Page 1 of Mistletoe & Magic
Chapter 1
Ivy
The breakup wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was that he kept my dog.
My Lola.
“I miss her,” I rant as my sister Willa turns her old tan Jeep Wrangler with the heater that barely works half the time onto the winding road that leads into Wisteria Cove.
She had picked me up at my townhouse in Boston when my boyfriend Derek and I’d had a fight and he’d told me to leave.
The asshole had even been nice enough to pack a bag for me and set it by the door before I woke up. He wanted me gone so his new girlfriend could move right in. Ultimate betrayal.
“I was the one who took care of Lola and did everything for her. She was supposed to be a gift from him. And Derek just—what? Gets to keep her likeI’mthe one who cheated? Why are Lola and I being punished because Derek can’t keep it in his pants?”
“It’s not right,” Willa replies, shaking her head angrily on my behalf. “He’s an actual reindeer turd in human form. But can I point out something hilarious? You’re sadder about losing the dog than losing him.”
Damn. She’s right. I love my dog. But I definitely fell out of love with Derek.
I fall back against the passenger seat headrest with a dramatic groan, the fluff from my hood poofing up around me like I’m drowning in a marshmallow. “I knew it was over for a while, and I just didn’t want to add it to my list of failures. What am I going to do now? I’ve had so many jobs in the last five years. No one takes me seriously in Wisteria Cove anymore. My ex is a sleazy, emotionally constipated, controlling criminal defense attorney who is threatening me with legal action if I try to take Lola. And my best friend—now his new girlfriend—wasted no time moving in with him before I was barely even out the door.”
I’d wanted to lose it when I opened the door with my bags, thinking Willa was here to get me and realizing instead it was Kristin, my best friend who had been screwing Derek the whole time we were together.
The way she wouldn’t meet my eyes and had turned with her bags and said, “I’ll come back later.”
“Go fuck yourself, Kristin!” I’d yelled at her as she scurried down the street like a rat. Girl code doesn’t mean a thing to her. Just take whatever you want, I guess. I should have known when she stopped coming to girl’s night out that something was up, but I realize now that was when she was with Derek.
Derek’s betrayal didn’t hurt as much as Kristin’s did. I felt humiliated because I would confide in her about Derek and she would listen. All along she was screwing him, and I trusted her. I told her everything, and she pretended to support me and encouraged me to break up with him. Now I know why.
“Ex-best friend,” Willa corrects. “Also, she’s a massive turd, too. I think we should hex her.”
“Yeah, she is. She can have Derek. I honestly should haveleft him sooner. I’m an idiot for not figuring this out and leaving when you guys tried to warn me.”
I pull out the thermos and take a long sip of peppermint cocoa that Willa brought for me because she’s literally the best and has her own cafe in her very own bookstore.
I know what Willa is probably thinking. She and my other sister Rowan repeatedly tried to tell me to leave Derek and that he was bad news. I never listened. And the truth is, I thought maybe I could help Derek. Sometimes I’d see glimmers of the person he could be. But then he’d flip back to the asshole that he always was. He would make me feel so badly about myself and subtly suggest that he was the only person who would ever tolerate me. And if I broke up with him, he would just be another failure, like all of the jobs I’ve had.
Sometimes I can still hear Derek’s voice in my head, telling me nobody would want me or put up with my shit.
So, I stuck it out, hoping that it would get better. It only got worse.
“Kristin didn’t take your man; she took your problem, and I actually can’t think of a better consequence for either of them than each other,” she says disdainfully as she makes her way back to Wisteria Cove.
I nod, because that’s all I have in me. I am so tired of fighting with Derek and how he treated me. But it also feels like I’m going back home to Wisteria Cove with my tail between my legs.
“It’s all going to work out. And now you get to be a nanny to Junie. It’s a great job for you until you can figure out whatyouwant to do. This is actually great. You are amazing at so many things,” Willa says as she holds her hand out for the thermos to take a sip.
“I don’t know… Are you really sure Remy is okay with all this? I mean, don’t get me wrong—being a nanny for Junie sounds absolutely amazing. And not to mention living at the tree farm at Christmas. It sounds magical and all that. But Remy is just…I don’t know. I need to think about something long term. I guess I could do that while I’m there…”
And honestly working with Remy would be…a dream. He’s so freaking mysterious and devastatingly handsome. He’s got the whole grumpy single dad thing down. And I would love to work with Junie. This truly would be a dream job for me.
“Remy’s mom was at the bookstore with me when you called me and said that this is perfect timing for everyone. She said that he really needs your help,” Willa says as she hands me back the thermos.
Donna is Remy and Finn’s mom. She’s also an incredibly famous author, like Nora Roberts-famous, and has written over a hundred bestsellers in the past few decades. If towns had grandma’s, she’d be Wisteria Coves. Our very own royalty. We all love her so much. I guess if Donna says it’s okay, it must be okay.
But I’m still not completely convinced. “It’s just that every time we’ve been at things together, Remy barely talks to me or acknowledges me. It’s like he doesn’t evenlikeme,” I say as I glance out my window at the neighborhood, where every house looks dressed for a storybook holiday. Porches are wrapped in garlands and big red velvet bows. Wreaths hang on every door. Windows glow with paper snowflakes taped on some of them, and I can see trees inside, twinkling and ready for presents.
Snow dusts the sidewalks. A pack of kids waddle in puffed coats, bundled like marshmallows, dragging bright red sleds. Their laughter skips across the street and lands in my chest. Someone’s chimney sends up a ribbon of smoke that smells like cedar and comfort. The air slips in through the crack in my rolled-down window and brings pine, a hint of sugar, andsomething buttery that has to be coming from the corner bakery. It wraps around me like a memory of mittened hands and a mother’s scarf tied snug under my chin.
