LITMIR.BIZ

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a dress? I shouldn’t think he was the shopping type,” Bess stated flatly.

      “But what if he knew Crystal owned the Lover’s Valley Bridal Boutique? How could he not know? His parents would have told him. Any of his high school jock friends would have told him,” Elle said excitedly. “Anybody might have mentioned it.”

      “Even if he’d decided to try to explain for the prom night that didn’t happen,” Martin cut in, “his words would fall on deaf ears, so we need not speculate on that. Far better for us to concentrate on how we’re going to get ourselves out of the doghouse with Crystal.”

      “You’re right.” Bess nodded, though a glimmer of hope had been doused in her soul. “As unmotherly as this may sound, on the eve of my daughter’s thirtieth birthday, I would almost be willing to forgive Mitch if he…”

      Elle’s blue eyes were huge behind her silver-rimmed spectacles perching on her delicate face. “If he what?”

      Possibly she was abnormal. Certainly she didn’t wish her daughter any further pain. Quite the opposite! She wanted her to experience the joy of happily-ever-after.

      Unfortunately, she and everybody else in this room knew that Mitch wasn’t the man to unlock her daughter from her self-imposed ivory tower. “Never mind,” she said sadly. “At least we’ve planned something special for Crystal.”

      “We’ve never given her a surprise party before. It should be a lively occasion,” Elle said. “I expect to see Crystal smiling then. And maybe she’ll forgive us for the shock our meddling gave her today!”

      Their hopeful smiles faded as they remembered the undisguised panic on Crystal’s face when Mitch had landed among them.

      “Or maybe not,” Bess said.

      Chapter Three

      Mitch hadn’t known what to expect yesterday upon seeing Crystal. As he’d stood on the pavement, trying to gather his wits to go in and offer a long-overdue apology, he’d tried to imagine what she looked like. If she’d changed at all. How she’d come to open a wedding boutique when she’d dreamed of medical school.

      He’d attended med school, and become a surgeon in Dallas. Anything that needed removing or suturing, he could fix with skill. Not broken hearts or shattered souls, his or anyone else’s. His work was the physical.

      Crystal’s appeared to be the stuff of dreams.

      Yet, she seemed to studiously avoid any pretense of the romantic herself. No one who had a hot date after work dressed like she did. Gone was the giggly girl who’d loved faded blue jeans and glittery fingernail polish.

      The Crystal he’d just met was professional. Not about to let her hair down. Refined. He’d once thought her name suited her, because she glowed with an inner warmth that sent prisms of color dancing over the otherwise plain surfaces around her. In her mother’s house, there was a crystal chandelier that sunlight had touched in the afternoons as they sat in the parlor talking about nothing more than rainbow prisms and future dreams. Crystal had been warm and colorful, like those prisms.

      Now she was beautiful and icy and without color. Crystal without light.

      He fully remembered how much fire she’d once possessed. He wanted a chance to warm her again.

      But he was not in a position right now to even dream of warming Crystal. He had troubles of his own right now—which was why he was taking a breather here in Lover’s Valley.

      Mitch swallowed, grabbing at the invitation that sat before him on the table at his parents’ home, where he was staying a few nights as he tried to sort out a family dilemma. His parents lived across the street from the home where Crystal had grown up. She no longer lived there, of course, but Martin, Bess and Elle would never give up the family seat. It was a stately two-story white building, with columns out front that spoke of Southern gentility. People in Lover’s Valley wondered why two sisters and a brother still held on to a house that was too big for them to keep up and that would bring them a pile of money should they decide to sell. Real estate in this neighborhood had skyrocketed, due to the wonderful architecture and enormous lots.

      When his family moved into town his senior year, he’d fallen immediately head over heels for the girl across the street. She was always in motion, having girlfriends over and boys pick her up in their cars.

      He’d decided right then and there that location was everything, and he was in a prime position to win Crystal’s heart. He had, the same way he helped the football team or the debate team win, using his determination and his charm to win, convince and score.

      She’d been so much more than a score. His lips pressed together tightly as he remembered the way moving into her tight body had felt. Heaven and hell all at once. Pain and pleasure in agonizing extremes. The most beautiful thing he’d ever experienced in his life.

      To this day he treasured their fumbling, tender joining.

      This invitation to Crystal’s party tonight, which had his parents’ names on it, would not include him. Mitch knew that too well. Bess would think it rude to hold a party in her house without inviting his parents. All the parked cars and noise in front of their houses would strain a relationship everyone was eager to keep as neighborly as possible. Their families had remained cautious friends, mostly because no one knew of the night of passion Crystal and Mitch had shared.

      His name was not on the invitation, because no one had expected him to be in Lover’s Valley. Even if they had, he would have only been invited because of Bess’s good manners. It was a surprise party, and the worst possible surprise he could give Crystal was to show up on her birthday.

      Still, he could send a small token of the esteem in which he’d always held her.

      BESS, ELLE AND MARTIN could hardly sit still as they waited for Crystal to arrive. After she was safely in their care, Martin would spirit her off on a convenient “errand,” which would take up thirty minutes. This would give the guests time to be greeted and then hidden in the decorated great room. When Crystal and Martin returned, wouldn’t she have a nice surprise waiting for her?

      Tonight, everything was going to go smooth as velvet. “I’m edgy,” Bess announced, as if her brother and sister couldn’t tell by her pacing.

      “I just hope Crystal shows up.” Elle fretted, patting her hair as she stared into a sideboard mirror. “I worry about her deciding to work late or some other foolishness.”

      “Since she may be slightly put out with us from yesterday, perhaps I should call down to the shop,” Martin suggested.

      “Maybe so.” Bess peered out the upstairs window at the street. “Call her, Martin. Make sure she hasn’t forgotten that we invited her over for a ‘family birthday dinner.”’

      They shared a nervous glance.

      “I believe I will. No reason to leave anything to chance, or to Crystal’s work ethics.” Martin went to the rotary phone that sat atop an old rolltop desk in the hallway. He dialed the number swiftly, then listened for a few moments. “She’s not picking up. Maybe she’s gone home to feed her pet menagerie before coming over.”

      “You don’t think they’ll bring him, do you?” Elle murmured from her place at the window. Without realizing it, she’d been staring at the McStern place ever since they’d gone upstairs to keep their vision trained on the street for Crystal’s appearance.

      “I should think not!” Bess stated. “It would be impolite to do that to Crystal on her birthday. Besides, I doubt he would want to come. I’m sure they had very little to say to each other yesterday. And why should he invite himself tonight when he didn’t bother to show up for the big night?”

      “I don’t know.” Elle sighed, shaking her head. “It worries me that Crystal may believe we knew Mitch was staying at his folks and told him to pay her a call at the shop.”

      Bess straightened, as if

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