flint because he thought it was time they each settled down with a perfectly compatible, always dependable partner. After all, they’d both learned the hard way that love only leads to heartache. But to his surprise, Kelly made it clear marriage would be anything but platonic, and her young daughter kindled fond feelings of fatherhood in his heart. Now he had to convince Kelly that he was not only a natural born daddy...but also the perfect husband she’d been waiting for all her life.
Praise for the novels of Sherryl Woods
“Sherryl Woods writes emotionally satisfying novels about family, friendship and home. Truly feel-great reads!”
—#1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber
“During the course of this gripping, emotionally wrenching but satisfying tale, Woods deftly and realistically handles such issues as survival guilt, drug abuse as adolescent rebellion, and family dynamics when a vital member is suddenly gone.”
—Booklist on Flamingo Diner
“Woods is a master heartstring puller.”
—Publishers Weekly on Seaview Inn
“Once again, Woods, with such authenticity, weaves a tale of true love and the challenges that can knock up against that love.”
—RT Book Reviews on Beach Lane
“Woods...is noted for appealing character-driven stories that are often infused with the flavor and fragrance of the South.”
—Library Journal
“A reunion story punctuated by family drama, Woods’s first novel in her new Ocean Breeze series is touching, tense and tantalizing.”
—RT Book Reviews on Sand Castle Bay
“A whimsical, sweet scenario...the digressions have their own charm, and Woods never fails to come back to the romantic point.”
—Publishers Weekly on Sweet Tea at Sunrise
Also by Sherryl Woods
Chesapeake Shores
Lilac Lane
Willow Brook Road
Dogwood Hill
The Christmas Bouquet
A Seaside Christmas
The Summer Garden
An O’Brien Family Christmas
Beach Lane
Moonlight Cove
Driftwood Cottage
A Chesapeake Shores Christmas
Harbor Lights
Flowers on Main
The Inn at Eagle Point
The Sweet Magnolias
Swan Point
Where Azaleas Bloom
Catching Fireflies
Midnight Promises
Honeysuckle Summer
Sweet Tea at Sunrise
Home in Carolina
Welcome to Serenity
Feels Like Family
A Slice of Heaven
Stealing Home
Molly DeWitt Mysteries
Tropical Blues
Rough Seas
Nonfiction
A Small Town Love Story: Colonial Beach, Virginia
For a complete list of all titles by Sherryl Woods,
visit www.sherrylwoods.com.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
Sherryl Woods
Christmas at White Pines
Table of Contents
A Christmas Blessing
Natural Born Daddy
A Christmas Blessing
Contents
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
1
Getting Consuela Martinez out of his kitchen was proving to be a much more difficult task than Luke Adams had ever envisioned. His housekeeper had found at least a dozen excuses for lingering, despite the fact that her brother was leaning on his car’s horn and causing enough ruckus to deafen them all.
“Go, amiga,” Luke pleaded. “Enjoy your holidays with your family. Feliz Navidad!”
Consuela ignored the instructions and the good wishes. “The freezer is filled with food,” she reminded him, opening the door to show him for the fourth time. Though there were literally dozens of precooked, neatly labeled packages, a worried frown puckered her brow. “It will be enough?”
“More than enough,” he assured her.
“But not if you have guests,” she concluded, removing her coat. “I should stay. The holidays are no time for a good housekeeper to be away.”
“I won’t be having any guests,” Luke said tightly, picking the coat right back up and practically forcing her into it. “And if I do, I am perfectly capable of whipping up a batch of chips and dip.”
“Chips and dip,” she muttered derisively.
She added a string of Spanish Luke felt disinclined to translate. He caught the general drift; it wasn’t complimentary. After all this time, though, Consuela should know that he wasn’t the type to host a lot of extravagant, foolish parties. Leave that sort of thing to his brother Jordan or his parents. His brother thrived on kissing up to his business associates and his parents seemed to think that filling the house with strangers meant they were well loved and well respected.
“Consuela, go!” he ordered, barely curbing his impatience. “Vaya con Dios. I’ll be fine. I am thirty-two years old. I’ve been out of my playpen for a long time.”
One of the dangers of hiring an ex-nanny as a housekeeper, he’d discovered, was the tendency she had to forget that her prior charge had grown up. Yet he could no more have fired Consuela than he could have his own mother. In truth, for all of her hovering and bossiness, she was the single most important constant in his life. Which was a pretty pitiful comment on the state of his family, he decided ruefully.
Consuela’s unflinching, brown-eyed gaze pinned him. Hands on ample hips, she squared off against him. “You will go to your parents’ on Christmas, sí? The holidays are a time for families to be together. You have stayed away too long.”
“Yes,” he lied. He had no intention of going anywhere, especially not to his parents’ house where everyone would be mourning, not celebrating, thanks to him.
“They will have enough help for all of the parties that are planned?”
Luke bit back a groan. “Consuela, you know perfectly well they will,” he said patiently. “The place is crawling with your very own nieces and nephews. My parents haven’t had to cook, clean or sneeze without assistance since you took over the running of that household forty years ago before they’d even met. When you came over here to work for me, you handpicked your cousin to replace you. Maritza is very good, yes?”
“Sí,” she conceded.
“This trip to see your family in Mexico is my present to you. It’s long overdue. You said yourself not
