A Christmas Message Read online

  Praise for the Christmas novels of

  #1 New York Times bestselling author

  Debbie Macomber

  “A sweetly satisfying, gently humorous story that celebrates the joy and love of the holiday season.”

  —Booklist on Christmas Letters

  “Heartwarming… Well-thought-out characters fill the pages with Christmas wonder.”

  —New York Journal of Books on Call Me Mrs. Miracle

  “An entertaining holiday story that will surely touch the heart… Best of all, readers will rediscover the magic of Christmas.”

  —Bookreporter on Call Me Mrs. Miracle

  “A fine companion to a glass of eggnog.”

  —Publishers Weekly on Christmas Letters

  “Heartfelt, cheerful… Readers looking for a light and sweet holiday treat will find it here.”

  —Publishers Weekly on Merry and Bright

  “Warm and sweet as Christmas cookies, this new Debbie Macomber romance is sure to be a hit this holiday season.”

  —Bookreporter on Merry and Bright

  “Another heartwarming seasonal [Debbie] Macomber tale, which fans will find as bright and cozy as a blazing fire on Christmas Eve.”

  —Kirkus Reviews on Twelve Days of Christmas

  DEBBIE MACOMBER

  A Christmas Message

  Also available from Debbie Macomber and MIRA

  Blossom Street

  The Shop on Blossom Street

  A Good Yarn

  Susannah’s Garden

  Back on Blossom Street

  Twenty Wishes

  Summer on Blossom Street

  Hannah’s List

  “The Twenty-First Wish” (in The Knitting Diaries)

  A Turn in the Road

  Cedar Cove

  16 Lighthouse Road

  204 Rosewood Lane

  311 Pelican Court

  44 Cranberry Point

  50 Harbor Street

  6 Rainier Drive

  74 Seaside Avenue

  8 Sandpiper Way

  92 Pacific Boulevard

  1022 Evergreen Place Christmas in Cedar Cove (5-B Poppy Lane and A Cedar Cove Christmas)

  1105 Yakima Street

  1225 Christmas Tree Lane

  The Dakota Series

  Dakota Born

  Dakota Home

  Always Dakota

  Buffalo Valley

  The Manning Family

  The Manning Sisters (The Cowboy’s Lady and The Sheriff Takes a Wife)

  The Manning Brides (Marriage of Inconvenience and Stand-In Wife)

  The Manning Grooms (Bride on the Loose and Same Time, Next Year)

  Christmas Books

  A Gift to Last

  On a Snowy Night

  Home for the Holidays

  Glad Tidings

  Christmas Wishes

  Small Town Christmas

  When Christmas Comes (now retitled Trading Christmas)

  There’s Something About Christmas

  Christmas Letters

  The Perfect Christmas

  Choir of Angels (Shirley, Goodness and Mercy, Those Christmas Angels and Where Angels Go)

  Call Me Mrs. Miracle

  Heart of Texas

  Texas Skies (Lonesome Cowboy and Texas Two-Step)

  Texas Nights (Caroline’s Child and Dr. Texas)

  Texas Home (Nell’s Cowboy and Lone Star Baby)

  Promise, Texas

  Return to Promise

  Midnight Sons

  Alaska Skies (Brides for Brothers and The Marriage Risk)

  Alaska Nights (Daddy’s Little Helper and Because of the Baby)

  Alaska Home (Falling for Him, Ending in Marriage and Midnight Sons and Daughters)

  This Matter of Marriage

  Montana

  Thursdays at Eight

  Between Friends

  Changing Habits

  Married in Seattle (First Comes Marriage and Wanted: Perfect Partner)

  Right Next Door (Father’s Day and The Courtship of Carol Sommars)

  Wyoming Brides (Denim and Diamonds and The Wyoming Kid)

  Fairy Tale Weddings (Cindy and the Prince and Some Kind of Wonderful)

  The Man You’ll Marry (The First Man You Meet and The Man You’ll Marry)

  Orchard Valley Grooms (Valerie and Stephanie)

  Orchard Valley Brides (Norah and Lone Star Lovin’)

  The Sooner the Better

  An Engagement in Seattle (Groom Wanted and Bride Wanted)

  Out of the Rain (Marriage Wanted and Laughter in the Rain)

  Learning to Love (Sugar and Spice and Love by Degree)

  You…Again (Baby Blessed and Yesterday Once More)

  The Unexpected Husband (Jury of His Peers and Any Sunday)

  Three Brides, No Groom

  Love in Plain Sight (Love ’n’ Marriage and Almost an Angel)

  I Left My Heart (A Friend or Two and No Competition)

  Marriage Between Friends (White Lace and Promises and Friends—And Then Some)

  A Man’s Heart (The Way to a Man’s Heart and Hasty Wedding)

  North to Alaska (That Wintry Feeling and Borrowed Dreams)

  On a Clear Day (Starlight and Promise Me Forever)

  To Love and Protect (Shadow Chasing and For All My Tomorrows)

  Home in Seattle (The Playboy and the Widow and Fallen Angel)

  Together Again (The Trouble with Caasi and Reflections of Yesterday)

  The Reluctant Groom (All Things Considered and Almost Paradise)

  A Real Prince (The Bachelor Prince and Yesterday’s Hero)

  Private Paradise (in That Summer Place)

  Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove Cookbook

  Debbie Macomber’s Christmas Cookbook

  Table of Contents

  Christmas Letters

  Call Me Mrs. Miracle

  Christmas Letters

  To Katherine Orr

  Better known as K.O.

  for her encouragement and support through the years

  Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Prologue

  Zelda O’Connor Davidson

  76 Orchard Avenue

  Seattle, Washington

  Christmas, 2006

  Dear Family and Friends:

  Merry Christmas, everyone!

  Let me warn you—this Christmas letter won’t be as clever as last year’s. My sister, Katherine (whom you may know better as K.O.), wrote that one for me but, ironically, she hasn’t got time to do this year’s. Ironic because it’s due to the popularity of that particular letter that she’s managed to start a little business on the side—writing Christmas letters for other people! (She offered to write mine, of course, but I know that between her work doing medical transcriptions, her job search and her Christmas letters, it would be a real stretch to find the time.)
r />   So, here goes. The twins, Zoe and Zara, have recently turned five. They’re looking forward to starting kindergarten next September. It’s hard to believe our little girls are almost old enough for school! Still, they keep themselves (and us!) busy. So do our assorted pets—especially the dogs, two Yorkies named Zero and Zorro.

  I’m still a stay-at-home mom and Zach’s still working as a software programmer. This year’s big news, which I want to share with all of you, has to do with a wonderful book I read. It changed my family’s life. It’s called The Free Child and it’s by Dr. Wynn Jeffries. My sister scoffs at this, but Dr. Jeffries believes that children can be trusted to set their own boundaries. He also believes that, as parents, we shouldn’t impose fantasies on them—fantasies like Santa Claus. Kids are capable of accepting reality, he says, and I agree! (See page 146 of The Free Child.)

  So, this Christmas will be a different kind of experience for us, one that focuses on family, not fantasy.

  Zach and the girls join me in wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas. And remember, a free child is a happy child (see page 16).

  Love and kisses,

  Zelda, Zach, Zoe and Zara

  (and a wag of the tail from Zero & Zorro)

  Chapter One

  It was him. Katherine O’Connor, better known as K.O., was almost positive. She squinted just to be sure. He looked identical to the man on the dust jacket of that ridiculous book, the one her sister treated like a child-rearing bible. Of course, people didn’t really look like their publicity photos. And she hadn’t realized the high and mighty Dr. Wynn Jeffries was from the Seattle area. Furthermore, she couldn’t imagine what he was doing on Blossom Street.

  She’d never even met him, but she distrusted him profoundly and disliked him just as much. It was because of Dr. Jeffries that she’d been banned from a local bookstore. She’d had a small difference of opinion with the manager on the subject of Wynn’s book. Apparently the bookseller was a personal friend of his, because she’d leaped to Dr. Jeffries’s defense and had ordered K.O. out of the store. She’d even suggested K.O. take her future book-purchasing business elsewhere, which seemed unnecessarily extreme.

  “K.O.,” Bill Mulcahy muttered, distracting her. They sat across from each other at the French Café, filled to capacity during the midmorning rush. People lined up for coffee, and another line formed at the bakery counter. “Did you get all that?” he asked.

  “Sure,” K.O. said, returning her attention to him. “Sorry—I thought I saw someone I knew.” Oh, the things she was willing to do for some extra holiday cash. One witty Christmas letter written on her sister’s behalf, and all of a sudden K.O. was the most sought-after woman at her brother-in-law’s office. They all wanted her to write their Christmas letters. She’d been shocked to discover how much they’d willingly plunk down for it, too. Bill Mulcahy was the third person she’d met with this week, and his letter was the most difficult so far. Leno or Letterman would’ve had a hard time finding anything amusing about this man’s life.

  “I don’t know what you’re going to write,” Bill continued. “It’s been an exceptionally bad year. As I explained earlier, my son is in a detention home, my daughter’s living with her no-good boyfriend and over Thanksgiving she announced she’s pregnant. Naturally, marriage is out of the question.”

  “That is a bit of a challenge,” K.O. agreed. She widened her eyes and stared again at the man who waited in the long line at the cash register. It was him; she was convinced of it now. The not-so-good doctor was—to put it in appropriately seasonal terms—a fruitcake. He was a child psychologist who’d written a book called The Free Child that was the current child-rearing rage.

  To be fair, K.O. was single and not a mother. The only child-rearing experience she’d had was with her identical twin nieces, Zoe and Zara, whom she adored. Until recently, anyway. Overnight the five-year-olds had become miniature monsters and all because her sister had followed the “Free Child” rules as set out by Dr. Jeffries.

  “My wife,” Bill said, “is on the verge of a breakdown.”

  K.O. pitied the poor woman—and her husband.

  “We’ve written Christmas letters for years and while life wasn’t always as perfect as we—well, as we implied...” He let the rest fade away.

  “You painted the picture of a model family.”

  “Yes.” Bill cleared his throat and offered her a weak smile. “Patti, that’s my wife, chose to present a, shall we say, rosier depiction of reality.” He exhaled in a rush. “We never included family pictures and if you met my son, you’d know why. Anyone looking at Mason would know in a minute that this kid isn’t a member of the National Honor Society.” He released his breath again and shook his head sadly. “Mason’s into body piercing,” Bill added. “He pierced his eyebrows, his nose, his lips, his tongue, his nipples—”

  K.O. stopped him before he went any lower. “I get it.”

  “You probably don’t, but that’s lucky for you. Oh, and he dyed his hair green.”

  “Green?”

  “He wears it spiked, too, and he...he does this thing with paint.” Bill dropped his voice.

  K.O. was sure she’d misunderstood. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Mason doesn’t call it paint. It’s some form of cosmetic he smears across his face. I never imagined that my son would be rummaging through his mother’s makeup drawer one day.”

  “I suppose that is a bit disconcerting,” K.O. murmured.

  “I forget the actual significance of the black smudges under his eyes and across his cheeks,” Bill said. “To me it looks like he’s some teenage commando.”

  Yes, this letter would indeed be a challenge. “Have you thought about skipping your Christmas letter this year?” K.O. asked hopefully.

  “Yeah, I’d like to, but as I said, Patti’s emotional health is rather fragile. She claims people are already asking about our annual letter. She’s afraid that if we don’t send it the same as we do every year, everyone will figure out that we’re pitiful parents.” His shoulders drooped. “In other words, we’ve failed our children.”

  “I don’t think you’ve necessarily failed,” K.O. assured him. “Most teenagers go through a rebellious stage.”

  “Did you?”

  “Oh, sure.”

  “Did you pierce anything?”

  “Well, I had my ears pierced....”

  “That’s not the same thing.” He peered at her earrings, visible through her straight blond hair, which she wore loosely tied back. “And you only have one in each ear—not eight or ten like my son.” He seemed satisfied that he’d proved his point. “Then you’ll write our Christmas letter and smooth over the rough edges of our year?”

  K.O. was less and less confident that she could pull this off. “I don’t know if I’m your person,” she said hesitantly. How could she possibly come up with a positive version of such a disastrous year? Besides, this side job was supposed to be fun, not real work. It’d begun as a favor to her sister and all of a sudden she was launching a career. At some stage she’d need to call a halt—maybe sooner than she’d expected.

  Her client shifted in his seat. “I’ll pay you double what you normally charge.”

  K.O. sat up straight. Double. He said he’d pay double? “Would four days be enough time?” she asked. Okay, so she could be bought. She pulled out her Day-Timer, checked her schedule and they set a date for their next meeting.

  “I’ll give you half now and half when you’re finished.”

  That seemed fair. Not one to be overly prideful, she held out her hand as he peeled off three fifty-dollar bills. Her fingers closed around the cash.

  “I’ll see you Friday then,” Bill said, and reaching for his briefcase, he left the French Café carrying his latte in its takeout cup.

  Looking out the windows with their Christmas garland, she saw that it had begun to
snow again. This was the coldest December on record. Seattle’s normally mild climate had dipped to below-freezing temperatures for ten days in a row. So much for global warming. There was precious little evidence of it in Seattle.

  K.O. glanced at the coffee line. Wynn Jeffries had made his way to the front and picked up his hot drink. After adding cream and sugar—lots of both, she observed—he was getting ready to leave. K.O. didn’t want to be obvious about watching him, so she took a couple of extra minutes to collect her things, then followed him out the door.

  Even if she introduced herself, she had no idea what to say. Mostly she wanted to tell him his so-called Free Child movement—no boundaries for kids—was outright lunacy. How could he, in good conscience, mislead parents in this ridiculous fashion? Not that she had strong feelings on the subject or anything. Okay, so maybe she’d gone a little overboard at the bookstore that day, but she couldn’t help it. The manager had been touting the benefits of Dr. Jeffries’s book to yet another unsuspecting mom. K.O. felt it was her duty to let the poor woman know what might happen if she actually followed Dr. Jeffries’s advice. The bookseller had strenuously disagreed and from then on, the situation had gotten out of hand.

  Not wanting him to think she was stalking him, which she supposed she was, K.O. maintained a careful distance. If his office was in Seattle, it might even be in this neighborhood. After the renovations on Blossom Street a few years ago, a couple of buildings had been converted to office space. If she could discreetly discover where he practiced, she might go and talk to him sometime. She hadn’t read his book but had leafed through it, and she knew he was a practicing child psychologist. She wanted to argue about his beliefs and his precepts, tell him about the appalling difference in her nieces’ behavior since the day Zelda had adopted his advice.

  She’d rather he didn’t see her, so she dashed inconspicuously across the street to A Good Yarn, and darted into the doorway, where she pretended to be interested in a large Christmas stocking that hung in the display window. From the reflection in the window, she saw Dr. Jeffries walking briskly down the opposite sidewalk.

  As soon as it was safe, she dashed from the yarn store to Susannah’s Garden, the flower shop next door, and nearly fell over a huge potted poinsettia, all the while keeping her eyes on Dr. Jeffries. He proved one thing, she mused. Appearances were deceiving. He looked so...so normal. Who would’ve guessed that beneath that distinguished, sophisticated and—yes—handsome exterior lay such a fiend? Perhaps fiend was too strong a word. Yet she considered Wynn Jeffries’s thinking to be nothing short of diabolical, if Zoe and Zara were anything to judge by.