Chapter 1
Melanie Spence studied the screen of her phone, swiping through web pages and trying to ignore the engine noises of the plane that was currently hurtling her through the sky at God only knew what speed. She hated to fly, avoided it with a passion. The only reason she was on this plane now was because her mother had just gotten married.
Like that wasn’t mind boggling enough.
Her mother—quiet, patient, professional—acting like a lovelorn teenager. That was something Melanie wasn’t sure she would ever recover from.
A few months prior, her mother called and told Melanie that she was seeing someone. It was just an offhand remark, like an afterthought. All of Melanie’s life, it had been just her and her mother. Her father died when Melanie was only two, and her mother, who hadn’t been married to him, found herself in a bad spot. She was barely out of high school, one of those girls who went from her father’s house to her husband’s—well, in this case, her college professor/boyfriend’s house—and then she was suddenly alone with a toddler to care for.
Somehow her mother managed to finish college and get her PhD in psychology. She specialized in working with troubled teens, volunteering at a local community center when she wasn’t seeing patients at her downtown San Diego office. It was there, at the community center, that she met a man, a philanthropist who wanted to donate a little money to the kids.
Just a week ago, she called so excited that she could hardly catch her breath.
She was getting married.
“You’re joking, right?” was Melanie’s first words after the announcement.
But it wasn’t a joke. And the philanthropist she was marrying? Burton Collins.
The Burton Collins.
One of the most recognized names in the world, Burton Collins began his career by starting one of the most successful financial institutions this country had ever seen, BurCo. And when he got bored with that, he started a chain of department stores called Marchand…now one of the most popular clothing stores in the world. And when he got bored with that? He went to Hollywood and produced a dozen blockbuster films.
There was nothing this man touched that didn’t turn to gold. And when his wife died ten years ago, he became the most sought after bachelor in the country, perhaps in the world. And, somehow, he chose Melanie’s mother.
What were the chances?
It was a whirlwind. Melanie flew to San Diego with the intention of talking her mother out of the whole thing. It seemed like nonsense. Here was her mother, a woman who hardly dated through Melanie’s youth, a woman who was settled in her life, happy to let her work fill whatever holes her lack of personal relationships might have left in her life. And suddenly she was getting married? It seemed bizarre. Insane.
And then Melanie saw her mother with Burton.
There was no doubt in her mind that they were crazy about each other. When they were in the same room together, her mother’s eyes were constantly tracking Burton’s movements. And when they were close to each other, they were always touching. Little brushes of their fingers against a hand, a thigh, and stolen kisses when they thought no one was watching.
And the way Burton looked at her mother? Every woman wanted a man to look at her with that much devotion.
“Sickening, isn’t it?” Alyssa, Burton’s daughter, from his first marriage, seemed to understand exactly how Melanie felt before exchanging a single word. They were both concerned about the whirlwind romance, but shared the same respect for what truly appeared to be a love match.
Too bad Burton’s son didn’t feel the same way. He hadn’t even bothered to show up to the wedding.
“Burt blames Daddy for mom’s death,” Alyssa explained to Melanie the night before the wedding. “He forgets, of course, that mother was a raging alcoholic who made Daddy miserable for fifteen of their thirty years of marriage.”
Melanie sighed as she flipped through another set of webpages. She was happy for her mother, really she was. But there was this small part of her that was raging like a small child in the back of her mind. Her mother was married. She found love. She had a future, a companion with whom to spend the rest of her life. She would never be alone, never have to worry about what would happen to her when she grew too old to care for herself.
It wasn’t fair.
Melanie had always put love on the back burner. She had a string of lovers in college and medical school, but her career was always her priority. She had always assumed there would be time for love, for marriage, for a family… sometime later. But now that she was ready, her mother had found her prince, but all Melanie was kissing were frogs.
The last guy Melanie went out with was an accountant that she was set up with by one of her college roommates. He spent the whole night talking about the new tax laws and all the things people tend to do wrong on their tax returns. It took all she had not to fall asleep with her face in her plate of shrimp scampi. And then he had the nerve to tell her roommate that Melanie bored him…that she wouldn’t speak, that she chose the most expensive item on the menu, and that she wouldn’t give him a simple kiss on the cheek when he dropped her off at her apartment.