Single Ever After (Wedding Planner Book 1)

By Susan Oloier

Happily unmarried Mia Chapman writes Single Ever After, the singles column for Chicago Magazine. While at a company Christmas party, she receives an unexpected phone call: her older sister, Olivia, was killed in a car accident, so she must fly to Scottsdale to act as executor of the will. While there, she learns she is the sole beneficiary of Sonoran Sky Wedding Planning. With a life in Chicago, Mia plans to sell the business and return home before the holiday. But when Mia gets wrapped up in a bride’s upcoming nuptials and spends extended time with wedding photographer Kash Carrillo, she discovers she didn’t really know her sister at all. And through it all, she starts to have second thoughts about selling the business. And maybe even about her stance on remaining single ever after.

Kash Carrillo is the wedding photographer for Sonoran Sky Wedding Planning. He also happened to be Olivia’s best friend. When he meets Mia, who arrives for a short stay in Scottsdale to take care of her sister’s estate, he tries to convince her to keep the business. But it’s not necessarily for the reasons Mia suspects and he’s reluctant to tell her the whole truth, especially once he starts developing feelings for Mia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan Oloier
• Release date: Nov 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005155575

Susan Oloier

Susan Oloier lives in Southwest Colorado with her husband and two sons where she skis when it's cold and hikes when it's warm.After working in both finance and teaching, with a single audition at an acting agency, Susan went back to her first love, which is writing. She has been published in national and regional publications, as well as online. You can find her lurking about on her blog at http://www.susanoloier.blogspot.com

Book preview

Single Ever After

Wedding Planner

Book 1

Susan Oloier

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by electronic means, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or by any information retrieval and storage system without express written consent of the author or publisher.

The names, characters, and incidents depicted in this book are fictional and products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, persons, or organizations is coincidental.

Smashwords Edition

This work is copyrighted

Copyright @ 2020 Susan Oloier

Other Books by Susan Oloier

Gulf Coast Firefighters Series Books:

Fire Code

Safe Zone

Perfect Match

Escape Route

Christmas Flame

Technical Rescue

Stand-Alone Adult Contemporary:

Fractured

Gigolo Boyfriend

Surviving San Francisco

All I Want for Christmas

Young Adult Contemporary:

Mosaic

Haunted

Superstitions

Serendipity

For all of my readers. I appreciate each and every one of you so much.

Table of Contents

Copyright

Other Books

Chapters

Review

Preview of Wedding Planner 2

Connect

About the Author

Chapter 1

Mia

Christmas lights twinkle over the top of Mia Chapman’s MacBook Air, but they’re not hers. They belong to the apartment complex, and they’re draped outside on the trees and throughout the courtyard. It’s kind of nice since she hasn’t had the time to decorate or even put up a tree. She’s a little strapped for cash and time at the moment. Life as a writer pays the bills, but doesn’t necessarily cover all the extras, like Christmas decorations or even a fresh-cut tree. At least that’s her excuse.

She glances out the window for inspiration, touches her I Heart Chicago sticker near her touchpad, and then tucks her icy fingers into the cuffs of her sweater as she tries to muster up a few catchy lines for her magazine column about why it’s classically cool to be single during the holidays. It’s hard to find her creativity and her words when she’s pressed by a deadline. Normally she enjoys working at the window overlooking the courtyard and her imagined view of Lake Michigan several train stops away, but she has so much on her plate this time of year: the column, but also the New Year’s singles fundraiser (Jingles for Singles) to benefit Project Linus, which provides blankets to seriously ill children—a pet project of her boss Rob, who lost his niece to a disease she doesn’t remember.

Thing is, Mia believes with her everything that it’s best to be single—not only during the holidays, but all year round. Who needs attachments when you have the world at your beck and call? Without a husband (or even serious boyfriend) and unburdened by children, she can pick up at any time and go anywhere she wants without being accountable to anyone but herself. It’s very…freeing.

A diamond-like icicle dangles from the eves of her balcony, glistening in the afterglow of the Christmas lights. Snow dances in tiny pirouettes just outside the glass. Her radiator clanks as it kicks on. Soon the room will be warm again.

She reconsiders her column. There are words on the screen, and the cursor impatiently blinks at her. So she decides to go with her stream-of-consciousness about the holiday gift of freedom. The last thing her audience needs is to focus on loneliness.

She types out a few more lines, and then lets her vision trail to the word-of-the-day calendar on her desk.

December 17th, and she hasn’t done any shopping at all. Not for her best friend, Claire. Not for her sister in Scottsdale. Even if she finds the perfect gift for her sister who has everything, it will never get there on time even with expensive, priority shipping.

Mia’s kind of a hopeless cause.

At least she doesn’t have nieces or nephews to buy for. Though she plans to pick out something for her mom and dad, even if she can’t give it to them anymore. It’s kind of become a tradition after all, no matter how ridiculous her sister Olivia finds it to be.

She returns to her computer when her cell phone rings.

Claire.

She picks up.

I’m working, she says with a manufactured huff.

Well, save it for later. The office Christmas party is tonight, in case you forgot. You should come with me. It starts in an hour, and Jake will be there.

One, Mia says, I’ll never make it to that part of town in an hour, especially if I have to dress up and put on makeup. And two, I do not want to be fixed up with ESPN Jake.

You always say that, but I see how you two look at each other.

You mean with disgust and absolute loathing?

That’s you. He looks at you like he wants you to bear his children.

Which is a huge part of the problem and a reason for my look of loathing. All he does is ask me about sports and the latest hot spot. Besides, I’m going to put our interaction in my column, Mia says, backing out the last few words and retyping with one hand.

Are you writing while you’re talking to me?

Of course not.

There’s mistletoe.

Again, part of the problem.

Listen, I know the holidays are hard for you. But at the same time, it might be good to get out.

In case you forgot, I’m not exactly the going-out type. She glances down at her oversized and wear-worn t-shirt, holey sweater, and yoga pants.

You’re the queen of the singles. You go out all the time for work. Plus, you never know where love will find you. It might be at a workplace Christmas party. And as an added bonus, there’s no white elephant this year. Come on. Just go for a little while. I’ll buy you a drink.

Isn’t it at Rob’s house?

Well yeah. But I can get the drink for you.

You’re incorrigible.

And yet you’re still friends with me. Think of it as research for your year-in-review column.

Mia clicks save on her document and powers down her computer before venturing another glance at the cold and wintery scene outside.

I’ll need my puffer jacket, she gripes.

Pea coat, Claire argues.

And gloves. The ski kind.

It’s not that cold outside.

After the New Year’s fundraiser, I need a vacation, Mia says, preferably to some place warm and possibly tropical.

With lots of hot men.

Just because you want a boyfriend doesn’t mean everyone does. She gets up and looks out on the courtyard. It’s one of the few things she likes about this place. Plus, there’s a tiny snowman near the corner of the pathway.

Is that the theme of your Christmas column?

Isn’t it the theme of my every column?

I’ll meet you there at eight. Don’t come empty-handed, though.

Now I have to stop and buy a gift?

A housewarming, she says, admonishingly. It’s polite.

Mia sighs. She has no idea why she agrees to this.

Oh right—the column.

See you at eight, she tells Claire before pulling herself away from the window and toward her closet where she’s forced to pick out a warm but stylish something or other.

Chapter 2

Mia

The house is a spectacular bungalow on a historic and residential street where the oak-lined road is decorated in white lights. The median, in particular, looks quite fancy. In fact, the area is like something out of a Christmas card. Even the plowed snow is wedding-cake white. The holiday spirit is prevalent in house décor: wreaths on doors, light-wrapped foliage, and lantern-strewn walkways. There’s even the magical flutter of snowflakes in the air. They dust Mia’s pea coat and hair as she minces up the salted sidewalk in her boot heels and up to Rob’s house. Christmas tunes drift out onto the street.

Mia carries an oversized poinsettia, which is hard to keep control of. It slips out of her hand and crash lands on the ground. Soil spills; a stem breaks off. She stops to scoop it up, but she’s created a dirty blemish in the middle of this perfect street.

The door opens up. Christmas music and the scent of apple-cinnamon strudel waft out.

Her stomach growls, and she realizes she’s been so busy writing her article that she forgot to eat lunch.

Mia? That you?

Rob stands in silhouette in the doorway.

Um…hey, Rob. She clutches the disheveled plant and skates to a stop.

He takes it from her with—she thinks—a nod of thanks. Hard to tell since he launches right into business.

How’s the column coming? You about finished?

She steps past him into the foyer. The place is loaded with people, including ESPN Jake, who nods to her from across the room. She thanks her lucky stars she’s in the middle of a conversation with the boss. She double-checks the threshold to make sure there’s no mistletoe. She heaves a relieved sigh.

It’ll be in your inbox by tomorrow morning.

I was hoping it would be there tonight, he says with a tone of warning.

A caterer comes by with a tray of drinks, and she takes one, sips it.

Or tonight, she says, wondering what she should do with the pea coat she still wears. At least it’s not the puffer jacket.

He gives her a final stare, then nods. Better not drink too much then.

Right. She swirls the liquid in the flute.

Someone captures his attention with the sound of her name.

He turns, and she throws back the rest of her champagne.

Rough night already? Claire asks while removing the pea coat from Mia, who shifts the flute from one hand to the other.

Mia takes in the shimmering garland lining the bannisters and the scent of cinnamon coming off one of the warmers. It wasn’t the tasty smell of strudel after all.

I know what you’re thinking, Claire says. But you needed to get out of that apartment.

I need to get my column done. Tonight. Rob’s riding my ass. I mean, it’s the year-end edition, for crying out loud. You know how important it is.

Claire grabs her own filled champagne glass from a traveling tray.

Shouldn’t you have finished by now? she asks through her sip. It’s not like you to procrastinate. Even during this time of year.

It just feels like recycled content.

There they are! Jake says, toting a beer and Chicago Bears polo—his idea of dressing up.

Speaking of recycled, Claire says out of the corner of her mouth before miming his next phrase in sync with him.

It’s the Cinderella Team.

You realize Cinderella was an emaciated girl who scrubbed floors and was held in servitude by her stepmom, right? Mia says.

Funny, he says to her. It’s one of the things I like about you.

And you know it has negative sports connotations, Claire adds.

Don’t be a buzz kill, Abernathy, he says to Claire. Then he clears his throat and turns his attention to Mia.

You know what? I’m going to leave you two alone to talk about… Claire fishes for a commonality, but comes up pretty empty, something."

Mia reaches for her, but misses. After Claire disappears, Mia searches