ISBN: 9780373039524

If her hands hadn't been covered in double choco- late chip cookie dough, Melanie Weaver would have slapped duct tape over her mouth to stop herself from doing it again. Saying yes whe… More...

If her hands hadn't been covered in double choco- late chip cookie dough, Melanie Weaver would have slapped duct tape over her mouth to stop herself from doing it again. Saying yes when she really meant no. Even when she had the best intentions of refusing, that slithery yes word slipped out instead. "Do you want a slice of Great-Grandma's fruitcake?" "Can you call Bingo for the Ladies' Auxiliary?" "Don't you just love this orange sweater?" She hated fruitcake, had grown tired of the "B-4 and After" jokes, and never wore orange. Yet every year, Great Grandma brought a rock-hard fruitcake to Christmas dinner and Melanie choked down a slice, praising the wrinkled dates and dried cherries. On Tuesday nights, she dutifully showed up at the Presbyterian Church and called out letters and numbers in a smoky room filled with frantic red- dotters. And in Melanie's closet, there were three orange sweaters, birthday presents from her aunt Cornelia, who took Melanie's compliment of a mango-colored afghan as sure evidence of love for the color. So it stood to reason, based on her history of always saying the wrong word at the wrong time, that on a bright spring Friday morning she would accept an invitation to her twenty-year class reunion when her life was as jumbled as a ten-thousand-piece puzzle. "It'll be wonderful to have you!" Jeannie Jenkins, former cheerleader, blasted Melanie out of her reverie with a voice that hit unnatural decibels on the phone. "Everyone is, like, so looking forward to seeing you. I just knew, when I saw your name on the list, that you'd want to go. I mean, you must have just forgotten to RSVP or something ." "Or something," Melanie said. She hadn't returned the card because she hadn't intended to go, nor to answer all those questions about where Cade was. Or, worse, see Cade there with another woman on his arm. She may be ending her marriage, but she wasn't quite ready to imagine him with someone else. "The reunion is only, like, a week away. We'll all be together again, in just a few days. Isn't that so exciting?" "Absolutely." Melanie tried to work some enthu- siasm into her voice. She wanted to see her old friends, to catch up on their lives, but the thought of running into Cade, surrounded by memories of happier days, was unbearable. Her resolve would falter, and all those maybes would pop up, the same maybes that had stalled her leaving over and over again because she'd thought things might change. Go back to the way they were. Either way, there was no return to those days. Melanie had changed, and Cade hadn't accepted those changes. She now had her shop, her new life. A life that no longer included Cade. It was early afternoon and Cuppa Life was empty, save for Cooter Reynolds, who was sipping his daily mocha latte while reading the Lawford News and tapping his foot along with the soft jazz on the sound system. She had an hour until the college student Fiction Fiction eBook, Harlequin<

ISBN: 9780373039524

If her hands hadn't been covered in double choco- late chip cookie dough, Melanie Weaver would have slapped duct tape over her mouth to stop herself from doing it again. Saying yes whe… More...

If her hands hadn't been covered in double choco- late chip cookie dough, Melanie Weaver would have slapped duct tape over her mouth to stop herself from doing it again. Saying yes when she really meant no. Even when she had the best intentions of refusing, that slithery yes word slipped out instead. "Do you want a slice of Great-Grandma's fruitcake?" "Can you call Bingo for the Ladies' Auxiliary?" "Don't you just love this orange sweater?" She hated fruitcake, had grown tired of the "B-4 and After" jokes, and never wore orange. Yet every year, Great Grandma brought a rock-hard fruitcake to Christmas dinner and Melanie choked down a slice, praising the wrinkled dates and dried cherries. On Tuesday nights, she dutifully showed up at the Presbyterian Church and called out letters and numbers in a smoky room filled with frantic red- dotters. And in Melanie's closet, there were three orange sweaters, birthday presents from her aunt Cornelia, who took Melanie's compliment of a mango-colored afghan as sure evidence of love for the color. So it stood to reason, based on her history of always saying the wrong word at the wrong time, that on a bright spring Friday morning she would accept an invitation to her twenty-year class reunion when her life was as jumbled as a ten-thousand-piece puzzle. "It'll be wonderful to have you!" Jeannie Jenkins, former cheerleader, blasted Melanie out of her reverie with a voice that hit unnatural decibels on the phone. "Everyone is, like, so looking forward to seeing you. I just knew, when I saw your name on the list, that you'd want to go. I mean, you must have just forgotten to RSVP or something ." "Or something," Melanie said. She hadn't returned the card because she hadn't intended to go, nor to answer all those questions about where Cade was. Or, worse, see Cade there with another woman on his arm. She may be ending her marriage, but she wasn't quite ready to imagine him with someone else. "The reunion is only, like, a week away. We'll all be together again, in just a few days. Isn't that so exciting?" "Absolutely." Melanie tried to work some enthu- siasm into her voice. She wanted to see her old friends, to catch up on their lives, but the thought of running into Cade, surrounded by memories of happier days, was unbearable. Her resolve would falter, and all those maybes would pop up, the same maybes that had stalled her leaving over and over again because she'd thought things might change. Go back to the way they were. Either way, there was no return to those days. Melanie had changed, and Cade hadn't accepted those changes. She now had her shop, her new life. A life that no longer included Cade. It was early afternoon and Cuppa Life was empty, save for Cooter Reynolds, who was sipping his daily mocha latte while reading the Lawford News and tapping his foot along with the soft jazz on the sound system. She had an hour until the college student Fiction Fiction, Harlequin<

ISBN: 9780373039524

Cade and Melanie--high school prom king and queen--the golden couple! Twenty years on, the reunion's looming, and Melanie Matthews must let the world know that the dream is no longer true… More...

Cade and Melanie--high school prom king and queen--the golden couple! Twenty years on, the reunion's looming, and Melanie Matthews must let the world know that the dream is no longer true.... Somewhere along their journey Cade lost sight of what really mattered. He let work take first place in his life and lost the one person who lit up his world. Now he's determined to show Melanie that he can be the man she's always wanted, the husband she always needed...and win back her heart. Fiction Fiction eBook "Cade and Melanie&#151; high school prom king and queen&#151; the golden couple! Twenty years on, the reunion's looming, and Melanie Matthews must let the world know that the dream is no longer true&#133; ." Somewhere along their journey Cade lost sight of what really mattered. He let work take first place in his life and lost the one person who lit up his world. Now he's determined to show Melanie that he can be the man she's always wanted, the husband she always needed&#133; and win back her heart.<