A Merry Little Christmas: A Clean and Uplifting Romance


 
 
 
 “Say something,” Hadley said.
 “Are you okay?” he asked. Mike leaned forward and put both hands on her knees. He could feel her warmth through the blanket draped over her legs. He wanted to keep her warm. And safe.
 “I’m as fine as I can be. I’m not sick. I’m just...pregnant.”
 “I was afraid something was terribly wrong,” he said.
 “Well,” Hadley replied with a short, humorless laugh, “this isn’t exactly right.”
 A moment of incredible clarity flashed over Mike. He could make this right. He was good at fixing things. All he had to do was ask one important question and everything would fall into place. Without hesitating, he knelt in front of her and took both her hands. His knee still smarted from his fall on the ice, but he ignored it. This was the most consequential decision of his life so far. Betty sat up, alert to a change in the atmosphere of the room, and she wagged her tail expectantly, but Mike ignored the dog. He kept his focus on Hadley’s face. Her lovely, familiar face.
 “Will you marry me?”
 
 
 Dear Reader,
 It always seems like time flies from one Christmas to the next, but a lot can happen in the span of a year. A Merry Little Christmas is the third book in the Return to Christmas Island series, and it proves that choices during one Christmas can lead to a big surprise by the next one. Longtime friends Hadley Pierce and Mike Martin share a birthday and a silly marriage pact made years earlier. Soon they’ll share something else—a little bundle of joy that will be under their tree by Christmas! 
 Christmas Island is in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Just off the Michigan shoreline, it has warm summers and snowy winters. It’s a beautiful area with clear water, trees and rocky shores. Several hundred people live on the island all year, but Christmas Island really comes alive for the summer tourist crowd and the holidays. Day visitors travel aboard the ferry to the island, where they bike, rent golf carts, shop in downtown boutiques, enjoy the scenery and buy souvenirs of their excursion.
 I hope you’ll love your visit to Christmas Island and come back for the rest of the series!
 Happy reading,
 Amie Denman
 
 
 
 A Merry Little Christmas
 Amie Denman
 
 
 
 Amie Denman is the author of fifty contemporary romances full of humor and heart. A devoted traveler whose parents always kept a suitcase packed, she loves reading and writing books you could take on vacation. Amie believes everything is fun, especially wedding cake, roller coasters and falling in love.
 Books by Amie Denman
 Harlequin Heartwarming
 Starlight Point Stories
 Under the BoardwalkCarousel NightsMeet Me on the MidwayUntil the Ride StopsBack to the Lake Breeze Hotel
 Cape Pursuit Firefighters
 In Love with the FirefighterThe Firefighter’s VowA Home for the Firefighter
 Return to Christmas Island
 I’ll Be Home for ChristmasHome for the Holidays
 Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
 
 
 This book is dedicated to my aunt Charlotte, aunt Kathy and aunt Carol, who always get an advance copy of my books when they have “girl time” with my mom. Thank you for your love, support and enthusiasm for my writing.
 With love, Amie
 
 
 Contents
 CHAPTER ONE
 CHAPTER TWO
 CHAPTER THREE
 CHAPTER FOUR
 CHAPTER FIVE
 CHAPTER SIX
 CHAPTER SEVEN
 CHAPTER EIGHT
 CHAPTER NINE
 CHAPTER TEN
 CHAPTER ELEVEN
 CHAPTER TWELVE
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
 CHAPTER NINETEEN
 CHAPTER TWENTY
 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
 EXCERPT FROM A FAMILY FOR THE RANCHER BY M. K. STELMACK
 
 
 CHAPTER ONE
 HADLEY PIERCE PRIDED herself on being a practical woman. She bought the heavy-duty garbage bags, changed her furnace filters and brushed her teeth after every meal. Proactive, practical and very seldom surprised by anything or anyone. So, as she stared down at the white stick in her hand as if it were a living thing, she didn’t have the experience necessary to process the shock waves rolling through her stomach.
 She sat on the closed toilet lid in her neat bathroom where the towels were lined up on the rack and the soap dispenser was never empty. An extra roll of bath tissue padded her head as she leaned back and focused on the shower curtain depicting a peaceful beach at sunset. Maybe she should get on a plane and go to that beach where she could hide from everything except herself and the mistake she had made after the island Christmas party.
 Surviving almost thirty years on the planet without being a fool for love doesn’t come with a prize, especially if the one time you throw caution to the wind erases all those other years of sensible living. Hadley sat up straight and held the stick up in the morning light. There was no mistaking the little pink lines that confirmed the message her body had been whispering to her for a month.
 Motherhood.
 Her phone rang, startling her into dropping the stick on the white tile floor, where it clattered into the vent of the electric baseboard heater.
 “Oh, no,” she said, kneeling in front of the heater. “No, no, no, you’ll melt in there and it won’t turn out well.” She grabbed her toothbrush and used the handle to pry out the pregnancy test, and then she threw both the toothbrush and the test stick in the trash can under the sink. Her phone had gone to voice mail, and she leaned back against the bathtub rim, exhausted and half-nauseous from the events of the last five minutes.
 “I can’t be a mother,” she said. She hated surprises and anything she couldn’t neatly manage. Even her job as a bartender and server at the Holiday Hotel on Christmas Island had the same beauty and order as her house and her life. The bottles and glasses were