Excerpt from Scarlet

Scarlet is available today. Click on the cover to be taken to the EC web site. 

Heather has put on a cursed dress that will only come off when she meets her true love...or so the legend goes.

Just as she was getting ready to leave, her phone rang. Knowing it might be Tasha or her mother with an answer, Heather grabbed the vibrating and chiming box out of her purse. Tasha. Good.

“Hey there.”

“Hey.”

“How’s it going?”

“Fine.”

Heather sighed and waited. Tasha was a great friend but she had a tendency to lean toward avoidance. Heather was more of a “face it head on” kind of girl.

“Well, did you get ahold of your mother?”

“No. Not really. I mean, I sent her an email. I’ve texted. I’ve left voicemail messages. She pretty much told me she and Nick were going off the grid for a month, and not to worry.”

“What if someone died? Or you got hurt?”

“Don’t be silly. I have ways to contact her in an emergency.”

Heather glared at her phone. “You don’t think this is an emergency?”

“No. It’s your own fault.”

Heather growled. “I get it. I’m being punished by fate. I apologize but I have to get out of this dress. I can’t run my business. I can’t live my life.”

Tasha sighed and Heather knew from the sound that her aunt was rolling her eyes. “Stop being so dramatic. You wanted to prove us wrong and now you’re paying the price. I had nothing to do with it so apologizing to me gets you nowhere, except now I’ll take all your shoes out of the bags I was donating to Goodwill and return them to your closet.”

A strangled garble came out of Heather’s throat and she fought to breathe. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“You’ll just have to see when you get home, won’t you? When are you coming home by the way?”

“I’m here for a week.”

“How is life as a Vegas bride?”

“Kinda sucks. But—I found a guy last night who makes the dress fall off.”

“Then why are you asking about my mother?”

“Because the dress didn’t actually fall off, which was good because I was in the middle of a casino at the time, but the point is, a guy who was in this hotel made the dress fall off.”

“Ooh, so you could come home with your true love.”

Heather laughed though it was more of a sad sound than joyful. Tasha was such a romantic. She actually believed this dress revealed your one true love. Tasha had been storing the dress for years waiting for the right moment to use it.

“I doubt I’ll come home with anyone but myself but if I can find the guy, I can get out of this damn dress and that’s all that matters.”