On a Snowy Night: The Christmas Basket / The Snow Bride

“Upsets me?” he repeated. “I think it’s hilarious.”

“You…do?”

“Go ahead and meet your young man and talk all you want. This thing is between Sarah and Mary. Greg and I have been friends for years.”

This was news to Noelle. “You’re still friends?”

“Of course. He’s the best golfing partner I ever had.”

“You and Mr. Sutton are golf partners?” Noelle thought perhaps she’d slipped into another dimension.

“Shhh.” Her father raised a finger to his lips. “Your mother doesn’t know.”

“Mom doesn’t know.” This was more unbelievable by the moment.

“Scoot,” her father ordered, and reaching for the keys on the peg outside the garage door, he said, “Here, take my car. It’s parked on the street.”

Noelle clutched the set of keys and leaned forward to kiss his cheek. “Thanks, Dad.”

He coughed loudly as she opened the back door. “You’re hearing things, Sarah,” he called out. “There’s nothing.” He gave her a small wave and turned back toward the hallway.

As soon as she was out the door, Noelle sprinted toward her dad’s car. It took her a moment to figure out which key she needed and then another to adjust the mirror and the seat. When she glanced at her watch, she was shocked to see the time. It was already ten minutes past one.

Thom would assume she wasn’t coming. He’d think she’d stood him up…when nothing could be further from the truth.

Thom expelled his breath into the cold, and it came out looking like the snort of a cartoon bull. An angry cartoon bull. That was exactly how he felt. Once again, he’d allowed his heart to rule his head and he’d fallen prey to Noelle McDowell.

He should have known better. Everything he’d learned about heartache, Noelle had taught him. And now, fool that he was, he’d set himself up to be taken again. Noelle McDowell was untrustworthy. He knew it and yet he’d still risked disappointment and worse.

Slapping his hands against his upper arms to ward off the cold, he paced the area beneath the trees across from the pool at Lions’ Park. This had been their special meeting place. It was here that Thom had kissed Noelle for the second time. Here, they’d met and talked and shared their secrets. Here, he’d first confessed his love.

A car door slammed in the distance. Probably the police coming to check out his vehicle, which was parked in a lot that was closed to the public at this time of night. He deserved to get a ticket for being enough of an idiot to trust Noelle.

He didn’t know why he’d hung around as long as he had. Looking at his watch he saw that it was twenty after one. She’d kept him waiting nineteen minutes too long. Her nonappearance was all the proof he’d ever need.

“Thom…Thom!” Noelle called out as she ran across the lawn.

Angry and defiant, he stepped out from beneath the shadow of the fifty-foot cedar tree.

“Thank goodness you’re still here,” she cried and to her credit, she did sound relieved. She was breathless when she reached him. “I had to sneak out of the house.”

“Sneak out? You’re almost thirty years old!”

“I know, I know. Listen, I’m so sorry.” She pushed back the sleeve of her coat and squinted at her watch. “You waited—I can’t believe you stayed for twenty extra minutes. I prayed you would, but I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d left.”

The anger that had burned in him moments earlier evaporated so fast it shocked him.

“When did they turn Walnut into a dead-end street?”

“Years ago.” Of course she’d drive down the same street they’d used as teenagers. He’d forgotten the changes made over the last decade; it hadn’t occurred to him that she wouldn’t know. “You’re here now.”

“Yes…listen, I know I shouldn’t do this, but I can’t help myself.” Having said that, she slipped her arms around his waist and hugged him hard. His own arms went around her, too, tentatively and then with greater strength.

Closing his eyes and savoring the feel of her was a mistake, the first of many he knew he’d be making. She smelled like Christmas, somehow, and her warmth wrapped itself around him.

“Why’d you do that?” he asked gruffly as she released him and took a step back. He was trying to hide how damn good it’d felt to hold her.

“It’s the only way I could think of to thank you for staying, for believing in me enough to wait.”

“I wasn’t exactly enumerating your good points while I stood here freezing.”

“I know, I wouldn’t either—I mean, well, you know what I mean.”

He did.

Clearing off a space on the picnic table, Noelle climbed up and sat there just as she had when they were teenagers. “All right,” she said, drawing in a deep breath. “Let’s talk. Since you were the one to suggest we do this, you should go first.”

So she’d become a take-charge sort of woman. That didn’t surprise him. She’d displayed leadership qualities in high school, as well, serving on the student council and as president of the French Club. “All right, that’s fair enough.” She might be able to sit, but Thom couldn’t. He had ten years of anger stored inside and that made it impossible to stand still for long. “We argued, remember?”

“Of course I do. The argument had to do with our mothers. You said something derogatory about mine and I defended her.”

“As I recall, you had a less-than-flattering attitude toward my mother.”

“But you were the first…” She paused. “None of that’s important now. What we should be discussing is what happened afterward.”

Once again she was right. “We made up, or so I thought.”

“We made up because we refused to allow the ongoing feud between our mothers to come between us. Later that day, you wrote me a note and suggested we elope.”

Her voice caught just a little. He wanted so badly to believe her. It was a struggle not to. “I loved you, Noelle.”

She smiled, but he saw pain in her eyes and it shook him. For years he’d assumed that she’d used his love against him. That she’d stood him up just to hurt him. To humiliate him. He’d never really understood why. Was it vindication on behalf of her mother?

“We were going to confront our parents, remember?” Noelle said.

“Yes. I made a big stand, claiming how much I loved you and how I refused to let either of our mothers interfere in our lives. You should’ve heard me.”

“I did, too!” she declared. “I spilled out my guts to them. Can you imagine how humiliating it was to have to go back and confess that you’d tricked me—that you’d jilted me?”

“Me!” he shouted. “You were the one—”

Noelle held up both hands and he let his anger fade. “Something happened. It must have.” She pressed one hand to her heart. “I swear by all I consider holy that I’ve never lied to you.”

“You’re assuming I did?” he challenged.

“Yes. I mean no,” she cried, confused now. “Something did happen, but what?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I was here at three, just like I wrote you in the note.”