Hello, everyone! What a treat to be here with y’all for my very first Cowboys & Mistletoe promotion! As you all know by now, I’m just beginning the cowboy/Western romance journey with Tule Publishing’s Montana Born imprint, so I don’t have a cowboy holiday romance yet, but I have one coming out in November 2026. I do have Christmas romance for you, though! I actually have five sweet, small-town romances that happen in my little fictional town of River’s Edge, Indiana, so it was hard to pick one favorite. But if I had to choose, I think I’d pick Becker Lange and Harley Cole’s story, The Fireman’s Christmas Wish. Becker’s grumpy and Harley’s sunshine just seemed to work for this book, and there’s a little bit of my own story in Beck’s relationship with his father. I hope you enjoy The Fireman’s Christmas Wish. Happy holidays to you and thanks for joining us in this P&P celebration!
The Fireman’s Christmas Wish by Nan Reinhardt
Her heart is wide open, but he’s nailed his shut.
Preschool teacher Harley Cole has always viewed life through rose-colored glasses. With a career she loves, friends she enjoys, and a home that is her haven, there’s only one thing missing—finding her soul mate. As the holidays approach, Harley is inspired to help her former high school crush rediscover his holiday joy. It’s just a good deed…until the feelings she thought were gone come rushing back.
Fire Chief Becker Lange returns home to River’s Edge with a heavy heart. His divorce has emotionally ravaged him, leaving him more confused than ever about what women want. So to protect himself from another failure, he closes his heart. And then Harley Cole makes him a flirty dare that she can help him overcome the holiday blues. Beck’s not sure he wants to, but Harley’s a hard woman to tell no.
Can the magic of Christmas and a sweet stray kitten bring these two lonely souls together?
The Great Western Christmas Celebration
Time for a rally! Our whole town, or certain intrepid individuals, pull together to overcome the catastrophe.
So how do wed do it – how do we overcome this knotty situation we landed on? Let’s get creative on this one!
Everyone who leaves a response by Saturday 12/13 will get their name entered in the random drawing for a $10 Amazon gift card.
Every entry will also be eligible for our oh-so-beautiful Grand Prize – a gorgeous quilt hand made by our very own Jo-Ann Roberts
NOTE: ALL winners will be announced on Sunday 12/14.
Nan Reinhardt is a USA Today bestselling author of sweet, small-town romantic fiction for Tule Publishing. Her day job is working as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader, however, writing is Nan’s first and most enduring passion. She can’t remember a time in her life when she wasn’t writing—she wrote her first romance novel at the age of ten and is still writing, but now from the viewpoint of a wiser, slightly rumpled, woman in her prime. Nan lives in the Midwest with her husband of 52 years, where they split their time between a house in the city and a cottage on a lake.
There’s a bake sale to help raise funds to fix the situation. They invite other closer towns to come and participate!
Whole town needs to rally to clear the roads, check on others, get food to people, set up a shelter and temporary school. So much to do, but they have the holiday spirit to get them through.
ps. Nan, great book!
Thank you, Denise! It made me want to be in River’s Edge for Christmas! Hugs!
These are strong, hardy people with the greatest sense of community so they do what is necessary, as they always do. They all get together to clean up the mess, repair the roof and set things to right. They can be heard singing their precious Christmas carols as they are working. The ladies all get together to provide the holiday food for the hard working men. Even the children get involved, having a contest to see who can pick up the most debris. They have a huge bonfire to keep everyone warm as they are working. Once the work is complete, grateful folks get together to thank the Lord that everyone survived, knowing how blessed they were for the love all around them.
Thank the Lord for caring communities. Working together makes for a lighter load.
It will take a nearby town/village to help us !
The entire town rallies together to save Christmas. Neighbor helping neighbor.
Lumberjacks from the area come to the rescue with clearing trees, husky men get out the sniw shovels and horses with sledges to help clear the streets. Women clean up the school and feed the workers. And handymen fix the roof.
The ranchers/cowboys begin clearing a path to town, while the women work in the schoolhouse.
They organize crews of hearty men to remove the worst of the snow in town, the fallen trees over roads, and make needed repairs. A fleet of sleighs are used to check on everyone and help transport people when needed.
The whole town is pitching in, helping repair what needs to be fixed, the hard working men are patching the roof and the women are preparing meals and even the children are lending a hand.
Everyone has pitched in doing what they can to clear the roads. Word has gotten out that the town is blocked in because the roads in and out of town are covered in deep snow and there are fallen trees blocking the way. The local Scrooge, who owns the bank and nearly every building around, is approached by the school teacher about the repairs needed and for once he listens…is it because the school teacher is the prettiest woman he has ever seen? Hmmm
the men rally to gather supplies to make the repairs – another group to clear the debris too – the women begin cooking/baking to be ready to feed them as well
There’s a call to action by the pastor, after the blizzard those that live in town start the repairs, and clearing the roads of snow and debris. The women made enough soup to feed an army, and kept hot coffee going all day.
The men and boys gather with the tools to work on the church debris while the women and girls start cooking and baking for them. Some girls are watching the babies to help out.
They organize groups to divide and conquer. Some of the men head out with horses and ropes to clear the roads leading out of town, Others carefully climb the schoolhouse roof to try to clear and repair it (luckily the hardware/general store was stocked up with supplies!). The women and children get busy cleaning the inside of the schoolhouse and remaking the decorations. If they decide it’s still unusable by the time they’re finished, they could always use the barn on the outskirts of town. It was used by the livery owner until he built a new structure a few years back. Christmas in a barn? It’s been done before. 🙂
The sheriff and church leaders set up a command post and organize men and women to clearing tasks and the meals to support the effort.
First we would need to establish a command post and assign tasks. We can do a Christmas bizarre of some sort where we can have p[laces for people to go for help and give out some free supplies.
Women melt snow and use it to cook food for everyone. Men clear debris
The town delays the scheduled celebrations for a week. The leaders of the town gather men and women together and start asking for volunteers to repair the school’s roof and damages to the inside. Others will start working on clearing paths and the road into town. The ladies volunteer to cook and keep the workers fed. With everyone working together, it is soon time to continue with the celebrations.
The whole town pulls together to start clearing the worst of the snow in town. They set the children to work making more decorations, and of course they have help from the women of the town. The women also set to work with baking and cooking, and feeding the men working on fixing the roof of the school house, cleaning it out, and doing all that snow removal!! The shop owners help by donating needed supplies to those in need, too, and the minister opens the church to the Christmas program.
A town with kindness, love and hard working individuals whose lives are enriched with their neighbors. Tasks are assigned and everyone is willing and glad to assist.
I think everyone should get together to clean up the mess.
The town sheriff and mayor look at the saddened eyes in the faces of children and decide that Christmas must go on in spite of the dire situation everyone in town is experiencing. Sam, livery owner, set up straw bales for children to come and sip on hot cider. Evelyn, the baker, quickly sets bread to rise so she can make tasty treats to hand out in the afternoon. Cowboys gather at the sheriffs office and decide a plan of action to relieve the town of the hardship they are facing. The schoolmarm is happy to take children under her wing and tell them the true meaning of Christmas. Ladies in town quickly begin fixing a potluck dish to pass when the Cowboys return. And, old Saint Nick has a twinkle in his eye. He will surely arrive in his sleigh commanded by Rudolph, the red nose reindeer. It will be a celebration in this old town that people really will remember for years to come.
It only takes a little kindness from one person or group to spread. The children decide it is up to them to get the adults in town to overcome bitterness toward each other. They get together and make cookies and take them door to door inviting everyone to a meeting at the church. Even children who have not liked each other band together. When the adults see this, they are overwhelmed and decide if the kids can do it, so can they.
The community would work to hold on until they could “dig out” of their homes and businesses and then they would lend a hand where needed. They would work in groups to help clear the roads so the out of town folks could make their way in for any and all celebrations and to access the necessities. Since the school house is not an option for the program the local saloon owner volunteers his place as it is large enough for all to fit.
Everyone in the town rallied together and started doing everything they can to make it a Beautiful day for Our Saviors Special Day! Some of them put different things together and put together sleds and made them so that horses could pull them, went to where the people were unable to get through the roads and took them into town. Some of the men got together and got the roof fixed and cleaned the place real good and they were able to salvage some of the decorations. Everybody even children pitched in , Nothing was going to ruin Our Saviors Special Day! The whole town pitched in and now they were getting ready to celebrate.
The whole town bands together to cut up the fallen limbs, and uses the evergreen boughs for new Christmas decorations and the other fallen trees for wood to fix the roof. They can drag them to town behind a sled, and that will help clear the roads of snow.
The people outside of town use their snowshoes to get to town to help.
a traveling group comes along and helps with the roads , food and decorations. The kindness of strangers.
Anyone who is physically able arrives to help. The men take on the heavy work while the women and children pitch in where they can.
The store has a few sleds in their storage area. They decide to utilize the sleds to bring in the those in the outlining areas of town. Men decide to get ladders to see if they can fix the roof of the school house. The ladies in the community come together to see what can be saved of the decorations. What cannot be saved, they set out with the children in town to make new. People in town were preparing to help those in outlining areas by having them stay in town. Men and shopkeepers set out to shovel the snow in town. The women work to prepare food for all those who are working hard to to pull together this beautiful Christmas Eve service and festivities. God bless you.
The townsfolk are thankful to’ve survived the crisis and all join forces to put everything back to rights. The church service and other celebrations will be especially joyful this year!
The whole town rallied together to clean up the mess!
The men in town start clearing pathways for others to get out. They also form a group to patch the roof. The women start making new decorations to replace those that were damaged.
After the blizzard is over, all who are strong and able, plow and clean up the snow to make pathways, while others cook and repair whatever damage was left by the snowstorm.
A call goes out for donations of ornaments to replace the ornaments for the town tree that was lost in the storm damage.
The whole town jumps in to help.
The local lumber yard and farmers near town hook their draft horses to their hauling sleds and recruit men with saws and axes. They head down the road to clear the branches and downed trees, setting them aside to pick up later for lumber and firewood. With the road cleared and packed down by the sleds, it will be possible for farmers further out to get in with their sleighs or sleds. Meanwhile, in town men, children, and women work at clearing out best they can a pathway on Main Street and some of the side streets. Meanwhile, town leaders decide the only other place large and open enough to hold the program is the church. They get to work salvaging what decorations they can. Luckily, many are tin and wood, so they are not damaged and the evergreen boughs are still usable. The livery owner steps in to replace the manger for the nativity set and moms work at cobbling together costumes from what they have for their children in the play.
Teamwork! It’s time for everyone to pull together!!
Everyone pitches in and helps even the kids make decorations for the tree.
I think this calls for a pie raffle to raise funds.