Together for Christmas: 5-B Poppy LaneWhen We TouchWelcome to Icicle FallsStarstruck

by Debbie Macomber

  He shook his head and stared into the flames. “Not really.”

  “But it was,” she argued. “No one else went in.”

  “Someone would have. I just happened to be first.”

  “Isn’t that what heroes do, go into danger first?”

  “I’ve had enough of that, believe me.”

  “Some men are meant to be heroes, whether they want to or not.”

  His smile was mocking. “Are you looking for a hero, Muriel?”

  Maybe she was. “Is there anything wrong with that?”

  Now Arnie had joined them. “Olivia’s going home. I’m thinking maybe we should, too.”

  As if he was her boyfriend. She could have kicked him. “I’m not ready to go yet.”

  “Okay. Do you want to say goodbye to Olivia?”

  Of course she wanted to say goodbye to Olivia! Except now, just as she was staking her claim on Stephen, here came Pat, smiling at him as if they were already a couple.

  Still, a girl didn’t ignore her good friend for a man. Muriel walked over to Olivia, who was gathering her things and seemed on the verge of tears. “Are you okay?”

  “My parents are going to kill me and I don’t blame them. This is all my fault.”

  “You didn’t push her in the river.”

  “I didn’t watch her. I was too busy flirting with Nils.”

  There was no denying that. But from an early age children in Icicle Falls were taught to respect the river. “It was an accident, pure and simple,” Muriel said. “The important thing is, she’s all right.”

  “No thanks to me,” Olivia said miserably. “Tag,” she added in disgust.

  “We’ve all played it,” Muriel reminded her.

  “Not by the river.”

  Muriel gave her a hug and assured her all would be well. Then, having done what she could to encourage her friend, she looked for Stephen. He was no longer standing by the fire. Neither was Pat. She caught sight of them, walking off toward the river walk, probably toward the Bavarian Inn, where he was staying. Maybe she was ready to go home after all.

  The incident had sucked the energy out of the party, and people began to leave. Having made her point earlier, Muriel let Arnie walk her home.

  She turned to go in the door when Arnie took her arm. “Muriel.”

  She knew by his tone of voice what was coming.

  Sure enough. “You know how I feel about you.”

  She nodded. “I’m sorry, Arnie. I like you, but just...not that way.”

  He frowned. “It’s that new guy, isn’t it? I saw you staring at him.”

  “A girl can’t help who she’s attracted to.” Now Arnie looked heartbroken and she felt awful.

  But he wasn’t the man of her dreams.

  He heaved a sigh. “If you ever change your mind, you know I’ll always be there for you.”

  “You’re a good friend, Arnie,” she whispered.

  “Thanks,” he said, but his tone of voice showed what he thought of that.

  The path to true love was as twisted and tangled as Lost Bride Trail, Muriel told herself sadly as she slipped inside the house.

  Chapter 3

  WHEN THE CHURCH YOUTH GROUP met on Sunday night, Muriel pulled Pat aside. “Where’d you go with Stephen after the party?”

  “We went for a walk. Not that it’s any of your business.”

  “I was talking to him.”

  Pat shrugged. “And then you left.”

  “I was saying goodbye to Olivia. I was coming back.”

  “How was I supposed to know that?” Pat snapped. “Look, Muriel, you can have any man in town. You don’t need to add this one to your collection.”

  “I’m not collecting men!”

  “Yes, you are. You like having every boy in town crazy over you. Well, this one isn’t, and I want him.”

  “So do I,” Muriel said. “And I can’t just walk away and let you have him, not when he might be the man I’ve dreamed of all these years.”

  Pat rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. That stupid dream.”

  “It’s not stupid!”

  “It is, and it’s selfish, too. And if you think I’m stepping aside because you say so, you can think again.”

  That had been the end of the conversation. Maybe even the end of their friendship. For the first time since anyone could remember, Pat and Muriel didn’t sit next to each other at a church function.

  “This is making it awkward for everyone,” Olivia said when she came into the shop the following Friday.

  “Tell that to Pat,” Muriel said stiffly.

  “You guys shouldn’t be fighting over a boy.”

  “He’s not a boy. He’s a man, and he’s—”

  Olivia cut her off. “I know, the man you’ve dreamed about.”

  “We’re meant to be together. I’m sure of it,” Muriel said earnestly.

  “But you’re not together. He’s seeing Pat. And it looks like he’s going to keep on seeing her. You know he’s renting a room at the Schoemakers’? And he’s started working part-time over at Swede’s garage. He’s here to stay—and he’s here to stay with Pat.”

  Muriel got busy straightening a display of gift boxes.

  “Can’t you be happy for her?” Olivia coaxed.

  If Stephen wanted Pat instead of her... “I guess I can try,” Muriel said. That was as much as she could promise.

  Still, it was painful when she and Olivia went to Herman’s Hamburgers that night and ran into Stephen and Pat there. Pat already had a booth staked out and he was waiting in line to order.

  “Good. We can sit with them,” Olivia said. “Here’s your chance to show there’s no hard feelings.” She handed a five-dollar bill to Muriel. “Order me a cheeseburger and a brown cow, will you?” Then she went to join Pat.

  “What to Do When Your Best Friend Gets the Man of Your Dreams,” by Muriel Patrick, loser. Feeling awkward and self-conscious, Muriel stepped into line, two people behind Stephen.

  He saw her and let the other people go ahead. “Out for a big night in Icicle Falls?” he teased.

  “Something like that,” she replied.

  “How come you’re not with Arnie?”

  “Because I’m not. Should I be?”

  “You two are a couple, right?”

  She thought she’d made it clear they weren’t. “Who told you that?”

  “Pat.”

  Pat, her former good friend. “People say a lot of things in a small town. Not everything they say is true.”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

  “Arnie and I are friends. That’s all we’ll ever be.”

  “So, if someone else was to ask you out?”

  “How to Play It Cool When He Shows Interest,” by Muriel Patrick, whose life is looking up. She smiled. “I might say yes.”

  By the time they’d picked up their orders and joined Pat and Olivia at the table, Pat was seething. “I don’t remember inviting you to this table,” she said.

  “Don’t worry, we’re not staying,” Muriel said frostily. She nudged Olivia. “Let’s go sit with Hildy and Nils.” Olivia had been looking from one friend to the other in concern. Now she nodded and scooted out of the booth. “This isn’t good,” she said as she followed Muriel to the other side of the restaurant.

  “No, it’s not,” Muriel agreed.

  “We’ve all been friends since we were kids. This just isn’t right.”

  Muriel sighed. “I guess there’s nothing like love to ruin a friendship.”

  * * *

  Stephen switched loyalties the next week, coming into the shop and asking Muriel to see True Grit at the new Falls Cinema. She said yes and then felt guilty. Pat had fallen hard f
or this man and here she was going out with him. Was Pat right? Was she a selfish man-collector?

  They shared a popcorn, and he slid an arm around her, and there in the dark, with John Wayne busy fighting bad guys on the screen, her heart fought its own battle. She wanted this man, knew deep down that he was the one for her and that they’d wind up together. But she didn’t want to lose her friend. How would that work with all of them here in Icicle Falls?

  A new thought dawned. Did Stephen want to stay in Icicle Falls?

  “Do you like it here?” she asked later as they had root beer floats at Herman’s.

  “Sure. It’s a nice little town, a heck of a lot smaller than Seattle. Don’t know if I’d want to live here all my life.”

  That made the ice cream in Muriel’s stomach harden into a rock. “Where would you want to live?”

  He shrugged. “Don’t know yet. I’ve got a lot of country left to check out.”

  “You could look all over the world but you’d never find a place as nice as Icicle Falls.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “Might be hard to find success in such a small place, though.”

  “What kind of success are you looking for?” Muriel had always felt that simply having a life filled with family and close friends qualified as success.

  Friends. She thought of Pat and pushed away her glass.

  “I don’t know that, either,” Stephen said. “I know I want to make something of myself, but I haven’t figured out what.” He frowned. “One thing I do know, I’m going to be successful. My old man wasn’t much,” he added. “He doesn’t think I’ll be much, either, but I will.”

  “I believe you,” she said. “But you don’t need a big city to do that. A man can make something of himself in a small town.”

  “People can be prejudiced in a small town.”

  “People can be prejudiced anywhere.” She remembered how her father had looked at Stephen, the “long-haired hippie” when he came into the Sweet Dreams gift shop. Was Stephen remembering that, too?

  He glanced around the restaurant. “Doesn’t look like there’s much to do here except run a shop.”

  “Or own an orchard,” she put in. Or a chocolate factory.

  “Nah. I’m not a farmer. I’ll figure it out, though. One thing I can tell you, I want a woman who’s willing to leave everything to be with me.”

  Muriel got the message. For Stephen she could do that. She nodded. “That’s what love is—giving up what you care about the most for the person you want to be with.”

  He smiled at her as though she’d just passed some kind of test. Well, she’d said the right thing. But could she really leave her home?

  Of course she could. Home is more than a place, she told herself, it’s wherever two people in love can be together. It was probably too soon to talk about love, but she knew what she felt and she knew what she wanted. Stephen.

  Now she had to find a way to convince her father that she wanted the right man. At some point she was going to have to bring Stephen home. But not yet.

  So she kept insisting on meeting him places—Riverwalk Park, the pool, the movies. And June slipped by like a dream. The only part of the dream that wasn’t perfect was the fact that every time she saw Pat, her friend turned her back and went the other way.

  So what? Maybe she wouldn’t be here much longer. Maybe she’d marry Stephen and move away. That thought cheered her up. Almost.

  By July 3, the town of Icicle Falls was surrounded by campers, and people were taking rafts down the river, picnicking in mountain meadows and enjoying the town’s amenities. The Fourth of July celebrations were underway, with food booths set up on Alpine Street and an arts-and-crafts show in the park. And Stephen and Muriel were getting out of town.

  She met him by the gazebo and hopped on the back of his motorcycle to go for a drive. It always made her nervous climbing on the back of that big, noisy bike, and she’d hold on to Stephen for dear life every time they hit the open road. But she also got a secret thrill out of being seen by the other kids. The guys all wanted to be Stephen and the girls all wanted to have him. Too bad. He was hers.

  She was just looking around, gloating, when she saw someone staring at her from the corner across the street. And that person didn’t seem happy at all.

  She gasped, but Stephen didn’t hear her. He was gunning the bike. Then, before she could gather her thoughts, they were speeding off down the street. If she survived riding this big scary monster, it would be to come home to something even scarier—Daddy’s wrath.

  “How to Deal with an Angry Father,” by Muriel Patrick. She’d have plenty of time to write that article because she was going to be on restriction for life.

  Chapter 4

  MURIEL HAD BARELY WALKED INTO her house when the fireworks started. A day early.

  She could smell her mother’s meat loaf baking but she had no appetite. Her stomach had been churning for the past two hours.

  Daddy was home and waiting for Muriel in the living room, Mother keeping him company. She looked concerned. He looked ready to explode.

  “What were you doing with that long-haired motorcycle bum?” he demanded.

  “He’s not a bum,” Muriel protested. “He’s nice.”

  “I can tell by looking at him that there’s nothing nice about the boy. He doesn’t even have a job.”

  That showed how much her father knew. “Yes, he does. He’s working part-time at the garage.”

  Daddy pointed a finger at her. “At his age he should have a full-time job.”

  “Now, Joe,” Mama said in her most soothing voice. “He’s young.”

  “He’s old enough to ride a noisy motorcycle all over town. He’s old enough to have a full-time job,” Daddy said, his voice rising.

  “Then maybe you should give him one,” Muriel suggested boldly.

  “I’ll do that when hell freezes over. Now, I don’t want you seeing him again.”

  “You can’t tell me what to do, Daddy!”

  “As long as you’re living under my roof I can,” her father roared, “and I expect you to listen.”

  He could expect all he wanted but it didn’t mean she would. She turned and stormed out of the room and up the stairs to her bedroom.

  “I’m not done with you, young lady!”

  But she was done with him. She kept right on going. Upstairs she slammed her bedroom door, just so Daddy would know she meant business.

  A few minutes later, a gentle tap at the door told her he’d sent a negotiator. “May I come in?” Mother asked.

  As if she had a choice? She sat on her bed and watched sullenly as her mother slipped into the room. Mother joined her and laid a hand over hers. “Muriel, your father’s only concerned about your happiness.”

  “No, he’s not. If he was, he wouldn’t make snap judgments. Stephen’s fun and noble and...I love him.” There, she’d said it. Her parents needed to be aware of this immutable fact.

  Mother sighed. “You hardly know the boy.”

  “You hardly knew Daddy,” Muriel argued. Her parents had met when their families were vacationing at the ocean and it had been love at first sight. They’d written letters back and forth for six months, had a total of three dates and then gotten engaged.

  Her mother gave her a reluctant smile. “I’ll talk to your father. Meanwhile, don’t rush into anything.”

  Muriel understood what that translated to. Don’t have sex; don’t get pregnant. Well, she wasn’t planning on running right out and sleeping with Stephen. But if he asked her to marry him, she’d do it tomorrow. Rather than upset her mother with that bit of information she simply nodded.

  Her mother kissed the top of her head. “Now, let’s go have dinner.”

  The last thing she wanted to do was sit across the ta
ble from her father. “I’m not hungry.”

  “Honey, come make up with your father.”

  Muriel shook her head. “I’m going to the street dance with Olivia.”

  It was a bold-faced lie and her mother knew it, but she pretended to be stupid and nodded. “Okay. Remember what I said, though. And give your father grace. He loves you dearly and doesn’t want to see you hurt.”

  Muriel kept her eyes lowered and nodded. She couldn’t look her mother in the face after lying to her. She couldn’t let her father off the hook, either. He should have understood but he refused to.

  When she got there, Center Street was alive and throbbing with holiday revelers consuming corn dogs and cotton candy. The Pink Poodle Skirts, a fifties and sixties cover group, were setting up over at the gazebo in the park and testing their equipment, and the sounds of electric guitar drifted on the air. She ran into Olivia right away, which made her feel better about the lie she’d told her parents.

  And now, here came Stephen wearing jeans and a T-shirt, his hair pulled back in a ponytail.

  Olivia sighed loudly. “He is so gorgeous.”

  “Yes, he is,” Muriel agreed.

  “You two are the perfect couple.”

  “Tell that to my father,” Muriel said grumpily.

  “He’ll come around.”

  She’d said that about Pat, too. She’d been wrong. Pat wouldn’t come back, not unless Muriel gave up Stephen. And she wasn’t giving him up, not for her father and certainly not for Pat. This bad attitude of Pat’s just showed how selfish she was. A true friend would have been happy to see her best friend since grade school find the man of her dreams.

  “Hey there, you two,” he greeted them. “You both look great tonight.”

  Olivia’s cheeks turned pink. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”

  “How about a corn dog?” he offered.

  “Sure,” Olivia said, falling into step with them.

  At the corn dog stand they found Nils and Lenny, and Hildy and Sue Lind, and in a matter of moments Stephen had managed to separate Muriel and himself from the others, leaving Olivia in their care.

  That was fine with Muriel. She wanted him all to herself. They wandered the street, hand in hand, and then later, as the light began to fade, made their way to the bandstand. The band had just started, their girl singer belting out “He’s a Rebel.” Stephen draped an arm around Muriel’s shoulders as they stood there in the growing crowd, listening.