A Daddy for Christmas: Holiday Romance (Holiday Romance Collection Book 2) Read online

  A Daddy for Christmas

  Danielle Lee Zwissler©

  Firefly & Wisp Books/Midnight Books

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or use of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the permission of Firefly and Wisp Publishing, www.fireflyandwispbooks.com

  First Firefly & Wisp Books 2014.

  All the characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. All work is from the imagination of the author. Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes.

  A Daddy for Christmas

  Danielle Lee Zwissler

  Copyright 2014

  Bonus Story: The Christmas House

  Copyright 2011

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you so much for purchasing this lovely book. I am a huge fan of Christmas, and as many of you already know, cowboys! This book, “A Daddy for Christmas”, is near and dear to my heart, as it is a story about a man that becomes the father and special daddy that little, Jacob James needs. His father, Jason, has been gone for three long years, and Jacob can barely remember him. This Christmas, all he wants is a dad, and for his mother to be happy.

  I think we all deserve a Christmas miracle! I hope you enjoy, “A Daddy for Christmas,” and have a blessed New Year.

  Love,

  Danielle Lee Zwissler

  For Bob Cadle,

  Chapter One

  Megan James sat down on the couch, legs crossed, and waited for her son to pick out a book.

  “Jacob, did you find one yet?”

  Jacob didn’t answer, but came running out from the hallway and plopped onto the couch right beside her instead. He had a big grin on his face. “Mommy, I love this book!”

  Jacob’s enthusiasm was at an all-time high. “Wow, we haven’t read this in a while.”

  “We read this at school today, Mommy. Mrs. Cantor even had it on a CD.”

  Jacob smiled down at the cute cat with the awesome looking shoes. “His voice was so funny!”

  “I bet.”

  Megan started reading.

  “Mommy!” Jacob whined.

  “You want the sounds?” Megan asked, knowing full well what his problem was. Ever since Jacob was born, Megan had read the voices for every character.

  Jacob nodded.

  It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep. Megan couldn’t help but smile at her son. He was everything in the world to her. Since Jason Moore, her ex and Jacob’s father, died in Afghanistan, Megan hadn’t thought about dating even once. Well, that was until this past year. Jacob had done nothing but bring up Jason. He talked about his Daddy all the time now, it seemed. Megan had worried about him, knowing that little boys needed their fathers. They needed to know how to grow up to be good men, and to have a good example in their lives. She wanted Jacob to have that. She needed Jacob to have that.

  Megan smoothed down Jacob’s hair as he slept peacefully leaning against her. She watched as his stomach moved up and down. Still holding Jacob’s new favorite book, Megan placed it on the coffee table, and then rolled her son into her arms and stood up, carrying the little tyke back to his bed.

  After a few minutes of getting him all tucked in, Megan walked over to the bookcase and pulled out one of her family photo albums. It was from when Jacob was just a little baby. Nearly all the pictures were of just her and him alone, with only a few of her son and Jason. She felt the tears fall from her eyes and run down her cheeks. She felt the pain once more in her heart, dreaming about what her life would have been like if Jason were still alive.

  She wondered if they would have finally gotten married. She wondered if they’d have lived in the little house that she and Jacob had made their home for the last three years. She wondered a lot of things, it was hard not to.

  When she awoke the next morning all of those things still weighed heavily in her mind. Jacob, thankfully, didn’t notice.

  “Mommy, are you going to come on my field trip today?”

  “You know I am, baby,” Megan said as she packed a sack lunch for her and Jacob. Jacob had done nothing but talk about the field trip his kindergarten class was taking to the local police station. She had to put in for the day off right at the beginning of the school year when the calendars came out.

  “I am so excited! I wonder if they will have any prisoners there.” Jacob momentarily lost his grin and a frown formed on his cute little lips. “What if they are really bad?”

  “Jacob, they don’t keep the bad guys at the police station. You have nothing to worry about.”

  Jacob sighed and Megan couldn’t help but bring him in for an all-encompassing hug. “I’m really excited about spending the day with you, Jake.”

  “Me, too, Mommy!”

  Three hours later Megan and Jacob were walking into the Clark County Police Station. Megan hadn’t been there herself since she was in elementary school. It was nearly the same for one exception, the walls were no longer the pea green that she remembered. Now they were a bright yellow, and several pictures adorned the walls.

  “Now, Class,” Mrs. Ferguson, Jacob’s teacher spoke, “make sure you listen to what the officers tell you, and always raise your hand if you have a question. Chaperones, please stick by your group of kids. We don’t want anyone wandering off this year.”

  At Mrs. Ferguson’s speech, Megan smiled. She looked down at her group of four kids, and made sure that they all held hands.

  “Hi, this must be Mrs. Ferguson’s group,” a masculine voice sounded. Megan could feel the tiny hairs on the back of her neck. She turned toward the voice, and saw a very good looking man standing to her right. “I am Officer O’Reilly.”

  “Hi, Officer O’Reilly,” the kids spoke in tandem.

  Officer O’Reilly smiled and nodded at the children. “Has anyone been to the Clark County Police Station before?”

  Jacob raised his hand wildly. Megan wasn’t paying much attention until Officer O’Reilly’s gaze suddenly found her own. He paused, then looked at Jacob. Megan swallowed. “Jacob, put your hand down,” Megan whispered. Officer O'Reilly smiled.

  “Another field trip?”

  “No, my mommy has been here!”

  Megan’s face turned red at Officer O’Reilly’s pointed stare.

  “I was here when I was in kindergarten,” Megan mumbled. Officer O’Reilly laughed and then looked at the group of kids.

  “Ah, well that must have been a very long time ago.”

  Megan gave him a dirty look and he laughed.

  “It wasn’t that long ago,” Megan sneered. Jacob laughed, too.

  “She went when she was in kindergarten, too. She told me that they don’t keep any bad people here, and that we are safe with police officers.”

  Megan wanted to put duct tape over Jacob’s mouth. Suddenly she didn’t feel that safe. Officer O’Reilly was staring at her, and for some reason her libido decided it wanted to kick on for the first time in years.


  ***

  After what seemed like days, the field trip to the police station finally came to an end. Megan couldn’t help but be relieved. She felt like she was rubbed raw. All day, her group was stuck with Officer O’Reilly. She felt guilty the entire time. While she was supposed to be spending a relaxing day with Jacob, she felt anything but relaxed. Instead, she felt a nervous sort of excitement just being around him. She found herself looking at his ring finger at one point, and of course he caught her. After a wink in her direction, Megan decided that she needed to get some sort of grip on reality. He was a gorgeous police officer, probably never married, and never had kids. What would someone like that want to do with a single mother of a five year old?

  As the class boarded the bus to go back to the school, Officer O’Reilly followed, stopping Megan with a tug on her elbow.

  “Ma’am,” he said softly. Megan turned and felt the heat envelop her skin.

  “Yes?”

  Up close, Officer O’Reilly had the most beautiful eyes, dark brown with golden flecks. Megan swallowed, waiting for him to say what he wanted to say.

  “Are you free this evening?”

  Megan supposed she should have been prepared for this, seeing as they had made eyes at each other all day, but she was really shocked. She quickly shook her head. “No, I’m sorry.”

  “Tomorrow?” he asked, as she grabbed the doorway to the bus and pulled herself up. Jacob was already on the bus, and she was the last to board. Everyone was waiting on her.

  “No.”

  “This weekend?” he asked. He had a cheeky looking smile on his face—one that probably was a hit with every woman in a hundred mile radius.

  Megan couldn’t believe this hottie was being so persistent. As she was about to deny him again, she heard Jacob’s teacher talking to the class about how good they were. Megan wanted to crawl in a hole. She knew the teacher and the bus driver heard what the officer was asking of her, and she could feel all the kids’ eyes on her.

  “No. I have to go now, Officer. Thank you for showing us around.”

  With everything that she could summon, she pulled herself up the steps and walked toward the back of the bus where Jacob was waiting for her with a big grin.

  When the bus finally pulled away, Megan looked out the window, and Officer O’Reilly was standing there with a dumbfounded look on his face.

  Chapter 2

  “I didn’t get her name,” Brice said as he walked in to the station. He couldn’t believe his luck. It was the first time in a long while he had felt an attraction for a woman that he didn’t find in a bar or some other place where relationships weren’t conducive. He shook his head when his partner laughed.

  “That’s what you get, man,” Carl Sanders said, laughing. “Although I will say, this is the first time where you actually used your head instead of your...”

  “Yeah, yeah. She was beautiful, wasn’t she?”

  Carl laughed. “Yeah, she was, but she had a kid.”

  “I know, that’s what gets me the most. After Jenna I didn’t think I could go there again, but her eyes...Did you see them?”

  “No, I wasn’t really paying attention to her. I was too busy watching you with your tongue hanging out.”

  Brice rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t that bad.”

  “You were that bad. You barely looked at the class the entire 4 hours of a 2 hour field trip.”

  “4 hours?”

  “Yeah, look at the time. The kids had to get back to school and you kept delaying the trip. I don’t think the kids minded as they got the longest tour in history.”

  Brice sighed and put his hand over his eyes. She probably thought he was lame. “What about her?”

  Brice didn’t explain the question, as his friend smiled. “She didn’t seem to mind.”

  “I didn’t think she did. I asked her out, you know?”

  “You didn’t...”

  “Yeah, but she said no. I can’t figure it.”

  “Well you don’t ask a woman out in front of her kid.” Carl shook his head and started for his desk. He picked up a few papers and placed them in a file folder and then turned toward Brice, whom was now standing in front of his own desk.

  “I didn’t. They were all on the bus.”

  This was much worse than Carl thought. Carl smiled. “You mean to tell me you stopped the poor woman and made her wait in front of a bus load of kids and their teacher?”

  Brice cringed. “I didn’t think about that. Do you think that’s why she said no?”

  “I’d say that had a lot to do with it.”

  Brice took a deep breath. “I’ll just ask her again then.”

  “Really? You don’t think you blew it with her?”

  Brice shrugged his shoulders. “Probably, but there was something there, and, well, I want to find out what it is.”

  “Then you best find out what her name is.”

  Brice grinned, and then clicked his fingers, making Carl turn toward him. “Fingerprints!”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I fingerprinted her today.”

  "You what?”

  “You know, I did the fingerprints, to show the kids...”

  “You were supposed to do it to the kids not the parents.” Carl laughed and then shook his head. “You know, you are absolutely ridiculous.”

  “I know...I couldn’t help myself. Honestly, when I first looked at her, I just knew I had to touch her.”

  “You’re a perve.”

  “Shut up, Sanders. Now, help me with this,” Brice said as he pulled up the prints that he did on his mystery woman. It wasn’t exactly procedure, and he would probably be questioned later as to why he had done it, but he had to know who she was. “Can you help me or not?”

  Carl smiled and flipped the switch on his computer. “Yeah, just give me a few minutes.”

  Brice grinned and finished up on the rest of his paperwork.

  “Her name is Megan James,” Carl said after about twenty minutes of running her prints through the directory.

  “Any priors?”

  “Nope. She had them done for the hospital. She’s a nurse.”

  “Where?”

  “Mercy Medical.”

  “Jackpot!” Brice exclaimed. “I wonder what department she works in.”

  “I’d say to just go there and find out, but then again that place is pretty big.”

  “Thanks for this, Carl.”

  “Yeah, don’t mention it...seriously don’t.”

  Brice picked up his coat, but not before glimpsing at the address on the screen. Megan only lived a few blocks from the station, and it was on the way to his house. Maybe he would accidentally see her and her son on the street.

  ***

  Megan had listened to her son talk nonstop about Officer O’Reilly. You’d have thought the sun rose and set out of his butt. He was gorgeous, she’d give him that, but he was clearly a ladies man, and if she were honest with herself, that’s not something she wanted to deal with again. Jason, Jacob’s father, was the same way. He was always flirting with other women when they were out, blaming it on his personality; his nickname was ‘ladies’ man for goodness sake! She was charmed by him at first, but then when he winked at her for looking at his ring finger, and then again for checking out his butt when he turned and walked toward the questioning room, and then he fingerprinted her and put her in the lineup window, it had been too much. Her nerves were on high alert by the time she finally got out of there. She had no idea where the surge of lust had been hiding, but it was there, and she felt as if she would burst if she didn’t take care of the urge to be with the police officer. It was all she could think about.

  “Mommy, look who’s here!” Jacob yelled. He was so excited that he was jumping up and down while holding on to her hand. She turned toward where Jacob was looking and wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Right there, standing near her tree lawn was Officer O’Reilly.

  Shit.

  Shoot.

 
Dang.

  “Hi again. I didn’t know you lived down here,” Officer O’Reilly said casually as he started toward them. “Hey, kiddo.”

  “Hi! I can’t believe you’re here! I told mom, I told her!” Jacob was jumping up and down with a huge smile on his face.

  Officer O’Reilly looked from Megan to her son and then back. The kid was cute, he’d give him that much. “Oh, yeah...What did you tell her?”

  Megan’s face was beet red, and she was trying to get Jacob to keep his mouth shut. It didn’t work.

  “There are only 42 days until Christmas, and I wished for...”

  “Jacob!” Megan interrupted. It was so unexpected, Officer O’Reilly flinched.

  He looked from Megan to Jacob and then back.

  “Mommy, it’s okay, Daddy told me to tell you.”

  Megan didn’t know what to think. “Jacob,” Megan’s voice whispered in a rush.

  “I want a Da—”

  “Jacob!”

  Officer O’Reilly’s face paled. He must have known what Jacob was about to say, and by the look on his face, he wasn’t impressed.

  “Thank you for the tour today, Officer,” Megan said, frowning. “But I think Jacob needs to go lie down.”

  “My name is Brice.”

  Megan startled and then looked up at him. He was a lot taller than she was, but then again, most were. She was only 5'6. “What?”

  “I’m Brice.”

  “Megan. Nice to meet you.”

  “You, too,” Brice said. His voice sounded a bit thick; he sounded nervous.

  “Listen, honey,” Megan said to Jacob. “It is way past homework time. Why don’t you go in, and I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  Jacob frowned, but then just as quick smiled. “Okay, Mommy. Thanks for coming to see us, Officer.”

  “You’re welcome,” Brice said. Jacob opened his arms wide and plowed into Brice, hitting him pretty hard in the center.

  Megan couldn’t believe what Jacob was doing. She was right about one thing, her son needed a man in his life. “Jacob, leave Officer O’Reilly alone. He probably doesn’t want a hug right now.”