Page 1 of Second Chance Christmas

CHAPTER ONE

Ivy Winters should have known the Ivy Effect would make an appearance sooner rather than later. It had chased her through elementary school when she received the award for outstanding penmanship, which ended with her hair catching fire on the ceremony candles and all the boys laughing at her. It struck again at graduation when her homemade gown fell apart like Cinderella’s at midnight. Not good when you opted for pasties and a thong.

Not the way you wanted to deliver your valedictorian speech.

And now.

Of course, there had been other incidents but to list them all out would take all Christmas.

Why couldn’t she catch a break? Just one. It’s all it would take for her to get her feet under her once and for all.

Silence settled around her, but it was next to impossible to gather solace from the quiet when she was always waiting for the other proverbial shoe to drop.

With a deep sigh, she folded back the edges of her oversized comforter and patted Max’s soft head—her gran’s aging golden retriever. He snuggled close to her with a tiny whine, offering what he could in the ways of consoling.

“Why can’t we just skip Christmas, Max?” It left a nasty taste in her mouth just saying the word. She looked down into soulful brown eyes and smiled. “No answer, huh? Yeah, me neither.”

Ivy rolled to her side and pulled the covers over her head. A burst of light filled the little pocket of space beneath the covers and she sighed heavily as she read the text message for a third time that morning. The millionth since receiving it twenty-seven days, six hours and some odd minutes ago. She wasn’t desperate enough to count them or the seconds that had ticked by since her now ex-fiancé bid herau revoirvia text message, as she stood on the curb and watched her house burn to cinders, and on Thanksgiving night no less.

“Bastard.” She hoped karma had his name in big bold, black letters.

Ivy threw back the comforter and immediately shrank back from the cold. Low embers shimmered in the darkness from the fireplace opposite the bed. She reached over to flip the lamp on. Nothing. “Still out. Great.” The snowstorm that greeted her coming in from New York City the night before had arrived in Dixen with a big huff of wintry energy.

The angry winds seemed to have died down. Through the window to the right of her bed, she could see snow drift softly against the large picture window, but she couldn’t bring herself to appreciate the beauty of the fine feathery fluff. Early morning hues of gray and white gradually brightened the room. Just enough for her to see the craggy outlines of the bare trees beyond her window.

She sighed and flipped her phone off, unable to bear the words on an empty stomach.

“Coffee. Maybe a doughnut too. What do you say, Max?”

On one hand, maybe she should have returned to Seattle after her job interview in New York City instead of giving in to her family and coming to her grandmother’s.

While on the other, what else was she going to do over the holidays? Return to her parent’s house and wait by the phone praying she got the job like a teenager over summer break? Not even a possibility. Her mother baked from sun up till sun down starting the day after Thanksgiving and didn’t stop until New Year’s Day. All that cheer and merrymaking…

Ivy’s stomach gurgled.

No thank you. It was better she stayed away and did not pass on her Scrooge attitude to anyone. She would wait for the insurance claim to go through, rebuild her home, refocus on work and firmly shove her cheating ex-fiancé from her mind. He was already out of her life so that was half the battle. The job in New York City would take care of the latter two.

Her cheeks were growing numb and her fingers started to turn cold. Still, she lay there, staring into the dying embers in the fireplace.

Thwack.

Ivy bolted upright, the blankets around her neck pooling at her waist.

Her heart thudded and she gripped the covers.

There it came again. A solid thud as though someone pounded a sledgehammer against wood. The front door? No, it sounded like it came from the side.

Three more booming cracks whipped through the quiet morning and she dashed aside the thick comforters her gran had piled on when the power went in the middle of the night. Feeling around in the dark with her toes, she found something warm to slip on her feet.

Ivy clutched her phone as her stomach did a topsy-turvy nosedive. She slowly peeled back the edge of the lace curtain from the window enough to peer down into the side yard.

A man stood just beyond the eaves. Tall for sure with shoulders wider than a barn door. He raised his hands above his head and the pre-dawn light glinted off a sharp edge.

She pressed closer and swallowed when she realized a handle was attached to the shiny part.

Her eyes widened. Whoever it was had an ax.

White flakes obscured most of her view. She dodged around and tried for a better look but no luck. A thick blanket of snow spread over the entire property and the grounds beyond the extension of the three-story bed and breakfast. Between the inn and mountains on the far side nestled Dixen Lake. When the sun crested over those white peaks, the frozen surface would glisten in the light like a million fallen stars and would light up the entire side of the house.

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