Blurb:
Bethany Kringle is planning to skip Christmas, like she has both years since her mom died. She thinks it' s the perfect plan... until her brother, Matt, tells her he' s taking leave from the Navy to come home for Christmas. And he' s bringing his friend, Jay, with him. Now, Bethany must fight through her grief to give them the best Christmas possible.
Jay MacDonald is afraid that God wants him to leave the Navy, the only place he has ever belonged. He' s also nervous about spending Christmas with his friend' s family, until he meets Matt' s sister who helps put him at ease. Jay immediately notices the grief Bethany is trying to hide and resolves to help her in any way he can.
As Jay supports Bethany, the two can' t help being drawn to each other. Could God use this Christmas to bring them both peace and possibly bring them together as well?
Purchase links:
https://www.amazon.com/Kringle-Family-Christmas-Holiday-Extravaganza-ebook/dp/B0DFD37D7W/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-kringle-family-christmas-miriam-thor/1146222905
https://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68_41&products_id=1692
Excerpt:
Sitting cross-legged on her couch, Bethany Kringle stared at her laptop, willing it to start ringing. It had been a few weeks since she’d talked to her brother, and he was now—she glanced at the clock at the bottom of the screen—five minutes late for their Saturday night
video chat.
Absently, she twirled a strand of black hair around her finger, hoping nothing was wrong. Matt wasn’t deployed yet, but something unexpected still could have happened. From experience, Bethany knew that was true, regardless of location or circumstances.
To keep her thoughts from spiraling further, Bethany forcibly turned her mind to a more pleasant topic. She and Dad were leaving to go backpacking on Monday. This year, they were going to the Florida Trail, along the Suwannee River. Bethany was looking forward to the warmer weather and to having such a long break from work. Mostly, though, she was looking forward to being gone, not only for Christmas, but for the two weeks surrounding it. They weren’t coming back until New Year’s Eve.
She was about to take out her phone to make sure she hadn’t left anything off her list of things to pack when her computer started ringing. She eagerly accepted the video call, and after a moment, her brother’s face appeared on the screen.
"Hey, Matt," she said, her previous anxiety draining away at the sight of him.
"Hey, Beth." He grinned. "Sorry I’m late. One of my friends asked me to help him move his couch into his new apartment. This is his first time living off base since he joined the Navy."
Fondness surged through Bethany. It was so typical of her brother to be late because he was helping someone. "Don’t worry about it," she told him. "How are things going?"
"Good. Same old, same old." He shrugged, aiming for nonchalant and missing by a country mile. "How are things at home?"
Bethany studied her brother. Despite his casual facade, she could practically feel the excitement radiating off him in waves.
"Things are pretty normal for Dad and me," she replied, "which I suspect isn’t actually the case for you." She raised her eyebrows. "Something you want to tell me?"
Matt sighed. "I never have been able to get anything past you." He chuckled. "You know, you look just like Mama when you do that."
A pang of grief struck Bethany at the mention of her mother, but she resolutely shoved it down. Matt had news to share, and she refused to ruin his good mood. "So?" she prompted when he didn’t continue.
"Well, I was going to wait until the end of the call to tell you, but…" He beamed at her. "I’m coming home for Christmas!"
Bethany’s heart skipped a beat. "You’re wh- what?" she stammered. Surely, she’d misheard.
"I’m coming home for Christmas. Isn’t that great?"
She had not, in fact, misheard.
Her brother was coming home for Christmas, the holiday she and her dad had been planning to skip, just as they had both years since her mom died. That did not fit Bethany’s definition of great. She pasted a smile on her face anyway. "It’s… incredible. But…how is that possible? You’re scheduled to be deployed in three days."
"I found out last week that our deployment has been postponed until January…something to do with replacing some plating on the hull. Anyway, as soon as I knew we’d be stateside for Christmas, I requested leave, and my C.O. just approved it."
"Wow," Bethany said. She’d taken a few deep breaths during that explanation, but they’d done little to quell her rising panic. "How long will you be here?"
"About two weeks.”
Her head spun. She was glad she was already sitting down.
"We should arrive on the sixteenth," Matt continued, thankfully not noticing her anxiety.
"We haven’t booked the flight yet, so I’m not sure what time we’ll get there."
Even with the buzz that had started to fill her ears, Bethany caught a crucial word in those sentences.
"We?" she asked, hoping against hope that her brother was using the ‘royal we’ to refer to just himself.
Matt’s expression turned sheepish, and he ran a hand through his hair.
Bethany braced herself.
"Do you remember me talking about my friend, Jay?" he asked.
Not trusting herself to speak, Bethany nodded.
"Well, Jay doesn’t have any family, so…I might have invited him to spend Christmas with us."
Still unable to find words, Bethany just stared at her brother. Not only was he coming home for Christmas, but he was bringing a friend with him. Of course, he was. It was such a Matt thing to do. The kind of thing Mama would have embraced wholeheartedly because her children’s friends were always welcome in her home. The kind of thing that caused Bethany more stress than it probably should.
"I know I should have asked you first," Matt said, sounding a little nervous now. "I just didn’t want to get your hopes up that I’d be home for Christmas before my leave request got approved. It’s OK, right?"
Bethany imagined how her mother would have reacted. "Of course," she said, forcing the words through her tight throat. "I’m just surprised. You said the two of you would get here on the sixteenth?"
"Yep," Matt said, all trace of nerves gone. "We have to be back on base by the thirtieth, so we’ll probably fly back on the twenty-ninth."
"OK,” Bethany said, feeling a little detached from her body. "Sounds good."
Matt gave her another beaming smile. "Thanks, Beth. I knew I could count on you."
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