Happy Day-After Valentine’s Day

This is the season of love, and what better way to celebrate it than to read a romance novel. Okay, there are other ways, but you see where I’m headed.

When I was doing a radio interview after the launch of Midnight Clear at Christmas, the DJ asked if I wrote romance novels because my husband was particularly romantic. After a pause, I was inspired to quip, “I write romance both because of my husband and in spite of him!” 😉

Life isn’t always a fairy tale, but we can thank God that we are blessed with people who love us now and have loved us in the past, as well as people we have had the privilege to love.

I continue to write Nathan and Sophia’s romance, the next book in the Vacation Friends Romance series, and I’ve included a little snippet below. If you have read any or all three of the previous books in the series, and if you liked the story and haven’t yet posted a review, please do so on Amazon or Goodreads or both. It helps other readers and looks good when I’m doing marketing. Even just doing stars ratings helps.

So, continue to love and to read about love. I believe doing those things helps us be kinder—and more loving.

If your’re not subscribed to the newsletter, please do. Until next month …

From book 4:

Sophia glanced toward the locker-room door again.

On cue, the door slowly opened, and Nathan entered the gym area. His shorts were not brand name. In fact, they had no name: just generic, baggy black gym shorts beneath a rather ugly lime-green T-shirt. Maybe he wasn’t as pretentious as she thought he was. She narrowed her eyes to focus on the writing on his shirt. It simply said, “Love one another.” Under that was “John 13:34.”

Oh, great. He was some righteous holy roller who thought he knew what God wanted for the world. Yeah, she had him pegged right to begin with. Of course, there was a slim possibility that he was simply a nice Christian guy. She shook her head. Nah.

And too bad. He was handsome. His neck was bent as he concentrated on untangling his earphones. Although his hair was relatively short, he had evidently spent good money on the cut, and the front was thick. So, with his head down, his dark bangs, which had been styled back off his face, tumbled down over his forehead. He seemed younger and a little more vulnerable than before.

Suddenly, he looked up and caught her eye—“caught” being the operative word because she had been gawking. But instead of gloating, his honey-brown cheeks turned pink, and he bit his lower lip and hiked his shoulders. Then he held out his tangled earphones and stepped toward the desk where she sat. She stood again.

“There has to be a better way to store these things in my gym bag,” he said.

She couldn’t help but smile. “Uh, there is, you know. Chuck them and buy wireless earbuds.”

“Ha. Ha. I’ll have you know I use wireless headphones every day in my job. But I like these wired ones for working out. I can easily plug them into your very state- of-the-art bikes or treadmills or EFX machines and choose whatever channel I’d like to watch on the mounted TVs.” He leaned toward her, conspiratorially. “Pete told me all that.” Then he straightened and cleared his throat. “The thing is, I use wireless at work. Tangled wires are for play. You must know we rich lawyers don’t like to mix work and play.”

She recognized that he was babbling, and it was cute. She tried to scowl at his long-windedness, but she was pretty sure the result made her look slightly demented. “I thought you were a paralegal.”

He gave one quick nod and then put an earpiece in one ear, despite the still tangled mess below. As he turned to head toward the EFX machines, he shot back, “Aha. So, you were paying attention.”

He was already halfway to the back of the gym before she mumbled, “Well played.”