Cass swallowed a lump. Maybe she and Mason would have been fine if she’d had a Pastor Jim to advise them when they first got together. Too late for those regrets now. She’d chosen the life she had and it wasn’t so bad. In fact, it was pretty darned wonderful.
One of Dani’s musical girlfriends played her guitar and sang the wedding song Jake had written for Ella as Dani and Mike poured colored sand—his silver, hers gold—into the tall crystal vase that had been Cass’s mother’s. Cass watched as the colors mingled and swirled. Two becoming one. Not just two people, she thought, looking to where Mike’s mother, Delia, sat alongside her husband and mother, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. Two families. No, make that three, she amended as Babette linked her arm through Mason’s.
The couple exchanged vows and then Pastor Jim grinned. “And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. By the powers vested in me, I now proclaim you husband and wife. Mike, you may kiss your bride.”
And kiss her he did, while his buddies hooted and everyone broke into applause. Then, to the surprise of everyone, including the mother of the bride, the bridal party danced their way down the aisle to a pumping rock song.
So, of course, as the ushers (including Willie, who’d decided he wasn’t so averse to wearing a tux, after all) sent them on their way row by row, the guests did, too. It was a short walk to the huge dining room where the reception would be held. The room was lovely to begin with, but Heinrich and Kevin had turned it into something magical with white and silver floral arrangements and silver mercury-glass votive candles. Looking at all the flowers, greenery and netting, Cass knew they’d gone way beyond her budget. What a wedding gift!
With the help of Charley’s waitstaff from Zelda’s, Bailey had the food well in hand. And the cupcakes—every imaginable flavor—were to die for. Cass vowed to get the recipe for Janice Lind’s banana cupcakes if it was the last thing she did.
“You’ll never get it out of her,” Dot predicted when Cass stopped by her table to visit with her and Tilda and some of her Chamber of Commerce pals.
“I’ll just have to get my hands on some truth serum,” Cass joked.
“Well,” Louise said later as they all stood watching Dani and Mike feed each other cupcakes, “you did it.”
“No,” Cass corrected. “We did it. Thanks, Louise.”
Her mother-in-law shrugged. “Anything for my granddaughter.”
Cass couldn’t help smiling.
Now Babette and Mason joined them. “What a lovely wedding,” she told Cass. “Thanks for letting us stay with you. It was great to be a part of everything.”
“I’m happy it worked out,” Cass said, and realized she meant it.
“It’s so lovely up here. I really have fallen in love with this place,” Babette continued.
“I think we should all stay for Christmas,” Louise said. “That’ll give us a little more time with Dani and Mike before they leave for Spokane.”
“Good idea,” Maddy chimed in.
“Christmas?” Cass repeated weakly.
“But all our presents are back at the house,” Babette protested.
“You don’t want to miss out on those,” Cass added, grabbing at straws.
“We can do presents anytime,” Louise said. “Let’s make a party out of this. Anyway, with all these cute shops, I’m sure we can find some small gifts to open.”
* * *
“And that’s why all my exes are still here,” Cass told her friends at their chick-flick party the next evening.
They’d moved the festivities to Ella’s house, figuring Cass would be beat. And she was. But she was also happy. Probably a sloppy sentiment hangover. Now she lounged on Ella’s couch, Tiny keeping her company. She had no illusions about being his favorite, though. He was only there because she’d been slipping him bits of her cookie.
“Sounds like you’re going to have some Christmas,” Cecily said. “I don’t envy you.”
“Me, neither,” Charley agreed.
“Speaking of Christmas, are you going to be okay?” Cecily asked her.
Charley nodded. “Absolutely. I’m off tomorrow to stay with my sister in Portland. I need a break anyway, otherwise I’m going to kill that Ethan Masters.”
Cass had heard from Cecily about the angry sparks that flew every time Charley had to deal with the tough-as-nails owner of Masters Construction who was going to be restoring Zelda’s. Maybe those sparks were fueled by more than their disagreements. Cass hoped so. Charley was too young to spend the rest of her life without someone.
She’s not that much younger than you, whispered a little voice. Yeah, Cass told it, but I’m too set in my ways. She didn’t need a man. She had her business and her kids. Who are growing up and leaving you, the voice reminded her. Well, they wouldn’t all leave. She hoped some of them would stay in town.
“I have some news,” Ella said. The way she was beaming, it came as no surprise when she announced, “I just took an early pregnancy test. And I passed!”
“Oh, my gosh! Congratulations,” Cecily cried, and jumped from her chair to hug her friend.
“Good,” Charley said. “Another baby to play with.”
“Not unless you want to come to Nashville.” Ella smiled as she spoke. “That’s the rest of my news. We’re moving.”
“Wow, that’s fast,” Cass said in astonishment.
“The house was already sold. Plus Jake’s got a talent manager interested in him.”
“Thanks to the YouTube song?” Cecily asked.
Ella nodded.
“How many views is that up to now?” Samantha asked, then let out a low whistle after Ella told her. “Looks like he’s really got a hit on his hands.”
“That has to have made your mom happy,” Cecily said.
“She’s okay with it. Sort of,” Ella added with a grin. “Mainly because he wrote a nice one and put that up, too.”
“So, what’s your mom going to do?” Samantha asked.
“She says she’ll come visit, but she’s not moving down there. Too many rednecks.”
“I kind of like rednecks,” Charley said.
“Me, too,” Ella said, making her friends smile. Then she turned serious. “We have one problem though. Tiny. We can’t take him with us. We’ll be living in an apartment. Plus he’s a mountain dog. He needs cold, mountain air. It wouldn’t be fair to make him swelter in the South.”
“What are you going to do with him?” Cass asked, rubbing the dog’s head.
“We need to find a good home, preferably here.”
Cass remembered how Amber had fawned over Cupcake. The kids had been bugging her to get a dog for years. She’d always resisted, though, claiming that between them and the bakery she had enough to take care of.
Dani was moving. Cass needed to fill the hole in her home and her life.
She hadn’t had a dog since she and Mason were first married. It would be nice to have one to come home to.
But did she have to start out with one the size of a horse?
Better that than a yippy, spoiled Pomeranian.
As if sensing a need to prove how lovable he was, he laid his head on Cass’s lap and looked up at her with big, brown eyes. And drooled on her. Well, every male had his faults.
“He likes you,” Samantha said.
“You want to come live with us?” Cass asked, and Tiny barked.
“Let me run it by the kids,” she said to Ella.
“As if they’re going to object,” Samantha scoffed. “Just say yes. You know you want to.”
“Okay, yes. But when Jake makes it big and comes to Seattle, you owe me concert tickets. Front row,” Cass added with a smile.
“Front row,” Ella agreed, beaming. “So, are you guys ready for my movie pick?”
“Let’s have it,” Charley said. “What are we watching?”
Ella’s smile grew bigger as she pulled a DVD out of her purse. “The perfect movie. It’s a Wonderful Life.”
“You know,” C
ass said with a smile. “You’re right. It is.”
* * *
She had to remind herself of that on Christmas Day when she tripped over Cupcake, lost her balance and dropped the red velvet cake she was bringing out to the dining room table for her open house.
“Oh, no,” Babette wailed as she hurried to help clean up the mess. “Oh, Cass, I’m so—”
“Sorry,” Cass finished with her. “Oh, well, we’ve still got cookies. And appetizers. And if you eat them you’re dead,” she informed the dog, who was now in the living room, seeking protection in Amber’s lap.
“You hear that?” Babette said to Cupcake. “Bad dog!”
Of course, everyone who showed up for the party thought the little beast was adorable.
“Maybe you should bring Tiny over so they can get acquainted,” Cass whispered to Ella.
Ella smiled. “You’re evil.”
“Thanks. I try.”
“It’s a great party,” Ella said, looking around.
Indeed, it was. And it was made even better when her mother called from Florida. “Get the guest room ready. We’ll be flying up in time for New Year’s and I’ll be setting off airport security all the way. So tell Dani not to leave before I get there.”
“Don’t worry. She’ll still be here.”
“Hopefully your other guests will be gone.”
“They will,” Cass said.
“I’m so proud of you,” said her mother. “Not everyone could have pulled off hosting her exes the way you have.”
She had pulled it off. Somehow, they’d all gotten through. Nearby Charley was laughing at something Cecily had said, and Jake and Ella had settled in on the couch and were acting as much like newlyweds as Dani and Mike. Louise had cornered poor Delia, and Maddy was showing off her engagement ring to Drew, who was looking for a way to escape.
As Cass surveyed the room she caught sight of Mason standing by the Christmas tree with Willie and Amber. He smiled at her and saluted her with his glass of eggnog.
She raised hers back. Merry Ex-mas.
Actually, it was.
* * * * *
Come back to Icicle Falls for another visit this spring!
Can’t wait? Keep reading for an excerpt from
What She Wants by Sheila Roberts,
available in April 2013, everywhere books are sold.
What do women want?
Jonathan Templar and his poker buddies can’t figure it out. Take Jonathan, for instance. He’s been in love with Lissa Castle since they were kids, but, geek that he is, she’s never seen him as her Mr. Perfect. He’s got one last shot: their high school reunion. Kyle Long is equally discouraged. The pretty receptionist at his office keeps passing him over for other guys who may be taller but are definitely not superior. And Adam Edwards might be the most successful of Jonathan’s friends, but he isn’t having any success on the home front. His wife’s kicked him out.
When Jonathan stumbles on a romance novel at the Icicle Falls library sale, he knows he’s found the love expert he’s been seeking—Vanessa Valentine, top-selling romance author. At first his buddies laugh at him for reading romance novels, but soon they, too, realize that these stories are the world’s best textbooks on love. Poker night becomes book club night…and when all is read and done, they’re going to be the kind of men that women want!
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1
Working in such close quarters with a woman that you could bump knees (thighs, and maybe even other body parts) with was probably every man’s dream job, except Dot Morrison’s knees were knobby and she was old enough to be Jonathan Templar’s grandmother. And she looked like Maxine of greeting card fame. So there was no knee (or anything else) bumping going on today.
“Okay, you’re good to go,” he said, pushing back from the computer in the office at Breakfast Haus, Dot’s restaurant. “But remember what I told you. If you want your computer to run more efficiently, you’ve got to zap your PRAM once in a while.”
“There you go, talking dirty to me again,” Dot cracked.
A sizzle sneaked onto Jonathan’s cheeks, partly because old ladies didn’t say things like that (Jonathan’s grandma sure didn’t), and partly because he’d never talked dirty to a woman in his life. Well, not unless you counted a Playboy centerfold. When talking with most real-life women, his tongue had a tendency to tie itself into more knots than a bag of pretzels, especially when the woman was good-looking. This, he told himself, was one reason he was still single at the ripe old age of thirty-three. That and the fact that he wasn’t exactly the stuff a woman’s dreams were made of. It was a rare woman who dreamed of a skinny, bespectacled guy in a button-down shirt.
Those weren’t the only reasons, though.
Never sure how to respond to Dot’s wacky sense of humor, he merely smiled, shook his head and packed up his briefcase.
“Seriously,” she said, “I’m glad this didn’t turn out to be anything really bad. But if it had I know I could count on you. You can’t ever leave Icicle Falls. What would us old bats do?”
“You’d manage,” Jonathan assured her.
“I doubt it. Computers are instruments of torture to anyone over the age of sixty.”
“No worries,” he said. “I’m not planning on going anywhere.”
“Until you meet Miss Right. Then you’ll be gone like a shot.” The look she gave him was a clear sign that something was about to come out of her mouth that would make him squirm. Sure enough. “We’ll have to find you a local girl.”
That was all he needed—Dot Morrison putting out the word that Jonathan Templar, computer nerd, was in the market for a local girl. He didn’t want a local girl. He wanted…
“Tilda’s still available.”
Tilda Morrison, supercop? She could easily bench-press Jonathan. “Uh, thanks for the offer, but I think she needs someone tougher.”
“There’s a problem. Nobody’s as tough as Tilda. Damn, I raised that girl wrong. At this rate I’m never going to get grandchildren.” Dot shrugged and reached for a cigarette. “Just as well, I suppose. I’d have to spend all my free time baking cookies for the little rodents.”
Sometimes it was hard to know whether or not Dot was serious, but this time Jonathan was sure she didn’t mean what she said. She was just trying to make the best of motherly frustration. Dot wanted grandkids. Anyone who’d seen her interacting with the families who came into the restaurant could tell that. It was a wonder she made any money with all the free hot chocolates she slipped her younger patrons.
She lit up and took a deep drag on her cigarette. It was about to get downright smoggy in her little office at the back of the restaurant kitchen.
“I’d better get going,” Jonathan said, gathering his things and trying not to inhale the secondhand smoke pluming in his direction.
“You gonna bill me as usual?”
“Yep.”
“Don’t gouge me,” she teased.
“Wouldn’t dream of it. And put your glasses on to read your bill this time,” he teased back as he made for the door. Dot had a habit of overpaying him, always claiming she’d misread the bill. Yep, Dot was a great customer.
Heck, all his customers were great, he thought as he walked over to Sweet Dreams Chocolate Company, where Elena, the secretary, was having a nervous breakdown thanks to a new computer that she swore was demon-possessed.
“Thank God you’re here,” she greeted him as he stepped into the office.
People were always happy to see the owner and sole employee
of Geek Gods Mobile Computer Service. Once Jonathan arrived on the scene, they knew their troubles would be fixed.
He liked that, liked feeling useful. So he wasn’t a mountain of muscle like Luke Goodman, the production manager at Sweet Dreams, or a mover and shaker like Blake Preston, manager of Cascade Mutual. Some men were born to have starring roles and big, juicy parts on the stage of life. Others were meant to build scenery, pull the curtains, work in the background to make sure everything on stage ran well. Jonathan was a scenery kind of guy. Nothing wrong with that, he told himself. Background workers made it possible for the show to go on.
But leading ladies never noticed the guy in the background. Jonathan heaved a sigh. Sometimes he felt like Cyrano de Bergerac. Without the nose.
“This thing is making me loco,” Elena said, glaring at the offending piece of technology on her desk.
Samantha had just emerged from her office. “More loco than we make you?”
“More loco than even my mother makes me,” Elena replied.
Samantha gave her shoulder a pat. “Jonathan will fix it.”
Elena grunted. “Equipo desde el infierno.”
“Computer from hell?” Jonathan guessed, remembering some of his high school Spanish.
Elena’s frustrated scowl was all the answer he needed.
“While you’re battling the forces of evil technology, I’ll be meeting with Ed about his surprise birthday party for Pat,” Samantha told Elena. “When Cecily comes in, tell her I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Try to keep my favorite secretary from turning the air blue,” she said to Jonathan.
“No worries,” he said. Then he turned to Elena. “I’ll have this up and running for you in no time.”
No time turned out to be about an hour, but since Elena had expected to lose the entire day she was delighted. “You are amazing,” she told him just as Samantha’s sister, Cecily, arrived on the scene.
“Has he saved us again?” she asked Elena, smiling at Jonathan.
Merry Ex-Mas Page 23
