Forever Santa Read Online Free PDF

it.”
    “Considering it started out as a bunkhouse and ended up being high-end accommodation, I don’t know what Jordan wants to call it. How many lights are we putting on the tree?”
    “The websites I checked said you need one hundred lights for every foot of tree.”
    “That’s eight hundred lights. We’ll be here all night.”
    “Think of it as good training for the future. We’ll have another tree to decorate next year if anyone stays in the barn over Christmas. What are we going to do about Jordan?”
    “We’re not going to do anything about him. Don’t start hatching any plans either, Gracie. He’s dealing with what’s happening in his own way.”
    “But he’s such a great guy and he’s miserable. He needs to meet a great girl to make him feel human again.”
    “And I suppose you have the perfect woman in mind?”
    “Not yet.” Gracie moved out of the way when Trent stepped off the ladder. “There’s a gap over there.”
    Trent stared at the tree. “Where?”
    “In here.” She moved two strings of lights onto different branches. “There, that’s better.”
    “We’ll make a decent Christmas tree light person out of you yet.”
    Gracie wrapped her arms around her husband’s waist. “We make a good team.”
    “The best.”
    Trent kissed the top of her head and held her close. And not for the first time, Gracie felt like the luckiest person alive.
     

 
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Gracie slammed the oven door closed and raced to the kitchen table. She pulled a chair under the smoke detector just as it went off.
    Jordan ran into the kitchen, stopping as soon as he saw Gracie perched on the chair, frantically waving a dish towel under the smoke detector.
    “Take the cookies out of the oven and throw them outside.” She waved the dish towel some more, hoping like crazy the siren didn’t bring half the ranch hands scurrying across to the homestead. She’d be embarrassed and they’d think it was funny.
    “Those cooking lessons with Mrs. Davies don’t seem to have helped.” Jordan opened the back door and came back empty handed.
    Gracie gave the smoke alarm one last swat before carefully stepping off the chair. A broken leg, or worse, would cap off a perfectly disastrous morning. “Where’s the baking sheet?”
    “The cookies were stuck like glue. Did you grease the sheet before you put the dough on it?”
    Gracie’s face turned as red as the thermostat on the oven. “I guess the heat burned it off.”
    Jordan grinned at his sister-in-law. “You think?” He glanced at the desserts Gracie had already baked, raising his eyebrows at the pavlovas cooling on the counter. “How do you manage to bake all of this, but still have trouble with cookies?”
    “I don’t know.” Gracie supposed she should be thankful it was only cookies that made her nervous. She never had trouble with the other recipes she tried, but every time she made cookies they either ended up as flat as a pancake, burned, or just plain bad.
    “What’s all the food for anyway?” Jordan’s hand drifted toward a plate of fruit tarts.
    “You can have one .” Gracie held up her finger just in case he forgot what one meant. “I’m making dessert for tonight.” When Jordan looked at her blankly she sighed. “Don’t let your mom know you’ve forgotten about her tree trimming party. She’s been baking dough decorations all week.”
    Jordan didn’t seem impressed. He pulled out a chair and sat at the kitchen table. Close to the fruit tarts. “These taste good. What’s in them?”
    Gracie moved the plate out from under his nose in case he started inhaling them. “Lemon curd mousse in a shortbread crust. What’s so wrong about your mom’s party?”
    Jordan strummed his fingers on the table, then glanced at Gracie. “Mom makes a big deal out of the party. We’ll be there for hours decorating the damn tree. There’ll be party games galore and we take home the dough decorations we’ve painted. The kids love