Holiday Spice & Everything Nice
Page 11
Wildfire Kiss
Lady Babs is a rule-breaker, but has she met her match in Lord Wildfire?
After the Storm
Jenny insisted she would never fall in love again, but she found herself drawn to the handsome Earl of Danfield. She also knew about his wild reputation, but it didn’t matter. His proposal would give her what she wanted. Peace.
Runaway Heart
Chelsea takes London by storm, but the only man she wants thinks she is no more than a child.
Lady Bess
Lady Bess has fallen hard for the Earl of Dunkirk, but she has also fallen into a bevy of secrets. Evil hovers. Although Bess doesn’t look for it, she finds it—and Bess is not your average, simpering female. She takes on danger and mayhem like she does everything else: full throttle. Adventure ensues as we travel with Bess through romance and the battle of her life.
Lady Star
Sir Edward meets his match when he meets Star, but is there too much keeping them apart?
Serena
Lord Daniel Pendleton has met his match in Serena. A game of twists and misunderstandings ensues, and a lively romance begins.
Mandy
Mandy’s brother, Ned, is in trouble, accused of murdering the woman who had been clearly trying to seduce him. Their guardian, the Duke of Margate, is summoned to help. Mandy had always assumed he was an old man, but the duke is far from old. But first things first—they have to prove Ned innocent.
Disorderly Lady
A chance encounter with the Earl of Magdalen, a confirmed bachelor whose female acquaintances run to women of dubious reputation, results in Arabella Cullingham appearing to be a light-skirts. Bella, for her own reasons, decides to play along, never thinking that the game might cost her the man she truly loves.
Madcap Miss
Miss Felicia Easton, holed up happily at Easton Manor, is quite content with her unchaperoned state, thank you very much. The last thing she needs is to be summarily fetched to see her ogre of a guardian, the elderly Duke of Somerset. And so she flees with her childhood friend, Scott—only to run into a highwayman! Thank heavens Glen Aston happens along when he does.
Witches, Warlocks, and Dark Magic
Dark Love
One goal consumes Chazma Donnelly: find the dark sorcerer who murdered her parents. The trail takes her Ireland and Jethro McBain, but will it take her soul?
Netherby Halls
Matters at Netherby are not what they seem, and neither is the handsome marquis. Unsure whom to trust, Sassy has to find her way through a maze of evil and magic.
Lady X
Exerilla has to run from her Dark Warlock father. Her mother sends her into the past to escape him and the marriage he plans for her. What is a modern American miss to do in nineteenth-century England?
Journey
What would you do if the man of your dreams walked into your life and you knew, absolutely knew, that one day he would leave because he was from another realm with secrets you couldn’t discern? Would you seize the moment? Riley Doogan decided to seize the moment, and it cost her all the normalcy she had ever hoped to have in her life—a life that was now fraught with terror.
Journey: The Reckoning
Riley and Finn have secrets from their past that threaten their future. Dark Magic will explode as they fight to stay in the light. How can their relationship survive the onslaught of what is to come?
Multi-book Bundles
The Complete Legend Series
Containing all eight books in the series, The Complete Legend Series will take you to a place where anything is possible, where strong and beautiful men and women—both human and Fae—must use all the skills and magic they possess to save their shared worlds, and where the path to love winds through intrigue and danger.
Through Time Series Box Set
Picking up where the Legend series leaves off, the Through Time series pits humans and Seelie Fae against the machinations of the Dark Princes. Fueled by a desire for revenge and a thirst for power, the Dark Princes have discovered how to use time itself to achieve their goals, and no realm—human, Milesian, or Fae—is safe. Contains all five books in the series.
Claudy Conn’s Bestselling Regencies
Claudy Conn’s Bestselling Regencies take you into a time of romance and passion, humor and intrigue: the time of the Regency, when England’s King George went mad and his beautiful son became Regent. Contains the full text of Wildfire Kiss, Taffeta and Hotspur, and Oh, Cherry Ripe.
Snowflakes, Exes & Ohs
By Melanie James
Copyright
Snowflakes, Exes and Ohs
By: Melanie James
Copyright © 2015 by Melanie James
Editing: AVC Proofreading
Proofreading: AVC Proofreading
Proofreading: Book Nook Nuts
Cover Artist: Dreams to Media
All rights reserved
Published in the United States of America
Table of Contents
Copyright
Books by Melanie James
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
About the Author
Books by Melanie James
Black Paw Pack
Fur Ever Yours
Fur Ever Witched
Literal Leigh Romance Diaries
Accidental Leigh
Serious Leigh
Hopeful Leigh
Haunting Leigh
Joyful Leigh
Disastrous Leigh
Tales from the Paranormal Plantation
Gertie’s Paranormal Plantation
Back to the Fuchsia
Karma Inc. Files
Karma Inc.
Mission Impawsible
Shame of Clones
Éveiller Drive
Ava & Will
Kara & Dave
Laura & Alan
Jamie & Brad
Ashley & Jeff
Valerie & Greg
Éveiller Drive Boxed Set
Riverton Romance
A Valentine’s Surprise
A Deadly Obsession
Stand Alones
Conjuring Darkness
Snowflakes, Exes & Ohs
Acknowledgements
Holiday Spice & Everything Nice Authors – It’s been a great pleasure working with all of you!
Melanie’s Monkeys – I love each and every one of you!
Erin Michelle McRae – There are not enough words to thank you for all you have done for me!
Dedication
To my readers. May your holidays be filled with everything nice!
Chapter One
It had been six long years since Dylan Parker left his hometown, Cedar Lake. He’d traveled far and wide in that time, seeing places he never imagined and others he wished he could forget. Dylan left right after graduation for the Navy, wanting to get as far away from Cedar Lake as possible. He’d had it with small town mentality. He needed more, craved more. He wanted the world in the palm of his hand, choosing to walk away from his small town, with no regrets. The life he chose to embark on was not one suited for marriage or family. He knew it going in and opted to stay as far away from commitment as possible. Sure, he’d broken a few hearts over the years, but in his line of work, and with an attitude as bad as his, it was bound to happen.
Commitmentphobe was Dylan’s middle name. At least, it’s what the trail of women he left behind had said, and pretty much every
woman he worked with. The fear of commitment started his senior year in high school when he and his sweetheart, Abigail Johnson, were voted most likely to marry right out of school. They were like two peas in a pod. Wherever you found one, the other was sure to be there.
Maybe it was the pressure of all the expectations everyone had for him. Everyone expected him to marry Abigail, raise a family, run his dad’s business, and stay in the same little town the rest of his life. In other words, his stale, predestined future was already planned out. Yet, no one ever thought to ask him what his dreams were. Whatever it was, it scared the bejesus out of him. Dylan decided his happiness depended on never becoming tethered down by someone else’s plans for him, ever.
He remembered the day as if it were yesterday. Cruising the countryside in his beat-up truck, driving nowhere in particular. His mind rebelled at the thought of marriage. Who the hell married at eighteen anymore? The next thing Dylan knew, he found himself parked in front of the Navy Recruiter’s office.
His feet moved on their own, without thought, stopping only once he was inside the office.
“You lost, Parker?”
Dylan snapped out of the haze clogging his mind. The voice grated on his last nerve. He’d forgotten Thad Fitch came home a couple of years ago and now worked as the local recruiter. Great, just friggin great! The whole town will probably know I’m here before I even make up my mind. Dylan could already hear the gossip train leaving the damn station. Once someone got wind of a juicy new story, the news could make it through the town in five minutes flat.
“Not at all. Just seeing what my options are.”
“Your daddy know you’re here, boy?”
Thad’s one little question spoke volumes. Dylan’s dad would shit a brick if he knew what Dylan was up to. He’d been grooming Dylan since he was twelve to take over Parker’s Pub & Grill. Not that he wasn’t grateful for the life his parents had given him, it just wasn’t what he wanted. Any time he tried to bring it up, his dad flew off the handle. He never even asked what Dylan wanted out of life. The old man assumed Dylan wanted the same thing he did.
“Last time I checked, I was an adult and capable of making my own decisions,” Dylan replied, with a touch more snark than necessary. Fuck, he hated small towns, and this was exactly why. Everyone was always in your damn business.
“Fair enough. Why don’t you tell me why you’re here, Parker? What is it you want?”
In that very moment, Dylan saw the man Thad had become, not the hardheaded bully from the farm down the road, who gave everyone a hard time. Of all the people in his ass backwards little town, Thad Fitch was the first one to ever ask what he wanted. Maybe Thad could relate better than most.
“Honestly, I want to get the hell out of here. I want to live my life, see the world.” Damn, it felt so good for Dylan to say those words out loud and have someone listen to him, for once. The elephant on his chest had just been evicted. It was Dylan’s first, true experience with freedom.
“I think I can help with that.” Thad smiled, handing Dylan a packet of brochures and a stack of papers to read over.
Sitting quietly in a corner, Dylan looked over the pamphlets, studying each tiny detail carefully. When he finished the first pass, he read the paperwork again, not wanting to miss a thing. The precious papers were his ticket to a life he only dreamed of.
Dylan had never been so damn excited in his life. Over the next week, he made excuses why he had to start work late at the grill, using the free time to take the physical and placement tests. When all was said and done, he signed the papers without batting an eyelash, and in complete secrecy. To Dylan’s utter amazement, Thad had never once betrayed his trust.
There was no turning back. All he had to do now was grow the balls he needed to tell his dad and Abbie. He didn’t want to hurt either of them with his decision, but that didn’t seem to be an option.
As expected, his dad blew a gasket and Abbie cried her eyes out. He crushed both when he broke the news of his enlistment. The only one that didn’t say a word was his mom. She sat there quietly, as if absorbing the news. His dad refused to talk to him, and Abbie….well, he didn’t see her again. As much as it pained him, he let her go. He had to. Basic training was going to suck up the next eight weeks of his life, with no contact to the outside world. If his conversations with Thad about what to expect in basic were true, his fun meter was about to plummet into the depths of Hell.
His mom drove him to the airport the day he left. She didn’t say a word until it came time to say goodbye. Her words still rang loud and clear in his ears, “I love you, Dylan, and I’m so damn proud of you. You go see the world and make something of yourself. Come home when you’re ready. We’ll be here.”
Her encouragement was all he needed. He took off and didn’t look back, until now.
The last time he talked to his mom, she told him his dad wasn’t doing well. He’d been diagnosed with prostate cancer and was losing the battle. Dylan took leave to see his dad and make amends the best he could. His dad passed away the previous night while Dylan was in the air, on his way home. He’d been gone a day too long.
Now came the regrets of not getting to say goodbye to his father. And what a head trip those regrets were turning out to be. Dylan felt like the worst son, scratch that, the worst human on Earth. He should have come home sooner. There had to have been something he could have done to help out, make things easier on his mom and dad, or even make sure his dad went to his doctor’s appointments when they came up. Dylan couldn’t help but think, had they found the disease earlier, his dad could have been spared. The guilt was eating him alive.
A steady, heavy snow covered the roads as he drove down Main Street. It was a place he frequented in his youth, causing a little hell here and a little more hell there. But what the heck, it was all in good fun. When he wasn’t working at the pub, he was out and about with Abbie and Jason, looking to stir up a bit of trouble. Their bouts of mischief never hurt anyone, and the damage they’d done was always minimal, mostly.
Dylan breathed a sigh of relief, the first he had felt in a long time. The circumstances of his homecoming were complete shit, but damn if it didn’t feel good to be home. It was something he never expected to feel. All he ever wanted to do was get away from Cedar Lake, now it felt good to be home. It was weird how things worked sometimes.
All he wanted now was to wrap his arms around his mom and cry like the little boy he’d once been. The one who naively ran the streets without a care in the world. Knowing exactly where he’d find his mom, he headed straight for the pub. She was the busy body, always had been, and he had no doubt she would work until she dropped, just to keep the hurt from seeping in.
Chapter Two
Another night, another call to break up a fight at Parker’s. Abbie closed her eyes, rubbing her temples, hoping to make her problems disappear. This was the third call this week. “What the hell is going on over there?” Abbie asked her partner, Jason.
“I have no idea, Abbs, but we better get a move on before they tear the place down.”
“This is so not what I wanted to do tonight. I’ve got Emmie sick at home with my mom, and I think I picked up whatever she has. The last thing I want to deal with is a bunch of drunken asshats,” Abbie grumbled.
Normally, she loved her job, but if it had anything to do with the Parkers, she steered clear. The name alone brought back too many bad memories, memories that in all honesty, she’d much rather keep buried. Deep. As in six feet under.
“Ever since Mr. Parker’s illness, the pub has been in shambles. The whole town knows it. It drives me crazy to think of all the idiots trying to take advantage of Mrs. Parker and the situation around there. I’m tellin’ ya, if the old man was there, they’d never even think twice about causing trouble.”
Abbie sighed at the thought. “I know, Mrs. Parker tries to calm them down, but she’s just a tiny thing. No one takes her seriously. I sure hope Mr. Parker’s back in action soon.”
She tried to keep her eyes focused on the road in front of them, traversing slowly en route to the pub. “No, what happened?”
“Mr. Parker passed away last night.” There was a sadness in Jason’s voice she normally didn’t hear. “He was always there for us as kids, even after Dylan left. He was like a second dad to me.”
“Oh man. Are you serious? Why am I always the last person in town to hear about these things?” Abbie sighed, this was not the news she expected to hear. She knew the prognosis wasn’t good, but she prayed he had more time. She hoped to say goodbye to the man who was almost her father-in-law. The whole town would mourn Mr. Parker’s loss. Everyone knew and loved him. Abbie wondered how Jason would take it. He and Dylan were the best of friends, from the time they were little until the day Dylan left.
“So, I guess you didn’t hear that Dylan’s back in town, either.” Jason smirked a little with that comment, knowing damn well how she felt about Dylan Parker.
Those were the last words Abbie wanted to hear. “No, I missed that newsflash as well.” She hit the brakes a little harder than necessary as they pulled up to a stop sign, sending Jason flying forward, only to be quickly snapped back by the seatbelt. That’ll teach him. Abbie smiled as she watched Jason’s smirk fade away.
“Nice, Abbs. Real nice!”
The scowl she sent Jason’s way shut him up, real quick. He knew the story. Hell, he had front row seats for one of the most painful days of her life. “Let’s hope Dylan isn’t at the pub. I have no desire to see him…ever.” Abbie wanted to turn the car around and head back to the station. Forget the call ever came in. “Wait, have you seen him yet?”
“No, I haven’t. My mom sent me a text a little bit ago. I guess he popped into the store to grab a bottle of water.” Jason was silent for a moment, then took the plunge. As much as he hated to piss off his partner and best friend, they had to deal with the situation. “Abbs, you can’t avoid him forever. Besides, you’ll see him at the funeral. You are going, right?”