Guest Blogger Leah Braemel - Present Planning

Thanks to Meg and the rest of the Nine for inviting me back to their blog! It’s December already – am I the only one saying “where has 2012 gone?” And just like that, the weather reports (in my neck of the woods) are now reporting temperatures based on the wind chill. Ugh. When I’m walking the dog, I’m now faced with donning gloves and winter coat instead of just stepping into a pair of sandals and saying “let’s go walkies.” (Yes, I do that dreaded high pitched voice but it works.)

When I was writing this, I’d not started decorating yet, though I imagine by the time you read it, my tree is up. I’ve not done any Christmas shopping yet either. Luckily I don’t have a lot of people to buy for, but from the looks of it, most of my shopping will be done in a hurry. Something I don’t like. I have always tried to make sure that when I give a present I’ve put lots of thought into and it tells the receiver that I was thinking specifically of them when I chose it.

So when I was writing I Need You for Christmas, I wanted my hero Ryan and heroine Meg to put the same type of thought into the presents they planned on giving each other. In their case, they were planning on giving themselves – at the cost of giving up their careers, their homes, to move 1500 miles to be with the other.

You can buy I Need You for Christmas from Carina Press, or from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Apple.

Here’s a peek into Meg as she struggles to keep her present a surprise.

“You spoil me.” She picked up her coffee and headed to the couch, but not before stopping off to admire the seven-foot live pine taking over the corner. Nestled among the original blown glass ornaments and metal pieces Ryan created were a dozen or more embroidered pieces. They’d been his mother’s creations—he’d told her that until his father remarried and his new wife moved in, his mother’s needlework adorned just about every surface in the house.

She stroked the long needles; the scent of pine brought memories flooding back. “Do you remember our first Christmas tree?”

He chuckled. “Not the tree itself, but I remember trying to impress you by driving you out to Shewchuk’s tree farm and getting stuck in the ditch. Not my finest moment.”

“I was remembering what happened after we brought it home.” How they’d made love after they’d decorated it.

“I’ll never forget that part of the day, babe.” His voice was soft.

While she’d always loved the spirit of Christmas, she’d seldom found it at her family’s home. For some reason her parents fought more over the holidays, and the Christmas carols she’d play seldom drowned out the shouting matches. Though she hadn’t told him, she suspected Ryan had when he had invited her to his family’s place for Christmas their first year together and included her on the tradition of picking out the family’s tree.

If she hadn’t already been falling in love with him, he’d sealed the deal when he’d said he loved her that afternoon.

Clutching her coffee cup, she faced him again. “I love you, you know, Ry.”

A questioning look in his eyes, he nodded. “I know.”

He tilted his head. “Is something wrong, babe?”

The urge to spill the news that she was staying permanently threatened to explode from her. Stop it, do not ruin the best Christmas present you’ve ever had to give him.



Have you got all your shopping done yet? Have you even started? Leave a comment for me for a chance to win your choice of one of my backlist. Then pop over to my website and leave a comment for a chance to win a Kindle in my “I Need A Kindle for Christmas” contest.

The only woman in a houseful of men (even the cat and dog are male), Leah Braemel loves hiding away from all the testosterone to let the dust bunnies fend for themselves. You can visit her website, follow her on Twitter, or on FaceBook and Goodreads. Don’t miss her upcoming print release of Private Deceptions, an anthology containing Private Property and Deliberate Deceptions from her Hauberk Protection series.