by Lexi Eddings
He lifted her and twirled her in a circle. Stars wheeled overhead. Snow was still falling. It stuck to Angie’s eyelashes, to Seth’s hair, to the ground and the trees. It covered them with a sparkle of magic. Of love. Of faith. Seth finally set her feet back on the ground but didn’t let go of her. “Okay, then. Let’s go.”
“Where?” Angie asked, though it really didn’t matter. She’d go anywhere with this man.
“To your sock drawer, of course. I want to see my ring on your finger before you change your mind!”
“There is zero chance of that.” She put a hand behind his head and pulled him down for a long kiss. “Not now. Not ever.”
Recipes from Coldwater Cove
Holiday Cheer!
Shirley Evans may believe in experimenting on her family with esoteric dishes, but there’s a lot to be said for the tried and true. So I’m sharing some of my family’s recipes that have been handed down for a couple of generations. Like all classics, they’ve stood the test of time—Grandma Jewell’s Pink Lemonade Salad, Aunt Mary’s Pumpkin Bread, and Mom’s Ridiculously Delicious Buckeyes.
My Dear Husband tried to claim that even though my grandmother called this first recipe a salad, it is not a salad since there’s no lettuce involved. To which I replied, if potato salad can be a salad, and three-bean salad can be a salad, and chicken salad can be a salad—well, you see where I was going, and he could, too, because he threw up his hands and declared the pink lemonade dish a salad.
Don’t you love it when a man sees reason?
Anyway, this salad is light and cool and a perfect palate cleanser.
Grandma Jewell’s Pink Lemonade Salad
(Yes, I named Lake Jewell after her!)
Ingredients
Ritz cracker crumbs
12-ounce can partially thawed pink lemonade
1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
16-ounce carton of Cool Whip
Directions
Crush half a sleeve of crackers with a rolling pin. Spread across the bottom of a 9-by-13 pan. Save some to sprinkle on top.
Whip remaining ingredients in a bowl. Spoon onto the cracker crumbs. Sprinkle the reserved crumbs on top and refrigerate till served.
Aunt Mary’s Pumpkin Bread
My sweet aunt suffers from macular degeneration, so the pumpkin bread recipe I received from her is written in super-large print. She doesn’t let her vision issues get her down in the kitchen. She’s a wonderful cook, and this holiday treat is perfect for a cold winter day! Add a cup of coffee (not one of George Evans’s!) and you’ve really got something.
Ingredients
4 eggs
1 cup oil (Canola is my choice)
⅔ cup water
2 cups pumpkin (Yes, I use canned pumpkin, but if you’re the clever sort, I’m sure you could use the real thing if you puree it down to a pie-filling consistency.)
3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
3⅓cups flour
Nuts (Aunt Mary doesn’t specify what kind or how much, so I file this under baker’s choice! Add them or not at your pleasure.)
Directions
Beat together all the wet ingredients, then add the dry one at a time, finishing with the flour. Pour into buttered, floured loaf pans (makes two loaves) and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour.
Mom’s Ridiculously Delicious Buckeyes
I have no idea why these last Christmas treats are called buckeyes, but they really are ridiculously delicious. My mom always says it’s because they’re made with love.
Ingredients
1 cup butter
2 cups peanut butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon burnt sugar flavoring
1 12-ounce package of semisweet chocolate chips
½ bar paraffin
Directions
Soften butter and peanut butter to room temperature. Mix and add powdered sugar and flavoring. Roll into small balls and chill for two hours. Melt chocolate chips and paraffin. Using toothpicks, dip balls into mixture, place on sheet of waxed paper, and chill.
Hope you enjoy trying some of my family’s special treats. Along with the holiday suggestions, please accept my wish for you and yours to have a blessed Christmas, and lots of love in the coming years.
Holiday Hugs,
Lexi
A READING GROUP GUIDE
A COLDWATER
WARM HEARTS
CHRISTMAS
Lexi Eddings
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions are included
to enhance your group’s reading of this book.
Discussion Questions
1. At the beginning of A Coldwater Warm Hearts Christmas, Angie overhears a conversation between two of her students that sounds eerily familiar. She wishes she could intervene and tell Emma to stand up for herself. Do you think she should have spoken up? Or was she right to mind her own business?
2. Angie uses grammar as both a shield and weapon. Do you have any idiosyncrasies that help you cope with the world?
3. When Seth first meets Angie, he doesn’t think she’s his type. When is the turning point? What makes him start to take an interest in her?
4. Shirley and George Evans win the Limeberger’s Funeral Home Bucket List Contest. Even with all his grumbling about the expense, do you think George will enjoy his world cruise? Why or why not? What’s on your bucket list?
5. Angie says, “In literature or in life, it’s hard to get very far if you keep rereading the same chapter.” What do you think she means by that? What is she stuck on? Has there been a time in your life when you felt yourself repeating past mistakes or refusing to move on?
6. Angie leans on her Austen heroines and Shakespeare characters to help her know what to do. Are there any literary characters who have informed the way you approach certain situations? Early on, Angie refers to Tad Van Hook as a Willoughby, after a faithless fellow in Sense and Sensibility. Does your family have a shorthand that lets you communicate volumes just by mentioning a fictional character’s name?
7. Crystal gets embarrassed by what Riley says and does. Has that ever happened to you? Or are you tickled by the funny things kids say? Care to share your favorite?
8. Seth says perfectionism is the kind of weakness people pretend is a strength. What does he mean by that? How does perfectionism damage a person’s self-esteem? What can it do to relationships?
9. When fifteen-year-old Emma Wilson turns up pregnant, Angie wants to help her. She feels she has to walk a fine line between offering alternatives and persuading Emma to take one path over another. What do you think of the outcome? Do you wish Emma had done something else?
10. Peter Manning and his partner Sabine weren’t able to completely disrupt the town Christmas pageant with their lawsuit. What do you think about public holiday displays? Is there a place for faith in public discourse? How should we balance the free expression of religion with the rights of those who feel offended by it? Is there a way to find “peace on earth” over this issue?
Read all the Coldwater Warm Hearts books!
THE COLDWATER WARM HEARTS CLUB
The lake is crystal blue, the hills roll for miles, and breaking news travels via the Methodist prayer chain. But don’t let the postcard fool you. Coldwater Cove, Oklahoma, leavens its small-town charm with plenty of Ozark snark.
For Lacy Evans, returning to flyover country is the definition of failure. She had everything she wanted—an award-winning design firm, a chic city condo, a handsome, aristocratic almost-fiancé. Then her boyfriend ran off with her receptionist and her clients’ money. Now she’s out of business and crashing on her parents’ couch. When she slides into a booth at the Green Apple Grill, she’s feeling lower than a worm’s belly.
But Lacy’s old classmate Jacob Tyler is happy to see her. Coldwater’s football h
ero came back from Afghanistan short part of a leg and some peace of mind, but he’s counting his blessings, and Lacy could be one of them. Then there’s her ex, Daniel, wearing a sheriff ’s badge and a wedding ring, but looking like young summer love. And a host of unlikely serendipities: The selfless do-gooders who sneak around taming curmudgeons and constructing second chances. The Fighting Marmots. The sprawling, take-no-prisoners Bugtussle clan.
Lacy thought she knew her hometown, and herself. She just wanted to get on her feet and keep running. But the longer she stays, the more she finds to change her mind . . .
“A unique take on what it means to go home again.”
—Kristan Higgins, New York Times bestselling author
A COLDWATER WARM HEARTS WEDDING
Everyone longs for a place to be loved and accepted, warts and all. And Coldwater Cove has its share of warts! But while this cozy corner of the world is home to just about anyone who wants to put down roots, the way has been barred to Michael Evans.
Mike’s dad saw to that some ten years ago when he ordered him to leave town and never come back. But when Michael learns his mother is battling breast cancer, not even the animosity between him and his father can keep him away. Of course he didn’t figure on getting roped into being best man at his sister’s upcoming wedding, but as long as Michael’s back in town, he figures he’s got a second chance with the girl who got away—Heather Walker.
Long-legged Heather has had a love/hate relationship with the town bad boy ever since he christened her “Stilts” in middle school. She was voted most likely to succeed. Michael seemed destined for the state pen. Even so, she hopes there’s more to him than leathers and a Harley, for his family’s sake if nothing else. But while her fascination with him grows, a decade-old secret involving a member of her family threatens to tear them apart....
“Readers of sweet romance will fall in love with Coldwater Cove.
Lexi Eddings’s talent shines in this edgy, fresh story.”
—Kristan Higgins, New York Times bestselling author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lexi Eddings is the pen name of multipublished author Diana Groe, who has written for Kensington, Sourcebooks, and Entangled. A classically trained soprano, she calls her historical work a cross between Grand Opera and Gilbert and Sullivan. Her historical romances have received glowing reviews from Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and RT Book Reviews.