Christmas in Time Read online

  Christmas in Time

  Time Travel Romance Series, Book 6

  Written by Zoe Matthews

  and

  Jade Jenson

  Copyright © 2017

  All rights reserved

  No part of this publication may be copied or reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places, and events are the product of the author's imagination and used fictitiously.

  Special Thanks…

  to Amie Olsen for the beautiful cover

  and to Judy Knutson for the great editing job

  To my wonderful grandchildren:

  Elysha, Ashley, John, Sage, Thomas,

  Aida, William, and Evelyn.

  Remember, your dreams can come true!

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  If you enjoyed this book----

  Also by Zoe Matthews

  Chapter 1

  May, 1905

  Garrett Foster sat staring at his drink, doing his best to think about nothing. He took another swallow and barely tasted the strong liquid as it seared its way down his throat. He scowled as he realized his glass was now empty. He ran a hand through his long unkempt hair and groaned.

  He desperately wanted to ask the bartender for another drink, but he knew he didn’t have enough money. His stomach grumbled, and he cursed himself for spending his last dollars on drinks rather than a good meal. With a shrug, he resigned himself to visiting his father for dinner. They were always happy to have him over, even if he knew they would hound him to “get his life together.” He dug into his pocket, tossed what few coins he had on the counter, and turned to leave without talking to anyone.

  He winced as he stepped out into the bright sun. He started walking without really thinking about where he was going. He cursed this small town he was confined to. Ever since he had gotten stuck here eleven years ago with his father, his life had gone downhill.

  When he was eleven years old, he had been living with his father in a small apartment in the year 2006. He had been living in the same complex as his aunt Nicky and their unofficially adopted sister, Kimberly. He had thought his life was going pretty well until his Aunt Nicky and Kimberly had married and then moved away for reasons he hadn’t understood at the time. A few months later, his father was packing up Aunt Nicky’s and Kimberly’s stuff in their old apartment and Garrett had been helping. He remembered that was the day when his entire life had changed.

  Justin had sent him out to throw some garbage away in a nearby dumpster. When he returned to the apartment, a strange woman appeared right before his eyes in Nicky’s living room. She was dressed in a long dress with light blue flowers all over it. Her dark red hair was swept up into an old-fashioned bun. When the woman saw him, she seemed equally surprised to see a young boy suddenly appearing in front of her as he was to see a strange woman suddenly appearing in front of him. He remembered thinking that it was the coolest thing ever. Justin had discovered that the woman was Bridget Callaghan, a sister to the two men who Nicky and Kimberly had married. Bridget had stayed with his dad and him for a couple of days, and it was only then that his dad had finally told him the truth about Bridget. She was from the year 1893.

  Bridget had used two magical keys to travel forward in time for an adventure. His dad had also told Garrett that Nicky and Kimberly were living in the same time period and had used the same keys to travel back to 1893. Eventually, Justin wanted to go back in time with Bridget to visit Nicky and Kimberly and make sure they were okay. His grandparents ended up traveling with them.

  The thought of time travel was easy to accept to his young mind, and looking back on that day, he knew his dad must have been very desperate to see his sisters again. They had been missing for some time, so it was a relief for his father to know they were alright.

  Garrett, Justin, his grandparents, and Bridget had traveled back in time using the same keys Bridget had used to get to their time. They planned to only stay a few days before returning to 2006. But through a series of catastrophic events, the keys everyone had used to travel through time were destroyed. Garrett and Justin were stuck in the past, along with his grandparents.

  At first Garrett was thrilled. What eleven-year-old boy wouldn’t have been? At the time it had been a grand adventure. Everything looked like it had been taken out of an old Western movie. His father and Bridget fell in love and married. For the first time in his memory, he had a mother. He also had a new family through Nicky and Kimberly. It was exciting to be living in a different time period than his own.

  But it only took a couple of months for Garrett to realize he didn’t like living in the past. When he was living in 2006, he was in advanced classes for his age at school, and excelled in all of his science and math classes. Once he started going to school in this time period, he realized he would be relearning things he had learned years before. He also knew many things the other kids hadn’t even been exposed to or taught. Some things hadn’t even been invented yet; like automobiles, planes, and computers. Other things were just in the beginning stages of development; like electricity and telephones. The hardest part was that he had to be silent about his knowledge. He couldn’t tell anyone where he was from and what he knew.

  His dad and Bridget had both agreed they should allow him to pursue any schools that would help him fulfill his potential. But even the top schools seemed too easy for him. He knew too much about the future and technology that hadn’t been invented yet. His dad and Bridget were sympathetic, but they were also adamant that Garrett should do nothing to alter history. He needed to stay silent.

  He remembered what things were like in the future. He had been very good with computers. He remembered there was one time when Nicky was trying to get a software to work on her computer, but it wouldn’t work. After fiddling around with the program, he was able to figure out what was wrong and fix it so Nicky could use it. He remembered Nicky throwing her arm over his shoulders and telling him he had a gift for computers. He seemed to somehow know what was wrong when software, or even computers themselves, weren’t working correctly, and how to fix them. His father had owned his own gaming business and had been very successful. In fact, he had sold a new game just before they traveled back through time. Sometimes he wondered whatever happened to all those games his father had created.

  Garrett knew that if he and his father had been able to return to their time, he would have continued through junior high and high school, and majored in Computer Science or even followed in his father’s footsteps and created some games of his own.

  And here he was stuck in a slow backward time period. Once he finished the local school when he was sixteen, he grew bored and frustrated, and started looking for other things to help fill the gap that his lack of accomplishment had left. He had few friends. How could he have friends when he had to be so careful about what he said around them? What if he slipped and said something he shouldn’t? It had happened often enough when he was younger. He’d say something that had to do with his life in the future, and people would look at him strangely. He soon learned to keep his thoughts to himself. Now, he mostly hung out with his family either in Denver or on the family r
anch where Nicky and Kimberly lived with their families when he felt like being around people. Lately he wanted to be around people less and less.

  He was twenty-three years old and unemployed. He worked short jobs for people who needed help here and there, but he spent quite a bit of his time in the local saloon. There was no reason to try to do anything else. He knew what he was good at, and he couldn’t do anything about it.

  He stumbled to a stop and looked around, surprised to see he had almost reached the edge of Denver. There wasn’t anything past some of these roads but empty fields. Sighing, he turned around and started walking towards his dad’s house. He didn’t want a lecture, but he knew he needed to eat at some point. Bridget would feed him.

  As he walked, he stuck his hands into his pants pockets to see if he had overlooked some coins and came up empty. He needed to make some money. In the saloon, he had overheard Mr. Harris, a farmer from just outside of Denver, telling the two men he was with that he needed help fixing up his old barn at the back of his property. Maybe he should go talk to Mr. Harris in the morning and offer to do the work. That should get him through the next couple of weeks.

  He sighed when he realized he had arrived at his dad’s house. A part of him was looking forward to seeing his family. He realized he hadn’t seen his younger brothers, David and Matthew, for a few months. Another part of him dreaded going in. He knew his parents meant well, but they always hassled him to get a steady job. They would send meaningful looks over his head, usually after a comment about his drinking ‘problem’ or lack of income. They thought he didn’t see, but he always did.

  He braced himself mentally and pushed open the door. Bridget was in the kitchen cooking something that smelled fantastic, and his stomach growled painfully in response. She looked up from the meat she was slicing with surprise.

  “Garrett! Come in. It’s so good to see you!” Bridget’s happiness at having him home sent a familiar wave of guilt through him.

  She waddled over to the back door, and Garrett was surprised at how pregnant she looked. Didn’t she just tell him she was pregnant? She couldn’t be that close to having her baby, could she?

  “Justin! Garrett came by for dinner!”

  Justin, David, and Matthew came in from the back of the house all at once. The boys spent a lot of time outside. Garrett remembered well from when he was a child. Everyone was expected to help keep the chicken and goat pens clean. The young boys would collect eggs, and when they got older, they learned how to milk the goat. After the chores were done, they always found some game to play that would occupy them for hours. Garrett had loved playing baseball the most.

  “Garrett!” The two boys ran over to him and jumped on him for a hug. Matthew was now nine, and David was seven. He couldn’t believe how much they’d grown.

  “Hey, boys,” Garrett tried to remain steady on his feet but was ashamed at how off balance he was. It was easy to ignore the effects of the alcohol when he was by himself, but he often hated himself for drinking too much when he was around his brothers.

  Justin came up behind the boys. “Go wash up. It looks like Ma has dinner ready.” The boys plowed back into the kitchen. They never went anywhere quietly. “Garrett, what brings you by tonight?” Justin had a cautious look in his eyes that he was trying to hide, and Garrett knew he could probably smell the alcohol on his breath by now.

  “He doesn’t need a reason to stop by, Justin,” Bridget said with a smile. She gave Garrett a hug in welcome as well.

  “Of course not. I was only curious to see if he needed a job. You know I like to keep an ear out for work around town for him,” Justin said defensively.

  The tension in the air made Garrett sigh. He knew they argued about him a lot. “Whatever you are cooking smells great, Ma. How are you feeling?” he asked, trying to redirect the conversation.

  “Oh, about as big as a horse,” she said while patting her round belly. “Nathan said I still have a few months before I’m ready to deliver. If you think I’m big now, just wait two more months.”

  Nathan was the doctor that took over for Keegan’s practice when he disappeared a few years ago. No one had told Garrett where Keegan had actually gone. Garrett knew there was more to the story that he had been told: Keegan found a nice girl in another town and had moved away. But he couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to the story.

  “You’re beautiful,” Justin said, leaning over to give her a kiss. “It does smell fantastic. Let’s go eat. Are you going to join us, Garrett?”

  Garrett nodded his head, and Matthew and David cheered with delight that their brother was going to stay for dinner. Justin just looked at him, asking questions with his eyes that Garrett refused to acknowledge.

  They all sat down and ate without talking much. The two boys must be growing; Garrett saw them dish up second helpings and then a third. The roast beef was delicious and the rolls as soft as ever. His Ma had always been good at cooking. By the time he had finished eating, his head had cleared enough to hold full conversations, and the tension in the room had eased a little.

  “Dad, you said you had heard of a job?” Garrett hedged. He knew Mr. Harris had a job but wasn’t sure how soon it would be available. Experience taught him to keep more than one job in mind when he was looking for more work.

  Justin nodded. “Patrick and Shaun were hoping to get your help around the ranch. They need help patching up the old barn, fixing some fencing, and things like that. They have been so busy the last year, especially now that it’s calving season, and they decided to keep more of the cattle than usual. You would be paid, of course. If you aren’t interested, they’ll need to hire someone anyway.”

  Garrett nodded. It sounded like a good job, but he was cautious as well. His dad likely had ulterior motives. “How long did they say it would take to fix everything up?”

  “Probably a week, maybe more.” Justin appeared nonchalant, but Garrett knew from the sideways glances he kept shooting at him that he hoped Garrett would take him up on the offer. “I’m sure they could use your help if you wanted to stay through the summer.”

  Garrett realized it had been almost a year since he had visited any family up at the ranch. He would much prefer to work for Patrick and Shaun than Mr. Harris. He would most likely be paid better; he knew that from past experience. It was also a small incentive to be around his family. Even if he didn’t enjoy living in the past, the farm had always helped him feel a little better.

  “I’ll head up in the morning. I’ll help them fix the fence and the barn and see how much they need me after that.”

  Justin continued to act nonchalant, like he could care less if Garrett went to the ranch, but Bridget wasn’t so good at hiding her emotions. “Garrett, I think this is such a great idea. I’m so happy you decided to go. Be sure to take some bread and goat cheese up to the ranch. You know they always love it when we bring goat cheese.”

  “I know, Ma,” Garrett couldn’t help but smile at his mother’s enthusiasm. He may only be going up to work for a week or so, but he was glad it had made his parents happy for the moment. He cleared his throat. “Is Colleen going to be at the Gallery in the morning?”

  Colleen was Nicky and Shaun’s daughter. When Garrett first arrived in this time period, she had been his first friend. She was only a year younger than he was. She wasn’t actually Shaun’s birth daughter. She was half-Indian. Her birth father was a mountain man that hadn’t been seen since her birth. Her Indian mother had given Colleen to Shaun to raise when Colleen was a young baby when she knew she was going to die because she was very sick. Colleen grew up on the ranch, but when she was grown, she had moved to Denver and lived with Justin and Bridget in their house and helped in their art gallery most mornings. She made beautiful Indian blankets and sold them in the gallery. She had recently started working in the evenings at the restaurant down the street. Their cook had gotten sick, and she was filling in until he felt better.

  Bridget sent him a meaningful look. “Yes,
she is.”

  Garrett nodded his head again, but said nothing. His long-time childhood friend had slowly turned into something more, although Garrett knew he couldn’t take their friendship any further. He couldn’t offer her any future; he had no talents that could be used in this time. Everything he was good at didn’t exist in this time period. She deserved better than the likes of him. He scoffed at himself bitterly.

  Even still, he couldn’t resist stopping by to see her before he left for the ranch. He would go visit her in the morning before he went on his way.

  Chapter 2

  Colleen rearranged all the paintings on the wall after she had taken them down to dust and clean them. It was very important that they keep all the artwork dust-free so when people came in to shop they had the best first impression of what they sold. That was much easier said than done in this dusty town, and she wiped everything down regularly.

  Just as she started on the wood carvings on the top shelf of a bookshelf, she heard the door open. She turned to greet whomever it was with a smile, and her grin grew when she saw it was Garrett.

  “What brings you this way, Lefty?” Colleen used his childhood nickname, and he rolled his eyes, but chuckled. When they had first started doing their schoolwork together, she had been fascinated at how he wrote everything with his left hand. She had always thought it must make him smarter somehow because he always knew everything before she did.