Chapter Six
The place was sure well-insulated, Eric decided, when he woke at around six the following morning. With the door closed at the top of the staircase, he heard nothing upstairs, even though Brian had mentioned they’d be up early. Brian would plow the driveway while Ashley relaxed with her coffee before the baby decided she was hungry.
Thinking he would be awake for a while last night after speaking with Anya, Eric had taken a quick shower and left the television on when he’d slipped under the comforter on the bed.
He grinned wryly. Apparently, he’d fallen asleep immediately. He’d sure had some pretty crazy dreams though. Anya would have slapped him for sure if she had any inkling about what he’d dreamt about.
One thing was for sure—he’d never quit caring about her, despite being only sixteen when he’d been forced to leave town.
He needed to think about how he was going to handle this. The fact that she was so mad at him was a good thing, he couldn’t help thinking. If she didn’t care, she wouldn’t still be so upset. He’d had so little interest in other women, he’d begun to wonder about himself. Maybe it was because the women he met these days were kind of aggressive, and he preferred to be the one who did the asking when it came to dating—or anything else.
But he supposed that it was because in the back of his mind, the words I love you had echoed.
Her words had haunted him.
Because he’d said them too.
Eric heaved a sigh. He might as well take another shower to start the day. Peeking through the back window, he could see that the driveway had been plowed and it appeared that Brian was returning from somewhere down the road. Most likely, he’d been helping a few neighbors. That’s just the way he was. It looked like there was close to a foot of snow out there near the edge of the property, so Brian had to have been out there for at least a few hours.
Eric grinned. He hadn’t heard a thing.
Another twenty minutes later, he walked upstairs and opened the door that led into the kitchen.
Brian and Ashley were both sitting at the kitchen table with Arielle mucking up food in her highchair nearby.
When she saw Eric, Arielle slapped her fists together, squealing loudly.
“Well, good morning to you too, Arielle,” Eric said, grinning.
“Morning, bro,” Brian said.
“How’d you sleep?” Ashley asked, standing and approaching the coffee pot, reaching for a mug. After filling the mug, she handed it over.
“Thank you,” Eric replied, approaching the island and taking a seat on a stool. “I slept well. I didn’t hear a thing outside or even here in the kitchen.”
“That’s Ashley’s soundproofing,” Brian answered, standing and pouring more coffee for himself.
“Have you guys eaten?” Eric asked.
“Not yet,” Ashley replied.
“How about I make breakfast? I’m a pretty good cook,” Eric said.
Ashley’s eyes went wide. “Really? Sure. But only if you really want to. I don’t mind cooking at all.”
“It’ll be fun cooking in a modern kitchen. I don’t get much of a chance,” Eric said, finishing his coffee in one single gulp.
Standing, he approached the stove, checking out the selection of copper bottom pots and pans hanging above on a decorative rack.
“Those are just for show,” Ashley said, grinning. “It’s easier to use the nonstick pans below in the cabinet. I’ll get them out for you.”
“What items have you got for me to cook?”
“Eggs, bacon, frozen hash browns. The usual,” Ashley replied. “The fridge is packed for company anyway, so you can use whatever you want. What would you like to make?”
He grinned. “I might as well have all of it if you’re both hungry?”
“Oh, yeah,” Brian replied, rubbing his hands together as he stood from the table. “Ashley, why don’t you just sit down and take care of Arielle while Eric and I show you how it’s done.”
Pausing from grabbing multiple items from inside the refrigerator, Ashley started laughing.
* * *
A few hours later, Eric was sitting and rocking Arielle while she dozed in his arms. Ashley and Brian were upstairs getting ready to leave the house. Since the roads had already been cleared and the sun was shining, they’d decided that the four of them might as well make a run to the tree farm to choose their Christmas tree.
They packed into Brian’s truck, Eric insisting on sitting beside Arielle in the backseat where she was strapped into her car seat, the seat purposely positioned backwards which Brian told him was required by law since it kept newborns safer.
Eric grinned as he tickled her nose. She’d been dressed in a thick warm snowsuit, and was wearing tiny little boots and gloves so that her eyes and nose were about the only parts of her that weren’t covered.
“You have to feel like you’re wearing a straitjacket, Arielle, and on top of that, you don’t even get to see how pretty everything looks covered in snow,” Eric said. She must have been able to hear him because she started bumping her covered fists together.
Brian grinned into the rearview mirror. “Ashley does tend to go a little overboard with making sure Arielle’s kept warm. But a little fresh air outside at the tree farm has got to be good for her.”
“The last thing I want is for her to get sick. Especially with this COVID stuff going around,” she muttered. “They just don’t seem to know enough about it yet, even though they claim that kids aren’t much affected.”
“I agree with you,” Eric said gruffly. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
“There probably won’t be many people at the tree farm since we waited until practically the last minute to get our tree,” Brian observed. “It shouldn’t take us long to choose a tree that we like.”
“Yeah and if it gets too cold, Arielle and I can wait in the truck or maybe even check out the gift shop if there aren’t many people around,” Ashley said, grinning as she glanced at the two of them in the back seat. “I can’t get over how good you are with kids, Eric.”
Eric pursed his lips. “To tell you the truth, Ash, I’m a little surprised by it myself. Arielle must have won me over with that smile of hers.”
“I hate to have to break this to you, bro, but that’s usually just a sign that she’s got gas,” Brian muttered, obviously trying to tamp down a smile.
Eric snorted, and then they all began to laugh.
Another twenty minutes later, they were wandering along through the third row of trees, when Brian paused, glancing upward. “What do you think about this one, guys?”
Ashley, who was carrying Arielle in a sling that fit around her neck, trudged from the path through the thick snow around the tree. Arielle appeared to be enjoying herself, judging by all the gurgling and squeaking noises she was making.
“It’s a blue spruce,” Brian said. “It’ll stay fresh through the new year if we want to keep it up for a while.”
“That’s what we had last year, wasn’t it?” Ashley asked. “This one is even prettier and exactly the right height. It’s perfectly shaped so it’ll look beautiful framed in our living room window. Good choice, husband. How do you want to handle this—do you two want to cut it down?”
“What do you think, Eric?” Brian looked the tree over again. “Can the two of us manage to drag it to the parking lot if we cut it down?”
“I don’t think it’ll be too much trouble,” Eric replied.
“I suppose that Arielle and I should probably walk back to the truck. I’ll give her a snack and then see if she’s up to going inside the gift shop since it doesn’t appear to be too busy today,” Ashley said, trudging back through the snow to the cleared off path which led to the parking lot. “I’ll see you two in about twenty minutes or so.”
“Sounds good,” Brian replied, reaching for the saw and grazing the bark on the trunk. “The hardest part is bending in the snow without feeling like your legs are freezing.”
Eric frowned. “Damn it, Brian. Let me saw down that tree. That one leg of yours has got to be giving you trouble. You’re so good at getting around, I always forget about your injury.”
Soon, they’d switched places and Eric took up where Brian left off and began cutting down the tree. “You know, I can’t tell you how surprised I was that you opted out from the forces. I thought you’d be in for life.”
“I told myself it was because I wasn’t too thrilled with being assigned to desk jobs and teaching, but I think I was just restless. I didn’t feel like I was doing enough without seeing any action,” Brian replied, moving under the tree as it started to fall.
“It’s crazy to think that having those pins in your legs as opposed to a prosthetic made you less capable to perform in action,” Eric said, shaking his head distractedly.
“It’s definitely something I never considered when I was told that I had a chance at saving my leg. No matter how much conditioning, I’ll never have the strength or endurance I had before. I would have been out of the rangers either way.”
Eric nodded as the treetop fell into Brian’s arms.
“Besides. I have an invitation to teach or train here at the wounded warrior home in their vocational program any time I feel the urge. They’re always looking for instructors since they hire a lot of active-duty service people who end up deploying at some time or another.”
Slipping the tree saw over his arm onto his shoulder, Eric scooped up the spruce’s trunk and started marching behind Brian as they headed toward the nursery greenhouse, where the tree would be packed and paid for.
Ashley came out from the gift store with Arielle, who seemed to be enjoying the day immensely. What Eric couldn’t get over was how little she cried. She seemed to be looking at the world with intense fascination. That was probably because she didn’t get out much either. But then again, she was less than eight months old. From what Ashley had said last night, she was doing well for her age. The way she’d been wiggling around and then sitting on the floor last night, Eric wouldn’t be surprised if she began walking extra early.
Once they’d unloaded the tree to be packed in netting to make it easier for transport, the guys from the greenhouse loaded it in the back of Brian’s truck while the four of them took a look around the gift shop together.
“She’s sure going to sleep well tonight,” Ashley said, glancing down at Arielle, who’d fought sleep as long as she was able. “I guess we’ll go wait in the truck. I think the tree’s already been loaded.”
“Maybe we should be on our way,” Brian agreed.
“Let me get a picture of the three of you outside, and then I’ve got to pay for something the cashier is wrapping for me now,” Eric said, following them outside and directing them toward some snow coated pines, which would provide a prettier backdrop.
He took a half dozen pictures from different angles and then set up the camera for a couple widescreen selfies of the four of them.
As Brian and Ashley headed toward the truck with Arielle, Eric went back inside to pay for the frames and special ornaments he would be giving them for Christmas gifts.
A few minutes later, he headed outside and stepped right into the truck, which Brian had waiting for him near the shop.
Ashley reached inside her bag and pulled out her phone. “We can have leftovers tonight for dinner. But I think I’ll order some food to pick up from the Crystal Rock Tap right now for all of us if that sounds good?”
“Sure,” Brian agreed.
They decided what they each wanted, and Ashley called and put in the order.
“I’m actually supposed to meet Anya Weldon there at the Tap tonight when she gets off work,” Eric admitted.
Brian grinned. “I forgot to mention that I plowed out her driveway this morning when I was helping a few of the neighbors.”
“Anya Weldon?” Ashley repeated. “Why does that name sound familiar?”
Brian looked thoughtful. “Besides the fact that she’s a couple years younger than you, she used to be Eric’s girlfriend. You probably didn’t know that because we were in our feuding stage back then.” He grinned when Ashley punched him lightly in the shoulder, but then he quickly became serious. “Her sister disappeared sometime after we left town ten years ago. Jake had her sister’s name on the list of potential trafficking victims when he arrested Wes Armstrong and Wade Montgomery last year. There are still so many unanswered questions, so he shared some information with us since he thought that this house might have once been a meeting place or transfer point for the traffickers since the property was abandoned for so many years.”
Ashley nodded her agreement, glancing at Eric with what appeared to be a worried frown. “I remember talking to her now. I didn’t even realize that she was from Crystal Rock because I only met her a few years ago. She runs the downtown mall.”
Eric’s eyes went wide. “She runs it?”
Brian’s eyes met Eric’s in the rearview mirror. “There’s something odd about the fact that she sold her family home, but still decided to stay in town.”
“I think she might be trying to find her sister,” Eric confessed. “It’s just a gut feeling I have.” He pursed his lips. “Didn’t you say you plowed her driveway?”
“She lives in one of the old cabins not too far from our place,” Brian observed.
“I wonder if it’s the cabin that used to belong to her grandparents?” Eric said, becoming thoughtful. Thankfully, none of his family knew exactly how much time he and Anya had spent at the cabin. It was a memory that he’d clung onto at the most horrific times in his life. “We used to hang out there occasionally, although the place was kind of run down back then.”
“It’s been fixed up a little, but I think she might be living in only a few of the rooms,” Brian said. “I know that you’re curious about the trafficking story, but I’m thinking that if you’re going to be hanging out with Anya, and she’s really doing what you think she is and investigating her sister’s disappearance, maybe Ashley and I should share what we know with her too, providing Jake gives us his okay.”
Eric nodded. “I’ll see how it goes tonight. She wasn’t exactly excited about meeting me at the Tap tonight. I had to talk her into it.” He sighed. “But I don’t like the idea of her doing something like that without any help. It could be dangerous.”
“So, you were planning on offering your assistance, were you?” Ashley asked dryly. “You sound like Brian, the first time I ran into him again.”
“You can’t blame her for not trusting you, bro. You did leave town without a word,” Brian said.
Ashley winced. “You too, huh? What happened with Mr. Ashford and that Ponzi scheme sure screwed up the lives of a lot of us, didn’t it? When you think about it, it’s kind of amazing that not only Jeff and Michelle ended up getting back together again, but so did Brian and I.”
“Is that what you want, Eric—to get back together with her?” Brian asked softly.
Eric grimaced, not bothering to answer.
Because he was starting to realize that it was exactly what he wanted. No one knew how hard he’d tried to let her go for her own sake when he’d been forced to leave town. Very few people had even known how much of a genius Anya was, including her parents. They’d kept it a secret between the two of them, and Anya had deliberately downplayed her intelligence at school. But Eric had a feeling that once he was out of the picture and she’d taken her SATs that it hadn’t stayed a secret for long. Even though he’d missed her terribly, he’d used it as an excuse after they’d left town, probably because he’d been insecure along with being a little jealous of her at the time. Even then, she knew exactly what she wanted—college and a business career.
Finally, he answered, “I think I need to understand what Anya wants first. After all, we’re strangers. We need to get to know each other again first.”
“Well, I think we should include her at Christmas, whether you two make up or not,” Ashley said. “It sounds like she could use some friends.”
Eric grinned. This was definitely not the Ashley he used to know.
“Quit giving me that gooney look, Eric,” Ashley muttered. “I know what you’re thinking. Sometimes, I can’t believe how much I’ve changed either.”
Everyone was laughing as Brian pulled into the parking lot of the Crystal Rock Tap so they could pick up their lunch.