by Kris Jett
Table of Contents
WELCOME TO STARLIGHT
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
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Finding Me (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 3)
Taking Chances
Snowy Ridge
Love at Starlight Series, Book 2
Kris Jett
Taking Chances
Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 2
By Kris Jett
Copyright 2017 by Kris Jett
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
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www.AuthorKrisJett.com
WELCOME TO STARLIGHT
A family-owned pub in the picturesque snowmobiling town of Snowy Ridge, Wisconsin. The weather may be cold outside, but things are sizzling indoors.
Fall in love with this new small-town romance series beginning with:
Christmas at Starlight – Amber & Nick (Snowy Ridge: A Love at Starlight Novella, Book 0.5)
Coming Home – Jessie & Cade (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 1)
Taking Chances – Wynn & Bryce (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 2)
Finding Me – Luci & Evan (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 3)
Chapter One
“Oof,” Wynn Foster let out in an exhale. Melody was straddling her chest and patting her cheeks, one tiny hand on each side of her face. Nothing like being woken up by a thirty-pound toddler launching herself at you, Wynn thought.
“Mommy, Mommy, Mommy,” Melody sung out. “Wake now.”
Wynn peeked one eye open and slowly smiled at her eighteen-month old daughter. “I’m awake, sweetie.”
“Mickey?” Melody asked.
Melody wanted her to go flip on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the television in the living room. It’d become her morning ritual lately since they’d moved back to Wynn’s home town, Snowy Ridge, Wisconsin, and in with her mom. Cartoons and cereal in front of the TV while Wynn dragged herself around the kitchen, making and then downing her first cup of coffee. She never had been a morning person.
“Mickey?” the toddler prodded again.
“Okay, okay, honey. I’m getting up.”
Melody leaped off her mother, grabbed her stuffed Mickey Mouse doll from the bed, and raced out to the living room to wait.
Wynn sighed and stared at her bedroom ceiling, trying to will herself to get up. She couldn’t believe she was here, in her childhood bedroom. Twenty-eight years old, divorced, and a single parent. And living with her own mommy again. It was pathetic. She felt like a total loser. The one bright spot in her day everyday was Melody. She loved her daughter to pieces and she had to get her act together if not for herself, then for Melody.
She crawled out of bed, shoved her feet into her old worn-out frog slippers, and tip-toed out of the bedroom, careful not to wake her mom who was still asleep in her own bedroom across the hall. Her younger sister, Luci, had also recently moved back home from New York City and was in her old bedroom as well. Their baby sister, Jessie, was the only one of the family who had her act together. She lived in her own place and co-ran the family business with their mother. When their mom could work, that was. She’d been going through chemotherapy and resting as much as possible, so, it was really a good thing that the girls were all at home right now. Even if it wasn’t the reason for them coming home in the first place.
Wynn turned on the television and tuned the channel to Disney before patting Melody on the head. “Be right back with your cheerios,” she told her.
Melody squeezed her Mickey to her chest and stared at the TV in delight. The kid was obsessed with the show.
Wynn padded into the kitchen and begun making breakfast as she thought about her day. She was going to drop Melody off at daycare and then head to work at Starlight for her shift. She perked up when she remembered she had an errand to do before work. Today was the day she enrolled in the local community college.
Just last week she’d decided she had to do something to really shake up her life; change the course of direction she’d been on for way too long. Wynn was always floating in and out, from relationship to relationship, job to job. She needed a path, a goal, for her and Melody’s life. No more messing around. She had the scare of her life a few weeks back that really shook her up. She was being stalked by a crazy ex-boyfriend, named Billy. Maybe she should have seen that Billy was bad news from the start, but, she was so vulnerable back then. Newly divorced and feeling unlovable, she glommed onto the first guy she met in a Single Parents Under Thirty chatroom. Hello red flag. And the jerk wasn’t even a parent—just a creep trolling the chat room. Ugh, she couldn’t believe she was so stupid.
She’d moved back home to Snowy Ridge with Melody not only to save money, but to get away from Billy. He seemed like such a winner at first. Of course, don’t they all? But he pushed too hard, wanted too much, and moved too fast. She just couldn’t give him what he was asking for. When she broke things off, it seemed to only make him crazier. He was suddenly everywhere, all the time. He sat outside her job and her house for hours. He sent non-stop notes and presents. He wouldn’t take no for an answer.
When Billy crossed over from creepy stalker to downright terrifying nightmare, her sister Jessie got involved. She’d told Billy that Wynn was in the hospital with a rare blood disorder and to please stop texting. When that didn’t work, Jessie told him Wynn had passed away. While dramatic and cruel to do to someone, they just didn’t know what else to do to make him go away. And it didn’t work anyway. Billy showed up in Snowy Ridge and confronted Wynn and Melody in the town square. He had a knife and wanted to force her to go with him to “talk.” Luckily Jessie was also there with her boyfriend, Cade Stone. They’d defended her and then Jessie’s old ex-boyfriend from high school happened to be walking by at the right time, saw the struggle, and ran to help. Cade and he took Billy down. Thankfully, Billy was behind bars now, serving time. It seemed Wynn wasn’t the first woman he’d stalked and threatened.
Though it was a completely frightening experience, it opened Wynn’s eyes and she was more determined than
ever to stop the chaos and make a stable home for her and Melody. Life wasn’t going to just keep happening to her. She was going to decide what she wanted and go out and get it. And she was going to forget all about men, at least for a while. She was putting herself on a boyfriend time out until further notice. Valentine’s Day was coming up in a few weeks and she hadn’t experienced the holiday without a Valentine since she was sixteen years old. But she didn’t care. She had her baby girl and she was all she needed.
“Coffee?” Luci asked, with a skip as she entered the kitchen.
“Turn the perkiness down a notch, would ya?” Wynn asked.
“You should try yoga in the morning, sis. A nice sun salutation would really kick your day off to a good start.”
“Why on earth would I want to salute the sun? I hide from it as long as possible. I would still be under my covers now if Melody hadn’t woken me up.” Ugh, that was right. She was supposed to be making cereal. Wynn set her coffee cup down with a thump and quickly made Melody her bowl of cereal with sliced banana and filled a sippy cup with milk. She walked it out to the living room and set it down on the coffee table in front of her daughter. Melody jammed one fat little hand right into the bowl and then shoved some cereal in her mouth, stray little O shaped grains falling down the front of her pajamas. They hadn’t quite worked out the spoon business yet so she just let Melody eat how she’d like. At least Wynn didn’t have to sit and hand feed her.
Luci joined them in the living room, two cups of coffee in her hand. She set one down in front of Wynn and then curled up in the corner of the couch with her own cup, blowing lightly into it. “So, what are you up to today?”
Wynn’s face instantly brightened. “It’s a good day,” she told her sister. “First stop for me is the junior college. I’m enrolling today. I can’t wait!”
Luci beamed at her sister. “That’s so great, Wynn. I’m so proud of you!”
Wynn took a big gulp of coffee. “I’m proud of me too. You’re going to see a new me, Luci.”
“I already see a new you. You’re shrinking away, these days. How much weight have you lost? Easily twenty pounds.”
Wynn’s cheeks reddened and she glanced down at herself. It was true; she had been steadily dropping weight, but she wasn’t even trying. She’d just been under so much stress between moving back home with Melody and the whole Billy situation that she hadn’t been able to eat a lot. “I don’t think I’ve lost that much.”
“Well, you look amazing.”
Wynn smiled at her sister. “Thanks. I’m feeling good, too. Hopeful, ya know? Like, I’m finally going to turn things around and make everything go my way.”
“You can do it,” Luci said. “I have faith in you.”
“Thanks, Lu.”
“Shhh!” Melody scolded. She threw an annoyed look at her mom and aunt. “Mickey!”
Wynn and Luci exchanged glances and burst into giggles.
“Mommy!” Melody whined.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. sweetie,” Wynn said, holding her hands up in surrender. Just then her text alert went off on her phone and she glanced down at it.
Hey Wynn. I’m coming to Snowy Ridge for the weekend. I’ll be in Friday around 6. I want to see Melody. – Eric
“Shit!” Wynn exclaimed.
“Mommy!” Melody said again, irritated.
“What is it?” Luci leaned toward Wynn on the couch and cranked her head to see the phone.
Wynn quickly pulled the phone to her chest, not wanting Luci to see. “Nothing. Just a bill I forgot to pay.”
Luci seemed to accept her response and sat back against the couch.
Wynn looked down at her phone again. The text was from Melody’s dad. And he wanted to see her.
Chapter Two
It was fine. It was going to be just fine. He was her dad, after all. What did Wynn think, that Eric would never want to see Melody again? Well, yes, that was what she thought, actually. It had been about a year since he’d last seen her. Melody had no clue who he was even. Oh my gosh, Melody was going to think Wynn was leaving her with a complete stranger. She’d be completely terrified. She couldn’t do that, could she? But didn’t he have rights? What was she supposed to do?
Wynn drove toward Melody’s daycare; Melody strapped happily in her car seat in the back. Ever since Eric’s text came in that morning, Wynn had been wracking her brain as to what to do. Why did Eric suddenly want contact now? He was hardly around when Melody was an infant and when he left Wynn when Melody was only six months old, he’d never looked back. That was not to say he was a total deadbeat or anything. His child support checks arrived at the first of every single month. When Wynn had told Eric that she was moving back home to Snowy Ridge, all he’d said was to send him the address so that he would know where to send the checks. It was kinda sad, really. But she’d accepted that this was how he wanted things. And it wasn’t like she could force him to be a good father to Melody. So why the sudden interest?
Wynn pulled into Little Apples, Melody’s daycare. It was only her second week there, but Melody loved it. She already had a sweet friend, a cute, pig-tailed, two-year old named Ashley, that she palled around with for most of the day. And it wasn’t like Melody could keep hanging out at the pub all day, every day. Her co-workers had been so nice letting Melody stay in the kitchen, playing with her toys while Wynn worked, but it wasn’t an ideal situation. It was better that she be with kids her age and have a little more structure to her day.
“Here we are, sweet pea,” Wynn sang out as she parked the car.
“Ashee, Ashee!” Melody squealed, clearly excited.
“Yup, we’re going to see your friend Ashley, aren’t we?”
Wynn helped Melody out of the car and brought her inside. As soon as Melody hit the door, she was off running, looking for her friend. Wynn smiled as she watched her go.
“The two of them are just the cutest together,” Miss Tara, one of the teachers said as she sidled up next to Wynn. Miss Tara was only about twenty and not a teacher but that’s what all of the kids called her so the parents tended to as well.
“She’s so happy here.” Wynn unconsciously ran her hand over her back jean pocket where her phone was sitting, almost like she had to remind herself that a situation counter to their happiness was still waiting to be dealt with. And was that even fair? How did she know Melody wouldn’t be happy seeing Eric? Really, Wynn was the one who wouldn’t be happy with his visit. Melody seemed to love everyone she met.
“We’re happy she’s here, too.” The young teacher flipped her head toward a pile of blocks tumbling to the ground off of a small table and her long, thick, pony-tailed hair practically slapped Wynn in the face. “Don’t worry Sammy,” she said to the teary-eyed toddler eyeing the mess, “you can rebuild.”
Wynn side-scanned the teacher’s outfit choice: a short, tight pink tee-shirt that didn’t cover her black, spandexed rear end. She looked like she should be running a marathon, not a daycare. It wasn’t the most professional of outfits for a teacher, but she bet the fathers dropping off their kids sure appreciated it. And when did it become a style for what was the equivalent of tights, really, to be outerwear instead of paired with a skirt? Ugh, Wynn sounded old and she knew it. Miss Tara was fine. She probably spent half the day crawling around on the ground with the kids. Her outfit was fine. Wynn knew she was being judge-y right now and it was all because of her ex’s text. Why did he have to turn up now? And was he still with that teenager?
“Well, I’ll be back then,” Wynn said, and handed over Melody’s diaper bag and food and snacks for the day. She went to Melody and gave her a quick kiss goodbye on the cheek but her daughter didn’t even look up. She was already too involved in hammering a mound of blue playdoh with her little BFF to be bothered.
Wynn waved to Miss Tara as she left the building and headed for her car. She ran her hand over her back pocket again and thought, okay, I just need to handle this now before it distracts me all day. This was suppo
sed to be her great day, after all; the day she enrolled in college. She wasn’t going to let Eric ruin it for her.
She pulled her phone out and slid into the driver’s seat of the car. Before she could think about it anymore, she zipped off a text to her ex-husband.
Sure. We can meet you at 6. How about meeting us at MoonBeans? It’s a little coffee shop on Main St.
She hit send. There. It was done. They would meet him for a coffee and he’d get to see Melody and get it out of his system. Then, hopefully, he’d go back home to St. Louis and leave her and Melody to get back to their normal life. Without him.
Fifteen minutes later, Wynn bounded up the steps to South Lake Community College, clutching a folded-up piece of notebook paper in her hand. She couldn’t help feeling giddy. Having a goal and direction gave a huge jolt of excitement to her dreary life. She wouldn’t be wading through anymore. She had an objective.
Wynn grinned wildly at the students bustling around inside the college. The first day of school was next week and it was all the last-minute people hanging around today, like her. She marched up to one of the glass windows under a sign that read, “Admissions,” and smoothed out the piece of paper on the ledge between her and a woman who looked to be in her late fifties.
“Going back to school?” the woman asked, peering at Wynn over her glasses.
Wynn blinked and gave an emphatic, “Yes!”
The woman chuckled and shuffled some papers on her side of the glass. “All right then, let’s get you going.”
An hour later Wynn was headed back out to the parking lot with an armful of pamphlets and paperwork and her newly printed class schedule on top. She’d registered for three courses: Intro to Computer Information Systems, Intro to Web Design, and Intro to the Internet. Which was really kind of hysterical. If anyone was familiar with the Internet, it was her. She’d met many a man online in the past ten years. Some might call her an online dating expert. Although she was fairly sure that wasn’t what they would be teaching. All of these classes were required for the Computer Information Systems degree Wynn had decided to go after. Her first class was Intro to Web Design on Monday morning and she couldn’t wait.
