Free Reads

It was supposed to be a fun-filled night at the arena, cheering on the Harrison Hawks, ogling the blond Acadian god/goalie in the crease, and maybe, if he was really lucky, catching an airborne puck with his hands and not his face.

Unfortunately for Daryl Hamilton, his first minor league ice hockey game ends with him catching something with his face, but it’s not a puck. It’s the fist of his dream goalie, Ryan Amirault. But while his nose may not be thankful for the badly timed autograph request, Daryl can’t say that the rest of him isn’t pleased with how things are turning out.

Not only is Ryan turning himself inside out to make things right with Daryl, the spark of attraction between the two men is slowly blazing up into a roaring inferno. The only problem – aside from two black eyes – is that Ryan isn’t out, there’s a viral video of the nose-crunching encounter, and a rather curious sports reporter is snooping around the daycare center where Daryl works. If their new love can survive all that, it will survive anything.

The dark days of the Second World War are past, and life is looking like a shiny new penny for Jon Porter. Living a bohemian artist’s life in New York City, Jon’s finally found acceptance and is within an arm’s length of becoming the next hot thing in the art world. Then everything goes horribly wrong. One telegram from the small Pennsylvania town he’d fled from years before draws him back to bury his estranged sister and take charge of the nephew he never knew existed.

Into the chaos and grief comes local woodworker Ross Coleman, an older man with an easy smile and a gentle manner that charms Jon instantly. They quickly fall for each other but there’s no easy way for two men in 1945 to be together, let alone raise a child, even if Jon was sure he wanted a child, which he’s not. And then there’s the final letter from his sister waiting for him among all the legal papers and bills…

What can she possibly have to say that they hadn’t screamed at each other over their father’s casket?

It started as toddlers covered in glitter and became years of friendship. The story of Cody and Regen, and how the best things in life are worth waiting for.

Cody first met Regen when they were three and covered in glitter after a Christmas decoration project went disastrously wrong. After bonding over the taste of glue, and eating all the chocolate on the tree, the two became best friends. Living in a small Canadian town outside of Calgary, they grew up together, went to the same school, played on the Chipmunks peewee hockey team, and shared a passion for both the Calgary Cobras and chocolate. While Cody stayed at home, went to a local college, and became a teacher, Regen was on a very different path.

Regen and Cody. Their names had become inseparable over the years, just as they had. Through good times and bad, the two boys were thick as thieves and close as brothers. When the boys became men, life tried its best to pry them apart, sending Regen to LA to play professional hockey while Cody remained in Canada and pursued his dream of becoming a teacher. Even with thousands of miles between them, Regen and Cody remained best friends.

Cody is in love with his best friend, and Regen is in love with hockey, and it seems that it will take the magic of Christmas to bring the waiting to an end.