Chapter One
Gretchen gripped the shaky wooden rail in the old gazebo and stared out at the town. She sensed Patrick’s footsteps moving behind her, coming closer. She wouldn’t let herself turn and face him, though. Instead, she thrust her chin into the icy air and stiffly asked, “Why did you come here?”
Wait. That’s all wrong, Luci Foster thought. Backspace, backspace, backspace.
Gretchen heard Patrick’s footsteps behind her and whirled around. There he stood in only the glow of the twinkle lights stranded around the old gazebo roof.
“You’re here,” she said.
“I’ll always be here,” he replied and in just two quick steps was now in front of her. He placed one hand on her waist and the other gently behind her head as he tilted her toward him. “Always,” he repeated and their lips finally met in a long awaited first kiss.
“Perfect,” Luci said out loud as she sat back in her chair, satisfied. She re-read what she’d just written on her laptop screen and decided it was the right choice. If she had let Patrick walk away from Gretchen for good after what they’d just been through, her readers, the ones she hoped to someday have anyway, would have been furious.
“How’s the book going?” her mom asked as she entered the kitchen.
Luci pulled her fingers away from the keyboard and swiveled in her chair. “Mom, what do you need? I’ll bring it to you. You should be resting.”
Diedre Foster rolled her eyes at her daughter. “I’m tired of resting. I feel fine. Great, even.”
Luci pretended not to notice. “Do you want tea? Go back to bed and I’ll bring it to you.”
Her mom frowned at her now and had a face that mirrored Luci’s almost two-year old niece, Melody, when she was told she could only have one cookie. “I don’t want to go back to bed. I want to do something. Anything. Tell me about your book. Are you almost done? Do I get to read it?”
Luci reached out a hand and shut her laptop. She wasn’t ready for anyone to read her writing yet. She was feeling more nervous than usual about the book she was working on. Probably because it was the first thing she’d written since returning to Snowy Ridge, Wisconsin, at the beginning of the year. She had a number of desk drawer books: books that would never see the light of day and only the inside of a desk drawer, or in this case, her USB drive. She hadn’t been able to get a literary agent with any of them, let alone get a real publisher to take a look. She had felt like a total sham and given up on the idea of ever becoming a true novelist. But something had changed in her over the last couple of months and suddenly the words were flowing out of her fingers and dancing across her keyboard almost faster than she could keep up with them. It was magical. She wasn’t sure what exactly had changed, other than her location, but maybe that had been enough.
Luci had moved to New York City over six and a half years ago, to become a writer. She was only twenty at the time and had no job or a place to live when she’d left home; but, she did have a dream, so she went for it. And it sort of worked, for a while. She picked up low-paying jobs here and there and lived in a small apartment with a bunch of roommates to make ends meet while she wrote. She pitched small pieces to magazines and online web sites and every so often she’d sell something. Usually for only fifty dollars or if she was lucky, a hundred. But her real dream was to land an amazing literary agent, sell a novel, and edge her way on to the New York Times Bestseller list. But that was all it was, a dream. Luci had racked up enough rejections to wallpaper the entire inside of a New York City bus. She had long run out of money and friends willing to let her crash on their couches for a night, and eventually had found her way back home and living with her Mom again at twenty-six years old. It was a heavy blow to her ego, to say the least.
“Um, not just yet. Let me make some tea. I’ll have tea with you and we can chat,” Luci offered. She crossed the kitchen to the stove and retrieved the kettle.
“Why don’t we go out for tea?” her mom asked. “You know I love you three girls dearly but I’m going stir crazy being stuck in the house, twenty-four, seven.”
“We just want to take care of you, Mom. You had a big surgery.” Luci filled the pot with water, flicked the burner on, and set it on the stove.
“But I feel great,” her mom insisted. “Better than I have in a long time. I’m bored and want to get back to my life. Go back to work.”
Luci cocked an eyebrow. “Back to work? I don’t think so. Jessie would freak out.”
Jessie was the youngest of the Foster sisters and co-owner of the Starlight Pub with their mom. She’d stepped up and took over running the place when she was only eighteen years old, after their father had suddenly passed away from a heart attack and Luci and their oldest sister, Wynn, had moved away from home to set off on their own adventures. Jessie was the one who stayed back with their mom, and Starlight was her baby.
“Oh, pssh. She’ll get over it. I’m going to get a doctor’s note and she’ll have to just relax.”
“When do you go back to the doctor?”
“Wednesday is my four-week checkup. I’m a model patient. I know Dr. Abdul will give me the all-clear and the three of you will be able to stop hovering over me.”
The sisters had been keeping a close eye on their mom for the past month, ever since her surgery to have the tumor in her pancreas removed. It could have been a much bigger surgery but luckily the doctors were able to do a laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy, which is a much more minimally invasive procedure than what they had originally feared she would need. Their mom only had to stay in the hospital for two days and had been able to do the rest of her recovery at home. And with all three sisters living in Snowy Ridge, they were able to balance out working at Starlight with always having one sister at home with their mom. Luci had written the bulk of her latest book at MoonBeans, a cozy coffee shop on Main Street near the pub, but lately she’d also done some writing at the kitchen table during her mom’s recovery.
“Still, you should take things slow. There is no rush to get back to work. We have everything under control. Really.”
Her mom smiled. “I know you do. Have I mentioned lately how happy I am to have you all home?”
“Only two other times this week,” Luci replied with a grin.
It had been nice having the family all together again. The Fosters had drifted apart after their dad died. When Luci moved to New York, she’d basically cut off contact with her family. She had checked in every so often with her mom, but she had rarely talked to her older sister Wynn and she never spoke to Jessie. They’d had a bad falling out and only started speaking again recently. Wynn, on the other hand, got married, had a baby, and got a divorce, all without so much as a word from the rest of them. She’d wanted to go her own way and didn’t want any advice or help from any of her family. Until recently, anyway. Wynn moved back home to Snowy Ridge with her daughter and in with their mom, too. That was how they all ended up working at the pub once again like they had when they were teenagers. Jessie was none too thrilled with the arrangement for the first few weeks but Luci could tell she was happy they were all back now. They were a real family again. And Luci was determined not to mess it up again.
“I should also mention that I’m going to join a book club. I haven’t found one yet, but, I will and I’m sure it will be a great experience.”
“A book club,” Luci echoed. “Do you think that’s a good idea? Should you be around other people, you know, with their germs and such?”
Her mom shrugged. “It was that or a sky diving club.”
Luci turned and gave her mother a look.
“Yeah, I didn’t think you’d go for that. So, book club it is then,” she said with a satisfied smile.
The tea kettle whistled at the same time the doorbell rang. Luci stood and crossed the room to the stove and flipped off the burner while her mom sprung up from her seat.
“I’ll get the door.”
“Mom, relax. I can do it.”
“You work on the tea, I’ll get the door.” Her mom scooted out of the room in a flash and Luci shook her head. There was no getting her to relax.
Luci set two mugs on the counter and placed a tea bag in each. She was pouring water into the first mug when she heard her mom exclaim, “Becca Stillwell, well I’ll be!”
Luci froze. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit,” she muttered.
“You look well, my dear. Let me just go get Luci,” she heard her mom say.
Luci had to think quick. She wasn’t dealing with Becca Stillwell, not that day anyway. Her eyes darted around the room and fell onto the back door. With a few fast steps, she’d grabbed her wallet and a hoodie and was out the door and around the back of the house, headed for Main Street.
Luci felt bad running out like that, and she knew she’d have to explain it to her mom later, but there was no way she could have seen Becca. What was she even doing back in town? Luci hated running into people from her past. It was one of her biggest fears about coming back to live in Snowy Ridge. Luckily, most of the people she’d grown up with had eventually moved away. There wasn’t a whole lot of work in town unless you were in the tourism industry. She did, on occasion, run into someone she knew though. Just last week this woman, Martha, whom she’d had a few classes with in high school, stopped in for lunch at Starlight when Luci was working. She had to wait on her and she cringed inwardly the entire time. People from her past always asked awful questions like, what were you up to, were you married, did you have kids? How was she supposed to answer things like that? Should she tell them that she was a big failure and living at home with her mommy again? Is that what they wanted to hear? Martha, of course, was happily married with twin toddler girls and living in a split-level the next town over. Luci could barely stand talking to her with all of her smug, I’m-better-than-you holiness she was oozing practically all over the place. She did though. Luci served her lunch and then Martha went home to her dream life and that was that. But Becca was different. They had been friends for years. Sure, they had lost touch when Luci moved to New York, but Luci had only fond memories of Becca. It turned out Becca didn’t feel the same. It was a little over a year ago, when Luci had received a scathing direct message from Becca over Facebook, and Becca accused her of ruining her life. Luci never replied, and she didn’t expect to ever see her again, but now there she was, at her front door and wanting who knew what from her.
Luci tightened her hoodie around herself and crossed her arms. It was still fairly cold outside although the snow had started to melt. She should have grabbed her jacket too. She wouldn’t stay out too long. Just long enough to assure Becca hadn’t lingered around her house, yapping with her mother. Knowing her mother, she would invite Becca in and give her a cup of the tea Luci had just made. Tea still sounded like a good idea. Luci turned the corner and jogged toward MoonBeans. She would buy herself a tea and sit for a while and then return home. Becca would have surely left by then.