#Excerpt: ALL FOR HOPE by Olivia Hardin

So a portion of All for Hope occurs at Christmas time and we get a few holiday scenes with the characters.  But as I’ve thought about the story I’ve found myself wondering about some of the things happening “behind the scenes” so to speak. 

And since I’m a writer, I decided why not put some of those thoughts to paper.  Hope and Brennan are the center of All for Hope’s romance, so I thought it would be fun to get a little snippet of Jeremy and Meg’s relationship.

I hope you’ll consider picking up All for Hope today and enjoying a nice cozy read just perfect for the holidays.

Merry Christmas!   ~Olivia

Excerpt:

Jeremy found Meg in their room, putting the finishing touches on a few gifts.  She was nothing if not overzealous about gift wrapping.  The three boxes were rectangular and he imaged they must contain clothing of some sort.  The paper was whimsical of the kind he knew his wife would choose for children and there was a ribbon crisscrossed on each one with a bow in the center.

“I thought you were finished with the gifts,”  He murmured, sneaking in behind her and pecking one of her rosy cheeks.

“Oh, Jeremy!  You surprised me.  Well these are the Christmas Eve gifts for the boys and at the last minute I decided to extend the tradition for Nichole… er, Michelle.”

He rubbed his hands on her arms as if warming her up, though he couldn’t imagine she would be cold in the room which had a roaring fire.  His touches were ones affection and his wife sighed in contentment, offering him a smile across her shoulder.

“I didn’t remember you wrapping the Christmas Eve ones before.” 

She bit her lip, then giggled nervously.  “Well, I don’t, but… well the truth is I just love watching little ones unwrap presents and so I decided to wrap the baby’s and if I wrapped hers I should do the boys too.”  She paused and furrowed her brow.  “Don’t you think?”

Jeremy didn’t dare laugh.  His wonderful wife’s feelings were tender enough as it was so he nodded seriously and gave her a little squeeze.  “Yes, indeed.”  She didn’t like all of the conflict going on in the house after the blow up between his sister Kay, his cousin Brennan. 

Jeremy had been just as shocked as his sister when he was told the truth about Hope kidnapping baby Michelle.  But for all of his shock, Kay had been furious and the resulting argument was explosive to say the least.

For now, there was a silent truce between all concerned but the tension was still heavy in the air and that weighed on Meg.  Her natural reaction was to do something to bring happiness and joy back into their midst.

“Oh, good.  I was hoping this would be alright.  We’ll let the children open them tonight after dinner then, okay?”

Meg didn’t wait for him to agree this time, just bundled up her boxes and hurried out of the room, humming some Christmas carol as she went. 

He knew what the boxes would contain.  When Meg and her sisters were small, her mother started a tradition that his wife decided to carry on with their children.  There would be matching holiday pajamas for the boys and probably a holiday nightgown for Michelle.  The little ones would go to sleep in their Christmas outfits, visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.  He could just about imagine them all the next morning waking up with funny little bed heads and in green and red PJs. 

His heart warmed and a grin spread across his face.  Even with the cloud of unsettled emotions going on in Arrington Manor, his wife found a way to shine through it all.  Jeremy thought he would never stop marveling at the way his Meg could do tiny little things each day to make him fall in love with her all over again.

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About the Author:
Olivia Hardin realized early on how strange she was to have complete movie-like character dreams as a child. Eventually she began putting those vivid dreams to paper and was rarely without her spiral notebooks full of those mental ramblings. Her forgotten vision of becoming an author was realized when she connected with a group of amazingly talented and fabulous writers who gave her lots of direction and encouragement. With a little extra push from family and friends, she hunkered down to get lost in the words. She’s also an insatiable crafter who only completes about 1 out of 5 projects, a jogger who hates to run, and is sometimes accused of being artistic, though she’s generally too much of a perfectionist to appreciate her own work. A native Texas girl, Olivia lives in the beautiful Lone Star state with her husband and their puppy Bonnie.

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