Chapter 1

Ally

I enter the building that’s been like a second home since I was a little girl. If your second home has a pole in the middle of the room. Not a stripper pole—though that would be cool.

A firefighter pole.

Ryan is talking to Sierra, one of my best friends growing up. They’re standing at the reception desk, both dressed in their volunteer firefighter gear of a dark blue T-shirt and pants.

He looks at me over her shoulder. “Hey, Ally.”

Sierra whirls around, her blond ponytail whipping around her head, a huge smile on her face. She rushes over and hugs me. “I was positive you were lying when you said you were coming back for Christmas.”

I return the hug, squeezing her tighter than I could a year ago. “I don’t lie.”

She snorts out a laugh and steps away. “Right. So it wasn’t a lie the previous five times you said you were coming for a visit but then backed out at the last moment?”

“Exactly.” I give her a curt nod which ends in a smile.

Ryan flashes me a devilish grin, and an uh-oh warning shimmies up my spine. “Does Gavin know you’re in town?”

“Nope. I’m here to visit Dad. Is he around?”

“He’s in his office.”

“Are you going to be here for the festival?” Sierra’s smile is even wider than Ryan’s.

I nod, confused by the question. She already knows the answer because we’ve been talking weekly on the phone for the past year—ever since I moved away from Copper Creek. “Of course. Dad told me the proceeds are going to the Go Red for Women program. And given that I’m the poster child for the importance of a healthy heart—”

“Meow!” The hearty sound and the solid body rubbing against my leg have me glancing down.

“Phoenix!” I scoop up the adorable, cuddly ginger cat.

He purrs loudly, his large body vibrating in my arms.

Sierra scratches him behind the ear. “He’s missed you.”

“I’ve missed him, too. I’ve missed all of you.” I hadn’t realized how much I would miss everyone when I moved to Billings, Montana.

“Including Gavin?” Amusement crinkles the corners of Ryan’s eyes, and his observant gaze has me squirming. No wonder the former Calvin Klein model turned veterinarian is so good with animals. Nothing gets past him.

I look down at Phoenix, letting my hair curtain my face and hide just how much I’ve missed Gavin, my best friend. The guy I grew up with. The guy I fell in love with. The guy who’d been in love with someone else until a year ago.

When she died in a car accident.

“Yes, including Gavin.” I kiss Phoenix’s head.

“I have some great news,” Sierra says. “Mrs. Jenkins is retiring from teaching soon. And I happen to know the school is still looking for her replacement. You should apply. I know they would love to have you back. And since the teacher you were subbing for in Billings has returned from her maternity leave, you can move back to Copper Creek.” Sierra grins. Problem solved. In her mind.

“Mrs. Jenkins is retiring?” I ask, avoiding the reason I can’t move back here. “Isn’t she like two hundred years old?” She’s also the sweetest woman to walk the earth. “The school won’t be the same without her.”

“It won’t. But please tell me you’ll apply for her position. I mean, unless you want to stay in the city.” Sierra flashes me her puppy-dog eyes that no mere mortal can resist.

I laugh and put Phoenix on the ground. “Okay, I’ll apply for the job if it makes you happy.” I’m sure I won’t be the only candidate applying for it, so it’s not like I’m breaking my no-moving-back-to-Copper-Creek rule.

“It does. Sooo, does that mean you don’t have a big-city boyfriend waiting for you to return? Nothing new since we last talked?”

“Nope, no new boyfriends in the past seven days.” It’s been a few years since I last had a boyfriend.

Sierra’s gaze drops to my chest. It’s only then I realize my fingers are rubbing the long, ugly scar over my sternum and hidden under my sweater. Ryan also hasn’t failed to notice what my hand is doing.

Oops.

I switch to plucking stray cat hairs from my sweater. “I should go see Dad before he wonders what happened to me.”

I hurriedly enter his office to find him typing on his computer. Scattered on his desk are bits of paper with scribbled notes, some of which are probably at least a week old. “Hey, Dad.”

He looks up, and a big, relieved smile stretches across his face. “Ally.” My name is a reverent whisper on his lips.

He stands and gives me a hug that would squish me if I were a slug. “God, I’ve missed you, Noodle.”

Laughing, I return his exuberant hug. “I can see that. I’ve missed you, too.”

He takes a step back. “You’re looking good. Are you still remembering to take your immunosuppressive drugs?”

“Absolutely.”

“No infections I should know about? You’re eating okay?”

“Check. And check. Don’t worry, Dad. My new heart and I are doing great.”

I might be thirty-three years old, but Dad seems to forget—as his daily texts can attest. In his eyes, I’m still twelve.

Losing Mom when I was in preschool probably has something to do with that, too. Her death turned him into a superhero, if being overly protective is a superpower.

I kiss him on the cheek. “I’m all good. And I’m happy to be back in Copper Creek for Christmas.”

“Does Gavin know you’re here?” It’s obvious from the way he asks the question that he knows the answer.

I wince. “I haven’t spoken to him since the accident. So that would be a no.”

“That’s because you’ve been ghosting him.”

“I haven’t been ghosting him.” I’ve totally been ghosting him. “I’ve just been…busy—”

Gavin walks into Dad’s office before I can finish my sentence.

Shirtless.

His muscled abs and chest glistening with drops of water.

And holy all things yummy on a stick, my mouth goes dry, and my heart—his old girlfriend’s heart—trips over itself.

Right, his girlfriend’s heart. That’s why the organ is reacting that way. Because I’m not in love with him anymore. Nope. No siree. But Madison’s heart is clearly still in love with the man.

Madison was a brilliant ER physician. She saved sooooo many people’s lives. I’ve saved no one. Not even a tiny bit. I don’t deserve a man like Gavin. Madison should still be alive so her heart can beat for him—in her own chest.

Gavin’s warm brown eyes shift in my direction. Excitement flickers in them. But just as I’m beginning to think everything’s okay between us, the excitement extinguishes like a candle in a blizzard.

His gaze darts back to my father. “Ryan said you wanted to talk to me, Chief.”

Loud laughter spills in through the open door, and Gavin rolls his eyes.

“Why are they laughing?” And why do I have a feeling it has something to do with me?

And the part where Gavin is shirtless.

“They’re laughing because I’d just stepped out of the shower when Ryan told me the Chief needed to see me. He told me it was important and there was no time to dally.”

“The fact that Ryan said ‘dally’ didn’t set off any alarms?” Dad tries to fight off a grin.

Gavin shrugs. “Sure, in retrospect.”

While my heart is recovering from seeing the man who used to be my best friend, my eyes drink him in. Drink in the man who doesn’t have an ugly-ass scar on his chest. An ugly-ass scar capable of repelling the opposite gender.

“So I take it you didn’t need to see me?” Gavin asks Dad without giving me a second glance.

I guess I have no one to blame but myself for that.

Gavin had texted and phoned me numerous times over the first two months after the accident. I never replied to any of them.

Listened to his voice messages a million times?

Absolutely.

Read his texts over and over until I had them memorized?

Definitely.

I open my mouth to apologize for ghosting him, but before the words come out, a little whirlwind in the form of seven-year-old Presley comes charging into the office.

“Ally!” She hurls her body at me.

  © Stina Lindenblatt 2023

Now available in ebook

Mistletoe Wishes is a standalone romance. All the books in the series can be read in any order.