Chapter 1

1

My sister called just as the radio began a new Christmas song. Bing Crosby sang about Hawaii’s way of saying Merry Christmas. I considered ignoring her call. It couldn’t be good, of that I was sure. I checked the boxes on the list on my clipboard and signed it, then handed it to my assistant, a cute young Hawaiian named Rory.

“Yeah, Suzy?” I answered.

“Oh, at last. Geez, Mackenzie, I thought I was getting your voice mail again.”

My other line clicked. “Hang on.” I switched over. “Mackenzie Grayson.” The woman on the other hand rattled off questions about the spring collection. “No, it’s Robin’s egg blue. Hang on.” Switched back to my sister. “I have to take this call.”

“Oh no, you don’t. Do you know how hard it is to get ahold of you? Tell the other call you’ll call them back.”

“Suzy, please—”

“I’m serious. You aretalking to me.”

I rolled my eyes and switched back to the woman on the other line. “I’m sorry. I’m on an important call. I have to call you back.” When I returned to my sister, I said, “Happy?”

She snorted. “Hardly. Why is it that I can never get my brother on the phone?”

“You’ve got me now so don’t be so dramatic. What is it? Did Aunt Rosie die?”

“Two years ago. Jeez.”

I blinked. “Really? How come I don’t remember that?”

“Self-absorbed. No one’s died, Mackenzie. I’m calling about Christmas.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, you made me hang up my other call for Christmas?” I rolled my eyes and walked over to a mannequin dressed in one of my latest bathing suits and felt the material.

“Yes. I want you to come home for Christmas. We all do.” Home, at least as far as Suzy was concerned, was Los Angeles. Suzy lived in Santa Barbara now, but she still spent a lot of time with our parents.

“It’s only December first.”

“Perfect time to discuss it,” Suzy said. “And to buy the tickets. I don’t want any excuses. You didn’t come home last Christmas, so you definitely are this one.”

I supposed it was coincidence that the radio station playing holiday tunes picked that moment to switch to I’ll Be Home for Christmas.

“I can’t,” I told my sister. “I’m working on the spring collection. I’ve got dresses and bathing suits that will be in all the stores soon.”

“Not in December. Besides, I know you. You’ve been ready for your spring collection for weeks. Not to mention you have assistants. And assistants who have assistants.”

I sighed. “I hate traveling over the holidays. Can’t I come in the summer like last time?”

“No, we want the whole family here for Christmas.”

Whole family?

I tensed and sat in the chair placed right by the mannequin. “Exactly who do you mean by that?”

Suzy paused but for only a few seconds. “Mom, Dad, me, Rick. The usual.”

Rick was her husband. Nice guy. I really liked him. He had a brother, Karl. I’d really liked him, too. Three days of hot, heavy sex nearly two summers ago had been the consequences of that particular infatuation. If Rick’s brother was part of the whole familythings could get pretty awkward.

“Please?” Suzy asked. “Mom and Dad really want you to come. They miss you. And Daddy hasn’t been feeling all that great lately. I’d hate it to be his last Christmas and you’d miss it.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You really know how to lay it on thick, don’t you?”

“You’ll come?”

“Yes.” I gritted my teeth.

“And for a decent amount of time,” Suzy said, sounding ridiculously full of Christmas cheer. “Not a long weekend or any such nonsense.”

“Well, maybe a week.”

“Two. You’re coming for two. You can afford to miss the time and you know it. And everyone’s staying at Mom and Dad’s because Mom wants a big family Christmas with everyone together in the same house. They’ll be so excited. They’ve already said if you come they are going to decorate the house for Christmas from head to toe.”

“Houses don’t have heads or toes.”

“Don’t be a smartass. It’s unbecoming. Okay, I’ll let you get back to creating gorgeous fashions. Call me with the flight details and make them soon.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I disconnected the call and frowned in the direction of my laptop sitting on my desk a few feet away. The radio now played the song about the famous reindeer. There was no avoiding it. I was going home for Christmas.

* * * *

I could live with spending two weeks in Los Angeles for the holidays. Hell, I’d grown up there and had spent the first twenty-six of my thirty-one years there. I loved LA.