by Lizzie Shane
Chapter Five
“Merry Christmas!” the Christmas tree on her landing shouted cheerfully. Then it pushed through the door and Caitlyn saw the petite form of her best friend buried in the branches.
“Well, if it isn’t the Christmas elf.”
Mimi glared through the pine needles. “One more crack about my height and I’m shoving this tree somewhere unpleasant.” She grunted, tipping slightly to the side and Caitlyn leapt forward to steady her and the uneven pile of branches that vaguely resembled a tree. “Where do you want it?”
It wasn’t the majestic twelve foot fir she’d always dreamed would look perfect in front of the windows, but the scraggly four foot pine would still be the most festive thing in her place. “Let’s put it by the windows.”
Together they carried their cargo, which was more awkward than heavy, over to the designated spot.
As soon as it was propped safely against the glass, Mimi tackle hugged her.
“Welcome back!” Mimi squealed. “I missed you like crazy. Did you have fun? Were the other girls totally catty? Is he even better looking in person? Why didn’t you call me the second you got back?”
Mimi Kwan-Torres was five-feet of pure energy and enthusiasm. After years in sedate blacks as second chair viola at the Seattle Symphony, she’d embraced color with a vengeance since her retirement and taken to wearing eye-popping neon combinations. Today’s lime green leggings, scarlet leg warmers and fluorescent blue Naughty Is More Fun sweater were no exception. Even her chin-length black hair was streaked with color—red and green, this week, doubtless in a nod to the season.
Caitlyn laughed, squeezing her friend tight and feeling lighter than she had in months. She ignored most of the questions, answering only the last one Mimi got out before she had to stop for breath. “I was jet-lagged to within an inch of my life. How did you know I was back?”
“Tuller Springs Gossip Hotwire. Monica over at the Lodge saw a fancy driver in a fancy black car unloading a bunch of bags in front of your place.” Mimi bounced away from her. “It’s so good to see you and you are going to tell me everything, but first things first. Do you have a Christmas tree stand?”
Caitlyn frowned, studying the Charley Brown tree. “I could probably come up with a bucket.”
Mimi flapped a hand dismissively. “I brought one, just in case. It’s in the car with the rest of the stuff.”
“The rest?”
“I know you. You’ll decide it isn’t worth the trouble since it’s just for you and I am not going to let my best friend have a grinchy Christmas when she just got back from being totally brave and throwing herself into the jaws of love. I know you don’t have much stuff, but the kids are constantly making us Christmas decorations and I told Ty I’m donating the stuff we don’t have room for anymore to a good cause. The Let’s Drown Caitlyn in Christmas Cheer Charity.”
Caitlyn tried to smile, but her throat closed and that familiar pressure was back, leaning on her tear ducts.
Mimi was the reason she’d moved to Tuller Springs in the first place. And now she would be leaving her. Indiana or Los Angeles, they were both hundreds of miles away. Whenever she and Daniel had talked about their plans for the future, staying in Colorado hadn’t even come up as an option. She’d been so caught up in the romance of Spain and Bermuda and Tahiti, she hadn’t really thought about how much she would be giving up. Her students. Her little chalet with the mountain view that always made her feel warm and peaceful and safe. And Mimi. Mimi would be the hardest to give up.
“Hey. Don’t get all sappy on me,” Mimi demanded with mock severity. “We have decorating to do.” But when she turned away, she took a surreptitious swipe at her own glittering eyes.
Caitlyn grinned through the wetness in her eyes. “Yes, ma’am.”
Two hours later, they sat in the kitchen, surveying their work and eating gingerbread cookies Mimi had baked in Caitlyn’s often neglected oven. The Christmas tree sat in Mimi’s second best tree stand, listing slightly to the right, and glittering with white lights and round glass ornaments Mimi’s children had declared too boring to be allowed space on their tree. A liberal sprinkling of tinsel helped cover up the gaps in the branches. Mimi had apologized profusely about the inferior tree quality, protesting that there wasn’t much left this close to Christmas, but Caitlyn liked the lumpy, lopsided tree. It had character and she was tired of perfection.
The rest of the decorations were primarily of the construction paper variety provided by Mimi’s kids, but sparkly red and white garland also wrapped around the loft banister. Garland Mimi insisted was ragged and hand-me-down even though Caitlyn had spotted her yanking the store tags off and stuffing them in her pocket.
The end result may not have been as posh and flawless as her mother’s glittering Upper East Side show place was during the holidays, but it glowed with holiday warmth.
“You know, I think I’m actually looking forward to Christmas.” Her last Christmas in Tuller Springs.
“Ty and I were talking. I know you usually come over in the afternoon and have Christmas dinner with us, but do you think this year you could stay over Christmas Eve too? You can play and sing carols with the kids and then help us do the Santa thing. Neither Ty nor I have any freaking idea how to put together Mia Grace’s doll house and you’re so good at that stuff.” Mimi devoured a cookie in quick economical bites.
Caitlyn’s throat tightened and she set down her own cookie, uneaten. “That’s your family time.”
“And you’re family. Duh.”
And just like that, Caitlyn was blubbering.
She’d never really had a normal family life. Her parents hadn’t ever seemed to like one another much, even before they officially got divorced. Her father was flighty on the best of days, drifting around the world chasing whatever his latest passion was. Her mother was the prototype for a rigid and unforgiving socialite. When Caitlyn had demonstrated an unusual aptitude for piano at a young age, it had seemed for a while that the one thing they could agree on was her music. She practiced harder, for them, and by the time she was nine she was playing major concert venues.
But even her music couldn’t keep them together. When her travel demands had escalated, they’d taken turns touring with her. On her thirteenth birthday, they gave up the pretense and told her they were divorcing. Her mother retained custody, her father drifted off, and for a few years Caitlyn had hated the piano. Hated the concerts and the unending display of it all. She’d only just begun to find her love of music again when she took a residency with the Seattle Symphony for the season she turned nineteen.
Mimi was second chair viola with Seattle at the time, already twenty-eight and dating the software engineer she would eventually marry. Caitlyn’s mother had always told her not to get distracted mingling with the orchestra—if she needed to socialize there were plenty of other soloists who were on her level—but the first time she’d hung out with Mimi she’d laughed until her stomach hurt and they’d been friends ever since.
Shortly after Caitlyn left Seattle for her scheduled concerts in Vienna and Prague, Mimi married Ty Torres and moved with him back to his home town, Tuller Springs, but Mimi and Caitlyn had never lost touch. Mimi only played for the occasional wedding quartet and community orchestra these days, but when Caitlyn decided to give up touring and performing, it was Mimi’s guest room she’d stayed in while she figured out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. It was Mimi who’d gone with her to look at apartments and Mimi’s husband Ty who had set up her website for lessons and debated with her around their kitchen table about how much a former world-renowned prodigy could charge to teach second graders their scales.
Mimi was more family than Caitlyn’s flesh and blood. Mimi who hugged her as she sniveled over gingerbread before handing her a wadded handful of napkins. “Here. Pull yourself together, you sap.” She snagged one of the napkins herself, dabbing at her eyes.
“I missed you.” Caitlyn wiped away the worst of th
e damage. She’d never been a cute crier. Her face was probably swollen and blotchy, but Mimi wouldn’t mind.
“Missed you too. Not hearing anything for months has been killing me.” Mimi swiped up another cookie. “I felt awful when you left. Like I sort of bullied you into sending the audition tape in the first place and if you were miserable it would have been all my fault.”
“You didn’t bully. You not-so-subtly coerced, but you didn’t bully.”
Caitlyn would never have considered Marrying Mister Perfect if Mimi hadn’t been so forceful about it. At the time she’d been fed up with e-Dating and complaining to Mimi about the whopping five single men in Tuller Springs to choose from. Mimi had been avidly watching the previous season of the show and had insisted that even if she didn’t land Mister Perfect, any girl on that show would have men flocking to her from miles around.
Caitlyn had resisted at first—she’d just gotten herself out of the limelight—but after another particularly disastrous first date, she’d been willing to try anything and the infamous audition tape was born.
The irony was that the initial appeal of the show was that men would flock to her and she would never have to leave Tuller Springs, but now she would have to pack up and leave Tuller Springs to get that happily ever after. Without telling anyone in advance that she was planning to leave Tuller Springs. The whole thing was enough to give a girl a headache—and she couldn’t even discuss it with her best friend without getting sued into the next decade.
“Was it awful?” Mimi asked. “Did you hate it?”
“I didn’t hate it.” She wanted to comfort Mimi that the show had worked out better for her than she’d ever imagined, but the damn nondisclosure agreement tied her tongue. All she could say was, “It wasn’t always easy, but I’m glad I did it.”
“Good.” Mimi beamed. “And now you can sit back and watch the men come to you. It’s gonna be a feeding frenzy.” Her eyes lit as she popped another cookie. “Oh! Speaking of hotties. You remember Ty’s friend from school? Don? Well, his wife’s brother is a total catch—I met him at their summer BBQ and he’s a doll. Not to mention hot enough to burn my retinas right out of my eyes. Anyway, he and his evil witch fiancé broke it off like six months ago, so he’s had time to heal and he’s ready to get back out there and I thought—with you just getting back to town that you guys would be perfect together—”
“Mimi, I can’t,” she interrupted before her friend could start picking out wedding colors. “I can’t date as long as I’m still on the show.”
“No, I know that, obviously, but I figure we should line this up for when you’re good to go, because I am not exaggerating this guy’s hotness and he is gonna go fast. The only reason he isn’t bagged and tagged already is because his family has been giving him time to heal and providing like a buffer around him or something, but now that the ban is lifted, it’s hunting season, baby, and some girl is gonna mount that on her wall.”
“I’m not ready to bag and tag anyone. Let alone mount them.”
Mimi’s face scrunched with concern. “Oh honey. Did you really fall for Daniel? There are other fish in the sea. And the best way to get over someone is to get under someone new. That’s my motto.”
“You should get that embroidered on a pillow.”
“Can you at least give me a ballpark of how many weeks we have to wait before I can start pimping you out?”
Caitlyn couldn’t help it. She arched a brow. “What makes you so certain he didn’t pick me?”
Mimi snorted and Caitlyn cringed, insulted, until she said, “If he did, he’s smarter than I gave him credit for. Those guys never pick the best girls. They pick the ones who lead them around by their dicks. Obvious, sexy, forward girls who give them wet dreams and cock-tease their way all the way to the final ring.”
A vision of Elena flashed in Caitlyn’s mind. Daniel’s runner up was indeed obviously sexy and not afraid of using her sex appeal to manipulate men. Caitlyn felt a little trickle of unease, before reminding herself that in the end Daniel had chosen her, not busty obvious Elena.
She shrugged. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”
Mimi groaned. “I can’t believe you’re going to make me wait it out with the unwashed masses. Me! I’m your best friend in the whole wide world.”
“With the biggest mouth.”
“I resemble that remark.” Mimi snickered, then sobered. “But really, you’re okay? No regrets?”
“None.”
She’d landed Prince Charming. What was there to regret?
Chapter Six
Unfortunately, Prince Charming wasn’t returning her calls.
He’d called once, on Christmas morning, but cell reception was notoriously crappy at Mimi’s house and by the time Caitlyn realized she’d missed the call he’d been off to whatever important industry Christmas party he’d gushed about scoring an invite to in his latest text. The message was short and sweet – a breezy Merry Christmas, baby. Miss you so much. Talk soon, okay? Things are crazy here. Love you.
And then silence. For days.
She’d seen him on the Today Show and The View and The Chew and she couldn’t check out at the grocery store without staring at four different pictures of him smiling back at her from the magazine rack. But he didn’t call.
It was New Year’s Eve. The night when everyone had someone to kiss at midnight and here she was again, alone in her pajamas at nine-thirty, sitting in her apartment with all the lights turned off as she waited for the annual torch-light parade of skiers and snow boarders down the mountain, followed by fireworks—promptly at ten p.m. so it didn’t interfere with the Lodge’s big New Year’s Eve Gala that got swinging around eleven.
Caitlyn had been to the Lodge Gala before, but the last thing she wanted tonight was to watch a hundred other people kiss when the countdown ran them into a new year. Mimi had invited her over to ring in the new year with her kids waving sparklers in the backyard, but Caitlyn had used the weather as an excuse to cry off. It had started snowing on Christmas Day and hadn’t let up for more than an hour or two since.
Christmas had been lovely—filled with warmth and family—and a constant reminder of all the reasons she’d gone on the show in the first place. So the kids squealing with joy on Christmas morning wouldn’t always be someone else’s. So the husband sneaking into the kitchen to snitch ham and steal a kiss from his wife would be hers for a change—not that she was likely to be baking a ham. Caitlyn would probably set the house on fire if she tried, but the thought was there.
She wanted domestic bliss, damn it. Every freaking Hallmark Channel movie on the planet had conditioned her to especially crave it over the holidays and she was supposed to be on her way. She was engaged to Mister Perfect.
But now Mister Perfect was spending more time talking to talk show hosts than her and all those idyllic moments from the last three months felt like a mirage. All week she’d been sneaking peeks at the Rock of Ages, tucked into her nightstand, as if that would make her engagement feel real again. If it ever had.
The first of the torches appeared at the top of the mountain, wending their way down. The snow had let up enough for them to hold the parade after all. Caitlyn burrowed into her couch, curled beneath her favorite throw, and tried to bask in the warmth of the season. If Daniel were here with her, she’d be leaning against his side, his arm tucking her tight to him. Maybe there would be holiday music playing softly over the stereo.
Her cell phone rang shrilly, shattering the lovely little holiday dream and Caitlyn scrambled to untangle herself from the throw to reach it before it shrieked again. It was the Marrying Mister Perfect phone. Only Miranda or Daniel would be calling.
Her heart leapt at the thought that it was him, then she kicked herself for being so pathetically desperate to hear his voice, then she kicked herself for being so cynical. She was allowed to be happy to hear from her fiancé.
Fiancé. It still didn’t seem real.
She punched
the button to connect the call. “Hello?”
“Baby! Happy New Year!” He shouted the words above a roar of background noise.
“Daniel? Where are you?”
He laughed. “You’ll never believe it. The network invited me to their New Year’s Eve—” The rest of the sentence was lost in a sudden surge of cheering.
“I can barely hear you.”
“I know! It’s a mad house. I think it’s getting louder by the minute as we get closer to the ball dropping.”
Her heart clutched hard as she put the pieces together. “You’re in New York?”
“Right in the heart of everything, baby! We can see the crowds in Times Square. But it’s nothing without you, baby. I wish you were here.”
I wish you’d stop calling me baby. “I could have been,” she said. “I have lots of excuses to be in New York. My mom lives there. We could have had a quiet New Year’s Eve together—nowhere public, but at least we could have been together, if you’d let me know you were going to New York.”
“Oh, baby, I didn’t even think of it. Things have been so crazy. I don’t even know my own schedule. The network has a girl whose entire job it is to tell me when and where I need to be places.”
She wanted to forgive him. If only he hadn’t sounded so self-important. So pleased that he merited his own scheduler. “I just miss you.”
“And I miss you. More than anything. This won’t last forever. Once the show starts airing, the promo push will die down after the first few weeks. Until the finale. And then we’ll be together.” The background noise receded, like he had walked away from the party, then dropped drastically, as if a door had shut. “I wanted to talk to you about that, actually. We need to give US Weekly and People an answer about whether we’ll both do the cover feature the week after the finale airs. Obviously, we won’t tell them your name just yet or that we’ll be married, but they want confirmation that the winner will sit down for the interview with me. Magazines like to line that stuff up way in advance and we’d be the cover story, baby.”