His Winter Rose and Apple Blossom Bride

by Lois Richer

  “Good for Jason.”

  “I want to plan a shower, a couples’ shower. But I’m not really sure how to arrange it.”

  “Why not ask someone at the church to help? They’re both well known there, the fellowship hall would work and you could make it an open invitation.”

  “But I barely know anyone there. Besides, I want to surprise them.”

  “You can still do that. Why don’t you talk to my mother? She’s good at arranging stuff like this. You give me the date and time and I’ll make sure the happy couple are both there.”

  “I appreciate your help, but if you’re too busy—”

  “I want to help, Ashley. They’re my friends, too.”

  “Okay. Thank you.” She pulled a calendar out of her purse. “I thought it should be before Christmas, maybe even before the party season really gets underway. Everyone gets booked up fast at Christmas.”

  They chose a date, discussed decorations, games and a way to contact everyone without the couple knowing.

  When the meal was over, Ashley was delighted to have her plans solidified, even more delighted when thick fluffy snowflakes began to tumble to earth as they left the restaurant.

  “If this keeps up, skiing lessons will be sooner than you think.” She clapped her hands together. “Just think, father and daughter, sharing a new healthy experience.”

  His one look said a thousand words.

  “It’ll be fun.”

  “Sure it will.” His face brightened. “If I’m to share this fun, I think you should share some new experiences, too. Do you know how to snowshoe, Ashley?”

  “No. It’s never been a priority living in Vancouver.” She stared at him. “Why?”

  “Two students of mine have challenged me to race them in the winter festival. Snowshoe racing. I need a partner.” He clapped a hand on his hip, his smirk daring her to refuse. “Well?”

  “I’d love to learn,” she told him, then raised one eyebrow. “If you have time?”

  “Touché.” He tapped the end of her nose with his finger. “Thanks for sharing my dinner. I enjoyed it.”

  “I did, too. And thanks again for going through the house with me.” Ashley paused at the side of her car. “I appreciate you listening to me. It helped.”

  “It helped me, too.”

  “Oh?”

  “I’m going to push ahead and practice a little more faith in my own life.”

  What did that mean?

  He moved forward, pressed his lips against hers in a gentle kiss that could have meant so many things. “Good night, Ashley.”

  “Good night.” Half bemused, she climbed into her car, waited while he got into his. He followed her back to town, then they separated.

  Ashley was halfway to Piper’s when she noticed the letter. She pulled over, picked it off the floor of her SUV and read his name. Michael must have dropped it. Maybe it was important. Or maybe she just wanted an excuse. She turned around, drove toward his home.

  Michael’s car wasn’t visible when she arrived but car tracks in the dusting of snow led to the garage and the house lights were on so she assumed he was inside.

  Leaving the motor running, Ashley collected the letter and walked toward the door. It hadn’t completely closed. She stretched out her hand to knock but his voice stopped her.

  “No, I haven’t told Ashley, Mom, and I’m not going to.” He sounded angry, frustrated.

  Ashley wanted to turn and run away, but her feet seemed frozen to the stairs. He was speaking again.

  “I know you mean well, but if I can’t make it on my own, my carvings don’t mean anything. Ashley’s got money, Mom. She’s at home in the art world. Sure, she could be a great help, but she might also hate my work and not want to tell me the truth. I don’t want her involved. If I do this showing, I’ll do it on my own. Without her interference.”

  Ashley stepped back as if she’d been struck. She glanced around, saw the mailbox at the edge of the drive. Without a second thought she climbed into her vehicle, drove up beside it and tucked the letter inside. Then she drove away, blocking out all feeling as she rode back to Piper’s.

  She made small talk with her friend for a few minutes, watched a comedy they both loved and then excused herself for bed. But once she was in her room, the questions wouldn’t stop.

  Michael hadn’t told her about his “hobby” because he didn’t trust her. She wondered for a moment what he did, then pushed that away as the pain hit. She was falling for a man who thought she’d interfere.

  Once again she’d chosen the wrong man to give her heart to. Michael Masters didn’t want her interference in the part of his life that mattered so much he kept it a secret.

  No one at school had mentioned his carving, she’d seen no sign of it around town. No one in the artists’ guild had said anything. Why was it such a secret—especially when she’d shared hers with him? If he couldn’t tell her about something he loved, what else was he hiding?

  Ashley sank onto the big plushy bed in Piper’s home and wondered how long it would take for this hurt to go away. Her gaze fell on the Bible she’d left beside her bed, to the section where she’d left off reading in Corinthians: For we walk by faith, not by sight…

  “This, too, God?” she asked.

  Faith.

  Bowing her head, Ashley prayed for the courage and faith to rest in God’s promise to keep her safe.

  *

  The couples’ shower was everything Ashley had hoped it would be.

  At least that’s what Michael thought. He stood in a corner, watching her lead a game that soon had the room erupting in laughter. He could feel the distance between them even though she’d barely glanced his way.

  She’d been cool, standoffish, busy for weeks now. Piper explained it away by saying she’d once again seen the man she was so afraid of. That she’d attempted to follow him this time made his blood run cold. He knew she wanted answers, but to go it alone—

  What do you expect? She’s not exactly leaning on you for support.

  No, she wasn’t. In fact, she’d been extraordinarily missing from his life lately. The purchase of the house, the rezoning, the renovations—he knew it all consumed her time.

  But she’d made it a point to visit Tati, even tried her on skis. Just not when he was at his mother’s.

  “You keep staring at her like that, you’ll have people talking, buddy,” Jason murmured in his ear. He grinned at Michael’s jerk of surprise.

  “How does a great hulk like you creep up on people?”

  “Most of them aren’t in a daze. Want to talk about it?”

  Jason had become his best friend since he’d moved back here. But Michael wasn’t sure he wanted to ask him the questions he needed answers to.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be in there with your fiancée?”

  “Ashley kicked me out for some game they’re playing. So talk and make it quick before I have to go back.”

  “She looks thinner.”

  “Piper said Emma will have to take Ashley’s dress in again.” Jason drew him out of the hall into the adjoining cloakroom. “She’s been running herself ragged with that house and her plans to make it a gallery.”

  “I heard.” His mother was a regular fountain of information about Ashley Adams.

  “How come you haven’t been around there?”

  “She didn’t ask. I invited her to go for a snowmobile ride after we got all that new snow last week, but—” he shrugged “—she said she’s too busy right now.”

  “And the next time you asked?” Jason quirked one eyebrow upward. “Don’t tell me you just gave up? Not Mr. Persistence?”

  “I’ve been a little busy building sets for your fiancée’s play, Nosy.”

  “That’s an excuse not to call Ashley?” Jason shook his head. “You’re nowhere near as bright as I figured.”

  “She’s going through stuff, Jay. Things get a little too personal when we’re together.”

  “And this is a pro
blem because?”

  “I was divorced. I have a child.”

  “Yes, I know. She knows, too. I believe you belonged to both those categories before she met you?”

  Michael moved back into the doorway so he could watch her, wishing that smile she lavished on everyone else would flash at him. “That’s not the point.”

  “You gonna tell me what is?”

  “No.”

  “Okay.” Jason opened a tin someone had left on a table, picked out a piece of fudge. “Mmm, this is great. Maybe we shouldn’t add it to the rest of the stuff in the kitchen. I’ll just sneak it out and take it home.”

  “She’s got money, Jason.”

  “A ton of it. I know.” He blinked at Michael’s glare. “So?”

  “You don’t see a problem there?”

  “Doesn’t matter what I see. I doubt if Ashley cares much about her grandfather’s inheritance except that it makes people look at her differently.” He raised his eyebrows. “Like you’re thinking right now.”

  “She’s opening a gallery in Serenity Bay, Jason. What am I supposed to say? ‘Oh, by the way, I just happen to have some pieces I’ve been working on. I wonder if you’d show them for me.’”

  “Sounds good to me. Honest, forthright. Ow! What?” he asked when Michael thunked him on the shoulder.

  “It sounds like I was wangling to get an in with her.” He refused the fudge Jason offered. “She’ll feel obliged to take them and I’ll never know if I could have made it on my own.”

  “Ah.” Jason grinned, his eyes dancing. “Now I get it. We’re talking about pride.”

  “Yes. That and the fact that she doesn’t want to get involved while she’s still sorting out this fear thing.”

  “Involved. Oh, my. I didn’t realize you were involved.” Jason mocked his embarrassment. “Look, man. You’re obviously not as experienced as me in matters of the heart so let me give you some advice.”

  “You’re giving me advice?” Michael wanted to hoot with laughter, but Ashley was in the next room and he didn’t want to draw attention to himself so he controlled the urge. “This is going to be good. Go ahead. Share your wisdom, groom.”

  “Thanks, I will.” Jason drew him farther back into the cloakroom where they wouldn’t be overheard. “Did you ever think Ashley’s fear problems are tied up with her parents’ problems?”

  “Sure.” Michael narrowed his gaze. “Hey! How do you know this?”

  “Piper told me. And if you say a word…” he warned, glaring.

  “I might have pushed a little too hard,” Michael admitted. “She told me she had some issues to work through, that she only wanted to be friends, for now.”

  “See? That’s a good place to start. But friends keep in touch, they don’t just disappear because things get busy. Ask her out again. You’re my best man, she’s a bridesmaid—you can talk about us!”

  “Oh, goody.” Michael frowned. “It’s gone quiet in there. Shouldn’t you be back in there with your bride-to-be?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I told him not to come back until I said so.” Ashley appeared in the doorway, glancing from one to the other. “Hello, Michael.”

  “Hi, yourself. Sorry I was late.”

  “No problem.” She turned her focus back to Jason, brushed a finger against the dark crumbs on his cheek. Her gaze narrowed. “You’ve been into that fudge I brought, haven’t you? How much is left?”

  Since Michael had just watched Jason slip the last piece into his mouth, he knew his friend couldn’t speak.

  “It’s all gone,” he said, enjoying his friend’s discomfort.

  “Jason Franklin, you know very well I was going to use that as a prize!”

  “I’m sorry, Ashley but I’m starved. I didn’t get any dinner and then I had to rush over here. It was too tempting.”

  “Ooh!”

  “Don’t kill him yet, Ashley,” Michael advised softly, stifling his laughter. “We’ve got to get them married first. Then it’s Piper’s job to make him behave.”

  “Good luck to her. Well, you’re going to be the one who provides this prize, Jason. So get thinking about it. Maybe all the sugar will help.” She grabbed his arm, drew him forward. “Come on. It’s time to face the music and the advice of our panel.”

  “He can use it,” Michael told her, gazing into her eyes. “He has the strangest ideas about love.”

  “Really.” She didn’t look away until someone in the audience cleared her throat. Then she launched back into her role of hostess as if it had never been interrupted.

  Michael admired her aplomb. He had none. Whenever Ashley looked at him like that, the world stopped. He felt as if he’d been kicked in the stomach. There was a chair against the wall and he sank into it, his knees suddenly too weak to hold him upright.

  But as the evening progressed, as the group finally broke for refreshments, his eyes never left Ashley.

  Maybe that’s why he noticed the exact moment when she almost dropped the tray she was carrying. He got to her as fast as he could, handed the tray to someone else and helped her sit down.

  “Breathe, in and out.”

  She obeyed, but her hands clamped around his like vises. She stared at him and he could see the fear taking control.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I saw him. He thrust his head around the corner, looked at me, then disappeared. But I saw him!”

  “The same man?” he asked knowing exactly who she was referring to.

  “Yes. It was him, Michael. He was here. Maybe he followed me.”

  “Stay here. I’ll go check.” He eased in and out of the crowd, working his way across the room until he finally got to the door. He stepped outside, raced down the steps and surveyed the church parking lot.

  All he saw was a host of cars and trucks, none of them with their lights on or leaving the grounds.

  Michael waited several minutes, finally he went back inside.

  “Did you find him?” Ashley whispered from just inside the door.

  He shook his head.

  “He’s gone now,” he whispered.

  She sagged against him, her fingers spread against his chest. Her eyes closed.

  “Oh, God,” she whispered in a prayer of desperation. “Please help me.”

  “He will, Ashley. Just keep hanging on to your faith.”

  But as he stood holding her in the cloakroom, a tiny doubt flickered through his own mind.

  There had been no one outside. Which begged the questions—was this man real?

  Or was Ashley imagining it all?

  Chapter Ten

  “Seven days till Christmas, folks. If you haven’t done your shopping yet, you’d better get to it.”

  Ashley didn’t need the radio deejay’s reminder. A square silver box tied with bright red ribbon lying under Piper’s tree was a constant reminder that she’d be leaving shortly to spend Christmas with her mother and she needed to make a delivery first. Two of them actually.

  She’d spent days stewing over how and when to give Tatiana and Michael the Christmas gifts she’d chosen especially for them. Since she was driving to Toronto tomorrow, procrastination was no longer possible.

  Outside, Jason and Piper were supposedly putting up Christmas decorations but the peals of laughter made them sound more like kids who’d just been released from school. Ashley tugged on her coat, snatched up the two gifts and hurried outside before she could change her mind.

  “I don’t know when I’ll be back,” she called. “Don’t wait up.”

  Piper waved. Jason threw a snowball that smashed against her windshield.

  “You’re going to get coal for Christmas,” she warned.

  “Doesn’t matter,” he called. “I’m already getting everything I want for New Year’s.”

  Ashley climbed inside the car before he could bombard her with another from the stack of snowballs he had piled beside him. She smiled as Piper caught him off guard, th
e snow splattering across his face in a wet sopping mess. He retaliated six for her one. When he ran out, he kissed her nose then urged her onto the old sled they’d found. As she whizzed down the hill, Piper squealed with delight, the sound echoing back from the surrounding hills over and over.

  Ashley had never seen her friend happier. Their love was as solid and firm as Cathcart House, Piper’s grandparents’ home. They’d disagree, argue, maybe even hold grudges. But that house would be filled with love.

  As it always had been.

  “Stop moping about the past, woman. You’ve made a new beginning. Get on with it.”

  She drove the roads easily, trying not to check every nook and cranny. She was getting better at trusting. If only she hadn’t seen his face at the shower. Everything else was going so well, but she couldn’t work her brain past the fear that still clutched her whenever she saw him.

  The radio was playing Christmas songs and Ashley sang along as she drove, joy bubbling inside. She loved Christmas, always had. Not being able to open the gallery in time for the season stung, but she’d prayed for the courage to wait.

  Wait. That’s all she seemed to do lately. Wait for understanding, wait for the gallery work to be finished, wait, wait, wait. Michael had phoned several times, asking her to dinner, hinting that he was ready for his skiing lesson, but Ashley had put him off every time.

  She couldn’t get past what she’d overheard, and she didn’t want to embarrass herself by letting him see that Ashley Adams was infatuated with him—again.

  Only it was more than that, and she knew it.

  She pulled into his yard, then blinked. There were no tracks. Maybe he wasn’t even home.

  “I’ll just have to leave the gifts, then,” she muttered, gathering them up and climbing out of the car. She walked up the steps, struggling not to recall the last time she’d been here.

  Tati, still wearing her fuzzy pink nightgown, had the door open before she got to it.

  “Ashley, hi! Are those presents?” Her saucer-wide eyes glittered with excitement.

  “They sure are. One for you, one for your dad. Can you put them under your tree?”

  “We don’t have one yet.” Tatiana checked the name tags, noted that her present was the largest. Then she pushed them both onto the counter. “Daddy said maybe today. After we bake cookies.”