December 7, 2021

Sequel to Southern Delights.

Author Nia Michaels is living a blessed life, celebrating her highly anticipated romance novel. Her own real-life romance with Brendan McCormick has been a delight for the past six months. Nia’s hypersensitive emotions flare up when Brendan shows signs of not being into her anymore. Is her history with men about to be repeated?

To make matters worse, her ex-boyfriend returns to town and he doesn’t seem to care that Nia has moved on with a new man. With the way Brendan is acting lately, Nia is wondering if a break-up is inevitable.

With her favorite holiday around the corner, all Nia wants for Christmas is the same happily ever after that she writes about in her books.

Read an Excerpt

I stared at the tall banner somehow still not believing that was my name. 

Author Nia Michaels Book Signing.

Even though this was my third novel, I sometimes couldn’t believe I was an author. The cliche suited me. The one writers often touted about being a child with a book in hand all the time and dreaming of being a writer one day. Folks around me led me to believe I couldn’t make money as a writer. Instead they told me, you need to get a job, a real job, which required an education. At least that’s what my dad used to tell me. He’s gone on now. Passed away from a heart attack six years ago. I sure wished he was here to see this, me walking towards a book signing for my third book release.

I could almost see his face. He would be smiling at me. My dad had been strict, but he also was the same man who dressed up as Santa Claus when I was a little girl. He didn’t have to put too much stuffing in the costume to pull off the large belly and the ho-ho. That memory struck me as we entered Victory Gospel Church Community Center. 

I missed him! 

I’d been a daddy’s girl. He’d showed me how a real man should treat his woman by the way he loved my mom. Interestingly enough, my mom always encouraged me to pursue my passions. I was thankful that I wrote clean, sweet romance books, because my mom was a reader too. So I was never scared that she was going to read something that would cause her to pause. My number one fan came as my companion today. 

With Christmas being three weeks away, the staff had decorated the welcome center some time during the week. Their craftiness and design skills always blew everyone away. Large wreaths hung from the front door and a tall fir tree greeted us once inside the lobby. Bright, shimmering lights had been hung around the tree, with a bright star at the top.

But what stood out the most was the elaborate care taken to build a lifelike nativity scene. I stopped and stared at the realistic mannequins someone had dressed. It may have seemed weird to some but it was like stepping back through the pages of the Bible.

At first, I was hesitant about my publisher releasing my book after Thanksgiving and so close to Christmas. But this was my favorite time of the year and I soon warmed to the idea.

So far today had been perfect except for one thing.

Brendan McCormick wasn’t here.

My mom told me, “Trust him. He said he would be there. Give the man a chance.”

I’d explained in the car to her. “But he didn’t give me any explanation for why he couldn’t come with me. He’s known about this for months.”

My mom had frowned at me. “Didn’t he say something came up at work? It’s the holidays and a busy time for business.”

My mom had always been my voice of reason, but she knew I could be skittish about men. I’d been burned so many times and if I was being honest, there were times I felt Brendan was too good to be true. Maybe it was the way we met at my aunt’s Southern Delights Cafe.

The first time I saw him, he’d snatched my breath away and soon made me realize I could fall in love again. Even now, after dating for six months, I still had to catch my breath. He was a beautiful man inside and out. 

We’d rarely been apart, which is why today stung a little bit. Yes, I knew he said he would come, but I kind of felt abandoned. No, I didn’t need him physically by my side. A man wasn’t supposed to make you whole. A woman should already be whole and the two come together to complement each other. My ailments came from a man who had spoiled me.

As we rounded the corner, I shut down the whining in my head and almost tripped over my own feet. There was a line of people.

For me. All of these people were here for me to sign their books.

My hurt feelings over Brendan’s absence were temporarily pushed aside as tears of joy flooded my eyes. 

This was a dream. Somebody pinch me.

At that moment, I felt a hand on my arm and I almost jumped out of my skin. I turned to see one of the ladies from my women’s bible study class, Tangie Nelson. My bible study class mainly consisted of single women who had been divorced, widowed or the latter like myself, never married.

We all had hopes of marriage and I had many readers from the group.

Tangie stared at me and raised her eyebrow. “You all right, girl?”

I shook my head, chastising myself for being silly. “Hey, Tangie. Sorry, I’m kind of surprised all these people are here.”

Tangie grinned. “Girl, I told you I would help you spread the word. I know some of these ladies are from our bible study group, but I can also confirm some are from the salon.” As one of the co-owners at the Crown of Beauty salon, Tangie had styled my hair for the event only two days ago. She reached up and tugged at my curls.

“Nice job. You are one of my few customers who know how to keep her short cut looking sharp after I style it.”

I grinned. “Well, I learned from the best. I love keeping my hair short, so it’s important to have a cut that I can handle. I appreciate you.”

Something shiny grabbed my attention. I frowned down at Tangie’s hand. “You weren’t wearing that the other day when you did my hair.”

Tangie glanced down at the huge diamond ring. “Girl, no. I protect this thing with my life. I still can’t believe I’m engaged.”

“You have quite the catch.” Tangie had scored a former NBA player as her future husband.

“I’m so happy for you.” I knew her story and I meant it. Tangie had been a young widow and the single mother to three boys. Her story of a second chance marriage stirred the romantic in me.

Mom grabbed my arm. “I see Donna waving to you over there. I think she wants you at the table. 

“Catch you later, Tangie.” I walked over to my table. Books of my latest release, Sounds Like Love, were piled high on a table behind it. My main character was a public relations manager like me. She’d given up on love until she ran into a famous R&B singer. I had even more fun writing this book since I’d fallen for Brendan. The male love interest had some of Brendan’s characteristics.

Well, he had inspired me.

I approached the table, admiring the woman with the big natural hair. She looked regal as always.

I called out. “Hey, I’m here.” 

Donna Madison turned around; her glasses perched on her nose. She held out her arms and hugged me. “Look at you, girl. I’m so delighted to have an author as a friend. I read the book last night and I couldn’t put it down. I don’t know how you had me swooning over a fictional man.” 

I laughed because Donna had a man who could easily fit inside a book too. She still attended the bible study class even though she’d recently gotten married. After being divorced, this was her second time at the altar.

Little ole me was still waiting for my first marriage.

This brought back to mind that Brendan hadn’t been by my side when I arrived. I turned around and looked for him in the crowd, but I couldn’t see him. I didn’t know why Brendan’s absence was getting under my skin so much. Probably because of my track record. Something always started to breakdown, and I hadn’t had a relationship that lasted longer than a year except for one. 

And that guy sure disappointed me. My heart had been so broken I scoffed at dating for three years.

That is until Brendan came along. If I was really being honest with myself, Brendan had been acting a little strange the past few weeks. And I didn’t know why but my sensors were on alert for any red flags. 

Donna nudged me. “Do you have everything you need? Pens?”

 I pulled out my trusty writing pen from my purse. I actually had a couple of them. They were that special kind with the smooth writing and no smudge ink. “I’m ready. Let’s get this show on the road.”

For the next thirty minutes as people came up to me, I smiled and chatted. On occasion I kept looking around for Brendan and had started to worry. 

It was the weekend. How could the issue at work be that time consuming?

I didn’t want to pull out my phone and start texting; that would be rude. These people came to see me. And I wanted to give each reader my undivided attention. 

At some point, I stopped looking up to see who was next in line. It was enough to keep up with the person in front of me and not focus so much on Brendan. 

A woman I was familiar with from the church choir approached the table. Lola Mayweather had a powerful set of lungs and a curvy body to match. 

“I’m so excited about your new book. I loved the first two books.”

“Thank you, Lola.”

I chatted with Lola for a little longer than I anticipated. Victory Gospel was a mega church and while I’d attended this church all my life, I still didn’t know a lot of people. Lola surprised me with how much she knew about me. It helped that I had a good size Facebook group and a large following on Instagram.

Brendan had convinced me to starting using TikTok, which he seemed to take to more than me. Lola left the table, and I realized how parched my throat felt after talking so much. I hadn’t opened the bottle of water beside me so I twisted the cap to take a quick sip before placing the bottle down.

A deep voice said, “Hello, Nia.”

It was a familiar voice that made the room seem to stand still in my peripheral vision. 

 I knew that voice. But it wasn’t the male voice I’d been searching for since I’d arrived at the book signing.

This was a voice from my past.

My body felt like a slow-motion serum had been administered. I swallowed, my mouth feeling parched again, the swig of water forgotten. I lifted my eyes to stare at the man peering down at me. The noise level around the community center seemed to fade as I locked eyes with my ex-boyfriend. 

Alex Erickson.

I opened my mouth to say something, but words escaped me.

My eyes caught movement to my right and that’s when I noticed Brendan approaching the table.

Now he shows up!