Christmas, Cupids and Kisses
A Christmas romance with heart, humor and
3 determined impish angels
By Carolyn R Scheidies
Enjoy an excerpt from the book.
From Chapter One
…Finally, both boys happily licked their cones while she paid the bill. Of course, with cones in their hands, the boys could not hurry as fast and the minutes clicked off like bombs in Claire’s mind as she herded them toward the nearest exit.
Her mind on how she was going to calm down the prospective architect, Claire took scarce notice of the large man with laughing blue eyes who stepped from the department store with a youngster planted firmly on his shoulders.
“Papa. Papa. Ice cream!” the youngster screamed, leaning forward over his father’s eyes. “Ice ceam!” he waved toward Claire’s two boys.
The large man stumbled into Claire. In one of those flashes of time that stretches into an eternity, the youngster fell from his father’s shoulders. Dropping his cone, Andy grabbed for his mother. Paul’s cone smeared the front of the man’s jacket as he tried to push the tottering man away from his mother, and the scared toddler plopped into Claire’s arms like a ripe plum.
A moment later, the stranger caught his balance and straightened. Anger flashed in his eyes at the sticky ice cream dripping from his gray business jacket. It was soon forgotten in his concern for his squalling son. “Darrion, are you hurt?” He reached for his son, whose arms clutched Claire so tightly around the neck, she could hardly breathe. The toddler’s frightened pit-patting heart beat against her own. Poor boy. He probably didn’t know what happened.
Her green eyes darkened in empathy for Darrion. While her emerald eyes pleaded for assistance, she flinched at the man’s touch. Her son Paul noted her reaction and launched himself at the man’s legs. “Leave her alone!” he cried. “Don’t hurt my mother!”
“Hurt. Hurt!” cried the little boy, who appeared all of two.
Several hesitated at the scene. A lady pointed them out to a uniformed security guard who headed their way. Just what we need, thought Claire and exchanged a look of “now what?” with the stranger.
An irritated frown on his face, the man managed to catch his balance as he reached down to Paul. “Son. Son! I’m just getting Darrion. He’s choking your mother.” His large hands proved surprisingly gently as he firmly removed the nine-year-old’s arms from his long legs.
For a moment, Claire wondered how those hands would feel on her face. Her cheeks blossomed, and she shied from the thought. Her father would probably say it was a good sign. She hoped the man assumed her heightened color resulted from his son’s stranglehold on her neck.
“Darrion, Son, it’s all right,” he soothed the frightened boy. “You’re safe now, Sport. See I didn’t fall, and this kind lady caught you.”
“I safe,” the little boy echoed with satisfaction. The guard nodded, and to the relief of both adults, ambled back down the wide hall.
Link to Amazon: Christmas, Cupids and Kisses