Avery loved winter. Her favorite pastime was to sip on hot chocolate with marshmallows melting into the whipped cream, snuggling up with the lights dimmed low or candles burning. A fire crackling merrily in the fireplace and a blanket draped over her, reading a book. She became like a child waiting in anticipation for the first snowfall; the happiness it brought with it—the simple things in life remembered; wearing big jumpers while eating homemade soup to warm her chilled bones.

A snowy day however, wasn’t what the bride had wished for, and it would make for a dreary wedding day if it happened. 

The day of the wedding they were catering had arrived. It was a crystal-clear morning, but cold. A fresh layer of snow already covered the ground with no additional snow in the forecast. It should be sunny, although with the usual chilled breeze of the Minnesotan winter.

“I never understand why any bride would want to get hitched in the middle of winter,” Suzie mumbled as Avery turned her SUV into the long winding pathway that lead to the impressive mansion of Gideon Waverley, where the wedding ceremony and reception of his only sibling was going to be held.

Winter trees lined the path. Their denuded forms stood starkly against the snow, almost like charcoal outlines sketched by a passing artist. Their limbs, that not long ago were adorned with the vibrant colors of autumn, were coated with an unblemished white layer.

“Not everyone is a sun bunny like you, Suzy,” Avery teased as they began unloading the car.

“About time you got here,” Jesse mumbled behind her as he opened the back hatch to unload the wedding cake.

“Be careful, Jesse!” she croaked when the cake toppled to the side.

His curse echoed in the cold air. “I don’t know why you assembled the damn thing at the shop. Do you have any idea how heavy it is?” He complained as he called one of the younger chefs to help him carry the cake inside.

“What’s got your panties twisted in a bundle, Mr. Casanova?” Suzy asked with a teasing glint in her eyes.

 Jesse slanted an irritated glare at her but didn’t respond.

Avery only released her breath when the cake was safely placed on the table in the ballroom. The opulent room was filled with large round tables covered with pristine white linen, sparkling silver cutlery, pure white bone china, gleaming fine crystal glassware with what had to have been hundreds of white roses everywhere you looked.

“Jeez, this place is bigger than the reception hall at the Hilton hotel,” Suzie beamed as she walked around the room.

“Get to work, Suzie. There’s no time to dally,” Avery instructed as she placed the final decorations of intricate white sugar roses around the base of the cake.

She sensed Jesse loitering behind her but ignored him until she was happy that everything was to her standards on the wedding cake table.

“Out with it, Jesse,” she asserted. She stepped back and critically inspected the cake from a distance. “Perfect.”

She started toward the kitchen, glancing at Jesse, “Well?”

“You know me too well,” he replied rather indignantly.

“It doesn’t take a genius to know when you’re upset about something, Jesse. Your face turns into a thundercloud for all to see.”

“It’s you,” he glanced at her. “And Wyatt.”

That brought Avery to a halt. He seemed genuinely upset and concerned.

“Out with it, Jesse. What’s going on.”

“I know who Wyatt’s father is, Avery,” he admitted quietly.

Avery felt her body turn cold. It was the one thing she’d never told anyone. Not even her two best friends and co-owners of Divine Catering.

“What are you talking about, Jesse?” Her voice sounded foreign to her own ears.

“What I don’t understand is why you would keep it from him,” he continued. “We always assumed it was someone from out of State, which was the reason why he wasn’t part of his son’s life, but god-damnit Avery, how can you keep something like that from him?”

Avery’s body trembled. Her world suddenly felt very small, bared open to the bone for all to see.

“What exactly do you think you know, Jesse?”

“When babies are newborn they all look the same to me but at three months of age . . . you can detect certain features, especially if they represent someone you know very well,” he continued with a hard look at her.

Oh, god! I’d forgotten that Jesse is Stone’s nephew.

“I always had a feeling that Wyatt looked familiar, but on Christmas Day when he laughed aloud for the first time, I recognized who it was. I went to my Mom’s place and looked at some family pictures yesterday. All the pictures my Mom has of him as a baby—he’s a splitting image of him. It’s him, isn’t it, Avery? My uncle Stone is Wyatt’s father.”

“Jesse, you don’t understand. The circumstances were . . . it’s complicated,” Avery finally managed to stammer. Her mind seemed incapable of formulating a single thought.

“What’s complicated, Avery? He has a son that he doesn’t know about. I don’t give a shit about circumstances or how he was conceived. I do know one thing and that is my uncle didn’t know who you were at his party.”

He held up his hand when she started to talk.

“I don’t want to know, Avery. It’s between you and him but the bottom line is, you kept his own child from him. That is something I can’t condone,” he said. The words were soaked with a warning of intent.

“Please, Jesse, you need to understand, it wasn’t planned and Stone, he—”

“Is my uncle. Understand one thing, Avery. I respect you as my boss, for your courage to bring a child into life as a single parent and for being a wonderful mother. I love you as a sister and Wyatt as my own little brother. What I can’t condone and will never accept is that you lied to Uncle Stone.”

“I never lied to him,” she whispered.

“Not telling him is worse than lying in my books.” He walked away but turned at the entrance into the kitchen. His eyes were cold. “You never intend to tell him about Wyatt, do you?”

The rosy blush on her cheeks was answer enough.

“I never thought I would say this to you, Avery but I’m disappointed in you.” He hesitated briefly. “Either you tell him about Wyatt, or I will.”

“No! Please, Jesse. You have to understand—”

“No. I love my uncle, Avery. I will give my right hand for him. If not for him, my Mom and I wouldn’t have survived after Dad’s death. She completely fell apart. He was the one who took care of us. He still takes care of my Mom even though she’s the eldest and it’s supposed to be the other way around. He paid for me to go to culinary school. If not for him . . . my loyalty is to him, Avery. You might be my boss but Uncle Stone is family.”

Avery watched him walk away. She had renewed respect for him. It took guts to do what he did. She appreciated that he took the time to talk to her first and not go to Stone directly.

What am I to do? I can’t just walk up to Stone and put Wyatt in his arms and say, here, meet your son. Shit! It’s such a mess.

The rest of the day was a blur. Her actions were mechanical but at least the staff was well trained and did not need her guidance.

Avery was relieved when it was over and they began to clean and pack up. Jesse approached her as she got into her SUV.

“Well? Have you decided what you’re going to do?”

The sigh that escaped Avery’s dry lips was slow, like her brain still needed time to process what had happened. She glanced at a flock of birds that flew overhead.

“You’re right, Jesse. I shouldn’t have kept it from him but at the time, my reasons had been sound. Since I saw Stone with the children at the party . . . I’ve been questioning myself.” She looked into his eyes with a silent plea in hers. “I just need some time, Jesse, that’s all I ask. I need to figure out what to do . . . how to approach him.”

“Yeah. It’s going to be one hell of a shock and knowing Uncle Stone, I’d caution you to do it sooner rather than later. The longer you wait, the bigger the damage is going to be.”

Avery phoned Jill the moment she arrived home.

“Where are you guys,” she asked. The sound of voices and soft music in the background filtered into her ear.

“At Pub 819 having some pizza. How did the wedding go?”

“Without any hitches.”

“What’s up, Avery. You don’t sound yourself.”

“I need to talk,” she whispered. Her voice thickened as tears filled her eyes.

“We’ll be right over. Kim, ask them to make those pizzas take away. And get us a bottle of Jack Daniels to go as well. It sounds like we need some serious TLC juice. We’ll be there in ten minutes, girlfriend.”

Avery took a quick bath in an effort to heat the chill in her veins but it didn’t seem to work. Nothing would, she realized. It wasn’t the coldness in the air, it was the fear of Stone’s wrath that kept her shivering uncontrollably.

She was huddled on the thick rug in front of the roaring fire when Jill and Kim walked in. They took one look at the stricken expression on Avery’s face and headed to the kitchen for glasses and plates then kicked off their boots and joined her on the rug.

“Here, gulp that down, it’ll heat you up in no time.”

Avery tilted her head back and choked on the fiery liquid burning like fire down her throat.

“Jesus, Kim! Are you trying to kill me? That was a straight shot of JD,” she wheezed, the moment she managed to get her breath back.

“Yeah, but you stopped trembling, so it worked,” Kim responded with an unconcerned shrug.

Jill filled their plates with a variety of pizzas and handed it to them. They didn’t push Avery to talk and kept the conversation going with small talk and New Year jokes.

“Oh, no! I spoiled your New Year’s Eve outing. I’m sorry, I didn’t think,” Avery realized when she noticed their stylish outfits. “You know what, this can wait. Go, have some fun. I feel—”

“Oh, hell the hell no, you don’t. You’re gonna tell us what’s got you all tied up in knots and the New Year is still hours away. Besides, what better way to greet it than with your besties, pizza, and a fiery liquid companion?” Kim exclaimed and raised her glass.

They all cheered and downed another Java Jack shot.

“Okay Avery, we’re listening,” Jill prodded gently.

Avery’s shoulders slumped and she heaved a deep breath for courage.

“Wyatt is Stone Jenning’s son,” she blurted out and held her breath.

Silence descended in the room as her two friends stared at her in shock. The crackling of the wood in the fireplace sounded like firecrackers in Avery’s ears.

“Well, say something, for fuck’s sake,” she finally exploded.

“Stone Jenning as in Jenning and Lennox Trucking? That Stone Jenning?” Kim asked with wide eyes.

“Yes, that Stone Jenning.”

“Ah, now I understand why you were so reluctant to oversee the function at his place,” Jill uttered. She glanced at Kim who made big eyes at her. “And of course, he doesn’t know he has a son, I assume?”

“No, he doesn’t.”

“Okay. I’m just gonna go ahead and address the big white motherfucking elephant in the middle of the room,” Kim exploded. “Stone Jenning? What the fuck, Avery? Where, when, and how? Come on, out with it!”

“At the Christmas Eve masquerade last year.”

“Holy guacamole,” Kim crowed. “Wait a minute, you didn’t drink that night because you were the designated driver, so it wasn’t a drunken romp in a dark alcove. Spit it out, you sneaky little elf.”

“I don’t even know, to be honest. One moment we were flirting with each other and the next he threw me on a bed in the room he had for the night on the second floor of the hotel.”

“Okay. So, when you met up at the party, he recognized you and that’s why you’re spooked?” Kim asked, biting into a piece of cold pizza.

“Not exactly,” Avery hedged.

“Then how exactly,” Jill prodded.

“He never knew who I was. I refused to remove the mask and . . . I ran away while he was still sleeping.”

Jill and Kim stared at her, recognizing that there were slightly more to the tale than what she was admitting.

“You told us that Wyatt’s father is a womanizer who has a flock of women around him, which was why you didn’t want him to be a part of your son’s life. Somehow, Stone Jenning doesn’t fit that description.”

“I know,” Avery admitted with her eyes on the roaring fire. She bit into her lip. “I met Stone briefly ten years ago and have been kinda in love with him since. That night . . . it had been like fate had given me the one wish I always had. To be in his arms. I knew I didn’t fit his lifestyle. The high social presence, the different women hanging onto him wherever he went,” she shrugged. “I didn’t believe he was ready or even wanted to be a father.

“It wasn’t your decision to make, Avery,” Jill said quietly.

“I know but there’s more.” She sounded miserable and looked it too. She swallowed another shot of JD and coughed as it burned all the way to her stomach. “Jesse figured it out. Wyatt is a mirror image of Stone as a baby.”

“Good lord! I forgot Stone is his uncle. The little shit, I’m still annoyed at him for refusing to talk to him about using our services,” Kim crooned. “But, that proved how much integrity that youngster has.”

“Much the same as his uncle,” Jill intoned.

“Okay! I get it. I fucked up. I know that now,” Avery exploded and flopped onto her back to stare at the ceiling. “And now I have to fix it. The only problem is, how do I do it and not lose my son? Stone Jenning is a powerful and rich bastard. He won’t . . . oh god, I can’t lose Wyatt,” Avery wailed as reality hit home.

“Honesty is always the best way, Avery. If Jesse knows, I suggest you tell Stone before he walks in here and finds out for himself. Somehow, I think that will make matters worse,” Kim cautioned.

“Don’t I know it,” Avery muttered.