Well this just sucks.

What was I thankful for this Thanksgiving? That would be wine. Lots and lots of wine. It was the only thing that would get me through this shit-tastic holiday.

If I had known exactly who all was coming today, I’d have taken my parents up on their invitation to celebrate Thanksgiving with them at their cabin in the mountains. At least then I would’ve been able to see snow and not the crappy slushy rain we were currently dealing with in the city.

But no, once again I allowed my heart to override my head and decided to join my friends at Caleb and Daphne’s house. Firstly, because I wanted as much snuggle time as I could get with their baby girl, Evie. There was just something about babies that turned me to mush. I couldn’t get enough of that little girl. And my other friend Lola was currently pregnant with her and Grayson’s first baby as well, so there was even more goodness to come.

It might have been awkward, spending the holiday with my ex, his pregnant wife and all their friends and family, but Lola was amazing. As soon as she realized I wasn’t a threat to what she and Grayson were building, she’d pulled me into the fold. Her two best friends, Daphne and Sophia, had quickly become my friends as well. I was officially part of their crazy little tribe, and I felt like I’d been a part of it for years. I was comfortable there, I belonged.

But the main reason I decided to spend my first holiday without my folks was because he was going to be here. Deacon Lockhart. The man I’d stupid, stupid, stupidly not realized was the love of my life until it was too late.

I’d been told that it was strictly close friends and family coming to Thanksgiving. Then he showed up with his brand-new girlfriend in tow, effectively shattering my mood and my holiday spirit in one crushing blow.

It wasn’t Deacon’s fault though. I had absolutely no right being upset with him for moving on. I mean, he’d put himself out there after all, took a leap of faith and made his feelings for me known, but I’d been too much of a coward at the time to accept what he was offering me.

It wasn’t that I didn’t have feelings for him, because I did. And that was the problem. I’d dated his brother, for crying out loud. And it had been really serious at one time. I thought Grayson and I were on the road to marriage. What kind of woman bounced from one brother to the next?

I convinced myself that it was inappropriate to move on to Deacon—even though what I felt brewing in my blood for him was so much more intense than it had ever been with Grayson.

As everybody moved into the dining room to eat, I took the chance to suck back more wine before going to join them. Caleb was at the head of the table with Daphne to his right, their little girl in a highchair between the two of them. I sat next to Daphne while Sophia took the seat to my other side. I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking I was in the clear when Grayson sat to Caleb’s left, placing Lola directly across from me. Unfortunately, the chair next to Lola slid out and Deacon sat down, making it so I’d have the perfect view of him from the corner of my eye no matter how hard I tried to avoid it.

Damn. Damn. Double stuffed damn.

Everyone else took their seats, and the room quickly filled with the chatter of conversation and the clinking of utensils against plates. The food looked absolutely delicious, but unfortunately my appetite seemed to have escaped out the very door Deacon and Leah waltzed through earlier.

What I was feeling wasn’t rational, I understood that, but I couldn’t shake the instant dislike of the woman on Deacon’s arm. It was nothing that she’d done to me personally. If I was being honest with myself—which was something I’d been avoiding like the plague lately—she was actually a really nice girl. But she had what I’d so carelessly tossed away. I was a woman, after all; we tended to be ruled by our emotions the same way men were ruled by their dicks.

It was science. So even though I had no reason to hate Leah other than pure unadulterated jealousy, it was completely unavoidable. The feelings were beyond my control. At least that was my excuse for wanting to stab her in the eye with a turkey leg.

Not that I’d ever act on that impulse.

“So, Fiona, darling. Your father tells me the Fall line was a huge success.”

I looked from the frowny face I’d been drawing in my mashed potatoes with my fork down the length of the table to Nolan Lockhart, Grayson and Deacon’s father. He and my dad were best friends. That was why I’d grown up so close to the two Lockhart boys. The three of us had been thrust together practically since birth. The Lockharts were basically an extension of the Prentice family, and vice versa.

Pasting a smile on my face, I spoke to the man who was, for all intents and purposes, a second father to me. “Yes, it was very successful. Everyone’s geared up to push the Spring line in a few months. We’re hopeful it does just as well.”

“We’re all so proud of you,” Nolan’s wife, Cybil, said. My smile turned genuine at the heartfelt compliment. They’d always treated me just like a daughter, so hearing that she was proud of me warmed me from the inside.

“Thanks, Cybil.”

“Of course, I’ll be thrilled when you stop concentrating so much on work and find a nice young man to settle down with,” she continued. “Give us more little babies to keep us old folks feeling young.”

I promptly choked on the water I’d just taken a sip of and started coughing uncontrollably.

Sophia and Daphne started patting my back in an effort to help me breathe again while Grayson grumbled, “Jesus, Mom.”

“What?” Cybil asked innocently. “I’m just saying. We’re getting up there in age, son. And I know Evelyn agrees with me. She’s been going on about grandbabies ever since you and Lola announced you were pregnant.”

Sweet baby Jesus in a manger. She’d been talking to my mother? That wasn’t good.

One of the many curses of being a redhead was my fair skin’s tendency to blush a furious shade of pink. And if the way my face was burning at that very moment was anything to go by, by cheeks were currently the color of fire.

“Mom, will you please lay off?” Grayson grunted. “There’s nothing wrong with Fee focusing on her career right now.”

I shot him a thankful look across the table while silently praying for the floor to open up and swallow me.

“Is there more wine?” I asked, scanning the table for the closest bottle. Sophia’s fiancé, Dominic, reached across her, bottle in hand.

“Of course there’s nothing wrong with that, dear,” Cybil said. I hoped that would be the end of the painful conversation.

No such luck.

“But a woman needs to be mindful once she reaches her thirties. Our eggs are only good for so long.”

Dear Merciful Lord who art in Heaven, if you care for me at all, you’ll send down a bolt of lightning to kill me right now.

“For shit’s sake,” Grayson cursed.

“Cybil, darling, that’s enough,” Nolan stated sternly.

“She could always go to one of those banks that keep all the sperm,” Nana Lockhart said loudly. Nana was Grayson and Deacon’s eccentric grandmother. I loved the woman to death, but she only had two settings: hilarious and humiliating. There was no middle ground. “You know, the ones that use those turkey baster thingies?”

I turned to Daphne and held out my butter knife. “Will you do me a favor and plunge this into my neck?” I tipped my head and pointed where I wanted to be stabbed. “Right here in the jugular.”

Her eyes flashed with genuine concern before something unsettling started working in their depths. I didn’t like that look. Not one damn bit. “Um, well… uh, Fiona’s actually… what I mean to say is…” I could practically see the light bulb flick on about her head as she finished with, “dating! She’s dating!” she said loud enough for everyone to hear. “Or she’s going to, anyway. I set her up on a blind date.”

Eff my life. Eff it so damn hard.

I gave her a squinty-eyed look and screamed with my eyes, What the hell are you doing?

I’m sorry, I panicked! her eyes returned.

Have you lost your mind? my glare asked.

I’m sorry! I didn’t know what else to do!

Caleb broke into our mental argument. “Fee’s going on a blind date? I didn’t know that.”

A thunk sounded from beneath the table, and Caleb winced at his wife’s well-placed kick, muttering a string of curses under his breath.

“She totally is!” Sophia joined in, clearly having taken the same crazy pills as Daphne that morning.

“And he’s totally a great guy!” Lola chimed in. My friends were dead. I was smothering all three of them in their sleep. “He’s… a surgeon!”

“Yeah!” Sophia added. “He works on babies. And he’s totally cute.”

Dominic gave Sophia a quizzical look, clearly not buying the shit she was shoveling for a second. “He works on babies?”

“Yeah,” she replied. I couldn’t tell by the back of her head, but I was pretty sure she was giving her man the stink eye. “He’s a pediatric surgeon. A super-hot pediatric surgeon.”

“He sounds like a catch!” The four of us turned our attention to Leah. “Don’t you think, babe?” she asked Deacon, wrapping her hands around his arm and leaning against his shoulder. “I mean, a handsome doctor who takes care of teeny tiny babies? He sounds like Prince Charming. Isn’t that great?”

“Yeah,” Deacon said in a flat, emotionless tone before lifting his beer bottle to his lips and taking a long pull. “Just great.”

Something glittered behind his eyes as he stared at me over the amber glass. I couldn’t quite understand what I was seeing, but whatever it was twisted my stomach into knots.

“Oh, how lovely,” Lola’s mother, Elise, stated happily. “Every woman wants to land herself a doctor.”

Her husband, Maury, shot his wife a bland look. “Good to know, darling.”

Before taking it upon herself to come to Seattle and interfere in her daughter’s life, Elise had been a single woman, still bitter over her divorce from Lola and Dominic’s father years ago. Then she met the doorman in Lola’s building. It was kismet. The two of them married shortly there after, and have been acting like randy teenagers ever since. It was sweet… to anyone who wasn’t Lola or Dom.

Elise rolled her eyes at her husband. “Oh, you know what I mean. Young women want stuff like that. I’m perfectly content with you, sweetheart.” She kissed his cheek, and it was his turn to roll his eyes.

“Just what every man wants to hear, that his wife is perfectly content. Warms my heart,” he teased good-naturedly. Meanwhile, I was busy aiming deadly eye lasers at each of my girls.

Grayson gave Lola a curious look. “This is the first I’m hearing of it. When did you guys set this up?”

“Uh, recently,” she answered quickly. “Like really recently. They’re not going on their date for a couple weeks. You know, because of his busy surgery schedule and all.”

“Yeah,” I deadpanned. “Busy, busy, busy.” I emptied my glass and held it out to Dominic for a refill.

What had started as a tiny white lie had quickly snowballed out of control, as was wont to do when it came to those three women.

The more they talked, the more elaborate the lie became until the man they’d dreamed up became some modern-day prince who could do no wrong. I wasn’t sure if men like the one they were describing even existed. There was such a thing as too much perfection. And they’d really laid that shit on thick.

Everyone seemed to think it was a brilliant idea, excited for what could come from my upcoming date with Dr. Wonderful. All the while I was silently planning my escape from the country before this insanity could actually take place.

Thanksgiving could officially suck it.