His Winter Rose and Apple Blossom Bride

by Lois Richer

  He hadn’t actually said he’d cook for her, had he?

  “Piper, I—” He turned to ask her if she liked Chinese food and discovered she’d fallen asleep. Thick, dark lashes rested on her cheeks, the porcelain skin now glistening a rich rose. Her tinted lips parted slightly to allow even breaths to escape.

  Jason marveled that the strong, competent woman who’d just successfully put together three days of nonstop activity for a throng of tourists could look so fragile. Her hands lay in her lap, pale white against the navy of her clothes. Those hands had pitched in everywhere, from mixing juice drinks for kids, to balling snow for the sculptures. She’d done it all. She deserved her rest.

  He had so many questions about her. She’d lived with her grandparents. There was a rift between her and her father, he remembered from the spa incident. Was there no one else in her life but her two friends?

  At first he’d thought Piper expected someone else to show up this weekend. She’d kept checking the list of attendees, constantly scanned the crowds even after her two friends had arrived. But as Friday night turned into Saturday, then Sunday, she’d relaxed. He decided to ask her about that later.

  For now it was enough to lift a soft white throw from the sofa and place it carefully over her, shielding her from the faint breeze drifting in from the windows. Piper never stirred. Her cell phone rested on the arm of the chair. He picked it up, decided to turn it off once he’d left the room. She needed a rest.

  But Jason paused in the doorway, studying her beautiful face. Even asleep she was gorgeous. At last he turned away, went downstairs to turn off her phone and make his call. Forty minutes later the food arrived but Piper was still asleep.

  Loathing to wake her but knowing she needed nourishment, he squatted beside her chair, touching her shoulder.

  “Dinner is served, sleepyhead.”

  She sighed, lifted her lids and stared at him as if bemused. “Jason?”

  “That’s me.” He paused a moment while she took stock of her surroundings. “Dinner’s ready. Think you can eat something?”

  “Everything,” she told him with a soft, sleepy smile that did something funny to his midsection. “I’m starved.”

  “Come on, then.” He lifted the coverlet away and held out a hand to pull her up. “I hope you like Chinese food.”

  “My favorite.” She blinked at the table setting. “You made all this?”

  “I could lie. But Ida would tell on me and then you wouldn’t trust me again.” He held up one of the containers. “I ordered it. I’m very good with a telephone. Have a seat.”

  Jason held her chair, waited till she was seated, then offered up a quick grace. Soon they were savoring shrimp chow mein.

  “Good thing I’m not allergic to seafood,” Piper murmured, then giggled at his look of dismay. “Just kidding! I’m not. This is delicious. There was a Chinese restaurant here when I was a kid but we didn’t have it very often. My grandfather was suspicious of anything that wasn’t meat and potatoes.”

  “Did you live with them the entire time you were growing up?” He saw her pause, noticed the way she stared at her plate before answering.

  “Actually I went to live with them the first summer after my mother died.”

  “Your father didn’t want you?” He thought she was going to tell him to back off but after pressing her lips together for a few moments, Piper answered.

  “Oh, he tried to insist but he was too busy, and boarding school was easy. We didn’t get along well and I found it increasingly impossible to live with him watching my every move. Every Christmas, Easter and summer I spent at the Bay.” Anger tinged her tones. She stabbed her fork into a piece of chicken with too much force and sent a spatter of translucent orange sauce across the plate.

  “But surely that was his job, as a parent?”

  “His job,” she snapped, “was to love me, to help me grow into my own person, to nurture me.”

  “He couldn’t do that?” He kept his voice quiet, watched a flurry of emotions rush across her face.

  “Not unless I let him mold me into a carbon copy of him. And I didn’t.” She speared a piece of broccoli from her plate and munched on it. Then her head jerked up, her eyes meeting his. “How about you? Do you have family?”

  He shook his head.

  “I wish I did but there’s only me. I grew up in several foster families. Nice people, but it wasn’t like having your own kin.”

  “But you went to college. You got your degree.”

  “Yeah.” He grinned. “I was one of those pizza boys you talked about. I had a reputation for getting the deliveries to the destination faster than anyone else the company hired.”

  “Why?” She leaned forward, her face rapt with curiosity.

  “Because the tips are always bigger if you deliver on time.”

  “Ah.” She grinned. “An entrepreneur even then. Was Expectations your first job?”

  Jason swallowed, wondering how much she’d heard.

  “The owner was the father of a friend of mine. We worked there together.” He lifted some rice to his mouth so he wouldn’t have to say any more. But Piper wasn’t finished.

  “You must have traveled a lot in order to scout out locations,” she mused, playing with her fortune cookie. “Did you travel with your friend?”

  “Sometimes. What is it you really want to know?” he asked, setting down his fork.

  “Was I asking too many questions?” She smiled, reached across the table and covered his hand with her own. “I’m sorry,” she murmured, squeezing his fingers. “Sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me. We’ve been working together all this time but I don’t feel like I know a lot about you. I was just trying to rectify that.”

  Jason turned his hand to thread his fingers through hers.

  “Funny you’d say that. I think I know quite a lot about you, Piper.”

  “Really?” She stared at him, eyes wide with surprise but a hint of wariness lodged in their depths. “Like what?”

  “I know your perfume reminds me of Persian roses I once smelled in Tangiers. I know you’re a night person, that you force yourself to come in early because you don’t want anyone to think you’re a slacker, but you’d prefer to sleep in.” He smiled at her quick gasp. “I know you don’t like onions,” he teased.

  She glanced down at her plate and the tiny pile of onions lying in one corner. “Too obvious.”

  “Okay.” He debated a moment, then plunged in. “How about this? I know you like your job, but I also know you push yourself harder than anyone else ever could. And I think it’s because you’re trying to prove something—maybe to yourself or maybe to that father you talked about. You want people to value you for your own merit.”

  Her lips tightened a fraction, but otherwise Piper gave little away.

  “Don’t you?” she asked, drawing her hand away.

  “Yes, of course. I didn’t mean that in a bad way. I just meant you’re driven to succeed. That’s probably how you’ve managed to make such a dent in the powers that be.”

  “Meaning?” She leaned back in her chair, ignoring the egg roll still lying on her plate.

  “Meaning that Ted said he’d heard about your work here. I’m sure a lot of others have, too. That’s because you don’t aim for mediocre. I admire the way you took on my dream for this place and made it your own. It’s a pleasure to work with you, Piper.” He picked up his glass of ice water, clinked it against hers.

  “I could say the same about you,” she murmured, returning the toast.

  “But you won’t, because I’m obsessive and you don’t want me breathing down your back.”

  “No, I don’t,” she admitted. “So…you’re not angry about Ted?”

  “Not angry,” he agreed, savoring the last of the sweet-and-sour sauce on his plate. “Just curious about what he said. I realize I’ve been a little heavy-handed.”

  “A little?” She snickered.

  “Okay, a lot.” He set down his f
ork with a thud and glared at her. “Are you going to make me beg for information about your meeting?”

  “It’s a thought.”

  He scowled for the pure pleasure of hearing Piper’s melodious laugh ring through the room.

  “Seriously, there’s nothing to tell. I laid it on thick with him, pointed out every advantage I could think of.” Her slim shoulders lifted in a shrug. “He’s going to think about it.”

  “He’d be a good choice, though not my first.”

  “I thought you said he was a friend?”

  “He is, a good one. But I’d still prefer to have Wainwright on board.”

  She leaned forward, her face tightening. “I told you. They’re not a good choice right now.”

  Jason nodded.

  “I remember. I did some checking and while it’s true that they’re having financial problems with some aspects of their development, they seem like normal glitches for any major project. I don’t think it has seriously hampered their ability to build what we need. I put a call in to their office when you were away. Someone should get back to us soon.”

  “You did what?” She flung her napkin onto the table and rose from her chair, her fingers fisting at her sides. “I especially asked you to let me handle this on my own time, Jason.”

  She was furious.

  Jason watched her pace back and forth across his hardwood floors, and found himself grateful that she wasn’t wearing heels.

  “Do you think it’s funny to go behind my back when I specifically asked you not to?” she demanded, eyes blazing.

  “I didn’t go behind your back,” he said calmly. “You said you’d prefer not to work with them. I happen to feel they should at least be offered a chance to present a proposal.”

  She glared at him and he felt a modicum of regret that she hadn’t been there when the call had come in from the company.

  “Look, Piper. They’ve asked twice to present something. I’ve put them off both times because you were so hesitant. But they’re eager to talk and I think that’s a good sign. I want to see what they propose.”

  “I can tell you that without even listening to a Wainwright pitch,” she hissed. “Big, splashy and out of place. This is cottage country, not the Vegas strip. We want understated, friendly, not overpowering, neon blaze.”

  “I’m aware of what we want.” He studied her, puzzled by her burst of anger, completely unlike the easygoing Piper who’d taken everything in stride this weekend.

  “Wait a minute—they’ve called twice?” she whispered as her face drained of color.

  “Yes. Why? Is something wrong?”

  “Wrong?” She blinked. “I’ve told you about them over and over.”

  “I’m not talking about Wainwright. I’m talking about you.”

  “I’m fine.”

  Sure she was. He thought about it, then decided to tread on thin ice.

  “Piper, were you hoping someone special would show up this weekend?”

  “W-why would you ask that?” Her voice had dropped, her gaze veering away from meeting his.

  “Call it a hunch,” he said. Jason rose, walking over to stand beside her. “You’ve gone all out this weekend. It’s natural to feel a little down if you were expecting someone to see your work and they didn’t show.”

  “It’s not what you’re implying,” she told him, a tiny smile curving her lips. “I don’t have a boyfriend who didn’t show. You won’t have to nurse me through a broken heart.”

  Relief fluttered through him at this news but he ignored it.

  “You were looking for someone,” he insisted. “I saw the way you kept checking the sign-in sheet, scanning the crowds.”

  “And you want to know who?” She dragged a hand through her hair, ruffled the tousled curls even more. “If you must know, I’d been warned my father would show up. Thankfully he did not. He would have ruined everything.”

  He tried to read her expression but Piper avoided him by moving back to the table.

  “I’ll give you a hand with the dishes.”

  He laid his hand on hers, preventing her from moving anything.

  “Not yet.”

  “Oh?”

  “We haven’t had dessert. And then there’s the fortune cookie.”

  She did look at him then, in disbelief.

  “You’re going to put your faith in a fortune cookie?”

  He laughed. “No way. My faith rests in God. But I usually find the sayings interesting. Scared?” He picked up the cookie, handed it to her.

  “Why should I be afraid of a fortune cookie?”

  “Because you might read a bit of truth?”

  She snorted her opinion of that and sat down again. So did he. Jason waited while she cracked the cookie open and removed the small slip of paper.

  “Well?”

  “I think you planted this.” Piper glared at him, but her eyes danced. “All right then. ‘Man’s schemes are inferior to those made by heaven.’”

  “You see. Just because it’s a fortune cookie doesn’t mean it can’t hold a wise saying.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Let’s hear yours, Mr. Wise Man.” She plopped her elbows on the table and cupped her chin in her hands. One eyebrow arched in a command to open his own.

  He cracked the cookie, stared at the words.

  “Well?”

  “‘War doesn’t determine who is right, war determines who is left.’”

  Piper burst into laughter.

  “A fitting end to our disagreement on Wainwright, I think.” She glanced at her watch. “Wow! I’m sorry to miss dessert but I’ve got to get going. I don’t like driving those switchbacks in the dark.” She began stacking the dishes, carrying them over to the counter.

  “You don’t have to do this. Go ahead. I can clean up.”

  “You worked just as hard as I did. Come on, the two of us should be able to make short work of this.”

  He didn’t have a dishwasher but they worked together harmoniously, Jason washing, Piper drying. When the last dish was put away, she hung up the dish towel and smiled at him.

  “This was fun. Thanks a lot.”

  “We’ll do it again.” He followed her to the door, remembered her cell phone and had to go back for it. “I turned it off when you were sleeping. I didn’t think there’d be anything too urgent.”

  “Nothing that can’t wait till tomorrow.” She stepped outside. Jason followed. “My car’s not far away.”

  “I need the walk,” he told her, matching his step to hers.

  “Would you believe from this warm air that we had snow a couple of nights ago?” She lifted her face, gazed at the heavens. “The sky is gorgeous. Look.”

  “I am looking,” he murmured, but his attention was on her.

  She caught him staring and turned away, quickening her step until she reached the car.

  Without thinking Jason reached for the door handle. The door opened. He frowned.

  “You leave your car unlocked?” he asked.

  “No. I always lock it.” She pushed the door closed, tried the remote. It worked. “I guess I didn’t hit it hard enough this morning. I was sure it was locked.”

  He held the door for her, waited till she was inside, then pushed it closed. She started the engine and rolled down the window.

  “Looks like you’re taking work home with you,” he said, leaning down to eye the brown-wrapped package on the backseat.

  “What?” She twisted, blinked. “Oh, er, yes. Though I don’t think I’ll get at it tonight. I need an early night.”

  He was going to tell her to take tomorrow off, but he knew she wouldn’t. So he stood there, staring at her beautiful face in the moonlight and wondering if he should follow his heart.

  “Well, good night.”

  “Good night.”

  She pressed the button and the window began to move upward.

  “Piper?”

  It rolled down again. Her other hand rested on the gearshift. She turned her head to look at him.<
br />
  “Yes?”

  He could feel her breath against his skin. Her perfume filled the night air creating an intimacy that made him bold. Jason leaned in through the window, brushed her lips with his.

  “You did a great job. Thank you.”

  She stared at him for a moment then nodded.

  “You’re welcome.”

  He stepped back, watched her car drive into the darkness. When it had disappeared he turned and strolled back to his place, the memory of her touch lingering.

  It was probably not the brightest thing to do, given that he had to work with her. But he wouldn’t regret that kiss.

  For weeks now he’d been aware of the current between them. Tonight had confirmed that she felt it, too.

  He stepped inside, whistling as he locked up.

  Sure, there were some mysteries about Piper Langley. But that was going to make it more interesting to find out what lay beneath that mask she usually kept in place.

  Very interesting.

  *

  Piper rolled out of town half-bemused by Jason’s kiss. Every so often her hand lifted of its own volition, and her fingers touched her lips.

  He was a nice guy, really nice. If only—

  She glanced at the flash of lights behind her, glimpsed in the rearview mirror and saw that package lying on the backseat. Where had it come from?

  She made a tight left turn, annoyed by the bright lights of the vehicle following too close behind. Edging over onto the shoulder, she waited for it to pass, but it didn’t, which aggravated her even more.

  Assuming it was one of their visitors who wasn’t familiar with these roads she moved back into her lane and kept going, relieved when she could finally turn into her driveway.

  Oddly, the vehicle turned, also, but then stopped and sat waiting when she drove into her parking space and shut off the engine. After a moment it backed out of the lane and drove away.

  Disconcerted, Piper climbed out of her car and picked up the brown package. She carried it to the house, unlocked the door and laid it on the table. Once she’d slipped off her shoes and put the kettle on for a cup of tea, she began inspecting the parcel.

  There were no marks on the plain brown paper, nothing to indicate either what it was or where it had come from. She slid a fingernail under the taped corner at one end and began unwrapping. Inside was a white box with the Wainwright logo on top.