A Wedding In December. Sarah Morgan

book a cab to the airport. All you need to do is pack a suitcase. This could be fun, Mags.”

      “The flight?”

      “Christmas in Colorado.”

      Maybe she wasn’t very adventurous, because all she really wanted was Christmas at home. She’d wanted one more year of lighting a fire in the hearth and decorating a large tree.

      Next year she’d be living in a small apartment, or maybe a small Victorian terrace. Would Nick even join them, or would he have the girls on a different day? Whichever way it turned out, she knew that no Christmas gathering would ever be the same again.

      “You should look at the website. Aspen looks beautiful. It’s surrounded by forest and snowy mountains. When did we last have a proper white Christmas?”

      Maggie thought about the Christmas cards half-written in her bedroom. “Snow might be nice.”

      “And for the first time ever you might be able to relax and enjoy yourself. You won’t have to do the cooking.”

      Maggie loved cooking. She loved slicing and dicing, stirring and tasting. She loved the craziness and the chaos of the kitchen at Christmas. The sound of the fridge door opening and closing. The smell of toast as someone made a late-night snack.

      It was the empty silence she hated most.

      The knowledge that no one in the world really needed her anymore.

      The girls loved her, she knew that, but they didn’t need her. They were adults now, with their own lives.

      Did she even have a purpose?

      She still worked for the same publisher and she knew she was valued, so why didn’t she get more satisfaction from her job?

      Gloom descended on her and suddenly she wished Nick would leave. His life hadn’t changed much. His days were still filled with work, lectures, students, research. The only thing that had altered for him was where he slept at night.

      She became brisk and practical, as she always did when she was stressed. “We’re agreed we’ll delay telling them until after Christmas?”

      “Yes, but I’m not much of an actor. What if they guess?”

      “Then it’s up to us to make sure they don’t. We were married for more than three decades. I think we can manage to get through ten days.”

      She hoped she wasn’t wrong about that. They could make it work, surely?

      How hard was it to pretend to be in love?

      They were both about to find out.

Rosie

      Was she making an awful, dreadful, hideous mistake?

      What if Katie was right?

      Rosie stood in the fitting room of the expensive bridal boutique in downtown Aspen, clutching a dress she no longer wanted to try on.

      It was true that none of her previous relationships had exactly been long lasting, but wasn’t that part of being young and growing up? How were you supposed to know a relationship was right if you hadn’t stumbled through a few wrong ones first?

      But Katie was right that those relationships had all seemed right at the time.

      You, she told her ref lection in the mirror, are impetuous, impulsive and a walking disaster.

      As a child she’d flitted from one passion to another like a bee searching for nectar. When she was eight, she’d wanted to be a ballerina. At nine, an astronaut. By the age of ten she’d turned to teaching and lined up her dolls in classroom style. And so it went on. She couldn’t help it. She became wildly enthusiastic about something, and then moved on.

      Her track record with boyfriends looked much the same.

      And now there was Dan who she loved totally and absolutely. But it was true they hadn’t known each other that long.

      Did that matter?

      She was beginning to wish she hadn’t called her sister. But how could she not have called her?

      “How does it look?” Catherine’s excitement penetrated the door. “I think it might be the one. The moment I laid eyes on it, I knew it was perfect. I can’t wait to see it on you, and I can’t wait to see Dan’s face when he sees you wearing it! Oh, I think this might be the best day of my life.”

      It was turning into the worst day of hers.

      Rosie wanted to claw her way out of the room. “I’m still changing, Catherine.”

      “Do you need help, honey? I can—”

      “I’m fine, but thank you.” She closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall. What was she going to do? She needed to get her head back into the place it had been before that phone call. Either that or press pause on the whole thing. But how could she step off this runaway train without seriously injuring all those involved? This wasn’t a night class (she’d switched from French to Italian after a term) where she could rethink her options.

      Why did Katie’s comments have so much influence on her?

      She was old enough to make her own decisions, independent of her sister.

      Catherine tapped on the door. “If you’re worried about the price, don’t be. This is my special gift to a special woman. It’s not every day your precious only son gets married. I can’t wait to welcome you officially to the Reynolds family. My Dan is a lucky, lucky young man.”

      Rosie pressed her hands to her ears to try to block out the sound of Katie’s voice. She adored her older sister, but part of her was angry that she’d injected doubts. Why couldn’t she have been happy and supportive?

      She needed space to think, and she couldn’t think while she was trying on a wedding dress.

      She glanced around the fitting room for an escape hatch. Surely she couldn’t be the first bride-to-be to wonder if she was making a mistake? Why didn’t they cater for that type of thing? She slid her fingers down the edge of a mirror, hoping it was secretly a door, but all she saw was her own panicked ref lection staring back at her.

      When Dan had said all those things during Thanksgiving dinner, and then proposed in front of his whole family she’d been deliriously happy. She’d never felt about anyone the way she felt about Dan. The last few months had been the happiest of her life. She adored her family, but they still treated her as someone who needed protecting. Was she using her inhaler? Had she had an attack? Their anxiety had fueled her anxiety. Moving far away had been the best thing she’d ever done. Terrifying, of course, and to begin with she’d been homesick, but the freedom had more than compensated. She’d felt stronger. More capable and independent. She made decisions without everyone questioning her. And then she’d met Dan, who had made her feel stronger still. She’d been so sure of her feelings for him, it hadn’t occurred to her to question whether saying yes to his proposal was a good idea. And then there was the love in his eyes and the fact that the fourteen people seated around the table had already made up their minds that this was a great idea.

      Of course she’ll say yes, his paternal grandmother had whispered to her sister, who had been in full agreement.

       Who wouldn’t want to marry our Dan?

      It had seemed a reasonable question to Rosie.

      Who wouldn’t?

      Their delight at the proposal simply endorsed her conviction that this was the right thing. And why wouldn’t it be? Everyone thought Dan was wonderful. She thought Dan was wonderful. He was the best listener, and there were times when she felt closer to him than she did to her own family. She’d said things to him that she’d never said