Chapter One
“You have a real knack for choosing Mr. Wrong, Gina.”
My gaze snapped to my sister’s as she innocently tied the Christmas garland around my parents’ bannister.
“What if there is no Mr. Right for me?” I propped my hand on my hip and waited for an insightful reply, but all I got in return was a simple shrug, so I continued. “Maybe Mom, Dad, and you were the last of the Tuckermans who’ll ever find their soul mate.”
“Can you please take your bah humbug attitude somewhere else, please?” The twinkle in my sister’s blue eyes couldn’t be missed. “Next thing you’re going to tell me is that there is no Santa Claus.”
“Well . . .”
“Don’t you do it.” My sister shook her head frantically and all her blonde curls fell to her shoulders. “You already tried to reveal that to me in the third grade, and I still refuse to believe it.” She tied a red velvet bow around the final baluster and clapped her hands together. “All done.”
“I never told you that.” I laughed, thinking back to the kid who did. “I was the one who swooped in and saved the day when Donny was teasing you about Rudolph.”
Donny McAlister had made it his entire mission during grade school and beyond to tease and torment my poor sister. Really, it was probably the entire mission of the McAlister family, and my sister wasn’t the only target.
I shoved away the memories and focused on my sister. I was completely over everything that had to do with the McAlisters and this town.
“Maybe so.” She marched down the last few steps. “But I did hear you whisper to Donny to let me have a few more years of magic, and that statement got me thinking.”
“Getting you thinking always causes problems.” I reached into the plastic container to try to untangle several strings of multicolored twinkle lights.
“It can.” She giggled in agreement. “I’m a thinker. What can I say?”
“A perfectly planned out life where everything falls into place without a hiccup.” I smiled, admiring my sister. “That’s what being a thinker is.”
We couldn’t be more different. My sister Cassandra had every single part of her life charted, plotted, mapped, and diagrammed, and miraculously, everything always fell into place for her. Not to mention, she had blonde hair and I was a brunette. We didn’t even look like sisters.
I, on the other hand, preferred to let life take me where it wanted to, which might account for how I now lived on a tiny island in the Pacific Northwest. I’d never even heard of where I now called home, and yet, I couldn’t imagine a better place, except for maybe here in Colorado.
I didn’t really want to bring up how I’d wound up on Tangleleaf Island in the first place, but since I brought it up, it involved a he whom I now needed to forget about.
A he who used up about six years of my life, but I learned a lot from the experience, or so I tell myself.
Like to never settle.
To never believe a man when he stumbles in at five in the morning telling me his car broke down and he was stranded. Again.
To be suspicious of men who work late.
To never underestimate the sneakiness of a cheater.
To never—
“Do you want to run to the store or do you want me to?” my sister asked, grabbing a bundle of now untangled lights.
I shook myself out of the never-ending rabbit hole that was my ex-boyfriend. I broke up with him over nine months ago, and my blood still boiled when I thought about the man-boy.
“I’ll go. Maybe I’ll run into a hot soul mate.” I dropped the lights back in the box and my sister laughed.
“That’s the spirit.” She started to hang her lights around the living room window. “Or maybe you’ll just run into a McAlister.”
“Cassie, that’s not even a little bit funny.” I smacked her with a felt snowball and she only giggled more. “Need anything else not on Mom’s list?”
My parents owned a local hardware store the next town over, and the weeks leading up to Christmas were always slammed, especially this last week.
“Maybe something a little extra to put in the hot chocolate.” She wiggled her brows. “You know . . . to keep us warm at night?”
“Isn’t that what your fiancé is for?” I grabbed my scarf off one of the coat hooks by the front door.
“It would be if he were here,” she hollered as I walked outside.
Her fiancé was at some conference in Chicago and wouldn’t be back until the end of the week. And who scheduled a conference right before Christmas? Finance people. That was who. Cassie’s fiancé, Ken, was a financial advisor, which fit perfectly because so was she.
I trudged through the snow to my car and got inside, blasting the heater as I saw my sister wave at me right before she plugged in the lights.
Being back home was really nice. I had to admit I missed the town and house I grew up in, even when I thought I’d never want to come back.
There was something really comforting about being somewhere that was so familiar and held so many memories, some good, some bad.
I gave my sister the thumbs-up sign, and she jumped in glee. She definitely loved the holidays more than anyone I ever came across.
My sister had never left this little mountain town in Colorado except to attend college. When she came back, her high school crush turned into her boyfriend, who turned into her fiancé. After he returned from graduate school, they reconnected and the rest was history. This summer, they’d be married, and I was sure she’d already calculated exactly how many kids to pop out and by what age.
I waved back at my sister and backed out of my parents’ driveway. The roads weren’t icy, but where my parents lived, the snow accumulation made for some dicey driving conditions.
By the time I made it to the town’s one grocery store, my knuckles were ghostly white and my hands clammy. I’d forgotten what it was like to drive in this much snow. I let out a huff of victory after I parked and grabbed the reusable grocery bags out of my backseat before heading into the grocery store.
The grocery store hadn’t changed since I was a little girl. The bakery was immediately to the left and a little floral-slash-gift shop was directly behind that. I grabbed a cart and plunked in a loaf of French bread, a container of raspberry turnovers, and a bag of peanut brittle.
Not a bad way to start the shopping trip.
As I moseyed down the aisles and checked everything off my mom’s list, I ran into a new addition at the store, an espresso stand. I quickly left my cart and made my way over to the line. Tinsel hung from the counter and a tiny Christmas tree blinked red and white lights near the register. I was glad I’d decided to come back for the holidays.
A disgruntled woman argued with the barista about her drink order and my stomach clenched. She wanted her drink hotter and felt a need to berate the poor girl behind the espresso bar.
“Miss?”
I didn’t realize I’d been staring at the grumpy woman for so long and scurried up to the counter.
“Sorry.” I glanced at the menu. “I’d like a nonfat, half-decaf, three-pump gingerbread syrup latte with no whipped cream.”
The woman glanced behind me and smiled before bringing her gaze back to mine.
“Glad you made it easy on her.” A man’s sultry voice skated over me from behind, but I didn’t dare turn around. I highly doubted any man could match the sexiness of the voice. “Are you sure you don’t want sprinkles or maybe organic milk too?”
“I just like what I like.” I put a couple of dollars in the tip jar and thanked the cashier as I made my way down the counter to wait for my drink. I slid my gaze toward the man and my heart dropped to my toes.
He had to be the best-looking guy to have ever graced this small town. All six-foot-something of him stood with such a commanding presence, it was nearly impossible not to be curious. His dark hair was ruffled, and his striking hazel eyes literally made my stomach flutter as they connected with mine.
“Gina Tuckerman?”
Damn! There was that voice again. It did all kinds of crazy things to me.
And yet I had no idea who belonged to it.
“Yes. That’s me.” My brows furrowed as I tried to place this beautiful man.
He sauntered over with a friendly smile coating his features, but I really couldn’t figure out who he was.
“I never thought I’d see you again.” His smile only widened. “If I remember correctly, back in high school, you vowed never to return.”
I grabbed my drink from the counter and took a sip.
“I’m really sorry, but I don’t—”
And then it hit me.
“Colton McAlister,” I nearly whispered.
The oldest brother of the McAlister was clan standing directly in front of me.
My nemesis.
He was two years my senior, but he’d still managed to find time to torment me.
“It’s good to see you too.” He cocked his head slightly, and a disconcerting mix of curiosity and heat lurked behind his gaze.
“I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t recognize you,” I stammered, wanting to be anywhere but here.
“I could say the same, but you were always beautiful. I’d always recognize your face, especially that dimple.” He raised his finger, and although he didn’t touch me, I felt his caress. “It’s really good to see you.”
I nearly choked on my second sip of gingerbread latte as my cheeks flamed. I wasn’t going to play into the hands of a McAlister. Not after what they’d done to my parents, my family, without a care in the world.
“I see you’re still the same old flirt as you were back in high school,” I said, unimpressed.
“Only when it counts,” he replied.
That was the thing about the McAlister men. They were all arrogant bastards, father and all seven sons included. I didn’t know about the women in the family. I’d never met their mother and the brothers didn’t have any sisters.
“Well, if you don’t mind, I need to get through my shopping trip and get back home.” I attempted to scoot around him, but he didn’t budge, which forced me to either bump into several chairs and a table or to politely ask him to move.
You can imagine which route I took.
The chairs squealed against the linoleum as I shuffled my way around the chairs, and Colton just stood in place, watching me. When I’d scooted the last chair back into the table, my gaze mistakenly landed on him again, and a wry grin spread across his gorgeous features.
“You could have just asked me to move.” Colton’s voice was a little rough and a lot sexy. So much had changed about him since high school, but I shouldn’t notice. I shouldn’t care.
When I didn’t respond, his dark brow arched, and my knees wobbled in place just from the look.
This wasn’t the reaction I needed to be having in front of—or because of—a McAlister.
“I didn’t want to waste another breath on you.” I was in shock that the words tumbled out, and by the look on Colton’s face and the barista’s, so was everyone who’d heard me.
I turned around and headed for my shopping cart.
“So I take it you’re still mad at my family?” he asked.
I spun around and shook my head. “I stopped being angry years ago, Colton.”
“It sounds like it.” He wasn’t smiling any longer, but I sensed an amusement that only angered me more. “Maybe while you’re in town, we can catch a drink together and hash out—”
“I don’t think so, Colton.” I turned back to my shopping cart.
Oh, the joys of being back home for the holidays.