Must Love Christmas comes out in only 3 days! The preorder is already up, and the paperback should be on sale by tomorrow (I would make them available on the same day, but Amazon doesn’t allow paperback preorders for indie authors).
Meantime, Must Love Christmas‘s companion novel, Throwing Stones, is on sale through Monday! Only 0.99 in the US and UK, and discounted in every other country.
I’ve been sharing one- or two-line teasers from Must Love Christmas for the last few days, but today I finally had enough time (after uploading the final book and doing Thanksgiving) to add a longer excerpt.
This scene takes place during Simon and Garen’s first “night out” since Simon left the hospital. Naturally, it’s to buy a real Christmas tree, because hard-core ho-ho-ho‘er Garen won’t settle for an artificial one. At this point they are still just friends and flatmates, but both of them are longing for more.
As they went to the till to pay for the tree, Garen came to a sudden stop beside a display of assorted greenery.
Simon looked up to see what he was staring at. In the corner of the display, beside a column of holly wreaths, hung several sprigs of mistletoe.
“Shall we get some of that?” Garen asked.
Simon cleared his throat. “It might add a touch of…” Extreme awkwardness. “Fun?”
“Definitely.” Garen grabbed the biggest mistletoe garland, bunched with painted-snow pine needles and cones. “Something for guests to kiss under at our party.”
Simon took the mistletoe so Garen could push his wheelchair over the dirt path toward the till. He ran his fingers over the white berries, his mind blending memories and fantasies of their mouths melding in passion. He was strong enough now to stand on his own beneath this mistletoe, strong enough to hold Garen in his arms while they kissed.
He was strong enough now to do a lot of things.
– From Must Love Christmas by Avery Cockburn, Chapter 12