Meet Me By The Christmas Tree: Paradise Hills

By Merri Maywether

 The Christmas tree in the town square has a history of magic. Liam hopes it's his turn to feel the power of its touch. 

After a chance encounter at the movie theater,  Liam is certain of one thing. The woman who turned to him for comfort is the one for him. With an angel pin she left behind, he sets out to find her. 

 

After an attitude adjustment in the movie theater, Holly does all she can to embrace the holiday spirit. She makes a deal to eat the cookies, drink the cocoa and have fun with her family friend Liam. 

 

 Liam doesn't know he's looking for Holly. Holly has no clue Liam is in love with her. Will the magical Christmas tree bring Liam and Holly together? Or was the magic meant for someone else they love?

Fall in love this holiday season in Paradise Hills, Montana.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Merri Maywether
• Release date: Dec 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781393797036

Merri Maywether

Twenty years ago, Merri Maywether went on a date with a very sweet man from Montana. Three weeks later they were engaged and they have lived happily ever after. This is Merri taking over the biography section...When I write my romance novels, the characters are the people that I see on a day to day basis. Up here in what I like to call the far, far north, people work hard, live fiercely, and love knowing that they have a community of people behind them. We support each other through the hardships and celebrate the victories. The best part...similar to the characters in my stories, at the end of a long day or a rough week we have stories to share for the years to come.

Book preview

Bah Humbug

It drove Holly Stewart a little nuts when people said she was a grinch, but this year it was true. Her grumpy mood was two levels below bah humbug. For some reason, she wasn’t feeling jolly this Christmas. When she saw the lights, the decorations, or anything that was remotely ho ho ho, she grumbled under her breath the first thought that came to her mind. Where do people get the energy to do all this work? Something within her prevented her from going full-blown holiday elf.

Which made no sense. Everything about Paradise Hills should have enticed her to the festive end of the holiday spirit spectrum. The small town nestled in the Montana hills seemed more like a holiday card than a place where people lived. It had the large window storefronts decorated with winter scenes. As Holly strolled down main street with her nieces Savannah and Brooklyn, people inside the stores smiled and waved when they passed by. With eyes widened by wonder, five-year-old Brooklyn waved back. Savannah, who was seven, added a cheerful Merry Christmas, to her greeting.

Holly’s eyes traveled the course of Christmas lights, and doors decorated with holly and ivy. They stopped on the Christmas tree in the middle of the square. She wished something would happen to change her attitude. Christmas was the season of love and joy, and she wouldn’t mind giving and receiving the two virtues. In less time than it took to go on to the next thought, a breeze strong enough to make Holly blink whirled around her. She held tighter to her nieces’ hands and diverted their course to go into the candy store.

The candy store decorated to look like one of Santa’s shops from the North Pole was a bit much for Holly. Her nieces’ gasps of appreciation for the decorations made Holly take a second look to see things through their eyes. The display window held variations of chocolate that were lined in neat rows. Hard candies stored in jars were topped with bows that had bells attached. Quilted runners with holiday scenes decorated the countertops that held stacks of prewrapped boxes of chocolates. Along the edge of the doorway, the owner, Kim, had wrapped small packages of candy with bows and tied them to the garland.

Kim came out from a door behind the counter, held her hands in the air, and exclaimed, Today is your lucky day. Her blond hair was tied into two loose pigtails that fell behind her ears. The red felt hat she chose to wear made her look like a large elf. She stooped to be at eye level with Holly’s nieces and set her hands on her knees. If you walk in the store and nobody is here, you get a candy off the wreath.

Savannah and Brooklyn turned to each other with wide eyed astonishment. Savannah’s voice was breathy in awe when she said, Today is a good day. Her sister nodded in agreement.

Kim’s brow wrinkled at something behind the girls. Holly turned to catch, Liam Lane, the town’s local celebrity pass by the window. While her mother was friends with his parents, Holly had never spoken to him. They didn’t run in the same circles. With his pea coat and scarf, and his hair hidden under a cap, he almost blended in with the towns people of Paradise Hills. His strong jaw and striking eyes were even more pronounced by the winter wear. The girls waved at him as he walked by. He must not have noticed, because he walked by without returning the greeting. Holly’s eyes followed Liam until he disappeared at the end of the window.

Kim hurried to the window and craned her neck to get a better look of him walking down the sidewalk. Wouldn’t it be nice to get one of him under the Christmas tree?  Holly had spent many hours on the couch watching the gray eyed, husky voiced Liam save many damsels, and a couple villains, in distress. Giggles from behind them reminded Holly that they were there to get candy for the girls. She laughed with her nieces at her silliness. If she ever found a man that had a gravelly voice that made her gush and a muscular build that announced, I’ll save you, near her Christmas tree, she’d be tongue tied and embarrass herself. No, she’d be a lot happier if she had a Kitchen Aid mixer under the tree. Then she could make cookies with Savannah and Brooklyn and talk to Liam through the movie screen.

The door jingled and Madison, Holly’s older sister, walked through the door. She shook her shoulders to loosen the flakes of snow. Are we ready to go see that Grinch’s heart grow two sizes?

Yes! Both girls exclaimed. Savannah, the older of the two, held up her finger and added, After we get our candy. Brooklyn nodded her agreement. Madison, Holly, and Kim laughed at Savannah’s tenacity.

Madison played with her daughter’s braid, Once she knows what she wants, Savannah will get it.

That was one facet of her niece’s personality Holly wished she could develop. Sadly, experience had taught her that wishes got broken. One day her mother and sister were happily married. The next Holly was there to help them pick up the pieces after the men they loved walked away. Still, every once in a while, she secretly wished that one day happiness would come to her and stick around for a while.

One distraction paved the way for the next. All of them created a rabbit trail that had Holly sneaking into the theater with her small bag of popcorn and soda during the previews for the movie. Madison took the girls to The Grinch Who Stole Christmas while Holly went to the theater across the hall to watch Silent Night Deadly Knight.

Holly couldn’t believe her eyes when she stepped into the theater. Never in a million years would she have guessed in a town full of people who embraced the ugly Christmas sweater that there would be enough people to fill the seats for a suspense movie. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark and scoped out a seat as near to the center of the theater as possible. There it was. Two empty chairs, close to the aisle, in the middle of the theater, waited for her to sit in one of them. Holly exhaled her relief. She wouldn’t have to ask people to move to make room for her to sit.

She set her drink in the cup holder and nestled into her seat in time to hear the opening song for movie. Liam Lane was the father who at the moment was trying to herd his beautiful wife and four daughters into their silver Ford Edge. Between the witty banter, playful eye rolls, and insistences of the three-year-old daughter that they find her favorite bunny, Holly related to the family while wondering what horrible fate would befall them. The movie poster had an image of the bunny missing one eye and a torn ear laying in the snow.

Holly noticed someone sat beside her, but she didn’t give the person her attention. He was probably as relieved as her to get a seat that wasn’t in the front row. His arrival consoled Holly. She wasn’t the only one who lost the occasional race against time.

The family fell into the typical trip routine. The kids wore headphones attached to devices while Mom and Dad questioned whether they turned off the kitchen faucet. Then the music changed tempo. Holly’s senses heightened with the awareness. The director always singled out who was in jeopardy and emphasized the character’s strengths and weaknesses. Something is wrong with that semi, the on-screen mom pointed to the semi that swerved. The camera zoomed in on the dad stepping on the brake, the car behind them getting close to the bumper, and the kids oblivious to all that was going on around them. The daughter with the rabbit fiddled with her car seat. Holly cringed and hoped the daughter wasn’t one of those super genius kids that knew how to take apart and reassemble a kitchen appliance in the time it took a mother to add a piece of bread to the toaster.

The back of the semi fish tailed. Brakes screeched, and cars swerved to avoid the family vehicle. The action moved to a slow-motion shot, and the family’s car careened when the car behind them struck the right rear bumper. It was more than Holly could watch. The one thing she couldn’t handle was seeing a child get injured. She said, This is not good. Not good at all, wrapped her hand around the arm beside her, and hid her face in the man’s shoulder. The cacophony of noises from the screen bled down to the father asking, Is everyone okay?

Holly peeked with one eye to see the kids still engrossed in their devices and the click of the toddler releasing herself from the car seat. It was then that the pangs of what have I done struck Holly. She loosened her grip from the man’s arm and straightened her posture. I am so sorry about that. The screen brightened as she gazed into the eyes of Liam Lane. Her