By: Sinclair Jayne
Series: Bear Creek
Genre: Contemporary Christmas Romance
Release Date: October 12, 2022
Publisher: Tule Publishing
She needs a win this Christmas. He’s standing in her way.
Boutique owner Sophia Gonzales is ready to shake off her grief and make some changes. As a new member of the town’s planning commission, she agrees to run point on an exciting proposal to repurpose an abandoned, historic mill for the city. But proving herself becomes far more challenging when she meets with her project partner—her late fiancé’s best friend who’s never agreed with her about anything.
The last thing architect Killian Flanagan wants is to move back to Bear Creek, but his best friend needs him to watch his daughter while he completes his last deployment. So Killian accepts a part-time city planner job, hoping he can avoid the one woman he’s never been able to forget. But not only is Sophia the first to greet him, she’s already got plans in motion for his—no, their—project.
It’s the ghost of Christmas past, with Sophia and Killian trying not to fall in love in the present…but maybe a future together is the real blueprint for happiness.
Age: 34
Date of birth: September 1, 1988
Physical Description: Tall, rangy, fit, dark, messy hair, green eyes, long lashes. Athletic. Dresses in outdoor wear—very Pacific Northwest hiker look. Will wear suits for work if he’s doing a big presentation, but with the suit, he’ll often wear a T-Shirt or cashmere sweater instead of a button-down and tie.
Occupation: He is a commercial architect, focusing on green/sustainable building. He also has a degree in urban planning and has taken a short-term job as a city planner in his home town Bear Creek, Oregon.
3 likes in no particular order:
- Killian loves to meet up with friends for outdoor recreation—kayaking, hiking, rock climbing, trail running.
- He loves traveling and looking at the architecture in other cities around the world.
- Loves grilling out with friends.
3 dislikes in no particular order:
- Being back him his small hometown where he feels judged and like a disappointment to his family.
- Being told what to do
- Dishonesty and cruelty
Favorite food: Home grilled cheeseburger with slaw and rosemary fries with sriracha relish
Favorite song: Brightside by the Lumineers
Choice of transportation: Jeep as he loves to off-road to find spectacular hiking and climbing spots
Favorite way to spend an evening: Grilling out—meat and veggies, listening to music and drinking a new microbrew, and then drafting one of his architecture projects.
Favorite holiday tradition: Killian left home for college at 18 and really hasn’t come back for holidays after his mom passed so he has eschewed holiday traditions, but when he returns home to Bear Creek, one of the first things he does with the heroine, Sophia, is attend the tree lighting ceremony and sing Christmas carols. Killian rediscovers first how much he enjoys singing and also the feeling of belonging and participating in a tradition he remembers from his childhood.
Best memory to date: One of Killian’s favorite memories is how his younger sister Riley and her bestie Sophia (heroine, all grown up now) used to try to distract him in high school when he was doing calculus homework by running in and out of the kitchen and creating sudden skits, spontaneous poetry or re-enacting hilarious moments from some drama at school that day.
If you could have a do-over, what would you do differently? Killian deeply regrets that he did not take two of his closest friends up on their proposal to move back to Bear Creek (after both of the friends mustered out of the army) and start a business together—something they promised in high school. One of his friends became a firefighter and ended up dying a hero in the line of duty, and Killian feels that his friend would still be alive if he hadn’t chosen to stay in Seattle and join a large architecture firm.
What’s something you’ve said you would never do, but in fact have done? Killian always said that he would have his friends’ back and that he would never let them down, but now he feels that he was selfish—putting himself and his ambition above his friends and the promise they made to each other—to create a company that would help the town of Bear Creek and also make the world a better place.
Most romantic gesture (done or received): Killian’s most romantic gesture happens in The Christmas Blueprint. He and Sophia have been working on a project together after quite a lot of negotiation and persuasion by both of them to get on the same page. Sophia has spent much of her life, not feeling supported by her too-protective family, and to show Sophia that he supports her vision, Killian surprises her by staying late one night and enlisting a lot of the community’s help to prepare for a new holiday event while Sophia is busy running her boutique. So when she arrives, stressed and with a long list of what she needs to do, a lot of the work is already done, using her notes and vision, and she is so touched and relieved, and Killian doesn’t make a big deal of it so she doesn’t cry or feel like she owes him. It’s the first time, he agrees with her “team” attitude.
Words to live by: Doesn’t matter if you fall, what matters is that you get up.
“So…” He paused, wanting to choose his words carefully, but something about being back in Bear Creek had him reverting to his wise-cracking teenage persona.
“I’m a jerk,” he said. “An idiot. Still.” She didn’t respond. “Contain your shock.”
“You may take none of us seriously—” Sophia swept her arm out dramatically “—and feel like being back in Bear Creek is boring and beneath you, but this is my home. I love it. And this—” she swept her other arm out, pointing up, and then she turned a full circle “—is my mission.”
Her usual soft, husky voice that had always lured him crackled with determination.
He couldn’t help it. He straightened. “Reporting for duty, sir!” Oops, too many military movies and stories over beers when Enrique and Hunter when they’d both been on leave had burned into his brain over the years. “Ma’am,” he amended, going for the full, aw-shucks grin that had always gotten him off the hook with so many women in the past.
Sophia’s lovely, classic features darkened. Her winged black brows that had always reminded him of the beautiful ravens he had loved to watch in flight descended and her onyx eyes sparked in indignation.
“Think you’re so funny, soldier who never served anyone or anything but himself.”
That hit home hard. His friend Hunter had been nearly killed in duty. Enrique had seen more fighting than he’d been willing to talk about. Killian had never had the desire to serve.
And now he’d come home as a favor to Hunter, feeling rather self-righteous about his sacrifice.
“Soph,” he appealed, once again sorry and too stupid to put down his shovel and instead grab a pickaxe to climb out of the hole he kept digging. He didn’t even know what he wanted to say, how to apologize and admit how selfish he was.
She squared off, hands on her hips. “Drop and give me fifty.”
***
“Soph?”
Where had that demand come from? But she kind of liked the thought of Killian Flanagan stretched out on the cement floor doing punishment push-ups. She’d felt his body. He could definitely manage a handful of traditional fitness moves. And the women in town who would hear of the heartbreaker’s return soon enough would be lining up to take their shot with him again, so they could thank her for keeping him toned.
“Too hard?” She raised one brow and tapped her toe like time was ticking. “It’s been a while since you were an athlete.”
“I had no idea you had such a mean streak.”
Neither did I.
“Enrique used to do push-ups with me sitting on his back.” Yup, she invoked the memory of her deceased fiancé. “But you’ve been a student for a long time, and in a corporate cubicle,” she mused. “You probably can’t…”
And then Killian Flanagan shrugged out of his black, Nike puffer jacket and tossed it at her, then he added his cashmere light gray sweater and button-down black shirt to the pile and dropped down in front of her and began to give her a steady count of push-ups with beautiful form. Ten. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. Was he even breathing hard?
Mouth dry, she stared in fascination. He wore a white T and jeans that hugged his spectacular backside. And should she be perving on her bestie, Riley’s brother? No. Add in that he’d been Enrique’s best friend, and she really should be behaving better.
But again, no.
She’d never been good at ignoring Killian, and she really needed to do better as they’d be collaborating—professionally, of course.
He switched to one-handed push-ups on the last ten—five with his left hand and five with his right. She wondered how far his chest-beating, look-at-my-manliness testosterone surge would drive him.
He paused at fifty. Looked up at her. If he’d broken a sweat, she couldn’t see it, but then the only light was from the party lights she and Riley had set up around the trailer in the far corner of the building.
“C’mon, Soph, don’t you want to put your boot on my neck and tell me to do ten more?”
Her lips stiffened into what felt like a permanent O. Killian had always been fiery hot and the subject of most of her adolescent angst and fantasies.
“I…” She couldn’t breathe. Or think. “Without my boot, I thought you’d go to one hundred.” She dug deep for poise.
“That’s generous.”
He did another ten, not even straining.
“Killian.” Heat bloomed in her chest. “You’ve proved that you still have some strength and that you’re adequate.”
“Adequate?” He popped to his feet and peered at her. Okay, he did have a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. He speared his flop of chestnut hair, which used to have gold highlights in the summer, out of his eyes. “Just adequate?”
Adequate was not an adjective that had likely been lobbed in Killian’s direction at any point in time. He’d always been the oldest, wicked smart, talented at anything he touched and oh so handsome. And he knew it. Riley had worshipped him. His dad, not so much. She remembered he’d said he was arrogant, wanting more from life.
He seemed seriously affronted, and Sophia laughed. She missed that. Men being men. Now they acted neutered around her. No teasing. No flirting. So polite. Distant. Vaguely alarmed like she was a land mine somewhere in their field.
“Meh.” She shrugged. “I’m not looking for a builder. And I don’t really need a planner or permission.”
If he was really the city planner, then she sort of did. It’s not like anyone had put her in charge for devising a plan for this building in the Applegate Mill complex, but Zhang Shi, who now owned the entire complex had drafted a proposal to donate the building if the city’s plan dovetailed with his development.
Sophia bet mayor Jeffrey Bane was not happy about the strings.
She knew he and his father had coveted the entire complex for years, but the heirs hadn’t liked the Banes’ lowball offers. The mayor likely wouldn’t like her plans either, but she wasn’t afraid of him, and if she wanted to prove to her family and community that she was ready to move on and create the life she wanted to lead, she couldn’t balk at the first few hurdles.
It’s only going to get easier.
But she didn’t really want easy. She wanted enduring. Purpose.
“What’s your play, Soph?”
“Stop calling me Soph.” She sounded like the petulant teen she’d once been.
“Sophia Inez Gonzales.” He huffed out a breath and again slid his fingers through his oh-so-tempting hair.
Inez for her grandmother. He remembered. Her heart leapt, and she caught a stronger whiff of him. Alluring man musk hinted through the fresh pine, cedar, hemlock, and bark scent that felt visceral to her as if she wanted to take a bite. She’d come to love the woods that surrounded the Rogue Valley and marched up the mountain ranges where Enrique had dragged her out on the many trails when they’d started dating.
“Andrew Killian Flanagan,” she said his full name a second time.
“I told you, I haven’t been called Andrew in a while. In fact, I haven’t answered to Andrew or Drew since I left Bear Creek.” His voice hardened. “It was my father’s name, but I never wanted to be a junior.”
“I get it,” she said softly. She too was trying to buck family and community expectations.
“So why are you really in an abandoned building a couple of days before Thanksgiving? Is this some Riley scheme?”
“It’s not abandoned,” she said, bristling at the supposition that only his sister schemed. “Well, not for long. And I told you I’m here because I’ve got plans for the space. I’m the newest member of the Bear Creek Planning Commission, and because this building might be donated to the city, I am part of the team that will decide how the city will use the building to enhance the town’s economy.”
“So we really will be working together? For reals?”
“Yes, Killian. We will.”
He stared at her for a long moment. She forced herself to face his scrutiny with calm and not girlish wonder over what he saw.
She was rebuilding her life, not jumping into potential heartbreak. Killian Flanagan did not do long-term and never stuck around. She needed to remember that.
Then he smiled the unholy grin that had gotten him out of trouble always as a kid and had likely been a panty dropper once he’d become a man.
“Welcome to Team Kill.” He stuck his hand out like they were meeting for the first time.
“Zales-Flan,” she corrected.
“Flan-Gon.”
“No.” She shook her head, but she felt a light inside of her flicker on. “That sounds like bad fan fiction for a domestic thriller.”
“Team Kill-ia?” He enclosed her hand in his, and Sophia felt his touch like a spark that sizzled through her blood all the way up her arm and into her chest. “I like it.” He laughed, and the sound echoed around the empty building that had been sitting silently vigil for so many years. “Sounds like a K-pop hit. What can go wrong?”
And as the light burned brighter in her chest, and her body tingled to life, Sophia tried not to start a list.
“I’m a jerk,” he said. “An idiot. Still.” She didn’t respond. “Contain your shock.”
“You may take none of us seriously—” Sophia swept her arm out dramatically “—and feel like being back in Bear Creek is boring and beneath you, but this is my home. I love it. And this—” she swept her other arm out, pointing up, and then she turned a full circle “—is my mission.”
Her usual soft, husky voice that had always lured him crackled with determination.
He couldn’t help it. He straightened. “Reporting for duty, sir!” Oops, too many military movies and stories over beers when Enrique and Hunter when they’d both been on leave had burned into his brain over the years. “Ma’am,” he amended, going for the full, aw-shucks grin that had always gotten him off the hook with so many women in the past.
Sophia’s lovely, classic features darkened. Her winged black brows that had always reminded him of the beautiful ravens he had loved to watch in flight descended and her onyx eyes sparked in indignation.
“Think you’re so funny, soldier who never served anyone or anything but himself.”
That hit home hard. His friend Hunter had been nearly killed in duty. Enrique had seen more fighting than he’d been willing to talk about. Killian had never had the desire to serve.
And now he’d come home as a favor to Hunter, feeling rather self-righteous about his sacrifice.
“Soph,” he appealed, once again sorry and too stupid to put down his shovel and instead grab a pickaxe to climb out of the hole he kept digging. He didn’t even know what he wanted to say, how to apologize and admit how selfish he was.
She squared off, hands on her hips. “Drop and give me fifty.”
***
“Soph?”
Where had that demand come from? But she kind of liked the thought of Killian Flanagan stretched out on the cement floor doing punishment push-ups. She’d felt his body. He could definitely manage a handful of traditional fitness moves. And the women in town who would hear of the heartbreaker’s return soon enough would be lining up to take their shot with him again, so they could thank her for keeping him toned.
“Too hard?” She raised one brow and tapped her toe like time was ticking. “It’s been a while since you were an athlete.”
“I had no idea you had such a mean streak.”
Neither did I.
“Enrique used to do push-ups with me sitting on his back.” Yup, she invoked the memory of her deceased fiancé. “But you’ve been a student for a long time, and in a corporate cubicle,” she mused. “You probably can’t…”
And then Killian Flanagan shrugged out of his black, Nike puffer jacket and tossed it at her, then he added his cashmere light gray sweater and button-down black shirt to the pile and dropped down in front of her and began to give her a steady count of push-ups with beautiful form. Ten. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. Was he even breathing hard?
Mouth dry, she stared in fascination. He wore a white T and jeans that hugged his spectacular backside. And should she be perving on her bestie, Riley’s brother? No. Add in that he’d been Enrique’s best friend, and she really should be behaving better.
But again, no.
She’d never been good at ignoring Killian, and she really needed to do better as they’d be collaborating—professionally, of course.
He switched to one-handed push-ups on the last ten—five with his left hand and five with his right. She wondered how far his chest-beating, look-at-my-manliness testosterone surge would drive him.
He paused at fifty. Looked up at her. If he’d broken a sweat, she couldn’t see it, but then the only light was from the party lights she and Riley had set up around the trailer in the far corner of the building.
“C’mon, Soph, don’t you want to put your boot on my neck and tell me to do ten more?”
Her lips stiffened into what felt like a permanent O. Killian had always been fiery hot and the subject of most of her adolescent angst and fantasies.
“I…” She couldn’t breathe. Or think. “Without my boot, I thought you’d go to one hundred.” She dug deep for poise.
“That’s generous.”
He did another ten, not even straining.
“Killian.” Heat bloomed in her chest. “You’ve proved that you still have some strength and that you’re adequate.”
“Adequate?” He popped to his feet and peered at her. Okay, he did have a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. He speared his flop of chestnut hair, which used to have gold highlights in the summer, out of his eyes. “Just adequate?”
Adequate was not an adjective that had likely been lobbed in Killian’s direction at any point in time. He’d always been the oldest, wicked smart, talented at anything he touched and oh so handsome. And he knew it. Riley had worshipped him. His dad, not so much. She remembered he’d said he was arrogant, wanting more from life.
He seemed seriously affronted, and Sophia laughed. She missed that. Men being men. Now they acted neutered around her. No teasing. No flirting. So polite. Distant. Vaguely alarmed like she was a land mine somewhere in their field.
“Meh.” She shrugged. “I’m not looking for a builder. And I don’t really need a planner or permission.”
If he was really the city planner, then she sort of did. It’s not like anyone had put her in charge for devising a plan for this building in the Applegate Mill complex, but Zhang Shi, who now owned the entire complex had drafted a proposal to donate the building if the city’s plan dovetailed with his development.
Sophia bet mayor Jeffrey Bane was not happy about the strings.
She knew he and his father had coveted the entire complex for years, but the heirs hadn’t liked the Banes’ lowball offers. The mayor likely wouldn’t like her plans either, but she wasn’t afraid of him, and if she wanted to prove to her family and community that she was ready to move on and create the life she wanted to lead, she couldn’t balk at the first few hurdles.
It’s only going to get easier.
But she didn’t really want easy. She wanted enduring. Purpose.
“What’s your play, Soph?”
“Stop calling me Soph.” She sounded like the petulant teen she’d once been.
“Sophia Inez Gonzales.” He huffed out a breath and again slid his fingers through his oh-so-tempting hair.
Inez for her grandmother. He remembered. Her heart leapt, and she caught a stronger whiff of him. Alluring man musk hinted through the fresh pine, cedar, hemlock, and bark scent that felt visceral to her as if she wanted to take a bite. She’d come to love the woods that surrounded the Rogue Valley and marched up the mountain ranges where Enrique had dragged her out on the many trails when they’d started dating.
“Andrew Killian Flanagan,” she said his full name a second time.
“I told you, I haven’t been called Andrew in a while. In fact, I haven’t answered to Andrew or Drew since I left Bear Creek.” His voice hardened. “It was my father’s name, but I never wanted to be a junior.”
“I get it,” she said softly. She too was trying to buck family and community expectations.
“So why are you really in an abandoned building a couple of days before Thanksgiving? Is this some Riley scheme?”
“It’s not abandoned,” she said, bristling at the supposition that only his sister schemed. “Well, not for long. And I told you I’m here because I’ve got plans for the space. I’m the newest member of the Bear Creek Planning Commission, and because this building might be donated to the city, I am part of the team that will decide how the city will use the building to enhance the town’s economy.”
“So we really will be working together? For reals?”
“Yes, Killian. We will.”
He stared at her for a long moment. She forced herself to face his scrutiny with calm and not girlish wonder over what he saw.
She was rebuilding her life, not jumping into potential heartbreak. Killian Flanagan did not do long-term and never stuck around. She needed to remember that.
Then he smiled the unholy grin that had gotten him out of trouble always as a kid and had likely been a panty dropper once he’d become a man.
“Welcome to Team Kill.” He stuck his hand out like they were meeting for the first time.
“Zales-Flan,” she corrected.
“Flan-Gon.”
“No.” She shook her head, but she felt a light inside of her flicker on. “That sounds like bad fan fiction for a domestic thriller.”
“Team Kill-ia?” He enclosed her hand in his, and Sophia felt his touch like a spark that sizzled through her blood all the way up her arm and into her chest. “I like it.” He laughed, and the sound echoed around the empty building that had been sitting silently vigil for so many years. “Sounds like a K-pop hit. What can go wrong?”
And as the light burned brighter in her chest, and her body tingled to life, Sophia tried not to start a list.
Purchase The Christmas Blueprint from:
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The Bear Creek Series:
Sinclair Sawhney is a former journalist and middle school teacher who holds a BA in Political Science and K-8 teaching certificate from the University of California, Irvine and a MS in Education with an emphasis in teaching writing from the University of Washington. She has worked as Senior Editor with Tule Publishing for over seven years. Writing as Sinclair Jayne she’s published fifteen short contemporary romances with Tule Publishing with another four books being released in 2021. Married for over twenty-four years, she has two children, and when she isn’t writing or editing, she and her husband, Deepak, are hosting wine tastings of their pinot noir and pinot noir rose at their vineyard Roshni, which is a Hindi word for light-filled, located in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Shaandaar!
Places to find Sinclair Jayne:
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I would love a Spanish style home. It would be big with one room converted into a huge closet.
ReplyDeleteMy dream house would be a two story with basement, with a old farmhouse feel to it.
ReplyDeleteI used to love to draw out house plans and there were many wonderful dreams, but now living in different homes and getting older there are things that I didn't think of then, so my dream home would be a single story home with a foyer at the front door, one big enough to have a closet on one side and a bench on the other, the floor would be marble (this is a dream right?), The Kitchen would have granite floors, marble countertops, top of the line appliances and cabinets of every kind and be very big with an large island/bar in the center and a huge dining room connected. The living room would also be huge with nice comfy furniture and state of the art entertainment system and wood floors with lovely rugs, one wall would have a large fireplace and one wall would be made of glass shelves to hold my collectible figurines and such. I would have a large library with cozy seating, a fireplace and the walls would hold all of my books with a special place for my e-readers! I would have an office with top of the line of electronics of every kind imaginable and a craft room will all the bells and whistles, perfect organized storage and stuffed full of all the supplies! There would be 4 large bedrooms, all of which would have large walk in closets and there would be 2 large bathrooms! Finally the master bedroom would be extremely large with a king size canopy bed, a seating area, 2 large walk in closets and the master bath would have a large tub, but mostly a very large walk in shower with bench seating and least 4 shower heads! Oh I almost forgot, there would be a storage room, a room where all the stuff that would normally go in an attic would be stored (no stairs) this includes a place where I could push the fully decorated tree (mine would be on wheels) into, so it's ready for next year!
ReplyDeleteHave a magical holiday season!
Congratulations on your release of The Christmas Blueprint, your book sounds like my kind of book!
ReplyDeleteHave a magical holiday season!
My dream house--there are two--one is a cottage with a screened porch that overlooks Lake Michigan and my other dream house is an apartment in Paris...anywhere in Paris. ;-)
ReplyDeletelove a large rancher
ReplyDeleted
It would be a country farmhouse style house with a big front porch and a back patio for hanging out with family. I would love for it to have 5 bedrooms and be a two story home and with a large yard
ReplyDeleteLike a nice condo on the beach, quiet with glass windows, and my own library with a nook, a playroom for my boys, and large garage for my husband, a huge shower, a balcony I can eat breakfast on. I think that’s about it!
ReplyDeleteIt would be a house in the mountains with a great view!
ReplyDelete