Million Dollar Christmas Bride - Holly Rayner Page 0,19

Even if this guy just needs help with some family matter, it could lead to more, you know. Maybe this charity dinner could lead to a real date. He sounds like a real catch, and you deserve that. You’ve been with some real losers lately.”

Bianca frowned. Nicky was goodhearted and upbeat, but sometimes put things bluntly.

Losers? Bianca thought. She opened her mouth to protest.

Thankfully, a commotion on the other end of the line saved her before she could embarrass herself with defensiveness. The low-toned, electronic alarm was faint, steady, and rhythmic. Bianca recognized it; the tone signaled that one of the residents needed help getting out of bed to use the bathroom.

“I’d better let you go get that,” Bianca said. She thanked Nicky quickly for agreeing to cover her shift and then hung up.

Have the guys I’ve dated in the past really been that bad? she wondered. The end of the block was just ahead, and beyond it a busier, two-lane street stretched out, marking the border of the residential area. Bianca whistled, signaling for Peaches to turn around.

Once they were heading back toward the cottage, Bianca let her mind wander over her past few failed relationships. She realized that what Nicky had stated so casually was actually true—she’d been with some no-good guys in the past few years.

Well, what about Landon Chiddister? she thought. He was nice. Very clean-cut, responsible… kind.

She frowned when she realized that she’d dated Landon just after graduating high school—when they were both eighteen.

That was sixteen years ago! she realized with a shock. No… that can’t be right.

She did the mental math again, this time using her fingers to count out the final few years; yes, sixteen years had passed since then. Where has the time gone? she wondered.

She’d felt as though time sped up after buying her house. It had been so exciting to sign the papers with the bank on her twenty-eighth birthday. It had been after a particularly messy breakup, and she’d wanted to treat herself to something nice. Something to prove to herself that she was okay on her own.

Well, she thought, maybe I wanted to show my friends and acquaintances—and maybe an ex-boyfriend or two—that I was just fine on my own.

She’d been working a high-paying retail management job at the time and felt certain the mortgage would be a breeze to pay. She remembered daydreaming about one day falling in love with a man who would possibly move into the cottage with her, and they’d start a family. Sometimes, in her daydreams, they’d rent out the cottage and buy a home together. She wasn’t worried about the specifics; she was just excited to have an asset under her belt.

But her retail job had petered out as the online clothing industry started booming, and the unemployment that she’d endured afterward had drained her bank account. She’d gone into caretaking in a move of desperation, but she’d been pleasantly surprised to find that it was fulfilling work.

When her mother had suffered a stroke, Bianca had been eager to work at the Riverside Assisted Living home, which had offered a discount on a room for her mother. The situation was far from ideal—her mom’s room was pretty small—but Bianca made the best of it. She’d brought in her mom’s favorite pictures and knickknacks, pillows and blankets. Her favorite bedside lamp was on the nightstand to make it feel like a home. Though the staff did as well as they could, they were overbooked with patients to care for, but with Bianca there watching out for her mom, she received good care.

The job wasn’t the highest paying, but it was at least a way to stay afloat. Bianca realized that she’d been on a treadmill of sorts; she’d been getting through each day the best that she could, but had little time for anything besides work and taking care of her ailing mother.

Maybe that’s why my relationships have been so poor, she thought. The last good guy I was with was freaking Landon Chiddister—sixteen years ago.

The last time she’d seen Landon, he’d had a pretty wife on his arm and two elementary-school-aged children in tow. In fact, most of the peers that Bianca had gone to high school with now had spouses and children.

Bianca wondered what it would be like to dress a little girl in a pretty pink skirt and sweater for her first day of kindergarten. Or to help a little boy choose his first lunchbox. She grinned at the thought