Perfect Gifts (Railers 12)

Family comes first in all things. Whatever the cost.

Ten had always heard the saying, “Out of the mouths of babes,” but he hadn’t expected it to hit home as it had. After a comment from their daughter, Ten and Jared ponder an addition to the family. Moving into the adoption process is nerve-wracking and riddled with anxiety—kind of the way the Railers have been playing as of late. Bringing two young men into their homes and hearts won’t be a smooth ride. But with patience, humor, and love, the bumpy road might just be a little easier to travel.

Expanding their small family was always in the cards, but no one could have foreseen the process clashing with the worst ever start to a Railers season. A string of losses, a vital player missing from the defense, a captain in the emergency room—and winning a single game seems impossible, let alone getting the team to the playoffs. Faced with hard decisions, Jared refuses to take his work home, but it’s difficult when your husband is at the leading edge of the losing streak. His focus fractures when one sibling they’re matched with is frustrated, angry, and has a healthy dose of mistrust.

Jared and Ten’s parenting skills are tested, but they’ll do anything to make a place in their home the perfect gift for two children lost in the system.

https://rjscott.co.uk/read-perfect

Details

GLBTQ, MM, Trope: Adoption, Hockey, Family/Friends

Released: 18 November 2022

KU: 25 November

Publisher: Love Lane Books

Series: Harrisburg Railers, 12

Length: 33,000 words

Cover Design: Meredith Russell

Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62813349-perfect-gifts

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/perfect-gifts-harrisburg-railers-series-book-12-by-rj-scott-and-v-l-locey

All Buy Links can be found here: https://rjscott.co.uk/read-perfect

Available – Wide Release, all platforms – moving to KU 25 November

ISBN – 9781785643910

Excerpt

“Levi, my… the middle brother, he’s in L.A.?”

“I know Levi.” When you’ve married into a dynasty of skaters, you get to know others in the same situation pretty quickly, particularly if they are likened to the Rowe family in a ton of articles. I knew I was biased, but not one of the Bonetti family were as good as my Ten. Hashtag, so biased.

“He’s uhm… he’s…” Tanner’s face crumpled, and I didn’t know what to do as tears rolled down his cheeks. “He’s…” His words were choked.

I was up and out of my chair in an instant, pulling it with me, grabbing the box of tissues I used to clean the whiteboard, and handing them to him as I settled next to him. I didn’t know what to do, but I placed a hand on his arm, and he leaned toward me as if he needed to check I was there.

“It’s okay,” I soothed and patted his arm gently, wishing there was someone in the room who knew the best thing to say right now.

“It’s not,” he sobbed suddenly, and fuck, it was painful watching someone cry with such depth of emotion and pain dragged up from some deep dark place where grief lived.

“It’s okay,” I repeated, “I’m here, talk to me.”

He took a Kleenex, blew his nose repeatedly, and then swiped at his eyes. He was wearing a training T-shirt and sweats, and he looked smaller than six-foot, all hunched up in the chair.

I thought on my feet—I knew Genevieve was here today, our team counsellor, and maybe she was better suited to helping Tanner. “I can listen if you need me to, or I can get Genevieve down if you need to—”

“He’s my brother you know, he’s my hero.”

Okay, so this was a brother thing?

“I get that.” Ten didn’t like to admit it often, but he idolized Brady and Jamie, and even though they were rivals, they were brothers first. Siblings who were there for each other in good times and bad, able to form such a strong bond that together they were better than when they were apart.

“He used to train with me, you know, because Alfie was older and was drafted first round and was gone so quickly; so, it was just me and Levi for a long time, and then, he left, and it was just me, and I lost him for a while. We texted, met up, but we were apart. All three of us were apart, and they were the ones who knew the real me.” He stopped again, tears collecting in his eyes, making the blue sheen fracture into tiny diamonds. “I hated being apart so much.” He tore at the Kleenex, and I offered him the bin and some replacement tissues, which he took. “But we were always there for each other, you know?”

“Yes.”

“He’s been… he has… cancer.” My stomach fell. I was so hoping this would be a sibling argument or something way less serious. “Medullary thyroid cancer, and they hope… but they won’t be able to tell until… I can’t… I don’t…”

Review

I love following the Railers. Such an entertaining family. My secret? I love Ten and Jared the best of all. Perfect Gifts was a wonderful Christmas story to see how their lives have grown and changed. Christmas is about family and Ten and Jared are happy to add to theirs. Not everything is smooth as ice as they attempt to grow, but they do their best to be the winning team in life.

Perfect Gifts can be read as a stand alone, but it is so much better if you’ve read the rest of the series. You think the characters are quirky? Read them all! I loved seeing some of my other favorites (Stan) make an appearance.

Series Overview

This is not a standalone book – the books should be read in order to get the best out of the series.

Changing Lines – http://rjscott.co.uk/Read-ChangingLines (Railers 1)
First Season – http://rjscott.co.uk/Read-FirstSeason (Railers 2)
Deep Edge – http://rjscott.co.uk/Read-DeepEdge (Railers 3)
Poke Check – http://rjscott.co.uk/Read-PokeCheck (Railers 4)
Last Defense – http://rjscott.co.uk/Read-LastDefense (Railers 5)
Goal Line – http://rjscott.co.uk/Read-GoalLine (Railers 6)
Neutral Zone – http://rjscott.co.uk/Read-NeutralZone (Railers 7)
Hat Trick – http://rjscott.co.uk/Read-HatTrick (Railers 8)
Save the Date – http://rjscott.co.uk/Read-SaveDate (Railers 9)
Baby Makes Three – https://rjscott.co.uk/Read-BabyMakesThree (Railers 10)
Rivals – https://rjscott.co.uk/read-rivals (Railers 11)
Perfect Gifts – https://rjscott.co.uk/read-perfect (Railers 12)

RJ Scott

RJ Scott, author of M/M romance.Writing love stories with a happy ever after – cowboys, heroes, family, hockey, single dads, bodyguards

USA Today bestselling author RJ Scott has written over one hundred and fifty romance books. Emotional stories of complicated characters, cowboys, single dads, hockey players, millionaires, princes, bodyguards, Navy SEALs, soldiers, doctors, paramedics, firefighters, cops, and the men who get mixed up in their lives, always with a happy ever after.

She lives just outside London and spends every waking minute she isn’t with family either reading or writing.

The last time she had a week’s break from writing, she didn’t like it one little bit, and she has yet to meet a box of chocolates she couldn’t defeat.

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VL Locey

V.L. Locey loves worn jeans, yoga, belly laughs, walking, reading and writing lusty tales, Greek mythology, the New York Rangers, comic books, and coffee.(Not necessarily in that order.)

She shares her life with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, a flock of assorted domestic fowl, and two Jersey steers.

When not writing spicy romances, she enjoys spending her day with her menagerie in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania with a cup of fresh java in hand.