The Christmas Cookie Chronicles: Carrie Read Online Free

After all this time? Why should she still be mad, especially when she was the one who was the first to say they’d made a big mistake?
    Why hadn’t he called her?
    Yeah, well, and say what? Sorry I bailed on you when opportunity knocked? Sorry I’ve changed and I’m not the country boy you once loved?
    “We have nothing to discuss. We knew each other a long time ago.”
    “Can we at least be civil?” he asked.
    She eyed him suspiciously.
    “How’s your folks?” he asked, trying for polite conversation.
    “Mom died five years ago on Christmas Eve,” she said dispassionately.
    Immediately, he felt like a giant shitheel. He had not known. “Carrie. I’m so sorry.”
    “Appreciate the condolence card you sent.” Her sarcasm was a knife to his heart.
    He toed the ground, getting his shoes dusty. This was a mistake, trying to talk to her, but he didn’t turn away. “How’s your dad?” he asked softly.
    “Clean and sober, thanks for asking.” More sarcasm.
    “What about the twins?”
    “My brothers are in their senior years at Texas Tech.”
    “I can’t believe it. Little Noah and Joel about to graduate college?”
    “It has been eight years.”
    “And Flynn?”
    “Happily married and expecting a baby.”
    “That’s great news.” He paused. “What about you, Carrie? Did you ever get married again?” He was stricken by the idea that he was too late, that she was already married. His gaze darted to her ring finger. Bare.
    “Did you?” Her eyes narrowed.
    “No.”
    “Me either. Once bitten, twice shy.”
    He swallowed, tried to think of the right thing to say.
    “Listen, I’ve got things to do.” She shifted her weight but did not meet his gaze.
    “I’m going to be in town for three weeks, filming a show. Maybe we could get—”
    “I know all about your show. Yay for you. In the future, if I see you coming, I’ll be sure to head in the opposite direction. Like now.” She turned and started walking again.
    “You didn’t use to hold grudges,” he called out, feeling unexpectedly desperate to keep her engaged in conversation. What was that all about? Why did he care?
    Face it. You blew the best thing that ever happened to you.
    It was a reality he’d spent eight years running from. He’d tucked her into the recesses of his mind. In the mental file, marked FOOLHARDY YOUTHFUL MISTAKES. From time to time, usually when he was feeling nostalgic or lonely, he’d trot out the memory file. Not often, but every once in awhile when he found himself wondering, What if?
    But now that he was here, looking at her, seeing how she’d bloomed into an amazingly beautiful woman, one thought dominated his brain.
    You were a fool to let her slip through your fingers.
    He remembered the salty sweet taste of her lips, like a big scoop of vanilla ice cream drizzled with caramel and topped with chopped nuts, and he had a compelling urge to taste them again.
    She whirled on her heels and came marching back, wagging a finger at him. “Don’t you believe for one single minute, Mark Leland, that I’ve had the time or inclination to think of you even once. God, what an ego! You think I’ve been sitting here pining away for your return?”
    “A guy can hope.”
    “Look, yes you were a hottie in high school and I was smitten enough to run off to Vegas with you, but it was just one dumb weekend out of my life.”
    One dumb weekend? She’d married him.
    “Time marches on and you—” She waved a hand, curled her upper lip. “You became a sellout. Once upon a time you wanted to be a novelist. How in the hell did you end up hosting some silly reality show? The way I see it, you did me a huge favor. I dodged a bullet when you left. Thank you. I owe you my undying gratitude.”
    A sellout? She thought he was a sellout? He didn’t know why that staggered him, but it did. “You’re going to deny that you were in love with me?”
    She opened her mouth as if she was about to hit him with a humdinger of a zinger,