Chapter 1

Dr. Andi Roberts, now Mrs. Andi Jarecki, stood marveling at her kitchen. When her brand-new husband, Paul Jarecki, built what he thought was a gourmet kitchen, he went all out. From the huge eight burner double oven gas stove to the 48” wide refrigerator, this kitchen was incredible, and Andi felt daunted by it. The kitchen was enormous, and Andi was not. Andi was a short, curvy, busty bundle of joy with a license to practice medicine. She has a beautiful face, not fashion model beautiful, but ‘down to earth my god who is that angel’ beautiful. Norwegian farm girl beautiful. Laughing mom helping her children color pictures beautiful. Concerned almost tearful doctor who is trying to give her patient bad news beautiful.

And she’s short, not Peter Dinklage short. She was four and a half inches taller than him. She had a marvelous sense of humor about it, because being buried in a mountain of student loans, being left by your husband while eight months pregnant, and being the single mom of twin preemie girls for five years you must have a good sense of humor. That and a strong will, bear trap memory, and incredible friends.

It was barely a month previous since she was traveling from Denver to meet up with her closest friend, Lucy Kocsis (pronounced “coaches”) when she got lost in a Western New York blizzard and ended up in a ditch. She and her girls were rescued by Dr. Paul Jarecki, a bit of a recluse with seventy-five acres and a cabin, and a house in town. And a house in Florida ... actually, two houses in Florida, and ten Ford dealerships. She didn’t find out about all that until after they were married in a candlelight ceremony on Christmas Eve.

For Christmas she gave her new husband a watch and a wallet, and a coffee mug that said, “We love you poppa!” featuring a picture of the twins. To Paul, these were the most wonderful gifts he could imagine. He used his coffee mug every day and gently washed it when he was done. Andi purchased them with the money she had available and was completely unaware of Paul’s monetary worth, so these little gifts came from her heart and emptied her purse.

In return Paul gave her his Victorian Mansion, a new car, a seventy-two-foot sports motor yacht, two houses in Florida (co-owned with her brother and sister-in-law), a cabin in 75 acres of forest, a dozen chickens, then gave her a full accounting of their money. None of that moved Andi as much as when he gave the twins a plaque to hang in their room that announced to the world that he was adopting them.

The morning after Christmas, Andi was waiting for the restaurant model Bunn coffee maker to finish a fresh pot and for her dear friend Lucy to arrive. They had plans for a Boxing Day (whatever that is) breakfast, followed by an activity that Paul didn’t describe to her other than to say it’s traditional.

“Good morning, Mrs. Jarecki!” startled Andi out of her thoughtful funk. It was her husband’s brother John and his wife Macy. John is a shorter, younger version of Andi’s husband Paul, and Macy is a tall, slim, gorgeous black girl that was born and raised in a fishing village in Quebec which gave her the most delightful French accent. When it comes to looks, Macy and Andi are complete opposites. Macy is tall, slim and her skin is deep black. Andi is short, curvy, and very pale, but the moment they met, they fell in love. Neither woman had a sister and now they’re drawing as close as Andi’s twins are.

“Bonjour mon cher! The showers in that bedroom are so delightful!” purred Macy as she kissed her husband.

“Wait until you try the tub,” said Andi, as she poured John and Macy a cup of coffee. It has been a tradition for John and Macy along with anyone else that wants to spend the holidays at Paul’s house, and Andi encouraged that tradition. Currently, the big Victorian is housing Paul and Andi, John and Macy, the twins, Andi’s parents, Harold and Heather Driscoll, Lucy Kosis, Gus Didomissio, Katrina Mays (Andi’s favorite Nurse Practitioner), and Wonka the chocolate lab. Paul is currently taking Katrina to the airport to return to Denver. She only got to spend a few hours in Buffalo and she and Andi had been up since four AM chatting.

As John and Macy, still in their Christmas pajamas (they had a pajama party on Christmas Eve while Andi and Paul were spending their wedding night in Paul’s cabin) sat at the large table in the very large breakfast noon, Lucy returned from work.

Lucy Kosis is a renowned pulmonologist and thoracic surgeon and unfortunately, she spent Christmas night at the County Emergency Medical Center emergency department performing one Christmas Miracle after another. Lucy is tall, athletic, and incredibly plain looking. She is a wonderful woman with a glowing smile, but she feels she is ugly, so she puts her heart and soul into being good at everything else in life. She’s an Olympic caliber cyclist, runner, skier and anything else she can do to avoid men. It didn’t work because Gus Didomissio, a local contractor, has fallen head over heels in love with her, but she is trying (unsuccessfully) to keep him at arm’s length as a ‘buddy.’

Lucy arrived at Andi’s house, dragging her exhausted body in from a 16-hour shift at the CEMC ‘Knife and Gun Club’ and plopped down at the table. Her newlywed friend, Andi Jarecki, looked at her with pity. Not being a surgeon, Andi only has a rough idea of what happens on these arduous nights, but the sorrow on her friend’s face and the blood splatters on her scrubs told the entire story. And to top everything off, Lucy just missed her friend Katrina’s departure by a half hour.

She sniffed a few times, her eyes bleary from crying all the way from Buffalo to Springville. “I have to get out of there...” she said to Andi, “what kind of woman cuts up her 3-year-old son just because she’s mad at his dad?” She lowered her head to the arms she crossed on the table. “Animals,” she whispered, and the tears began again. “Animals treat their children better.”

Andi put on her reading glasses, became Dr. Andi, and sat down trying to console her oldest friend, but it was no use, she couldn’t save the chopped-up toddler, but he was just the first in a blood splattered 16 hour long nightmare that was Dr. Lucy Kocis’ Christmas evening. John and Macy immediately went to their friend’s aid, but Lucy was inconsolable. John was a church pastor and Macy was an ordained minister with a doctorate in theology and psychology, but nothing John and Macy said helped Lucy let go of the dreadfulness of the past 16 hours. She wailed in horror about a pregnant 13-year-old and her 28-year-old ‘baby daddy’ with a knife, and she put her head down again and shrieked. Her body shuddering from her sobs. She waved away anyone who tried to talk to her about her shift through hell.