Together for Christmas by Lisa Plumley

Author:Lisa Plumley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781420128529
Publisher: Zebra
Published: 2012-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

MOUNTEBANK (MOUN-tuh-bangk) noun: an unscrupulous pretender

Lagniappe at the Lakeshore B&B

December 8

Curled up on her suite’s plush king-size bed, wearing cozy flannel pajama pants and watching a cheesy pay-per-view holiday movie while munching through a bowl of popcorn, Heather Miller caught an unexpected glimpse of herself in the mirror on the opposite wall. What she saw nearly made her heart stop.

It was her, the pop diva superstar of the moment, as no one had ever seen her before. Along with her pajama pants, she was dressed in sweat socks and a saggy old T-shirt from her beginning showbiz days on the Disney Channel. She’d piled her hair on top of her head in a haphazard ponytail-bun hybrid—not a cute, stylishly disheveled ponytail-bun hybrid, either, like you might see in Vogue with some sequins and a full face of make-up. No, this was full-on sloppy, unwashed, not-fit-for-Pilates-class hair, with a skunky streak of roots where blond hair should have been. Her face was bare. She might have been developing a zit on her chin. And her cheeks bulged with the latest handful of her high-carb (all carb?), non-detoxing, salty, bloat-inducing popcorn.

This was her? Slovenly and zit-faced with a bad dye job?

Gripped by shock and nausea, Heather tried to stop and think things through. After all, thanks to Alex’s influence, that was what she did these days—stop and think things through before reacting. So she deliberately swerved her appalled gaze away from the mirror, tried to calm her hammering heart, then looked at the bowl of popcorn in her lap. Objectively.

This wasn’t just popcorn, Heather tried to tell herself. It was a singular room-service delicacy prepared especially for her by the chef at Lagniappe at the Lakeshore. It sported imported Piedmont truffle oil and fancy fleur de sel de Guérande. It came in a silver bowl lined with a designer napkin and accompanied by another designer napkin, both linens printed in a cheerful holiday pattern. This popcorn was supposed to lift her spirits, because being quarantined with chicken pox was boooring, and there were only so many pies in a jar one person could eat before going crazy and beginning to crave other foods in a jar.

Macaroni and cheese in a jar, she’d raved to Alex in a fever of inspiration. Meat loaf in a jar. Prime rib in a jar!

He hadn’t thought her ideas were as brilliant as Heather had. Even though she’d already texted several of those brainstorms to Kristen (because her sister was obviously missing the boat at the Galaxy Diner), Alex hadn’t been impressed. He’d only hugged Heather, then told her that her idea for various foods in a jar already existed (“it’s called baby food”). After that, he’d brought her more calamine lotion and tucked her in so she could get some more (apparently much-needed) sleep.

It had really been very thoughtful of him. If Alex hadn’t been dotted with pink calamine lotion himself at that moment, she might have been tempted to take things to the next level between them.

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