Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Greenery, flowers, mistletoe, music…

Nora Stoker hummed along to herself as she ran down the checklist on the clipboard in her hand, the soft sound of strings playing " Ave Maria" filtering from the ballroom just beyond the doors.

Christmastime weddings were, in her opinion, both some of the most beautiful and the most difficult to pull off. They needed to be elegant while still evoking that holiday warmth, without any of the tackiness that could come from being too on-the-nose with the decorations and music.

But, as always, she thought that it had been executed flawlessly. There was abundant greenery with hints of gold and soft lighting, the occasional red of roses and poinsettias, and the final touch, a single sprig of mistletoe hanging above the doors where the happy couple would exit after saying their vows. A small detail that she was proud to say she had thought of herself.

After all, that was why brides came to Metropolitan Events for their wedding planning. They were known for those small touches that could make even the largest event feel personal.

She checked off the last item on the list, looking around for one of the ushers. She spied one of them, a tall brown-haired young man in his early twenties standing stiffly in the black-and-white uniform of the hotel. Her heels clicking against the tile as she walked quickly in his direction. She was dressed similarly, in slim black trousers and a cream-colored silk shirt with pearl buttons, the sleeves now rolled up and buttoned at her elbows after a morning of running around and checking off every item on her list.

Nora tucked a single wayward bit of light brown hair behind her ear, smiling pleasantly at the usher as she approached.

"Is everything set for the bride to walk down the aisle? We have less than an hour until the ceremony."

The usher nodded. "Valet is out front, starting to receive guests, and there are ushers ready to escort everyone to their seats. The string quartet is set up just as you asked, and caterers are here and starting to prep for the cocktail hour, just as soon as the ceremony is over. The bride's photographers have already arrived. Two were down here for guest arrivals, one was with the groom and his party, and another was with the bride and hers. And there were two videographers as well, one to document guest arrivals and another going back and forth between the bride and groom."

Nora nodded as he spoke, running down her list again to double-check each item. "All right. I'll be ready as soon as the bride arrives, then. Make sure everyone is on headset, I need to be able to fix anything that might go wrong on a moment's notice."

"Nothing will go wrong, ma'am." There was a confidence in his voice that told Nora that this was likely the first wedding he'd worked.

She, on the other hand, had coordinated more than she could count by now. Something always went wrong. It was her job, once the ceremony began, to ensure that those mishaps were so flawlessly corrected that the bride would never know. That there would never be any evidence of it. It was imperative that it seem as if nothing ever went wrong.

It was a job that she genuinely loved. Since she'd graduated with a degree in hospitality from Boston University, she'd worked for Metropolitan Events, coordinating weddings and parties and proms with an enthusiasm that always made her feel secure that she had made the right choice for her career.

She'd coordinated fancy events for corporations and other businesses too, but her favorite clients were always the individuals. The newly engaged couples, the mothers planning a quincea?era for their daughters, the schools looking to throw a prom or winter dance. It always felt so satisfying to know that she had played a key role in making memories that would last someone a lifetime, no matter how much work it entailed.

And it was always a lot of work. She'd been up since before six, getting ready to go to the venue and triple-check everything. But the result would be a perfect day for a new bride, and Nora never doubted for a second how much she loved it all, from start to finish.

As the guests began to file in, Nora took up her position halfway down the aisle and to one side of the room, blending in with the decor as she watched to ensure that no last-minute interceptions were needed.

The guests were filing down the green and gold velvet runner that ran the length of the aisle, being ushered to their appropriate seats—one side for family and friends of the bride, the other for the groom, closest family in the front two rows. Nora could hear the bride's mother commenting on how tasteful the decorations were, and she felt a flush of pleasure as she glanced toward the ballroom doors, knowing that the bride would be entering in less than five minutes.

Everything had been planned, down to the second. And right on cue, as the last of the guests took their seat, Nora heard the music change.

The bride was stunning. For a moment, Nora couldn't help but picture herself on her own upcoming wedding day, as she saw the pretty brunette in the long-sleeved and full-skirted Mikado silk gown start to glide down the aisle.

She'd picked out something more appropriate for an early summer wedding, a thin silk and lace dress, but she felt an eager flutter of excitement in her stomach as she watched the bride approach the altar and the smiling groom. It had been difficult in the bustle of the last few months to find much time for planning, but she couldn't wait for the slower month of January to get back to it.

She could picture her own fiancé standing there, smiling brightly at her as she approached, maybe even welling up with the faintest hint of tears.

A sharp bark broke her out of her momentary reverie, and Nora's head snapped immediately toward the source of the disturbance. In the front row, she saw the culprit: a small black Scottish terrier with a plaid collar standing up on his hind legs, front paws firmly placed on the seat in front of him.

The yipping began just as the officiant began to say the familiar words, "Dearly beloved…"

Nora darted forward, intent on the first of the promised mishaps.

She'd had a feeling something like this would happen when one of the bridesmaids, who owned the terrier, had insisted on bringing the dog to the ceremony. Despite Nora's gentle suggestions that the venue didn't usually allow animals and that it might be best to leave the dog at home, the bridesmaid had whipped out emotional support animal paperwork instead, promising in the same breath that the mother of the bride would be happy to hold onto the little terror for the duration of the ceremony.

As if to add insult to injury, Nora saw that it was not the mother of the bride holding the dog, but one of the bride's cousins, who was clearly having trouble holding onto the small creature.

The dog was squirming now, readying itself for another volley of yips as the bride began her vows, and Nora moved swiftly down the aisle, thanking her lucky stars that the dog was situated only two seats down from her side of the room. It might have been so much worse if she'd had to make her way down the aisle to get the dog in full view of the videographer.

Just as she reached the edge of the seats, the small terrier twisted out of the cousin's hands, launching itself into the air like the world's furriest bottle rocket. Nora gasped, nearly breaking into a run as she grabbed for the dog, her hands closing on the wiry fur just as the small terrier nearly made it to the front row.

"Come here !" she whispered under her breath, tucking the writhing animal under her arm. A few guests had begun to look around, but she had managed to get the dog before it burst out onto the aisle—or worse, ran under the bride's skirts or upset the decor—and Nora darted for a side door, narrowly preventing the wedding from being entirely disturbed.

"Just another day on the job," she murmured, closing the door silently and reaching for the small earpiece tucked into her ear. "That's why they come to Metropolitan Events, isn't it?" she cooed to the dog, walking a few more feet away from the ballroom. "Where else can you get a wedding planner and an animal-catcher all in one?"

The dog let out another sharp bark, nearly squirming out of the crook of Nora's arm, and she pressed her earpiece to call the caterer. "I've got a dog here in need of a treat," she said, cradling it against her blouse as she scratched between its ears. "Can you bring me a piece of bacon, maybe? Something it might like."

"Of course. Give me just a minute." The tinny voice of one of the caterers responded almost immediately, and Nora walked to one of the benches lining the lobby, sinking down as she held the small dog in her lap. She'd never admit it out loud, but the opportunity to sit was actually one she was grateful for. Her feet were starting to ache.

Maybe I should go and get a pedicure tomorrow, she thought, craning her neck this way and that as she waited on the caterer. Maybe a full massage too. An early Christmas present to myself.

One of the caterers swept around the corner, a blonde woman with her hair caught up in a net, dressed in the same crisp black and white they'd all opted for. There was a small dish in her hand, and Nora gratefully took it. "Thank you." She fished a small piece of bacon out of it. It was sticky, and she smelled the faint scent of maple. "This ought to keep the little guy happy for a minute."

"No problem." The caterer smiled at her, disappearing back the way she'd come, and Nora fished another piece of bacon out of the dish.

"How's this?" She nibbled at one of the pieces herself as the dog ate. It had been hours since she'd had a quick breakfast of black coffee and an apple-cinnamon muffin from the grocery-store bakery, and she let out a soft sigh of pleasure at the taste. It was smoky and sweet all at once, with just a hint of saltiness, and Nora wondered what it was actually meant for. Whatever it was, she hoped she'd get a chance to try it at the reception—although as busy as she stayed during these events, she rarely got a chance to eat until afterward.

The dog scarfed down the bite, and then another, curling onto Nora's lap as she fed it one small treat after another. The weight of the small animal was soothing, and she felt a small pang of nostalgia for the days when she used to have a childhood pet.

She'd thought about getting a pet now and again. Something lower-maintenance than a dog. As much as she loved them, she worked too many hours to make dog ownership feasible. A cat, maybe, although even they needed attention from time to time, and when she wasn't working, she was usually with Rob.

He was firmly against the idea of getting any kind of pet too, and since they'd be living together soon, that made it all pretty much a moot point. His arguments were sound too. They worked too much, he didn't want what little time they had together taken up with caring for an animal, it was expensive, it would prevent them from vacationing as easily as they otherwise would.

Not that we've gone on many vacations, Nora thought as she stroked the small dog's back.

They both worked constantly. The last time they'd gone away together was three years ago, on a little cabin getaway that had left them both itching for Internet access to check their email. The isolation had made them grouchy and irritable, and they hadn't planned another vacation since.

From a lack of time, she told herself again and again. Nothing more .

From the ballroom, she could hear the music picking up again, a clear sign that the happy couple were about to exit as man and wife. Nora fed the last of the sticky bacon bits to the dog, her earpiece crackling as the staff began passing instructions back and forth for pictures and the cocktail hour, and she stood just as she saw the dog's owner hurrying in her direction.

The bridesmaid had her gold skirt in one hand, rushing over with an expression on her face that was both chagrined and grateful all at once.

"Thank you so much," she gushed, reaching for the dog. "You really saved the day. Smoky didn't mean to be noisy, did you, baby? No, you didn't." She cooed at the dog, giving Nora another grateful smile.

"All in a day's work." Nora smiled in return, and she meant it. It had been worrisome and a little frustrating, but in the end, it didn't matter. The crisis was averted, and nothing had marred the perfect day that she'd helped to arrange.

By the time midnight rolled around, the bride and groom leaving the venue in a shower of sparklers, Nora was both exhausted and utterly pleased. There had been a few other small mishaps—a forgotten card for one of the cameras, an appetizer that had only two pieces per guest available instead of three—but each time, she'd managed to find a workaround. She watched as the guests started to file out toward the valet, making her way to the ballroom to ensure that cleanup had started. The venue would need to be cleared out by two a.m., but she didn't need to stick around that long, just ensure that everyone who would be doing the job was present and already working.

Once that was finished, she fetched her heavy wool coat from the coat check as she prepared to leave, winding a cashmere scarf around her neck and reaching for her valet ticket. She stepped outside into the frigid night air, only to stop in utter surprise at the sight in front of her.

"Rob?" Nora's eyes widened as she saw her fiancé, Rob Smith, standing on the curb. He looked as handsome as ever, his brown hair ruffled in the cold Boston wind, cheeks flushed from it, wrapped up in a cashmere peacoat and slim designer jeans. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd already be on the way to the airport for your business trip."

Since long before they'd met, Rob had worked as a sales executive for a moped manufacturer. It wasn't the most interesting of jobs, exactly—she often felt her eyelids start to droop when he started talking about spreadsheets and quarterly sales—but she knew he didn't particularly love hearing her go on about floral arrangements and themed menus either. He traveled often, and she'd been expecting a week alone while he was in Chicago for meetings. They'd said goodbye that morning before she left for the wedding, and Nora had thought he would be gone by the time she got home.

But he was standing there, unexpectedly, and her heart fluttered. There was a time when him going out of his way to surprise her with something sweet and romantic—like flowers or an unexpected kiss goodbye on his way to his flight—wouldn't have been unusual. It made her feel warm all over to think that he might have made the effort to do something like that for her again.

The past few months had been so devoid of romance, with how busy their schedules had been. They'd been like ships passing in the night, Nora had often thought, with date nights becoming fewer and fewer, and nights in together skipped in favor of early bedtimes or long nights for Rob at the office. Some of her friends had started to question if it was normal for things to wane so much, with a wedding on the horizon. Shouldn't they be even more excited and eager to spend time with one another?

Nora had reassured them, and herself, that it was fine. Everything was perfect. Yes, they hadn't quite settled on where they'd be living after the wedding yet, and yes, Rob got frustrated every time she brought up wedding plans, telling her it was her job to do it perfectly, so she might as well make all the choices. But everything else was perfect. Everything since college had been right on track, every box on the list checked, right down to meeting a handsome man with a good job who always said all the right things to her friends, remembered birthdays and anniversaries, and brought his mother flowers and wine when they went home to visit. He wasn't exciting, but he was what she wanted.

Excitement wore off. Stability and companionship were more important than anything else. But Nora couldn't help relishing the flutter of excitement she felt as her pace quickened and she walked toward Rob, eager for him to pull her in for a kiss and whisper something sweet in her ear, the kind of thing she'd been missing.

But he wasn't smiling. She could see that as she got closer. His face looked tense and serious. Grave, even, as if something had happened. The excited fluttering in her stomach curdled, turning to a crawling sensation of unease. Rob rarely looked like that. She couldn't really remember the last time.

"I'm headed that way." His voice was eerily flat. "But I had something I needed to talk to you about, first."

The sound of his voice made her stomach twist. He never spoke to her like that, without any inflection, as if he were reciting a grocery list instead of talking to the woman he loved.

"What's up?" She tried to keep her tone light, to not let on how the knot in her stomach was tightening. She'd been with Rob for nearly five years. It was impossible to be with someone for so long, and not know them nearly as well as she knew herself. Something was wrong. She braced herself for him to say that he was going to see his parents, that one of them was ill, or that something had happened with his job.

"I've been thinking about it for some time." Rob scuffed the toe of his designer boot against the curb, a nervous gesture that made Nora feel faintly sick. Rob was fastidious about his clothing. A careless gesture like that wasn't like him at all. "Nora…"

He let out a sharp breath that puffed between them, a small cloud in the frigid air. "There's no easy way to say this. But with the appointments we have next week, I just can't let this continue on without saying…"

"What?" The word came out more sharply than she intended it to. That sick feeling spread. She thought she knew what he was going to say, and she couldn't decide if she wanted to put off the moment when she'd hear it forever, or get it over with. She didn't really think that she was going to get a choice.

"I think we need to break off the engagement." Rob said the words in a rush, each one punctuated by another puff in the cold air. "I—no, we need to. I'm saying it. We need to break?—"

"I heard you." Nora's voice sounded strangled, the sudden lump in her throat trying to block her speech. Somewhere behind her, she heard the valet's footsteps, but she couldn't bring herself to focus on anything other than Rob, on the awful thing that he couldn't actually mean.

But if it was somehow a joke, that was even worse.

"Why?" She sucked in a breath, the cold air jolting her back into her senses. "Why now? Why on earth haven't you talked to me about this before, Rob? This is the first I'm hearing of it, even though you say you've been thinking about it for a long time."

Rob chewed on his lower lip, shifting from one foot to another. "It's just been on my mind, Nor. We're just… we're not all that suited to each other, you know? I thought about it when we went off to that cabin. You planned everything, all on your own."

"It was meant to be a surprise!" Nora's eyes widened, a mixture of hurt and anger tangling up in her chest. "You always said you liked that I was a planner, that it meant I could just pick, and you knew it would be good."

"Well, it wasn't. We both agreed on that, after. And I hate surprises." Rob's gaze took on a stubborn look that Nora had seen before, from time to time. "I just think?—"

"Rob, that was three years ago." Her chest felt so tight she could barely breathe. "You've been thinking this all that time. We got engaged after that! At Thanksgiving last year."

"I know." He ran a gloved hand through his hair. "Things were so good, for the most part. I just kind of ignored what kept bothering me."

" What kept bothering you?" Nora felt tears burning at the back of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Not here, not right now. She never cried in public. She would let herself fall apart later. "You never talked to me about any of this. I thought everything was fine."

"It was ." Rob let out another sharp breath. "Look, I've just realized that we're not meant for each other. There are lots of little things. I think we'll be happier if we just go our separate ways."

It's all so vague.

A pit opened up in Nora's stomach, a horrible suspicion forming. At the last office party, she remembered a pretty blonde in a blue dress who had gushed over Rob's sales numbers. He had smiled broadly as he introduced the woman and mentioned how hard she was working. And if Nora remembered correctly, the woman had just been made partner two weeks ago.

"Is this about Julie?" She swallowed hard, remembering the proud way he'd looked at her. She'd mentioned something about Rob giving her a glowing recommendation right as she was up for a review with the other partners in the company.

Rob's lips pressed together tightly. "I don't have time to go over this, Nora. I really do need to go and catch my flight. I just didn't want to leave without talking things over with you. I really am sorry."

It sounds like a sales pitch. Like he practiced it. Nora felt the pit in her stomach widen, that sick feeling spreading. She could imagine Julie on the flight to Chicago, in Rob's hotel— Rob wanting to neatly break things off so he didn't have to feel guilty, like a cheater. When in fact, it didn't matter, if he'd been wanting to cheat this whole time.

Nora swallowed hard. She couldn't think of anything to say. The last thing she wanted to do was beg for him to stay, but she couldn't just say goodbye either. It seemed preposterous that just this morning he'd kissed her as she walked out of his apartment, like everything was normal, and now he'd caught her completely unaware. She had truly never seen this coming.

It didn't matter anyway. He was already walking away, as if he'd delivered his message, and had nothing more to say. Nothing more than a few sentences, after years together.

She stood there, frozen both literally and figuratively, watching him leave. Tears burned her eyes, and she dipped her head, not wanting anyone else to see as she tried to surreptitiously wipe them away with the back of her glove. She couldn't quite believe it was really happening.

Rob hadn't been a Prince Charming. He hadn't swept her off her feet or romanced her until her head spun or fulfilled any wild fantasies. But he'd been handsome, ambitious enough, stable, secure. He'd had a similar five-year-plan.

He'd fit perfectly in the checklist—boyfriend, then fiancé, soon husband and later a father. He'd wanted kids, eventually. They handled finances the same way. Decisions had always been made easily. If he didn't have an opinion, he let her choose. He'd fit her vision for her life so perfectly. She had always assumed that she did the same for him.

Now a piece of her puzzle had been forcibly removed, and Nora felt, suddenly, that the entire plan was beginning to crumble.

Someone cleared their throat behind her, and she knew it was the valet. She turned, feeling numb as she took the keys and handed him a cash tip, mumbling her thanks as she strode toward her sleek, sensible Camry. The interior smelled of warm leather and the upholstery shampoo that they used to detail it at the dealer, and she closed her eyes, trying not to think about the day she and Rob had gone to pick it out together. He'd said it fit her perfectly. Sleek, neat, put-together. She'd taken it as a compliment. But now, everything he'd ever said began to shift and re-frame itself in her mind, making her question all of it.

Julie probably drove a sports car. Something quick and fun and bright. Something exciting .

The tears began to fall as she sat there, the car idling as she looked at the venue where she'd just facilitated a beautiful wedding. Where, just a few hours ago, she'd been imagining her own. It had been bright and full of laughter and cheer, but she saw the lights beginning to go out as the cleanup crew finished, and she felt a hollow ache in her chest. Everything felt hollow now.

The week had gone so well. She'd been looking forward to a relaxing weekend, maybe even a little wedding planning, and then an exceptionally productive week to follow while Rob was out of town. She'd been looking at reservations for when he returned, a nice dinner to celebrate the deal that she'd been certain he was going to close. The holidays were right around the corner, and she'd thought of going to get a Christmas tree for her apartment with him, maybe decorating together afterward.

He hated decorating. She always thought he'd enjoyed it when they did it together, but now she thought that maybe he'd always been pretending. That nothing was really as it had seemed, all these years.

As she drove home, Nora was certain that she'd never felt so lost.