Sweet Holiday Romance Books 1 - 4

1 A cold wind moaned outside Eve's kitchen window. Falling leaves, gold and orange and crisp, blew across the paint peeled porch steps, making skittering sounds until they tumbled to their final resting place in a growing pile outside her front door. The old house creaked in the storm, but held firm and strong as it had for over 130 years. The trees that canopied the aged home were brilliant with fall color and though another cold winter was on the horizon, fall was in its full glory right now, five days before Halloween. Eve barely noticed the storm outside, because her kitchen was warm with the sweet smells of baking. Wearing the large apron that had been her father's, her face and hands were smudged with flour. The apron featured a giant crawdad dressed as a chef. Her father had told her he'd bought the apron when on honeymoon in New Orleans with her mother. Handprints of white flour blotched the red cartoon crawdad where she had used the apron instead of a dishtowel during her baking frenzy. Her straight dark hair was pulled back to stay out of her face while she cooked, but strands of it had come loose and now dangled in her eyes. She held a ceramic mixing bowl in one arm. With her other arm she used a large wooden spoon to stir the second batch of cookie dough vigorously. A platter on the counter held a fresh batch of buttery pumpkin shaped sugar cookies. When they cooled she would cover them with orange frosting and pipe them with jack-o'lantern faces. Eve was deep in the tradition that she and her father had kept since as long as she could remember. Baking these pumpkin cookies for his 7th grade English class at Halloween had been something Albert St. Claire had done for his entire 35-year career as a middle school teacher. Eve was determined that this year her father's tradition would continue, even though he was no longer with them. A particularly strong gust of wind rattled the windowpanes, making Eve stop what she was doing and look up. Her two black cats, Sabrina and Hazel, also looked towards the window from where they sat on nearby kitchen stools, lazily watching her attempt to bake. Hazel, the small and skittish one, hopped down from her perch and began to rub against Eve's ankles while she worked. "It's just a rainstorm," Eve said. "Nothing to worry about." The slim black cat meowed at her, whether to agree or disagree was hard to tell. Sabrina, Hazel's jealous and much larger sister, was never one to be outdone. When she saw Eve reach down and scratch Hazel behind her ears, Sabrina shifted her significant cat frame and dropped to the floor with a thump, casually trotting over to Eve to get her own ears scratched. "You two are keeping me from getting my work done," Eve said, but she didn't really mind. These two cats were her only company since her father had died this past spring. Her mother had passed away when she was very young, so young that she could not even remember having a mother. Eve glanced at the wedding picture of her parents that hung on the wall in the small hallway between the kitchen and the living room. For as long as she could remember that picture and others from the family photo album were her only link to her mother. And now pictures were all she had left of her father, too. Eve's eyes filled with tears and she blinked hard to control them. "We can't get tears in the cookie batter," she said to the cats. "Cookies aren't for sadness." That's exactly what she told herself when she decided to carry on her father's tradition and bake their annual Halloween cookies for his class. It had been five months since Albert St. Claire suffered a fatal massive heart attack in his sleep, and Eve figured it was high time she do something more than work and read and sleep and cry. It wasn't going to be easy, but she knew she needed to do it and she knew her father would want her to get back to a more normal life. "You're young, you're beautiful, you should be going out and living a fun, young person's life.” Eve could almost hear his voice right now. She sighed. She wasn't all that young anymore, just turned 30. She knew that her father saw her through rose-colored glasses, because she wasn't what you would call beautiful either. She was neither tall and willowy nor short and spunky. She was average height, too pale, too thin, with dark hair that insisted on being as unbending as possible. And though her eyes were blue, they weren't the kind of eyes one might consider pretty. They were too round and not blue enough to be memorable. Nothing about her was memorable. She looked around at the old kitchen with its high ceilings, its ancient cupboards with the iron knobs, the giant ceramic sink, and the wooden kitchen table with the small, blue vase in the center. If things were totally normal her father would have filled that vase with bright orange marigolds from their flowerbeds by now. Eve hadn't done that. She also hadn't kept up with the garden after her father's death. She glanced out the window where she could see the volunteer pumpkin plants that had sprouted up on their own and grown into a wild mess. Since she didn't water them in the heat of the summer, they had died out and not produced any of the delightful little sugar pumpkins she and her father had always loved. Now her entire backyard was just a jungle of dead brown pumpkin vines. Actually, those tangled, twisted vines reflected exactly how she felt on the inside. A knock on the door startled her out of her melodrama. The sister cats, who acted a lot like dogs in Eve's opinion, trotted quickly to the door to greet their visitor. "Hello, is anyone in there?" A bright and cheery voice sounded through the door followed by another series of rapid knocks. Eve recognized the voice without looking, Belinda. She pulled open the door to let her friend inside. Belinda's short, stubby frame tumbled into the foyer with the twirling wind and a few sprinkles of raindrops from the storm outside. "Oh my gosh, the wind!" Belinda exclaimed, giggling like always. Belinda was the opposite of Eve. Small and curvy, with short funky blond hair, dramatic black frame glasses, bright red lipstick and red nails, always dressing in colors and always ready to laugh. Eve often thought that people were surprised by their long-running friendship, which had been strong since 6th grade. But Eve wasn't surprised. Who wouldn't want to be friends with Belinda? It was more surprising, she supposed, that anyone like Belinda would want to be friends with her. "I'm having a party!" Belinda announced while wiggling her palms in the air like jazz hands. "A party?" "I figured," Belinda reached down to scoop up the sister cats who were meowing and twisting lovingly around her feet, "That nobody in this town ever does anything fun and if I want to go to a fabulous Halloween party then I just need to throw one myself!" She nuzzled her face into the necks of the purring cats and made kissy sounds as she followed Eve into the kitchen, talking the whole time. "You could help me decorate and we'll play games and we'll invite everyone we know. It won't be for kids though. I want it to be a grown up party with grown up refreshments. You know what I mean?" Belinda took in the messy kitchen. "Did Betty Crocker blow up in here?" Eve smiled. "No, I'm just making some cookies." Belinda's eyes fell on the giant sized pumpkin cookies. She placed each cat on a stool and pulled the third stool up to the counter. "Are you making your famous pumpkin cookies?" She sounded delighted. "Yes,” Eve shrugged. "I thought maybe I would take them by my Dad's classroom tomorrow. You know, keep up the tradition." Belinda gave her a pitiful look. "Oh, Evie, that is so sweet." She reached under her glasses and wiped away tears with her carefully manicured fingers. "Your Dad would be thrilled." She sniffed and reached out to pat her friend's hand. "I just thought it might be..." Eve paused, not certain how to explain, "Fun...maybe." Belinda broke into a bright smile. "Of course it will be fun! That's great! You really need to get out more." "Well, it's a start," Eve answered, flouring the surface of the countertop to roll out the next batch of cookies. "Have you met Mr. Murphy yet?" Belinda asked, swiping a piece of cookie dough and popping it into her mouth. Mr. Murphy was the English teacher who'd replaced her father at the middle school. Eve had heard his name, but had not gone out of her way to meet him. She shook her head 'no' and continued rolling out the cookie dough. "He's really nice," Belinda reassured her. "And he's pretty young and kinda cute." Her eyes flew open with what Eve knew Belinda thought was a wonderful idea. "Maybe we could invite him to the party!" Eve made a sour face and shook her head. "I'm not sure about a party." She didn't know if she felt up to that much social interaction. "Please, Evie!" Belinda begged, giving her friend her cutest pleading face. "I need you to help me decorate and pick out a costume and everything." Eve kept pushing the rolling pin back and forth, meditating on the idea before committing to anything. "Besides, Chip is going to be there," Belinda added mischievously. Eve stopped rolling. "Chip? Chip Hendricks?" "Yep," Belinda nodded briskly and reached for another blob of cookie dough. "The gossip is that he may be moving back to town permanently and..." she gave a dramatic pause, "He's still single!" Belinda gobbled up the cookie dough, giving her friend an all-knowing smile as she chewed. Eve didn't respond, but she couldn't deny the tiny butterflies in her stomach at the mention of his name. "Come on, Evie," Belinda teased. "You're more excited than that, aren't you? It's Chip we're talking about." Eve denied Belinda's question with a quick shake of her head, causing another piece of her ultra straight hair to drop into her eyes, blocking her view. Since her hands were covered in flour and cookie dough, Eve blew at the wayward lock and flicked her head to get it back into place. "We're not in high school anymore," she chided Belinda. Belinda grinned naughtily and snatched another bit of cookie dough. "And that is exactly my point." Eve decided to ignore the teasing. She and Belinda had spent countless hours of their lives giggling over boys. She had other things to do now. She carefully used the cookie cutter to cut out each pumpkin cookie and laid it on the waiting baking sheet while she listened to Belinda chatter about the Halloween party. Parties weren't really Eve's thing, but as she slid the cookie sheet into the waiting oven she thought that maybe Belinda was right, maybe they should throw a Halloween party, maybe it would help her get back to normal. As if to underscore her decision, a sudden wind gust blew open the front door and sent a swirl of gold and red fall leaves tumbling into the house.