The First Kiss of Spring

by Emily March

  “Will your parents be there?” he asked.

  “Yes. They don’t miss church when they are in town.”

  Josh drummed his fingers on the table. “I don’t know. Maybe we should think about this some before we jump off and do it.”

  “I have thought about it. All we will be saying is that we are dating. It’s okay for me to date. I got that privilege on my sixteenth birthday.”

  “They made you wait until you were sixteen?”

  “Oh yeah.”

  Josh rose from his seat and carried his plate to the sink. She could all but see the wheels turning in his head as he began to rinse the dishes and load the dishwasher. She topped off her coffee mug and leaned against the counter, waiting.

  After almost a full five minutes of thought, he said, “Your dad wouldn’t cause a scene in church.”

  “No, he wouldn’t.”

  “Okay, then. Well.” He shot a look at her over his shoulder. “I’ll go to church with you this morning, Caitlin. You’d better hurry and get dressed. We should arrive early in plenty of time to say our prayers. I’m afraid we’re going to need them.”

  He was right. This turned out to be her father’s day to usher. A smile blossomed on his face when she stepped into the church. It quickly died when he saw just who had come with her.

  “Good morning, Dad,” she chimed, pretending she didn’t see the tension.

  “Good morning, honey.” Mac bent and kissed her chin, then nodded stiffly toward Josh. “Tarkington.”

  “Good morning, sir.”

  Josh’s amused smirk didn’t help the situation any, but Caitlin knew when to pick her battles. The door opened again behind him, and elderly Mrs. Wilson shuffled inside. Caitlin seized the opportunity. “We’ll find our own seats, Dad. You help Mrs. Wilson.”

  Caitlin dashed up the aisle to take a seat a few rows behind her mother. No way would she sit in the path of her father’s laser eyes.

  Reverend Montgomery gave a thought-provoking sermon about modern influences on the season of Advent that struck a chord with Caitlin. She gave Josh a sidelong look and decided that they’d have the gift-giving talk soon.

  After the sermon, the congregation sung a hymn, and her father and another usher walked up the aisle carrying the offering baskets. When Mac was two rows away, Josh reached into his pocket for his wallet. Caitlin saw the two men’s gazes meet, and then the strangest thing happened.

  In the process of handing the offering basket from one row to the next, Mac dropped it. He didn’t fumble it. He simply dropped it. Bills and change and church envelopes went flying everywhere.

  But the act of dropping the offering wasn’t what Caitlin considered strange. It wasn’t the first time a basket had been spilled and it wouldn’t be the last. The strange part was the expression that flashed through her father’s eyes as his gaze flew to meet her mother’s.

  Her father looked stricken. He looked scared.

  In that moment, fear rumbled through Caitlin too.

  * * *

  Shortly before noon the following Tuesday at the end of a hectic morning, Josh took Penny outside to tend to her physical needs, then saw her settled on a dog bed in his theater room. Caitlin had smiled tenderly at him when he told her that Penny enjoyed the colors and sounds of TV, then she suggested the Disney Channel. Now Paw Patrol was a definite favorite. And if Josh sat and watched with his dog for an episode every so often, well, what was wrong with that?

  Today, Penny would be watching by herself. He hung the OUT TO LUNCH sign on his front door, grabbed his wallet, and headed for the Mocha Moose to pick up the order he’d placed an hour ago. He’d learned an important lesson about life in Eternity Springs over the course of the past two days. Any time business started lagging, all he needed to do in order to goose his sales was to show up to church with a girl.

  There’d been a near steady stream of people in and out of the shop since he opened Monday morning. Both regulars and new customers. An amazing number of folks just happened to stop by to purchase a soft drink from the machine he kept in the front office. He had a rush on oil changes and brake fluid checks and tire rotations—all by people who lingered to visit either before or after the service.

  Every one of his visitors attempted to pump Josh for information about Caitlin—How long had he’d been seeing her? Was it exclusive? Was it serious? He managed to deflect most of the questions, though Sarah Murphy surely won the persistence prize because she hadn’t quit until she wormed out of him the fact that no, he wasn’t dating anyone else. He and Caitlin had definitely gone public—with a capital P. It surprised him that he didn’t really mind.

  He arrived at the Mocha Moose to find his order ready and waiting for him. “I switched out one of the turkey sandwiches for pimento cheese,” the proprietor, Wendy Davis, told him. “Caitlin Timberlake is wild about my pimento cheese.”

  “I don’t recall mentioning Caitlin when I ordered.”

  Wendy rolled her eyes. “You ordered one turkey with horseradish. There’s only one person in town who eats turkey with horseradish—Jax Lancaster. If you’re buying this many sandwiches and one of them is for Jax, then you’re buying lunch for his whole crew. And Caitlin is at Gingerbread House today because she’s meeting the designer. It just makes sense that one of these sandwiches is for her. You and Caitlin have a lunch date.”

  Small towns. Living in one was a love/hate relationship.

  But Josh couldn’t argue with her logic. She’d gotten it exactly right. He picked up the crate stacked high with bags of sandwiches and sides and headed for the door saying, “Thanks, Wendy. I’ll be sure to tell Caitlin she has you to thank for the pimento cheese.”

  “’Preciate you. Now you be careful with your hands so full, and watch your step on the sidewalk—there’s still some icy patches in the shade.”

  “I will.”

  “See you Thursday.”

  “Am I that predictable?”

  “Nah … you having a thing for Caitlin was a total surprise. I had you paired with that friend of Chase’s from college who visits from time to time.”

  Josh didn’t have a clue as to whom she was talking about, but as he walked the few short blocks to Gingerbread House, he marveled at the power of the Eternity Springs telegraph. It was a minor miracle that he and Caitlin had been so successful in keeping their secret.

  The topic of secrets brought the incident in church on Sunday back to mind. Caitlin had brooded about it throughout the afternoon they’d spent cross-country skiing up at Stardance River Camp. He hoped she’d learned something from her mother on their shopping spree yesterday that settled her worries.

  At Gingerbread House, he found Caitlin with a paintbrush in her hand in what would be the two-year-olds’ room downstairs. “Hello, beautiful.”

  Her face lit up like the town Christmas tree in Davenport Park. She set down her paintbrush and rushed toward him. “Josh!”

  She gave him a one-armed hug, keeping the hand wet with green paint safely away, and kissed him. “I missed you yesterday.”

  “I missed you too. How did the shopping extravaganza go?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’ll tell you when we are alone. Maybe after I have a glass of wine.”

  “That bad?”

  “Not bad. Frustrating. Now, let’s get sandwiches passed out before the crew gets restless. You’re their favorite person now, you know. People don’t ordinarily spring for lunch.”

  “I’m trying to butter them up to do some fixes at my place.”

  “Fixes? Already? Your place is brand new!”

  “Nothing major. Just a few minor changes I’ve realized I want after living there a while.”

  She folded her arms. “Don’t even begin to think of stealing the crew away from me before I’m finished with them.”

  “Yes ma’am.” He winked at her, and then together they passed out sandwiches and chips, potato salad and slaw. Caitlin gave him a quick tour of the latest renovations, then they settled in
to the front porch swing to enjoy their own meal. Josh set it swaying with a push of his foot and sighed with satisfaction. “Beautiful weather. Beautiful woman. A roast beef sandwich that’s a work of art.” He gave her a quick, hard kiss, then added, “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

  He unwrapped his roast beef and took a bite, a contented man.

  “We’re lucky to be able to sit outside this time of year,” Jax Lancaster said from the porch step where he sat plowing through his turkey sandwich with extra horseradish. His gaze kept drifting toward the house across the street. His wife had called a few minutes ago to say she and their daughter were visiting Harriet and they would stop by on their way home.

  “We’d better enjoy it while we can.” Caitlin licked pimento cheese off her fingers. “I’m happy to see the sun again. It’s been so dreary the past few days, and I’d have sworn I heard sleet hitting the roof last night.”

  “I heard it too,” Jax said. “I was up with the baby around three and it was pinging against the windows. It was nice to wake up to sunshine this morning. The forecast says … oh. There’s Claire and Julianna. Excuse me.” He rose and strode away toward the pretty redhead who was trying to maneuver a stroller through the front doorway of Harriet’s house.

  “He is so over the moon about that baby,” Caitlin said, smiling. “It’s fun to watch. I keep wondering when Chase and Lori are going to take the leap into parenthood. I suspect Chase will be even more giddy about fatherhood than Jax.”

  The topic sent unease slithering up Josh’s spine. He quickly pivoted to another subject. “So tell me about the shopping trip. Did your mom give you the third degree?”

  “Yes. And the fourth and fifth. Of course, I was doing the same thing to her, so we had a bit of a grilling standoff.”

  “You asked her about your dad’s reaction to dropping the collection basket?”

  “I did. I actually talked to them both about it. I spoke to Dad when I picked Mom up at their house yesterday morning. I flat out asked him why he looked so disturbed about it. He blew me off. Told me I was imagining things, that it was nothing more than a flash of embarrassed regret. When I brought it up to Mom, she did exactly the same thing.”

  Josh took a thoughtful bite of his sandwich and considered swallowing the question hovering on his tongue. The little line of worry between her brow settled it for him, so he said, “I’m aware that I’m probably stepping way out onto a limb here, but isn’t it possible they’re telling you the truth? The lighting inside the church isn’t great on a sunny day, and it rained Sunday morning. It was dark inside St. Stephen’s.”

  “I know.” Caitlin sighed and slapped his hand when he stole a potato chip off her plate.

  He shared one of his corn chips. “I suspect if you saw anything, it was embarrassment. You dad caused a minor scene. He doesn’t strike me as the type to be happy about that.”

  “He’s not. You could be right, Josh. Maybe I was seeing things. Nevertheless, it was a weird moment. Another in a long list of weird parent moments of late. Maybe it’s the whole retirement thing. Chase and I are both a bit baffled by that. He’s never suggested that he wanted to hang up his shingle for good.”

  “I think you should take them at their word and let it go.” He gave the swing another push and added, “If you need to fret, do it over the poor choice of paint color you made for the two-year-olds’ room.”

  She went stiff. “What? What’s wrong with it?”

  “It’s green.” Josh smothered a smile.

  “Yes, a lovely shade of green.”

  “It’s pee green. Not with an ‘a,’ but with an ‘e.’ With a room full of two-year-olds, don’t you think you’re going to have all that color you can manage as it is? Why plant suggestions in their heads?”

  “It’s not pee green,” she chided. “It’s parakeet green and it’s part of the color palette Sage helped me choose.”

  He shrugged. “Whatever you say.”

  When she frowned and began digging around in her bag for the notebook that had become her Gingerbread House bible, he knew he’d managed to distract her from her worries about her parents, which had been his goal. He’d made a mistake by bringing the subject up in the first place.

  Although he didn’t regret shifting the conversation away from babies one bit.

  “Parakeet green is a fine color,” she muttered as Jax started up the steps carrying his daughter, Julianna. At eleven months old, she was a beautiful little butterball who’d taken her first steps last Wednesday. If Jax was over the moon about her, Claire was giddy. Their son Nicholas was the Lancaster who amused Josh. He loved his little sister, he was quick to tell anyone who asked, but she wasn’t anywhere near as awesome as his dog.

  “Hi, Claire,” Caitlin said. “I love Julianna’s hat. Where did you get it? Do you know if they come in adult sizes? A stocking cap with hound dog ears would be a perfect stocking stuffer for Lori.”

  “Actually, they do come in adult sizes. I stock these hats at Forever Christmas in the Dog House. Nicholas insisted. I think I have a boxer and a dachshund left.”

  “Perfect. Hold the dachshund for me, would you please? I’ll stop by this afternoon to get it. Speaking of holding … are you going to hog your daughter, Jax, or share?”

  “I’ll share. For a few minutes, anyway.”

  As Jax handed the baby over to Caitlin, Josh asked, “Claire, would you like a sandwich? We have a few left over. Turkey and ham, I think.”

  “No thanks, I ate with Harriet.”

  They discussed their friend’s recovery for a few minutes, then at Caitlin’s insistence, they all went inside to view and discuss parakeet green. To Caitlin’s smug satisfaction, Josh was outvoted. The conversation had turned to plans for Christmas when the baby started fussing and Jax got a call from one of his suppliers.

  Josh met Caitlin’s gaze. “Lunch break is over. I need to get back to work. Are we still on for supper?”

  “Absolutely. I pulled pork chops out of the freezer before I left home this morning.”

  “Awesome.”

  “I’m leaving too,” Claire said. “I need to get back to the store and put Jules down for her nap.” She finger-waved to her husband and walked outside with Josh and Caitlin where she settled Julianna into her stroller and said her goodbyes.

  “Thanks for lunch,” Caitlin said to Josh, going up on her toes to give him a quick kiss.

  “You’re very welcome. I’ll see you tonight.”

  “See you tonight. You’re going to love my pork chops.”

  “I already do, babe.” He gave her a teasing wink, stole a quick kiss of his own, and headed toward the shop.

  He was a few yards behind Claire when a loud crash boomed from inside the house along with the sound of Jax’s pain-filled shout. At that point, time slowed to a crawl.

  Josh saw Claire whirl around, take a step … and land on a patch of ice. Her feet flew out from beneath her and she fell, losing her grip on the stroller. The stroller began to roll down the sloping driveway toward the street—and the approaching car.

  Oh God.

  Josh ran. Seconds ticked by like hours. He ran as hard and as fast as he’d ever run before. Dread filled him. In that place where his nightmares lived, he’d have sworn he heard the freight-train roar of a tornado.

  The stroller rolled downhill and out into the street. In front of the car that showed no signs of stopping.

  No, God. No. Not again. Not another child.

  He lunged toward the stroller handle with his hands outstretched, touched it, and gave it a mighty shove.

  My damn bad luck strikes again.

  Pain exploded and the world went black.

  Journal Entry

  Sherman, meet your new neighbor, the new monster on the block. He’s Italian. Call him Tormento.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Caitlin stood trembling in shock outside the Eternity Springs Medical Clinic as the air ambulance lifted off the ground. The whop, whop, whop of the h
elicopter’s blades beat like her heart, reverberating through her bones, stirring up a bile of fear and disbelief and helplessness in her stomach.

  “Here honey,” her mother said. “Let me see your hands.”

  The child in her accustomed to obeying lifted her arms. Ali clucked her tongue and murmured soothing words as she used a damp washrag to wipe the blood from Caitlin’s hands and arms.

  Josh’s blood. Red. Sticky. Everywhere. It had been everywhere.

  A band of tension wrapped Caitlin’s chest, and she could barely breathe. Her gaze remained locked on the blue and yellow helicopter as it rose high and headed north. When it faded to a speck in the sky, she said, “I need to go. I need to go now.”

  “Dad is bringing the car. He’s on his way.”

  “He needs to hurry, Mom.”

  “He’ll be right here.”

  The sound of a fussing child finally snagged Caitlin’s attention away from the sky. She turned to see Jax rolling Claire out of the building in a wheelchair, Julianna tucked safely in her mother’s arms.

  Ali asked, “How are you? How’s the baby?”

  “The baby is fine,” Jax said. “Just a little scrape on her face from when the stroller tipped over. Claire sprained her knee and she has a knot on the back of her head where she hit the driveway, but she’s not concussed. I’m fine. Six stitches on my shoulder where I didn’t move fast enough.”

  “What happened?”

  “Entry hall light fixture fell. My bad luck to be standing beneath it. But what about Josh?”

  “Yes,” Claire said. “How is he?”

  Caitlin tried to speak, but a knot of emotion closed her throat.

  Her mother said, “Dr. Cicero and her team placed a chest tube for a pneumothorax and got him stabilized. He’s on his way to the trauma center in Gunnison.”

  Dragging his hand down his face, Jax nodded. “Good. That’s good. They have excellent doctors there.”

  “He saved her life,” Claire said, her voice shaking with emotion. Fresh tears pooled in her eyes and ran down her cheeks. “Josh saved our baby’s life.”