Free Hell on Heels Christmas by A.P. Jensen

heels. She parked on the road and jogged up the steps and into the lighted kitchen where her mom was sitting with Missy. Regan bared her teeth at Missy as she got a beer from the fridge and propped herself on the counter again.
    “Well, well, look who’s here,” Missy said archly.
    “Don’t you have a husband and kids to tend to?” Regan snapped.
    “She was filling me in,” Valerie said lightly.
    “You mean gossiping. Give me my phone you ass.”
    Missy tossed it on the table. “You’re always so damn secretive. We had to find out someway what you’ve been up to.”
    “So what do you think?” Regan tossed at her mom. “Hooked up with a billionaire, slept my way to the top? Not bad for being gone only ten years.”
    “Oh cut the crap, Regan. No one can be in the position you were in just by sleeping with the boss. I listened to your voicemails and the employees want you back because you were good at your job not because you slept with their boss. God, why do you want us to think the worst of you?”
    “Because you always believe the worst!” she tossed back.
    Missy reddened with anger and embarrassment. Valerie peered out of the window and turned back to her irritated daughters.
    “Is that Brooks’ SUV?”
    “What?” Missy peeked out of the window and turned back to Regan with her hands on her hips. “Regan Lee, what the hell are you doing?”
    “Don’t act like I’m sixteen and sneaking out of my bedroom window. I’m almost thirty!”
    “Then act like it!” Missy snapped. “It took Brooks years to get over you.”
    “And you think I wasn’t torn up over it too?” Regan jumped off the counter and paced the kitchen. “You think because I said no I didn’t love him? I’ve never loved anyone the way I did him and he married Allison less than six months after I left!”
    Missy and Valerie stared at her with wide eyes.
    “You never said- How did you know-” Missy said weakly.
    “It doesn’t matter how I found out that he married Allison. He did. End of story.”
    She sat and Valerie promptly put a plate of steak and vegetables in front of her. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until that moment. She began to eat while her mom and sister communicated in that silent, irritating way of theirs.
    “So what happened with Brooks?” Valerie asked casually.
    “He had a trouble call.”
    Missy frowned. “So?”
    “So he gave me the car.”
    “Why?”
    “I was asleep.”
    She looked up and saw the scandalized look on their faces.
    “We didn’t have sex. I just fell asleep on his couch.” With him, she added silently.
    “Regan Lee, do you know what you’re doing?” Valerie asked cautiously.
    “Nope,” Regan said with false cheer.
    Her st omach churned with nerves. Ever since she drove into White Mist her world had turned upside down and all she could do was roll with the punches. Even more shocking than her mom’s welcome was Brooks. How could a guy she once turned down still want anything to do with her?
    “Brooks is great. You shouldn’t play with his feelings-”
    Regan cut Missy off. “And what about mine?”
    “Well, how do you feel?”
    Regan threw the biggest broccoli on her plate at Missy and caught her right on the nose. Missy shrieked and tried to dive at her but Valerie stepped between them.
    “Maybe you should leave,” Valerie suggested to Missy.
    Missy stuck the middle finger at Regan as she stomped out of the house and slammed the door behind her. Valerie made a plate for herself and sat at the table with her youngest and most confusing child.
    “I don’t want you to leave,” Valerie said and saw Regan tense. “I’m not going to pour the guilt on and make you feel like you have to stay but I also don’t want you to get involved with Brooks and leave the way you did before if it doesn’t work out.”
    They ate in silence for several minutes. When Regan finished she sat back in her chair and let her gaze rove over the old kitchen. The same ugly wallpaper she