Christmas Town Homecoming
Box Set 6 in Heartwarming Christmas Town
Welcome back to Christmas Town, Maine and its high school reunion…
It’s going to be a jam-packed holiday weekend for the returning class, beginning with preparations for the two day event – where a mysterious promise ring has been found in their time capsule – and culminating in a Reunion Ball – where something lost finally finds its home. No one’s expecting to discover love, but this is Christmas Town, where happily-ever-afters are delivered with holiday traditions, glowing twinkle lights, and tinsel.
You’re invited…
Consider this your invitation to the reunion where you’ll have a front row seat next to some of the class’s most memorable members – the prom queen, the jock, the mean girl, the drama kid, the teacher’s pet, the bad boy, the math nerd, the girl most likely to succeed, and some of your favorite administrators. From start to finish, this collection of connected, sweet romances from Harlequin Heartwarming authors will warm your heart.
Here’s an excerpt from Melinda’s contribution to the collection.
Excerpt:
Somewhere, someone blared “Deck the Halls” through their car speakers. It had to be car speakers because fa-la-la-la-la seemed to come from Helen Wheeler’s right and then moved to somewhere behind her.
A man’s voice boomed over the song.
Welcome to Christmas Town.
“Fa-la-la-la-humbug,” Helen grumbled. She finished filling the wheelbarrow with pine boughs she’d cut from her friend Becca’s backyard just as a light snow began to fall again.
The music ended. Helen hoped her lack of holiday cheer would also end come Sunday – the day after the Christmas Town High School reunion held its last event.
“Everyone dreads their high school reunion,” Helen continued to grumble as she tromped through a few inches of snow, pushing the wheelbarrow to the side gate.
Deck the Halls stopped playing mid fa-la-la. A car door slammed. The overly enthusiastic Christmas lover apparently lived nearby.
Helen unlatched the side gate and pushed it open, and then shoved the wheelbarrow through to the front yard.
“Hell-on-Wheels,” a deep male voice teased from the front walk.
Helen gritted her teeth and dropped her wheelbarrow to the ground, hating that what she’d dreaded during about the reunion was hitting her this early in the weekend.
Hell-on-Wheels was the nickname Brandi Sue Duckweiller had given Helen as a freshman during a 1970s-themed rally week where Helen had been chosen to compete in a roller-skating race. Given that Helen was capriciously tall – nearly six-feet – and not athletically inclined – she’d sat the bench on the volleyball and basketball teams – why would anyone think she could stay on her feet on roller skates?
Stupid high school reunion.
Who remembered her that way? Only everyone.
Helen pasted a smile on her face and turned.
A strong pair of arms encircled her, dragging her forward to be crushed against a broad chest. And then she was released and held at arms’ length by –
Helen froze.
“Hell-on-Wheels.” Marshall Jacobs tsked. “Becca didn’t tell me you were in town.”
“Likewise,” Helen mumbled, grinning and blushing furiously as Becca’s older brother – Helen’s high school crush – continued to hold her in place. “Aren’t you on injured reserve?” He played for the Boston Bruins and had received a concussion a week ago. “Should you be driving?” Or should he be at home in a dark room under a nurse’s care?
“It’s just a bump on the head.” Marsh gave Helen that trademark grin that used to cause her legs to shake like a bowlful of jelly. He wore a black leather bomber’s jacket, a Bruins baseball cap and mirrored aviator sunglasses. “I’m in the NHL’s concussion protocol. Nothing to worry about.”
“Unless you don’t normally blare holiday tunes out your open truck window in the middle of a snowstorm.” Helen knew she should step back and compose herself. She was grinning back at Marsh, still blushing, and couldn’t bring herself to move a muscle – not in her face or in her legs – because he was looking at her with a flirty gleam in his eye.
He sees me!
Helen smiled harder.
I am going to regret this later.
All of it. The grinning. The blushing. The feeling that Marsh actually saw her as a member of the opposite sex, not one of his little sister’s friends.
The Story Behind the Story
We took 2020 off because…covid. And when we regrouped, we wanted something with a strong connection between stories. We decided that in preparation for the class reunion, we would have a few characters discover a promise ring. And just like in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, we’d have the ring pass from one character to another (always with the best of intentions to turn the ring into the school’s lost and found). It isn’t until the final story that you’ll learn who the ring belongs to.
This set is shorter than the other collections, but coming out of covid, we all wanted to recharge and regroup. (This is my way of asking your forgiveness - lol.)
Amazon (now in Kindle Unlimited)
Barnes & Noble (print only)
Learn about the next box set HERE.
