Snowed In with Her Ex by Andrea Laurence Read Free Book Online

new position for her.”
    Ian didn’t mention that Winnie was relieved to be laid off. He got the distinct impression that she had no interest in looking after the pop princess. He didn’t blame her. Missy was a handful.
    He watched Bree at the stove. She had the tomato soup simmering and the sandwiches were turning perfectly golden and toasty in the skillet. He watched her give them an expert flip and then slip them onto a plate. The Gruyère cheese was oozing out the sides with crispy burned edges. She ladled the soup into big soup mugs and put them beside the sandwich.
    “It may not be the gourmet meal a kitchen this grand calls for, but I can’t think of anything else more perfect for a cold day in the mountains.”
    Ian picked up both plates and carried them into the dining room. “I agree. It smells great. I don’t think I’ve had tomato soup since I was a kid.”
    “Really? Why was it in the pantry?”
    He shrugged and put the plates down at two of the place settings near the fireplace. “It’s probably left over from the last time my stepbrother came with the kids. They were here at Christmas.”
    They sat down together, the large stone hearth roaring with flames beside them and the picture window overlooking the valley opposite it. Ian found it unnerving that he couldn’t see anything except the bare branches of the trees in his yard below. The snow was still falling as hard as before.
    With a shake of his head, he took a bite of his sandwich and groaned aloud. It was probably the best grilled cheese sandwich he’d ever had. The gruyere reminded him of a
croque monsieur
he’d enjoyed so much in France. “This tastes wonderful.”
    “Thanks,” she said before tentatively sipping a spoonful of the hot soup. “I’m not much of a cook. It’ll probably be all downhill from here. Amelia won’t even let me help in the kitchen when she’s slammed.”
    “Who is Amelia?”
    “One of my business partners at From This Moment. She’s the caterer. You’d much rather be snowed in with her, I assure you. First-class cuisine all the way.”
    Ian sincerely doubted that. He’d take Bree’s company and grilled cheese any day. “Does the wedding business take up all your time, or do you still have the opportunity to do the artistic photography you did back in school?”
    A soft smile curled Bree’s lips. “I do. This year, I’ve done a black-and-white series called ‘The Other Side of Nashville.’ I wanted to show the parts that most people don’t think of. There’s no country music, no cowboy boots. Just a collection of places I love and people who look less like Grand Ole Opry stars and more like middle America.”
    That was the Bree he remembered. The one who hated posed pictures. “Are you doing a show? I thought I heard you talking on the phone to someone at the Whitman Gallery earlier today.”
    “Yes.” She brushed a stray stand of blond hair behind her ear. “It’s the Sunday after next. I was supposed to have my last meeting with the curator tomorrow, but I obviously had to cancel. I’m going to meet with her as soon as I can get back to Nashville.”
    “Is this your first show at the Whitman Gallery?”
    “It’s my first show anywhere since college. And those hardly counted. I couldn’t really focus on my art the first few years after we started From This Moment. Even though we all had our specialties, we had to roll up our sleeves and do everything from setting up chairs to sweeping floors. We couldn’t afford to hire anyone to help us for a while. If I wasn’t taking pictures, there were a million other things to be done. The last year or so, that changed. That’s when I started my new collection.”
    Ian appreciated her work ethic. As fresh meat at the record studio, he’d sorted mail, emptied trash, fetched sparkling water for the singers...anything and everything they asked of him. That was just what you had to do.
    “So tell me about the business you guys have going.