Page 1 of Spark

Chapter 1

Hattie Sutton’s finger twitched, hovering over the send button on her phone. Do it. Send the damn email. She took a fortifying sip from her glass of wine—and chickened out again.

Woody’s, the bar she’d come to, desperate to get out of her own head and the quiet of her new apartment, was a welcome escape. The place she’d moved into was cute, and she’d had some fun decorating it, but the silence had been getting to her.

The atmosphere here was upbeat. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits. Hard not to in a bar dripping with tinsel. There was even a tree in one corner covered in twinkling lights, and all the staff were wearing Santa hats.

It was definitely a lot rowdier than she thought it would be, but then, it was only two weeks until Christmas, and going by the number of shopping bags hanging off the backs of chairs and sitting by people’s feet, a lot of these folks were taking a much-needed break from the hellishness of fighting frazzled crowds all hunting for the perfect gifts.

She’d never had to worry about that, because gift buying was always done well in advance. Last-minute shopping, the possibility of handing over something that was less than perfect, wasn’t a risk she’d ever been willing to take. Not when heavy and liberally given disappointment was the punishment. It was at the top of her parents’ arsenal of weapons used to keep their only child compliant, and something she’d been on the receiving end of far too often.

Because of that, she had a closet full of beautifully wrapped presents sitting in her childhood bedroom back in Phoenix. And that’s where they’d be staying, too, since she had no intention of returning to celebrate the festive season. None.

Leaving town—okay, running away—had been surprisingly easy in the end. After years of fantasizing, of coming up with various plans, she’d ended up just loading her car and driving away.

It was telling everyone why she’d left that was the hard part. They thought she was on a skiing vacation, that she was coming back tomorrow. She was not.

She was in LA, not a snowflake in sight, and she’d started a whole new life two weeks ago.

The fallout was not going to be pretty. She doubted her parents would speak to her for a while. The silent treatment was another one of their favorite punishments.

Yes, it was a cowardly move, packing up and fleeing a month before Christmas, but when it came to the crunch, telling her extremely controlling family that she didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore, that she’d never wanted to be a lawyer, and that she’d already started her new career in graphic design would make them lose their minds. Add in that she’d put a large chunk of her savings into a growing and established business and was now equal partners in that business, and they would probably never forgive her.

They also had no clue she’d been doing classes for years working toward this very moment. Or one like it.

If it hadn’t been for Lucy Grady, her best friend, she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to follow her dreams this soon. When Hattie had called Lucy in pieces upset after her mother had canceled a date on her behalf because the guy in question “was not right for their family,” she’d lost it. Her mother and father had been trying to control her, interfering, putting her down, making her feel like nothing all her life. She hadn’t been able to take it another moment.

When her friend told her that her sister-in-law was looking for a business partner because the graphic design business Shay ran from her home had grown so much she needed to bring in someone else, Hattie had jumped at the chance.

Hattie and Lucy had become best friends in college but hadn’t seen much of each other after Lucy left school and moved home. When they reconnected after Hattie went to Lucy’s wedding a couple of years later, it was like they’d never been apart. They’d worked at keeping it that way since.

Lucy had even invited Hattie to her big family Christmas.

Everyone would be there. Hattie had met them all, of course. They were awesome and would be more than welcoming, but crashing their family Christmas?

Her heavily pregnant bestie had insisted, though, and when Lucy made her mind up about something, there was no changing it. And honestly, the thought of spending Christmas Day alone was a seriously dark one.

Hattie scanned the email she’d composed for the three hundred fifty-seventh time. Her parents were going to hate her for this, but Hattie just couldn’t do it anymore. She couldn’t do a job she didn’t love, had never loved. She couldn’t be anyone but herself, even if her parents thought the real Hattie was someone to be ashamed of, that she was less than.

Suttons did not get emotional; they did not talk things through. They brushed everything under the carpet, shoved everything down deep, and pretended everything was A-OK. They put on a happy face and showed the world a united front at all times or faced the consequences. Which made sending this email, exposing her tender underbelly, her raw emotions like this even harder. They’d see it as a weakness.

She’d never felt more vulnerable.

But it was more for her, telling them the way she truly felt. She just couldn’t keep it locked inside anymore. Her father would be ashamed of her, and her mother would be disgusted by the show of emotion. Both would be furious at her for leaving her job at the family firm, for embarrassing them by pursuing graphic design, a career they thought of as frivolous.

Come on! Just do it.

Curling her fingers around her glass, Hattie gulped down the last couple of mouthfuls, took a deep breath, and clicked send.

The whoosh announcing her email had been sent made her jump and slam her phone facedown on the table. She’d done it. She’d actually done it.

God, she needed another drink.

Hattie’s gaze lifted, scanning the room for a waitress, and when she didn’t see one, she glanced at the bar—

And froze.

Sitting there, body side-on, head tilted, angled toward her—was a giant.