Merry Little Christmas Read online

  A Merry Little Christmas

  A West Brothers Novella

  By

  Jess Bryant

  It’s Christmas in Fate Texas, a time for happiness, love and most of all family. Check in on your favorite residents of the gossipy small town and get a glimpse of their lives following the conclusion of the West Brothers books.

  Zach and Bluebell are busy preparing for the birth of their first child. Devin and Maddie are now the proud but exhausted parents of three baby girls. And see how Riley and Jenny, as well as Robbie and JP, are settling into family life.

  In addition, you’ll get a sneak peek at It Had To Be You, a stand-alone novel featuring some of your favorite characters from Fate coming in February 2016. The Wild West Boys may all be happily settled but there’s a certain gold-eyed bachelor running around that needs a happily ever after. Get a glimpse of just what Fate has in store for Austin Evans with a Christmas surprise.

  Plus, you heard mention of the Harden cousin from Dallas in Too Good To Be True, now it’s time to meet them. They may live in a city instead of a small town and work in high-rises instead of on ranches, but when it comes to love they’re a lot like their West brethren… when they fall, they fall hard. You’ll be introduced to Adam, Blake, Brooke, Kat and Kyle before their new series kicks off in 2016.

  Wishing you all a very merry Christmas from my family to yours and looking forward to a fun new year!

  -Jess

  Smashwords Edition

  HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

  Copyright © 2015 by Jess Bryant.

  Cover Art: Image Copyright ©334358756, verca

  Used under license from Shutterstock.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Zach & Bluebell: All I Want For Christmas Is You

  Devin & Maddie: Silent Night

  Riley & Jenny: A Very Special Christmas

  Sneak Peek at It Had to Be You coming February 2016

  Zach & Bluebell: All I Want For Christmas Is You

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  Zach West paused in the doorway to take in the scene in front of him. Sometimes he still needed a minute to take it all in, to convince his eyes that he wasn’t seeing things, to convince himself that this was actually his life. The gorgeous woman making a mess of the kitchen was his happily ever after but he wasn’t sure he would ever wake up without wondering just how he’d gotten so lucky.

  She looked like a dream. His dream. A dream he hadn’t even known he had.

  At the moment, her blonde hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail and her high cheekbones were streaked with flour. Her face was flushed from the heat of the oven which only reminded him of the way she flushed every time he touched her. She was dressed in her favorite uniform, one of his oversized shirts and if he had to guess, not much else. He started to move towards her instinctively, had never been any good at staying away from her even from the very start.

  “Making cookies.”

  “Attempting to burn our house down again, you mean?”

  Bluebell looked up from where she was rolling out dough to smirk at him, “We’re supposed to test the fire alarms monthly right?”

  He chuckled at her response. A lot of southern women would have been upset by his teasing, even if it was completely accurate, but not his wife. She knew full well that her skills in the kitchen were laughable by Ladies Guild standards. She handled microwavable pizza like a champ but a seven course meal was not in her repertoire. Still, she never avoided the kitchen and he often found her in here throwing random ingredients together and coming up with new and crazy recipes that anyone with half a brain knew not to try when they graced the table.

  “True, but didn’t you test them just a couple of weeks ago?”

  She squished her nose up adorably, “That wasn’t me! That was Maddie!”

  “Nice try, but it was you and an attempt to make pasta I think. Maddie was trying to save our home if I remember correctly.” He slid in behind her at the island, “Who’re the cookies for?”

  “If I said they’re for the kids tomorrow it would be a lie. They’re totally all for me. I wanted cookies so I’m making cookies. Pregnancy craving at its finest.”

  Zach smiled as he slipped an arm around her from behind and his hand immediately found the round swell of her belly. My God, how had he gotten so damn lucky? A gorgeous wife that always kept him on his toes and soon enough a little boy or girl to love and cherish. For a man that had always sworn he would never settle down, didn’t think marriage was for him and wasn’t a kid person, he was looking forward to the next eighty years or so with this woman, raising their children and growing old together.

  “I approve.”

  “You say that now but I’m not sharing.” She leaned back into him.

  “I figured as much.” He nuzzled her neck since it was right there, “As far as cravings go it’s a lot less weird than the pickles.”

  “Oh God!” She cringed, “Don’t even mention pickles. Please!”

  “What?”

  “Just the thought of a pickle right now makes me nauseous.”

  “But you’ve loved pickles for the last few months. You sent me to town to get pickles at midnight a few weeks ago.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not saying it makes sense.” She giggled, “This boy wants what he wants.”

  Zach tightened his grip on his wife instinctively, “Boy?”

  “Caught that did you?”

  “Well you left it dangling out there for me to run right into.” He twisted her around so she was facing him, “Are you serious?”

  He found himself studying her face, like he always did when he had her this close. Pregnancy suited her. She hadn’t been sick at all. She’d taken to it like a duck to water and she practically glowed. He hadn’t thought she could get any prettier but she proved him wrong every day. She was all softness and curves and big blue eyes now and he thought sometimes that when God had created her it must have been to make him happy.

  Because she did. Every day. Everything about her. She made him happy in ways that he hadn’t even realized he wasn’t until that day she drove back into town in her little red sports car and turned his life upside down.

  She shrugged, “It’s just a feeling I have.”

  “A feeling that we’re having a son?” He grinned.

  When they’d gone for the ultrasound, the doctor had told them the baby was facing the wrong direction. There was no way to get a good shot. His guess had been fifty-fifty and that had been fine by them both. They’d agreed then and there that they wouldn’t go back to find out, that the surprise and anticipation would be something they could share.

  But a boy? A boy. His boy.

  He thought he’d wrapped his head around the fact that he was going to be a father, but the idea of a son made his chest ache. He realized then that all of the daydreams he’d been having the past few months, hell, the past few years as they’d tried to get pregnant, had never involved a son. Somehow, he’d always imagined himself with a daughter.

  Devin had daughters after all. Three of them now. Little Ellie had been his first niece but with the arrival of the twins just a couple of months ago his younger brother was now a proud papa to three little girls. When he’d let himself imagine fatherhood, it was Devin’s life that he looked to so of course he’d been picturing a daughter.

  Besides, Bluebell was an only child born from an only child in a long line of girls. Her side of the
family had been maternally focused. He knew that she’d been imaging a little girl as well. Looking forward to bows and dresses and plenty of pink, just as he had.

  But a son. God, a son. His son. He felt like he’d just been punched in the gut. A West to carry on the name, his name, his father’s name. There were no words for the flood of emotions that filled him at the thought.

  His entire life had changed when his father died of that heart attack but just how much he loved and respected Ellis West hadn’t. He’d stepped up to fill his boots, help his mother raise his two younger brothers and keep the family ranch running, and he’d done it because it was what his father would have wanted. They’d had their differences and their problems but he loved and missed the man every single day.

  He liked to think sometimes that his father was up there in heaven watching over all of them. Riley had a dreamer’s theory that their father not only kept an eye on them but that he’d help guide them as well. His youngest brother was convinced that their father had pointed all three of his sons towards the women in their lives and it was a nice thought.

  He liked the idea of having his fathers’ approval for the life he’d chosen. The old man would have adored Bluebell. They’d have butted heads because she was as stubborn and independent as they came but he’d have fallen in love with her fiery, feisty spirit just as fast as Zach had. He knew that.

  He thought his father would have been proud of his grandchildren too, probably bragging about them to all his buddies. Devin had given him three pretty little angels. Riley had just recently started proceedings to adopt his two step-sons and he and his new wife Jenny were expecting a baby of their own. Three’s ran in the family after all so it wasn’t surprising that both of his brothers would end up with a set.

  When he and Bluebell had problems conceiving, he’d worried that God had been listening a little too closely to all of his bullshit through the years. He’d said he didn’t want kids more times than he could count. He’d helped raise his two brothers and claimed that was more than enough parenthood for him. He’d hated the idea of not being able to give Bluebell the baby she so badly wanted with him but he’d also hated it because he hadn’t wanted to be the one to let their father down.

  Now his beautiful wife was not only pregnant with their first child but she thought it was a boy.

  A son. A West. The first West of the new generation. And damn if that didn’t make him just a little bit smug. Because Devin could name his daughter after their father. Even Riley could adopt his boys and give them his name. But he would be the one to give their father his first grandson and he thought that having the first West boy was his right.

  He was the first born. He was the one that had poured his blood, sweat and tears into the ranch after their father died. He was the one that had kept them together. He wanted this. He hadn’t even realized it until the words were out of her mouth. But God he wanted a son.

  Bluebell giggled again, the sound as light and girly as ever, “You’re totally going to shove it in your brothers faces tomorrow aren’t you?”

  “Of course not.” He laughed when she raised a skeptical eyebrow, “I’ll wait until we’re absolutely sure before I shove it in their faces.”

  But he would be smug about this. He wouldn’t be able to help it. He was proud damn it! He was going to have a son.

  “So you’re happy?”

  He caught Bluebell studying his face and immediately tilted her chin up with his finger, “No. I’m not happy. I’m overjoyed. I’m so damn happy I don’t know what to do with myself.”

  She smiled up at him “I thought you would be but I wasn’t sure. Everything we’ve talked about… we always talked about girls.”

  “I told you before as long as our baby is healthy that I would be happy.”

  “I know.”

  He found himself stroking her soft skin, a habit he had never tried all that hard to break, “What about you? Are you happy?”

  Bluebell shrugged, “I don’t know a damn thing about boys.”

  “That’s not true. You were raised by a boy, on a ranch, with a dozen other males running around. You know more about cattle and ranching and riding than most men baby-doll.”

  A moment of sadness crept into her big blue eyes and he pulled her against his chest for a hug. The pregnancy hormones made her emotional. His wife had never been much of a crier. She was strong, one of the reasons he’d fallen in love with her, but she’d also kept a lot bottled up over the years. She’d opened up to him and he was grateful and humbled that she leaned on him. Still, he’d never been good with women crying and the idea of Bluebell being in pain absolutely gutted him and always would.

  He knew what had brought it on this time without even needing to ask. It was the same thing that had always had the ability to make her cry. Her parents.

  Being pregnant and not having either of parents to share it with had magnified her loss. Losing her mother when she was just a little girl herself had altered her and it had altered her relationship with her father. When he’d passed away a few years ago as well, she’d been all alone. The last of her line, the only Montgomery and the only Carter.

  She’d had him though and he’d promised to give her everything that he was. That had included his family. And she had stepped into the West family and become one of them. She’d become the glue that held them all together some days. The feisty daughter his mother had never had and the brat sister his brothers had never thought to want.

  She had become a part of them, and them her, so much so that he wondered sometimes if his brothers realized that in a lot of ways it was Bluebell that had brought them their own wives. Maddie and Jenny had been her two closest friends and yes, though Devin and Riley had both known the women for years, neither of them had been in any sort of emotional state to admit what they felt or settle down. Bluebell had come along and she’d pushed him into accepting the love that he deserved and in turn, she had done it for his brothers as well. They were all lucky to have her in their lives and to call her family.

  Family or not though, thinking of their baby growing up without his grandparents hurt her just as much as it hurt him.

  “It’s okay baby. They’re watching over you just like Dad.”

  “I know.” She nuzzled his chest. “I just wish they could be here.”

  “Me too.”

  “I miss them.”

  “I know. So do I.” He stroked her back.

  Bluebell sighed, “When I think about having a son, I just think about how much Daddy always wanted one but he got me instead.”

  “He loved you all the same.”

  “I know.” She pulled back from him to look him in the face, “I know now why he acted the way he did but… I guess I just wish he’d lived to see his grandson. I think sometimes that this baby would have been able to patch up all the cracks between us as messed up as that might sound.”

  “It doesn’t sound messed up baby. You wish your Dad was here to see the woman you’ve become, the mother you’re going to be and that he could be there for his grandchild the way he was never able to be there for you.”

  She smiled softly, “You’re so good at that.”

  “What?”

  “Reading my mind. Knowing things I can’t even put into words. Making me feel better.”

  He kissed her forehead, “Practice makes perfect.”

  “You are. Perfect. For me.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, “I’m so lucky I found you.”

  “Lucky you had that blowout when you did.”

  “I think I would have found you anyway.” She gave a contented sigh, “If it hadn’t been the car on the side of the road, it would have been something else. I was supposed to be here in Fate that day. I was supposed to meet you and I was supposed to stick around. If I didn’t get a flat on the car I would have run into you at the gas station or at Molly’s wedding and we’d still have ended up here.”

  “That’s a very fairytale way of looking at it.” He teased


  “What can I say, you’ve turned me into a sappy, romantic fool.”

  “Ditto.” He brushed his lips over her temple again, “Still, I like the way we met. It makes for a good story to tell the kids about.”

  “Yes, it does.”

  “I’ll have to leave out the part where their mother all bur propositioned me five minutes after meeting me though. Wouldn’t want to give them the wrong impression.” He chuckled and she rolled her eyes.

  “I did not proposition you.”

  “Really?” He dropped his forehead against hers so their mouths were inches apart and repeated her words from that fateful day, “You want to go for a ride?”

  Her grin was instantaneous, “You’re right. I propositioned you. But I couldn’t help it! You were all big and rough and you fixed my tire for me. It was damn sexy.”

  “You were damn sexy in that little dress. I think my heart stopped when you stepped out of that car. All long legs and that shiny blonde hair, like a full-size Barbie with a dirty mouth and a sassy attitude.” He pulled her closer, “I thought you were perfect. Still do.”

  “Sweet-talker.” She brushed her lips over his, “But I’m still not sharing my cookies.”

  He laughed. God, he loved this woman. Playful and smart and beautiful and challenging. He never knew what she was going to do or say next and keeping up with her had become his favorite hobby. He could only imagine what his life was going to be like when he was trying to keep up with her and a toddler.

  He was the luckiest man alive.

  “I didn’t come in here for the cookies.”

  “No?” She raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow and he grinned.

  Just that fast, heat flooded the kitchen and it didn’t have a thing to do with the oven being on. Sparks had flared between them from the first moment they met. They hadn’t begun to cool and he didn’t think they ever would.