Christmas in Braverton: Old Town Braverton Sweet Romance

By Roxie Clarke

In between Tangled Hearts and Heart of Flame, it's Christmas in Braverton!

The short stories Christmas Cactus and Mistletoe Cactus were previously published individually. So, no need to pick up Christmas in Braverton if you've read those two already.

 

**Christmas Cactus and Mistletoe Cactus are best enjoyed if you have read String of Hearts, Calico Hearts, and Tangled Hearts beforehand. **

Christmas Cactus

 

Wedding bells are ringing in Old Town Braverton! Avery Wheeler, owner of the Pinwheel Plant Shop, and Ryan Tupper, host of the popular morning radio show, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, are getting married at the Braverton Botanical Garden.

Maybe. (I mean, probably. It is a Christmas wedding short story.)

An Arctic Blast has set upon the Pacific Northwest dropping more than a foot of snow. Traveling the eight miles between Ryan's Portland, OR home and where Avery is in Braverton becomes insurmountable.

When Ryan promises Avery he'll get to the garden by four o'clock by any means necessary, their family, friends, and the merchants of Old Town work together to pull off a Christmas miracle.

 

Mistletoe Cactus

 

After a rough few months between her former daughter-in-law, Avery, and herself, widow Tanesha Penn is attending Avery's wedding at the Braverton Botanical Garden and trying to make her heart a judgment-free zone.

On the day of the wedding she meets a widower named Bert, who is the groom's uncle, in the sitting room of the 3B (Braverton B&B) and the two hit it off immediately. Bert asks Tanesha if she'll walk with him to the venue and they end up sitting next to one another.

Tanesha, overcome by the beautiful ceremony, finds herself crying on Bert's shoulder. So, when he asks her to dance, it feels like the most natural thing in the world. That is, until they find themselves slow dancing under the mistletoe cactus, the wedding guests urging them to kiss.

Will they, or won't they? Not even Tanesha and Bert know for sure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Write Free Press
• Release date: Jun 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201996796

Roxie Clarke

Roxie Clarke writes sweet romance featuring houseplants, hunky heroes, and happily ever afters. She lives outside Portland, OR with her husband and their five children. It is loud at her house.

Book preview

Christmas in Braverton

CHRISTMAS IN BRAVERTON

CHRISTMAS CACTUS AND MISTLETOE CACTUS

ROXIE CLARKE

Write Free Press

Copyright © 2022 by Roxie Clarke

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Christmas Cactus

Avery and Ryan’s Wedding Day

Mistletoe Cactus

Tanesha and Bert

Also by Roxie Clarke

About the Author

INTRODUCTION

Hi! Thanks for picking up Christmas in Braverton. I appreciate it.

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CHRISTMAS CACTUS

AVERY AND RYAN’S WEDDING DAY

6:45 a.m. December 23

Nine hours and fifteen minutes until the wedding

Uh-oh, Avery’s ten-year-old niece, Abby, said from her lavender sleeping bag on the family room floor.

Avery rolled over on the burgundy corduroy couch to face her niece and the floor-to-ceiling windows of her apartment above the Pinwheel Plant Shop.

Uh-oh.

Abby reached over and shook her sleeping sister’s shoulder, oblivious to Avery. Tenley, wake up, Abby said, her voice attempting a whisper but not hitting the mark. It snowed sooooooo much.

Tenley swatted at her older sister and burrowed deeper into her hot pink sleeping bag. I don’t care. We can’t play in it. We have to go to Auntie’s wedding.

I think the wedding is gonna get canceled, Abby said. Gramma and Grandpa Wheeler have to drive from the coast.

It’ll be fine, Avery said, startling Abby. Grandpa Wheeler has a big truck. She sat up on the couch, her legs tangled in the multicolored afghan.

She was more worried if the groom would make it to the wedding. They’d decided to spend one last night apart before they got married, Ryan and Graceann at their house in Portland, and Avery at her apartment in Braverton. Then, after the big day, Avery would move the last of her things, like the corduroy couch, into Ryan’s house, making it their house.

The only problems were the West Hills between them and the foot of snow on the ground. The awning over the Pinwheel was just under the bottom of the family room windows, and the white stuff was stacked high enough that Avery could have reached out and