Free A Christmas Wish by Desconhecido(a)

A CHRISTMAS WISH
     
    Romance on the Go TM
     
    Sam Crescent
     
    Copyright © 2015
     
     
     
     
    Chapter One
     
    “Mummy, is Santa coming tonight?”
    Jemma Stein glanced over at her three-year-old daughter, Megan, her face covered in chocolate and her fingers creating little patterns on the white tray. The joy of finger-painting with food. It was the only thing she could think of for her children to do.
    “Not tonight, silly. I’m still at school, and Santa knows to bring presents when I’m not at school,” Billy, her eldest son, said. Billy spoke as he munched through the overflowing bowl of chocolate flakes. Allowing her children to make dessert using flakes, chocolate, and syrup had seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, seeing the mess, it didn’t look all that clever.
    Shaking her head, Jemma turned her attention to her youngest son, Sean. He sat in his baby chair while she fed him some pumpkin soup that she had made last week. She had made a big batch, and then placed it in little tubs in the freezer, to use when she needed it. Strangely, the little darling was enjoying the orange gloop , which was lucky. Usually Sean liked to throw the food right back at her, until she was covered more than he was. It wouldn’t be long though until he didn’t like pumpkin soup, and then she’d have to work through until he found something else he liked a little more.
    The smell of mince pies with the subtle hint of nutmeg scented the air while the children worked on their own desserts. Christmas was a few short weeks away, and Jemma still had all the food shopping to do, and a few toys left to purchase. Fortunately, she’d been buying toys and preserves throughout the year so it shouldn’t be a manic time shopping for the last few things. Being a single parent was incredibly difficult, but she was handling it.
    Well, unless you counted Ryan, her one savior through everything. She really couldn’t cope with anything without him. The man was a god and completely out of her reach, which her body refused to accept. He was her rock and the person she counted on more than anything or anyone. She wouldn’t have needed Ryan if it hadn’t been for the biggest disaster that had swept into her world, taking one of the people she loved most, her husband.
    Before the birth of Sean, Jemma had gotten that most hated visit, the one no wife ever wanted to get. In the middle of the night, her entire world shattered at the news that Simon, her husband, had been killed late at night traveling home by a drunk driver. Killed instantly without any pain. She was happy he wasn’t in pain, but it didn’t make her feel better. The man she loved was dead. The father of her children, gone. Ryan, her late husband’s best friend, had held her hand and given her a shoulder to cry on through all the bad times. He’d been her rock, and still was. Ryan hadn’t abandoned her. He’d helped her through the dark days where she’d not wanted to live herself.
    She had been heavily pregnant at the time with two small children still out of school, along with bills rising around her head, and she had felt so much despair. Everything just seemed to mount up, and she’d felt the whole world crashing around her, trapping her. Jemma still couldn’t believe how she’d managed to get through everything that happened. She wouldn’t have been able to deal with everything if it hadn’t been for Ryan. He’d helped to put her whole life back on track.
    He’d been there at the birth of her third child. Ryan held her hand as she screamed and cried all the way through the birth of Sean. When it was time to, he’d helped her register Billy for school, and had been there whenever she needed him. He’d also been there when Megan got sick. In a way, he’d taken over Simon’s place with the kids, only they didn’t think of him as a father.
    Ryan should be coming around very soon. Jemma checked out the time to see how much longer it would be. She did find