Happily Ever Afters Guaranteed
Read Happily Ever Afters Guaranteed Online
Authors: Lacy Williams
Tags: #romance, #short stories, #contemporary, #lacy williams
HAPPILY EVER
AFTERS GUARANTEED
A short story collection
By Lacy Williams
Copyright © 2012 Lacy Williams
This ebook is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to
other people. If you would like to share this book with another
person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If
you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not
purchased for your use only, then please return to the site where
you bought it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting
the hard work of this author.
Other books by Lacy Williams
MARRYING MISS MARSHAL
THE HOMESTEADER'S SWEETHEART
HEART OF GOLD
A note from the author:
I hope you enjoy this collection of short
stories.
I’m giving it away as a sort-of birthday gift and I
want to give my readers more gifts, too! If you purchase a copy of
my book THE HOMESTEADER’S SWEETHEART during the month of May 2012,
you can receive free bonus gifts from myself and other authors.
Visit
www.megamaybirthdaybash.com
for full details.
Thanks for reading!
-Lacy Williams
The
Bluestocking and The Blueblood
Sneak peak -
Marrying Miss Marshal
Sneak Peak -
The Homesteader's Sweetheart
A BIRTHDAY TO
REMEMBER
By LACY WILLIAMS
TUESDAY
Still no package.
Anna Larsen batted away her disappointment as
she flipped through the stack of bills and junk mail. She dodged a
soccer ball rolling down the hallway and detoured to the trash—it
definitely needed to be emptied—and added the bills to the stack to
pay later tonight, when things around here settled down a
little.
“Mom!”
“Gina’s tattling!”
The two voices overlapped as the sound of
feet thundered toward the kitchen, followed by plaintive
barking.
She wasn’t ashamed to admit her birthday
wish—made during yesterday’s brunch with her two best friends, also
young mothers—was for a few hours of peace and quiet. Plus a dozen
roses, an hour massage, and the new romance novel she’d been
waiting to buy.
She’d settle for one of her wishes. Her
sister Misty had promised to babysit for a couple hours tomorrow,
Anna’s actual birthday.
And Anna was hoping her parents had mailed
her the novel since they were away on a cruise.
It was times like these she missed Ted the
most. He’d loved cooking up surprises and doing big things for
birthdays. It just wasn’t the same when you had to throw the
surprise party for yourself. And, although he’d left behind a nice
insurance settlement so she didn’t have to pinch pennies exactly…
she tried to be frugal with the money so she might be able to help
the kids pay for college. Not that she needed to worry about that
now.
“Gina, Mikey,” she stalled their wild flight
into the kitchen with both hands raised.
And the loud buzzing powertool from the house
being remodeled next door kicked on, igniting Anna’s headache.
Couldn’t the carpenter take a break for one day?
“What’s going on?” she asked her kids. Both
six-year-old Mikey and four-year-old Gina sucked in breaths, but
before they could start talking over each other, Anna said, “Gina
first.”
“Mikey painted on the wall—” Her daughter,
dressed in a long, lavender tutu, a t-shirt and sneakers, started
speaking.
“It’s a present for you, Mom! Supposed to be
a surprise!” Her son’s exclamation was punctuated by a bark from
Molly, their six-month-old Border Collie puppy who had a suspicious
orange streak across her back.
Anna was only surprised that this—whatever
he’d painted—was the first creative surprise her son had “given”
her this week. Last Saturday it had been mud pies… baked in her
oven.
“You’d better show me this surprise,” Anna
said.
Happy birthday, Mom.
The R and H in birthday were both backwards.
The words glared at Anna from the upstairs hallway, dripping down
the once-white wall several feet below the family photos that lined
the hallway.
“Oh, Mikey…”
Just then, the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” chirped Gina, darting back
downstairs before Anna could grab her t-shirt to stop her.
“No, Gina! Let mommy see who it is
first!”
Anna followed her daughter, but tripped on a
doll on the bottom stair and landed hard on her rump in the entry
hall, just as Gina pulled the door open to reveal a tall,
broad-shouldered man wearing faded jeans and a tool belt.
The man Anna least wanted to see. And,
apparently, the carpenter from next door. Kelly Cartwright.
“You all right?” he asked, flicking his sky
blue eyes in Anna’s direction, though he didn’t step over the
threshold.
She nodded, wincing with both chagrin and
what was sure to be a bruised tailbone in the morning. She pushed
herself off the floor and moved to stand behind Gina, putting a
hand on her daughter’s shoulder.
Those blue eyes didn’t miss the protective
gesture, and his hands fisted at his sides. “Hello,” he said to
Gina.
“I’m Gina Marie Larsen. I’m four and I will
be five in three more months. Who are you?”
He smiled and it turned his face from plain
old gorgeous to “Tom Cruise’s younger brother” handsome. Anna’s
heart thumped once loudly, same way it had every time he’d smiled
at her back in college. “My name is Kelly and I’m thirty years old
and two months.”
“I’m six and a half.”
Anna glanced over her shoulder to see Mikey
peeking around the edge of the stairway, Molly at his feet.
“My son, Mikey,” Anna offered.
“Hi, Mikey.”
“And that’s Molly!” Gina chimed in, her
tendency toward wanting the spotlight asserting itself. “And
Mommy’s birthday is tomorrow. She’s going to be—”
“Gina.” Anna clapped her other hand onto the
girl’s other shoulder, halting her words. Too late.
“29. I remember.” Kelly’s gaze intensified as
it shifted from daughter to mother.
Anna’s heart thumped again, painfully this
time. She didn’t want the bad boy from her college days to remember
her birthday. She wanted Ted back. Comfortable, good old Ted.
“Is there something I can do for you?” Anna
wanted Kelly gone from her front porch before things dissolved any
more and Gina invited him in.
“I actually, um…” He looked sheepish, an
expression she’d never seen on him before. He’d always been
confident—Ted had called him arrogant. “I was coming out of the
driveway to head to the hardware store and I backed into your
mailbox.”
He pointed over his shoulder and Anna
followed his finger with her gaze. Her mailbox lay on its side and
an ugly hold gaped in her yard next to the curb. So this wouldn’t
be an easy fix.
“Mikey, can you take Gina upstairs and play,
please?” Anna’s kids shuffled up the stairs and she thought to call
after them, “No more painting!”
Kelly’s eyebrows rose as she joined him on
the porch but she didn’t explain. She pulled the door almost all
the way closed, so she could still hear the kids if they needed
her.
“I’m really sorry,” Kelly said, and he looked
it. But she’d been the recipient of one too many of his apologies
before and wasn’t sure she could believe it.
“It’s not the first time it’s happened,” she
admitted, crossing her arms over her middle. “I think the original
builders shaped the cul-de-sac wrong.”
“Since I was heading to the hardware store
anyway, I’ll just get a bag of cement and a new post. If I get it
set tonight, I can reattach the box first thing in the
morning.”
“It’s okay. My mom and dad are out of town,
but dad can do it when he gets back.” She didn’t really want Kelly
hanging around, even to fix something he’d broken.
“I don’t think the postman will deliver your
mail without a box.” His voice didn’t betray any tension, but Anna
knew him well enough to see his tells—stiff shoulders and
still-clenched fists. “It was my fault for rushing. Should’ve been
paying attention. I’d like to fix it for you.”
She’d prefer he didn’t, but then she
remembered her awaited birthday packaged and shrugged. “Fine. The
kids go to bed at 8:30 though, so I don’t want you to make a lot of
noise after that.”
“Sure.” His easy smile returned. “I’m
actually kind of glad this happened.”
He was? Anna frowned, stomach clenching as
she imagined what he might say.
“I’ve seen you at church a few times since I
moved back home a few months ago, but I always seem to miss
you.”
She knew. She’d rushed the kids out of the
sanctuary a couple of times to avoid him.
“I heard about your husband and I wanted to
say I’m sorry for your loss. Ted was a good guy.” He squinted and
looked out into the yard, as if the words weren’t easy for him to
say. “I—”
“I should really go in and check on the
kids,” she interrupted, afraid of what he would say next.
She reached for the door but his hand closed
over her wrist, surrounding her skin with heat. She yanked away and
he held up both hands in front of himself.
“Please.” He cleared his throat. “I’m
probably only going to get the courage up to do this once.”
Heart pounding loudly in her ears, Anna
desperately wanted to turn and rush back into the house, but the
thread of desperation in his voice held her captive.
“I need to apologize—you might not even
remember this—the night of your wedding reception—”
She knew exactly what he referred to. How
could she forget, even seven years later? It had been the worst
twenty minutes of the best day of her life and had caused the first
fight between her and Ted as a married couple. She could still hear
Kelly over the mic he’d snagged from the best man. “You married the
wrong guy, Anna.” And Ted’s later comment, “I can’t believe you’ve
been friends with that lowlife since freshman year.”
She hadn’t stayed friends with Kelly after
that.
“You really don’t have to—” she started.
“Actually, I do have to. Apologizing and
making amends is part of the recovery program I follow.” His eyes
met hers, a serious, deep blue this time.
“I didn’t know you’d joined a program.”
“Five years now,” he said, rocking back on
his heels, still considering her.
She didn’t know what he wanted from her.
“That’s great. I’m glad for you, Kelly.”
But just because he was sober didn’t mean she
wanted to hang out with him. She had two kids to take care of and a
lot of other things going on in her life.
He finally looked away after a long beat of
silence, his gaze going out into the yard again. “It’s okay if you
can’t forgive me for ruining your wedding reception. I know it’s a
lot to ask.”
Anna’s thoughts went to the night two years
before that—before she’d even started dating Ted. If she probed,
would Kelly apologize for that night, too?
Did she want to say anything? Afraid if she
brought up their disastrous first—and only—date, Kelly would read
something into it, she chickened out. “It’s really okay. Water
under the bridge and all that. An apology is way better than what I
thought you were going to say, anyway.”
His questioning expression made her think
better of her statement—she knew he’d badger her until she told him
what she’d thought, so she rushed forward without thinking. “I
thought you were going to ask me out.”
A flash of hurt crossed his features before
he quickly schooled his face into a blank mask. She hadn’t meant to
hurt him, but she just couldn’t go there, not with everything that
had passed between them. Not with two kids to look out for.
“I’d better get on to the hardware store,” he
said with a wan smile. “Thanks for listening.” His shoulders were
tense again as he took the steps off the porch. He didn’t look
back.
“Bye,” Anna whispered.
TUESDAY EVENING
The kids finally in bed, Anna watched Kelly
from behind the kitchen curtains as he mixed and poured the
concrete and put the new mailbox post in place. He was far enough
from the house that he wasn’t making much noise.
