The Christmas Wishing Tree: An Eternity Springs Novel Read online

  In Devin’s dream, a woman waited for him in his bed. She lay naked and needy and just beyond his sight, but he knew she was there. Knew she waited for him. A redhead, which was unusual because he’d never dated a redhead. Her scent drifted through his senses like a song. Exotic, like the beaches of Tahiti, and as sweet as a mango fresh off the tree. He wanted to lick that sweetness off her lips, to—whoomp!

  Something heavy pounced on his back. “Wake up, Dev! It’s Christmas Eve!”

  The dream evaporated, Devin dragged his head off his pillow and aimed a hairy eyeball at his five-year-old brother. His voice gruff with sleep, he said, “Get off me and out of my room or die.”

  “You can’t kill me on Christmas Eve. You can’t kill me ever. Mom would be mad. She told me to come wake you up. You promised to do a favor for Celeste today and Mom said daylight is wasting.”

  “Go. Now.” He dropped his head back onto his pillow. “Or I’ll slit your gullet from stem to stern and feed your entrails to the sharks.”

  “Oooh. I’m scared.” Michael Cameron Murphy grabbed the ends of the pillow, yanked it free, then hit his big brother with it once before giggling his way out of the room.

  Devin grinned. One of his favorite parts of the visits to see his family in Eternity Springs was horsing around with Michael. Devin had little use for kids as a rule. He certainly didn’t want any of his own, but this kid hero-worshipped him. It was good for a man’s ego. He figured that being a big brother must be sort of like being a granddad. Play with the curtain-climbers when you want, then give’em back to Mom and Dad.

  Though he probably shouldn’t mention that theory to his parents, Cam and Sarah Murphy.

  With a groan, he tossed back the comforter and shivered in the morning cold as he climbed from his toasty warm bed. Downstairs, his mother bustled around the kitchen and his father was locked in his study wrapping gifts. Devin ate a quick breakfast of oatmeal, kissed his mom on the cheek, twisted his brother’s ear, then bundled up and headed over to Angel’s Rest Healing Center and Spa to do a favor for a friend.

  It was a picture-perfect December day—windless, with temperatures in the twenties and a blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds. At the resort’s main building, Cavanaugh House, Devin hoisted a long, skinny box over one shoulder and carried it out onto the porch. There he paused a moment to appreciate the beauty of the winter scene. “It’s like living in a Christmas card,” he murmured.

  Three inches of new snow had fallen overnight, frosting rooftops and tree limbs and shrubbery and giving Angel’s Rest and Eternity Springs beyond the perfect Victorian snow village look. This was a whole different world from Christmas where he’d come of age. Cairns, Australia, was hot and rainy as a rule on the twenty-fourth of December. So too was Bella Vita, the island in the Caribbean where he’d lived for the past few years.

  Devin climbed down the porch steps and made his way to the stone walk that led toward Angel Creek. Groundskeepers had been through here already this morning and the pathway was clear and lined with candy canes tied with sparkling gold bows. Angel’s Rest’s owner, Celeste Blessing, did like to get her sparkle on, didn’t she?

  And yet, candy canes—even ones with sparkling gold bows—invariably made him think of his dad. How many times had he seen Cam Murphy at the wheel of the Bliss, his face into the wind and the hooked end of a candy cane hanging from his mouth? More times than Devin could count. Originally, his dad had used peppermint sticks to help him give up cigars, but one habit had replaced the other. Now, Devin kept a supply of canes on his own boat, The Office, in honor of Cam.

  Or at least, he had kept them there until Danielle, the vicious Category 4 bitch, had sent The Office along with the Lark and the Sunny Luck, Devin’s other two fishing boats, to the bottom of the harbor on Bella Vita Isle.

  Devin looked out over the sea of white covering the grounds of Angel’s Rest and imagined an ocean of blue with a rainbow of colors below. The Coral Sea and the Great Barrier Reef. He yearned for them. The Caribbean was a beautiful place and he’d been happy living there, just like he’d been happy living in Eternity Springs for a stretch of time prior to that. But Australia was home, the place where he’d been born and raised and never thought he’d leave—until the day an American tourist and her daughter booked a tour on his dad’s boat and turned his world upside down.

  At the sound of jingling bells, Devin twisted his head to see Celeste headed his way dressed in a fluffy gold jacket with matching boots and a knit hat with a rolled brim worn with a cocky tilt over her silver-gray hair. Gold bells trimmed the scarf draped around her neck. He grinned. People liked to say that she was Eternity Springs’ very own angel.

  He wouldn’t argue the fact. Without Celeste, Cam and Sarah might have never found their way back to each other, and he wouldn’t have the family he treasured, or this Victorian Christmas village complete with a white Christmas. And candy canes. And angel cookies. And our very own angel.

  Devin truly did love Eternity Springs at the holidays. He would be happy to come back for Christmas at least every other year. And that’s what he planned to tell his mother when he broke her heart after Christmas and finally confessed his intention to move back to Cairns.

  “I brought box cutters,” Celeste said as she approached.

  “Thanks.” He carried the box across the footbridge, and then set it onto the ground atop a large, flat, snow-dusted rock. He took the tool from Celeste and moments later removed sections of aluminum tubing along with a half dozen smaller unlabeled boxes. Inside those he found strings of twinkle lights, LED lights, battery packs, rolled vinyl, glitter tape, and zip ties. He didn’t have a clue where to start. “What exactly is this supposed to be, Celeste?”

  “I don’t really know.” She clapped her hands, her blue eyes sparkling with delight. “It’s a gift from one of my repeat guests. Isn’t this a wonderful surprise?”

  “It’s something.” He hunkered down and sifted through the contents, looking for a set of instructions. Just as he spied a folded piece of paper tucked inside the roll of vinyl, his cell phone rang. He fished it from his pocket and checked the screen. His mother. He thumbed the green button and lifted the phone to his ear. “Hey, Mom.”

  “Devin, are you still at Angel’s Rest?”

  “Yes.” He shook the paper open, revealing a child’s drawing done in colored pencils instead of the instructions he was hoping for.

  “Good. I called Celeste, but she isn’t answering her phone. Will you track her down for me? I’m about to leave Fresh with these cookies, but I neglected to ask her if she wants the extra pinwheels I baked this morning too.”

  Fresh was the bakery his mother owned and operated, and her mention of his favorite cookies was enough to distract him from his search for the package instructions. “Um . . . Mom . . . you do remember that your strawberry pinwheels are my favorite, right?”

  “Oh really?” Sarah observed in a dry tone. “I’m sure I didn’t notice that you’ve plowed through more than a dozen since you came home the day before yesterday. Don’t worry. I restocked our pinwheel tin.”

  “I love you, Mom. And Celeste is here with me. I’m helping her with a new decoration for the Angel Creek foot bridge. How about I just hand her the phone?”

  The older woman glanced up from the pile of supplies she’d sorted into a semblance of order and took the phone from him. “Yes? Hello, Sarah. Merry Christmas!”

  Devin paid scant attention to the phone conversation as he turned his attention to assembling Celeste’s newest holiday decoration using the drawing for guidance. It was to be a lighted, decorated arch placed on the town side of the bridge. The rolled vinyl was a welcome sign. He decided that Celeste should do the official unfurling, so he went to work piecing together the poles.

  Celeste’s conversation with Sarah proved to be more involved than answering a simple pinwheel cookie question. Devin had the arch’s aluminum framework completely assembled when he realized that Celeste was standing at the
center of the footbridge, leaning over and peering down into the frozen stream as she talked to his mother.

  Unease snaked through Devin at the sight. He felt the urge to call out and tell her to be careful, but he stilled his tongue. Celeste wasn’t Michael’s age. She was an adult.

  Tuning into the conversation, he heard her say, “Yes, I know. It’s been a while, but I do remember. Hot flashes are simply not any fun.”

  Quickly, Devin tuned right out again. TMI. He focused his attention on the box, and that was why less than a minute later he didn’t see what happened. He only heard it.

  The bump. The screech. The crack and the splash. Devin glanced up in horror to see that Celeste Blessing had fallen facedown into the icy water of Angel Creek.

  “Celeste?” Devin tossed aside the Christmas decoration and scrambled to the bank and down its icy slope. His heart raced. His mouth had gone dry. A fall of ten feet onto a rocky creek bed could be disastrous for anyone of any age. For an older woman like Celeste . . . Please, God . . . three feet of water wasn’t much to break a fall.

  She moved. Devin exhaled in relief.

  “Talk to me, Celeste,” he demanded as he stepped into the creek, his boots breaking through honeycombs of ice into the freezing water. She rose up onto on all fours. Okay, good. That’s good. “Celeste? You okay? Where are you hurt?”

  “I’m all right,” she replied in a voice that was reassuringly firm. “I’m not hurt. But . . . ooh . . . this water is cold.”

  “Careful . . .” Devin took quick, but cautious, steps on slick stones through the icy water toward the woman who was trying to find her feet. “Hold what you have, Celeste. Let me help you up. We don’t want you falling again.”

  “True. I’ve given my poor guardian angel enough of a workout as it is.” Celeste gave Devin a shaky smile as he reached her side and steadied her as she climbed to her feet. “Thank you, Devin. I don’t know what happened. I’m not ordinarily so uncoordinated.”

  “We’re lucky you didn’t break something.” Like your neck. “What matters now is getting you to dry land without taking any more spills. I think the going might be just a little easier if you head upstream just a tad. I’ll let you find your footing and you can use me for balance. Okay?”

  “Yes. Thank you, dear. I just—oh—look.”

  Devin was prepared for Celeste to lose her balance again. He didn’t anticipate that she’d halt mid step, bend over, and scoop something out of Angel Creek. His phone, he realized. He’d forgotten she’d been talking to his mother on his cell phone when she took her dive.

  Handing it to him, she said, “I spotted it because your phone case is so cute and colorful.”

  Devin’s Scooby-Doo phone case had been a birthday gift from Michael. Watching the classic on the Cartoon Network together was a favorite brother-bonding activity. Too bad the case wasn’t waterproof. “I’m glad you rescued it, but please, Celeste. Let’s get out of this creek while we can still feel our feet. Watch your step, now.”

  He firmed his hold on her elbow. It took another couple of minutes and a pair of precarious slips, but Devin finally managed to lead Celeste to dry land. She was visibly shivering as he tugged her up the slick, sloping bank of the creek, and the wail of an approaching siren was a most welcome sound. “Either someone saw your take a tumble or Mom called in the cavalry.”

  “Oh dear. That wasn’t necessary, but Sarah wouldn’t have known that, would she? I do have such wonderful friends.”

  “It won’t hurt to let the doctor look you over.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  The ambulance pulled to a stop and two EMTs exited the vehicle. Celeste waved at them and called, “All is well. Merry Christmas!”

  The medical personnel’s expressions relaxed at Celeste’s greeting. Devin called, “She fell from the bridge into the creek. She needs to get warm and dry, and to see the doctor.”

  As one EMT opened the back of the ambulance, the other approached saying, “Miss Celeste, are we glad to see you up and walking. Sarah’s phone call gave us all a fright.”

  The second EMT approached, carrying a silver emergency blanket, which she wrapped around Celeste. “Let’s get you into the ambulance.”

  “Devin, you need to get out of those wet things too,” Celeste observed. To the EMTs, she added, “He should ride along and we can drop him by his parents’ house on our way to the clinic.”

  As the two shared a look meant to obviously frame a protest, Devin jumped in. “No, Celeste. You go on. Mom or Dad is sure to be right behind the ambulance. In fact”—Devin gestured toward the pickup that had just made the turn from Fifth Street onto Cottonwood—“. . . here comes Dad’s truck.”

  “Excellent.” Celeste gave a satisfied nod. “In that case, I’ll toddle along to the clinic. I am terribly cold.”

  She was halfway to the ambulance when she turned and said, “One thing, dear. About your phone . . . I’m aware of a method . . . it’s possible I can save it and return it to working condition, if you’ll allow me the opportunity to try?”

  Probably the old rice-in-a-bag trick, Devin thought. He didn’t have a lot of hope for its success, but then, she was Celeste Blessing. “Sure.” He crossed the distance between them, handed her the phone, and bent down to kiss her cheek. “Thanks, Celeste. But I don’t want you to worry about it. Take care of yourself first.”

  “I will.”

  The EMTs helped her into the ambulance as Cam Murphy braked to a stop behind it. He jumped out of his truck’s cab, and just before the ambulance door closed, he heard Celeste call out, “Merry Christmas, Cam.”

  After waving at Celeste, Devin’s dad gave him a quick once over. “Don’t you look like a drowned wallaby. What happened here? Your mother is scared to death.”

  Devin gave his father a quick summary of events, and then repeated the story to his worried mother upon reaching home. He took a long, hot shower, then dressed and went downstairs to find a bowl of hot tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich waiting. Comfort food. “You are the best, Mom.”

  Sarah smiled. “You’re today’s hero. Thank God you were there to help. That’s as frightened as I’ve been in a while. Celeste had mentioned that she was standing on the bridge, and we were talking about tonight’s open house. She said something about seeing a reflection in the water, and the next thing I know, she yelps and the phone goes dead.”

  “We’re lucky the phone is the only thing that died,” Cam observed as he entered the kitchen carrying gift tags and in search of a pen. “May it rest in peace. Though I’m compelled to wonder how the young women of the world will survive the loss.”

  “Very funny, Dad.”

  “You’d better go buy another phone before the stores all close for Christmas,” Michael said as he intently watched his father write a name on a tag.

  Devin’s lips twisted. This was Eternity Springs. The stores all closed for Christmas yesterday.

  “It might be nice for Devin to have a break from tending to his harem,” Sarah observed.

  “What’s a harem?” Michael asked.

  “Not a topic for Christmas Eve,” Devin declared before smoothly changing the subject. “So, have you had an update on Celeste? Everything check out okay?”

  “Yes, she’s on her way back to Angel’s Rest with dry clothes and a clean bill of health. She told me she’s ready to dive back into party preparations.”

  “As long as that’s the only diving she does,” Cam said. “What do we put on the tags for the senior center angel tree gifts?”

  Sarah responded. “Put ‘To a woman’ or ‘To a man’ and add ‘from the Murphys.’”

  “Got it.”

  Displaying wisdom beyond his age, Michael observed, “It would ruin Eternity Springs’ Christmas if Miss Celeste got hurt.”

  The adults nodded their agreement, and then Devin asked his mother what was on the agenda for the afternoon. Sarah summarized the day’s itinerary—a happy blend of traditional activities and new
events that reflected the changes to their growing family.

  Cam spoke to Devin. “I need to deliver our senior center gifts. Want me to drop you by Angel’s Rest on my way so you can retrieve your truck?

  “Thanks. While I’m there, I might as well finish setting up that decoration Celeste had me working on when she took her tumble. Shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”

  “Celeste will appreciate that,” Sarah said. “You know how she is about her holiday trimmings.”

  “She’s the decoratingest person I’ve ever known,” Cam observed.

  Devin finished his soup and sandwich, then borrowed dry outerwear from his dad and hitched a ride back to Angel’s Rest. He finished assembling and installing the welcome arch, tested the lighting, and shook his head in amusement at the twinkling, flying angels. “The decoratingest person,” he repeated to himself. His father had that right.

  With the task finished, Devin gathered up the trash. He had just tossed the cardboard box into the bed of his truck when he heard Celeste call his name. He turned to see her rushing toward him. He started forward, praying he’d intercept her before she slipped and fell and, to quote Michael, “ruined Eternity Springs’ Christmas.” Devin yelled, “Slow down, Celeste!”

  “It’s Christmas Eve! There’s no time for slow.”

  Devin swept her with a studious gaze. “You’re feeling well?”

  “Fit as a cherub’s fiddle. I saw the welcome sign. Thank you so much, Devin. You truly are my hero today.”

  “Glad I could help.”

  “I have a little something for you.”

  When she reached into her pocket, Devin took a step back. “I don’t need—”

  “Yes, you do need this.” She handed him a prepaid phone. “I keep a few of these for emergencies. I’m afraid it doesn’t have text messaging or the Internet, but it will keep you connected until we know whether my efforts with your phone will prove successful.”

  Devin grinned down at the gift. “A burner phone? You keep burner phones around the house?”