Christmas Comes To Little Hickman Creek [Paperback]

Sadie Bennett, a 26-year-old widow, lost her husband to a tragic accident at Grady's Sawmill in Little Hickman, Kentucky after only a month of marriage. Determined to carve out a life for herself despite her deep sense of loss, she takes a job as a waitress at Grace's Tea Room, Hickman's only restaurant owned and operated by the lovely middle-aged Grace Giles, and moves into a tiny dwelling above Borden's Bakery situated in the center of town.
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It's the Christmas season and also the two-year anniversary of Sadie's husband Tom's sudden passing, and the last thing she wants to do is enter into any holiday festivities. Once her favorite day of the year, Christmas has lost its shimmer, and all she wants is to find a place to hibernate and wait for it to pass. Unfortunately, her boss ropes her into joining a committee whose job it is to find a suitable Christmas tree for the town. It won't be a big deal, she tells herself. She will do her part to help select the perfect tree and afterward return to her job by day and then retreat to her little apartment by night--away from the holiday hustle and bustle. Someone else will erect the tree, and the citizens of Little Hickman will donate the ornaments for which to decorate it. No one can force her to participate in any of that.
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Reed Harris, the personable, handsome new owner of Sam's Livery, now Reed's Livery, has invited Sadie on two previous occasions to attend social functions, but afraid of ever committing to another relationship, she hastily turns him down. After all, there are great risks involved in ever again giving her heart away. What is to say she won't experience yet another deep loss? Thus, it both surprises and perplexes her to find herself serving on the same tree-search committee with him, he having donated one of his livery wagons for which to haul the tree back to town. With everything in her, she attempts to remain aloof to his kindnesses, but it is while serving on this committee and thelc!