Happily Ever Afters Guaranteed

by Lacy Williams

  HAPPILY EVER AFTERS GUARANTEED

  A short story collection

  By Lacy Williams

  Copyright © 2012 Lacy Williams

  Smashwords Edition

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the site where you bought it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Other books by Lacy Williams

  MARRYING MISS MARSHAL

  THE HOMESTEADER'S SWEETHEART

  HEART OF GOLD

  Title page

  Copyright page

  A Birthday To Remember

  Harvest Moon

  Green Peas Sneeze

  Kate's Valentine

  Part One

  Part Two

  Part Three

  Part Four

  Part Five

  Part Six

  Part Seven

  Part Eight

  Part Nine

  Part Ten

  The Bluestocking and The Blueblood

  Sneak peak - Marrying Miss Marshal

  Sneak Peak - The Homesteader's Sweetheart

  A BIRTHDAY TO REMEMBER

  By LACY WILLIAMS

  TUESDAY

  Still no package.

  Anna Larsen batted away her disappointment as she flipped through the stack of bills and junk mail. She dodged a soccer ball rolling down the hallway and detoured to the trash—it definitely needed to be emptied—and added the bills to the stack to pay later tonight, when things around here settled down a little.

  “Mom!”

  “Gina’s tattling!”

  The two voices overlapped as the sound of feet thundered toward the kitchen, followed by plaintive barking.

  She wasn’t ashamed to admit her birthday wish—made during yesterday’s brunch with her two best friends, also young mothers—was for a few hours of peace and quiet. Plus a dozen roses, an hour massage, and the new romance novel she’d been waiting to buy.

  She’d settle for one of her wishes. Her sister Misty had promised to babysit for a couple hours tomorrow, Anna’s actual birthday.

  And Anna was hoping her parents had mailed her the novel since they were away on a cruise.

  It was times like these she missed Ted the most. He’d loved cooking up surprises and doing big things for birthdays. It just wasn’t the same when you had to throw the surprise party for yourself. And, although he’d left behind a nice insurance settlement so she didn’t have to pinch pennies exactly… she tried to be frugal with the money so she might be able to help the kids pay for college. Not that she needed to worry about that now.

  “Gina, Mikey,” she stalled their wild flight into the kitchen with both hands raised.

  And the loud buzzing powertool from the house being remodeled next door kicked on, igniting Anna’s headache. Couldn’t the carpenter take a break for one day?

  “What’s going on?” she asked her kids. Both six-year-old Mikey and four-year-old Gina sucked in breaths, but before they could start talking over each other, Anna said, “Gina first.”

  “Mikey painted on the wall—” Her daughter, dressed in a long, lavender tutu, a t-shirt and sneakers, started speaking.

  “It’s a present for you, Mom! Supposed to be a surprise!” Her son’s exclamation was punctuated by a bark from Molly, their six-month-old Border Collie puppy who had a suspicious orange streak across her back.

  Anna was only surprised that this—whatever he’d painted—was the first creative surprise her son had “given” her this week. Last Saturday it had been mud pies… baked in her oven.

  “You’d better show me this surprise,” Anna said.

  Happy birthday, Mom.

  The R and H in birthday were both backwards. The words glared at Anna from the upstairs hallway, dripping down the once-white wall several feet below the family photos that lined the hallway.

  “Oh, Mikey…”

  Just then, the doorbell rang.

  “I’ll get it!” chirped Gina, darting back downstairs before Anna could grab her t-shirt to stop her.

  “No, Gina! Let mommy see who it is first!”

  Anna followed her daughter, but tripped on a doll on the bottom stair and landed hard on her rump in the entry hall, just as Gina pulled the door open to reveal a tall, broad-shouldered man wearing faded jeans and a tool belt.

  The man Anna least wanted to see. And, apparently, the carpenter from next door. Kelly Cartwright.

  “You all right?” he asked, flicking his sky blue eyes in Anna’s direction, though he didn’t step over the threshold.

  She nodded, wincing with both chagrin and what was sure to be a bruised tailbone in the morning. She pushed herself off the floor and moved to stand behind Gina, putting a hand on her daughter’s shoulder.

  Those blue eyes didn’t miss the protective gesture, and his hands fisted at his sides. “Hello,” he said to Gina.

  “I’m Gina Marie Larsen. I’m four and I will be five in three more months. Who are you?”

  He smiled and it turned his face from plain old gorgeous to “Tom Cruise’s younger brother” handsome. Anna’s heart thumped once loudly, same way it had every time he’d smiled at her back in college. “My name is Kelly and I’m thirty years old and two months.”

  “I’m six and a half.”

  Anna glanced over her shoulder to see Mikey peeking around the edge of the stairway, Molly at his feet.

  “My son, Mikey,” Anna offered.

  “Hi, Mikey.”

  “And that’s Molly!” Gina chimed in, her tendency toward wanting the spotlight asserting itself. “And Mommy’s birthday is tomorrow. She’s going to be—”

  “Gina.” Anna clapped her other hand onto the girl’s other shoulder, halting her words. Too late.

  “29. I remember.” Kelly’s gaze intensified as it shifted from daughter to mother.

  Anna’s heart thumped again, painfully this time. She didn’t want the bad boy from her college days to remember her birthday. She wanted Ted back. Comfortable, good old Ted.

  “Is there something I can do for you?” Anna wanted Kelly gone from her front porch before things dissolved any more and Gina invited him in.

  “I actually, um…” He looked sheepish, an expression she’d never seen on him before. He’d always been confident—Ted had called him arrogant. “I was coming out of the driveway to head to the hardware store and I backed into your mailbox.”

  He pointed over his shoulder and Anna followed his finger with her gaze. Her mailbox lay on its side and an ugly hold gaped in her yard next to the curb. So this wouldn’t be an easy fix.

  “Mikey, can you take Gina upstairs and play, please?” Anna’s kids shuffled up the stairs and she thought to call after them, “No more painting!”

  Kelly’s eyebrows rose as she joined him on the porch but she didn’t explain. She pulled the door almost all the way closed, so she could still hear the kids if they needed her.

  “I’m really sorry,” Kelly said, and he looked it. But she’d been the recipient of one too many of his apologies before and wasn’t sure she could believe it.

  “It’s not the first time it’s happened,” she admitted, crossing her arms over her middle. “I think the original builders shaped the cul-de-sac wrong.”

  “Since I was heading to the hardware store anyway, I’ll just get a bag of cement and a new post. If I get it set tonight, I can reattach the box first thing in the morning.”

&
nbsp; “It’s okay. My mom and dad are out of town, but dad can do it when he gets back.” She didn’t really want Kelly hanging around, even to fix something he’d broken.

  “I don’t think the postman will deliver your mail without a box.” His voice didn’t betray any tension, but Anna knew him well enough to see his tells—stiff shoulders and still-clenched fists. “It was my fault for rushing. Should’ve been paying attention. I’d like to fix it for you.”

  She’d prefer he didn’t, but then she remembered her awaited birthday packaged and shrugged. “Fine. The kids go to bed at 8:30 though, so I don’t want you to make a lot of noise after that.”

  “Sure.” His easy smile returned. “I’m actually kind of glad this happened.”

  He was? Anna frowned, stomach clenching as she imagined what he might say.

  “I’ve seen you at church a few times since I moved back home a few months ago, but I always seem to miss you.”

  She knew. She’d rushed the kids out of the sanctuary a couple of times to avoid him.

  “I heard about your husband and I wanted to say I’m sorry for your loss. Ted was a good guy.” He squinted and looked out into the yard, as if the words weren’t easy for him to say. “I—”

  “I should really go in and check on the kids,” she interrupted, afraid of what he would say next.

  She reached for the door but his hand closed over her wrist, surrounding her skin with heat. She yanked away and he held up both hands in front of himself.

  “Please.” He cleared his throat. “I’m probably only going to get the courage up to do this once.”

  Heart pounding loudly in her ears, Anna desperately wanted to turn and rush back into the house, but the thread of desperation in his voice held her captive.

  “I need to apologize—you might not even remember this—the night of your wedding reception—”

  She knew exactly what he referred to. How could she forget, even seven years later? It had been the worst twenty minutes of the best day of her life and had caused the first fight between her and Ted as a married couple. She could still hear Kelly over the mic he’d snagged from the best man. “You married the wrong guy, Anna.” And Ted’s later comment, “I can’t believe you’ve been friends with that lowlife since freshman year.”

  She hadn’t stayed friends with Kelly after that.

  “You really don’t have to—” she started.

  “Actually, I do have to. Apologizing and making amends is part of the recovery program I follow.” His eyes met hers, a serious, deep blue this time.

  “I didn’t know you’d joined a program.”

  “Five years now,” he said, rocking back on his heels, still considering her.

  She didn’t know what he wanted from her. “That’s great. I’m glad for you, Kelly.”

  But just because he was sober didn’t mean she wanted to hang out with him. She had two kids to take care of and a lot of other things going on in her life.

  He finally looked away after a long beat of silence, his gaze going out into the yard again. “It’s okay if you can’t forgive me for ruining your wedding reception. I know it’s a lot to ask.”

  Anna’s thoughts went to the night two years before that—before she’d even started dating Ted. If she probed, would Kelly apologize for that night, too?

  Did she want to say anything? Afraid if she brought up their disastrous first—and only—date, Kelly would read something into it, she chickened out. “It’s really okay. Water under the bridge and all that. An apology is way better than what I thought you were going to say, anyway.”

  His questioning expression made her think better of her statement—she knew he’d badger her until she told him what she’d thought, so she rushed forward without thinking. “I thought you were going to ask me out.”

  A flash of hurt crossed his features before he quickly schooled his face into a blank mask. She hadn’t meant to hurt him, but she just couldn’t go there, not with everything that had passed between them. Not with two kids to look out for.

  “I’d better get on to the hardware store,” he said with a wan smile. “Thanks for listening.” His shoulders were tense again as he took the steps off the porch. He didn’t look back.

  “Bye,” Anna whispered.

  TUESDAY EVENING

  The kids finally in bed, Anna watched Kelly from behind the kitchen curtains as he mixed and poured the concrete and put the new mailbox post in place. He was far enough from the house that he wasn’t making much noise.

  She felt kind of bad, because he’d been working—she’d heard the power tools going again—all afternoon since he’d returned from the hardware store, and he hadn’t taken a dinner break or anything before he’d started working on her mailbox.

  Part of her thought she should go out and offer him a glass of water or a sandwich or something, but she wasn’t sure she could face having a conversation with him again.

  They’d met in Freshman English at university and hit if off—been nearly inseparable that first semester. When he’d asked her out to a bonfire with a group of friends, she’d been elated. She’d had such a crush on him.

  She’d been so naïve.

  He’d picked her up, and as usual, they’d talked and joked the whole way out to the local campground, barely pausing for breath. Having fun.

  But one of his buddies had brought a cooler of drinks and as the evening progressed, Kelly had visited it more and more. By the time she’d insisted on driving home, he’d been too drunk to protest, though it hadn’t stopped him from stealing a slobbery, awkward kiss.

  The next afternoon he’d apologized for “going overboard” and asked her if they could try again.

  She’d been polite but refused on the grounds that she thought they were better off as friends. They’d had several classes together before graduation but never regained their former closeness. After Anna started dating Ted at the end of her sophomore year, she and Kelly had drifted even further apart.

  And after he’d made a fool of himself at her wedding reception she hadn’t spoken to him again.

  Until earlier today.

  She was glad to know he was in a recovery program and had been sober for years. But she just didn’t think she could risk having a friendship with him again.

  WEDNESDAY

  Kelly and the U.S. Post Office said she’d have no mail today because her mailbox wasn’t fixed. That meant no package. Not even a birthday card.

  Anna tried to squelch her disappointment and hold onto her temper as she followed the kids’ screaming voices into the living room. Her two usually-good kids had turned into recalcitrant monsters and seemed determined to ruin her birthday today. A fight over the last of the cereal had made breakfast into a free-for-all, and they’d both been cranky and petulant since.

  Was it really only ten a.m.? She couldn’t wait for Misty to get here.

  “What is going on in here?” she asked, after raising both hands to silence the kids.

  “Mikey won’t let me watch the princess show,” Gina whined, big crocodile tears that Anna was sure were fake shining on her cheeks.

  “It’s my turn to pick,” Mikey insisted, holding the remote control out of his sister’s reach.

  “How about you both go into the kitchen and feed Molly her breakfast? Make sure she has water, too.”

  “Aw, mom…” They both mumbled and drug their feet but finally went.

  Anna started to follow them but the phone rang. She answered quickly before Gina tried to come get it.

  “Anna, I’m sooo sorry,” Misty’s voice rang out over the line. “Mrs. P called me in to work. I couldn’t get out of it and I’m not going to be able to babysit. I know I promised but she’s my boss and I couldn’t say no.”

  Her sister wasn’t coming for the kids.

  So much for carving a few relaxing hours out of the day for her birthday.

  Could anything go right today?

  Mikey called for her from the kitchen and Anna slipped into
the hall coat closet, wiping away a stray tear. She just needed a moment without chaos to get ahold of herself.

  Pressed against the winter coats, standing on top of the vacuum cleaner, she hiccoughed and tried to calm down even as she heard a shouted “Mom!” from somewhere in the house.

  Couldn’t she even have a few hours—minutes—of peace on her birthday?

  “Mom!” “Mommy!” Her kids’ shouts echoed more urgently, but she couldn’t get ahold of herself…

  “Mom!”

  Finally she stepped out of the closet, hoping she could keep a lid on her tears. “What’s the matter?”

  Mikey skidded to a stop in the entryway, face panicked. “Molly’s gone! We went in the backyard to get her and the gate was open. She ran away from home!”

  Gina ran forward and threw herself at Anna’s legs, wrapping her little arms around Anna’s knees.

  Just what Anna needed. Something else to go wrong today! She prayed that the dog hadn’t gotten far as she disengaged Gina from her legs and headed for the front door.

  She was opening her mouth to yell for Molly as she hit the front porch when a familiar figure came up the walk and halted her words.

  Kelly, carrying a panting, squirming Molly in his arms. “Looking for something?” He ruffled the dog’s ears and chuckled as she licked underneath his chin, wiggling with joy.

  He took one look at Anna’s face and his smile faded. “What’s wrong?”

  “Molly!” Mikey’s voice rand out and his footsteps slapped against the porch steps behind her.

  Anna didn’t want to break down in front of her kids, she really didn’t—and she especially didn’t want Kelly to see her cry. But her relief that Molly was safe sent her teetering emotions reeling and hot tears filled her eyes. She turned to the side and raised one hand to shield her eyes as Mikey rushed past her.

  “You found Molly!”

  “Actually, she found me. I left the front door open and she came wandering in and right to me.”