It Started at Christmas...

“Your car door was unlocked and I left something for you in the front seat of your car.”

Her gaze lifted to his. “What? Why would you do that?”

“Just a little something for Valentine’s Day.”

He’d gotten her a gift for Valentine’s Day? But they’d ended things the day before. She had not bought him the standard card. “I didn’t get you anything.”

“You didn’t need to. Our two months is finished, just as we are.” He glanced at his watch again. “Goodbye, McKenzie.” Then, right there in the reception hall in front of her mother, her father and her brand-new stepfather, Lance kissed her.

Not a quick peck but a real kiss. Not a dragged-out one but one jam-packed with emotion all the same. One that demanded the same emotion back from her.

McKenzie blinked up at him. He looked as if he was about to say something but instead shook his head and left.

“Who was that man, McKenzie?” her mother asked, immediately joining her as Lance exited the building.

“That’s what I want to know,” her father practically bellowed. “Why was he kissing you?”

“Why is he leaving?” Her mother asked the more pressing question.

“He’s just someone I work with,” she mumbled, not wanting to discuss Lance.

“She gets that from you,” her mother told her father. “The idea she’s supposed to kiss people she works with.”

“Violet,” her father began, crossing his arms and giving her a sour look.

But her mother seemed to shake off her thoughts and smiled. “Come, let me introduce you to your much younger, more virile and loyal replacement.”

“Sure took you long enough,” her father gibed.

“Some of us are more choosy than others.”

McKenzie watched her parents walk away together, bickering back and forth. It wasn’t even six in the evening and exhaustion hit her.

Much, much later, after she’d waved sparklers at her mother and Yves’s exit, McKenzie gathered up her belongings from the church classroom where the bridal party had gotten ready.

When she got into her car, her gaze immediately went to the passenger floorboard where she saw a vase full of red roses. On the passenger seat was a gift box. Chocolates?

She doubted it due to the odd box size. She ripped open the package, and gave a trembling smile at what was inside.

A new pair of running shoes.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“YOU’RE NOT RIGHT, you know.”

McKenzie didn’t argue with her best friend. Cecilia was correct and they both knew it. Then again, one didn’t argue with a person streaking hair color through one’s hair.

“I think you should talk to him.”

“Who said this was about him?” Okay, so maybe she was feeling more argumentative than she should be.

Cecilia’s gaze met McKenzie’s in the large salon mirror in front of her styling chair. “You’re still upset about your mother getting hitched? I thought you were over that.”

“I am over that.” How could she not be when her mother was happier than McKenzie recalled her ever being? When she’d morphed into an energetic, productive person who suddenly seemed to have her act together?

Yves had taken her to South America to a bird-watching resort for their honeymoon. Since they’d returned her mother seemed as happy as a lark, working at the health-food store with her new husband.

This from a woman who’d never really held a job.