Marriage Seasons 04 - Winter Turns to Spring (16 page)

As he left the site, Mack elbowed Brad. “As if I’d go to a Christmas Eve service. I’ll tell you where I
won’t
be parking my backside tomorrow night—on a church pew. Nope, I’ll be warming up one of Larry’s bar stools. You can count on that.”

“Aren’t you going to have your kids with you this year?”

“Nah. They’ll be with their mothers. Good thing, too. I hate Christmas. Me and Scrooge McDuck—birds of a feather.”

Laughing, he started up the stairs toward the bedroom the others were finishing. Brad slipped his phone back into his pocket and followed.

CHAPTER NINE

W
here is your Christmas tree, Ashley?” Cody yelled over the loud banging as he hammered the Haneses’ doorframe back into place. The overnight snowfall already was melting, though the air outside blew the crisp scent of pine into the small house. “Did you forget that tomorrow is Christmas Eve? Christmas trees don’t have anything to do with Christmas, but still, you should have one if you want your house to look festive.”

Ashley said nothing. She could hardly hear Cody over the racket, and she had no idea how to respond to his question. With Brad and her both working, arguing, and generally despising each other, neither had even mentioned the approaching holiday.

Instead, the days had passed, and she had done nothing to prepare for Christmas in her own home. Brad never even mentioned the word, as if speaking about such a special holiday would draw attention to the absence of anything joyful or bright in their lives. Would their marriage survive until Christmas? For too long now, it had felt doubtful.

Ashley planned to go home to her parents. Until she’d moved in with Brad, she had always woken in her own bed and run down the stairs to see the presents under the tree. Usually there weren’t many, but she loved the excitement of the morning and the noontime gathering of relatives.

Several days ago, Ashley’s mother had called. Ashley promised that she and Brad would be at their house in time for lunch on Christmas Day. But with the mess their relationship had become, she hadn’t even found time to tell him. Now she planned to go alone. He could spend the day with his own family—and that didn’t include Ashley. She felt almost as if they were divorced already.

“Brenda says Christmas trees should have a theme.” Cody stopped hammering and climbed down the ladder. “This year her theme is purple and gold. Steve and Brenda bought a tree in the hardware store parking lot. It’s chopped off from its roots, so even though Brenda calls it a live tree, it’s dead. I mentioned that to her, and she said not to talk about it again. We all decorated the tree before Jessica left with her fiancé to meet her new in-laws in California. Jennifer helped hang ornaments too. She’s not so sad anymore since she started working with you on those bead necklaces. I think doing that job made her feel better.”

“I’m glad.” Ashley pushed on the door and was relieved to see it swing shut. The latch clicked into place. “Thanks, Cody. I couldn’t have done this without you. I’ll go turn up the heat now.”

Though she hoped he would take the hint and leave, Ashley had learned long ago that Cody didn’t usually catch understated suggestions. For him, conversation had to be concrete. Tangible. There weren’t many subtleties. He did like metaphors, but that was about as close as he came to understanding anything that wasn’t spelled out in neon letters.

“Aren’t you going to have a tree with a theme?” he asked, trailing behind her. “Or you could not have a theme. Kim and Derek Finley bought a plastic tree because Kim is allergic to live Christmas trees even though they’re really dead. The Finleys hung ornaments made by their twins. Kim is having twins again next year, so that will mean lots more ornaments. The Finleys won’t ever need to have a theme.”

“We’re not putting up a tree this year, Cody.” Ashley nudged the thermostat as high as she dared. She and Brad were barely paying their bills as it was. If they didn’t have a mild winter, she predicted trouble with the propane company.

“No tree?” Cody stood bewildered. “That’s like my daddy and me. But we were poor, and you’re not. You’re rich. You have a big diamond that Brad gave you.”

Ashley glanced down at the engagement ring she had been so proud to show off to her friends. “I don’t know, Cody. We’re just not doing a tree, that’s all.”

In planning her wedding to Brad Hanes, Ashley had dreamed about their first Christmas as husband and wife. She would decorate their cozy little home, bake gingerbread cookies, wrap presents chosen especially for him. Though her parents had never taken her to church, the idea of attending a Christmas service struck Ashley as romantic and quaint. Mrs. Moore had said that she and Charlie always went to church together on Sundays, and the Christmas Eve service was one of the highlights of their year. After church, Ashley imagined cuddling up with Brad on their sofa and gazing at the twinkling lights on the tree as they sipped apple cider from matching mugs.

“Mrs. Miranda Finley isn’t putting up a tree either, alive, dead, or plastic,” Cody informed Ashley, taking a seat and stretching out his long legs. “She says her Christmas decorations are still packed from moving to the lake and then moving next door to you. She doesn’t mind, though, because she’ll go to Derek and Kim’s house to celebrate. She told me she loves being a grandmother—especially the part about buying presents.”

“Yeah, I bet.” Ashley tried to figure out how to send Cody on his way. This was her first day with no beads to make, no necklaces to string, no envelopes to stuff, nothing. She could actually relax until it was time to drive to her job at the country club.

“I made a really nice present for Jennifer, but you can’t tell. It’s a secret. I’m not good at keeping secrets, but so far, I didn’t tell her. You want to know what I did?”

“Sure.” Ashley perched on the arm of the old recliner.

“I painted a picture of her.”

Ashley had to restrain herself from laughing. “Cody, you’ve done scads of pictures of Jennifer. You painted her all over the walls of Just As I Am. Your bedroom at the back of the salon is full of sketches of her. Patsy told me about them.”

“That’s because I like to draw pictures of Jennifer. Paint her too. She’s the most beautiful woman in the world. I hope we get married. So far, she didn’t say yes. But I’m not going to get discouraged or give up. I am going to keep on asking until she does say yes.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t, Cody.”

“Why?”

“Because … well, because maybe Jennifer doesn’t want to marry you.”

The young man’s handsome face sobered. “She doesn’t?”

“I don’t know, but you have to wonder. You’ve asked her dozens of times, and she never says she’ll marry you. Why don’t you get it?”

“Get what?”

“That she probably doesn’t want to marry you. When people want to do something, and they can, they do it. If Jennifer wanted to become your wife, she would.”

“Maybe I need to ask her some more.”

Ashley let out a sigh and slid from the arm into the seat of the chair. “Cody, is there some kind of food you really hate to eat?”

“You changed the subject. It’s not good social skills, but that’s okay. Anyone can learn social skills if they practice hard enough.”

He ran his fingers through his hair, a mass of light brown curls that almost made Ashley jealous. “I hate chicken livers,” he told her. “My daddy used to make me eat them whenever we had any money. That’s what he bought, chicken livers, and he said they were good for you, and he rolled them in bread crumbs and fried them in bacon grease. But I didn’t like them no matter how he cooked them. Yuck.”

“Would you like to eat some right now?”

He glanced at his watch, studying it for a long time. “I’m not very good at telling time yet, but I don’t think it’s twelve o’clock. I think it’s somewhere near ten o’clock. That means we don’t need to eat lunch for a while. I might be wrong about the time, but thank you, no, I would prefer not to eat chicken livers.”

“What if I asked you fifty times to eat them?”

“Umm …” He squirmed a little. “Do I have to?”

“No. But I’m just asking if you want to have some right now.”

“Thank you, but no thanks. Thanks anyway.”

“See, this is what I’m trying to tell you, Cody. You keep asking Jennifer to marry you, and she keeps saying no thanks. If you keep asking and asking, she’s still going to say no. She doesn’t want to marry you, just like you don’t want to eat chicken livers.”

Cody stared at Ashley in silence. “You made chicken livers into a metaphor,” he said finally in a low voice. “They are a metaphor for me.”

“Sort of. I said that so that maybe you could finally get the point. Just be Jennifer’s friend. You don’t have to marry her.”

His blue eyes suddenly filled with tears. “I am chicken livers.”

“No, Cody. No, you’re not. You’re
you
. You’re a really great guy. It’s just that I don’t think Jennifer wants to marry you. She may not want to marry anyone. Maybe she’s not the marrying type.”

Swallowing hard, he wiped at his cheek. “I understand that metaphor, Ashley. But I never knew Jennifer thought of me as chicken livers. That is a terrible thing, because chicken livers are disgusting and they make you want to vomit. In fact, I have vomited lots of times when I had to eat them. I told my daddy, no more chicken livers. Please, Daddy, please. No more. But he always made me eat them, and that is what I’m doing when I keep asking Jennifer to marry me. I am making her eat chicken livers.”

“Oh, great.” Ashley leaned forward and propped her elbows on her knees. “Cody, look at me and stop crying. Let’s don’t talk about chicken livers anymore. Jennifer loves you. She really does. She thinks of you like a good friend or a special brother.”

Tears still trickling down his cheeks, Cody looked forlornly out the window. “The snow is melting faster now,” he whispered. “I should go over to Jennifer’s house and tell her I’m sorry. I won’t ask her to marry me anymore. I don’t want to be chicken livers. I would rather be chocolate cake cut into squares.”

“Wait, don’t go over there yet. Just stay here until you calm down.”

Cody Goss hanging around the house was the last thing Ashley wanted, but what else could she say? She had tried to explain the situation to him, and as usual lately, she had made a mess of everything.

They sat silently in the living room, both watching melted snow drip off the eaves where the gutter had torn loose from the roof. Ashley thought about giving Brad a call. She definitely had a few reasons to apologize for what had happened between them that morning.

Trying to imagine his voice, she feared he would sound impatient about being interrupted at work. And what if they got mad at each other over the phone? He might not come home that night. Or ever again.

Did she want him to? Did she even care?

What had they done? How had they wrecked things so completely?

“Jennifer might marry somebody else,” Cody said, his voice flat. “Maybe she will find another person to be her husband.”

“Who knows?” Ashley murmured, recalling the conversation she’d had with Jennifer. The truth was, her friend would be overjoyed to find a man she could truly love.

“Jennifer can’t marry
Brad
, though,” Cody said, “because you already married him. She might want to love him and get married to him, but she can’t.”

Ashley’s skin prickled to life. “What are you saying, Cody? Why would Jennifer want to marry Brad?”

“Because they were talking together in the dark room at Bless Your Hearth one day last week.”

“What?”

“At first I thought they were doing kisses and things like that. But Jennifer said no, they weren’t, and Brad didn’t say anything, because he left with Yappy as fast as he could after I stood up to him and told him to go away.”

“Brad was with Jennifer? Inside Mrs. Hansen’s new store? Are you sure?”

“Yes, and I said, ‘Jennifer, I think you were doing kisses with Brad who is Ashley’s husband.’ She said, ‘No, we were talking.’ Then we decided to put vinegar on the rugs to get the stains out, and after that, I found my sea sponge and I left too.”

By now, Ashley was sitting straight up in the chair. “What were they doing there? Is something going on between them?”

“Not kissing. Jennifer said so, and I believe her. She never tells me lies.” He hesitated for a moment. “But she also doesn’t tell me the truth. If she did, she would have said,
Cody, I don’t want to marry you. I want to be your friend but not your wife
.”

The knot that had been heavy in Ashley’s stomach all morning began to twist, making her feel suddenly hot and sick. “What did you see them doing?”

“It was dark, remember? I didn’t see anything at first. I heard them talking, and then my eyes got used to the darkness, and it was Brad and Jennifer. She was crying.”

“Crying—why?”

“It might have been because of the mess Yappy made on the rugs. We got them clean, so don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry? You’ve just told me you walked into a dark room and found my husband and my friend together! Cody, stop talking about rugs and tell me exactly what happened.”

“You don’t have to get upset, Ashley. I fixed your door, and Brad went to work with Yappy, and Jennifer stopped crying, and the rugs are clean. Everything is all right.”

“No, it’s not. Why were Brad and Jennifer together? What would they possibly have to talk about except … except …”

Ashley caught her breath, recalling the day she had begged Jennifer to speak to Brad about the Haneses’ marital problems. Jennifer had reluctantly agreed to talk to him. Was this the way she had chosen to carry out Ashley’s request—an early morning conversation in a darkened room? That made no sense.

But what if Jennifer and Brad had already talked several times? What if their discussions had turned from his problems with his wife into an attraction between the two of them?

“I have to see Jennifer.” Ashley stood suddenly, trying to hold back tears. “I have to talk to her right now. Right this
minute
!”

“But she’s not sad anymore. She’s happy because the stains are gone.”

“Oh no!” Ashley raced to the coat rack and grabbed her scarf, coat, and gloves. “This is terrible. Why didn’t I suspect? I should have known. I’m so stupid. I’m the dumbest person in the world!”