Aunt Georgia patted Kate’s thigh. “Everyone in the family is so proud of you, Katie. You’ll make a name for all of us.”

Kate sighed. Once again she’d lost her chance. Getting up, she walked across the room, past the corner where soon the Christmas tree would be placed, and stood at the window, looking out over the pasture. A blanket of glittery white coated the field, created sparkly mounds on the fence posts. Moonlight turned everything a beautiful frosty blue and white; with the black velvet sky, it looked like a greeting card. As a girl, she’d waited impatiently for this unexpected weather, prayed for it for months, and no wonder. Covered in snow, Firefly Lane looked like something out of a fairy tale. The kind of place where nothing could ever go wrong, where a girl should be able to simply tell her family that she’d changed her mind.

The last few months of their senior year were perfection. Although Tully spent more than twenty-five hours a week at the station where she was interning, and Kate spent an equal number of hours working at Starbucks, the new designer coffee shop in the Pike Place Market, they made sure to spend a lot of their weekend time together, playing pool and drinking beer at Goldies or listening to music at the Blue Moon Tavern. Tully spent a lot of her nights at Chad’s, but Kate didn’t say much about that. Truthfully, she was having too much fun dating to hassle Tully about her choices.

The only problem in Kate’s life—and it was a biggie—was her upcoming graduation. She was going to graduate next month with honors, with a degree in communications/broadcast journalism, and she still hadn’t told anyone that it wasn’t her dream job.

Now, though, she was going to come clean. She was in one of the third-floor phone rooms, folded up to fit, and she’d just dialed home.

Mom answered on the second ring. “Hello?”

“Hey, Mom.”

“Katie! What a great surprise. I can’t remember the last time you called in the middle of the week. You must be psychic: Dad and I just got home from the mall. You should see the dress I got for graduation. It’s beautiful. Don’t let anyone tell you JC Penney doesn’t have great clothes.”

“What does it look like?” Kate was stalling; with half an ear, she listened to her mom’s description. Mom had just said something about shoulder pads and glitter when Kate jumped in. “I just applied for a job at Nordstrom, Mom. In the advertising department.”

There was a noticeable pause on the other end, then the telltale sound of a cigarette being lit. “I thought you and Tully were going to be—”

“I know.” Kate leaned back against the wall. “A reporting team. World-famous and rich.”

“What’s really going on, Kathleen?”