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  “Bye,” she said rather breathlessly. She put her phone down. Sweetie? She almost squealed like a teenager.

  She went downstairs to tell her mom that Mark was going to take her. Her mom gave her a list and carefully explained every item on it – how much to get and what brand to buy. When her mom was satisfied that she’d gone over everything, she handed Ashley her debit card and told her the PIN for it. “If there’s anything else you want, just grab it. I’m not sure what you like to eat anymore.”

  “Pretty much anything, but the last thing I need is more junk food.”

  “Ok. That’s everything then. Be careful.”

  Ashley went upstairs to grab her phone and purse and change her flats for some warm boots. Then she bundled up and went outside to warm up the truck. It took her several hard tugs to get the ice covered door open, but luckily the truck started right up.

  Her dad and Keith were busy shoveling snow and salting the driveway, so when she began scraping off the windshield, they both came over to help. Together, they made short work of it and quickly had the truck cleaned off and the bed shoveled out.

  Busy at work, she didn’t see Mark walking across to their yard, and the loud truck engine muffled the crunch of his footsteps in the snow. Her back was turned to him so she nearly jumped out of her skin when he called, “Good morning!”

  She screamed, both because she was startled and because her feet began sliding around on the ice. She grabbed desperately for the side mirror of the truck as her feet headed in different directions. She somehow managed not to fall, but when she was steady again, she glared at the three men who were all doubled over laughing.

  “Are you ok?” Mark asked when he managed to control his laughter, but she could still hear a quiver of it in his voice.

  “What would you all have done if I’d actually fallen?”

  “I still would have laughed, but if you were hurt, I would have felt bad,” Keith told her. “Maybe.”

  She huffed and asked Mark if he was ready to go.

  “Whenever you are,” he said.

  “That would be now,” she said, glaring at her dad and brother who were still laughing as she went around to the passenger side of the truck.

  The door creaked loudly in the cold as Keith opened it for her. She climbed in and straightened the blanket that hid the holes in the vinyl upholstery before sitting down. Mark got in and immediately turned down the heater that she’d turned on full blast when she’d started the truck.

  “Warm enough?” he teased her.

  “Yes I am,” she replied, still trying to recover her temper.

  “Ok, then let’s go. Knock on wood.”

  “There isn’t any.”

  “That’s a shame. We could use the luck.”

  The descent down the icy hill was nerve racking, but Mark managed it well and Ashley only felt the tires sliding a few times. As they got into the main part of town and the roads became more slushy than icy, Mark said to her, “I guess if we can’t get back up the hill, I’ll just have to take you out to lunch again. I can think of worse ways to spend the day.”

  “Me too,” she agreed happily.

  When they got to the grocery store, the parking lot hadn’t been cleared at all. There were a surprising number of cars there though. People had parked every which way because the yellow parking grid wasn’t visible. Mark parked a good distance from the other cars to avoid someone sliding into them, but that meant they had further to walk in across the ice.

  When he turned the truck off, Ashley automatically took off her seatbelt and reached for the door handle to get out.

  “Wait a minute,” Mark stopped her. He went around to her side, walking carefully on the icy pavement, and stood by the door while she got out. He made sure she was steady on her feet before locking the truck and shutting the door. “Watch your step,” he said, taking her arm.

  They walked carefully towards the store entrance and nearly made it to the door when Ashley slipped. She waved her free arm in wild circles trying to catch her balance, but if Mark hadn’t been holding onto her she would have fallen right in the doorway. When she was steady again, Mark tried hard not to laugh. But when Ashley glared at him, he lost it.

  “Why didn’t you demonstrate that little move at the dance last night?”

  “Funny,” she said as she went to get a shopping cart. As she pushed it through the store, Mark strolled casually beside her. When she paused in the produce aisle to study her list he asked, “What do we need to get?”

  She handed him the list and he whistled expressively. “I don’t even know what half of this stuff is,” he complained.

  “Don’t worry. I do.”

  “I’m glad one of us does. This should be an educational morning.”

  Ashley chuckled and led the way.

  Thirty minutes later they were putting the groceries in the back of the truck, then Mark helped Ashley over to her door with exaggerated care. It was the first time since she’d known him that she’d felt like slugging him.

  “Cut it out,” she told him when he got into the truck.

  “What? I want to make sure you don’t fall again.”

  “Why? You sure get a kick out of it.”

  “Well, you do it with such style. I don’t know how you survived four winters in Utah without breaking something.”

  “I don’t usually fall this much.”

  “If you say so, but since I would hate to see you get hurt, I think we should probably stay inside today.”

  “That’s fine with me because inside means warmth.”

  “What do you want to do today?” Mark asked as he pulled out of the grocery store parking lot and headed home.

  “Well, sitting in front of the fire, drinking cocoa would be nice.”

  “Agreed. How about stuffing our faces with some of your mom’s cookies while we’re at it?”

  Ashley laughed and rolled her eyes. “How are you not fat?”

  “I have a good metabolism I guess. You’ve been around you mom’s food your whole life though. How are you not fat?”

  Ashley’s face blanched and it felt like her heart dropped into her stomach. She was trying to figure out how to respond casually to this question, even though she was extremely embarrassed.

  Her silence, or the sudden awkwardness between them, must have finally clued Mark in. “I’ve stepped in it, haven’t I? I forgot the number one rule…don’t mention weight to girls. But honestly, I didn’t have a clue it was a big deal to you. I don’t know why it would be.”

  Ashley’s voice was faint as she spoke, but she was determined to fix the sudden discomfort between them. “Well, if you have to know, I’ve always struggled with my weight. It’s something I’m pretty sensitive about. I’m not exactly, um, thrilled about the way I look now.” She winced as she thought that he would probably notice now that she wasn’t skinny. She chanced a quick look at his expression, to judge how he was looking at her.

  He was actually watching the road, but he glanced at her a moment later and his expression was genuinely perplexed. “What’s wrong with the way you look?”

  Determined not to repeat her previous mistake, Ashley said, “If you can’t tell, I’d be pretty stupid to point it out to you.”

  “I can’t imagine that there’s anything about the way you look that has escaped my attention, and I’ve never been so attracted to somebody before in my whole life.”

  She felt warmth flooding her cheeks. She knew that he was sincere. With one sentence he had made her believe what her mom had never been able to.

  “But then, I’ve never liked skinny girls,” he said, thoughtfully considering the matter.

  Ashley stared at him, trying to decide if he’d just said what she thought he’d said.

  He looked at her and burst out laughing. “I’m just joking. You should see your face. Hey, don’t hit me! I’m driving on ice here.”

  “You’re a punk,” she informed him.

  “I’m afraid so.” He
sadly shook his head as he maneuvered around a sharp corner, but she could see a dimple beside his mouth, giving him away.

  “Okay, here comes the hill,” he said. “We’ll make it, I’m sure. Your weight should help give us traction on the ice.”

  “Oh my gosh! It’s like I’ve got another brother.”

  “Now that was uncalled for,” he said indignantly.

  Surprisingly, his teasing had been exactly what she needed to relax about the subject of her weight, and by the time they made it up the hill and into the driveway, she was in perfect charity with the world again. She got out and went to get a few bags of groceries while Mark was retrieving his wallet and phone from the seat beside him.

  Ashley saw him get out, and then in a flash he disappeared behind the truck. She heard him grunt with the impact of hitting the ground hard. She hurried around to make sure he was all right. That is, she hurried as fast as she could while walking on ice and holding two bags of groceries. He was lying in the driveway with such a shocked expression that she burst out laughing.

  “Oh, no. You would never laugh when someone fell,” he muttered.

  “I’m sorry,” she gasped, still helpless with laughter, but trying to get over to help him up. “You just looked so funny.”

  Quick as a flash he sat up and managed to get a hold of her leg at her knee. He pulled hard and her knee buckled, sending her backwards into the deep snow that had been piled next to the driveway. The bags of groceries she was holding flew out of her hand and spilled across the lawn, leaving deep impressions as they sunk into the snow.

  The fall halted her laughter for a few seconds, but it bubbled up again. Apparently wanting to smother her giggles, Mark grabbed a handful of snow and smeared it all over her face. She screamed and stood up, frantic to brush off the snow.

  She bent over and hoped he wouldn’t see her grabbing handful of snow herself, but when she turned to attack, he was too quick for her. He easily caught her arm and forced it backwards until he made her rub the snow in her own face.

  Neither one of them noticed that they were no longer alone until Ashley’s mom started shouting from the porch, “Ashley! Mark! Stop. You’re crushing the groceries.”

  Mark immediately stopped tormenting her, and when she got the snow out of her eyes, she saw that her brothers and everyone else were all outside watching, clearly entertained.

  Ashley pointed to the scattered groceries and said with feigned severity, “You can pick it all up.”

  He looked like he wanted to argue, but she ignored him and turned to go inside. Before going up the steps to the porch, however, she stopped and made a snowball. Busy brushing off a can of cranberry sauce, Mark didn’t realize the danger he was in. Shawn shouted a warning to him, but by spinning around he made a better target. She hit him right on the face.

  Pleased with her victory, Ashley sauntered up the steps, knowing he wouldn’t dare retaliate since she was so close to her mom and Jessica now. She heard Shawn tell Mark, “I should have warned you. She’s got a deadly aim.”

  “Too bad she wasn’t aiming for you then,” he grumbled.

  Chapter 14

  We’ll Frolic and Play

  The rest of the day flew by. She tried to hold on to it, but it disappeared faster than the enchiladas her mom made for lunch. The best days were always like that, and this was one of the best days Ashley could remember – even though most of it was spent in the kitchen. That wasn’t unusual though. The kitchen was always the hub of activity at Christmas and with so many people in the house, there was a lot of work to do.

  Some of it was fun. Some of it wasn’t. Trying to clean the baked on enchilada remains from two big pans wasn’t.

  Mark had gone over with Keith and her dad to help Justin clear off his driveway, and Shawn and all the women were busy finishing Christmas presents, so she didn’t have anything else to do. She wandered into the living room and found Daniel, Becca, and Chloe using the gifts under the tree like building blocks. Afraid that something would get broken, she knew she’d better distract them.

  “How about a game of hide and seek?” she asked them. “I grew up playing in this house, and there are lots of great hiding places here.”

  Since all three kids agreed, the only problem was to sort out who should seek first. They played a few rounds, each of the kids getting a turn to be the seeker. Finally, it was Ashley’s turn to count and Daniel pointed out that because she was a grown-up, she should to count to 100. She agreed and sat down on the couch, which was serving as the home base.

  She counted slowly, loud enough that they’d be able to hear her as they looked for a place to hide. As she sat counting, a fragment of the poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning came to her mind. “How do I love thee, let me count the ways…” She gave a hiccup of laughter at the thought of counting the things she loved about Mark – literally.

  As she kept counting it was pretty easy to think of things. She named them in her mind while she counted out loud, “ …17…his smile…18… his dimples…19…how helpful he is…20…that he’s good with kids…” When she had almost finished counting to 100, she started to run out of things to count, and her list became crazier with each number so that she was laughing after each one. “…95…his left ear lobe…um…96…his right ear lobe…98 ..er, I mean… 97…his two front teeth…98…his elbows…99… his arm pits…100.”

  She opened her eyes, which were sparkling with amusement, and saw with something between horror and anguish, that Mark and Shawn were standing in front of her with their arms folded across their chests, looking at her as though she was a raving lunatic. She let out a sound that began as a scream and ended as a squeak.

  “Forget how to count, sis?” Shawn asked with one eyebrow raised to the sky.

  “No…”Ashley replied, embarrassed. She didn’t blame them for thinking she was crazy, and she couldn’t think of any plausible reason to explain what she’d been doing except the truth. But she couldn’t possibly tell them that.

  “Care to share the joke with us then?” Mark asked.

  “What joke? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she answered, hoping to sound clueless instead of mortified.

  Mark leaned towards her, searching her face and shaking his head with false concern. “Be a good girl and tell us what was so funny, or we’ll have no choice but to lock you up like a crazy person.”

  “I can’t.” Then remembering that the kids were hiding from her still, she said quickly, “Wait! I’ve got to find them or they’ll beat me.”

  “No one’s going to beat you. They’re very humane in those institutions,” Mark reassured her, though his dimples betrayed him. He was enjoying this way too much.

  “Oh, stop it,” she told him, exasperated but laughing. “You know very well I meant the kids. We’re playing hide-and-go-seek.”

  Mark straightened up and put out a hand to help her up from the couch. “That’s a relief. I thought for a minute that my girlfriend was a lunatic.”

  “Well, I still think she’s a lunatic,” Shawn asserted from the other side of the room where he was now sprawled in the recliner.

  Ashley’s insides had done a wild flip when Mark had called her his girlfriend, and it wasn’t something she was prepared to let slide. “Since when have I been…”

  “Crazy?” Shawn interrupted. “Well, I’ve suspected it since that time you had a sleepover and you and your friends stuffed your training bras with oranges.”

  She paused to glare at him for a second before trying again. “As I was saying….since when have I been your girlfriend?”

  Mark grinned and said, “I was just trying it out, to see if it stuck.”

  Ever helpful, Shawn told Mark, “Dude, come one. You’re supposed to write one of those ‘check yes or no notes.’”

  “Nah, I’d rather wait and see if she denies it,” Mark told him, his eyes never wavering from Ashley’s face. He raised his eyebrows questioningly as if waiting for her response.

  Ju
st then, Ashley heard a spurt of suppressed laughter behind her on the couch and turned to see both Becca and Daniel bouncing on their knees across the cushions, having made it safely to home base without being tagged. “You didn’t find us. You didn’t find us,” they started chanting, reveling in their moment of triumph.

  “Gee, thanks,” Ashley told Mark and Shawn. “I didn’t even get a chance to look for them. I’d better go look for Chloe so she doesn’t get disappointed when nobody…”

  She didn’t continue however, because she saw that Mark was motioning towards the stairs with his eyes. She glanced over and saw that Chloe was trying to sneak down to the living room. “Hey!” she exclaimed as she rushed to catch her.

  Before she’d gone two steps forward however, Mark caught her around the waist and held her captive until Chloe made it safely to the couch. The kids celebrated with squeals and high-fives.

  Ashley was enjoying the sensation of having Mark’s strong arms around her and her protest over his flagrant cheating for Chloe was halfhearted at best.

  Then Becca stunned her by asking Mark, “Are you going to kiss her?”

  “What?” he asked.

  “When daddy hugs mommy like that, he likes to kiss her.”

  “You know, that’s not a bad idea.” Mark pulled Ashley further back against his chest and kissed the side of her blushing cheek.

  Daniel watched with disgust but Becca did a few excited bounces. “Now you have to marry her,” she squealed. “I heard Mommy telling Grandma you would, and she was right.”

  Mark’s arms slackened with surprise and Ashley stepped quickly away from him.

  Just then, Kayla came in carrying Andrew. She still had her coat on, so Ashley went to take the baby from her so she could take it off. Really, she was glad to have something to do to while she recovered her composure.

  “I hope the kids have been behaving themselves,” Kayla said. But as she looked around, she stopped, sensing something awkward in the air. “What happened?”

  “Your daughter was talking about Mark and Ashley getting married,” Shawn told her, chuckling.