A White Wedding Christmas. Andrea Laurence

Natalie for a moment with a curious expression on her face. “What’s going on with you? You seem distracted. Grumpier than usual.”

      That was sweet of her to point out. She knew she wasn’t that pleasant this time of year, but she didn’t need her friends reminding her of it. “Nothing is going on with me.”

      Gretchen crossed her arms over her chest and gave Natalie a look that told her she was going to stand there until she spilled.

      “Christmas is coming.” That pretty much said it all.

      “What is this, Game of Thrones? Of course Christmas is coming. It’s almost December, honey, and it’s one of the more predictable holidays.”

      Natalie set down her tablet and frowned. Each year, the holidays were a challenge for her. Normally, she would try going on a trip to avoid all of it, but with the late wedding, she didn’t have time. Staying home meant she’d have to resort to being a shut-in. She certainly wasn’t interested in spending it with one of her parents and their latest spouses. The last time she did that, she’d called her mother’s third husband by her second husband’s name and that made for an awkward evening.

      Natalie leaned back in the conference room chair and sighed. “It’s bothering me more than usual this year.” And it was. She didn’t know why, but it was. Maybe it was the combination of all her friends being blissfully in love colliding with the holidays that was making it doubly painful.

      “Are you taking a trip or staying home?” Gretchen asked.

      “I’m staying home. I was considering a trip to Buenos Aires, but I don’t have time. We squeezed Lily’s last-minute wedding in on the Saturday before Christmas, so I’ll be involved in that and not able to do the normal end-of-year paperwork until it’s over.”

      “You’re not planning to work over the shutdown, are you?” Gretchen planted her hands on her hips. “You don’t have to celebrate, but by damn, you’ve got to take the time off, Natalie. You work seven days a week sometimes.”

      Natalie dismissed her concerns. Working didn’t bother her as much as being idle. She didn’t have a family to go home to each night or piles of laundry or housework that a man or child generated faster than she could clean. She liked her job. “I don’t work the late hours you and Amelia do. I’m never here until midnight.”

      “It doesn’t matter. You’re still putting in too much time. You need to get away from all of this. Maybe go to a tropical island and have a fling with a sexy stranger.”

      At that, Natalie snorted. “I’m sorry, but a man is not the answer to my problems. That actually makes it worse.”

      “I’m not saying fall in love and marry the guy. I’m just saying to keep him locked in your hotel suite until the last New Year’s firework explodes. What can a night or two of hot sex hurt?”

      Natalie looked up at Gretchen and realized what was really bothering her. Colin’s rejection from the night of the engagement party still stung. She hadn’t told anyone about it, but if she didn’t give Gretchen a good reason now, she’d ride her about it until the New Year. “It can hurt plenty when the guy you throw yourself at is your best friend’s brother and he turns you down flat.”

      Gretchen’s mouth dropped open and she sunk back down into her seat. “What? When did this happen?”

      Natalie took a big sip of her soy chai latte before she answered. “I had too much chardonnay at Lily’s engagement party and thought I’d take a chance on the big brother I’d lusted over since I’d hit puberty. To put it nicely, he declined. End of story. So no, I’m not really in the mood for a fling, either.”

      “Well that sucks,” Gretchen noted.

      “That’s one way of putting it.”

      “On the plus side, you won’t really have to see him again until the wedding day, right? Then you’ll be too busy to care.”

      “Yep. I’ll make sure I look extra good that day so he’ll see what he missed.”

      “That’s my girl. I’m going to go get these email invitations out.”

      Natalie nodded and watched Gretchen leave the room. She picked up her tablet and her drink, following her out the door to her office. Settling in at her desk, she pulled out a new file folder and wrote Russell-Watson Wedding on the tab. She needed to get everything prepared for their preliminary meeting this afternoon.

      Staying busy would keep Christmas, and Colin, off her mind.

      * * *

      Colin pulled into the parking lot at From This Moment, his gaze instantly scanning over the lackluster shrubs out front. He knew it was winter, but they could certainly use a little more pizzazz for curb appeal.

      He parked and went inside the facility. Stepping through the front doors, he knew instantly why Lily had insisted on marrying here. Their box holly hedges might have left something to be desired, but their focus was clearly on the interior. The inside was stunning with high ceilings, crystal chandeliers, tall fresh flower arrangements on the entryway table and arched entryways leading to various wings of the building. Mom would’ve loved it.

      He looked down at his watch. It was a minute to one, so he was right on time for the appointment. Colin felt a little silly coming here today. Weddings weren’t exactly his forte, but he was stepping up in his parents’ place. When he’d married a year and a half ago, it had been a quick courthouse affair. If they’d opted for something more glamorous, he would’ve let Pam take the lead. Pam wasn’t interested in that, though, and apparently, neither was his sister, Lily.

      If she’d had her way, she and Frankie would’ve gone down to the courthouse, too. There was no reason to rush the nuptials, like Colin and Pam, but Lily just wanted to be done. She loved Frankie and she wanted to be Mrs. Watson as soon as possible. Colin had had to twist her arm into having an actual wedding, reminding her that their mother would be rolling over in her grave if she knew what Lily was planning.

      She’d finally agreed under two circumstances: one, that the wedding be at Natalie’s facility. Two, that he handle all the details. He insisted on the wedding, he’d offered to pay for it; he could make all the decisions. Lily intended to show up in a white dress on the big day and that was about it.

      Colin wasn’t certain how he’d managed to be around so many women who weren’t interested in big weddings. Pam hadn’t wanted to marry at all. Hell, if it hadn’t been for the baby and his insistence, she wouldn’t have accepted the proposal. In retrospect, he realized why she was so hesitant, but with Lily, it just seemed to be a general disinterest in tradition.

      He didn’t understand it. Their parents had been very traditional people. Old-fashioned, you might even say. When they died in a car accident, Colin had tried to keep the traditions alive for Lily’s sake. He’d never imagined he would end up raising his younger sister when he was only nineteen, but he was determined to do a good job and not disappoint his parents’ memory.

      Lily was just not that concerned. To her, the past was the past and she wasn’t going to get hung up on things like that. Formal weddings fell into the bucket of silly traditions that didn’t matter much to her. But it mattered to him, so she’d relented.

      Colin heard a door open down one of the hallways and a moment later he found himself once again face-to-face with Natalie Sharpe. She stopped short in the archway of the foyer, clutching a tablet to her gray silk blouse. Even as a teenager, she’d had a classic beauty about her. Her creamy skin and high cheekbones had drawn his attention even when she was sporting braces. He’d suppressed any attraction he might have had for his little sister’s friend, but he’d always thought she would grow up into a beautiful woman. At the party, his suspicions had been confirmed. And better yet, she’d looked at him with a seductive smile and an openness he hadn’t expected. They weren’t kids anymore, but there were other complications that had made it impossible to take her up on her offer, as much as he regretted it.

      Today,