Christmas By The Shore (A Winter To Remember #1)

Chapter 2

2

T he next morning, much to Catherine’s surprise, McKenzie was already waiting outside her apartment building when Cat arrived to pick her up. Usually, Catherine had to text her friend a few times before McKenzie came down, running as she struggled to get her shoes on or still had half a bagel in her mouth. And that was on days that her friend wasn’t massively hungover. The fact that she looked more or less ready to take on the day, not even a full twelve hours since they’d seen each other the night before, was an odd turn of events for sure.

“What’s going on?” Cat asked as her friend slid into the passenger seat and took the coffee cup from that side of the center console. McKenzie drank from it with a desperation that Cat better recognized and smacked her lips together afterward.

“What do you mean?”

“I am shocked to see you looking—well, not as dead as I thought you would.”

“I only ended up going to a single party last night,” she said. “And it left me with a sour mood, so I went home afterward.”

“What put you in a bad mood?”

McKenzie didn’t answer right away. She took another long sip from her coffee and looked out the window for a few seconds. Catherine was driving slowly through the residential neighborhood, knowing full well that kids hyped up on sugar and still riding the excitement of the night before weren’t likely to be looking both ways on their way to school.

“There was someone at the party that, let’s just say, I really wasn’t happy to see. And to make matters even worse, this person made an effort to come over and talk to me. I hate it when people do that.”

“You hate it when people come and talk to you at a party?”

“I hate it when people I don’t like try to talk to me at a party,” McKenzie corrected her. “I really didn’t think that was going to happen last night, but I suppose that was the Universe playing a little Halloween trick on me.”

“Who was it?” Cat ran through the list of McKenzie’s ex-boyfriends and writers she had a feud with. There were at least three or four she could come with up who could’ve made McKenzie mad enough to leave a party. “Ooh, don’t say Isaac.”

“No, not Isaac. I’m used to seeing Isaac around since we still run in a lot of the same circles.” She laughed. “Honestly, a part of me was sort of looking forward to maybe seeing him last night.”

“What? Why? He cheated on you!”

“I know,” she said. “But he loves Bowie, and I have a feeling my costume would have driven him

a little wild. And I had a couple of one-liners I have been working on—things to say to make sure he really understands just what he’s missing out on.”

“Ah, yes. That’s the mature approach.”

McKenzie glanced at her. “Look, you’re not allowed to judge how I handle my breakups. Plus, like you said, he cheated on me! I can be as immature as I want!”

“I know, I know. I was just kidding. So, if it wasn’t Isaac, who’d you see?”

Again, she hesitated. This wasn’t like McKenzie at all. She typically loved sharing gossip, and they’d already made plans to talk about her night at the parties over morning coffee, so why was she holding back now?

“Kenz,” Cat said. “What’s up? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine… I just don’t exactly know how you’re going to react to what I have to tell you. I’m trying to get the words right.”

Cat came to a red light and glanced at her friend, nerves settling over her with an uncomfortable suddenness. “Oh. I take it that means I know the person, too.”

“You sure do.”

“And they’re someone I’m not exactly on good terms with?”

“Bingo.”

She gulped. There was only one person in Cat’s life who fit this description, and she hadn’t seen or heard from him in nearly a decade. The light was still red, so she turned to face McKenzie head-on. “Chris was there?”

“Chris and Monica.”

At the sound of her ex-boyfriend’s wife’s name, Cat inhaled sharply and focused her attention back on the road. Her fingers curled tightly around the steering wheel, and she couldn’t stop her brain from bringing an image of the happy couple to mind. It was a photo she’d seen on Chris’ Facebook page a few years back, from their wedding day. She had the good sense to remove him as a friend after that, but the genuine excitement she’d seen behind their smiles was burned into her memory forever.

“I thought they were living in Chicago,” Catherine said, trying to sound like she didn’t care one way or another. Her voice cracked, however, and betrayed her every emotion.

“They were, up until recently. He said they just moved back,” McKenzie told her. “I guess they wanted to be closer to family because… Monica’s pregnant.”

At that moment, someone made an ill-timed right turn directly in front of the car, and Cat had to slam on the brakes, sending both her and McKenzie forward against their belts. Hissing from the pain, Cat lay on the horn while McKenzie leaned out the window and shouted, but the driver sped off and disappeared around the next corner. Cat pulled over to the side for a second and rubbed her sore chest.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine,” McKenzie answered, though she winced a little as she tried to loosen her seatbelt. “That was nuts.”

“Yeah. It was.”

“What a jerk.”

Despite the commotion, McKenzie’s words from before were still ringing in Catherine’s ears, and she couldn’t shake them. The two remained silent for the time it took Cat to compose herself and get back on the road. As they approached the offices where McKenzie was scheduled to meet with the marketing department to discuss updating the cover of her first book, Catherine let out a heavy sigh and sat back in her seat once parked.

“So… Monica is pregnant.”

“Apparently.”

“And they moved back here so that they would be closer to family because they are going to start having kids.”

“Well, I don’t know if it’s kids plural,” McKenzie said. “Chris didn’t exactly get that far. If you can imagine, I didn’t stick around to have a full-on conversation with them. No offense to Monica or anything, but there’s nothing more boring than talking to someone—who’s baby isn’t even here yet—about what preschools she wants to try to get the kid into.”

“What neighborhood do they live in?”

“No idea.”

Catherine was worried that if they’d purchased a house near her, she would accidentally run into one or both of them. She truly wasn’t sure she could handle the humiliation. There was one last question she wanted to ask McKenzie before getting out of the car. It was pathetic but still burned on the tip of her tongue, so she had to spit it out.

“Did Chris ask about me?”

“Of course he did,” she said, and Cat relaxed a little. “And don’t worry, I told him that your

career was really taking off and that you had been dating up a storm.”

Cat nearly choked on the sip of coffee she’d just thrown back. “You said what ? Dating up a storm? What does that even mean?”

“It means exactly what it sounds like it means!” McKenzie laughed.

“Ugh, why would you tell him something that’s such an obvious lie?”

“What would you rather I have told him? That you haven’t had a serious relationship since he broke up with you nine years ago? Or that the last time you went on a date was before the pandemic? I’m not going to do that!”

“It hasn’t been that long,” Cat said. McKenzie raised a brow at her, and Catherine took a second to do a little mental math. She gasped. “Oh my god—it has been that long! How did that happen?”

“Is that rhetorical, or do you actually want me to answer?”

“Please don’t. I know what you’re going to say anyway. It happened because I work too much, don’t put myself out there, etcetera. But really, four years? That just feels so wrong when I say it out loud.” She let out a defeated groan. “Did it at least seem like Chris believed you when you said all of this? Or did he look dubious?”

“He bought it,” she said. “At least, I think he did. He’d had a few drinks at that point, so he wasn’t exactly in his sharpest state of mind.”

“Okay. I guess that’s something.”

“There you go.” McKenzie patted her on the shoulder. “Way to look on the bright side. Your dating life might be nonexistent, but as far as your ex-boyfriend knows, you are going out every weekend with a new man!”

“Yeah…” Cat laughed. “Although the first time he or Monica sees me buying ice cream at the store in my pajamas at 10 p.m. on a Saturday, they are going to know that it was all a lie.”

“You have the power to make it true.”

“Like it’s that easy.”

“Well, it’s easier when you actually try ! Let me make a profile for you on one of the apps. C’mon. It’s time.”

Catherine’s typical refusal bubbled up in her throat, but it was quelled by the thought of Chris’ handsome face smiling at her with pity when he broke up with her. “All right,” she heard herself say. “We can set it up when we go out for drinks this weekend.”

“Yes!” McKenzie pumped her fist like a footballer who just made a touchdown. “This is the best day of my life!”

Catherine laughed, and they got out of the car. “If that’s true, it’s pretty sad.”

“Or, is it a symbol of just how much I love and care about you?”

Cat pretended to think about it for a second, then shook her head. “Nope. Just sad.” But she laughed, and McKenzie smiled as they headed inside the building.