An Aussie Christmas Angel by Clare Revell Page B

Slowly, he scrolled through the photos he’d taken in Sydney. He looked at the one he’d taken in the restaurant the night he’d asked Jo out. The fairy lights lit her hair. His fingers ran over the screen. “My Aussie Christmas angel,” he whispered.
    If only…
    He hit print and waited. The larger photo could go in his Bible. That way he could pray for her a lot. The smaller one could go in his wallet. The e-mail chimed and he pulled it up. From Jo. That was fast.
    “Dear John. Thanks so much for the photos. I’m printing them off as I type. So you have snow? It’s never really cold enough for frost here. Mind you, we call cold twenty degrees Celsius.”
    John quickly converted that to sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit and laughed. “That’s not cold.” He laughed harder as he realized he was reading it in a broad Australian accent.
    “We get snow in the Snowy Mountains, hence their name, and a lot of people go skiing there. I prefer skating. Should have taken you to the indoor rink. Oh. I shouldn’t have started Dear John. I’m sorry. Jo. PS—I go to bed around eleven thirty, so any time before that is good.”
    John laughed and typed. “Dear Jo. I don’t know, two e-mails and I get a ‘Dear John’ already. Not sure if I should be insulted or find you funny. ;-) LOL. At least my name isn’t Jack, otherwise it’d be hi, Jack. (Hijack). I’ll ring when I get back from church on Sunday. Will Fed-ex you some snow soon as I can. It makes the commute into the country horrible. Better go before I fall asleep on the keyboard. That’s not a pretty look. Good night. John.
    He logged off and headed up to bed, taking Jo’s photo with him.
     
    ****
     
    Sunday took at least two years to come, never mind just twenty-four hours. John raced home from church, wanting to get there first, only to find he arrived at the same time everyone else did. He settled on the telephone table and dialed Jo’s number. He should buy his parents a cordless phone, rather than the corded one they’d had and then he could take it upstairs with him. She answered on the second ring. Had she been sitting by the phone?
    “Hello.”
    “Jo?”
    “Yes. Hello, John.”
    He pushed a hand through his hair. “How did you know it was me?”
    “Your accent kind of gave it away. We don’t get many English blokes ringing in the middle of the night. How are you?”
    “I’m OK. How are you?”
    “I’m good. Is it nice to be back at work?”
    Behind the closed kitchen door he could hear his parents talking. He smiled as he replied. “That depends whether I’m in a nice warm lab or up to my knees in a freezing cold river in a snowy field.”
    “You still have to do that? In this weather?” Surprise filled her voice. He could almost see her brows shoot up into her hair and the way her eyes twinkled.
    “Yeah. No samples means no work. And some mug has to go and collect them.”
    “It doesn’t sound like much fun. Maybe you should change jobs.”
    “I have no idea what I’d do instead. Well, in an ideal world I’d be a photographer, but that doesn’t pay the bills.” He took a deep breath wondering what to say next. He missed her smile and the way she tilted her head as she spoke. He hadn’t realized until just now how much. There was a pause for a few seconds then he started telling her about Auckland. As he spoke, he realized exactly what he’d left behind. He loved her. As crazy as that sounded, his heart was well and truly in Sydney. “But you should have been there. It would have been so much more fun with you there.”
    “Me personally or just someone that you knew tagging along for company?”
    “You personally. It’s not the same without you around.” If only this was a video phone. His parent’s computer didn’t have a webcam so he couldn’t use a web chat program even if he wanted to. And he did. He needed to see her.
    When she spoke, his soul just filled and bubbled over. He wanted her, more than any other girl