Debbie Macomber - Glad Tidings: Here Comes Trouble Theres Something About Christmas

Praise for New York Times bestselling author
DEBBIE MACOMBER

Full of unexpected delights.

Publishers Weekly on Theres Something About Christmas

A tale as joyful as the season itself.

Booklist on When Christmas Comes

Readers looking for a holiday fairy tale will find plenty of reasons to cheer.

Publishers Weekly on When Christmas Comes

Perfect fireside reading.

Library Journal on The Snow Bride

A fast, frothy fantasy for those looking to add some romance to their holidays.

Publishers Weekly on The Snow Bride

Ms. Macomber provides the top in entertaining relationship dramas.

Reader to Reader

Sometimes the best things come in small packages. Such is the case here.

Publishers Weekly on Return to Promise

Macombers storytelling sometimes yields a tear, at other times a smile.

Newport News, VA, Daily Press

Dear Friends,

Youre going to require two things to enjoy this holiday volume.

1. A sense of humor.

2. An open mind when it comes to fruitcake.

As it happens, I love fruitcake, and because I do, Im sharing three special fruitcake recipes with you. One comes from my mother-in-law, Marie Macomber; it started out as an applesauce cake that I adapted through the years into a moist fruitcake. (The rum certainly doesnt hurt!) The others are from two readers, Cindy Thornlow and Penny Raven, who have become friends of mine through the years.

The second story in this set is a romantic comedy I wrote in the early 1990s. Its long been a favorite of mine. Youll see that Ive updated it a little. I hope that, just like Maryanne and me, youll fall in love with Nolan.

Both stories feature heroines who work for newspapers. The title, Glad Tidings, refers to thatand, of course, to the good news of Christmas.

My wish is that these stories will make you laugh. If you enjoy them as much as I hope you do, please consider your laughter my gift to you this Christmas.

Debbie Macomber

P.S. I love to hear from readers! You can reach me at www.debbiemacomber.com or P.O. Box 1458, Port Orchard, WA 98366.

DEBBIE MACOMBER

Glad Tidings

CONTENTS

THERES SOMETHING ABOUT CHRISTMAS

To Emma Ingram (the real Emma) and her mother

Chapter One

On that cold day I was born, in February 1955, my great-aunt gave me a classic fruitcake for the celebration of the occasion of my birth. Every year during the holidays I pull it out of the attic and take a look at it and it still looks great, and every year I try to get up the nerve to take a slice and try it.Dean Fearing,
chef of The Mansion on Turtle Creek

T his job was going to kill her yet.

Emma Collins stared at the daredevil pilot who was urging her toward his plane. Shed come to Thun Field to drum up advertising dollars for her employer, The Puyallup Examiner, and wasnt interested in taking a spin around southeast Puget Sound.

Thank you, but no, she insisted for the third time. Oliver Hamilton seemed to have a hearing problem. However, Emma was doing her best to maintain a professional facade, despite her pounding heart. No way would she go for a ride with Flyboy.

The truth was, Emma was terrified of flying. Okay, she white-knuckled it in a Boeing 747, but nothing on Gods green earth would get her inside a small plane with this manand his dog. Oliver Hamilton had a devil-may-care glint in his dark blue eyes and wore a distressed brown leather jacket that resembled something a World War Two bomber pilot might wear. All he needed was the white scarf. She suspected that if he ever got her in the air, hed start making loops and circles with the express purpose of frightening her to death. He looked just the type.

Placing the advertising-rate sheet on his desk, she turned resolutely away from the window and the sight of Hamiltons little bitty planea Cessna Caravan 675, hed called it. As I was explaining earlier, The Examiner has a circulation of over forty-five thousand. As youll see she gestured at the sheet we have special introductory rates in December. We serve four communities and, dollar for advertising dollar, you cant do better than what were offering.

Yes, yes, I understand all that, Oliver Hamilton said, stepping around his desk. Now, what I can offer you is the experience of a lifetime.

Instinctively Emma backed away. She had an aversion to attractive men whose promises slid so easily off their tongues. Her father had been one of them. Hed flitted in and out of her life during her childhood and teen years. Every so often, hed arrived bearing gifts and making promises, none of which hed kept. Still, her mother had loved Bret Collins until the end. Pamela had died after a brief illness when Emma was a sophomore at the University of Oregon. To his credit, her father had paid her college expenses, but Emma refused to have anything to do with him. She was on her own in the world and determined to make a success of her career as a journalist. When shed hired on at The Examiner earlier that year, she hadnt objected to starting at the bottom. Shed expected that. What she hadnt expected was spending half her time trying to sell advertising.

The Examiner was a family-owned business, one of a vanishing breed. The newspaper had been in the Berwald family for three generations. Walt Berwald II had held on through the corporate buyouts and survived the competition from the big-city newspapers coming out of Tacoma and Seattle. It hadnt been easy. Now his thirty-year-old son had taken over after his fathers recent heart attack. Walt the third, the new editor-in-chief, was doing everything he could to keep the newspaper financially solvent, which Emma knew was a challenge.

Hey, Oscar, Oliver said, bending to pet his dog. I think the ladys afraid of flying.

Emma bristled, irritated that hed pegged her so quickly. Dont be ridiculous.

He ignored her and continued to pet the dog. She couldnt readily identify his breed, possibly some kind of terrier. The dog was mostly white with one large black spot surrounding his left eye. Right out of that 1930s show Spanky and Our Gang. Wasnt that the name? She shook off her momentary distraction.

Im here to sell you advertising in The Examiner, she explained again. I hope youll reconsider.

Oliver straightened, crossing his arms, and leaned against his desk. As I said, Im just getting my business started. At this point I dont have a lot of discretionary funds for advertising. So for now Ill stick with the word-of-mouth method. That seems to be working.

It couldnt be working that well, since he appeared to have a lot of time on his hands. Exactly what is it you do? she asked.

I give flying lessons and Ive recently begun an air-freight business.

Oh.

Oscar and I havent crashed even once.

He was obviously making fun of her, and she didnt appreciate it. Nor did she take his alleged safety record as an incentive to leap into the passenger seat.

But then, he added, theres always a first time.

Exactly what I was going to say, Emma muttered. Well, Ill leave the information with you, she said more pleasantly. I hope youll think about our proposal when its financially feasible.

Retrieving her briefcase and purse, she headed toward the doorwhich Oliver suddenly blocked with his arm. His smile was as lazy as it was sexy. Hmm, funny how often lazy and sexy went together. Considering all that boyish charm, plenty of other women had probably melted at his feet. She wouldnt.

She met his gaze without flinching.

Are you sure I cant take you up for a spin? he asked.

Absolutely, positively sure.

Theres nothing to fear except fear itself.

Uh-uh. Now if youll excuse me, I have other calls to make.

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