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  There. He’d have to be a heartless monster not to respond to that.

  Guy trashed the guilt-inflicting email. What was he, Santa Claus? He had his hands full keeping his company solvent.

  But then, people like Olivia Berg never considered the fact that a company might have needs of its own. What made them feel so entitled to sit at the edge of the salt mine while a man slaved away and then greet him with their hands out when he emerged broken and bruised? Maybe some of those people always begging for money should get out there and actually earn a living. Let them work their tails off, putting in seventy-hour weeks. Sheesh.

  Anyway, the company had already met their good deed quota for the year. The only cause Guy was interested in now was Hightower Enterprises.

  By the end of the workday, Guy Hightower still hadn’t responded to Livi’s last email. “You are a heartless monster,” she grumbled, glaring at her empty email in-box.

  “No word yet?” her part-time assistant, Bettina Thomas, asked as she shut down her computer.

  Livi sighed and shook her head.

  “That is so wrong,” Bettina said in disgust.

  It sure was. “They’ve been our major donor ever since my great-grandmother founded Christmas from the Heart. Without their contribution how will we put on the Christmas dinner at the community center? How many families won’t have presents under the tree or Christmas stockings or a Christmas turkey?” There was no Salvation Army in Pine River, no Toys for Tots—none of the usual organizations serviced this area. There had been no need. Christmas from the Heart had it under control.

  Until now.

  “We’ve had to reassess our commitments,” Livi quoted. The words left a bad taste in her mouth and she frowned. “It sounds like something your boyfriend says when he’s dumping you.”

  “They are dumping us,” Bettina pointed out. “But don’t worry. We have time. We’ll find someone else to come through.”

  “Not like Hightower. There must be something I can do,” Livi mused.

  “There is. Go home and eat chocolate.”

  And try not to think bad thoughts about Guy Hightower.

  In all fairness, he probably didn’t grasp the situation. She’d call him the next day and invite him to come to Pine River for a visit so she could let him see the need, show him a little of what Christmas from the Heart did for the community. She could take him to lunch, introduce him to some of the people in town, put a face—or better yet, several—to Christmas from the Heart. She’d top it all off by following in her mother’s footsteps and baking him cookies. Then how could he help but catch the vision his great-great-grandfather and her great-great-grandmother had shared?

  Yes, that would do it. Sometimes you had to be a little patient, give people a second chance.

  Don’t miss

  CHRISTMAS FROM THE HEART

  by USA TODAY bestselling author Sheila Roberts,

  available now wherever MIRA Books are sold!

  Copyright © 2019 by Sheila Roberts

  ISBN-13: 9781488064715

  Seaside Lies

  First published as Hot Secret in 1992 by Dell Publishing. This edition published in 2019.

  Copyright © 2018 by Sherryl Woods

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  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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