Auld Flames

Should auld flames be forgot…or given one more midnight?


Event planner Shelby Coulter has one job this New Year’s Eve: pull off the Aldridge Hotel’s glittering Roaring ’20s centennial gala without a hitch. Never mind that the Daley Heritage Foundation is footing the bill. Never mind that Jack Daley, the man who ended things with a note six months ago, is somewhere in the ballroom in a perfectly cut tux. She’ll dodge him, dodge his ice-queen mother, and make it to the champagne toast with her dignity intact.


Then the clock strikes twelve…and it’s six p.m. again.


Same AWOL ice sculptor. Same champagne tray hitting the floor at 8:52. Same countdown, over and over. And only two people remember a thing — Shelby and the one man she never wanted to see again.


Blame Helen O’Malley. The flapper ghost on the grand staircase has spent a hundred years watching couples waste their midnights, and she’s done watching. The year won’t turn until Shelby and Jack get the midnight kiss right.


Shelby knows she’s got this. She has a clipboard, a timeline, and a kiss scheduled for 11:59:59, one that’ll last exactly four seconds. Five at the outside.


But Helen isn’t grading on punctuality. Jack has six months’ worth of things to say, if Shelby would only stop walking away. And every reset leaves their ghostly matchmaker a little more faded. If Helen disappears before Shelby lets down her guard, this night is the only one they’ll ever get….