Page 1 of The Candle Palace (Jamison Valley 6)
Prologue
SARA
“Stupid winter.” My lips were stiff as I muttered the words, half frozen from the thirty-second dash inside from my car. I gritted my chattering teeth and yanked off my gloves, throwing them onto the floor.
With my fingers free, I tore the hat off my head and unwound the anaconda of a scarf constricting my throat. Once I could breathe again, I wrestled with the zipper on my coat, which had been giving me trouble all week. It slid down easily enough but at the bottom where the dual zipper clips met, I couldn’t get one side free from the other.
“Let.” I jerked the zipper hard.
“Me.” One hand pulled down as the other pulled up.
“Go!”
It came loose as the bottom plastic piece went zinging across the room.
Annnnd now I need a new coat.
“Grrrr!” I stomped my boots furiously on the mat, pounding my frustration into the carpet as chunks of snow scattered across the tile floor of the Prescott Spa. The outburst only made me feel worse. My shoulders fell and I hung my head. Deflated, I whispered, “I. Hate. This.”
“Uh, Sara?”
I pushed the curtain of strawberry-blond hair out of my face and looked up to see all eyes on me.
“What’s wrong?” my best friend Gigi asked.
“Everything.” My chin quivered, which only made it worse.
I shrugged off my broken coat and bent to swipe up my gear from the floor, using the task as a means to suck in a few deep breaths before I cried. With my emotions in check—for the moment—I toed off my chunky black Sorel boots, setting them beside the five other pairs of a similar style.
It was girls’ night at the spa, something five of my friends and I tried to do at least once a month. I hadn’t been able to make the last few because I’d been home with my newborn son. I hadn’t planned on coming tonight either. Hudson was two months old and it was difficult for me to leave him. Given how hard it had been to have him in the first place, I was all right being stereotyped a clingy mom.
“I didn’t think you were coming tonight.” Gigi stood from her chair along the far wall, crossing the room in bare feet. Her jeans were cuffed up her calves.
“I changed my mind.”
“What’s wrong? You seem upset.”
“I’m mad at winter.” Among other things.
“She’s a bitch this year,” Felicity huffed from her seat in one of two pedicure chairs. “My car said twelve below on the drive in.”
“Mine said fourteen,” I grumbled.
It was February and we’d had cold temperatures for months. The snow was piled everywhere, making driving through our small town slow. The wind would blow every few days and create rock-hard drifts in our driveway to trap my car in the garage until Milo could get them cleared away. And worse, there was no end in sight.
In the nearly twelve years I’d lived in Montana, we’d never had one this bitter. The forecast was calling for negative twenty tomorrow during broad daylight, and the wind chill would drop that temperature even lower, leaving me barricaded inside because it was just too cold to take Hudson anywhere.
I didn’t like leaving my baby, but I did like leaving the house, even if it was just for the grocery store. The only good thing that had come out of Milo’s mouth tonight had been his suggestion to come to the spa.
“Who’s next?” The spa owner walked in from the back hallway. Sabrina followed, her long blond hair tied up in a ponytail and her eyelids heavy after her massage.
“It’s my turn, but I think Sara needs it more.” Maisy stood from her seat and crossed the room, pulling me in for a quick hug. “You go next.”
“Okay. Thanks.” I wasn’t going to argue. I needed some time to close my eyes, relax and replay the fight I’d had with Milo.
We never fought. I could count on one hand the number of arguments we’d had in our eleven years of marriage. I was itchy and uncomfortable. The knot in my stomach kept pulling tighter and tighter. Maybe I should go home so we could talk.
No. It was better if we both cooled off first.
I walked toward the dark massage room, hugging Sabrina on my way, and settled into the massage chair. Then I closed my eyes and let the masseuse work her magic.
When I emerged thirty minutes later, the kinks and stress in my shoulders had been rubbed away. Some of the unease from my fight with Milo was gone too.
We rotated treatments on these spa nights. The girls and I would pick and choose between pedicures, manicures and chair massages depending on our moods. Mostly, we came to sit, drink wine and talk about our husbands, children or the hot gossip in town.
