A shy soul and an adventurous heart. As the holidays approach, can they find happiness together?
Maria Anne Davis was on her way to an exciting career as a chef in Dallas, until a terrible car accident left her blind. Ever resilient, Maria has reinvented her life on her own terms, starting a business out of her home kitchen, selling her jams and jellies to the local grocery.
Maria loves romance novels, and despite her bold spirit, she fears shell never have a big love affair like ones her heroines experience. That is, until she realizes how much she cares about the quiet Wes Whitman, the owner of the grocery.
Wes cant keep Marias wildly popular jam on his shelvesjust like he cant keep the fierce, beautiful Maria out of his thoughts. But how could a firecracker like Maria come to love a shy, nervous man like him? Maybe all they need is a grand affair. Wes needs to convince Maria that some affairs last forever, thoughjust in time for Christmas.
A Christmas Affair
Jodi Thomas
www.millsandboon.co.uk
About the Author
New York Times bestselling author JODI THOMAS is a fifth-generation Texan who sets many of her stories in her home state, where her grandmother was born in a covered wagon. She is a certified marriage and family counselor, a Texas Tech graduate and writer-in-residence at West Texas A&M University. She lives with her husband in Amarillo, Texas.
www.JodiThomas.com
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Contents
Cover
Back Cover Text
Title Page
About the Author
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
Copyright
CHAPTER ONE
TRAVIS FULLER TURNED UP the collar on his jean jacket and tried to slide farther down into the backseat of the sheriffs cruiser. He hated the way cop cars always smelled of vomit and stale coffee. He hated cold days. He hated little towns and he hated the deputy who picked him up from the Lubbock airport like he was a rescue dog going to a new home.
Hell, he thought, if he ever reached his sixteenth birthday, hed probably hate being on his own, too. Hed learned a long time ago that the next place was usually worse than the last, and Crossroads, Texas, looked to be touching the bottom of the barrel.
Travis had made up his mind when he was seven that as soon as he turned sixteen, hed run away and never look back. He couldnt do a worse job of raising himself than his parents had. Both were drunks. His mother was mean and his father was stupid. Their last fight ended with her in the hospital and him in jail.
And me? he mumbled. I have to go to hell in Texas just because Im their offspring.
The deputy turned his radio down and glanced back. You all right, kid?
Im not a kid. Im almost sixteen.
Right, the deputy said with a laugh. Well, Mr. Fuller, welcome to Crossroads. Looks like youll be staying with us for a while. Youll love it here. The three uncles youre bunking with are real nice guys. One was a teacher for almost forty years, one is still working as a real cowboy, and the third one, Horace Fuller, no one knows what he did for a living but he always paid his bills. Hes sort of the town hermit, and thats not an easy title to have in a small town.
They are not my uncles, Travis grumbled.
Oh, right. Great-uncles. Longevity must run in your family. Im guessing all three are past their seventieth birthday.
I dont care. Not one of them had any kids or a wife so Im guessing they are not long on social skills.
Deputy Cline didnt argue, but added, Theyve been fixing up a place at Horaces for you to stay. Up high, almost like a tree house. I wouldnt be surprised if you can see the lights of town from there.
Great. Another cage. Travis looked out the window as the deputy pulled off the highway. The town was all brown and deserted in the winter morning light. Most of the buildings were built square and low to the ground.
You ever had an architect live here? Travis frowned.
Nope. Not that I know of.
I could have guessed that. Frank Lloyd Wright would have a heart attack here. Travis could spend hours looking at Wrights work in the books at libraries. To him the buildings were art, every one a masterpiece.
Wright? Hes that famous architect who built all those strange buildings? Deputy Cline chimed in, as if he thought he was on a game show. Ive done carpentry work, but would have no idea where to start on something like his designs.
He was a genius, Travis mumbled, not really wanting to have a conversation with the deputy. Cline was so new at the job he didnt even know he wasnt supposed to talk to anyone riding in the backseat. Travis had had enough rides to know that rule.
As the cruiser circled round, Travis asked, more to change the subject than from interest, Whats that, a barn for tumbleweeds? He pointed to an open-air building on the land left when streets crossed in the center of town.
Deputy Cline laughed as if he thought the question was a joke. Thats our town square. The structure in the middle was going to be a grand gazebo, but the project kind of got dropped. Maybe some committee will pick it back up in the spring.
Travis sat up straighter. Anyone ever tell you that the town square is a triangle?
Nope, the deputy answered too quickly to be telling the truth.
Travis had a feeling Cline had heard the question one too many times. He was doing like folks do to anyone too young to vote when they dont want to answer a question. Kind of like parents do when the world falls apart and they tell you youre lucky. Yeah, Travis thought, he was real lucky. Mom was half dead, Dad would probably never get out of jail this time, and he had to go live with three crazy old uncles not even one woman thought worth marrying.
Three weeks to Christmas and all he wanted was a bus ticket out of his life.
CHAPTER TWO
WES WHITMAN WATCHED Maria Anne Davis move silently back and forth from the farm pickup parked just outside the side door to her display in his general store.
Every Wednesday she restocked the shelves with Davis Delightful Jams and Jellies, and every Wednesday he kept an eye on her from ten feet away. Standing ready to step in and help if needed, but never smothering her.
The small woman couldnt be much into her thirties, and there was a calculated grace about her movements. She counted her steps, touched familiar points along her path, made sure everything was in place before she carried in each crate. Maria Anne Davis might be blind, but she used her other senses and her brain.
Watching her move was poetry in motion, he thought, and then laughed at himself for being almost romantic.
Wes made sure everything was exactly the same as it had been the week before. Nothing was ever in the aisle to block her path. In the silence of the early morning, she stocked and he watched.
She might be petite, but she was strong. She always dressed in jeans and a blue plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Nothing fancy. Never showy. But pretty, just the same, with her long hair tied back at the base of her neck and the dark curls drifting down to her waist.
At first hed tried too hard to help, then he realized Maria Anne didnt need any help. She needed to be alone in the stillness of the dawn hours before any customers came in.
If he left her to her work, the shelves would be stocked, all the labels facing forward, all in order.
Every week he tried to talk to her. He liked her shy ways and the grace in her slender movements. Hed probably like her voice, too, if he ever heard it in more than a whisper. She was too shy, too beautiful for the likes of him. Folks said if she hadnt been blinded in a car wreck five years ago, she would have been a great chef in Dallas now.
Shed never be interested in him, no matter how hard he tried. Nothing would ever be between them but a business relationship.
He had to be content to stand back and watch her, never getting in her way, never talking too much for fear of distracting her. Now and then over the years, hed offered to help her and she always shook her head and whispered no. But if he just stood and waited, shed eventually finish, turn in his direction and say his name.
Hed step forward and offer his arm.
Marias small hand would glide across the air until she brushed his starched shirt. Then, with her fingers resting on his arm, hed direct her to his office, where theyd settle up for last weeks sales.
Wes knew she could have found her way to his office without trouble but they both seemed to like this simple ritual each week. In an odd way he felt almost like a knight escorting a lady fair.
He suspected, after more than four years, he still frightened her, but had no idea why. After all, the only person shier than her was him.
Nice day, isnt it? he said as they walked the ten feet to his office.
Nodding, she added, Almost Christmas.
That rain the weatherman promised for next week might turn to snow, and we could have a white Christmas.
She smiled and he decided he was an idiot. A white Christmas to a blind person wouldnt matter. It would just bring cold.
He opened his office door and she stepped inside, gliding her fingertips over the boxes that lined the left wall. He made sure they were always there, always the same height so she could find her chair in front of his desk without trouble.
Maria always sat on the edge of her chair, waiting for him to write her check. Then shed touch the corner of her cell, number 3 on her speed dial to call her sister, and say simply, Im ready.
Their fingers might touch as he passed her the check, but nothing more personal.
Shed whisper a thank-you and stand.
Hed follow her out, but on the return journey she didnt take his arm. She knew the way. The touch-points where she brushed a display or let her hand slide along the glass doors of his frozen foods section were all she needed.
She would hurry away as if he were a stranger and not someone she knew. Her sister, Dakota, would be waiting for her just outside.
Wes usually followed Maria out the side door. Hed watch as she climbed in the old pickup. Hed wave as her sister, Dakota, backed up. Marias window would pass within a few feet of him. Shed often be turned as if looking right at him, but she never saw him wave at her. She had no idea he was there.
He wished Maria had an ounce of her sisters confidence. It was hard to believe they came from the same parents. Dakota was as outgoing as Maria Anne was quiet. She ran the towns only real estate office half a block down the street from his store.
Hed figured out that Maria wanted to stock the shelf herself, so Dakota would walk over to her office to open up and check emails, then drive Maria home when she called to say she was finished.
Only today, Maria had finished early, and she didnt seem to be in a hurry to leave his office. Shed made no effort to pull her phone from her pocket to call her sister.
Watching her as she perched on the edge of her chair, he asked, Got time for a cup of coffee? The words were out before he thought.
To his surprise, she smiled. Id like that.
He didnt miss that she checked her watch with a brush of her finger. Shed probably stay a minute or two, no more, but it seemed a gift just the same.
Wes thought of saying that he wasnt likely to attack Maria Davis, or anyone else for that matter. The only weapon hed ever handled was a broom. Owners of grocery stores usually didnt show up on wanted posters in the post office.
Maybe she still thought of him as an outsider. After all, hed only lived in Crossroads for seven years. Shed been living in Dallas when he moved to town, so hed never known her before her accident. Small-town people are sometimes slow to accept strangers, and maybe her being blind made it harder still.