Montana Secret Santa Read online

  “They barely know me.”

  “What you mean is we barely know each other. I agree… superficially. I don’t know your favorite color or food or TV show. But I know that when I’m with you, I feel connected to everything in a way I never have. A part of me always wanted that connection but when life got too real, I’d panic and hide out in my lab.”

  “Isn’t that what happened over Christmas?”

  He shook his head. “No. Not this time. I wasn’t running away. I thought I needed to prove my love by doing this grand romantic gesture. A complete and utter nerd move. I realize that now. Plus, it didn’t work. My intellect failed because my heart was back in Montana with you.”

  She swallowed. “Does that mean the world has lost any new inventions that are floating around in that brain of yours?”

  He scratched his head. The thought had crossed his mind, but the answer slapped him upside the head the minute he saw her drop over his fence. “I think the world may benefit from the humanity you bring to my thought process. You’ve always seen the bigger picture—working with you on Montana Secret Santa proved that.”

  “You had your share of wins.”

  “After asking myself, ‘What would Krista do?’”

  Her gaze met his and held. The roar of the waves warned they’d get wet if they didn’t move soon, but they stood their ground. “I would like to say yes with all my heart, but I’m afraid you’re making a huge mistake.”

  “Why?”

  “Because my life is a big ball of who-knows-what-will-happen? I may have to be in LA for long periods of time. I have to honor my commitment to Blue Sky Promotions. I don’t bring anything of value to this relationship, and your brother told me about the women who tried to use you.”

  He jumped to his feet. “I learn from my mistakes, Krista. I know the difference between a user and someone who puts everyone else first. Maybe your family made you feel that money and fame are the only true measures of success, but they’re wrong. You’ve given me more hope and joy and appreciation of my own gifts than I can possibly list. But I’d be happy to spend the rest of my life trying. If you let me.”

  She wiped tears from the corner of her eyes and swallowed hard, but he saw the answer in her eyes. “I do love you, Jonah. I was miserable when you left. The dogs were, too. You can’t do that again.”

  “I promise.” His hands were shaking as he took the ring from the box and waited for her to give him her hand. When it slipped over Krista’s knuckle as if it had been made for her, he looked skyward and said, “Thanks, big guy.”

  “God?”

  “Santa. You’re what I asked for when we had our pictures taken at the Graff. I whispered one word in his ear. Krista.”

  Her jaw dropped and she started to laugh. “Me, too. You, I mean. I asked for you. I felt so stupid. It was our first date. But I couldn’t help myself.”

  “But you went back to add something. What was that?”

  Even in falling darkness he could see her blush. “I’m nothing if not greedy. I told him, ‘I’d like very much to marry this man someday. And, oh, by the way, I want a dog, too.’ You can blame that on Bindi, Bear, and River Jack. I love them, Jonah.”

  He pulled her to him and kissed her until the waves doused both nearly to the waist. Laughing and shivering, they reversed course and raced to their room.

  They skipped the Sea Chest and settled for delivery from the restaurant next door so they could shower, change, and celebrate this gift neither expected to receive.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Two weeks later

  Krista hurried into Copper Mountain Chocolates to meet Jonah. He’d been texting all morning, despite her warning that she planned to leave her phone in her purse the whole time she was in the doctor’s office with Amanda.

  A health scare on New Year’s Day had pulled Tucker back home to New Orleans to be with the grandmother who raised him. Luckily, the woman’s stroke—though scary—wasn’t life threatening. Tucker was due back in Marietta the next day, but Amanda had chosen not to postpone her appointment with their obstetrician.

  Since Amanda was scheduled for her first sonogram, she’d begged Krista to accompany her to the appointment. And Krista was glad she had, although in truth, seeing the tiny black and white peanut with limbs moving about in its mother’s womb, had set off major I-want-a-baby warning alarms.

  Poor Jonah. He has his heart set on a dog and now I want a baby, too.

  They’d flown back to Montana together after their quick trip to LA. Mom had been touched by the gesture and, since Dad was there, too, Jonah officially asked for Krista’s hand in marriage. They’d celebrated with champagne, although Mom and Dad both opted for fizzy water, instead.

  Here in Marietta, they’d been hopscotching between their two homes since his parents weren’t ready to leave Gracie and the kids. Jonah was chomping at the bit to get back to his lab to work on the cool box, but he’d found a new project to keep him distracted—finding the right dog for them. He had a list of criteria that included height, weight, sex, and breeds that would or wouldn’t do.

  Krista had given him free rein, even though she had faith the right dog would find them.

  “Hey, I’m here,” she called, detouring toward their former Secret Santa table when she spotted Jonah seated with two distinctive mugs. The holiday decorations had disappeared and the place seemed to have settled back to its comfortable old self, although Krista was working behind the scenes on a splashy Valentine’s Day promotion.

  The flutter of anticipation and pure joy made it hard not to plop into his lap and kiss him, but she settled for resting her hand on his shoulder. The handsome, cream, fisherman-knit sweater was one she’d bought him—along with the stylish winter jacket hanging on the back of his chair. They’d already decided to buy a home together in Marietta so why not acquire the proper wardrobe, too? She leaned over to kiss him. “Mm… cocoa. You’re sweet.”

  “I am. It’s true.”

  She dropped into the chair across from him and took off her gloves. “And modest.”

  His shrug was so Jonah. “How’d the doctor’s appointment go?”

  “Perfect. The baby was dancing, I swear. Amanda says he or she is always on the move.”

  “They don’t want to know the sex?”

  “Amanda decided to wait until Tucker could be with her to find out.” She took a sip from her mug. “So what have you been doing that qualifies you as sweet.”

  “I saved a life.”

  She put a hand to her heart. They’d agreed they wanted a rescue dog. Preferably older. Maybe from a broken home. “You found our dog? Can I go see it?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Why?”

  “She’s in nursery care for another week.”

  “N-nursery care? But that’s a puppy thing, isn’t it? I thought we’d agreed on an older dog.”

  He whipped out his phone. “I know. A puppy was not on my list. But, Krista, I took one look at her and tore the damn list into pieces. Look at this face.”

  He started punching apps, but Krista stopped him. “I don’t need to, I’m looking at yours. If you know this is our dog, that’s good enough for me.”

  “But…”

  “Jonah, you listened to your heart, not your head. I’m good with this. Really.”

  He sat back, his expression stunned. “Wow. I thought you’d be upset. Puppies can be a real pain in the butt. They chew things and make a mess. They—”

  “They’re babies. Hanging out with Amanda today started me thinking about having one of our own someday. This puppy will be a good chance to see if we’re cut out for parenthood.”

  Parenthood? He mouthed the word, his eyes wide with either wonder or panic—she couldn’t be sure which.

  “First things first. We need to name her.”

  *

  Jonah never expected the simple act of naming a dog could take half an hour. His beloved would agree in theory to one name, then she’d look at the photo
s on his phone and change her mind. Their list of possible names covered half a page by the time Emily McCullough stepped into the shop. She called out her order then walked to their table.

  “Hello, young Santas. Good to see you both back in town. I hear you’ve got some news to share. Something about moving in together?”

  Jonah jumped to his feet and pulled out a chair for her. “Can you believe it? This amazing woman and I are talking about tying the knot in the semi-near future. A bit tough to pin down a date with all the other stuff going on in our lives.”

  Em gave one of her famous scoffing snorts. “Trust me, there’s never a perfect time for anything. Look at Christmas. What could possibly be more inconvenient than holding the biggest dang celebration of the year in the last week of the last month on the darn calendar? Dead of winter. Right on the heels of Thanksgiving.” She paused when Sage walked up with a mug of cocoa and a piece of fudge. “Nobody thinks that was good planning, and yet, we dive in with both feet every year.”

  She motioned Sage to wait a moment. “Is it true you’re expanding your base of operation?”

  “Baby steps. Krista and her intern, Gretchen Zabrinski, talked me into trying a couple of online promotions. We’ll see. I won’t ever hand over quality control, but thanks to a few tweaks in the kitchen from Jonah, I think we’ll be able to keep up with demand, if Krista’s advertising campaign goes viral.”

  Jonah squeezed Krista’s hand. “My brilliant strategist. Wait till you hear what she has in mind for Montana Secret Santa. The real Santa is going to be very impressed.”

  “The real Santa?” Em said with an arch look.

  He shared a private smile with Krista. As silly as it sounded whenever he said the words out loud, he knew something had changed between him and Krista that night at the Graff. “The guy who worked at the Graff this year.”

  He pulled out a wallet-size photo and handed it to Em.

  The package of six poses had arrived while he and Krista were in California. In every shot, the flash blurred Santa’s features but the expression on the faces of the two people staring into each other’s eyes was crisp, clear and unmistakable—love.

  “We both admitted our secret wishes to him and they came true. You can’t ask for a better gift than that.”

  “Except maybe a puppy.” Krista passed Em his phone with the photo of a pudgy, off-white pup with floppy ears, coal-black eyes and nose. “Jonah heard about her at the shelter this morning. Isn’t she perfect?”

  “We’re going to name her Epiphany, but she’ll go by Pip, for short,” he said, the name coming to him out of the blue.

  Everyone laughed, but when Jonah looked into Krista’s eyes and saw tears of joy, he knew he’d chosen the right dog, the right name, and the right woman to share a future he hadn’t seen coming and couldn’t wait to experience.

  The scientist in him didn’t doubt for a minute their life together would be filled with countless surprises—some magnificent, some challenging—because that was the nature of being alive and connected to the world.

  He turned his head to look out the window of Copper Mountain Chocolates and smiled. He was home. And in love. Jonah Andrews—Marietta’s slightly mad scientist and resident skeptic trained to question everything. Not only did he now believe in the power of love, he knew with a certainty that bordered on faith that Santa Claus existed. Was he one man in a nice red suit or a dozen big-hearted people keeping a tradition alive? What did it matter so long as they managed to help others along the way and didn’t run out of cocoa? Because, as the sign said—This is what love tastes like.

  The End

  You’ll love the next book in…

  Love at the Chocolate Shop series

  Book 1: Melt My Heart, Cowboy by C.J. Carmichael

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  Book 2: A Thankful Heart by Melissa McClone

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  Book 3: Montana Secret Santa by Debra Salonen

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  Book 4: The Chocolate Cure by Roxanne Snopek

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  Book 5: The Valentine Quest by Melissa McClone

  Coming Soon

  The rest of the Love at the Chocolate Shop is coming soon!

  Find out about the rest of the series here

  More by Debra Salonen

  The Big Sky Mavericks Series

  A close-knit, multigenerational Marietta family, first and foremost. As real and flawed as any you know. They’re also successful business owners who have pooled their time, energy and money to create a philanthropic group named after the childhood game that encouraged them to believe anything they dreamed was possible.

  Over the course of ten books, the heroes and heroines of the Big Sky Mavericks have attracted a diverse pool of interesting characters, including artists, a world-class photographer, a renowned mountain climber, a smoke jumper and a pastor, to name a few.

  Book 1: Montana Cowgirl

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  Book 2: Montana Cowboy

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  Book 3: Montana Darling

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  Book 4: Montana Maverick

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  Book 5: Montana Hero

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  Book 6: Montana Rogue

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  Book 7: Montana Miracle

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  Book 8: Montana Rebel

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  About the Author

  Former award-winning newspaper journalist Debra Salonen is a nationally bestselling author with 26 published novels for Harlequin’s Superromance and American lines and one single title release for Harlequin Signature. Several of her titles were nominated for “Best Superromance,” including Until He Met Rachel, which took home that honor in 2010.

  In 2006, Debra was named Romantic Times Reviewer’s Career Achievement “Series Storyteller of the Year”.

  Debra lives in the foothills near Yosemite National Park in California with her husband and two dogs. Luckily, her two children and three grandchildren live close by to keep Debra connected to the real world.

  Visit her website at www.debrasalonen.com

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  Follow her on Facebook and Twitter@DebSalonen

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