Running In Snow

By Renee Regent

Two heartwarming tales of love and redemption. And snow.

Noelle's Promise

Does your past define the future?

 Noelle has one cardinal rule─never, ever celebrate the holidays. But now she's promised to spend them with her boyfriend, Logan, and his extended family. As the festivities begin, bad memories surface. She manages to suppress her anxiety and join in the celebrations, until an unexpected incident sends her fleeing into the night. Can she overcome her past before it ruins her future?

Eve's Hope

Can a holiday be unlucky every year?                           

When her heater goes out in the middle of a rare Atlanta snowstorm, reclusive Eve accepts the invitation to her handsome neighbor's party. Expecting to be bored to tears, she encounters a few surprises before the countdown to midnight begins. Can she survive just one New Year's Eve without her bad luck kicking in?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Renee Regent
• Release date: Nov 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9780998132860

Renee Regent

A lifelong entrepreneur, Renee Regent spent most of her life writing for business. But she never lost her love of writing stories, especially romance, science fiction, and fantasy. She’s always been fascinated with the science of how the universe works, but equally entranced by the unexplained. Being an incurable romantic, she now writes stories about the power of love, with a supernatural twist. Her stories feature psychics, witches, ghosts and ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Renee, a California native, lives in Atlanta with her husband, three cats and four turtles. When not working or writing, she can be found sitting on her deck enjoying nature. Wine may or may not be involved…. A member of Georgia Romance Writers and the Georgia Writer’s Association, Renee also loves blogging and sharing her ideas on the business side of being an author, trends in fiction, and tips she has learned in her writing journey.                                                                                                                                          

Book preview

Running In Snow

A Holiday Novella

By Renee Regent

Copyright©2017 Renee Regent

Published by Royal Turtle Publishing

To join the author’s mailing list and receive up to FIVE FREE mini ebooks, visit http://reneeregent.com.

Copyright © Renee Regent 2017

Digital Edition

Edited by Grace Augustine

Cover Design by

All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any printed or electronic form without express written permission from the publisher.  For permission or rights information, please contact the publisher:

Royal Turtle Publishing

[e-mail]

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, are coincidental.

Running In Snow/Renee Regent

978-0-9981328-6-0

Digital Edition

DEDICATION

Special thanks to Linda Joyce for her insights; to Grace Augustine for her editing expertise; and to all my Atlanta writing friends for their support and feedback.

Noelle’s Promise is dedicated to Valerie with love.

Eve’s Hope is for Beau, who lives on in my memories.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Story One – Noelle’s Promise

Story Two – Eve’s Hope

Author’s Note

Excerpt from Unexplained

Also by Renee Regent

About the Author

Story One

Noelle’s Promise

Chapter One

I’

m about to break my cardinal rule, and I’m terrified.

There’s only one thing that would make me even consider going to someone’s house to celebrate Christmas─I’m in love.

In three hours, I’ll be on a plane traveling to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I’ve agreed to spend the holidays with my boyfriend, Logan, his daughter, Lily, and their extended family. Me, Noelle Giroux, who hasn’t so much as eaten a candy cane or sent a Christmas card since I was eight years old. Hell, I won’t even watch holiday cartoons. I change the radio station the second Jingle Bells comes on. I’ve happily avoided this particular holiday for over thirty years, even though I was named for it. I was born on the winter solstice, and I guess my mother thought that was close enough.

Right now, I’m in my Atlanta office, wrapping up loose ends before I head to the airport. My coworkers are already deep in revelry, drinking spiked punch and exchanging gifts. Today is December 23rd, the day of our annual office party, since we’ll be closed until after New Year’s Eve. I’ve been able to successfully avoid the merriment, but even that fact hasn’t eased my sense of dread. Time keeps ticking away, and I’ll have to leave soon. I’ve just put away my last file when Daphne from Human Resources appears at my door.

Hey, Noelle. Merry Christmas. I know you don’t celebrate, but...

She enters, shrugging. People never know how to respond to my lack of enthusiasm for their holiday traditions. I’ve heard the rumors myself─is she Jewish? An atheist? I simply ignore it. Let them draw their own conclusions. Not that anyone would ever guess the real reason.

I smile politely as Daphne places a small gift bag on my desk. It’s shiny red, covered in a white snowflake pattern, with curly green ribbons tying the handles together. She looks at me expectantly, as though she wants me to open it. I shake my head.

Daphne, that’s so sweet. But I don’t participate in gift exchanges, for personal reasons.

This isn’t an exchange. I just like giving gifts. Open it, she urges, standing her ground.

Not only is Daphne the head of HR, she’s the sister of our CEO, Mark Brayhill. It’s probably not a good idea to insult her. So I pick up the tiny bag. I unfurl the green ribbon and find inside a small enameled pin, the kind you wear on a lapel or hat. It’s a red bird, a cardinal, on a pine bough. Better, I guess, than a Santa or an angel pin. A prickle of apprehension runs through me as I hold the pin in my palm. There’s no way Daphne would know the special meaning this particular bird has in my life. Could she?

Daphne clears her throat.

It’s not so Christmas-y, is it? I thought you might like it.

I don’t want her to take my silence the wrong way, so I reassure her.

Yes, I do. It’s lovely, Daphne. Thank you.

You’re welcome. Now come and join us on the second floor. Jay from Accounting has dressed as Santa and all the ladies are taking selfies with him.

Brushing my long auburn curls from my shoulder, I attach the pin to my jacket lapel and fish my purse from the drawer.

Sorry to miss that, but I have a plane to catch this afternoon.

Well, have a safe trip, and happy holidays, however you choose to spend them.

I wish her the same and shut my office door behind me. My promise to myself at eight years old was to never participate in anything to do with Christmas ever again. And here I am, accepting gifts and traveling toward a full-on family holiday celebration.

Nothing else but true love would make me agree to this. My only hope is that I can get through it without ruining the holidays for everyone.

IF I CAN MAKE IT TO New Year’s Eve, I’ll be fine. Breathe, relax.

That is the mantra I keep repeating to myself as I travel to Pittsburgh. I’ve never had a problem celebrating any other holidays, and New Year’s Eve is my favorite. I love the anticipation─the hope of new dreams, second chances to make things right. The glitz, the glamor, and midnight kisses. This year it will be ultra-special, because Logan and I met last New Year’s Eve at a party, so this will be our one year anniversary.

I don’t believe in love at first sight, but chemistry at first meeting is definitely possible. That’s how it was with us─wham, bang, hit-you-over-the-head attraction. And it wasn’t just physical, though that was arguably the best part. We had an instant connection, a bond that felt familiar, comfortable, like putting on your favorite pajamas on a cold night. Our mutual affection grew from that night on, and we fell in love.

I have plenty of time to think about the past year as I drive my rental car from the airport to my destination, Logan’s hometown of Charmington, in northwestern Pennsylvania. Falling in love with Logan Crawford included getting to know his daughter, Lily, and I’m anxious to see her, too. Never one to be around children much, I was nervous at the start, but she and I got along well. At only seven years old, she has the heart of an old soul. Her mother, Logan’s