Nora Roberts Christmas Books Novels & Stories

When the footage finally stabilized, her twelfth Christmas Eve returned like a blunt knife, carving through her heart one frame at a time. The camera showed a younger Nora, seven months pregnant, wearing a cheap red dress, kneeling before the massive Rosier Christmas tree, sobbing as she begged Alexander to give the unborn child a legal name. Alexander sat on a leather sofa, lazily drawing on a cigar, his lips curled into a cold sneer: “You think a little bastard daughter can threaten me?”

AURORA I have never experience the true spirit of Christmas until I came across the Romanos. The extravagance and opulence aside, these people were obnoxiously obsessed with Christmas and everything that comes with it. Mrs. Romano, because of her part-Russian heritage, would insist that the celebration continues until the seventh of January.

Hillary “Bye,” I yell again, waving at Nora who sticks her head out of the Rolls Royce window to blow me a kiss. She’s such an angel, I love her so much, and she’s also one of the most relatable super-rich people I know. She doesn’t belittle people or act like she’s better than everyone else because her son’s a billionaire genius. My mom and I watch their car drive away. Okay. A very blissful Christmas. Now it’s time to go open gifts before I go to bed and nap all day tomorrow—Boxing Day.

It also makes my Christmas present project take even longer than my poor skills might have allowed me to finish. I think it must bother Rob to be inactive, because as soon as the snow stops, he’s out shoveling a path to our vehicles and clearing the drive. Which means when the weather is clear enough, I’m off to the library as soon as I can to work on his Christmas presents.

Nora beckoned to me as she took a seat on the side of the table. I quickly sat down on the chair at the head of the table. Looking at all the sumptuous dishes, I had one question on my mind. Why were they here so early? "Can we eat now? I'm starving!' Robert said, pinching a grape on the fruit platter. Nora shot him a stern look. "We have to wait for Winter. She will be here soon." Winter? She was coming here? A line formed between my eyebrows when I heard this detail. I got even more confused.

Except I was not the only one. After leaving Nancy's room I was coming up to a corner when I heard Nora say, as clear as could be, "Thank you Daddy for such a wonderful Christmas celebration... both day and night. Such a wonderful present, I am so glad you could... remind me... make me very happy. Tell Mom I really appreciate her lending your yummy... (unclear) to me, I will give her a kiss tomorrow." "Thank you my dear, it is always a pleasure to see you smile so big. I will see you at breakfast."

Too bad she couldn't take one of those home with her for Christmas. Christmas. She'd been looking forward to it, simply for the time away from work, but the highlight of her plans had been a thick stack of romance books and one charity function - she and Jana had agreed to help distribute toys at a home for battered women and children on Christmas morning. Jana had invited her to dinner with her family afterward, but Shelby had declined. She'd gone last year and despite everyone's best efforts, she'd been miserable. There was nothing lonelier than being the only outsider at a family gathering.

“I can do this. It’s fine. A power boost to help make everything right. It’s okay.” Quickly, she reached out and grabbed hold of the ancient book. Nora clutched it to her chest and smiled. She turned to look at Winter and Roman. “I did it!” she exclaimed. “I totally did it!” “Awesome!” Winter said, smiling. “But wait. Somethings not right.” “What do you mean?” Nora asked. “The book isn’t glowing. Normally, when someone from the family touches it, the book glows.” Nora raised an eyebrow. “Maybe it’s broken?”

In the silence after, Nora and Isis were alone in the kitchen. The others had drifted out gradually—Samuel to the pool, Max to the garden, Miriam to her car, Fatima to make calls that could not wait until morning. The kitchen was warm and quiet, and the dishes from dinner were still stacked by the sink, and the laptop was closed, and the clock on the wall ticked steadily toward midnight. Nora looked at her daughter, and her expression was softer than Isis had ever seen it. "I know I don't deserve to ask this," Nora said. "But is there any version of things where you come home for Christmas?"

Of course, knowing her, she would recover at once and start teasing him. "Are you sure? May I remind you that it's Christmas time and not April Fool's?" "Haha, very funny, Lena. But I'm not joking this time. This time, it's for real and for keeps." "Really now? What makes this one so special?" she answered with a challenging note to her tone. "You have very similar names, Roth is crazy over her scent, and she has kids." Suddenly, the line is filled with awkward silence. "V, she's human? And with her own children too?"