Read A Christmas Prayer: An Autistic Child, a Father's Love, a Woman's Heart (Christmas Romance) for Free Online Page A

again. Around her, he’d felt more awkward than a pimply boy. A discomforting emotion, yet one he wanted desperately to act upon. She took his breath away. Not just her looks and gritty spirit though. She possessed a genuineness he rarely saw in the women within his circles. He sensed her momentary attraction to him as well.
    A pity that come Thursday, she’d think him the most loathsome man alive.
    Funny he should be so infatuated, desiring her in ways he shouldn’t. She surprised him. Not only that he found her attractive. He realized how much he’d prejudged her, pegging her for an opportunist, capitalizing on Gib’s inheritance, until he learned she invested most of Gib’s money and supported him on her meager wages.
    After meeting her, her motives for leaving a high-paying job to move to a forsaken tundra and work for peanuts remained hidden. Financial gain was obviously not the reason. Pastor Jennings had a brother who was a missionary in Kenya, and Mrs. Jennings’s family lived in Wisconsin. Alexis’s sacrifice meant Gib could stay in the only house he’d ever known.
    Ethan recalled the cruelty of Jasper Falls’ gossip train. Now the town blamed Alexis for Gib’s legal problems. He’d joined the circus of critics until he met her and realized her strong commitment to a community and a child not her own.
    He remembered her giggles in the snow, repressed hilarity. Did she have any opportunity at all to enjoy simple pleasures? He couldn’t imagine the demands a disabled child brought upon a family of means, let alone a single woman of limited income.
    Then why had she felt so compelled to lose so much with so little to gain?
    Ethan hoped the night might give him an answer.
    Should he take the opportunity tonight to tell Alexis the whole truth? Why he took a special interest in Gib? Why he’d orchestrated yesterday’s interview? His real reasons for a prolonged stay in Jasper Falls? If he did, she’d hate him; he’d never know where their attraction might take them. A romance aborted before it could begin.
    Apparently, they each had agendas they kept hidden from the other.
    Whatever melody God had composed between them, however sweet the intro, it seemed destined to crescendo to a horrific clang. Would Gib become caught in its refrain?
    * * *
    Alexis gasped as Ethan came into her living room dressed in his black suit looking more like a businessman than a Country singer and carrying a mysteriously large wrapped box. She appreciated the warning that she should dress semi-formally and was doubly glad they’d be dining out of town. She’d saved the only classy outfit she had for the Mayor’s Dinner. Fortunately, none of Jasper Falls’ upper crust would know she wore it twice in one week. Anyway, all eyes would be on Jasmine, who, dressed in a breathtaking blue-sequined top and black silk slacks, looked more like Ethan Jacobs’s date than the understated Alexis Jennings.
    Gib sat angelically in the recliner. He’d looked forward to tonight more than most kids anticipated Christmas. She’d used the dinner as bribery, so to speak, as Kyle suggested. And Gib had been on his best behavior all day. Maybe kids did respond better if they realized the good behavior worked in their favor. Gib looked handsome in his new clothes. She’d taken him shopping for a pair of faux-leather cowboy boots, all she could afford. This time, he agreed to wear them rather than throw them in the garbage. His brown suit made him look so grown up.
    Alexis nodded toward Jasmine. “Ethan Jacobs, Jasmine Reynolds, the best copy editor The Daily Chronicle will ever see and my best friend since third grade.”
    Ethan shook Jasmine’s hand. “Pleasure’s mine.” He held out the large box to Gib. “This is for you.”
    Gib ripped it open like a two-year old on Christmas Day and held up a pair of $600 Tony Lama ostrich boots. Alexis knew how much they cost because Gib had made her look at four pages of boots on the Internet.
    “Just