All Madison wants for Christmas is the same person who once wanted her. Free from the shackles of her broken heart, she's finally ready to give love another shot. But is Madi too late to win back the man of her dreams?
SEQUEL to The Heartbreak Hypot...
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The cool morning air drifted in through the open car window, lifting my dark blonde curls so they danced around my face. There was a very distinct smell in the air—cinnamon and pine—and while I was in a completely different town with completely different people, the familiar scent cast my mind back to Christmas the year before.
Back to baking shortbread with my ex-boyfriend.
Back to drinking white chocolate mochas with my ex-best friend.
Back to dreaming about my future, about leaving my small town to embark on the beginning of my adult life.
That's the thing about Christmas. It's the one time of the year where everything feels timeless. Where you could be anywhere or anyone. Where memories blend together like snowflakes melting in the spring sun.
I used to pity that girl—the one from my memories. Young and naïve, high on a fantasy sold to her by a jerk of a boyfriend and a traitor of a best friend. And while a pinch of sadness still twinged my heart when I thought about her now, about the pain she'd endure after losing her father and boyfriend, and the tough lessons she'd have to learn while she navigated a new path—a new life—there was finally a sliver of happiness that pierced through the pity. Because there would be good amongst the bad.
There always was.
And, sometimes, that good came in the form of a golden-haired Prince Charming and his two equally charming best friends.
"Can you roll up the window?" Dex moaned from the backseat. "It's so damn noisy out there."
Apparently, 'charming' was now codeword for 'whiny little baby'.
I rolled my eyes, pressing the button to bring the window up and waving the nostalgic smells of the outside world goodbye. We'd been on the road for all of twenty minutes, and Dex had already managed to complain about the music (Noah's Mariah Carey playlist), the temperature (James liked the heat all the way up), and, now, the inevitable noise of passing traffic.
Sitting in the passenger seat, I eyed him through the rearview mirror. "You're such a whiner today."
"Just today?" James mumbled, peeling his twinkling blue eyes from the road to throw me a wink.
One that may or may not have flipped my heart right out of my chest.
It was a good thing that I'd closed the window.
"He's right," Dex confirmed. He leaned forward to poke his head between his blond best friend and I, unknowingly breaking the tension that swelled between us like currents of electricity. "Whiner is an integral part of my DNA makeup. Extract it, and the rest of me crumbles."
"No kidding," James quipped, earning him a gentle shove from his chestnut-haired best friend. "You're in for a long car ride, Watson."
Noah took a break from swiping right on Tinder to watch their exchange from the backseat, mirroring my amused smile with one of his own. He'd known Dex and James since high school, and I was glad to see that the latter's playful back-and-forth hadn't lost its charm over the years. It was annoying as hell, but I secretly lived for it.
