“Mother, I’m not inviting my former fiancé.” The list in front of Heather’s eyes seemed to stretch and grow as she anticipated the inevitable next ten suggestions for the annual event that had morphed from a family celebration into a neighborhood open house, into an opportunity to showcase her mother’s coveted historic house on one of the city’s oldest thoroughfares.
The thought reminded Heather she needed to hunt down that snowball recipe very soon. The party was next week and it was already Tuesday. Sampling each attempt at the recipe beforehand would definitely be in order if she expected to make it through this planning with her sanity in check.
“Gary is a wonderful catch, Heather, and if he’s not to your liking we might as well at least steer him toward someone we know.”
“We won’t be steering him anywhere.” She clicked closed her to-do list to face her mother, only to discover Mom pulling samples out of Heather’s swatch books faster than she scooped up sales at Neiman’s. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to find a color that would complement Trish’s eyes so you can whip her up something suitable to wear for the party. Don’t you think Gary would just love her?” Her mother turned to wave a scrap of ice-blue silk and a roll of silver piping. “How about something along this line?”
Heather’s heart squeezed tight at the suggestion—for so many reasons she could barely untangle them all to address every facet that bothered her. She’d broken off an engagement with a wonderful guy three months ago and her family couldn’t let it go. They’d loved Gary—a golf pro with a summer home on Hilton Head that had her mother planning vacations a decade in advance—and Heather’s realization that she didn’t love the man had caused a huge family uproar. Bad enough she’d been personally devastated to realize she didn’t feel as deeply about him as she should. But having to defend the choice every day while trying to run a business and planning the party had been seriously draining.
Screw the snowball recipe. She’d head directly to the bourbon.
“Mom, Trish is my sister—”
“Half sister.”
“—and she’d never go out with my ex-fiancé, even if he wasn’t totally wrong for her. He’s a golfer. She’s in a rock-and-roll band.”
Her mother’s grip on the silk tightened.
“You never learned that opposites attract?”
An image of a tall, dark and killer-looking military man sprang immediately to mind along with one hot weekend Heather had never been able to forget. Seductive memories swamped her in a fast-forward scroll the second she let thoughts stray to that man. She’d tried her damnedest to forget Lieutenant Jared Tyler Murphy since he’d left for a stint overseas without even waking her to say goodbye…
Hell yes, she understood exactly how much opposites could attract and it pissed her off to no end when she’d never been able to settle the score with him. She found herself thinking of him more recently since she’d broken up with Gary. Part of her blamed her inability to settle down on the fact that she’d never put her past to rest with Jared.
“You’re right, Mom.” She spoke through clenched teeth, unwilling to release her jaw for fear a year’s worth of stress would come flying out of her mouth and Heather’s workaholic tendencies truly weren’t her mother’s fault. “I wish Trish all the best if she’d like to date Gary, but I don’t have the time to make a dress before the party.”
Trish could handle their mother’s insane suggestion in a minute with one withering look, so Heather didn’t need to borrow stress over nothing. It was just the party and the family expectations that were getting to her, especially with Heather’s canceled wedding date looming.
While her mother launched into a tirade about the need for a good dress, Heather turned to check her e-mail after the chime of a note arriving in her in-box. She didn’t recognize the sender—NiteStalker12—but she figured it had to be spam since she didn’t know anyone with that screen name. Still, the subject line intrigued her.
Have you seen snow yet? Probably an ad pitch for a ski weekend up north, something that was worth a read considering the alternative entertainment was her mother’s wheedling attempts to interest Heather in the dress project. Didn’t she know Trish would rather wear distressed denim and leopard print than blue silk?
But all thoughts of the dress, the party and her mother dissipated as she read the contents of the note.
Heather,
After our first snowfall this year, I got thinking about you. I hope I’m not out of line contacting you after all this time, but according to the articles I found on you and your business—congratulations on that, by the way—it sounds like you’ve remained unattached. If that’s true and you want to see a snowfall firsthand, I’d really appreciate the chance to see you again this Christmas. No strings attached, obviously. I live close to a nice bed-and-breakfast and I can get you a room there so it’s not awkward. I know this is out of the blue, Heather, but it is the season for making peace and I never could forget you….