Page 2 of Second Chances with St. Nick

I turned to my cousin. Her head was tipped to one side as if I was about to drop some philosophical bombshell or, at the very least, a declaration on gingerbread’s rightful place as a food group.

“Let’s just say I have my reasons not to visit. But I’m glad I’m here now. I couldn’t let you be the only one wearing taffeta at Christmas. Tell me, does your wedding dress look like a puffball?”

She grinned. “You know me too well. It’d give Marie Antoinette a run for her money.” Cissy leaned in and picked a green M&M off the nearest cookie, popping it into her mouth. “I consider myself lucky that I’m important enough to lure you back home. And you never know, you could end up meeting someone wonderful at the wedding.” Cissy wiggled her eyebrows at me. “Harry’s been singing your praises to all his single friends.”

Harry, her husband to be, was a nice guy, but I’d only met him once outside of mine and Cissy’s weekly Zoom calls. I wasn’t sure I should hand myself over to the bachelors of Pine Springs based on his say-so. Romance, even a quick fling, ranked at the very bottom of my list of priorities.

“I think I’ll give them a miss.”

Cissy rolled her eyes as if she was dealing with a tricky toddler. “Well, that’s a shame. I’m sure there’s more than afew eligible young men eager to ‘make your acquaintance.’” She threw air quotes around the words and followed them with another grin. “I’d venture to say, the men of Pine Springs have missed you. You weren’t voted homecoming queen for nothing.”

I smiled and shook my head. Cissy was adorable.

“I’m not kidding,” she said. “I’ll bet Nick missed you. I’ve seen him around town a ton recently. You guys can’t have talked in ages.”

My stomach plummeted at the mention of his name. I reached to touch the small charm hanging around my neck on a gold chain. Nick’s charm. The one he’d given me when I turned sixteen. As I pressed the small musical note to my chest, the skin on my palm prickled. Cissy didn’t know the truth about what happened between me and Nick.

Of course, she knew that Nick and I were once best friends. How we were inseparable growing up. But she didn’t know how our friendship changed and then ended. How I messed up any chance we had to be together.

Cissy had been young. She always just accepted that Nick and I were like two parts of the same whole. “Go one—go both,” he’d say. And we stuck to our motto, right until we left senior high. I swallowed the lump in my throat.

I couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk about him, though. I hadn’t said his name out loud to another person in ten long years. “He never moved back to town after I left?”

Cissy shook her head, and my belly rolled.

There’d been a time when I knew Nick like I knew myself.

After what I'd done, he ran for the hills, and I never got the chance to explain how wrong I'd been the night I let him down.

“I always wondered what happened between the two of you. I thought you’d get married and have a billion kids.”

In my girlhood dreams, I thought so too. But then, when he’d finally had the courage to admit how he felt about me, I’d run over his heart with a bulldozer.

“Hey, earth to Abbie!” Cissy’s sing-song voice cut into my thoughts.

“Sorry, did you say something?”

“Only that I think your bridesmaid dress is going to knock everyone dead at the wedding. Maybe even Nick.”

“Oh, please. Don’t tell me it’s a loud color. I don’t want to stand out…” I pulled up short, processing her words. “Wait, what? Nick is coming to your wedding? You invited him?”

Cissy shrugged and moved to the sink to run herself a glass of water. “Well, my mom did. She ran into him and asked.”

Blood sang in my ears, and I bunched my fingers to stop them from trembling. “What did he say? Does he know I’m in town?”

“I’m not sure, but he knows we’re close, so I guess he’d figure out you’re coming.” She grinned at me like a proud mother hen. “He’ll be glad to see you, and like I say, your dress is gorgeous. Slinky, even. You’ll probably outshine me.”

I slowly let out a breath. The dress was the least of my worries.

If I’d come back to Pine Springs thinking I could avoid my past, I was sorely mistaken.

And Nick? Nick and the way I’d left our friendship was a mistake I couldn’t forget.

2

FAIRY LIGHTS AND FREEFALLS

The A-frame ladder creaked under me as I shifted position. Who knew hanging fairy lights could be so challenging? Dad always made it look easy.

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