“Thank you,” Becca called before running after Daniel. A second later they heard her yelling to Daniel that it was her turn to use the step stool.
Ashley’s mom went to the kitchen to work on lunch. Kayla picked Andrew up and followed her. Ashley knew she should go help, but now that she was with Mark, she was reluctant to leave. Besides he was looking at her in a way that had her pulse doing funny things.
Ashley’s dad hung back to talk to Mark. “Thanks for taking the kids. I felt bad that I couldn’t take them, but it looks like they had fun. And honestly, I don’t mind that you were the one that had to go out in the cold.”
“Hey, no problem. I don’t mind the cold.”
Ashley looked at him like he was crazy.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing, I just hate being cold.” Ashley said.
“Well, too bad you missed the warm weather - just barely too. It’s been downright balmy here compared to Idaho,” Mark said. “It wasn’t feeling much like Christmas until it cooled off a little last night.”
“Cooled off a little?” Ashley asked. “It’s freezing out there.”
Mark laughed and said, “Well, this is the coldest it’s been, I swear. You must have brought the cold with you when you came home.”
“Well, it wasn’t intentional.”
“Speaking of the cold, I need to go insulate the pipes,” Ashley’s dad said. “We’re supposed to get a hard freeze tonight. You want to come help, Ashley?”
Seeing that his eyes were twinkling, she knew that he was teasing her. Ashley laughed and said, “No thanks. I’m sure you can manage.” As her dad went outside, a swirl of cold air wrapped itself around Ashley, making her shiver.
“You really don’t like the cold, do you?” Mark asked her. “How did you survive the winter in Utah?”
“By staying inside or wearing thermals under four layers of clothes when I couldn’t.”
“I take it you aren’t a fan of winter sports then.”
“Not unless you consider hibernation a sport.”
Mark chuckled, but he also shook his head. “That’s no way to enjoy winter.”
“I enjoy it better when I’m comfortable. The only good thing about the cold is snow, and I even got sick of that in Utah.”
“Well, I wonder if you’d brave the cold to go get some lunch with me?” Mark asked her.
The question was casual enough, but as she looked swiftly up at him, she thought he looked a little tense. Could he possibly be nervous?
She was so excited and nervous that she forgot to breath. Finally, she took a deep breath and said, “Sure, I’d love to. Oh, but I’d better go tell Mom before she makes us something to eat.”
He followed her into the kitchen where her mom was busy laying out sandwich stuff on the counter. He stopped to lean against the door frame with his arms folded over his chest, quietly waiting.
Ashley got her mom’s attention and said, “I hope you don’t mind, but Mark and I are going to go out for lunch, ok?”
She was a little surprised by the grin that lit up her mother’s face, although she realized that she shouldn’t have been. “I don’t mind at all. That’s fantastic!” her mom said. Then, as if aware that her reaction was a little too enthusiastic, she said, “We’re running out of milk and I’ve been trying to figure out how to find time to go get some. Would you mind stopping at a store for me?”
“Uh, sure, Mom,” Ashley agreed coolly to smooth over the moment. She was sure it was only the first of many embarrassing scenes she would suffer this holiday.
Her mom pulled a five dollar bill from one of her canisters and told Ashley to get a gallon of two percent. Ashley turned to leave before her mom could say anything else to mortify her. Mark straightened up when he saw she was ready to leave, and she couldn’t help noticing the hint of a smile lurking on his face.
“Don’t hurry back,” her mom called after them as they left.
Ashley grabbed her coat and zipped it up before stepping out on the porch. She pulled her gloves out of her coat pocket and paused to put them on. As she pushed the gloves firmly down around her fingers, she realized that Mark looked way too amused about something. “What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Oh nothing,” he said. “Hey, I forgot. My car is at my house. Do you want me to come pick you up, or do you want to walk over with me?”
“I’ll come with you.”
“You won’t freeze to death or anything?” he teased her.
Ashley laughed and shook her head as she followed him across the yard to his driveway.
“Where are you two going?” a voice called after them.
Ashley turned and saw her Dad coming around the corner of the house. “We’re going to get some lunch.”
“Isn’t your mom making any?”
“She’s got stuff set out to make sandwiches.”
“Oh, all right then. I’ll see you two later.”
They turned to leave, but a couple of seconds later, Mark stopped and called out to get her dad’s attention again. “Your ax and saw are in the back of your truck. Where would you like me to put them?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll put them away.”
“Thanks.”
“No, thank you. Enjoy yourselves.”
Ashley glanced sideways at Mark as they walked the short distance to his front door, wondering what he was thinking and why he’d invited her to eat with him. She wasn't sure if this was a date, or something more casual. He must have sensed her eyes on him, because he looked over at her and smiled in a way that made her hope fervently that this was a date.
He unlocked his front door and held it open for her to go in. She didn’t walk too far past the front door, not sure where to go. She looked around as she waited for him to relock the door, but it was dim inside with no lights on and all the blinds shut. He took her elbow and led her a few steps further before he turned on a light and said, “Let me get my keys and we can go.”
With the light on, she was able to see that she was in the living room. This house was newer than her parents’ house and much smaller, but it was built with an open floor plan that made it seem bigger than it was. It was sparsely furnished here and there with furniture that had seen better days. The couch she recognized as one that used to be her parents’. They had given it to Justin years ago. He must have dumped it on Mark. At least it gave some choice of seating besides a folding camp chair or a moving box.
She could see into the kitchen from the living room and saw that it was also bare except for a box of cereal on the counter, an assortment of mail, some spare change and a pack of gum. It was just Ashley’s luck that as she followed Mark through the house, she managed to trip over a pair of shoes lying in plain sight on the living room floor. She fell forward several steps, trying to catch her footing, and ran into Mark’s back.
“Oomph! Hey, are you ok?” he asked. He turned and steadied her with a large hand on each of her shoulders. She braced herself against his strong arms and again caught the woodsy scent that clung to his jacket. She was immediately aware of how alone they were in the quiet house, and her hands trembled a little as she moved away. She tried to answer calmly. “Yeah. Do you always set traps for unwary guests?”
“Only the pretty ones.” He grabbed his keys from the top of his television, which sat precariously on an ice chest, and turned off the light. “You’d better watch out,” he advised her, “The footing in the garage is even more hazardous than in the house.”
“Ok, ok. I’m not always this clumsy.”
“Well that’s a relief. I won’t bother to clear a path for you then.”
Ashley grinned as he opened the garage door and she saw that the only “hazardous” obstacles were a few boxes in one corner and a basketball that had rolled against the back tire of his car. It was a black Honda Civic that made her old Ford Focus look pretty sorry. She kicked the ball away and saw that Mark was holding her door open for her. When she was seated, he carefully clos
ed her door and hit the switch on the wall to open the garage door. While he walked around the car to get in himself, she concentrated on calming her nerves.
As he turned on the car, Ashley put her seat belt on and dug around in her coat pocket for the lip balm she always kept there, just for something to do. Mark backed out of his driveway and headed down the hill into town. The silence grew heavy between them. Wanting to break it, Ashley asked, “Did you know that you smell like a Christmas tree?”
Mark glanced at her, surprised, and sniffed at his coat sleeve. “Wow. I do. Sorry, I guess I should have changed.”
“No, I like it.”
“Huh, maybe I’ll have to start using pine sap instead of cologne. Speaking of which, I’d better wash my hands before I eat.”
“Where are we going?”
“Sorry, I meant to ask you. How about Nancy’s Diner? Have you ever been there?”
“Sure, I was a waitress there in high school.”
“Really? That’s cool. Did Sheila work there then?”
“I’ll say. She’s been there forever. I asked her once how long she’d worked there, and she threatened to make me clean out the grease traps on the deep fryer if I ever asked her again.”
Mark laughed and said, “That sounds like Sheila. She’s a little grumpy sometimes, but she’s nice if she takes a liking to you. She always gives me an extra big piece of pie.”
“Wow, she must like you then.”
Mark’s dimples preluded a slow smile. “One of the secretaries in the city offices warned me to tip her well and compliment the pie. I laid it on thick and she’s taken care of me ever since.”
“You overcome your shyness when it comes to food, don’t you?”
“What are you talking about? I’m not shy,” he protested.
“You seemed that way at Thanksgiving.”
“I wasn’t shy,” he argued again, quietly this time. He was staring straight ahead at the road, but she noticed a flush on his neck and ears. “I admit that I… that you made me feel a little…less sure than usual.”
“I made you feel shy?” she asked.
“I said I wasn’t shy.”
“Would you rather I said timid?”
“No. Maybe I was a little nervous. Whatever. I just wasn’t expecting my dad’s old college friend to have such a pretty daughter. Barging in on a family’s Thanksgiving dinner is unnerving enough without throwing you into the mix.”
Ashley was thrilled that he’d called her pretty again. She could easily have returned the compliment - not pretty, but the male version of it. She didn’t though. She was much more interested in exploring other parts of his statement. “But how did I make things more unnerving for you? I was trying to follow my mom’s orders and make you feel at home. Besides, I remember that you told me that you served your mission in Georgia, and the South is well known for its hospitality. Surely you ate Thanksgiving with families you didn’t know well, and I’m sure some of them had pretty daughters around.”
“True, but the situations were completely different. For one thing, we were invited because we were missionaries and people liked to feed us. We weren’t forced on kind but unsuspecting people by our parents. And then, the only good impression we had to make was to use good table manners and compliment the food. We certainly didn’t have to worry about impressing a girl, even if there was one around.”
“Are you saying that you wanted to impress me?”
“Yep. How’d I do?” he asked cheerfully.
“Not bad, but it seems a little weird that you worried about it when you had a girlfriend back home.” Ashley felt bad making such a personal comment, but ever since Kayla had mentioned his ex-girlfriend, Ashley had wanted to hear from him that they’d broken up.
Mark’s face had grown serious. It could have been because he was concentrating on maneuvering into a parallel parking spot between two cars, but she doubted it. He put the car in park and leaned back in his seat, silent for a minute. For the first time, Ashley noticed that there was Christmas music playing softly on the radio.
“Look Mark, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up. It's none of my business.”
“No, I don’t mind talking about it. I’m just trying to figure out how to tell you about Cindy without sounding like a jerk. We dated for about two months, but it was pretty obvious, to me anyway, that things weren’t going anywhere. I guess I didn’t want any drama, so I hadn’t done anything about it. She was more into our relationship than I was from the beginning. When I got home after Thanksgiving, I broke up with her even before I’d been offered this job. She took it hard, and I feel bad about that, but now we’re both free to date other people.”
He got out and came around to open the door for her, a courtesy that made her think he most likely considered this a date. A warm glow came over her as she got out of the car and stood waiting for him on the curb as he locked his car and popped a couple of coins into the parking meter.
Nancy’s Diner had a prime location on Main Street, right across from the square. Ashley suggested a booth by the big picture windows so they could look out on the decorations there. They found one and took off their coats, tossing them onto the far end of their bench seats. Ashley sat down, but Mark excused himself to go wash his hands.
He wasn’t gone long, but when he came back, Ashley had to break the news to him that Sheila wasn’t working that afternoon. Their waitress was a pretty teenager that seemed very eager to please them – especially Mark, Ashley noticed wryly. She gave them menus and went to get their drinks. Mark shrugged. “I guess Sheila only works weekdays. I’ve never been here on a Saturday before.”
“Don’t worry, the way that girl is checking you out, you could probably get an extra big piece of pie out of her too.”
“You think so?” Mark asked hopefully.
“Well, here she comes. Why don’t you find out?”
The waitress was a pretty girl, with reddish brown hair and a sprinkling of freckles across her nose. Her eyes were big and blue and seemed to be drawn to Mark like a magnet. Not blaming her in the least, Ashley ordered a bowl of chicken and dumplings. It sounded perfect on a cold day like this. As Mark ordered a double bacon cheeseburger with fries, he smiled at the girl in a such a friendly way that Ashley wasn’t surprised that the girl had a slightly dazed look on her face as she hurried away to place their order, almost forgetting to take the menus with her.
“You know, that smile of yours is dangerous. Anyway, I can’t help but wonder if you’ll be able to eat a piece of pie after the lunch you ordered.”
“Oh, that won’t be a problem.”
Ashley was squeezing her lemon into her water when something hit her nose and bounced off. A straw wrapper lay on the table in front of her and she looked up just in time to catch Mark taking a straw out of his mouth. The evidence was condemning.
“You’re such a guy,” she accused him, pretending to be annoyed.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“Believe me, it can be.”
“You talk like someone who has three brothers. Trust me though, there’s a difference between guys and brothers.”
“Like what?”
One corner of his mouth twisted up in half a smile. “Well, for starters, do your brothers take you out for lunch?”
As he spoke the waitress appeared with Ashley’s bowl of dumplings. “Your burger will be a few more minutes, sir,” the waitress said brightly.
Mark nodded at her in acknowledgement, smiling at her again. Ashley was surprised that the girl hadn’t melted into a puddle by their table.
Ashley picked up their conversation again, saying, “Ok, I’ll give you that one. None of my brothers have ever taken me out for lunch. At least, I don’t remember it if they did. What else?”
“What do you mean?” he asked, confused.
“You said for starters, so there must be more to your point.”
“Oh. Well, a brother would taste that without even aski
ng,” he said pointing to her bowl.
Ashley laughed and offered to let him taste it. He dipped his spoon in and took a generous bite. Ashley watched in dismay as he put it in his mouth without letting it cool down. His eyes opened wide and he seemed to be trying to chew without actually closing his mouth, pulling in big drafts of air between bites. Obviously in pain, he took a cooling drink of his root beer and was finally able to swallow. “Wow. That was hot.”
“Are you ok?”
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to taste anything for a while, but from what I could tell, that was delicious. I’ll have to order it with my lunch sometime.”
“You would eat this whole bowl as a side dish?” He nodded so she continued, “But it’s really filling.”
His expression was disbelieving, but he let it drop. Instead he said, “So, tell me about what you’ve been doing since I saw you last.”
“Well, let’s see. I took a shower, got dressed, went down stairs, and…”
“You’re a little smarty, aren’t you?” he interrupted her. “You know what I meant. What have you been doing since Thanksgiving?”
“That answer is even more boring. I was finishing school, packing my stuff, and counting the days till I could come home again, for good.”
“What’d you do for fun before you left? Any parties or um…dates… or anything?”
Ashley choked on her water. “Why?” she asked when she was able to breathe again.
“Just curious. I want to get to know you.”
“Are you by any chance wondering if I have a boyfriend?”
His smile glinted at her. “Kind of. Your mom said that as far as she knows you don’t, but there could be somebody you are interested in out there in Utah.”
Just then, the waitress set Mark’s hamburger down in front of him. Mark took extra care to thank her and tell her it looked wonderful, so she waited a minute before replying. “Um…nope. No dates.”
“Why not?”
“There wasn’t anybody that I wanted to date.” With a barely perceptible pause she added, “In Utah.”
He raised his eyebrows, clearly interested by her answer. She was afraid he would question the “in Utah” bit, but instead he said. “Too bad for them. I can’t help but wonder, though, how a girl like you comes home from Utah still single.” He shook his head as though it was beyond him.
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