Page 1 of The Brooklyn Way

Prologue

Then

Brooklyn

I loved Target. A well-lit, clean, nicely appointed, and fully stocked Target store was my happy place. I loved Target best either first thing in the morning or late at night, when the crowd was at a minimum. That way I could take my time and stroll down every aisle without having to wait my turn—when I could pick things up and place them back down without a care in the world.

That was why I was here—at my local Target, twenty-five minutes before they closed for the day. I was meandering through the Joanna Gaines, Hearth & Hand with Magnolia section. I needed to… get happy.

As I thought about it, it dawned on me that I hadn’t been genuinely happy for a minute. Lately, my life had been… unsatisfactory.

Wretched.

Not great.

Actually, it wasn’t just lately that my life had been terrible. It had been terrible for at least a few years.

I wanted something different, something… satisfying. Something… fulfilling.

Suddenly, a thought dropped into my spirit.

I want this life.

Surrounded by simple, classic staples—dishes created for entertaining, cotton kitchen towels, textured potholders, faux stems, wooden napkin ring holders and smoked vases… I could envision a good life.

A peaceful life.

A… social life.

A life filled with friends and family, who would come to my backyard to eat things freshly prepared by me.

A life very different from the one I was currently living and hating.

I sighed aloud to myself as I fingered a plaid tablecloth.

I didn’t really want Joanna Gaines’s life. I didn’t want to be married to Chip. What I wanted was to live the real-life version of the life her collection at Target portrayed.

I wanted my days to be easy and filled with preparation of the menu for a lively game night. I wanted to prepare festive tailgates for football games on warm, balmy Friday nights or brisk and cool Saturday afternoons. I wanted evenings where I served light, crisp fare to the ladies in my book club.

What I wanted was 180 degrees away from what I was living.

I wanted the warm weather of the deep South, but I was living in the Midwest.

I wanted adventure, but each day brought more of the same mundane routine that kept me bored out of my skull.

What I wouldn’t give to have a spirited, pizzazzy social life, instead of the relatively lonely existence where I kept to myself and didn’t have any real friends or even associates close by.

I wanted good, razzle-dazzle filled sex and a partnership with a handsome, good smelling, well-built, financially responsible man. What I had was the remnants of a fizzled relationship… a relationship that had run its course and left its fair share of personal destruction in its wake.

While I was contemplating my fantasy life, two rambunctious, blonde-haired boys came barreling onto my patio, snapping me out of my reverie. Actually, they came bursting into the Hearth & Hand section, followed by their mother, effectively breaking the spell cast by Joanna Gaines and her magical collection at Target.

I looked down at my watch as the disembodied voice announced from the overhead speakers that Target would be closing in five minutes and guests needed to bring their final purchases to the registers. I didn’t have any more time to linger, dream and/or wish. I needed to go to the hellhole that I currently called home.

I didn’t drink often, but when I did, I made sure it counted. I sipped a pricey wine that had been recommended to me by a snooty sommelier at the Wine Boutique. Even though I had been in Target for almost an hour, I didn’t get my wine from there. I needed something more than what their selection could offer me. So, I went to the Wine Boutique, where the bottles were imported and cost more than I should probably have spent. But I needed it.

I needed a bottle of wine that would take me there. Actually, I needed to smoke, but I’d given that up after college, so wine would have to suffice.

“I hate my life,” I moaned to my former college roommate and friend, Carrington Field, as I sat at the island in my kitchen wearing my ivory-colored fluffy robe, matching slippers, and hair bonnet. In my hand was a half-full glass of a deliciously sweet white wine. “I hate it so much.”