Snow Days (The Hope Falls Series) Read online

  Snow Days

  by

  Melanie Shawn

  Cover Design by Hot Damn Designs

  Published by Red Hot Reads Publishing

  Copyright 2013 Melanie Shawn

  All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this book. No part of this may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing from Melanie Shawn. Exceptions are limited to reviewers who may use brief quotations in connection with reviews. No part of this book can be transmitted, scanned, reproduced, or distributed in any written or electronic form without written permission from Melanie Shawn.

  This book is a work of fiction. Places, names, characters and events are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Dedication

  I would like to dedicate this book to Dana Bowden and Dave Cullen, two of the finest teachers I had the honor of working with during my career in the classroom. Together, we formed a team-teaching group that I still feel incredibly blessed to have been a part of, and I am really proud of the work that we did together.

  Not only that, but - much like Amy and Matt in Snow Days - Dana and Dave are two teachers who found love in the classroom. At the end of our year together, I was privileged to attend their wedding! Their awesome family is now rounded out by their two kids, DJ and Daria, their cat Delores, and their dog Dexter (RIP).

  I love you "D Family" - you are one of the major things that inspires me to keep believing that real love is out there! :D

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Excerpt: Snowed In

  Excerpt: My First

  Excerpt: Sweet Reunion

  Other titles by Melanie Shawn

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  This encounter is definitely not going to lead to an orgasm.

  Amy’s fingertips squeezed the slender stem of her wine glass as she brought it to her lips. Taking a sip, she let the rich, tart liquid roll in her mouth before sliding down her throat. This was the third Cupid’s Arrow date she’d been on this month, and the best thing she could say about any of them was, “At least there was wine.”

  “So anyways, after my ex-wife caught me banging the babysitter, she just never got past it.” Jerald tossed his head to the side, flicking his too long blond hair out of his eyes as he threw his hands up in a dramatic show of disbelief. “Even months later, she just kept nagging me about it. My philosophy is: live in the now. Be present. Don’t dwell on the past. This is all we have. Just right here and right now, baby.”

  Amy nodded silently, keeping her opinion of his “philosophy” to herself. The more she engaged, the longer this evening would drag out. No need for that. She had already finished her meal and was hoping to be home in time for The Daily Show.

  After viewing Jerald’s profile on the online dating site, she’d naïvely had high hopes for this date. Sadly, however, her date’s “philosophy” had just earned him a whopping score of zero. There were no second dates for anyone who scored a big goose egg.

  Amy had developed a strict rating scale from one to ten in the following criteria: Personality. Chemistry. Smell.

  Of course she was aware that smell may not be at the top of other people’s list for potential mates, but out of all of her senses, smelling was the most acute. Smells made her feel things. Happy, sad, sick to her stomach, nervous, calm. She remembered smells like some people remembered faces or names.

  Jerald had scored highest in the ‘smell’ category, earning a respectable six. His woodsy aftershave or cologne—she didn’t know which—was quite pleasant to her odor palate. Chemistry had been a disappointing two. Prior to his “babysitter banging” admission and asinine “philosophy” on living in the present, he’d had a four in personality. Although, if she were being honest with herself, she’d have to face the fact that she’d been generous with both his chemistry and personality scores, which should have been solid ones.

  “Can I interest either of you in dessert?” The rail-thin, polished waiter pushed the dessert tray beside the table. It was filled with mouthwatering selections, ranging from cheesecake to strawberry shortcake.

  Tempted by the delectable tray of goodies, her stomach screamed ‘Yes!’ But the thought of spending more time with Jerald had her politely declining. “No thank you.”

  At the same time, her date burped and nodded his head yes.

  Classy.

  The tall, distinguished waiter’s eyes darted between Amy and Jerald as if waiting to see what the consensus would be.

  “I’ll take your triple fudge delight please,” Jerald ordered, licking his lips, not even acknowledging the fact that she had verbally rejected the offer of dessert.

  Smoothly the waiter pivoted towards Amy, a small, knowing flicker in his eye telling her he too had picked up on what a loser her date was. “Would you care for a cup of coffee, ma’am?”

  “Yes, thank you,” Amy sighed, resigning herself to the fact that she would be spending another thirty minutes or so in Jerald’s company. She quickly added, “Decaf please.”

  There was no way she was going to be up all night tossing and turning because she’d been forced to sit patiently through dessert. Well, technically she hadn’t been forced to. She knew that it was a choice she was making. She didn’t have to. If her sister Nikki was sitting in her place, she certainly would not have stayed for desert.

  Actually, Nikki wouldn’t have even made it through dinner. She would have had one drink and called it a night. Amy had always admired her sister’s ability to unapologetically put herself first. Nikki never let little things like other people’s feelings or social graces stand in the way of her own happiness.

  Unfortunately, Amy had not been born with that gene. It must have skipped her, because she always put others’ needs and happiness before her own. At least she had up until a couple of months ago when she’d decided that she was going to use the last year she had in her twenties to discover herself and fully become the person she knew she was capable of being.

  The random day that had spawned her project “New Amy” fell about a month after she’d turned twenty-nine. That fateful morning two months ago had started out like any other Wednesday. She’d let the man in her life, her Great Dane Scooby, out to use the restroom and gone into the kitchen to start her coffee when the fact that she was going to be thirty in less than a year hit her like a bucket of ice-cold water. An epiphany had struck her in those early dawn hours that, although she had a good job, a nice home, a close-knit and supportive family, and a dog she loved more than life, she was happy but wasn’t satisfied.

  In an effort to isolate the source of her disconten
t, she began taking a hard look at her life, specifically her adult life. What had immediately become clear was that she’d basically done what was expected of her. Never complained. Never stood up for herself. Never asked for what she wanted. She’d been living in this pattern for so long, in fact, that she’d had a hard time even figuring out what she wanted and also how to get it.

  Now that she was on the path to her true self, her personal happiness, she was finding it to be a long, winding, and bumpy road. Other people, she’d observed, seemed to make it look so easy. They knew what they wanted, they went after it, they got it. Things were not going as smoothly for Amy.

  “So you teach little kids, huh?” Jerald asked as he dug into the chocolate monstrosity that was covering his plate.

  “Teenagers, actually. I’m a high school English teacher.” Amy couldn’t believe that it had taken until they got to the dessert portion of their meal for Jerald to ask her even one question about her.

  “Yeah, I thought that’s what it said on your page,” Jerald said so proudly that Amy half-expected him to demand a Brownie button for remembering her occupation. “Since I have kids, I need to be with someone who knows how to deal with them.”

  Amy honestly had no idea how to respond to that. She certainly had no intention of “dealing” with this man’s children. She did feel sorry for them though.

  “So”—Jerald’s voice dropped an octave as his eyes fell to half-mast—“what do you say we get out of here and head back to my place.”

  He can’t be serious.

  Jerald’s lips turned up in what could only be described as a failed attempt at a sexy sneer, revealing chocolate covering two of his front teeth. His eyes gleamed with wicked intent as he winked at Amy.

  Oh lord, he is serious.

  Reaching into her purse, Amy pulled out two twenties, which was more than enough to cover her portion of the meal. “It was nice to meet you, Jerald.”

  She was so out of there.

  --- ~ ---

  “I forget. Where are you going to live now, Uncle Matt?” Trevor asked as he licked the chocolate ice cream that had dripped down the hand that held his double-scoop cone.

  “Hope Falls. It’s in California,” Matt told his nephew, reaching up and grabbing the cloth strap to pull down the metal door of the U-Haul van.

  “How far is that away?”

  “It’s farther than Disneyland,” Matt said, trying to give the kid some point of reference. He and his two sisters, niece, and nephew had made the long drive from Phoenix to Anaheim the previous summer to go to Disneyland. Six hours in the car with a four-year-old and nine-month-old was not an experience he wanted to relive anytime soon.

  “Why can’t you just live here?” Trevor licked around the sides of the cone, his elbows resting on his knees as he sat on the curb of the sidewalk.

  “Well, bud, I’ve got a job there now,” Matt explained as he crouched down beside his nephew’s small frame.

  “You already had a job here.” Trevor looked up at his uncle with big, brown puppy-dog eyes that tugged at Matt’s heart.

  Matt knew the ache in his chest stemmed from the fact that he didn’t want to leave his family. He loved his sisters, niece, and nephew more than anything in this world. It killed him to think about all he would miss in four-year-old Trevor’s and one-year-old Charlotte’s lives—baseball games, recitals, birthdays. He wanted to be there to see them grow up.

  But he knew he had to go. He needed a change. If he stayed here, he feared he would be stuck, never move past his devastating loss.

  “Don’t forget to call us when you get there,” his older sister Sara instructed as she bounced Charlotte on her hip. “No matter how late it is.”

  “Okay, Mom.” He tweaked his sister as he stood and wrapped his arms around both her and Charlotte. Sara hated when he or their youngest sister Shelby called her Mom, but the truth was she had been like a mom to them.

  His parents weren’t bad people. They had just never been that interested in being parents. Sara, who was four years older than Matt and six years older than Shelby, had stepped in and made sure their homework was done, they had dinner every night, they brushed their teeth, and they went to bed at a reasonable hour. They hadn’t made it easy on her either, but she never complained, never got frustrated or upset with them. She’d been their rock.

  Hearing his typically non-emotional sister sniffle as she buried her head in his shoulder also tugged at his heartstrings. He rubbed her back as he assured her by saying, “I’m just a phone call away. You know if you need anything I can hop on a plane and be back here.”

  Shaking her head as she pulled away, she looked up at him with big brown eyes that were the mirror image of her son’s. “You’ve done enough for us. I don’t know how I would have gotten through these past few years without you. But it’s time for you to go. Your life’s been on hold long enough. Go. Be happy. Give Uncle Henry our love.”

  “I will, sis.”

  Henry Walker was their uncle on their mother’s side and the mayor of Hope Falls, the town where Matt had just accepted a position teaching honors history at the high school. While Matt was growing up, his uncle had always kept what felt like a watchful eye on him and his siblings even though he did it from hundreds of miles away. He always made weekly calls to check up on them. Matt couldn’t remember him ever missing a week.

  Jack, Matt’s brother-in-law, reached out to shake Matt’s hand. “Thank you again for taking care of them, Matt. We owe you.”

  Sara’s husband had just gotten out of the Air Force and had been stationed in Iraq for the last three and a half years with only a couple of two-week visits to the States per year—one of which had resulted in baby Charlotte. He placed his arm around his wife.

  “No you don’t.” Matt shook his head and hugged his sister once more as she again sniffed back tears. “You don’t owe me anything. I don’t know what I would have done these past few years without you guys either.” Stepping away from his sister before things got too heavy, he reached down and tugged at his nephew’s ball cap. “See ya, buddy.” Matt held his hand up and Trevor reluctantly gave him a high-five.

  He was just stepping up into his truck when he heard a blaring honking sound and saw Shelby’s white Mustang screech to a halt in front of his truck, blocking his path.

  His baby sister’s outraged accusation was out of her mouth before her body had even cleared the doorway of the car. “Were you seriously going to leave without saying goodbye?”

  “He told you he was leaving at nine a.m., Shelbs. It’s not his fault you can’t ever be on time.” Sara’s voice held a hint of irritation as she wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

  Shelby shot Sara a look that said she didn’t appreciate her observation before throwing her arms around Matt’s neck. She held on to him with fierce intensity as she whispered, “You don’t have to go.”

  His heart felt like it was a lemon someone was squeezing to make lemonade as he patted Shelby’s back. “Yeah I do.” His voice had wavered, betraying his resolve to stay strong for his family.

  Tightening her arms around him once more, she sighed loudly before releasing him and standing back. “I know. I already miss you.”

  Looking at the family he loved so much, his sisters, his baby niece, and young nephew, he took a mental picture before nodding decisively and climbing into his truck. He knew that the longer he drew this farewell out the harder it would be to leave. Matt put on his aviators as he pulled around the Mustang, honking twice and waving his hand out the window. In the side mirror, he saw their sad faces as they waved goodbye to him.

  Matt flexed his hands open and closed on the steering wheel, trying to push down the tidal wave of guilt he felt. Logically he knew that this was what he had to do. He couldn’t stay here. He’d thought that with the passing of time it would get better, but if anything, it had gotten worse.

  His felt a knot forming in his throat as he pulled onto the highway—the same highway he’d pulled onto
on his first date with Jess. Everything here reminded him of Jess. He knew he would love Jess until he took his last breath, but he couldn’t live like this anymore.

  He couldn’t go to the grocery store, the movies, to dinner, or even for a walk without having a memory of her, of them. Smells, food, places. Every street, every sound, every building here held memories of her. Of their life. Their love. And as much as he wanted to hold on to these memories, to never let a single one of them fade—or God forbid disappear completely—they were drowning him.

  This move was Matt’s first step at trying to move on. Since Sara’s husband had gotten out of the Air Force, Matt had been putting out feelers to see what his options were. So when Uncle Henry had called last month to let him know about the teaching position at Hope Falls High School, he’d immediately applied. Matt realized that he may have only secured the position out of nepotism, but he also knew that he was qualified and would do a damn good job.

  So now he was headed to Hope Falls. Although he’d never been to the small town tucked away in the Sierra Nevadas, he’d heard his uncle tell story after story about it, and honestly, he felt as if he knew half the people who lived there. He hoped that it would be exactly what he needed.

  A fresh start.

  His gold wedding ring glinted from the sun as he turned the wheel along Interstate 10. The ring was the one reminder he was bringing with him. He knew at some point he would be ready to take it off.

  But not today.

  Chapter Two

  “He did not admit to banging his babysitter!” Nikki screeched.

  Amy pulled the phone away from her ear. When her sister went high-pitched, it was loud.

  “Yes, he did.” Amy’s tone was matter of fact. Not because she wasn’t also having a hard time believing that her date had not only made that confession but also seemed proud of it, she just expressed herself differently than her sister.

  “What a dick weed! Where in the name of George Clooney are you finding these losers?”

  “Umm…” Amy made it a point never to lie. Honesty, in her opinion, was always the best policy. However, she knew that her sister would have a very strong opinion—because Nikki had an opinion about everything!—about the fact that Amy was using an online dating service. She would never understand Amy’s reasons.