by Taylor Hart
A couple of the other guys—Luke Porter, Chase Moon, and his brother Adam—came over, and they all joked with Mike and met Zoey.
After a bit, Dom grinned at Zoey. “Well, good to have you, Ann. Glad to see this big lug has finally brought home a pretty girl. I’ll look forward to hearing some of your poetry.”
“Oh. Right.” Zoey smiled weakly.
Mike was a bit nervous about this. “Did Mom and Dad tell you they’d heard her?”
Dom nodded. “Yeah, your mom and dad say it’s really good, and we’ll have her read some to us, maybe at dinner tonight.” He gestured to the others still working. “But that’s a long time for us, dude, because we got a lot of stuff to do.”
Mike saw the worried, pale look on Zoey’s face. “I’ll get Ann settled; then we’ll be back.”
Mike could feel the worry coming off of her when he helped her into the truck. He got in and started it, backing out and heading toward the house.
“There’s no way I’m reading poetry tonight.”
Mike laughed nervously. “We’ll just tell them you can’t.”
She let out a sigh. “I can’t believe this. I hate poetry.”
He pulled up to the house. “Don’t worry about it.” He couldn’t stop worrying about it, though. He knew his mother, and she believed in showcasing people’s talents. “It’ll be fine.” He took her bag and showed her into the house, pointing upstairs. “You stay in my room, and I’ll crash with Dom out in the guesthouse.”
She still looked concerned as they went up the stairs and into his room. “This is your room?”
It was obvious because there were pictures of MMA fighters and football players and a wall of trophies. He grunted. “Yep. I could put you down the hall in the guest room next to Lacey.”
She waved a hand and studied his walls. “I’m fine.”
He nodded. “I gotta go help. Do you need anything?”
She smoothed her hair and smiled wider. “Nope, Ann Smith is very fine. Thank you, sir.”
Chapter 9
Zoey watched Mike leave the room, and nerves wove through her. What had she done back at Big C’s? Why had she kissed him like he really was her boyfriend and she was jealous that he’d kissed Nellie? Had she wanted to make a point that Nellie wasn’t the hen in the henhouse anymore? What in the heck did that even mean, and why was she thinking about hens?
Hmm. She turned to inspect his walls. “Maybe I can whip up a quick poem about hens for them.” The idea of reciting poetry sounded miserable. She’d only ever written one poem, and that had been for her parents; she’d been required to write it in that English class her first year in college. There was no way she was reciting that one.
Taking in a shaky breath, she stared up at a poster of a huge guy in a red and white uniform, cocking a ball back like he was about to launch it. Will Kent, from the Denver Storm. He was famous, and she guessed Mike worshipped him. The poster said, “Play hard, have fun, be excellent.”
She grunted. Sports people. Josh hadn’t been a sports person. He’d been … well, he’d been funny and tall and handsome, and he’d loved to go to museums with her. He hadn’t had the kind of muscles Mike had. She had seen them last night when he’d slept in his T-shirt.
Guilt gnawed at her insides. She shouldn’t be thinking about Mike’s muscles.
Sucking in another breath, she focused on the next poster, which featured an MMA fighter she didn’t recognize. As she moved down the wall, she got a closer look at his life. Three shelves of trophies drew her attention; many were from football and wrestling, and there were medals hanging on them. She saw two from boxing, and she wondered if Snow Valley had a team. She assumed not. The years were more recent, so she assumed they were from college.
Again, their kiss went through her mind. The way he’d held her, how he’d pulled her flush against him, and how she’d felt the strength of him.
Her heart pounded faster. Dang, the guy was a handsome and had a mountain man kind of sexy about him. Irritated with herself for even feeling that, she turned away from the stupid trophies and walked out of the room. Why had she done this stupid girlfriend thing?
For her dream. Yes, she could do this for a shot at what she wanted.
She rushed down the stairs and through the house. When she’d first come in with Mike, she hadn’t taken the time to really look around. The large kitchen opened up into a huge family room. The ceilings were high, and the room was homey, decorated with eclectic furniture that created a shabby chic look. His mother had style, and Zoey could tell that family was definitely important. A wall of photos displayed memories of Mike and Lacey posing during trips and in the fall leaves at different ages. She stared at a little version of Mike on a motorcycle. Ah, he’d been a cute kid. Ugh. She didn’t want to think he was cute or be here looking around his house. She needed something to do.
Just then, a white truck pulled up into the driveway. She watched as Lacey and her mom got out, and she remembered they had mentioned she could help with the flower arranging. Good, that’s what she would do.
She pulled the door open. “Hey, can I help?”
“Hey,” his mother called out. “We’re going to have a hot chocolate break before we go put up decorations. The guys aren’t ready for us yet.”
Zoey waited, feeling nervous. Belatedly, she thought Ann probably wouldn’t wear jeans and a thick MSU sweatshirt, would she? “Be right back,” she called out, and then she dashed back through the house. She rushed up the stairs and quickly tugged a plain red sweater out of her suitcase. She yanked off the MSU sweatshirt and changed before rushing back downstairs.
When she entered the kitchen again, Mike’s mother and Lacey were both stomping snow off their feet, pulling off their boots, and hanging up the coats.
His mother smiled at her. “Ann, I hope Mike explained the snow system to you. I require everyone stomp their boots on the first rug, then move to the second rug and take them off and leave them. That way water won’t be all over the floor.”
“Okay.” She’d noticed that Mike’s mom had a good system to keep the snow by the door, and she smiled. She liked systems.
“Goodness,” his mother said, taking off her coat. “It’s so cold. Let me make us some hot chocolate.”
Lacey finished taking off her boots, then hung her coat, grinning at Zoey. “So, I heard about Big C’s and Nellie showing up. You pushed her?” She looked impressed.
Zoey flinched. “Uh, yeah. How did you hear about that?”
Lacey shrugged and pulled out her phone, holding up a clip of the pushing. She laughed and went to another picture on Instagram. “This is crazy.” It was a picture of her and Mike in a major lip-lock. Underneath, it said, “Nellie’s in town, and Mike brought a new girl home.”
Remorse washed over her, and she didn’t know if it was because she’d pushed Nellie or because she’d kissed Mike. “Oh.”
Lacey laughed and pulled her into a hug. “Don’t worry about it. You gotta defend my brother with Nellie around. I think he’s really afraid of her.”
“Yes, he is.” Mike’s mom put a pan on the stove and filled it with half milk, half water.
It was so cozy. Zoey hadn’t had anyone make hot chocolate on the stove since her mother. She blinked. Being here, in this house, brought back so many feelings and memories.
Mike’s mom turned to her. “Are you okay? Nellie can be intimidating.”
“Yeah,” she said quickly. She tried to paste on a smile, but it felt rubbery. Mike wasn’t kidding about small towns. She wanted to change the subject. “What can I do to help?” She halfway slipped into what she thought a Boston accent would be.
Lacey frowned at her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Zoey said.
His mother hesitated, then nodded to the cupboard. “Sure, Ann, would you mind getting out the measuring cups from that cupboard?” she asked as she pointed.
Zoey nodded and retrieved them. Pretending to be Ann made her nervous. Hold it t
ogether. Hold it together. Hold it together. You are Ann Smith from Boston. You write poetry, eat fish, and debate.
His mother smiled at her as she pulled some cookies out of a Tupperware on the counter. Homemade chocolate chip cookies, Zoey noticed. “I’m so glad you could make it. Really. This is such a blessed time for our family.” His mother turned to Lacey, who was standing next to her, and put a gentle hand on her face.
Lacey reached up and took her hand. “Mom, don’t be emotional, okay? In a year, I’ll be coming home for good.” She motioned in the direction of the land Mike had shown her on the way to the house. “Snug as a bug in your backyard.”
“Are you excited?” Zoey asked.
Lacey dropped her mom’s hand and turned to her. “Yep. He’s stationed in Germany right now, but probably getting a transfer soon. I have been here the last six months while he’s been away, but I just want to be married, ya know?”
Zoey nodded, trying not to think what her life could have been like if …
Mike’s mom went to the stove and turned up the heat. “Lacey and Dom have been waiting roughly two years for this.” She smiled at Zoey. “It’s been a bit crazy, because Lacey danced in New York for a while.”
This was news to Zoey, but she tried to act like it wasn’t. “That’s right. That’s really cool.”
Lacey shrugged. “It was my dream, and I did it, but sometimes dreams change.” She let out a light laugh. “I never thought I’d want to come back to Snow Valley, but it’s home.”
It felt like Lacey’s words hit Zoey square in the chest. Sometimes dreams change. Her dreams had changed. She’d wanted to become a nurse, and she had, but she really wanted to have a shot as a singer.
Mike’s mom grabbed the cocoa mix and slowly stirred it in. “Lacey, please grab the secret ingredients.” She looked at Zoey with a serious expression. “Ann, you have to pinky promise that you won’t share the secret Snow family cocoa recipe.” She winked at her. “It comes from my side of the family.”
Warmth rushed through Zoey. How long had it been since she’d felt such kinship? She linked pinkies with both of them and laughed. “They couldn’t torture it out of me.”
Lacey added some vanilla, then followed it up with chocolate syrup.
Mike’s mom smiled at her and put a finger to her lips. “It makes it taste amazing.”
After a bit, they all filled their cups and sat at the counter eating the cookies, which were doubly amazing, and drinking the hot cocoa.
Zoey felt bad about being an imposter. She tried to remind herself it was two thousand dollars, and she was getting her car fixed. She would be able to pay rent in January if she needed to, but she might not need to. She might get on her dream team with Sloane Kent and be off to L.A. She would think of it as a job, not as deception.
Lacey glanced at her phone. “So you’re pretty into my bro, huh?”
“Of course.” Zoey shoved a cookie into her face. Then she worried that maybe she wasn’t eating “daintily” enough for a Bostonian. Did they eat daintily? She was thinking about an old Parent Trap movie with Hayley Mills when the girl who went to Boston had to be totally refined.
Lacey narrowed her eyes. “That’s good. I’m glad he found you.” She hesitated. “Ann, we were all a bit worried about him being so lonely in Boston.”
“Lacey.” Her mother sipped hot chocolate. “No need to act so dramatic. Mikey was fine.”
Lacey was clearly not bothered by her mother’s chiding. She took a sip and shrugged. “The first month he was in Boston, I swear he would send me a hundred landscape pics per week. Crazy, right?”
Zoey nodded, pretending to understand.
“He loves his photography, and he’s good at it,” his mother said quietly.
Lacey agreed. “He is good at it, but where do you get the time when you’re at Harvard Business School to go take pictures of mountains and forests?”
Zoey couldn’t help but wonder about Mike. He hadn’t seemed that thrilled about Harvard, nor had he been excited about going to California. In her mind, he had everything, but hearing about how much he loved photography was insightful.
His mother cleared her throat and grinned at her. “So, Ann, just between the girls, do you think a Snow Valley wedding would be in your future?”
Zoey’s mouth fell open. She scrambled for something to say.
“Mom!” Lacey shook her head and told Zoey, “Ignore her. I say too much about landscapes and I get in trouble, but she kinda throws the whole paint can at you, doesn’t she?”
Mike’s mom stood and winked at her. “Hey, I saw that kiss at Big C’s too. It was a good one.” She waved a hand at her face like she was cooling herself down.
Lacey and Zoey laughed. But it was the kind of laugh that said she’d been caught.
Mike’s mom scrunched up her nose. “Are you ready to ‘decorate’ the trees?” She waved her hand like one would wave a magic wand.
Zoey couldn’t help but like the fun way Mike’s mom had about her.
Lacey sputtered and held the cookie in the air. “She takes her flowers seriously.” She walked over to the large family room window, which provided a nice view of the rest of the property, including the place where the tents and flooring had been. “The trees are being delivered. Mom, we better get over there so we can get them placed.”
Zoey stood. “Great, let’s go.” She’d happily think about anything except that kiss or his mother planning a wedding for Mike.
Chapter 10
Mike watched Lacey, Zoey, and his mom get out of his mother’s truck and walk toward the tent full of guys putting Christmas trees in the midst of the tables and chairs. There were a couple of chocolate fountains too. Clear lights had been strung on the top of the tent and the sides. Shimmery gold and silver and pale blue peacock-looking flowers were placed along the tent walls and up and down the aisle. Mike knew it would be beautiful because his mom was a perfectionist.
He stared at Zoey, who hadn’t even noticed him yet. Dang, she was pretty. Attraction pulsed through him, and he tried to shut it down. “Not real. Not real,” he reminded himself.
“What?” Dom asked, standing a couple of feet away from him, hanging a strand of lights.
“Nothing.” He focused on hauling a Christmas tree across the rest of the tent, but kept his eyes on Zoey. She was getting instructions from his mother and taking a pile of blue, white, and silver flowers toward the trees.
He couldn’t lie; that kiss had been amazing. The way she’d spurned Nellie was believable. He’d been told he’d turned five shades of red when Chase Moon had showed him the footage, with his brother Adam grinning next to him.
Adam had pointed at him. “You’re going to be the next one we’re doing a wedding for.”
“No way,” he’d sputtered, but the thought had gotten stuck in his brain.
He wanted a wedding. He’d never realized how much he liked the family life until he’d gone to Boston and had nobody. Attending MSU had been a semi-extended version of high school, since there were so many kids from Snow Valley. Plus, Billings wasn’t that big, and Snow Valley was close. Anytime he wanted to, he’d come home for the weekend.
Boston had been different. He hadn’t wanted to admit how hard it’d been, and he dreaded going back. Which was funny, because up until Zoey had agreed to be his Christmas girlfriend yesterday, he’d dreaded coming home.
When Zoey had asked why he’d dated Ann, the plain truth was that he’d needed someone. He’d had no lack of female attention at MSU, but suddenly, it felt like the girls were so different. So driven. So … he didn’t know. All he knew was that when Ann asked him out after that debate tournament, he’d jumped at the chance for conversation.
Later, he’d figured out there was no passion in her. No fire. No …
Ugh. He put the tree where he thought it should go and where he knew his mother or Lacey would have him move it a thousand times anyway. He tried to put his finger on what was different about Zoey. The spark of
attraction was there, and not just since the kiss. He’d barely been able to sleep the night before, just thinking about her and her situation.
He grunted. Maybe he dug chicks with bad attitudes. She sure had that. It was like when they’d first met and slid off the roof down the snowbank together—they’d somehow been in sync. Maybe she had thought her life was in danger, but he’d been instantly hooked, even though he hadn’t realized it then. Maybe the in sync part was only for fleeting moments, but those moments felt like they meant something.
Mike headed back to the truck with the trees. All the guys had finished the floor, tables, and chairs. Half were working on lights, and half were setting up trees.
His mother was bossing everyone around. “Oh, Mikey, sweetie pie.” She reached out for him, and he went into her arms, knowing she wanted to peck his cheek. She did, and then she leaned into his ear. “I saw that kiss. Wowza! I bet Nellie was ticked.”
Pulling back, he saw the humor on his mother’s face, and he couldn’t help but laugh. He was genuinely friends with his mother, which was nice. “Yes, she was.” He winked at her. “We had to go before Ann got her butt kicked.”
His mother laughed. Then Lacey came over and wanted in. His mother replayed their conversation, and Lacey laughed too. “Ahh, Nellie Bells. Sheesh, her parents cursed her with that name.”
Mike grunted. “Okay, Mom.” They needed to get back to work. “What’s next?”
As soon as he asked, his father drove up with a trailer attached to his truck.
His mother gave him a placid grin. “Ask and ye shall receive. Now, the work starts.”
And it did. For the next three hours, they hauled out assorted flowers. His mother called out all of the names: silver Boronia, blue thistle, ranunculus, and baby’s breath.
The band Iron Stix arrived and got set up. Mike noted that Iron Stix never did gigs like weddings anymore, but they had made an exception since his mom and dad were friends with the band members.