Memories Under the Mistletoe Read online

  Memories Under the Mistletoe

  Dawn McClure

  Copyright © 2019 by Dawn McClure

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters and places are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, property, business establishments or events is entirely coincidental.

  Created with Vellum

  This book is dedicated to Valerie Leitch, my mother-in-law who passed away in early 2019. So many Christmases were spent in Michigan with her. So many wonderful memories were made. She loved to have her grandchildren around and would cook several appetizers and meals for everyone to enjoy (while still finding time to beat us all in Rummikub). A favorite memory of mine came right after my husband and I had spent some time on the snowmobiles. I remember we had walked in the door and instantly known she’d made chili. It smelled awesome. And after being outside in the snow, we couldn’t wait to dig in. She made the best chili—easy, quick and delicious! The recipe can be found in the back of the book.

  Thanks, Val, for everything.

  You are greatly missed.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  About the Author

  Also by Dawn McClure

  Newsletter Sign Up

  Val’s Chili Recipe

  Chapter 1

  Proposing on Christmas Day? Not very original Liam.

  Melanie Edwards took a sip of ice water and discreetly glanced around the busy, yet quiet dining area of the posh Los Angeles restaurant. Most everyone seated around the restaurant were engaged in conversation, wrapped up in foodie ecstasy, or had their nose buried in their phone. The clink of polished silverware in the manicured hands of L.A.’s most affluent citizens rang louder than the soft hum of polite conversation. With no one paying the least bit of attention to her, she subtly turned Liam’s cell clockwise until it had gone one-eighty, its face still lit up from the text his brother had just sent him, because she sure as shit hadn’t read it correctly.

  Proposing on Christmas Day? Not very original Liam.

  Mel snatched her hand away as though the cell had burned her.

  The text read the same turned right-side up as it had upside down. She hadn’t read it wrong, as she’d originally thought.

  With a small, brittle smile on her face she flagged their young waiter down and asked for a glass of Chardonnay. Her heart was bouncing against her chest like a speed bag being pummeled by an MMA fighter.

  She pushed Liam’s cell back to his side of the small table, making sure to face it the way he’d left it, and settled back in her cushioned chair to wait for him to return from the restroom. Her thoughts tumbled over the idea of being engaged by the end of the year, and though she’d seen the text with her own eyes, she was having the hardest time digesting the obvious.

  Liam planned to propose on Christmas. If he’d already decided this was the route he was going to take, he wouldn’t change his mind. Once Liam’s mind was set on doing something, he did it. He was hands down the most stubborn person she’d ever met.

  Proposing. Wow. Seemed a little premature to her. They had been dating for nearly a year, and just three weeks ago he'd asked her to move into his condo. Apparently, her polite decline hadn’t deterred him in the least. No, he was still rounding third, hoping to slide right over home plate, even though she’d called for a time out.

  Liam Michael Marks never gave up on something he’d set his sights on.

  The fact that he was going to propose to her wasn’t as farfetched as her nervous system was making it out to be. No reason to flip your shit, Mel. This is just the natural course of two people in love. Shouldn’t she feel a little differently if that were the case? Shouldn’t she be battling to keep a straight face when he settled back down at their table, or hard-pressed not to blurt out a yes before the third course arrived?

  Proposing on Christmas Day? Not very original Liam.

  Her boyfriend of ten months was going to propose. In a little less than two weeks.

  Okay. Maybe a touch of panic was acceptable. Just a smidge.

  Many of her friends back home in South Dakota were married, but her friends here in Los Angeles, where she was currently working as a senior blog contributor to the wildly popular Believe, Dream, Inspire magazine, were decidedly not. By choice. The friends she’d made here in the city had likely burned their bras in middle school and taken a blood oath to stay single well into their thirties, if not beyond. They’d dug their red, manicured nails in the California sand and refused to cross that line.

  Who could argue their case against marriage? How many crash and burns had she witnessed in the past four years working at BDI from those who had crossed that line? From behind the smudge-free glass wall of their meeting room they’d watched Bridget’s marriage crumble in a mere matter of months, all due to a horrible mother-in-law and something about a cat that Bridget’s new husband had been allergic to.

  Shock and awe had swerved through the magazine’s headquarters when it became clear that Bridget had chosen the cat over her new husband. Not exactly how Mel would have gone about things, but hey, not her biz. She was sure there was more to the situation that Bridget wasn’t sharing.

  At least she hoped there was more.

  Carrie Schrott just got divorced, and she and her now ex-husband had cited the very unoriginal irreconcilable differences in their divorce settlement. Those two words told people nothing, but from what Mel and her co-workers had heard in the break room, Carrie had found her husband of nearly three years boring in the sack. A few well-placed snickers and coughs had accompanied that bit of news. Boring in the sack? Seriously? This coming from a woman who still wore silk shirts with the conjoined bow tie hanging down the front.

  Ouch.

  Renee from human resources had just thrown a dress burning party, which had apparently become a thing during the past few years while Mel had been hiding under a rock. She’d honestly never heard of such a thing until Renee had invited her to the party last month. Renee had even hired a professional photographer to capture the entire event. She first donned her original wedding dress for a few snapshots, but once those were taken, that’s when the real party started. She then spray-painted the word adulterer all over the gorgeous designer wedding gown, and after a round of graffiti pictures, the silk got tossed into the inevitable bonfire, where she and her friends—Mel included—had danced around the fire as though the dress had become a sacrifice to an ancient deity.

  The primeval god of dead relationships.

  It turned out a lot of women worshipped that particular god, and surprisingly, the pictures turned out gorgeous. Absolutely breathtaking. Mel had spent an entire evening looking at dress burning party boards on Pinterest, and by the time she was done, she knew exactly what she was going to do if she ever got divorced. Of course, she’d have to get married first, which brought her mind right around to what was making her want to bite the dark burgundy polish off her newly manicured nails.

  Proposing on Christmas
Day? Not very original Liam.

  The waiter brought her Chardonnay, and she caught sight of Liam approaching the table. Ancient deity of dead relationships, pfft. Who said romance was dead? From where she sat, romance looked pretty damned good.

  Tall, broad-shouldered, and extremely handsome, her boyfriend was the epitome of any woman’s fantasy. He had a secure, well-paying job at his family’s business, Craig Marks and Sons. He was well spoken, had a great sense of humor, and was sharp, witty and intelligent. Not to mention thoughtful.

  Those dark brown eyes of his helped, as did the fact that he enjoyed CrossFit. The muscles of his chest and arms could barely fit under that expensive suit jacket of his. They pushed at the fabric, and Mel noted several appreciative female glances leave the lure of social media as he walked by, checking out what CrossFit could do to a man’s body. Yes, ma’am. A handsome, virile man in a suit, his future—hers also, if she said yes—bright and unobstructed.

  So why wasn’t she ecstatic about learning he was going to propose?

  Because romance wasn’t dead, but it sure as hell was time-stamped. Even her gorgeous, saint of a mother could attest to that.

  Liam took the chair across from her, using the palm of his hand to keep his blue satin tie from falling into the coffee he’d ordered after their last course, as he lowered himself into his seat. “Did I miss anything?” he asked with a smile.

  Hell yes you did. She set her cell on the ivory linen tablecloth, as though she’d been engulfed in Instagram or emails while he’d been gone and would never have noticed his own cell lighting up. As if a woman would ever miss such a thing on their boyfriend’s phone. She picked up her Chardonnay. When Liam eventually saw that text from Patrick, he was going to wonder if she’d seen it at all. If he asked her, she was going with a hard no on that question. “Thought I’d indulge a little,” she said, indicating her wine. “Congratulations on your sale today.”

  Always the type to appear slightly bashful at a compliment, though she knew deep down he absolutely craved praise, he shrugged and put his attention on folding his napkin. Closing a real estate deal that landed his firm six percent on a multi-million dollar listing wasn't anything to be shy about. But that was Liam. He never bragged, he just let his success speak for him.

  He finally met her gaze and gave her that boyish grin of his. That small tilt of his lips that said, “Aw, shucks, paw, I was only doin’ what was right”, and picked up his coffee. “Thank you. I think I impressed even my father today.”

  Which was not an easy feat, and a point Liam rarely made. He’d been trying to grab his hard-working father’s attention since he could walk, though most of the time, like his other siblings, he was unsuccessful. One sure way to get his father to pay him any attention was to make money and make money often, which Liam was quickly becoming proficient at.

  She’d never had to earn her mom’s affection, but there’d been a time she’d have jumped through a flaming hoop to gain the affection of a certain boy when he’d gone off to college. Even though several years had passed since she’d been that girl, she nearly blushed at the memories.

  She had an idea on how Liam felt. She tried to imagine fighting for someone’s attention her entire life, with someone who was supposed to love you regardless, and knew it had to have been tough on an impressionable young boy. She’d certainly seen Liam’s internal scars. “I’m sure you did.”

  Liam gave her a small smile before checking his phone. Immediately his lips thinned into a harsh line, and his gaze snapped up to meet hers. He looked at her with more than a question on his face. He looked sick to his stomach.

  She felt sick to her stomach. “What? Is something wrong?” She put down her Chardonnay and leaned forward. Don’t over-react. Don’t blow his surprise. “Is everything okay?”

  “No. I mean yes. Yes. Everything is great. I was just...” He clicked a button to make his cell go black and slipped it into his jacket pocket, his face ashen. “It was nothing. I was going to tell you something and I completely forgot what I was going to say.”

  Well, at least she knew he was a lousy liar. Perhaps men learned to lie better as they grew older.

  She didn’t want to ruin his surprise proposal, even if she wasn’t sure how she was going to respond. Liam loved surprises—giving them, not receiving them, because he always liked being prepared—and she didn’t want to let on that she knew what he was planning. “Oh.” She settled back in her chair. “You looked shocked for a second. You’re sure everything is okay?”

  This time his smile was a little more relaxed, since he likely figured his secret proposal was safe. “Yes. Sorry.”

  She took another dainty sip of Chardonnay. It’d be nice if she had a beer so she could kick one back. Like her boss always said: you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl. Sometimes having been raised in a small town showed. Problem was, if she ordered a beer, she might actually chug it, and that’s not where she wanted the night to go. She wasn’t in Pine Grove, South Dakota, and this wasn’t a kegger.

  He leaned forward. “I was thinking. Maybe we could celebrate Christmas with my parents this year?”

  Mel stared at him, blinking a few times before she figured she’d stared without speaking for too long. So he didn’t just want to propose, he wanted to drag an audience into it? Keep your cool. Don’t act weird. His parents usually vacationed for the holidays anyway. Nothing to get overly worked up over. “They’re not going on their usual cruise for Christmas?” she asked nonchalantly, the pitch of her voice a little off.

  “No,” he answered, surprising her once again. “They’re celebrating Christmas at their cabin in Tahoe. My entire family will be there, including my cousins from Florida. Even Tony said he’ll make it. You think Cindy will let you have a few extra days off from work to make the trip? I know it’s last minute, but I really want to take you home and show you off.”

  You mean take me home and propose. In front of everyone. My God, his Aunt Teresa will absolutely crucify me. Never having kids of her own, his Aunt Teresa had taken Liam under her wing and coddled him more than his mother ever could. From what Mel had gathered from Liam’s brothers, their Aunt Teresa approved of no one when it came to the three of them. All Mel could envision was an absolute shitshow followed by an impromptu proposal.

  “I’ll ask her,” she promised casually. Cindy, her boss and close friend, was going to flip her shit when Mel told her the news. Like Mel’s mother, Cindy had married young, popped out kids like a Redenbacher popcorn bag, and found herself raising three children all by herself when her marriage had fallen apart.

  Mel’s mom had raised Mel and her three brothers all on her own, and that was before Mel’s father had the decency to leave the house.

  And now Mel was facing a possible trip down the aisle of doom.

  The truth was slowly slipping past her shock. A proposal in front of his entire family. Made sense. When Liam did something, he certainly didn’t half-ass it.

  For several minutes Mel sat in her chair, an uncomfortable silence settling between them as they waited for their main course.

  If she were being honest with herself, she’d been putting the brakes on Liam for several weeks now. He was right to want to take their relationship to the next level. Moving in together would be the next appropriate course of action, but she’d inched away from making a commitment to consolidate. But this? There was no inching away from this. She wasn’t sure she wanted to get married without finding out what it was like to live with that person. Her saying no to moving in together should have given him a clue as to what she might say to a proposal.

  Liam was trying to skip a step. He was line-jumping.

  She’d always known his parents wouldn’t agree with her moving in with him before marriage. Very Christian and very traditional, they were likely pushing him toward the aisle. To them, he wouldn’t be skipping a step at all. Maybe that’s why he was going to propose. Shit. He’d probably bee
n pushed to ask her to marry him if he’d brought up the fact that he’d asked her to move in with him to any of his family. They’d have recoiled from the idea. To them first came love, then came marriage, then came moving in together, then came a baby in a—

  “Melanie? Where do you see yourself in five years?” he asked, snapping her out of a vision of a large wedding complete with his Aunt Teresa bossing her around for months and his mother insisting that Mel wear white.

  “Huh?”

  He smiled patiently. “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

  Just before Liam had finished his question, the waiter interrupted him mid-sentence and asked Liam if he would like a glass of wine with his main course. Without even looking up, Liam waved him off, very obviously displeased at the interruption.

  Mel cringed inwardly and immediately looked up at the waiter with the brightest smile she could muster. “No, thank you.” She wanted to apologize to the waiter, but after a quick nod, he was off and checking on other tables before she could get the words out. She gave Liam a look, and knowing why she was giving him a look, he only shrugged. She sighed and let his rude behavior go. The waiter was likely accustomed to the way the upper crust spoke to and treated others. Her own rose-colored glasses had sure slipped off after having lived in the city for several years. “I guess I haven’t thought about it.”

  “Nothing like the present.”

  Sometimes he was pushy, which was probably why he was a good real estate agent. Unfortunately he brought his selling face home and showed it to her every now and again.

  Their main course was in front of them before she could answer Liam’s question. Their waiter set down an elegant plate of chicken and asparagus in front of her, and a dish of duck accompanied with vegetables covered in a sweet and sour sauce in front of Liam. The servings were tiny, just like the courses that had come before this.