Yuletide Twins. Renee Andrews
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A Family For Christmas
Alone and pregnant with twins is not how Laura Holland wants to spend her holidays. So she seeks out the only person who’s never let her down: old college friend David Presley. David now runs a bookstore in a small Alabama town, but he’s never stopped loving Laura since he first laid eyes on her in school. So despite his store’s shaky finances, he offers her a job. When they work together to help boost business, Laura begins to see that the friend she’s always depended on could be the husband she’s always prayed for.
“Why aren’t you dating anyone?” Laura blurted, then wished that she could push the words back in.
But the widening of his eyes and the slight drop in his jaw said that there was no going back now. David had heard what was on her mind, and he looked…more than a little surprised. Well, she had lost some of her filter for saying what she was thinking over the past few months. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones in action, or maybe it was simply the fact that she didn’t understand the bizarreness of her old friend, her attractive and kind and nice—okay, a little more gorgeous than she remembered—old friend being so single.
When he didn’t readily offer a response, Laura couldn’t stand the silence. “Sorry, I was being nosy.”
“Sometimes that’s what friends do, right?” He leaned against the bookshelves and looked mighty nice doing it. “We are still friends, aren’t we, Laura? Or…are we something else?”
RENEE ANDREWS
spends a lot of time in the gym. No, she isn’t working out. Her husband, a former all-American gymnast, co-owns ACE Cheer Company, an all-star cheerleading company. She is thankful the talented kids at the gym don’t have a problem when she brings her laptop and writes while they sweat. When she isn’t writing, she’s typically traveling with her husband, bragging about their two sons or spoiling their bulldog.
Renee is a kidney donor and actively supports organ donation. She welcomes prayer requests and loves to hear from readers. Write to her at [email protected], visit her website at www.reneeandrews.com or check her out on Facebook or Twitter.
Yuletide Twins
Renee Andrews
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
—Luke 6:38
This novel is dedicated to and inspired by
the precious twins I met 24 years ago, Amber Gonzales Harrington and Angel Gonzales Stroop. I’ve watched you grow into young women with beautiful families of your own. You’ve touched my heart and my life.
Contents
Chapter One
Laura Holland climbed out of her jam-packed Volkswagen bug and squinted toward the windows of the bookstore across the Claremont town square. During the entire four-hour drive from Nashville to this tiny North Alabama town, she’d attempted to convince herself that she’d made the right decision. Staying with her parents, especially with her mother threatening to leave again, was out of the question. But now she wondered what made her think she could show up here, reconnect with her old friend and somehow convince him to give her a job?
What if David sent her packing? Then where would she go?
Laura took a step toward the bookstore but halted when an elderly gentleman made his way to the entrance. He stood out from the other shoppers with his slow and steady gait. A shadow passed in front of the window as someone went to greet him when he entered.
Was that David? Laura remembered the tall, dark-haired guy who’d been Jared’s college roommate the entire time he and Laura dated. Nice-looking in a Clark Kent kind of way, David wore dark-rimmed glasses, dressed impeccably and jogged regularly. He would be twenty-five now, merely two years older than Laura, and yet he’d already “made it” in the world, was self-sufficient and running his own business. A far cry from where Laura was now. More shadows passed in front of the awning-covered window, and then a man carrying a briefcase entered. How many people were in the store? And did she really want an audience when she begged for a job?
Spotting a rack of free classifieds outside of the five-and-dime, Laura grabbed a copy and sat on a wrought-iron bench while she waited for a few of David’s customers to leave. If—and that was a big if—David was willing to hire her in her current state, she’d also need somewhere to live.
The unseasonable weather was nice enough that she could probably sit and browse the paper until dark. In Nashville, it’d already turned too cold to spend time outside. But here the first Monday in November felt uncommonly pleasant, with merely a slight chill in the air. Then again, Laura stayed warmer these days due to the extra weight she carried. She wondered if David was still the same big-hearted guy he’d been in college. Would