Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Marissa knocked once on Felicity and Clara’s door, and without waiting for them to answer, she barged in. “I hope everyone is decent!”

“Marissa?” Clara called before suddenly appearing in the living room. She was wearing a cow print apron and had a red Christmas bow tied around her dark ponytail. “I thought you’d be at Sleighed tonight.”

“It’s Kira’s night.” Kira Andrews was the other bartender that typically covered the two nights that Marissa didn’t work.

“Right. Of course.” Clara gestured for Marissa to follow her into the kitchen. “I’m making Christmas cookies. Want some nog?”

Marissa shook her head as she followed her friend into her kitchen. “No, but I’ll have a cup of coffee if you have any Irish cream. ”

“We do. You know where to find it,” she said as she went back to mixing the flour into her batter.

“You’re an angel,” Marissa said as she made her coffee and broke out the Irish cream. “You’re never going to believe what happened at the pottery lesson today.”

Clara glanced up at her and frowned as her gaze roamed over her friend. “What in the world? Did you roll around on the floor or something? You look like you got into a fight with the clay and it won.”

“I got into a fight with Sophie, and I won,” Marissa insisted.

“What?” Clara put her mixer down and stared at her friend. “Tell me that you and that woman did not have a mud fight.”

Marissa couldn’t help it. She let out a bark of laughter but then quickly sobered. “Sorry. We did end up in a mud fight, sort of, I guess. But she started it.”

“Oh, that’s much better,” Clara said dryly. “What did Danny do?”

“Stopped the class. Obviously. But that’s not what I need to tell you. Sophie isn’t just some woman who is spending her holidays in Christmas Grove. She’s here to try to get me and Danny back together.”

Clara’s mouth dropped open. A moment later, she shut it and then shook her head. “Say that again? I thought I heard you say that Danny’s date is in town to play Cupid for you and your ex.”

The word Cupid made Marissa’s stomach turn. She pressed a hand to her abdomen and said, “Not Cupid. She’s a sugar plum fairy. ”

“You’re kidding, right?” Clara grinned as she completely abandoned her cookies and reached for the nog. “You have a sugar plum fairy? That’s amazing. And her mission is to bring you and Danny back together? Oh. Em. Gee. You’re living your own holiday movie, Marissa!”

“This is not a movie, Clara!” Marissa took a gulp of her Irish cream coffee and shook her head. “It’s… it’s…” She didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t a movie.

“Romantic?” Clara’s eyes gleamed as she tugged Marissa over to the kitchen table and gestured for her to sit. “This calls for something decadent.”

Marissa eyed the batter on the counter and wondered if they were going to have to wait until they were baked.

But Clara suddenly produced a plate of double chocolate fudge cookies and brought them to the table. Once she had one in hand, she said, “Okay. Now I’m ready. Tell me everything.”

“According to the sugar plum fairy, Danny was cursed,” Marissa said and then launched into the entire story. She told her about Sophie’s sister being in love with Danny and enacting her revenge. And how Danny hadn’t known and had followed her advice, which led to their destruction. “Now she says we can break the curse if we spend a lot more time together and learn to trust each other again.”

Clara pressed her hand to her heart, looking wounded. “Marissa, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with Danny?”

“Why would I do that? He left me. You do understand that he made the decision to leave without even telling me why, right?”

“Sure, but he did it for a good reason.” Clara let out a sigh, looking like she’d just read her favorite romance novel. “You have to admit, it was really selfless of him to leave to keep you safe.”

“No, I don’t have to admit any such thing.” Marissa picked up a cookie and broke it in half. But then instead of eating it, she put it on a napkin, deciding she wasn’t hungry. “Don’t you understand? He decided our lives for us back then. He didn’t respect me enough to include me in what was going on. I was destroyed. Danny was my entire world. And now, I’ve made a good life for myself. I don’t need to rely on him or anyone else. Just because he’s inserted himself back into my life, it doesn’t mean I need to go running back to him.”

“You don’t trust him,” Clara said with a small nod.

“It’s not that. I…” Marissa trailed off. She had been going to say that marriage just wasn’t for her. That she’d been too young to know her own mind back then. But the fact was her friend had hit the nail on the head. “You’re right. I don’t.”

She smiled softly. “But you still love him.”

“No I don’t,” she said automatically.

“You do. I can see it in your eyes.” Clara got up out of her chair and then wrapped her arms around Marissa’s neck as she gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “I know it’s scary, but our hearts don’t lie. How could you not love him?”

Marissa wiped away one lone tear as she shook her head. “I will always love Danny Frost. But I can’t get involved with him again. It took me way too long to recover when he left.”

“You’re scared he’ll leave again,” Clara whispered. “But for what it’s worth, Mar, I think you are both different people now. Since your relationship was torn apart by a curse, I think you both owe it to yourselves to find out if there’s still a spark there.”

Marissa shook her head. “That’s because you’re a true romantic. The Romeo and Juliet type of romantic. I’m not. He hurt me once. I’m not interested in letting it happen again.”

Clara tightened her hold, squeezing Marissa one last time before she straightened and nodded. “That’s understandable.” She went into her kitchen and stuffed the batter in the refrigerator. “We need to get some fresh air. Want to take Pumpkin on a walk?”

“That’s a good idea.” Marissa went next door to her house, changed her clothes, and then got her sweet girl dressed in her harness vest. After grabbing her leash and a couple of pickup bags, the pair went out front to meet Clara.

Her friend was dressed in yoga pants, a sweatshirt, and tennis shoes. The outfit was very similar to Marissa’s, although she was wearing leggings and an oversized T-shirt. Even though it’d been snowing out, Marissa welcomed the cold if it would numb her anger and frustration.

“You’re going to freeze,” Clara said, eyeing her bare arms .

“I’ll be fine. I have enough rage to fuel the entire west end.”

Clara just shook her head and reached down to pick up Pumpkin and give her a kiss. The dog’s tail was working overtime from excitement. “Okay, cutie. Let’s get our walk on.”

The three of them took off down the street, with Marissa still seething about Sophie and Danny just assuming she’d play along with some sort of reconciliation. She was a grown woman who hadn’t been waiting around her entire adult life for some man to walk back into it. He was going to have to do a heck of a lot better than that if he wanted any relationship with her, much less a romantic one.

“You’re vibrating,” Clara said, eyeing her.

“I am not,” Marissa said.

“Yes you are. You need a massage. Or a beer.”

“How about both?” Marissa pulled out her phone. “We should have a spa day. Now.”

“That would be great if they weren’t already closed,” Clara said, holding her phone up to show it was after five.

“Ugh. Fine. A beer it is.” She was just putting her phone back in her pocket when it rang. She frowned when Danny’s name flashed on the screen. She scowled, irritated that she hadn’t deleted his contact information years ago. Her frustration had reached a boiling point, and she hit the Accept button. “You shouldn’t be calling me, Danny. I said I needed?—”

“Marissa, thank the gods,” Danny said. “Listen?—”

“No, you listen, I told?— ”

“Marissa! You and Clara need to get off the sidewalk right now. A car is headed straight for you!”

She glanced up just in time to see a white SUV jump the curb on the opposite side of the road and immediately spin out of control in their direction. Crying out, Marissa grabbed Clara by the hand and yanked her and Pumpkin into the yard. Both of them stumbled and fell, landing in a heap while the white SUV jumped the sidewalk where they’d just been walking and took out a mailbox as it came to a stop.

“Pumpkin!” Marissa cried, looking for her dog.

Her sweet pup popped up right next to her, shaking as she leaned against Marissa’s body.

“Thank the goddesses.” Marissa wrapped her arm around her baby and gave her kisses, soothing her.

“Marissa?” a faint voice called from her phone. She glanced around, looking for it. She must have dropped it somewhere when she face-planted in the yard.

“Danny, is that you?” Clara asked, talking into the phone. Her lips curved into a smile. “Thank you. I think you just saved all three of our butts.”

As Clara praised Danny for letting them know about his vision in time for them to get out of the way, Marissa got up off the lawn and tried to brush the grass stains from her leggings. It didn’t work.

When Clara ended the call and handed Marissa the phone, she said, “He just saved our lives.”

“He does that,” Marissa said.

“What if he can’t call the next time he has a vision? Or you don’t pick up? ”

“I’ll pick up,” she said.

“Even if you don’t hear it at the bar?” Clara asked.

“I mean… I’ll do my best,” Marissa promised, hating that she’d dragged her best friend into her drama.

“Wouldn’t it just be easier to break the curse? Find a way to forgive him? Otherwise, I think your luck can only go so far. One of these days you will get hurt, and then what? You’ll have your pride and independence, but who knows what shape you’ll be in? Who will watch Pumpkin while you heal?”

“You!” Marissa was so tired, and she didn’t want to have this conversation.

“Of course, right. I just don’t want the accident to happen at all,” Clara said.

Marissa looked at her shaken friend and nodded slowly. That had been a close call. If no one had been with her, maybe Marissa could continue to act as if the curse wasn’t a big deal. But if it endangered other people she cared about, ignoring it wasn’t an option.

There was only one solution. Work with Danny until the craziness settled down. And in the meantime, find some way to trust the one man she’d resented for over a decade.