Page 268 of Screwged for Christmas

MISTER BAD BOY FIREFIGHTER

You know the game, Never Have I Ever? Well, I did—every inch of him and then I left.

I had my reasons, but now I'm back in Big Dix—or Dixen, Alaska—and so is the hotshot firefighter turned fire chief I left at the altar.

It's been eight years and Aspen Kennedy still has it all: He’s hot as sin, hard in all the right places, induces Oh, God, yes moments and has brains too. Simple math, right? So you would think. But my younger self ran when the time came to say, ‘I do’. Biggest mistake of my life, but I moved on in order to save my heart.

I'll keep my distance, and since I have no interest in rekindling any romance with my high-school flame while I'm in town, that should be easy. My goal is to help my gran renovate her B&B before Christmas and then I’ll be back in the Big Apple, far away from Aspen.

But the man doesn't play fair and his memory of my body has me rethinking life on a grander scale, screaming his three favorite words and forgetting about my tight schedule and all the bullet points on my to-do lists. I suppose a few stolen moments of pleasure can be our little secret, right? Trouble is, the more he touches me and the more we’re together, the more I wonder what it would be like to wake up to a Big Dix man for the rest of my days… After the Christmas lights come down, will there be any magic left between us?

THE IVY EFFECT

Definition: the term used to describe Ivy Winter’s unique and unfortunate ability to attract undesirable (shitty) discoveries on the heels of receiving favorable news. Happens every damn time.

CHAPTER 1

Ivy Winters should have known the Ivy Effect would make an appearance sooner rather than later. It had chased her through elementary school when she received the award for outstanding penmanship, which ended with her hair catching fire on the ceremony candles and all the boys laughing at her. It struck again at graduation when her homemade gown fell apart like Cinderella’s at midnight. Not good when you opted for pasties and a thong.

Not the way you wanted to deliver your valedictorian speech.

And now.

Of course, there had been other incidents but to list them all out would take all Christmas.

Why couldn’t she catch a break? Just one. It’s all it would take for her to get her feet under her once and for all.

Silence settled around her, but it was next to impossible to gather solace from the quiet when she was always waiting for the other proverbial shoe to drop.

With a deep sigh, she folded back the edges of her oversized comforter and patted Max’s soft head—her gran’s aging golden retriever. He snuggled close to her with a tiny whine, offering what he could in the ways of consoling.

“Why can’t we just skip Christmas, Max?” It left a nasty taste in her mouth just saying the word. She looked down into soulful brown eyes and smiled. “No answer, huh? Yeah, me neither.”

Ivy rolled to her side and pulled the covers over her head. A burst of light filled the little pocket of space beneath the covers and she sighed heavily as she read the text message for a third time that morning. The millionth since receiving it twenty-seven days, six hours and some odd minutes ago. She wasn’t desperate enough to count them or the seconds that had ticked by since her now ex-fiancé bid herau revoirvia text message, as she stood on the curb and watched her house burn to cinders, and on Thanksgiving night no less.

“Bastard.” She hoped karma had his name in big bold, black letters.

Ivy threw back the comforter and immediately shrank back from the cold. Low embers shimmered in the darkness from the fireplace opposite the bed. She reached over to flip the lamp on. Nothing. “Still out. Great.” The snowstorm that greeted her coming in from New York City the night before had arrived in Dixen with a big huff of wintry energy.

The angry winds seemed to have died down. Through the window to the right of her bed, she could see snow drift softly against the large picture window, but she couldn’t bring herself to appreciate the beauty of the fine feathery fluff. Early morning hues of gray and white gradually brightened the room. Just enough for her to see the craggy outlines of the bare trees beyond her window.

She sighed and flipped her phone off, unable to bear the words on an empty stomach.

“Coffee. Maybe a doughnut too. What do you say, Max?”

On one hand, maybe she should have returned to Seattle after her job interview in New York City instead of giving in to her family and coming to her grandmother’s.

While on the other, what else was she going to do over the holidays? Return to her parent’s house and wait by the phone praying she got the job like a teenager over summer break? Not even a possibility. Her mother baked from sun up till sun down starting the day after Thanksgiving and didn’t stop until New Year’s Day. All that cheer and merrymaking…

Ivy’s stomach gurgled.

No thank you. It was better she stayed away and did not pass on her Scrooge attitude to anyone. She would wait for the insurance claim to go through, rebuild her home, refocus on work and firmly shove her cheating ex-fiancé from her mind. He was already out of her life so that was half the battle. The job in New York City would take care of the latter two.

Her cheeks were growing numb and her fingers started to turn cold. Still, she lay there, staring into the dying embers in the fireplace.

Thwack.

Ivy bolted upright, the blankets around her neck pooling at her waist.

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