#SaturdaySpotlight is on Liz Flaherty @LizFlaherty1 & Reinventing Riley!

Good Morning!

We've enjoyed some beautiful weather this past week. A couple of really cold mornings but comfortable days and evenings. I love this time of year when we can keep the windows open all day and it's perfect.

Anyaway, today's guest visited back in May and now we get a sneak peek into Liz's book, Reinventing Riley! Take it away Liz....

Rye Winters grew up in Chicago, and she loves it there. After many years in a small-town subdivision, the forty-something widow is champing at the bit to go back. She’s sold her business and her house and made plans right down to the kind of apartment she wants to lease or buy—no more lawn-mowing or weed-eating for her! She’s not going to need a car—which is great because she hates to drive. She’d reinvented herself once—she could hardly wait to do it again.

But before making her final move, she goes to Fallen Soldier, Pennsylvania, population 2922, to be her best friend’s “widow of honor” in her wedding.

Where she meets the preacher, falls in love with a cottage on the lake, and can’t stop looking at a downtown building that has so many possibilities. Hmm… 

Blurb:

He’s afraid a second time at love wouldn’t live up to his first. She’s afraid a second round would be exactly like her first. 

Pastor Jake McAlister and businesswoman Riley Winters are in their forties and widowed. Neither is interested in a relationship. They both love Fallen Soldier, the small Pennsylvania town where they met, even though Rye plans to move to Chicago, and Jake sees a change in pastorates not too far down the road. Enjoying a few-weeks friendship is something they both look forward to.

However, there is an indisputable attraction between the green-eyed pastor and the woman with a shining sweep of chestnut hair. Then there’s the Culp, an old downtown building that calls unrelentingly to Rye’s entrepreneurial soul. And when a young man named Griff visits Jake, life changes in the blink of a dark green eye.

Excerpt: “Hello!”

Speak of the…well, no, not the devil. Speak of the good reverend, and there he was, walking toward her. His hands were in the pocket of a dark peacoat, and he wore a black-and-white stocking cap that looked familiar. “Syd made your hat, didn’t she?” she said in greeting. 

“She did. She also made me one in Philadelphia Eagles colors, but since this is Steelers country, I’m careful where I wear it. I’m waiting for her to learn to make socks.”

Rye laughed. “That could be a long wait and several hats away.” Although Syd was determined to master knitting socks, she was definitely having trouble accomplishing it.

“Did you enjoy the wedding?”

“I did. It was beautiful and the service was perfect.”

“It’s one of my favorite things in the pastorate.” He grinned. “Even if the groom takes off without paying me.”

He changed directions and joined her, and they started walking again. 

“What was your wedding like?” she asked, then bit her bottom lip. “I’m sorry. Would you rather not talk about it?”

“I like talking about it, and about Ashley, but no one here except Clay knew her, and most people don’t like bringing it up. Thank you for not being one of them.”

“I like talking about Ben, too, sometimes. Especially happy times. Did you have a formal wedding?”

“Not at all. We’d just finished finals and I was getting set to go on the road for a summer tour with the rock band I was with in college. Ash was planning a mission trip with people from her church, but we didn’t really want to be apart. We knew there would be more mission trips, but chances for doing another tour were slim to none, so we gathered up as much family and as many friends as we could and got married in a state park. Very flower-child-like. It was great. Then we got onto the band bus—which had seen better days with better bands, believe me—and took off. You’ve heard of the Summer of Love from the sixties? Well, this was the summer of flat tires, electrical storms, and equipment breakdowns.” He laughed, his eyes alight. “It was a great time. We wanted some semblance of privacy, so whenever we didn’t have hotel rooms provided by the venue, the other guys stayed on the bus and Ash and I slept in a tent.”

Rye had to suppress a shudder. She remembered sleeping in a tent for a few weeks between apartments and paychecks once. Granny had called it an adventure, but Rye had been old enough to recognize it as something else.

“What about you?” he asked. “Big wedding? Courthouse?”

“It was big, but I hardly knew anyone who was there. Ben’s parents were very…social. Even though they liked me and accepted me, I was pretty much just the one on top of the cake who was wearing a dress.”

He smiled at her. “You don’t impress me as the type, if it is indeed a type.”

She shrugged. “I wanted the life Ben offered. It didn’t hurt me to conform.”

Jake raised his eyebrows. “If you’ll pardon my saying so, that sounds like a world-class whopper. It didn’t hurt you? Really?”

Other than Syd, Rye didn’t think anyone had ever asked her that. She’d had such a good life compared to what growing up had prepared her for. Even Ben’s disorder, once she understood it, hadn’t stood in the way of that goodness. She frowned, not sure how to answer. “Everyone gets hurt, don’t they?” she said slowly. “Don’t we all give up part of ourselves for others?”

It was his turn to hesitate. “I think we do.” He grinned. “Believe me, being a rock-and-roll guitar player and singer had to go by the wayside when God started making different decisions for me.” 

“You couldn’t be both a pastor and a rock and roller?” She stopped suddenly enough her foot slid on the light coating of snow on the paved walkway.

He caught her effortlessly and tucked her arm into his. “I couldn’t and be good at either one. And I may as well admit that I really wanted to play rock and roll and teach music for the rest of my life. Being a clergyman had never even been part of the picture.”

USA Today bestselling author Liz Flaherty started writing in the fourth grade when her Aunt Gladys allowed her to use her portable Royal typewriter. The truth was that her aunt would have let her do anything to get her out of her hair, but the typewriter and the stories it could produce caught on, and Liz never again had a day without a what if… in it. 

She and Duane, her husband of at least forever, live in a farmhouse in central Indiana, sharing grown children, spoiled cats, and their grandkids, the Magnificent Seven. (Don’t get her started on them—you’ll be here all day.)

Find her at https://linktr.ee/LizFlaherty

Get your copy of Reinventing Riley at Amazon.

Sounds like a wonderful story, Liz! We certainly wish you the best of luck and God's blessings with it.

Hope you enjoyed today's post, friends and that we'll see you next week for another edition of Wednesday Words with Friends and Saturday Spotlight.

Until then, take care and God bless.

PamT