BooksBarbecue
Back The Christmas Company
Chapters (19)
  1. Chapter One
  2. Chapter Two
  3. Chapter Three
  4. Chapter Four
  5. Chapter Five
  6. Chapter Six
  7. Chapter Seven
  8. Chapter Eight
  9. Chapter Nine
  10. Chapter Ten
  11. Chapter Eleven
  12. Chapter Twelve
  13. Chapter Thirteen
  14. Chapter Fourteen
  15. Chapter Fifteen
  16. Chapter Sixteen
  17. Chapter Seventeen
  18. Chapter Eighteen
  19. About The Author

The same compulsion telling him to light the fire and throw the book straight into it also told him to stop reading there, but his curiosity tamped down all of that. He read on.

Dear Clark,

I don’t know you very well. Yesterday, we didn’t exactly get off on the right foot. You want to destroy my town. I was rude and abrasive. We both made mistakes. But this morning, I saw you eating breakfast alone at the diner in town and my heart broke for you. Everyone in this town thinks you’re a villain. And maybe they’re right. But I don’t think they are. And I’m hoping I can prove it.

Or, maybe better, I hope we can prove to you that you’re not a villain. If, in the end, I fail to do this, I hope you’ll read this book. It’s made me see the best in people all my life. Maybe it can do the same for you.

Yours Most Sincerely,

Kate Buckner.

He parsed her words, picking them apart alongside everything he now knew about her. Everything in him wanted to stay angry with her, to cling to that pain that shot straight through him when she’d asked about the festival. It was no small thing for him to open up, so it was no small thing to be betrayed.

But…what if she hadn’t betrayed him? The gift had been sitting there since her arrival that morning. She’d written all of this before they’d known each other, wrapped it with care when the last time they’d spoke he’d carelessly insulted her home and everything she cared about… Even then, she didn’t think he was a monster. Even then, she saw good in him. And gave him something without any expectation of a return.

Clark sunk to the lowest pits of despair. She’d been honest all along. Sure, the festival was important to her, but this morning before she even knew him, she wanted to help him. He’d misjudged her character. He’d failed her, not the other way around. He would not cry. He would not cry. He would not cry. He just needed to see what was so special about this book. He sniffled, holding back his torrent of angst as much as possible. Delicate as he could, Clark turned to the title page and read the bold print declaring the name of Kate Buckner’s favorite piece of literature.

A Christmas Carol.

In Prose.

Being a Ghost Story of Christmas.

By Charles Dickens.

Oh, no… He’d have to read this thing, wouldn’t he?

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Christmas Day

“Kate! Kate!”