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THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT CHRISTMAS

To Eram (the real Emma) and her mother

Chapter One

On that cold day I was born, in February 1955, ave me a classic fruitcake for the celebration of the occasion ofthe 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

This job was going to kill her yet

E her toward his plane She’d co dollars for her employer, The Puyallup Exa a spin around southeast Puget Sound

"Thank you, but no," she insisted for the third ti proble her best toheart No ould she go for a ride with Flyboy

The truth was, E Okay, she white-knuckled it in a Boeing 747, but nothing on God’s green earth would get her inside a s Oliver Halint in his dark blue eyes and wore a distressed brown leather jacket that reseht wear All he needed was the white scarf She suspected that if he ever got her in the air, he’d start htening her to death He looked just the type

Placing the advertising-rate sheet on his desk, she turned resolutely away froht of Hamilton’s little bitty plane--a Cessna Caravan 675, he’d called it "As I was explaining earlier, The Examiner has a circulation of over forty-five thousand As you’ll see--" she gestured at the sheet "--we have special introductory rates in Dece dollar, you can’t do better than e’re offering"

"Yes, yes, I understand all that," Oliver Ha around his desk "Nohat I can offer you is the experience of a lifetime…"

Instinctively Emma backed away She had an aversion to attractive ues Her father had been one of the her childhood and teen years Every so often, he’d arrived bearing gifts andpromises, none of which he’d kept Still, her mother had loved Bret Collins until the end Pamela had died after a brief illness when Eon To his credit, her father had paid her college expenses, but E 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 she’d hired on at The Exa at the botto half her ti

The Exa breed The newspaper had been in the Berwald fah the corporate buyouts and survived the co out of Tacoma and Seattle It hadn’t been easy Now his thirty-year-old son had taken over after his father’s recent heart attack Walt the third, the new editor-in-chief, was doing everything he could to keep the newspaper financially solvent, which E to pet his dog "I think the lady’s afraid of flying"

Eed her so quickly "Don’t be ridiculous"

He ignored her and continued to pet the dog She couldn’t readily identify his breed, possibly soe black spot surrounding his left eye Right out of that 1930s show Spanky and Our Gang Wasn’t that the name? She shook off herin The Exaain "I hope you’ll reconsider"

Oliver straightened, crossing his ar my business started At this point I don’t have a lot of discretionary funds for advertising So for now I’ll stick with the word-of-"

It couldn’t 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 I’ve recently begun an air-freight business"

"Oh"

"Oscar and I haven’t crashed even once"

He was obviouslyfun of her, and she didn’t appreciate it Nor did she take his alleged safety record as an incentive to leap into the passenger seat

"But then," he added, "there’s always a first ti to say," Emma muttered "Well, I’ll leave the information with you," she said more pleasantly "I hope you’ll think about our proposal when it’s financially feasible"

Retrieving her briefcase and purse, she headed toward the door--which Oliver suddenly blocked with his arm His smile was as lazy as it was sexy H all that boyish charm, plenty of other women had probably aze without flinching