Mistletoe Mine
Authors: Emily March
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #General, #Contemporary Women
Table of Contents
Also by Emily March
Angel’s Rest
Hummingbird Lake
Heartache Falls
Lover’s Leap
Mistletoe Mine
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A Ballantine Books eBook Original
Copyright © 2011 by Geralyn Dawson Williams
Excerpt from
Lover’s Leap
© 2011 by Geralyn Dawson Williams
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
This contains an excerpt from the forthcoming book
Lover’s Leap
by Emily March. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.
B
ALLANTINE
and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-345-53494-1
Cover design: Lynn Andreozzi
Cover image © Design Pics/Carson Ganci / Gettyimages
Cover design : Lynn Andreozzi
Cover image © Design Pics/Carson Ganci / Gettyimages
v3.1_r1
For my mother
You made every Christmas special, Mom. I love you.
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Part One
Part Two
About the Author
Excerpt from
Lover’s Leap
Part One
August
Eternity Springs, Colorado
The human heart is a curious thing, Molly Stapleton thought as she glanced down at the sparkling ring on the third finger of her left hand. How could it be so overflowing with joy and so consumed with misery at the same time?
Ten minutes ago, in a picturesque gazebo beside a bubbling mountain creek on the grounds of Angel’s Rest Healing Center and Spa, Charlie Malone had knelt on one knee and asked her to marry him. Of course, she’d said yes. She’d been in love with Charlie for the past three years. She was ecstatic, thrilled, elated—until she realized she wanted to share her news with the people she loved most—her parents.
That’s where the misery came in. She couldn’t share her news with one call. She had to choose which parent to call first. Her mom and dad weren’t together anymore, and while she handled that reality okay most of the time, at big moments like this, the sorry state of her family broke her heart.
“You’re crying,” Charlie said, his brow knitting in a frown. “What’s the matter? You don’t like the ring? You said you liked the ring!”
“I love the ring,” Molly assured him, smiling up into his worried brown eyes. Charlie was tall, with a lean, lanky build, sun-bleached hair, and a ready smile. She loved him with all her heart. “I love you.”
“Then why do you have a look on your face like somebody canceled Christmas?”
She shook her head. She didn’t want to spoil the occasion by bringing up her parents’ sad situation. “I’m sorry. I’m just feeling emotional. This is an emotional time for a girl.”
“Just don’t cry. Please?” He tucked an errant strand of her auburn hair behind her ear. “I hate it when you cry.”
“I’m not crying.” She blinked away tears.
His frown deepened. “And don’t try to give me that nonsense about happy tears. Tears are tears, Molly, and I don’t like ’em. Seeing you cry gives me heartburn, and I left my antacids in the pocket of my jeans.”
Molly smiled at him lovingly. Her nerdy engineering grad student rarely wore anything other than jeans, but he’d dressed in khaki slacks to propose. His effort touched her. Other guys went to elaborate lengths to create big events out of their marriage proposals, but by keeping it simple and private and beautiful, Charlie had done it just right and made it perfect. Well, almost perfect. He couldn’t do anything about Mom and Dad.
“I want to tell someone,” she said. Her thoughts went naturally to her college roommate, Eternity Springs native Lori Reese. “Let’s go find Lori and share the news with her.”
“Um …” Charlie rubbed the back of his neck, his grin turning sheepish. “About Lori. She sorta already knows.”
Molly folded her arms and tried to look dismayed. He was quick to explain. “I wasn’t about to choose a ring all by myself, and since she’s your best friend, I figured she’d be the one to ask for help.”
“Does she know you were going to propose this afternoon?”
“No.” He scowled in affront. “This was private, just for you and me.”
He’s so perfect for me
. “I love you, Charlie Malone.”
“I love you, too, Molly Stapleton soon to be Molly Malone.” He hesitated then, and asked, “You will take my name, won’t you? We won’t have the hyphen thing going on?”
“No hyphen thing.” She went up on her tiptoes and gave him a playful kiss on the mouth.
Charlie, being Charlie, took it from playful to passionate, and when they finally broke apart, he spoke with strain in his voice. “Honey, I think we probably better move to a more public place … unless”—he shot her a hopeful look—“you want to find a private spot?”
“Later,” she promised, happiness rushing through her. “I told Ms. Blessing that we’d help her tear down her Christmas-in-August market tent at four, and I told Lori we’d meet her there. We’d better head over toward the festival.”
“All right, then.” He stole one more quick kiss, then reaffirmed, “Later.”
They held hands during the short walk from Angel’s Rest to the center of Eternity Springs. This was Molly’s second visit to the little Colorado mountain town that was Lori Reese’s home. Molly had become fast friends with Lori when they both worked at the Texas A&M University bookstore three semesters ago. Lori had walked into the stock room one afternoon to find Molly crying following a phone call with her dad. They’d shared absentee-father stories and bonded while restocking racks of T-shirts. Lori had never even met her father, Cam Murphy, who had been her mother’s secret boyfriend in high school before he’d been sent off to juvie jail and never returned.
Molly adored Eternity Springs when she first visited at spring break. Celeste Blessing called the town a little piece of heaven, and Molly agreed. She’d been delighted to return with a group of college friends for a week between the end of summer school and the start of the fall semester. Celeste had cut them a super-cheap deal on rooms at Angel’s Rest, and Lori’s mom had supplied them with most of their meals. That Charlie had managed to rearrange his work schedule and had made the trip up for part of the week, too, had made it the best of mini-vacations.
Holiday trimmings decorated the streets of the charming little town, and with the scent of roasting chestnuts and the songs of strolling carolers drifting in the air, Molly could almost believe it was Christmas. Well, Christmas in Texas, anyway, where it could be a balmy sixty-five degrees in December. She recalled that Lori had said that last year on Christmas Day the thermometer had topped out at a frigid five degrees in Eternity Springs.
Today the beautiful weather had brought the tourists out in droves, and for Molly, the sight of so many families enjoying the festive atmosphere was bittersweet. Her family hadn’t vacationed together in more than five years now.
“Look at those wood carvings,” Charlie said, his gaze snagging on a booth whose sign read
Vistas Art Gallery
. “That eagle looks almost real. Think we have time to stop?”
“Sure.” Ten minutes later, Charlie had finished his Christmas shopping for his parents with the purchase of a painting for their lake house, and Molly’s throat was tight after her spirits had taken another dip. She had to buy separate gifts for her separated parents.
She blinked back tears. This was silly. It wasn’t like they’d separated yesterday. They’d been apart for three years now. She should be used to it.
She’d never be used to it.
She spied the Angel’s Rest booth and, ready for a distraction, focused on it like a lifeline. Celeste Blessing had three large plastic storage boxes lying open, with stacks of plastic Bubble Wrap and tissue paper ready for use. She was dressed in denim capri pants, a gold polo shirt sporting the Angel’s Rest logo, and white sneakers. Her sun visor had angel’s wings embroidered across the headband. Though she was old enough to be Lori’s grandmother, Celeste was one of the coolest women Molly had ever met.
Also, she discovered, Celeste had a heavenly voice as the older woman segued from singing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” to “Angels We Have Heard on High.” Seeing Molly and Charlie arrive, she winked and altered the lyrics: “sweetly singing to all the tourists.”
* * *
In the booth next to Celeste, Lori’s mom, Sarah Reese, stacked her home-baked gingerbread men into a cookie tin and offered up her slightly out-of-tune version of a song from the Rudolph Christmas cartoon. “Who bring in the silver and gold, silver and gold, so that I can pay my insurance at the end of the month.”
“Joy to the World,” chimed in Sarah’s best friend, Nic Callahan. She stood between the two booths at the handle of a double stroller containing her darling twin daughters.
“Sorry we’re late, Ms. Blessing,” Charlie said as they walked up to the Angel’s Rest booth. “I stopped to buy my parents’ Christmas gift at the gallery booth up the street.”
“Not a problem. I had shoppers here until just a minute ago. Three lovely ladies from Tennessee bought six angel figurines, three angel ornaments, two angel tree toppers, and an angel-themed Christmas tree skirt.”
Sarah observed, “I thought they might buy everything you had left. You don’t have much to pack up as it is.” To Molly, she added, “The others got back from their fishing trip a little while ago. Some of the kids went on to Angel’s Rest to soak in the hot springs. Lori took a load home for me a few minutes ago, and she asked me to tell you that she’ll be right back.”
“Okay. Great.” Molly couldn’t wait to share her news with her best friend. With Mom. With Dad. But not with Mom
and
Dad. She picked up an angel figurine and began to carefully wrap it in bubble paper.
“Molly, dear, what’s wrong?” Celeste asked a few minutes later.
“You’re crying,” Sarah said, her tone concerned.
“Aw, Molly,” Charlie added.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Molly said, swiping at her cheeks with the back of her hand. She set the figurine carefully into a storage box and added, “Everything is won … won … wonderful. Charlie and I just got engaged.”