Meet Libby & Claire Again: The Start of an Emotional Sequel

Here’s a peek at the first chapter of a short sequel to my novel, Us, Now and Then. I hope you’ll enjoy meeting up with these old friends again. If you don’t know Claire and Libby, please let my book introduce you. (You can read it for free with Kindle Unlimited!) Then come back to find out how they weather the tumultuous 2020.

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January 2020

~CHAPTER ONE~

Libby

Every January, Libby put off the undoing of Christmas as long as she could, but this year was even later than usual–Martin Luther King Day. She resisted the final packing up, cherishing every memory, not wanting the holiday magic to end.  She felt herself smiling as she wrapped the vintage Mr. & Mrs. Santa saltshakers into a nest of tissue paper. How old were they and how many Christmases had they seen? Certainly, all of Libby’s and that was nearly seventy. They had belonged to her grandmother and had started Libby’s collection of the kissing Clauses. Jack gave her a “new” one every year, although they were more often “previously owned,” found at second-hand shops or yard sales. Early in their marriage, they were merely kitschy and cute. A little joke. Now, of course, she and Jack had come to embody Mr. & Mrs. Claus. They were indeed an old married couple but still kissing.

Jack snapped the last red plastic tub shut and frowned.

“Have you told Claire yet?”

Libby gave a tiny shake of her head, swallowing the lump in her throat. “No. And I won’t. Not yet anyway.”

He sighed and carried a box to the garage where the Clauses would wait silently until next Christmas.