Red Velvet Crinkles and Christmas Sprinkles

By Maria Imbalzano

Competitive, work-obsessed Bella Simonetti has just been fired from her high-paying job at a Manhattan law firm. At an all-time low, she returns home and helps her parents at their small-town gift shop, but the business is failing and may not make it past the Christmas holidays.
Successful landscape architect Dean Jackson is like a son to Bella's parents. But he's a persistent annoyance to her—he seems to have forgotten his unforgivable blunder thirteen years earlier.
When Bella transforms her parents' gift shop into a cookie cottage, Dean's generosity and magnetic smile are hard to resist, and those feelings of unrequited adolescent love come rushing back. But can Bella let go of the past and accept Dean for the man he is today?

• Language: Unknown
• Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
• Release date: Nov 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781509237937

Maria Imbalzano

Maria Imbalzano is an award-winning contemporary author who writes about strong, independent women and the men who fall in love with them. She recently retired from the practice of law, but legal issues have a way of showing up in many of her novels. When not writing, she loves to travel both abroad and in the states. Maria lives in central New Jersey with her husband--not far from her two daughters and granddaughters. For more information about her books, please visit her website at http://mariaimbalzano.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter.

Book preview

She ignored the little voice in her head encouraging her to come clean. Especially since she planned to live in her parents’ house until she could find a job. Maybe she’d share at dinner tonight. After a bottle of wine.

The back door squeaked open, and a gust of air blew in before the door was firmly closed. Good morning, Barb. Clive.

The guest entered and gave her mom a kiss on the cheek before slapping her dad on the back. Bella’s mouth flew open as she watched the scene, a tiny gasp escaping.

Dean Jackson! What is he doing here?

Honey, you remember Dean, don’t you? Her mom’s smile grew much bigger than it had been all morning. Your brother’s friend from high school?

Of…of course I do. Bella fastened the top button of her pajamas before her hand flew up to assure her messy bun was still on top of her head. Fire flamed her face as she puzzled out the reason for his presence at seven thirty on a Wednesday morning. Or any time, for that matter.

Dean’s been like another son to us. Her dad beamed. Ever since your brother took that job in Boston, he’s helped us do whatever needs to be done around here or at the store. And he’s my golf buddy.

Dean’s gaze zeroed in on her, and her thoughts fuzzed. She would have loved to slink upstairs, but no way was she going to get out of this chair, sporting flannel pajamas and bunny slippers. Was nothing sacred around here?

Praise for Maria Imbalzano

Maria has received many honors for her work including the Heart of Excellence Award and the Write Touch Readers Award. She was also a finalist for the Readers’ Choice Award, the Golden Leaf Award, the RONE Award, and the Book Buyers Best Award.

A SONG FOR ANOTHER DAY:

This book was such a fun, intriguing, captivating, enchanting, romantic, and entertaining read!!! I could not put this book down—nor did I want to.

~Fabulous and Brunette Blog

Skillfully using all the senses, (the author) puts the reader right into the story and has it play like a movie through your mind.

~Judith McCall, Librarian

THE BLUEBERRY SWIRL WALTZ:

This fast paced and easily readable story is a delight…By her talent in creating dialogue and voice, author Imbalzano’s talents clearly extend to creating a setting which takes one back to a small riverside town… Ahh, the memories.

~Kat Henry Doran, Wild Women Reviews

Red Velvet Crinkles and Christmas Sprinkles

by

Maria Imbalzano

Christmas Cookies Series

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

Red Velvet Crinkles and Christmas Sprinkles

COPYRIGHT © 2021 by Maria Imbalzano

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: [e-mail]

Cover Art by Diana Carlile

The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

PO Box 708

Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

Publishing History

First Edition, 2021

Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-3793-7

Christmas Cookies Series

Published in the United States of America

Dedication

To my warm, wonderful, and caring Dad who loved Christmas. I miss you.

Chapter One

Why am I in my childhood bedroom? Isabella Simonetti scanned the very pink and extremely flowery room of her teens, her eyes heavy with sleep, her body still as a corpse. Until she heard the clatter of dishes and utensils from the kitchen, followed by the familiar voices of her parents.

She sprang up, and the warmth of the flower-explosion comforter fell away. Oh no! The scene in the managing partner’s office came barreling back as if set on rewind and repeat at high volume.

We’re sorry, Bella, but I’m sure you understand. Peter Rose spoke for the entire law partnership. She was being fired.

The chill, then perspiring heat that had flooded her body at those words reappeared and threatened to overtake her. She inhaled a deep breath to ward off the nausea.

Throwing herself back on the bed, she pulled the frilly pastel comforter over her head, the throb of a new headache starting at the base of her skull. If she could only sleep for the next two months, wake up on January first with a new plan for the new year, and forget about the embarrassment that had become her life.

Three months had passed since she lost her job, three months that she worked with a headhunter to find a new one, and three months of sorry, we’re not hiring now, but we’ll keep you in mind in the new year from every law firm who even deigned to interview her.

Bella, it’s time for breakfast.

Her mom yelled up the stairs as if she were in high school.

Be right there, she shouted, throwing the covers off, then sticking her feet into her favorite bunny slippers. Jeesh, she’d only been home since yesterday afternoon, and already she was reverting back to her childhood.

No need to dress. Her blue plaid flannel pajamas would serve her just fine. She was back home, in the place and amongst the people that wrapped her in warmth and love and comfort. And boy, did she need it.

Shuffling into the kitchen, she mumbled a good morning and went straight to the coffee maker for some much-needed caffeine.

How’d you sleep? asked her mom while she worked her magic at the stove, turning over sizzling bacon and flipping hot, buttered pancakes.

Okay. No use complaining about the too-soft, too-short, too-narrow bed. Last night’s restlessness had little to do with the fear of landing on the floor.

She sat in her seat at the table across from her dad, rolling her shoulders to get the kinks out. Within seconds a full plate of hot, fluffy pancakes and another of extra-crispy bacon—the exact way she liked it—appeared on the table.

Mom, you didn’t need to go to all this trouble. I usually have cereal or toast or a protein bar in the morning.

Her mother smiled. "Don’t think you’re getting this every morning. I’m much too busy at the shop. But I wanted to start your first day home off right. And since