“Do you think you might be able to give me a lesson some time? You know like when you’re visiting from New York.”
“I might be able to do that. But the real person who should give you lessons is Mr. Morgan over there.” Aubrey pointed at Kyle as though using his last name might have confused Rachel.
Kyle feigned modesty. “Me. I can barely tune a guitar. Aubrey is the real musician.”
Aubrey leaned in close to Rachel. She pretended to whisper in her ear but really said it loud enough Jenna could hear from the pantry. “Don’t let him fool you, kiddo. He’s a master on the six string.”
Jenna retuned from the pantry carrying a small sheet of paper with the lemon pie recipe transcribed on it. She handed it to Aubrey as she also closed in for a hug. “Here you are my dear.”
“Thank you, Jenna. If I can’t wow them in New York with my business acumen, I can always get them in their sweet tooth.” Aubrey then gave Rachel and Eric a hug and wished everyone Merry Christmas in case she didn’t see them again before she left.
Outside at the pickup truck, Kyle opened Aubrey’s door for her. She stepped up onto the passenger side running board but didn’t finish getting in the cab. From that vantage point she was able to look directly into Kyle’s eyes. “Thank you for a wonderful day.”
Kyle accepted the gratitude with a nod of his head. “I keep this up, maybe I’ll get that parole.”
Aubrey drifted dangerously close to Kyle. If Walter were there, he would demand an explanation. “If you keep this up, you might get it.”
They were so close, a stiff breeze would have caused them to kiss. Suddenly, the front door of the Lindsley home ratcheted open. Rachel came running out. “Aubrey, you forgot your gloves.”
Just like that the moment was gone. Kyle stepped out of Aubrey’s way to allow Rachel room to make her glove delivery. “Thank you, Rachel.”
“You’re welcome.” Rachel gave Kyle another hug. “And thank you for the sugar cookies, you know they’re my favorite.”
“Save one for, Santa.” Kyle called after her as she ran back into her house.
Aubrey looked at Kyle. She wanted to find something to say to acknowledge what had almost happened. “No mistletoe for you tonight.” It didn’t quite work, but it was the best she could come up with. Kyle laughed. He let her get fully into the passenger’s seat, and then closed the door for her. What a day, he thought to himself as he circled his truck for the driver’s side door. He had been a lean away from sharing a holiday kiss with Aubrey Wilson.
Things were starting to go his way.
Chapter Eight
Aubrey and Kyle worked together to keep the tree straight as Greta tightened the screws in the stand. Greta had gotten in the Christmas spirit during the hours they were gone. She got most of the decorations up around the house. After that she sorted the tree decorations into piles to make that job go faster too. She linked the outside strings of lights together and staged two ladders, so all Aubrey and Kyle had to do when they got back was work the lights through the hooks Scott installed in the roof years ago. In short, it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Wilson family home.
“That ought to hold it,” Greta said as she gave the screws one extra half turn just to be sure. Aubrey and Kyle released the tree as Greta climbed to her feet. When the tree remained standing, she gave Kyle a hug. “The tree is perfect. Scott would be so proud.”
“Aubrey picked it out, I did the sawing.” Kyle said.
“Well, thank you just the same. It is very important to me this first Christmas without him be as perfect as possible.”
“It’s a great way to honor his spirit,” Kyle remarked. A semi-awkward silence collected in the room. “I should be on my way.”
“Nonsense,” Greta began, “stay and help us decorate this lovely tree you helped my daughter pick out.”
“I don’t want to impose.”
Aubrey settled it. “You’re not imposing.”
Kyle looked at Aubrey. He made a long face while considering what she said. “In that case…”
Greta wouldn’t be denied. “It’s settled.” She headed immediately for the kitchen. She thought there was greater likelihood of things ‘working out’ if she got out of the way of The Magic of Christmas. “Aubrey, you know how your father liked his trees. Start with the white lights first. I’m going to add another setting to the table in case Kyle decides he wants to stay for dinner too.”
Aubrey found a box of decorations marked “LIGHTS” in the corner by the landing next to the basement stairs. She pulled several strands of multi-colored lights out before coming across the first strand of white lights. She handed these to Kyle. She continued to dig in the box while Kyle approached the tree.
“Should I start on the bottom,” Kyle asked.
“That’s what dad always did,” Aubrey replied.
Kyle ran the lights around the tree. Aubrey gathered several more strands of the white lights and took them over to Kyle. She set them on the floor and began to work with Kyle on stringing up the tree.
“I love how these lights are wrapped so neatly. It looks like they just came from the store. I usually spend the first hour of tree decorating untangling.”
“That was dad. I swear, he spent more time packing away the decorations than he spent putting them up.” Aubrey passed the loop of wire around the tree. “Kyle?”
“Yeah?”
“Jenna said something weird to me when we were at her house.”
“Ok.”
“I have to go back to what we were talking about earlier in your truck.”
“Ask me anything. I’m an open book.” Kyle didn’t feel this way but thought it less awkward to pretend he did.
“Why did you break up with me on prom night?”
Kyle scowled in spite of himself. “That’s not easy to answer, Aubrey.”
“I need an answer.”
“Ask me for anything else. Please.” She reduced him to begging.
“Well, it never did make any sense to me when it happened. And Jenna was acting like everybody in town knows why you did it except me. On top of that, she was almost kinda sticking up for you. The way she acted made it seem like she thought you had some legitimate reason for doing what you did. Can you tell me, Kyle? I really want to know why.”
Kyle passed the strand of lights he held back to Aubrey. “How about we enjoy this time we’ve been given this Christmas and not worry over our past.”
“But it hurt me so bad.” Aubrey looked at Kyle with twelve years of confusion in her eyes.
“I never meant to hurt you. You’ve got to believe me on that.” Aubrey sent the strand around to him for the last time. “This Christmas, especially this Christmas, is not the right time.” Kyle sensed he had to add something more to show Aubrey he was sincere in what he was saying. “I tell you what, if you let me into your life as a friend, or pen pal, or special correspondent from the front lines of Aubrey Wilson’s life, I will never stop trying to make up for my senior year mistake.”
Greta came back into the room. She saw none of the strands were lit. “Good heavens, please tell me you two checked those lights to make sure they lit up before you put them on the tree?”
Aubrey and Kyle shared a look. “We didn’t,” they answered at the same time.
Aubrey smiled. “Great minds think alike.”
“Right now, this great mind is thinking you owe me a coke.”
*
Aubrey, Kyle, and Greta sat around the Wilson Family kitchen table. They had just finished a homemade tomato basil soup with a ham and cheese on homemade sourdough bread. It was clear they enjoyed each other’s company and could sit and tell stories for hours if life would let them.
Greta wound up to the punchline of the story she had been setting up with several minutes of backstory. “I can’t believe you don’t remember this, Aubrey.”
“I don’t. Really, I don’t”
Greta didn’t believe her and didn’t mind
calling her out on it either. “Then why is your face so red, my dear.”
“Because I’m pretty sure no matter how this story ends, it’s going to be embarrassing for me.”
Greta held her hand up to shield the side of her face Aubrey could see. She was, of course, pretending to exclude Aubrey from the conversation. “Don’t worry, Kyle, I fully intend on embarrassing both of you before I’m through.” Greta lowered her hand. “Anyway, here I am standing at the kitchen sink when the bus pulls up in the road out front and before the driver has the door all the way open, here comes little six-year-old Aubrey hightailing it toward the house like her hair is on fire.”
“Really mom, like my ‘hair is one fire’.”
“You can choose the similes in your stories; I’ll choose the similes in mine.”
Kyle laughed at the way these two told a story, “I remember that look.”
Greta seized on Kyle’s support. “See, Aubrey. He knows the look I’m talking about.”
“He’s been taking your side all night.”
“Only because my side has been the right side all night.”
“Don’t leave me hanging at the front door. I have to know what Aubrey was all twisted up about,” Kyle said.
“So, I meet her at the door. And I barely get her hat and gloves off before she bursts into tears.”
Aubrey covered her face with her hands. “Oh lord, mom, quit while I’m ahead.”
Greta ignored her daughters request. “She tells me we have to go to the mall in Marion right away.”
“It’s an emergency.” Aubrey began to feel the spirit of the story. It made her want to help tell it.
Greta continued. “She says she has to see Santa to make sure this devilish little new boy in her class, named Kyle, gets put on the naughty list for tearing the Christmas card she gave him in two, and then pulling her ponytail for good measure.”
“Oh my,” Kyle whistled at the memory, “I have never forgotten that day. It was right after my family moved here.” He thought about it for a moment. “To be fair to that new boy named Kyle, though, six-year old Aubrey left out the part of the story where she had everyone one in their class calling him Crockokyle for a week before the card tearing slash ponytail pulling incident.”
All three broke out in the sincere laughter that comes from enjoying a pleasing memory. Greta collected herself first. “You two caused more ruckuses than a pair of screaming banshees when you were little.”
Kyle kept up the razzing of Aubrey. “I seem to remember a certain Aubrey Wilson was the founding member and first President of the ‘I hate boys club’ at Timberville Elementary.”
The laughter continued with the new memory and was only interrupted by the timer on the kitchen stove. Greta hopped up and went to the stove where she put on an oven mitt and pulled a tray of perfectly cooked chocolate chip cookies from the center rack. “Kyle, you’ve got to stay five more minutes so I can give you a tin of cookies to take home with you.”
“Yes ma’am. I know better than to turn down a tray of Mrs. Wilson’s homemade chocolate chip cookies.”
“What did I tell you about calling me Mrs. Wilson.”
Kyle smiled, “I meant Greta’s homemade chocolate chip cookies.”
“That’s better.” Greta scooped the cookies from the tray with a spatula and set them out on plates to cool.
*
Kyle opened the door on his truck as Aubrey came running out after him. “Kyle, hold on a minute,” she called.
After setting the tin down on the driver’s seat, Kyle shut the door and stood in the gently falling snow. Aubrey arrived making big clouds of breath in the cold, snowy night air. Kyle thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The way the porch light shone behind her framed her face in a half light that softened all her features and made her irresistible to him. The cold air brought a light flush to her cheeks and lips that no makeup artist could duplicate. In short, she was perfect. “You aiming to get me put on the naughty list again.”
Aubrey laughed. “Do you deserve to be?”
“I believe you get to be the judge in this case, Miss Wilson.”
“I don’t think there is enough information to decide. But I do have an idea that might help settle this once and for all.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Why don’t you come with me to meet Mr. Clarke tomorrow?”
Aubrey looked so beautiful to him, he wanted so badly to take her in his arms and have that kiss they almost shared at Eric and Jenna’s place, he couldn’t think of saying no. Besides, he’d meant it when he offered to go with her. He just wanted to be clear it was her choice and she wasn’t offering because she felt sorry for him. “You sure about that?”
“I’m not sure about anything right now, but I do know I’d like to have a friendly face with me tomorrow when I try and convince Mr. Clarke to let me cannibalize his company.” Aubrey felt like she might say a whole lot more than that if she weren’t careful. She would start with the fact that she had only thought about her fiancé once in the last seven hours.
“I’ll be your friendly face any day.”
“Great, it’s a date then.” Aubrey said it before she realized it was coming out. She trapped herself in the classic example of a Freudian slip, and there was no way to gather up her words or make him not hear them.
“I seem to recall you telling an aspiring thespian earlier today we were most definitely not dating. To be perfectly honest, I believe you told her we were not dating at least three times.”
Aubrey smiled again. All this smiling was her body’s way of showing how much she enjoyed this time she spent with Kyle. She wondered if she had smiled as many times in the past thirty days as she had in the last twenty-four hours. “You better get in that truck before I change my mind. Also, all of this flirting in the snow is making me cold.”
“So, you admit that you are taking me on a date, and in the next breath you confess to flirting with me. Where will it end, Miss Wilson?”
Aubrey opened the door of Kyle’s truck for him. “You are incorrigible.”
“Based on the status of my door, I’m going to guess incorrigible means dismissed.”
Aubrey was so overwhelmed with laughter she felt compelled to give him a small hug. “Don’t play dumb with me, mister. I know what score you got on your verbal SAT. And I’ll see you at 8:30 sharp.”
She turned away from him and retraced her steps back to her front porch without waiting for a reply. He watched her take all those steps in a numb state caused by the hug she had casually given him like it was no big deal. When she put her hand on the door knob to her house and turned around to see he still stood there, he saved it the best way he could given the circumstances. “I was waiting to make sure you made it inside all right.”
Aubrey shook her head at him and disappeared inside her house. “I don’t think I buy it, Mr. Morgan.”
Kyle knew he was in serious trouble now. “I didn’t do a very good job selling it.”
Aubrey shook her head at him and his silliness. “Eight-thirty. Sharp.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be here.”
Chapter Nine
Aubrey slept soundly in her bed until the alarm clock on her phone began ringing, stridently. She silenced it in one wide slapping motion and pushed her feet onto the floor. Even in the midst of this supposed vacation she still lived by her rule that the only way she could be sure she would never oversleep was if she never chose the snooze option. For some reason, it took more effort to resist that option today than it usually did.
As Aubrey stretched her limbs, her gaze settled on the Countdown to Christmas calendar her mom gave her for her room the day before. She sleepily made her way to its perch on the top of her dresser and rearranged the presents under the tree until they correctly informed anyone who cared to look that there were ’02 days’til Christmas’. The thought thrilled her. Victoria and Walter and the rest of her New York crew had diminished her expectations so mu
ch she felt like she hadn’t enjoyed Christmas until she got to Timberville. There might only be two days left, but Aubrey was determined to make the most of them. First things first, she needed a shower to get her blood pumping.
After her shower Aubrey put a towel around her head, threw on her pajamas, a robe, and her slippers and prepared to go downstairs to join her mom for breakfast. She hadn’t progressed past the third step down the staircase when she paused. She thought she heard voices coming from the kitchen area. She wondered to herself who, or what, was causing the noise. Had her mom moved a radio or television into the kitchen while she was asleep? The more she listened, the more convinced she became she was hearing her mom’s voice. That ruled out radio and TV. But who, in the name of all that was holy, was she talking to?
After a few more moments of audio reconnaissance, Aubrey was ready to put money on the fact that the other voice she heard belonged to Kyle. Aubrey barreled down the rest of the stairs and exploded into the kitchen. She was correct. Kyle sat at the kitchen table while Greta made breakfast on the stove. They seemed to be in good spirits and may have just celebrated another hysterical memory from the past by having a good laugh about it. Whatever they actually had been talking about, there was no doubting they were enjoying one another’s company. There was also no doubting Aubrey had put a very large cork into the good times by exploding into the kitchen in the manner in which she had.
Aubrey looked at the clock on the stove. It said 7:15. The ungodly hour was as good a place as any to start. “What are you doing here so early?”
Greta took up for Kyle. “Now calm down, Aubrey. He was sitting outside in his truck peacefully reading sports stories on his phone when I invited him in for breakfast.”
“I didn’t want to be late… for our date.” Kyle said this hoping he could get another laugh from Aubrey, but it was also the truth. That’s exactly why he arrived at her house so early. He was petrified of letting her down, in any way, during this second chance with her.
It was only after he said this that Aubrey took a good look at Kyle. Her temporary petulance had allowed her to tune out the spectacle of Kyle until this moment. He wore a solid light blue suit, which he accented with a whimsical ‘Merry Christmas’ tie. He even trimmed his beard and combed his unruly black hair. Aubrey saw Kyle had made a tremendous effort to do justice to the context of the ‘date’ which Aubrey asked him to accompany her on. Seeing it all in one moment for exactly what it was, caused Aubrey’s heart to skip a beat. Walter would never have done anything like this for her. He would have died laughing at the thought of wearing something as silly as a Christmas tie.
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