Back to December (Ward Sisters Book 1) Read online

  ©2014 by Lucy Gage

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing, 2013

  Second Printing, 2014

  ISBN 978-1534967496

  [email protected]

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Ward Sisters Series

  Back to December (#1)

  Only One (#2)

  Right Here Waiting (#3)

  This Year's Love (#4)

  Time to Begin (#5)

  Just Realized (#6)

  Bucksport, Maine, Labor Day...

  Emily Ward could pinpoint the moment everything in her life changed, and it wasn’t even her moment. It was the second Dan proposed – not to her, but to her little sister, Charlotte.

  In Emily's opinion, Dan and Charlie should live together first, then get engaged and maybe then married. At least, that’s what Emily would do. She'd lived with her boyfriend, park ranger Josh Ricker, for nearly three years and dated him for the two before that. Your perceptions of a person changed definitively when you cohabitated.

  Emily and Josh weren't oil and vinegar, but they weren't two peas in a pod, either. They were more like peanut butter and bananas – it depended on who you asked whether they were perfect together or completely wrong for each other. Emily sat increasingly in the second camp these days.

  In the time between her sister's Labor Day proposal and the winter solstice, Emily and Josh changed from being relatively happy and content to having regular, escalated arguments and hours of silent treatment.

  It wasn't a shock when Emily asked Josh for a break three days before Christmas as she left for the career opportunity of a lifetime.

  At least not to Emily.

  Minneapolis, Minnesota, three days before Christmas Eve...

  The flight attendant gave arrival instructions: gate numbers for those continuing to other destinations, baggage claim information, pick up for gate checked items. Emily had been so lost in her thoughts that she missed the baggage claim information, the only item of importance. Fortunately, she knew she'd find an airport monitor to relay the details. With the rest of the afternoon and evening to get settled, she wasn't in a rush.

  After she picked up her bags, Emily made her way to the car rental counters. The long line prompted the thought that it would be nice to have a car waiting for you at the airport, a driver whose purpose was to ferry you away as soon as humanly possible. Just then, she noticed a mob of people milling around the pickup area. The volume of the crowd's voices escalated instantly and overwhelmed all other sound in a tornado of noise.

  Most of those gathered had professional cameras with high-powered lenses. Paparazzi? In Minnesota? Em didn't have experience with that sort of thing, but she thought it was odd that anyone important might be arriving in Minnesota. It must be a politician; all the really big names coming to the Fluxus opening wouldn't arrive this far in advance when it was so close to the holidays. Minneapolis wasn't Aspen.

  Whomever it was, the crowd grew thicker and louder. It must be someone important. She hadn't heard anything about a Presidential visit, and she knew neither he nor the VP were from Minnesota, so it must be a more local celebrity, like a member of Congress. The celebrity was surrounded by a moving throng as he passed through the airport to his waiting car.

  Em assumed 'he' because what little she could see of the person was broad shoulders and brown hair with a man's cut on what was obviously a tall frame – she guessed he was over 6 feet tall. She wished she knew her members of Congress better, then she might have a clue who it could be. As soon as he got into the car, everyone instantly dispersed.

  She pondered asking if anyone knew who it had been, but her phone rang.

  Emily checked the caller ID before she answered – if it was work or her parents, she'd answer, but she didn't want to take any calls from Josh. It was too soon.

  It was her boss, Marcus.

  “Hi, Marcus. What's up?”

  “Hi, Em. Listen, can you get to the museum before 5 p.m.?” He sounded a little worried.

  “Well, I haven't switched my watch time, yet, but it's only...” she did the math in her head – subtract two hours, “two here, so it shouldn't be a problem. What do you need?”

  Marcus sighed. “Good. Okay, they've had some crisis with printing the brochures and I need to you take care of it. You're there, it makes more sense for you to handle things. It'll be more effective if you're glaring at them than if I'm yelling over the phone. I saw you the other night, I can tell you know how to glare. If you have to do it, channel whatever bothered you then. Call if there's an emergency. Otherwise, I assume you'll take care of it all yourself. I expect to hear great things from Lucinda the morning after the gala. Good luck.” He ended the call before she could ask questions.

  Great, a crisis before she left the airport. Now Em knew why her co-worker, Andrew, was relieved to bow out as the Art Wurks liaison. He knew the work involved with the magazine as the major sponsor of the Walker Art Museum's Fluxus gala and exhibit.

  The only good news was that she had a bigger chance to prove herself. And she could channel that glare. She was still unhappy with how things had ended at home. And now that Marcus brought it up, she had more than enough time in line to stew.

  It took longer than Emily thought to get her rental car, and since they had been out of small and midsized cars, she had been stuck with an SUV. It was either that or a behemoth Crown Victoria, and she had no desire to drive a rear-wheel drive cop car in the Minnesota snow. The magazine paid for her car, so she figured it didn't matter what she drove. What could they expect when she needed a last-minute rental just before Christmas?

  She and Josh each had a GPS unit for their cars at home, and since she assumed her rental wouldn't have one, she brought hers along. But her expensive, late-in-the-game rental had an on-board navigation system. Thankfully, it resembled her Garmin, because she'd have otherwise pulled hers out of her luggage. Get lost wasn't on her to-do list.

  Em easily found her hotel, The Debussy, even without the help of the GPS. Fortunately, it was close to the Walker Art Museum and she could park at the hotel for free and walk to work. She still had a little time – it was only 3:30 when she finally got to the hotel – so she checked into her room before she went to avert the printing crisis.

  Once Emily settled into her room, she freshened up from travel, changed from her sweats and Bean boots into a navy wool skirt, her 3-inch Mary Jane heels and a cream silk shirt, then headed to the museum. When she arrived at the entrance, her breath was momentarily taken away. She'd seen the museum in photographs for years, but as the sun set, it hit the building just right and created a stunning, gleaming piece of Modern sculpture. It would certainly be no hardship to arrive every morning at this building for work.

  Emily found security and gave them her name. They had expected her and assigned a temporary badge while they called Becky, the museum staffer who would be her contact point while she was at the Walker. Moments later, Becky arrived to take her to the offices. She expressed surprise that Emily arrived a day early – Becky had anticipated her the next morning. Nonetheless, they had set up a temporary office for Em in a conference room. When she finally got a word in edgewise, Em told Becky why she was there.


  Becky laughed. “Oh, that Marcus. He either wanted to make you rush over here or else he's having another one of his days where he panics about nothing because he's too busy to pay attention to details.”

  Emily sighed. “So, there isn't a crisis?”

  “No! We've got in-house design, Emily. You can head down there to give final approval for the brochures, but that could have been done tomorrow. Maybe someone over at design called to ask for you to make a decision on some last-minute details, but it wouldn't have been urgent.”

  Emily shook her head. “Okay. I guess while I'm here, I can head down to design and take care of whatever they wanted so it's off my plate tomorrow.”

  Becky agreed and they went to the design office. There were a few logo placement decisions to make, but it wasn't anything worrisome. Becky walked her back to security, where they took Em's photo for a badge that would be available to her in the morning. Tomorrow, she would repeat her arrival procedure from earlier. After that, she could come and go with her badge at the staff doors. They said their goodbyes and Emily headed back to the hotel to retrieve her rental.

  The printing non-crisis behind her, Emily turned her attention to buying Christmas gifts for her former college roommate's little boys. She sprung a last-minute request to spend Christmas with Angie's family. Angie had moved back to Minnesota when she graduated and promptly met a doctor who worked at the Mayo Clinic. Their two little boys, ages five and seven, were apparently obsessed with comic book characters and Transformers.

  While Em sat at the Portland Jetport waiting for her flight to depart, she'd Googled toy stores in Minneapolis. She found a shop outside of the city called MacArthur's Toys. The places in town didn't have action figures. MacArthur's website wasn't very detailed, so Em called to see if she could get what she wanted there and before they closed. Otherwise, she might as well shop in town where she could walk.

  Fortunately, the owner answered and said he had two of the Wolverine toys that the boys requested and Angie couldn't find at a reasonable price. Em had no idea what a reasonable price was supposed to be, but since they were hosting her for the holiday at the last minute, she could hardly worry too much about it. It might bust Angie's budget for the kids, but not hers – Emily had a short shopping list. The guy said he'd hold them for her if she got there that night before they closed at 6 p.m.. She said she was on her way.

  Finding the place was easy, but the traffic frustrated her as cars crawled along the streets and the highway, often at a snail's pace. By the time she parked at the toy store, it was only 10 minutes until close.

  The proprietor was still there and, as promised, he'd saved her the two action figures. She knew the boys would play with them, but the shop owner said the reason the figures were difficult to find was that they were collectibles and were in high demand this year. An inexperienced action figure buyer, Emily couldn't say if the $20/each price tag was outrageous, but since she paid close to $50 for her collectible Barbie each year, she wouldn't complain.

  The man sold her wrapping paper and tape, then it was time for him to close. He said she was lucky, those were his last two Wolverines and he knew there wouldn't be more coming before Christmas. She thanked him for his help and wished him a Merry Christmas.

  Emily stepped out the door and slid fingers into gloves as she walked down the path to the sidewalk. All of a sudden, as she approached the end of the walkway, a huge mass slammed into her and she flew into the snowbank. She was disoriented for a moment when a man reached down to help her stand.

  “Oh! I'm so sorry!” he said. “Are you okay? I didn't hurt you, did I?”

  She looked at the guy, too discombobulated to register his appearance. “Did you just crash into me?”

  He gave her a sheepish smile. “Yeah. Sorry about that. I wasn't watching where I was going. Um, it looks like the handle of your bag broke.”

  She looked down at the little bag with the toys in it and, sure enough, one of the handles had broken. When she checked the bag, there was only one of the action figures inside. “Oh no! Where did the other one go?”

  “Other what? Did you lose something?”

  “Yes! I just bought these two action figures and one of them is missing from the bag!”

  “Maybe you forgot it at the register?”

  “No! He put them both in the bag. I saw him. Maybe it fell out when you knocked me down.”

  “Let me help you look.” Given that it was dark and the street light wasn't very bright, she could hardly say no.

  They looked around near where she had landed and didn't see anything. Then a guy rode by on his bicycle, decked in winter biking gear, and she heard the crunch of plastic packaging. The stranger grimaced. He knew as well as she did that the cyclist had found the toy. He picked it up and his expression grew solemn. “Oh, I'm so sorry. It looks like it got broken.” He handed it to her.

  “Seriously?” Em asked, deflated. “This is your fault, you know. If you hadn't knocked me into the snowbank, I'd have made it to the car just fine.”

  “I really am sorry. Look, I'll buy you a new one.”

  “You can't buy me a new one. This was one of the last two in the area. It's why I'm here in the first place. And he just closed the store. I hope you weren't planning to shop.” She sighed. “This sucks. Now I don't even have time to get anything else.” Emily pushed the heel of her hand to her forehead.

  “Can you shop tomorrow?”

  “No! I was shopping now because I'll be too busy with work the next couple days and I won't have time!”

  “Why don't you come into the store with me and we'll see if he's got another one.”

  “Did you hear me? He's closed! And he told me that was it. He won't have any more of these before Christmas, anyway, so it would be pointless.”

  “Look, the lights are still on because he was waiting for me to show up here at closing time. Just come inside with me. Let's see if he'll help us out, okay? What have you got to lose?”

  She sighed. “Fine. I guess it can't hurt. Maybe he can order me a replacement and have it sent to my friend.”

  “This is for your friend?” he asked as they walked back toward the store.

  “Well, for her sons. I guess they really wanted these action figures and she couldn't find any for a price in her budget. I don't even know if I paid too much for them, but she's helping me out in a bind and I figured it was worth it if the kids got what they really wanted.”

  “Let's see what we can do.” He knocked on the door and the owner unlocked it, letting them inside.

  “Robbie! Great to see you. Oh! Hello, miss. Is there something wrong?”

  “Mac, I just ran into her outside. Literally.” He reached for the broken toy and Emily handed it to him. “Do you think we can replace this one?”

  “For you, Robbie, anything.” He winked. “I didn't wrap them, yet. Knew you'd want to look them over first.” The guy went out to a back room and when he returned, he had a box filled with several of the Wolverine toys. Emily didn't count them, but there had to be nearly a dozen. “Here you go. You can decide which one to give her and I'll go out back and get the other two boxes. Everything else is wrapped.”

  The stranger – she gathered his name was Robbie – looked at her then. Her mouth must have dropped open at the sight of the toys. He laughed.

  “Mac had already put them aside for me. I knew I could replace it for you if you'd just come inside with me.” He put the broken toy in the box and took out a pristine one, whose packaging was even immaculate. “Here you go. I really am sorry about that. I wasn't paying attention.”

  “No. It's okay. I mean, it's not okay that you weren't paying attention, but I won't hold it against you for the rest of your life. Thank you for giving this to me. You're going to make two little boys very, very happy this Christmas. Not to mention their mom.”

  “It's the least I could do. What was your name?”

  Suave. She hadn't given it. She smiled anyway. “Emily.”
>
  He stuck out his hand and smiled in return. “Hi, Emily. I'm Rob.”

  She shook his hand without taking off her glove. “It's nice to meet you, Rob. Sorry I was so grumpy. It took me ages to get here through traffic, and I really don't have a single moment to shop after this. I've got a lot on my plate at work this week and this was my one shot. You saved me. Thanks.”

  “Any time.”

  “Yeah, let's hope that doesn't ever happen again. To you or me. I better get back into town before I turn into a pumpkin.”

  He laughed again. “Touche. Have a safe drive. And Merry Christmas.” He smiled.

  “Merry Christmas to you, too.” She smiled back, then turned and walked out the door.

  This time, she watched carefully as she headed to the car. When she was safely inside, she breathed a sigh of relief. At least she had something to give the boys. One less thing on her to-do list. Now it was time to eat dinner and make it an early night so she could hit the ground running tomorrow.

  The traffic into the city wasn't as congested as it had been on the drive to the toy store. Figured. She parked the SUV at the hotel and toted her purchase to her room. After what it took to get those suckers, no way would she take a chance that some desperate mom might see them in her car and seize the opportunity to snag them.

  Emily stopped at her room before dinner, where she dropped her briefcase, tamed a few stray hairs and touched up her makeup. She debated ordering room service, but that would have been a typical Josh thing to do. Granted, room service at The Debussy was surely spectacular, but still, she was restless.

  So, she went downstairs to the bar to see if the bartender had any ideas. She could ask the concierge, but that was his job and he might have places he was supposed to push. The bartender was more likely to both know places she could afford and give her an honest answer.

  Em sidled up to the bar to ask the woman behind it for a suggestion, when there was suddenly someone at her elbow.