Today I am so pleased to welcome Eli Easton to Joyfully Jay. Eli has come to talk to us about her latest release, The Best Gift. She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

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Excerpt

I finally gave up on sleep. It just wasn’t happening. I got up, pulled on some thermal long john pants to keep my legs warm along with the thermal shirt I’d worn to bed, and quietly opened my bedroom door. The hallway was dark. I moved silently down the steps.

There was a colored glow coming from the living room. The Christmas tree was on. Curious, I walked into the room. Greg stood there at the Christmas tree, hands on his hips. He turned to face me.

“Sorry,” I said, backing out of the room.

“Wait.” I looked at Greg more closely. The yearning on his face was like a mirror of everything I’d been feeling for the past hour.

I licked my lips. “You couldn’t sleep either?”

“No. Couldn’t stop thinking about… about kissing you.” Greg sighed. “I’m sorry I overanalyzed it.”

“Maybe I’m the one who’s not analyzing enough.”

“No. No. It’s just been so long since something good happened to me. I forgot how to recognize it. Or accept it. It’s like when you said you’d apply for a job here, and I tried to talk you out of it. You’ve been such a huge help. I don’t know how I would have gotten through this season without you.”

I wanted to say me too. I’d been hitchhiking home, only home wasn’t really there anymore, was it? What with my dad gone. The thought of hanging out at Aunt Kathy’s, watching their family enjoy Christmas, and try to include me…. That might have been more than I could take. My head must have still been fuzzy from the blast if I’d ever thought that was a good idea. But I hadn’t had anyplace else to go.

“So maybe,” Greg went on, “Maybe we could. You know? Maybe we could just… prop each other up for a while, like you said. Would that be so bad?”

“I think it’d be pretty good,” I said, knowing in my heart it was true and logic be damned.

Greg smiled then. An amused smile that quickly turned into a grin. “Well. As long as you’re sure.”

I wanted badly to stride right over there before Greg could change his mind. But no. I had to make sure. “Just so we’re clear…. If you decide you’re done with this, you tell me. And if you want me to leave the house, just say the word, and I’ll go.”

Greg’s expression grew serious. “You too. If you decide it’s one-and-done. Or… hell.”

The phrase one-and-done jarred like an off-key note, along with the talk of leaving, when all I wanted was to burrow in like a mole. And apparently it did for Greg, too, because he couldn’t even finish the thought.

Enough of giving each other ways out. I’d been searching forever for a way in. And here was this handsome, solid, good man in front of me.

We stepped toward each other at the same time, meeting in the middle, drawn together as if magnetized, falling into a kiss like we were coming up for air in the sea. And there was no stopping it this time.

Please, God, don’t let it stop.


Blurb

the best gift coverWith help from a Christmas miracle, two bruised hearts find joy again.

Greg Cabot is the third generation to run Cabot’s Christmas Wonderland and tree farm in rural Vermont. But this year will be his last. Since the death of his son, Sam, in Afghanistan, Greg no longer has the heart to run a business based on holiday cheer. When he picks up a hitchhiking soldier on a snowy night, he finds the help he needs to get his farm through the holidays—and maybe much more.

Sergeant Robbie Sparks doesn’t have much to be thankful for this holiday season. Badly wounded in Afghanistan, he’s spent the last eight months in recovery and was discharged after ten years of service. When fate lands him at Cabot’s tree farm, he feels like he’s fallen into a snow globe reality. Friendly people, gorgeous trees, lots of Christmas kitsch… and Greg Cabot.

Greg believes he’s too heartbroken for romance, but those we love never truly leave us. A little nudge from heaven may help build a bridge for these two men trying to heal. If only they are willing to take that first step.

This stand-alone, long novella is a small town, Christmas cornucopia, May-December, hurt/comfort , ex-military romance stuffed full of family and holiday feels.


Bio

Eli Easton bio photoComing from a background in computer game design, Eli has written over 50 books in m/m romance since 2013. The Mating of Michael (2014) and A Second Harvest (2016) both won The William Neale Award for Best Gay Contemporary Romance, and Eli’s books have won many awards from the Goodreads M/M Romance Group’s Reader’s Choice Awards. She is best known for her Christmas romances, the Howl at the Moon series of rom coms featuring dog shifters, and the Nerds Vs Jocks series, co-written with Tara Lain.

 

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Giveaway

To celebrate the release of The Best Gift, Eli’s giving you a chance to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card! Enter through the rafflecopter below!

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