Read Online An Aussie Christmas Angel by Clare Revell - Free Book Online

he’d asked out before. It had to be all or nothing. “Tell me about it. The unit is so empty now. Pip’s out a lot, either working or helping Rob house hunt and I’m just rattling around on my own. Wish you were here.”
    “Not that our paths crossed much.”
    “I know, but even so…” Jo paused. “Maybe I’ll get over to England one day. Look you up.” Her tone was wistful.
    “I’d like that.” Oh, he would like that so much. Just to have her around, see her smile. Go for a walk along the river, her hand in his. He should have taken her on one of his day trips. So much wasted time. “Or we meet half way or something.”
    “Sounds good.” She stifled a yawn.
    “I’m keeping you up. It must be really late there.”
    “Gone midnight.”
    “Then go to bed,” he said. “I’ll email you and you can read it when you get up.”
    Jo yawned again. He pictured her forcing her eyes to stay open and failing. “OK. Really enjoyed speaking to you.”
    “Me too. Sleep well. Night, Jo.”
    “Night, John.”
    The phone clicked off and he hung up. Pushing to his feet, he headed to his bedroom and shut the door.
    Kneeling by his bed, he took a deep breath. Lord, You know how I feel about Jo. How incomplete I feel knowing I’m here and she’s there. Am I just dreaming, or is there a way for us to be together? I know You can move mountains if only we have the faith of a mustard seed, and I know it says to ask and we’ll receive. So, Lord, I’m asking. If it’s Your will and if she feels the same way I do, please find a way for us to be together.
    He pulled out notepaper from his desk and sat down to write. The pen was more than a little chewed by the time he’d finished pouring out his heart and soul and laying it out in as few words as possible.
    The last thing he wanted to do was bury his feelings in flowery words that weren’t necessary, so that the thrust of the letter was lost in the wording. He folded the paper and put it inside an envelope.
    Writing the address, he then laid it on the desk and went down to dinner. He’d take his nephew, Taylor, to the post box after dinner and then he’d leave everything in God’s hands. If He wanted him and Jo together, then mountains and continents would be moved.
    “Dear Jo,
    Ever since I met you, you have filled my thoughts like no one else. Everywhere I go, everything I do is tempered by the fact you aren’t with me. I know we didn’t spend long together when I was in Sydney and for that I’m sorry. But I was wondering.
    Would you like to start a long distance relationship?
    We could ring and email and maybe meet up half way next time you’re in Europe or something. I really like you. More than like you. But it’s your call. Let me know.
    Love, John.”
     
    ****
     
    For two weeks Jo heard nothing. She’d gotten the one e-mail the day after that phone call, but that was it. For a few days she wondered if he’d written. She knew ‘snail mail’ was slow from Pip writing to her gran. Mail from the UK could take up to a month to arrive, which she found ludicrous as it didn’t take that long for mail to get from Australia to the US.
    Slowly she resigned herself to picking up the pieces of her shattered dream and filing them under the title, “Never Date a Bloke Who’s on Holiday. Especially One Who Lives Half a World Away.” Life seemed flat without the little contact she’d had with John. She kept praying for him. That was the least she could do and that way she could fool herself into thinking they still had a connection. Anything more was a stupid pipe dream, but she thought of little else as she visited her parents over the weekend.
    She arrived back in Sydney on Sunday evening, determined to enjoy the early Christmas with Pip and not mope over something she couldn’t have. Truth be told, all she wanted for Christmas was a blond English bloke named John. Even if he had forgotten all about her.
    She set her bag down in the hallway. “Pip, I’m