The Wishing Tree by R. J. Scott : Release Blitz : 2 Excerpts : Guest Post – MM Fiction Cafe

The Wishing Tree by R. J. Scott : Release Blitz : 2 Excerpts : Guest Post

Book Info

Author:

Cover Artist:

Publisher:

Love Lane Books

Published:

10 December 2021

Formats

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Kindle Unlimited

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Words:

48,000

Genre's

Tropes

Best Friends Brother

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Small Town Romance

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Synopsis

It takes an impossible Christmas wish for Bailey to find forever love with his brother’s best friend.

Turning twenty-five and still a virgin, Bailey has barely dated, let alone acted on the private fantasies featuring his brother’s best friend, newly retired hockey star, Kai. All he wants is for Kai to love him, but after a summer when Kai’s anger drove them apart, love doesn’t seem possible at all.

When Kai goes home to Wishing Tree, he knows he owes everyone an apology, not least of all to the man he loves. He’s convinced he can be the man Bailey deserves, and he needs to show Bailey how much he’s changed.

The only problem? Bailey has secrets he’s scared will drive Kai away, and Kai is running out of time to convince Bailey that falling in love starts with a wish, and can end up in forever.

The Wishing Tree is a standalone small-town Christmas MM romance with perfect snow, twinkling lights, a first real kiss, a shy virgin with a silken kink, a retired hockey player, and all the Christmas feels.

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Guest Post By R J Scott

I first started playing Christmas music in August. In my defense I was just about to start writing The Wishing Tree and needed to get into the mood. My son found this hilarious, and kept pointing at the play list and laughing at me. My favorite Christmas song is Greg Lake’s ‘I believe in Father Christmas’ and it gets played over, and over, and over… I also love ‘Christmas Lights’ from Coldplay.

But the thing that makes my family laugh the hardest is me watching Christmas romances on the Hallmark Channel when it’s still warm outside! The trick for me is to close the curtains, make a mug of tea, eat chocolate and immerse myself in all the schmaltzy holiday goodness. In my opinion there can never be enough small town Christmas tree light displays that need saving!

The Wishing Tree is a small town romance, between the hockey player who left and the jewelry designer he knows that he loves. Throw in brother’s best friend, Christmas magic (yes, including a light procession), some pond skating, a lot of snow, and a sprinkle of gentle kink, and my Christmas story this year might just be my favorite so far.

I hope your holiday sparkles

Excerpt

“Hey, Angel.” He bent at the waist, stretching, but twisting his neck as he did, so he could send me a smile. His caramel eyes were such a beautiful shade, just this side of topaz, and his lips were lush and pink and pillow-soft. He called me Angel because according to him my hair, all blond curls and long made me look like an angel. I didn’t mind him calling me that, I secretly loved it, but when my brothers did it too, then I wanted to murder them in their sleep.

I loved seeing him because he was my entire world and I wanted to tell him everything.

I hated seeing him, because I didn’t know what to say to him, and how in God’s name would I ever be able to tell him anything?

“Hey.” I sketched a wave, the card obvious in my hand and, embarrassed, I shoved it deep into my pocket, hoping he didn’t notice.

“Are you adding a wish?” he asked, then he stalked over to me, and I swear I was going to die on the spot. “I should do that as well.” He lifted the lid to the sheltered card box, and picked up a pen, which he proceeded to tap on the surface. “I’ll have to owe the tree a dollar. I’ll bring it back later.” He glanced up at the tree as if he was apologizing to the skeleton of branches. “I don’t know what to wish for.” He side-eyed me. “What are you wishing for?”

Oh god, my tongue was a hundred times too big for my mouth. I couldn’t tell him all my secrets; I wouldn’t have known where to start. I let out what sounded like a squeak, and same as my brothers, he didn’t pause to let me answer, because he knew as well as they did that I didn’t talk much, that I was shy.

He was a professional hockey player, a star in his own right, twenty-one and with the world at his feet. I’d loved him forever, and I hated that I didn’t see much of him. Just man up and say it. I love you, Kai. Can you kiss me?

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“What now?” Archie asked, clutching his precious notebook to his chest. He was old-school like that, everything written down in longhand, but then he was close to retiring at sixty-two, and kept telling me the old ways were the best. Maybe he was right—in an age of texting emojis, there was an intimacy in writing. He had to come to terms with one of his clients deciding to retire all on his own account, but he’d never tried to stop me.

“I’m going home for good now.”

“To Oak Tree?”

“Wishing Tree,” I corrected him, and smiled at the fond memories conjured up by hearing the name of the town where I’d grown up.

It was time to go home and face up to all the things I’d messed up with my family, apologize to my dad and sister, offer a ton of babysitting, have beers with old friends, and maybe get my head on straight. Find out if I could work hard and make my dreams a reality. I’d spent so many years flirting with Bailey, and then pulling back, scared of hurting him, terrified of having nothing to offer him, and I couldn’t do this anymore. I needed to be honest with him, and to say I loved him and that he was my everything.

Archie and I stared at each other for the longest time, and I could see my agent’s brain spinning until finally, he folded his arms across his chest and smiled.

“I’m glad you’re searching for something else; I’ve been worried about you.”

“I’ve been worried about myself.” For so long I’d been Kai-the-hockey-player, pushing through injury, aiming for the cup, being part of the team, and my head was so messed up. I’d lost my mom to cancer five years ago and I’d used hockey as a crutch, the grief pushed so far down that I’d almost forgotten. It had festered and become something so big I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

“I’ll be here if you want to talk about the future, although…” He stopped and then huffed a laugh. “You’re my last client, and you know what? I’m sixty-two and I think I might just be retiring as well.”

“I’m sorry, shit—”

“No, don’t be. Miriam wants us to move back to Vancouver, spend time with the grandkids, and I get the feeling the time is right.”

“For both of us.”

“Yeah.”

“All I know now is that I need to go home. I owe apologies, I need to make amends, and then there’s…”

“What?”

“A man I can’t stop thinking about.”

R J Scott

Biography

RJ Scott, author of M/M romance.

Writing love stories with a happy ever after – cowboys, heroes, family, hockey, single dads, bodyguards

USA Today bestselling author RJ Scott has written over one hundred romance books. Emotional stories of complicated characters, cowboys, single dads, hockey players, millionaires, princes, bodyguards, Navy SEALs, soldiers, doctors, paramedics, firefighters, cops, and the men who get mixed up in their lives, always with a happy ever after.

She lives just outside London and spends every waking minute she isn’t with family either reading or writing. The last time she had a week’s break from writing, she didn’t like it one little bit, and she has yet to meet a box of chocolates she couldn’t defeat.

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