The rom com movie club, p.1
The Rom Com Movie Club, page 1
THE ROM COM MOVIE CLUB - BOOK TWO
BERNADETTE MARIE
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Other Titles
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Epilogue
Meet The Author
The Rom Com Movie Club - Book Three
The Rom Com Movie Club - Book Three
Other Titles from
Copyright © 2022 by Bernadette Marie, ROM COM MOVIE CLUB No.2
All rights reserved. Smashwords Edition
This is a fictional work. The names, characters, incidents, and locations are solely the concepts and products of the author’s imagination, or are used to create a fictitious story and should not be construed as real. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Published by 5 PRINCE PUBLISHING & BOOKS, LLC
PO Box 865, Arvada, CO 80001
www.5PrinceBooks.com
ISBN digital: 978-1-63112-303-0
ISBN print: 978-1-63112-304-7
Cover Credit: Bernadette Soehner / Marianne Nowicki
11-30
To Stan,
“You have bewitched me, body and soul,
and I love, I love, I love you.
I never wish to be parted from you from this day on.”
Pride and Prejudice
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T, N, G, S, J, You are all everything I ever wanted! “You complete me.” ~Jerry Maguire
Mom and Sissy, I think he believed this to be true of all three of us. “To me, you are perfect.” ~Love Actually
Cate, “We’ll always have Paris.” ~Casablanca
Wait! What I mean to say is we’ll always have Panera’s. (haha) Thanks for sticking it out with me! Through all the misguided words and Old Lady Chics.
Marianne, Colleen, Grace, Sophie, and Cayla, You make me shine! And to Whitney, you make me sound amazing. Thank you! “I can't see anything I don't like about you.” ~ Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Carrie Winfield, Lindsey Haggerty, and MeganHammond, You make me want to do this every single day!
“I don’t want to sound foolish, but remember love is what brought you here.” ~If Beale Street Could Talk
To my Readers, Thank you for coming back time and time again. Keep coming, and I’ll keep writing. “As you wish.” ~The Princess Bride
OTHER TITLES
BY BERNADETTE MARIE
THE KELLER FAMILY SERIES
The Executive’s Decision
A Second Chance
Opposite Attraction
Center Stage
Lost and Found
Love Songs
Home Run
The Acceptance
The Merger
The Escape Clause
A Romance for Christmas
THE WALKER FAMILY SERIES
Walker Pride
Stargazing
Walker Bride
Wanderlust
Walker Revenge
Victory
Walker Spirit
Beginnings
Walker Defense
Masterpiece
At Last
THE ROM COM MOVIE CLUB
The Rom Com Movie Club - Book One
The Rom Com Movie Club - Book Two
The Rom Com Movie Club - Book Three
FUNERALS AND WEDDINGS SERIES
Something Lost
Something Discovered
Something Found
Something Forbidden
Something New
THE DEVEREAUX FAMILY SERIES
Kennedy Devereaux
Chase Devereaux
Max Devereaux
Paige Devereaux
STAND ALONE TITLES
The Happily Ever After Bookstore
THE MATCHMAKER SERIES
Matchmakers
Encore
Finding Hope
THE THREE MRS. MONROES TRILOGY
Amelia
Penelope
Vivian
THE ASPEN CREEK SERIES
First Kiss
Unexpected Admirer
On Thin Ice
Indomitable Spirit
THE DENVER BRIDE SERIES
Cart Before the Horse
Never Saw it Coming
Candy Kisses
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Chasing Shadows
PARANORMAL ROMANCES
The Tea Shop
The Last Goodbye
HOLIDAY FAVORITES
Corporate Christmas
Tropical Christmas
Date for Hire
CHAPTER ONE
Yes, she’d put pine-scented floating candles in the claw foot bathtub, because Lisa always thought it was a nice touch.
Yes, she’d made ice cubes out of punch for Tina to put in her sugar-free, caffeine-free, color-free soda.
Yes, she’d made the special peppermint candy cookies her grandmother used to make, just for Ruby.
In lieu of the usual college T-shirts which they would always wear with pajama pants for rom com movie night, Mindy had a box for each of the girls under the Christmas tree with a sweater to wear with their pajama pants. Of course they were ugly sweaters, and she couldn’t wait until the girls saw them.
Mindy had chosen Bridget Jones’ Diary as the holiday movie, and it seemed appropriate to have uglier sweaters than even the ones depicted in the movie.
She had real gifts for each of her friends as well, because this would not only be their Christmas Rom Com Movie Club night, but it would be their time to celebrate each other before the holiday.
Now that both Lisa and Tina were married, they’d have family to be with at Christmas. Ruby had already told everyone she was going to Hawaii with her mother for Christmas, and they weren’t going to celebrate at all, which was no surprise. Ruby could be a Scrooge, but her mother could be a bigger one.
Mindy would end up at her parents’ house with her sister and her family. Her grandmother would be there, and probably an aunt and uncle or two. She would endure the many questions. Why aren’t you married? Why don’t you date more? I know a nice guy, would you like to meet him?
She didn’t want any of it, but she was a rule follower and the keeper of any tradition, so she’d put up with it, even if she’d rather fly to Hawaii and be Scroogey with Ruby and her mother.
As she pulled a tray of chocolate chip cookies from the oven, the doorbell rang. Right on time, she thought as she set the tray on the top of the stove and hurried to answer the door.
Her three dearest friends stood together on the porch, each with boxes and bags in hand.
“Come in. Come in,” Mindy said stepping back from the cold.
“How Lisa got married outdoors a month ago, and today I have on long underwear under my pajama bottoms, a sweatshirt, a coat, scarf, hat, and gloves amazes me,” Ruby complained as she handed Mindy her stack of gifts to hold while she toed off her boots.
“Yes, and next week there are two days predicted to be in the sixties,” Tina said, setting her bags on the ground and slipping out of her coat.
“Why would we want to live anywhere else? Colorado gives us all four seasons every day of the year. We’re lucky,” Lisa added her optimistic view.
Ruby growled as she pulled off her coat and hung it on the rack by the door. “Bite me. I want seventy every day of the year.”
Lisa shook her head. “Boring.”
Once everyone was free from their winter wear, they moved to the living room where they tucked their gifts under the Christmas tree.
Tina shook her head. “Seriously, Mindy, you should go into professional holiday decorating. People pay good money for perfect trees and lights like this.”
Mindy laughed. “I had help with the lights.”
“Still, I’ve never seen a more curated tree.”
“You should see my mother’s house. She has a tree in each room, each with a theme.”
Ruby shook her head. “Your mother has a tree filled with porcelain dolls.”
Mindy laughed at that. “And she curated that tree after you f
The four of them laughed as Mindy pulled the three boxes from under the tree and handed them each one.
“Okay, this goes with our movie night,” she said.
Tina pulled her sweater from the box first, and wrinkled her nose. “Bridget Jones’ Diary, huh?”
“You got that from the ugly sweater?” Mindy asked.
“You have your tells, Mind.”
“Oh, hell no,” Ruby held her sweater up which had an elf hat and legs that protruded from the sweater itself. “Are you kidding me?”
Mindy held up a hand. “For the record, I wrapped them all, walked away, mixed up the boxes, and then put a name on them. I didn’t choose one certain sweater for any one person.”
“Liar,” Ruby snorted.
Each of the women pulled their sweater out of the box and slipped it on while they laughed.
Then Lisa, with her blinking Christmas tree sweater on, looked at Mindy. “If you don’t have one, I’m taking this off.”
Mindy grinned. “I’ll go get it. And tonight I have a pink champagne face mask, and a sparkling red nail polish.”
Tina was the first to stand. “I’m ready for a facial. Let’s start there.”
As was tradition, they’d all come bare faced and they put on the pink facial masks that tingled. Then, they polished their toenails and fingernails and started the movie. Glam came before drinks and snacks.
Crowded onto the sofa in the family room of the little home, they watched as Bridget Jones pulled up to her mother’s house and proceeded to walk through a crowd of guests, while her “uncle” grabbed her butt.
“I had an uncle like that,” Ruby said, tight-lipped because the mask had hardened. “He never tried anything, but he was—bleh.”
“He’s dead now, right?” Lisa asked. “I mean, I would think if he tried that on you now, you’d stab him.”
“Damn right I would. Knee to the balls, and a knife in the heart while I looked him in the eye,” Ruby said with confidence.
Mindy felt her cheeks heat under the facial mask she wore. Ruby could always take it that inch too far that made Mindy uncomfortable. But, that was some of her charm. Ruby was raw and uncensored, and sometimes Mindy wished she were more like that herself.
When the doorbell rang, the four of them exchanged looks.
Tina held up her hands. “I don’t live with my mother-in-law anymore, so I know she didn’t send her boys over here to deliver anything,” she said referring to the night Aaron, her husband, and Ryan, Lisa’s husband, brought over cookies while the women were all masked up as they were now.
Mindy stood, hobbled to the door on her heels, so as to not mess up her wet toenail polish, and looked out the peephole of the door. The man on the step was turned around as if he were looking at the lights on the trees outside. Hesitantly, Mindy opened the door just a crack.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
When the man turned, her heart caught in her throat. It was dark on the porch, and green and red lights shadowed his face, but it didn’t matter, because she could see that he was heavenly perfect.
Dark eyes smiled at the same time his perfect mouth did. “Hi,” he said with a hint of humor. “I think I caught you at a bad time.”
“We’re good.”
“Mindy, right?”
She stared at him, studying him. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”
“Victor Hayes,” he said the name as if she were supposed to know it. “My grandmother was Victoria Hanson, she owned the house next door.”
“Vic?”
His smile widened. “You remember me?”
“I remember you being ten,” she said, her lips held tight by the constriction of the mask.
When he laughed, it was deep, just like his voice, and it surged through her. “And that’s how I remember you, too.” He leaned in. “Remember when we played married couple in the treehouse across the street at Mr. Smith’s?”
Mindy swallowed hard and nearly choked. “You remember that?”
“My first kiss.”
Holy shit!
“So what are you doing here?” Mindy asked, now fully aware of how she looked with her mask on and the reindeer with the blinking nose on her sweater.
“I just moved into my grandma’s house. I’m going to renovate it.”
“It’s been empty for years.”
“Yeah, I have my work cut out for me. But I locked myself out. My phone is in there too. Can I use your phone to call my mom?”
It sounded childlike when he said it.
“Um, sure,” Mindy said as she stepped back and let him in.
He eyed the pile of shoes at the door. “I’ve interrupted a party. I can go ask Mr. Smith to let me use his phone.”
“It’s dark out. Mr. Smith will have already barricaded himself in his house. But, no laughing when you see us.”
“You all look like this?” he asked, scanning a look over her.
“Yep,” she said and wondered what kind of impression she possibly could have made on the handsome man she’d once kissed in childhood.
CHAPTER TWO
Vic followed Mindy through the kitchen, which he’d been in many times during his childhood, and he was surprised to find it hadn’t changed all that much. In fact, only the appliances were updated.
When he looked toward the family room, which was still dark with wood paneled walls and thick carpet, three sets of eyes were turned his way, and each of them had on a pink mask, just like Mindy’s.
“Hi,” he said with a wave in their direction.
One of the women stood and walked right toward him. She had bright red hair piled atop her head, and a no nonsense gait to her walk. Her sweater had an elf on it, and its legs hung off the sweater. It was hard not to stare.
She held out her hand and green eyes studied him from behind that pink mask. “Ruby. And you are?”
“Vic,” he said, sure to keep his eyes on hers, and not the elf. “Next door neighbor. I just moved into my grandmother’s house,” he continued to say as if her one question warranted all those answers.
“Nice to meet you, Vic. Would you like some wine?”
He looked at Mindy, who was holding out her cell phone. “Um, I…” Mindy nodded. “Sure. Thanks.”
Vic took the phone, mouthed the words thank you, and dialed his mother. When she didn’t answer, he left her a voice mail.
“Do you mind if I text her too? She doesn’t know the number, so she’s probably ignoring the call.”
“Go ahead,” Mindy agreed. “I’m going to go wash my face,” she said and disappeared down the hall with two of the other women, but Ruby stayed in the kitchen with him, cracking facial mask and all.
“They’re pansies. Men come around and they all rush off to wipe off their faces,” Ruby laughed as she poured him a glass of wine.
“You guys do this often?”
“Every month since we were in college.” She handed him the glass and then poured one for herself, but her glass had a red shoe charm on the stem. “So, you moved in next door, huh?”
Vic texted his mother from Mindy’s phone and nodded to Ruby. “Yeah. My grandma died four years ago, and no one can seem to let go of the house. So I finally offered to buy it from my mom and her siblings. It’ll be a good starter house.”
“Starter house, so there’s a wife? A fiancée? A little family?”
