Their Icelandic Marriage Reunion

Rumours are swirling that Hollywood’s favourite fairy tale ex-couple, Winter de Holland and Josh Abraham, could be looking at a second chance at a happy ending, as both of them will be heading to the most unexpected destination of the year, Iceland, for the opening of Liam Delaney’s new geothermal spa retreat hotel. After the tragic ending to their happy–ever–after last time, we here at LivingtheFairyTale.com had to know more. So we caught up with Winter at a press conference for her nomination for Best Director to find out the truth behind the rumours…

The camera lights flashed as Winter stepped out onto the stage, then took her seat behind the table, ready for the press conference to begin. She made sure to smile and turn her best side towards the most prominent lenses, even as she ran through what she wanted to say in her head.

She knew how to do this. Even if she’d never done exactly this before.

Winter’s assistant Jenny leaned over her shoulder to place a file folder in front of her, and she knew without looking that it would contain any answers she couldn’t remember off the top of her head. Figures about representation in film, statistics about parts for women over forty, the number of female directors on awards shortlists, that sort of thing.

The important stuff. The things that she’d come here today to discuss.

Things that her first ever big award nomination, as Best Director for Another Time and Place, had given her a platform to say.

Winter took a deep breath, smiled her thanks up at Jenny, then laid her palms flat on the surface of the table in front of her.

She was ready.

The first questions were easy—the ones she’d prepared for long before the shortlists were even announced. How did it feel to be nominated? What was it about the film she thought had resonated with the board? Who did she give thanks to? What was the cast like to work with? Especially Melody Witnall, the fifty-year-old star of the movie.

‘Melody was a dream,’ Winter said, gesturing to where the actress sat to one side of the podium. ‘A consummate professional, of course. But more than that, she brought such life to the part of Beatrix. She showcased perfectly what I was trying to show audiences—that age is just a number, and that women can find love and success and fulfilment at any age. That we, as women, get to set our own criteria for success, that we can choose our own futures, and a few grey hairs isn’t going to stop us!’

That line got a laugh, as she’d hoped. Of course Melody’s perfectly groomed ice-blonde hair wouldn’t show a grey anyway, although Winter was hyper-conscious of the silver strands appearing in her own black bob. Maybe she’d stop dyeing it. Go grey gracefully, if she wanted.

Or maybe she’d dye it purple. It wasn’t as if she had to ask anyone’s permission.

‘Do you believe in second chances in love then, Winter?’ Another reporter shouted the question out as the laughter died down.

Bring it back to the film.

That was the mantra for this press conference. Whatever they asked her about, she just needed to bring it back to the film. The film was what mattered, not her thoughts on love. Or her own experiences of it, for that matter.

She’d had her life hijacked by love before. Now, she was focused on other things, out of the long shadow that love had cast.

‘One of the things I loved about the script for Another Time and Place when I first read it was the emphasis on the idea that you don’t have to be young and fresh to find love. That second chances—and third chances and fourth chances, for that matter—can come our way too, and it’s up to us to grab them. In fact, I find those romances—the ones that come after a heartbreak—more believable, don’t you?’

The reporter shrugged, not used to having his own questions turned on him, it seemed. ‘I don’t know. How do you mean?’

‘Well, in a romance like Another Time and Place, the characters are not just older, they’re more mature. They know themselves better, and have a stronger understanding of the world, other people, and what they want from both. That makes them more capable of building a real relationship—and that’s how Beatrix and Harry are able to find their happy ending. You see?’

The reporter nodded, but the glazed look in his eyes suggested he’d tuned out halfway through. Winter held back a sigh.

If she ever loved again, it would be different this time around. It would be like Beatrix and Harry—real and private and, most of all, equal.

Or maybe she would just be different. Heaven knew she wasn’t the same person she’d been the first time she’d fallen in love, eight years ago.

Winter shook her head and brought her focus back to the press conference. She didn’t want to be talking about love, anyway. She wanted to be talking about female representation and power in Hollywood—in front of and behind the camera.

Melody fielded a couple of questions next, followed by Sarah, the writer. But it wasn’t long before the cameras swung back Winter’s way at another question about love.

‘You’ve said that you believe in second chance love—but what about a second chance at first love?’

Winter blinked, trying to keep her expression blank even as her heart started to race at the memories of her own first love. ‘How do you mean?’

This is not what we’re meant to be talking about today.

‘Well, your ex-husband, Josh Abraham, said recently that he thinks there’s nothing more powerful than first love, or love at first sight. Would you agree?’ The reporter raised her eyebrows, awaiting the response Winter just knew would be the only thing anyone took away from this press conference. Damn it—and damn Josh and his ridiculous romantic notions. Not to mention his unerring ability to take anything she thought was about her and make it about him.

When they were married, all anyone had ever wanted to talk about was their fairy tale romance—not the films she was making, or her acting or directorial dreams. All anyone cared about was her relationship with Josh. And, in the case of producers, how they could use it to sell more movie tickets. She’d lost count of the number of romcoms they’d been pitched by producers to star in together over those first couple of years, before—

Why was she thinking about this? She needed to focus.

This was her press conference, for heaven’s sake! Why were they asking about him? They’d been divorced for five years—twice as long as they were married in the first place. Wasn’t that enough water under the bridge to move on?

Apparently not, since the whole room was still awaiting her answer with bated breath.

‘I think… I think that all love is first love when it’s new. And what Another Time and Place shows is that the excitement of love is always fresh and new, whatever your age.’ She gave a stock smile, one she knew barely reached her cheeks, let alone her eyes, and glanced up to give Jenny the signal to bring things to a close.

‘Last question,’ Jenny said, picking on a friendly reporter in the front row who could be trusted to ask something sensible about the movie, not the vagaries of love.

But the woman at the back—from some entertainment website or another—who’d asked the previous question, got in first. ‘Actually, I had a follow-up. I just wondered if the fact you and your ex-husband will be spending the week together at a luxury Icelandic spa hotel owned by your mutual friend, Liam Delaney, might make any difference to your answer on second chance love?’

Winter gripped tight to the table in front of her and fought to keep her smile in place. ‘I don’t see why that should make any difference to my views, no. Now, thank you all for coming.’ She stood, hoping she wasn’t trembling too obviously.

Jenny, bless her, took control in a second, stepping in front of Winter to draw everything to a close, so she could slink off to the sidelines and fall apart in peace and quiet.

‘Are you all right?’ Melody had followed her, Winter realised, and now stood at her elbow, shielding her from the glare of the cameras, as if they were just having a nice catch-up. God bless other women, Winter thought, as she looked up at her star.

‘I’ll be fine. Thank you.’ It wasn’t a lie. It couldn’t be a lie. She’d be fine, just like she’d been fine last time. She’d pick herself up again and keep living her life. A life without Josh in it.

Everything was absolutely fine.

Or at least it would be, once she’d ripped Liam Delaney apart with her bare hands for inviting her ex-husband to what was supposed to be a quiet week of rest and relaxation at an Icelandic spa hotel.

Then things would be just fine.

*

‘You didn’t tell her I was coming. Did you?’ Josh turned away from the computer screen in front of him to raise his eyebrows accusingly at his friend as he asked the question. He hoped the twisting turmoil that had taken over his stomach didn’t show in his expression.

Liam merely shrugged, before replying in his usual drawling English tone, ‘Course not. Didn’t want to risk her saying no, did I? I mean, don’t get me wrong. You’re a big draw, mate. But Winter…she’s in another league right now, especially with this nomination.’

And of course Winter would have said no if she’d known he would be here. Josh was just as sure of that as Liam was. She’d gone out of her way to avoid him for the past five years. Why would this trip be any different?

It wasn’t even as if he could blame her. After everything that had happened between them…of course she didn’t want to be around him. How could he be anything except a painful reminder of what they’d almost had and lost.

She probably didn’t need him around to be reminded, though. God only knew he thought about it every day.

‘Who’s the blonde on the podium with her?’ Liam gestured towards the computer screen they were watching the press conference on. ‘She looks familiar.’

Josh squinted. Just on the edge of the screen he could see Winter deep in conversation with the star of her directorial debut. ‘You mean Melody Witnall? Heck, you really are out of the business if you don’t recognise her.’

‘Not Mel.’ Liam rolled his eyes and pointed—more accurately, this time. ‘Her.’

‘Oh, that’s Jenny. Winter’s assistant.’ She was handling the crowd well, Josh judged, as he watched her manage the gaggle of gossip reporters all trying to get access to Winter. It was good to know that she had people like Jenny on her side, now he wasn’t there.

She’d run to Jenny when she’d left him, he remembered. It had been Jenny who had helped her through those horrible months, not him. Who’d given her the support she needed. That he hadn’t been able to provide.

‘She’s hot,’ Liam said decisively. As if he were the arbitrator who decided such things. Which, actually, he might believe he was. Josh had never truly managed to fathom the man’s confidence in himself.

Well, in most things. Not all.

There was, after all, a reason Liam had given up acting and retired to run luxury retreat hotels like this one.

Something else neither of them wanted to dwell on today. Josh let his gaze drift back across the screen again to where Winter and Melody stood. They’d shifted positions, giving him a better view of his ex-wife’s face. She was smiling that smile she always put on when things were falling apart but she wanted to pretend they weren’t.

Like the time she’d tried to make a homemade dinner for his brother and sister-in-law, going so far as to make the lasagne a week in advance, only for it not to defrost in time for them to eat. Every time she’d appeared in the doorway from the kitchen, unfamiliar apron knotted tightly around her waist, she’d been smiling that smile as she’d assured them it wouldn’t be long now.

After three hours and two bottles of wine, they’d ordered takeaway.

‘She looks good,’ Liam said softly beside him.

‘So you said.’

‘Not the assistant. Winter. She looks…well.’

‘She looks tired.’ Josh resisted the urge to reach out and run a finger along her cheek on the screen. There were levels of pathetic that even his best friend shouldn’t be made to witness. ‘You really didn’t tell her I was going to be here this week?’

‘In my defence, she didn’t ask.’ There wasn’t much by way of an apology in Liam’s voice.

She’d looked blindsided by the question. God only knew how the reporters had got hold of the guest list before Winter did, but he supposed that was their actual job. And it wasn’t as if Winter hadn’t got other things on her mind.

She didn’t ask.

Because she had assumed Liam wouldn’t risk them both being in the same place for his fancy press week launch of the new hotel?

Or because she just didn’t think of him at all these days?

Josh wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer to that one.

‘Do you think she’ll still come?’ he asked instead.

‘I bloody hope so.’ Liam paced away from the computer screen and threw himself onto the black sofa that sat against the wall of his office. Josh followed, dropping into the armchair opposite him. Liam really had chosen the perfect place for his office. Through the window, Josh could see out across the rocky lava fields around the geothermal pools and to the snow-tipped mountains beyond.

This hotel was beyond any of the others that Liam had opened in his native Britain or his adopted country—the States. Josh wasn’t sure what had drawn his friend to the spa retreat in Iceland, but once he’d snapped it up he’d spent a fortune turning it into the luxurious retreat—an escape from the real world.

Looking out over the landscape now, Josh could almost believe he was on another planet.

‘This place has the potential to be really, really special.’ Liam sat up, resting his forearms on his knees, and he leant forward to speak to Josh. ‘I just need to get the word out. And this week…it’s the key to everything. With you here, and Winter, and the press invitees and influencers…we can make the Ice House the name on everyone’s lips.’

‘As long as she still comes,’ Josh said.

‘Exactly.’

Josh studied his friend, taking in the new lines around his eyes and the sudden appearance of a few grey hairs at his temples. Liam was only thirty-eight, the same as him, but apparently this was what thirty-eight looked like. And felt like.

It felt old. But then, in other ways, it felt exactly the same as twenty-eight had. Except that when he was twenty-eight he hadn’t even met Winter yet. And that didn’t feel possible either—that there had ever been a time when she wasn’t a feature of his life.

‘I should leave,’ Josh said, the right path suddenly obvious. ‘It’s not fair for me to blindside her here, when she clearly needs the break.’

‘And you don’t?’ Liam asked, eyebrows raised. ‘Besides, I invited you both here because I want both of you here. For publicity reasons, obviously.’

Something about his tone, or the way Liam didn’t meet his gaze, gave Josh pause.

‘Is that really the only reason you asked us both?’ he asked, eyes narrowed. ‘To get people talking?’

Liam shrugged. ‘What do you think?’

‘I think maybe you got bored without the rush of the Hollywood scene and decided to try meddling with your friends’ lives instead.’ Something he didn’t appreciate.

Liam didn’t rise to the bait. ‘Look, if you two are happy, I am happy—especially if both of you can be happy here and raise interest in my new hotel.’

‘But?’ Because there was definitely a but coming.

‘But you and Winter have always been unfinished business. The way she left, how things were before…there was no closure. For either of you.’

In an instant, Josh was transported to that moment, five years ago, when he’d arrived home from filming to their house in Los Angeles and found her gone. His heart dropped again now, the way it had when he’d read the note she’d left.

When he’d realised his marriage was over before he’d even had a chance to try and save it.

‘It’s been five years,’ Josh pointed out, rather than admitting how close Liam’s words hit on the truth.

‘Five years in which you’ve claimed you’ve moved on, dated a selection of identikit blondes—but never for longer than a few months—and generally pined for your lost love.’ Liam really wasn’t pulling his punches today.

‘I have not been pining.’ Josh was almost certain he wasn’t lying about that. ‘It’s not like I want Winter back, or that I think she’s the only woman in the world for me or anything.’

‘Except that you still talk about finding your forever love, the one you can grow old with. A love like your parents had.’

‘Because that’s what I want,’ Josh broke in. He wanted to move on, find true love and his happy ever after, with a woman who would stay. It was just hard to do when he couldn’t fully understand why Winter had left in the first place.

Her note had said that she couldn’t do it any more—couldn’t be married to him. And he’d put together plenty of reasons why that was in his head over the last five years, especially late at night when he couldn’t sleep. But she’d never explained to him exactly what it was he’d done wrong. And, without that, how could he be sure he wouldn’t do it again?

Not that he really wanted to say all that to Liam. So he cast around for another way to explain it. ‘You never met my dad, but you’ve heard my mom and my brother talk about him, right?’

Liam nodded. ‘Once or twice.’ Liam was one of those rare actor friends who transcended that work-life barrier and became family, and he’d spent more than one holiday with Josh’s family, especially after the accident. ‘Your whole family is as American as apple pie, and about as sweet.’

‘He and my mom had the real thing. True love. My brother, Graham, he found that too—you’ve seen how happy he and Ashley are, especially now the twins are here. They found the real deal. And I’m not settling for anything less either.’

Was that really so much to ask for?

Liam eyed him carefully. ‘You thought Winter was your real thing once, remember.’

‘And I was wrong.’

He remembered his mother’s words, after Winter had moved out.

‘I always knew she wasn’t the one for you. Don’t worry. She’ll come along when you’re ready.’

But he’d been ready, for years now. He wanted that settled feeling of home he saw on Graham’s face when he smiled at his wife. He wanted that love and the laughter and the warmth he remembered from his childhood home, before his father passed away.

Maybe for a while he’d thought he’d found that with Winter. But he’d realised soon enough that he was wrong. Everything with Winter had been hard, and he’d felt himself failing from the start. And when everything went to hell…he hadn’t been able to fix any of it. So she’d left, and he’d let her go without a fight, because he’d known then it wasn’t meant to be between them.

Falling in love with Winter had been like a thunderbolt, knocking him out of his everyday life and into a fairy tale where the happy ending seemed inevitable. It had been powerful, overwhelming and life-changing, the way first love always was, according to the movies.

But first love wasn’t the same thing as true love.

True love, he knew from watching his family, was easy. Comfortable. When something was right, when it was meant to be, the pieces just fell into place.

He just had to have faith that one day those pieces would do that for him.

‘Just…if you’re really ready to move on, mate, use this week to prove it,’ Liam said. ‘Get some closure. Stop beating yourself up for what went wrong and start looking for things that are right. Yeah?’

‘I don’t beat myself up over what happened with Winter.’ Okay, that one was a lie.

‘Yeah. Yeah, you do.’ Liam’s smile was sad. ‘I know what that looks like.’

It was the closest Liam had come in a long time to mentioning the mistakes he’d made in his own past, the ones that had led to the accident that woke him up and made him leave Hollywood behind. Josh wanted to push further, to see if he needed to say more, but before he could find the right way to do it, Liam was already jumping to his feet.

‘Right. No rest for the wicked, as my grandpa used to say. I need to get back to work.’ He opened the office door and raised his eyebrows expectantly at Josh.

Josh rolled his eyes and moved towards it.

‘And mate…’ Liam’s blue eyes were bright under his dark hair, falling over his forehead. ‘Think about what I said. About closure and all that.’

Closure. Josh imagined, for a moment, knowing exactly what he’d done wrong to make Winter leave, and felt a weight lift. Maybe theirs hadn’t been true love or meant to be, or the fairy tale the gossip magazines had claimed after they’d fallen in love on the set of their first movie together and married within the year. But they had been in love.

And if Josh was going to risk his heart again one of these days, he wanted to give it the best chance of not getting broken. Which meant not making the same mistake twice.

True love might be easy and right when it came along, but it couldn’t hurt to give it a helping hand. Understanding what went wrong with him and Winter…maybe Liam was right, and that would help him take that leap into love again.

‘Yeah. All right.’ Josh stepped through the door. ‘I’ll see you later. For dinner, yeah?’

Liam nodded and shut the door behind him.

And Josh took the corridor that would lead him back to his suite—the best in the place, Liam assured him.

At least he’d have a nice place to hang out, while he figured out what to say to his ex-wife when he saw her for the first time in almost five years tomorrow.

• Text Copyright © 2022 by Sophie Pembroke
• Cover Art Copyright © 2022 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited
• Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books S.A. Cover art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved.