A Highlander for Christmas
by Sandy Blair
Summary
‘Tis the season to be jolly—but Boston antiques dealer Claire MacGregor isn’t looking forward to a solo Christmas, or cocoa for one, or trimming the tree by herself. But company’s coming. Claire is fooling around with an old puzzle box and when it opens...a gorgeous, studly laird appears. Thumbs down: Sir Cameron MacLeod is centuries old. Thumbs up: he doesn’t look it. And Cameron is tall, dark, and lusty—very lusty.
Excerpt
Tracy twirled the wrought iron Christmas card holder sitting on the Claire’s antique shop desk. “Hey, you got another card from that old guy you helped a few years ago.”
“Yes.” Claire grinned. It had been on a night much like this one that she’d first met Tavish MacLean. She’d been closing up for the night when she heard the crash, rushed outside and found Tavish half frozen, his compact car crumpled against a light pole and sitting crosswise to the deserted street. After he assured her he could walk, she brought him back to the shop, where she’d called the police and tended his wounds.
While they waited three hours for the tow truck to arrive, she’d filled him with cocoa and sugar cookies and he’d entertained her in his lovely burr with tales of his Christmases in Scotland. Since then he called regularly, always sent her a lovely anniversary card three weeks before Christmas, and drove down from Portsmouth to have lunch with her the day before Christmas.
Reading the card, Tracy grinned. “I think he’s sweet on you, Claire.”
“Just my luck the only real man in my life is almost eighty and—”
Brrrrringggggg
Tracy jerked, her head snapping around in the direction of the sound. “What the hell is that?”
“Just the loading dock bell.” As it continued to clatter like an ancient fire house alarm, Claire reached for the cane she kept behind the desk.
“Who’d be making a delivery at this hour?”
“No one. It’s probably just kids screwing around.”
Every merchant on the street had recently been hit by vandals. Their leader, a pimple-faced kid of about fifteen with a pierced eye-brow and tattooed fingers, had had the audacity to suggest she pay protection money to insure her windows remained intact. When she told him to go screw himself or she’d call the cops, he’d shrugged and walked away.
At three the next morning the crash of glass followed by her security alarm screaming nearly gave her a heart attack.
She’d shot out of the bed, grabbed her cell phone and cane and headed for the back staircase. She hadn’t made it to the first landing when she heard alarmed shouts from her elderly second floor tenant.
After telling Mrs. Grouse to stay calm, she’d raced down the stairs and found the glass in her double front doors in shards but everything else intact.
The police came, dusted for prints and said they’d patrol the neighborhood.
And then it happened again.
To date the little bastards had cost her $1,800.00 in new plate glass and glazing fees, an amount she could ill afford.
In the back store room, cane in hand—its lethal inner blade exposed—she peered through the small window. A moving van filled the alley and a man, dressed in a delivery uniform, stood on her loading dock blowing white clouds into the air. The loading dock—an add on the previous owner had constructed when he’d converted the first floor apartment into retail space—had been the primary reasons she’d chosen this narrow building over others. That and its rock bottom price. There was something to be said for leaking pipes, an antiquated heating system and layers of lead paint.
Reviews
http://www.singletitles.com/index.php?p=162
http://www.amazon.com/Highlander-Christmas-Sandy-Blair/dp/0821779974
http://harrietklausner.wwwi.com/review/a_highlander_for_christmas_blair
Author's Biography
Award winning author Sandy Blair loves writing about the past. She has slept in castles, knelt in cathedrals where kings and queens have been crowned, dined with peerage, floated along Venetian canals and explored the great pyramids. When not writing, Sandy dabbles with watercolors, is a charity fundraiser, and loves to entertain family and friends at home. She currently resides in Texas with her husband.