Spotlight & Giveaway: Second Chance Christmas by Lori Wilde

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Lori Wilde to HJ!

Hi Lori and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Second Chance Christmas!

 
Thank you. So excited to be here!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Two friends find a baby abandoned in a manger at Christmas time and there’s a note written on his diaper in Sharpie, saying the mom will return by New Year. Jana Gerard, who grew up in a series of foster homes, wants to keep the baby until then and give him mother time to return. Only one problem, she can’t do it alone. With the whole town of Twilight, Texas egging them on, she and her best friend, Joel MacGregor become instant parents amid the magic of Christmas.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

“Shh, did you hear that?” Jana Gerard touched her companion’s wrist, and canted her head, listening for the sound to repeat.
Lean, tall, dark-headed, former college basketball star, and her part-time boss, Joel MacGregor looked down at her hand and smiled softly.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Joel appeared in the first book in the series, The Sweethearts’ Knitting Club. He was seventeen.
• Research for the Christmas Bards scene demanded I watch Channing Tatum dance to “Pony” from Magic Mike on endless loop. Sometimes, it’s good to be writer.
• Jana has been a secondary character in many of the other Twilight, Texas books but I always feared she was too salty to take center stage, but fans kept writing and asking when she was going to get her own story. Ta-da. Here it is.

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. As you wrote your protagonist was there anything about them that surprised you?

Both of these characters have been with me for years as they played secondary characters in other books, so I knew them pretty well. What surprised me about Jana was how tenderhearted she really is. The scene where she sews on Joel’s broken G-string so he can go strip for charitable cause, took me by surprise. I didn’t know she could sew. But then the G-string breaks again, so maybe she can’t.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

The Christmas Bards scene. Go watch Channing Tatum dance to “Pony” and then you tell me why.

Brick moved his arm, but he aimed it right for her ass as she pushed past. He had a history of butt grabbing.
“Touch me and draw back a bloody stump,” Jana warned.
The two women closest to the open door gasped. Several people farther down the line giggled.
Brick threw back his head and let out a loud hoot. “God, I love your spunk. If you think a sassy mouth is a turn off, think again. If you were my lady, I’d make good use of that mouth by—”
“But she’d not your lady, is she?” Joel’s voice punched a hole in the night.
Jana jerked her head up to see that Joel had stepped from inside the bar to the open doorway. He had his hand clamped around Brick’s raised wrist and his face shoved just inches from the bouncer’s nose.
“No,” Brick squeaked.
Outside, the women were swooning at the sight of Joel who was wearing a tuxedo that Jana knew was Velcroed on just so he could rip it off when he danced to “Pony.”
And damn if her mouth didn’t water. Sisters on the street weren’t the only ones swooning.

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

Everyone deserves to be loved.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’m working on Christmas’ Twilight, Texas book called the Cowboy Cookie Bake-off. It features Jazzy Walker, who was eight years old in the First Love Cookie Club. She’s all grown up now and a nurse on the pediatric ward where she was once a patient. After Second Chance Christmas, my next book is a women’s fiction title called The Lighthouse On Moonglow Bay and it’s the third book in the Moonglow, Cove series. It’ll be out in March of 2022.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Five print copies of last year’s Christmas book, The Christmas Backup Plan. US only.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What was the best Christmas you ever had?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Excerpt from Second Chance Christmas:

What on earth was she going to do?
Three days before Christmas and she had no money, no food and no place to stay. Every measly thing she owned was tucked inside the battered backpack weighing heavily on her thin shoulders.
Shivering in her threadbare jean jacket, not nearly warm enough for the winter storm rolling through North Central Texas, the teen tightened her grip on the tiny bundle in her arms.
Some dude she barely knew had said she could couch surf with him for a couple of days, but he’d been adamant.
No brats allowed.
Panic rose in her throat, swelling and bubbling like the sourdough starter Grammy fed on her kitchen counter.
No, not anymore. Grammy and her sourdough were gone forever, and she was all on her own.
A gust of wind blowing off Lake Twilight shook the tinsel garlands that were strung from quaint lampposts lanterns. Gaily colored lights flickered through the thickening darkness like fickle beacons. On-off. On-off.
Her teeth chattered, braces clicking together. Her bare knee, poking from the hole in her shredded jeans, turned as numb as her nose.
For the past three hours, she’d ringed the entire town square, entering boutiques and restaurants to get in out of the cold. Leaving when shop owners shot her dirty looks.
In one restaurant, with hunger gnawing her stomach, she’d pretended she needed to use the restroom. They didn’t want to let her in—no public restrooms—but the hostess saw the baby and nodded.
She hadn’t gone into the restroom. Instead, she’d slipped into the dining area, targeting an un-bussed table and flitching leftovers.
It wasn’t stealing, she’d told herself. The food was getting thrown out.
A ten-dollar bill on the next table beckoned. Her heart leaped.
That is stealing.
She inched over, reached for the ten, and had it in her fingers when one of the servers caught her.
“Put that back!”
She dropped the money. “I wasn’t—”
“You were.”
“I—”
“Get out. Now!”
Ducking her head, she moved toward the door. As she passed, the server whispered “you’re disgusting” with a curled lip. The woman’s gaze landed on the baby tucked up underneath her jacket and the curl became a full-on snarl. “For shame! What kind of mother are you?”
That was a knife through her heart. She was a horrible mother. She knew it. The baby would be much better off without her.
“Get out.” the server said, pointing a furious finger at the door. “Before I call the cops.”
She’d slunk away, slipping into the shop next door, but they were closing up and she’d had to move on. Now, the only place open on the square was Fruit of the Vine, the storefront for a local winery. It would be almost seven years before she was old enough to legally go inside.
Fighting back tears, she hitched the baby to her shoulder. He’d been really quiet today, as if he understood the trouble that they were in.
“Good boy,” she cooed to him, pulling the little knitted cap down securely over his ears. “You’re such a good boy and Mommy loves you so much.”
Earlier, the town square had been packed with shoppers, but now the streets were nearly empty. The vendors on the courthouse lawn had battened down their kiosks and the Santa Land display was shutting early because of the weather. From the outdoor speakers mounted on the courthouse, Christmas music played. “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”
She bit her bottom lip, so dry and cracked from the cold wind that it hurt. The hot tears she’d been battling spilled over the rim of her lower lids and trickled down her face.
Hopeless.
Everything was hopeless.
She fisted her hands against the baby’s back. If only she didn’t have him to worry about. Closing her eyes, she groaned. That server was right. She was a horrible, horrible mother. She sucked in a deep breath of frigid air and opened her eyes.
A white church spire topped with a cross rose up behind the buildings on the square. Grammy used to take her to church every Sunday. Her grandmother liked to sit on the front row, to be “closer to God.”
“Sorry, Grammy,” she whispered, her heart plunging into her throat. “Right now I’m as far away from God as I can get.”
She’d tried praying, oh yes, she had, but God must have turned his back on her, because she’d had no answers and her problems kept stacking up like cord wood.
Maybe the church spire is an answer.
She’d seen a program on TV that said churches were considered “safe havens.” A place to anonymously leave your baby if you couldn’t take care of it. The only catch was that there had to be someone around to find the baby or it would be considered child endangerment. Or so the program had said. That is if she was remembering correctly.
Trembling now, at her wits end, she walked toward the white steeple sticking up out of the darkness, no real plan. The wind slashed her face, and she ducked her head to shield the baby, cradling him to her chest. She could feel his little heart beating against hers.
If only things were different.
But they weren’t, were they?
She walked a block, turned right, then left, another block and there it was, the First Presbyterian Church of Twilight.
The church looked old, like it had been built back in the cowboy days, but it had a fresh coat of paint and was decked in holiday decorations, including an elaborate nativity scene on the front lawn, complete with live animals milling around in a wooden corral.
Her gaze fell on the straw bed where the Baby Jesus lay nestled, surrounded by life-sized plastic figurines of Mary, Joseph, the three wise men and five shepherds. The bed looked really warm and it was located underneath a shelter out of the wind.
Should she? Could she?
Her heart was pounding a million beats a second and her face was so cold she could scarcely breathe. But how could she leave the baby when there was no one around to find him? Despair knocked against her chest. A hollow numb feeling that bewildered and frightened her.
She chewed a ragged fingernail, gnawing off the chipped polish—Cotton Candy Daydreams. Last year, Grammy had put the polish in her Christmas stocking. This year there would be no stocking, no presents, no loving grandmother, nothing.
Fresh tears welled in her eyes, stinging her cheeks.
“I’m not leaving you for good,” she mumbled, trying to convince herself it was true. “Just until I can find a safe place for us to stay. This is the best thing for right now.”
The sound of voices sent her shrinking into the shadows, hiding in the thick shrubbery surrounding the church. She crouched, grateful that the baby was sleeping. He was such a good boy. He deserved a good mother. A mom who knew how to love him the right way. He deserved a good dad and a happy home too. All things she couldn’t give him.
Salty tears filled her mouth as her heart broke.
Okay, okay. She would do this, but only if the people looked nice and kind. Otherwise, she’d wait until someone else came along.
The voices grew louder. From around the opposite side of the church, closest to where the animals were penned, two people appeared.
The guy was really tall and looked to be the age of her dad when she’d last heard from him. Kinda old. Thirtyish. The woman was younger and not much taller than she was. Five-four maybe. The woman wore black motorcycle boots, thick black leggings, a short red plaid skirt and cute white ski jacket. Dope outfit. She had wicked fashion sense.
“You should have worn gloves,” the man said to her. “You’re hands are turning blue.”
“I loaned my gloves to one of my elderly customers. Midge keeps losing hers. When I picked her up for her doctor’s appointment, her hands were like ice. What was I supposed to do?”
“You’re too generous.” He shook his head, but he smiled at the woman as if he was proud of her.
She wished someone would look at her with the same sweet kindness.
“It’s okay.” The woman tucked her hands into her jacket pockets. “It’ll be fine.”
The man stopped underneath the security lamp that cast a soft glow over the nativity scene, took off his own gloves and tucked them under his arm pit. “Give me one of your hands.”
“What?” The woman drew back. “Why?”
“C’mon, Tink.” The man grinned. “Stop being so suspicious. I swear, if Jesus himself turned up on Christmas Day, you’d insist on interrogating him.”
“Well yes, I’d have lots of questions.” Narrowing her eyes, but laughing the woman slowly took a hand from her pocket and held it out to him.
The tall man took her hand and rubbed it vigorously between his. Then he repeated the process with her other hand.
Aww, that was so sweet. She wished she had a nice boyfriend who would warm her hands for her. Feeling jealous, she pressed her back against the side of the building, watching the couple tease and banter as they went about turning off the inflatable Christmas decorations.
They were so nice to each other. Smiling and joking. No yelling or hitting. She could tell they liked each other. She liked them too.
Safe haven.
The words popped into her head again. People were here now. The church was officially a safe haven.
The baby whimpered; a soft little mewl.
If she was going to do this, now was the time while the couple was still here, and their attention was on the opposite side of the church lawn from where she crouched. But first, she needed to write a note explaining that she’d be back for him as soon as she could.
Quietly, she twisted around, grateful for the relentless wind because it muffled her sounds. She fished a Sharpie from her backpack. Then she realized she didn’t have any paper.
How could she leave a note with no paper? She dug in the backpack, desperate for something to write on and her hand hit the diaper.
His last diaper.
The one she’d been saving for when he did number two.
In the darkness, she wrote a heartfelt note on the diaper, tucked it inside the blanket with him, and as the couple’s back was turned, she crept to the manger, and replaced the plastic Baby Jesus with her son.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

It’s Christmastime in Twilight, TX. The lights are twinkling, carols are being sung, and the cookies are baking. And this year, best friends Joel and Jana discover a shocking surprise: as they are organizing the living Nativity, they find a sweet little baby in the manger with a note saying the mother will return…soon.

Jana tucks the infant into her arms, and she and Joel make the impulsive decision to take the baby home. Jana is spontaneous, Joel is a planner, but they agree that it’s better to care for this precious bundle for the holidays, in hopes that the mother really will come back by New Year’s.

As the days pass, the pair begins to fall in love with the child and they’re also forced to face facts: their relationship goes far deeper than friendship. As the spirit of Christmas—and the magic of Twilight, TX—takes over, this unlikely couple must open up to the feelings they’ve been hiding from each other all along.

Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Lori Wilde is the New York Times, USA Today and Publishers’ Weekly bestselling author of 96 works of romantic fiction. She’s a three time Romance Writers’ of America RITA finalist and has four times been nominated for Romantic Times Readers’ Choice Award. She has won numerous other awards as well.
Her books have been translated into 26 languages, with more than four million copies of her books sold worldwide.
Her breakout novel, The First Love Cookie Club, has been optioned for a TV movie. And her Wedding Veil Wishes series is the inspiration for three upcoming Hallmark movies.
Lori is a registered nurse with a BSN and MALA from Texas Christian University. She holds a certificate in forensics, and is also a certified yoga instructor.
A fifth generation Texan, Lori lives with her husband, Bill, in the Cutting Horse Capital of the World.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | GoodReads |