15. Carter
Chapter fifteen
Carter
Carter waited for the women to be seated, then sat at the head of the table, completing their semicircle. He felt Ashley’s eyes on him, but after their impromptu make-out session in the hall, desire still coursed through his veins, so he tried not to catch her eye.
Lena opened her binder and started pulling out papers, placing them across the table.
Each piece of paper was typed in either green or red font.
The tabs in the binder each had a Christmas adornment, from Santa to a Christmas tree to toy soldiers to ornaments.
She slipped off her coat, and Carter couldn’t help but smile at the sequined Rudolph on her sweater.
“Your sweater is adorable,” Ashley said, her smile a touch too bright.
“Isn’t it?” Lena all but beamed. “Wait for it.” Her hand slipped beneath the table, and within seconds, Rudolph’s nose started to blink red.
“Oh my gosh,” Ashley exclaimed, and a genuine laugh echoed through the room. “That is amazing.”
“Aren’t ugly sweaters usually reserved for parties?” he joked.
“As far as I’m concerned, it is a party every day for the entire month of December.”
As if his eyes had a mind of their own, they met Ashley’s. Her teeth slid over her lip as her attention bounced between him and Lena. Something about the look tugged at him, though he couldn’t have said why.
Lena placed one more piece of paper on the table and straightened, folding her hands on the table in front of her.
“The light guy is coming today.” Lena glanced at the red watch with the Santa Snoopy face. “He should be here in forty minutes, so I can meet him as soon as we’re done here. He’s going to put the lights on the big evergreen on the south side of the estate and the bushes leading down the walkway.”
“The sleigh is currently being prepped,” Carter added, so you can check that off the list.
“Perfect. What about the hot cocoa station?” Lena asked.
“That’s usually in the guesthouse,” Ashley offered.
“Last year the heat in the guesthouse wasn’t working, so we moved it to the carriage house,” Carter said. “But the heat is working, and the guesthouse is ready for the hot cocoa station.”
“I can do it,” Ashley offered.
Carter’s attention snapped to Ashley along with Lena’s.
“You will?” Carter asked.
“I said I wanted to help, so I’m going to help.”
“I thought you wanted to help with the planning, not serving all of Holly Glen hot chocolate.”
“Too bad, I already put her name on the list,” Lena said, turning the paper toward them.
She had a spreadsheet with each task and a column for who was assigned. Ashley’s finger dragged down the column, sliding back and forth from task to name.
Hot Cocoa Station: Ashley. Sleigh: Clint. Cookies: Tiny. Lights: Lena. Tree lighting ceremony: Carter. Budget: Carter. Vendor Contracts: Carter. Equipment Rental: Carter. Decorations: Lena. Grounds preparation: Wendell. Setup Crew Coordination: Carter/Lena.
“Wow, Carter, you pretty much have your hands in the whole process,” Ashley said.
Carter shrugged. “I like to keep busy, especially around the holidays.”
Her finger continued scanning, and his eyes followed. Safety planning: Carter. Weather contingencies: Carter.
Ashley’s finger halted on an empty column. “Why is Santa TBD? Grandpa plays Santa every year.”
Lena glanced at Carter, and he didn’t know how to tell Ashley.
“Not for as long as I’ve been running the show. Last year, we were down to the wire. All the Santas had been hired out, and your grandfather refused. Carter finally stepped in. We had to add a lot of extra cushion, but we made it work.”
“But why?” Ashley asked.
“Carter doesn’t exactly have the physique of Santa.”
“Neither does Grandpa.” She shook her head. “Why wasn’t my grandfather Santa?”
“He hasn’t made an appearance at the festival since… well, you know,” Carter said.
Silence descended on the room, and Ashley’s eyes dropped to the spreadsheet, lingering on the empty space beside Santa. Understanding dawned on her face, and she looked back at him. “Grandma Lily.”
Carter nodded.
The first Christmas after Lily’s death had nearly broken Bill. It had broken the family. The festival had already been planned, so it hadn’t been canceled, but Bill was nowhere to be found that day. Carter had known exactly where he was and made sure no one disturbed him.
“He loved being Santa,” Ashley said. “And he was so good at it. I didn’t even realize it was him until I was fourteen.”
Carter still remembered when she figured it out. He had known, so when she came to him, shock spread across her pretty features. He tried to pretend like he didn’t know either, but she knew he was lying. She always could… except for the one time she didn’t.
“He loved every minute of playing Santa,” Carter said.
“Have you asked him about this year? I mean, he pulled that elaborate stunt to get us all here.”
“What stunt?” Lena asked.
Ashley sighed and filled Lena in. “He had Hawthorne call and tell us all he was dead and we needed to come home for the funeral.”
A loud gasp echoed in the room, followed by a loud HA! Lena slapped a hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. That’s horrible! Creative, but mean.”
Whatever awkwardness he’d expected between Ashley and Lena never materialized. Their conversation continued as if they were old friends.
“You’re telling me. So you have to forgive my brother for being less than hospitable. We’re not exactly here on our own free will.”
“Don’t make excuses for him,” Carter said. People had constantly told him Gabe was just protective, just under pressure, just trying to do the right thing. But Carter had spent too many years on the receiving end of Gabe’s “good intentions” to believe that anymore.
“I’m not,” Ashley argued.
“You always do.”
Ashley’s icy glare turned on him.
“Look we’re all on edge. Most of us haven’t been here in eight years, Gabe included. He thought his grandfather was dead. He hadn’t been here since his grandmother passed.”
“And either have you or Tori or Taylor or Cole. He’s not the only one, Ash. But somehow Gabe always gets the benefit of the doubt.”
Lena suddenly found the spreadsheet very interesting, dropping her head and mumbling to herself.
Ashley blinked, and her expression hardened.
“That’s not fair.”
“I think it’s plenty fair. At some point, people have to be responsible for their own behavior.”
“He is.”
“Is he?”
Ashley’s lips parted, words looked like they were going to come out, then she snapped her mouth closed. The question hanging in the air unanswered.
Lena started whistling Frosty the Snowman.
“Taylor wouldn’t have spoken to Lena that way. Tori wouldn’t have. Or Cole. Hell, Marilyn wouldn’t even have spoken to her like that. Just admit Gabe’s an asshole.”
“He’s my brother,” Ashley retorted.
“That doesn’t change the facts.”
Lena raised her hand, and Carter’s eyebrow arched.
“Sorry to interrupt. While this is riveting. Honestly, it is. I don’t know any of the people you have mentioned, but I am intrigued. However, we are down to the wire, so if you can argue about Gabe being an asshole a little later we can finish up here.”
“Sorry,” Carter said. He never let his professionalism slip, but Ashley had always been the one person who made that impossible.
“And for the record,” Lena said, tugging at her snowman earring, a smile curving slightly at the edges. “You two argue like an old married couple.”
“We do not,” they said in unison.
Ashley cut her gaze to Carter, annoyance pulling at the bridge of her nose. Even annoyed, she was still the most beautiful woman she’d ever laid eyes on.
Lena tilted her head, lips swishing back and forth. “So have you two—”
“No!”
“Yes!” Carter said, staring at Ashley, challenging her to continue denying it.
“What about you two?” Ashley asked, wagging her finger between him and Lena.
Carter had to stop himself from laughing. Did she honestly think he and Lena were ever romantic?
“Yes,” Lena said, and Carter nearly fell off his chair.
“Oh.” Ashley’s entire light dimmed, her body sinking in on itself as she plastered a fake smile on her face. “I see.”
Carter arched an eyebrow in Lena’s direction, and she shrugged.
“What?” she asked, mocking innocence.
He knew that look. The woman was up to something.
“You’re lying.”
Lena pressed a hand to her chest. “Would I do that?”
“Yes.”
“Wait,” Ashley said, her eyes bouncing between them. “Are you?”
Lena didn’t say anything for a moment, then a laugh burst from her mouth. “Oh my God, your face.”
Ashley blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Your face!” Lena pointed at her and circled her finger toward her face. “You looked like your puppy got run over by a reindeer.”
“I don’t have a puppy.”
“It’s just a metaphor. Basically, it looked like you were going to cry.”
“I absolutely was not.”
Carter bit the inside of his cheek, fighting a persistent smile.
“I’m sorry, that was cruel of me. We never dated.”
“Not once,” Carter added. “Never kissed.”
“Never held hands.”
“Except for that time you almost fell off the ladder,” Carter said.
“It’s true. He saved my life. I was trying to fix a Christmas light that went out.”
“Instead of asking, she grabbed a ladder and tried to do it herself.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Ashley asked.
“It was snowing.”
Ashley’s head tilted. “Okay, and…?”
“And she was in four-inch heels.”
“Oh.”
“Exactly. She just had to ask.”
“I prefer not to pester when I’m perfectly capable of handling a situation on my own. Ashley, you seem like an independent woman like myself; I’m sure you can relate.”
“Absolutely. Though I might have kicked off the heels first.”
“Not my best moment, I’ll say that.”
Ashley laughed.
“But to drive it home,” Lena said, gathering her papers into her ugly-sweater-printed folder. “We’ve never dated. Carter closed himself off a long time ago, and I respect that.”
“Closed himself off to what?” Ashley asked, but it seemed to dawn on her almost immediately. “Oh.”
Carter clapped his hands together, wanting to get the focus off him and his inability to move on from a woman for almost a decade. “Is that everything? I’m needed in the kitchen for something.”
“That’s it,” Lena said. “If you want, I can stop by tomorrow and help you set up the guest house so it’s ready for the hot cocoa station.”
“I think I can manage,” Ashley said. “But if I need any help, I’ll definitely give you a call.”
“Perfect. Carter knows where all the supplies and decorations are.”
“Decorations?” Ashley asked.
“The house needs to be decorated. But from how it looks in here, I know you’ll knock that out of the park, too.”
“I can help you,” Carter offered before his brain could stop his mouth from moving.
Ashley’s attention shifted to him. The corners of her mouth edged up, plumping her cheeks and making him regret every decision that had kept her away from him for so long. “I’d like that,” Ashley said.
The simple words settled deep in his chest.
“Good.” The word came out rougher than he meant. “Everything is in the attic of the guest house, and anything we don’t have I can get.”
Ashley’s smile widened. “Sounds like a plan.”
Carter held her gaze, remembering every time he’d gotten lost in those eyes.
How he once saw his entire life through those blue lenses.
A house with a wrap-around porch so she could drink her coffee in the morning with the sunrise and the birds.
A family of their own. A little girl with her eyes and smile and a little boy with her strong independence.
Christmases spent exactly like this one, recreating traditions, starting new ones, and spending time with far too many Wetherbys.
He’d been young enough then to believe wanting something was enough to make it happen.
Life had taught him otherwise.
Yet sitting across from her now, with her cheeks flushed, her bangs slightly parting in the middle, it was alarmingly easy to forget all the reasons why he stepped away from that dream.
“Awesome!” Lena announced as she snapped her binder shut. “Now that we've established who is doing what, I’m going to go meet with the light guy before he electrocutes himself.”
Carter raised his brow.
Ashley laughed. “Is that a concern?”
“With Larry? Always.” Lena pushed out of her chair and grabbed her coat. “Now you can get back to fighting as if you don’t want to rip each other's clothes off.”
“Lena,” Carter said with warning in his tone.
“We’re all thinking it. I just said it. Toodles.” She swept out of the room, leaving Carter and Ashley in the aftermath. Silence spread around them, engulfing the room in an unavoidable awkwardness.
“Is she usually so blunt?” Ashley finally asked.
“Always.”
“I like her. She’s… refreshing.”
“If that’s what you want to call it.”
“What else would you call it?” she countered.
“Trying to make things as uncomfortable as possible.”
“Are you uncomfortable? I’m not uncomfortable.”
She blinked, waiting for his response. The room seemed to shrink in on them, everything fading around them, and all he could focus on were those bright gray eyes. He felt himself slipping deep into the gray of her eyes, remembering how good it felt to have her lips on his.
He stepped closer, wanting to finish what they had started upstairs.
A shout from a man echoed from outside, followed by the unmistakable sound of something metallic crashing.
Carter sighed. “Larry.”
Ashley’s eyes widened, and an adorable laugh slipped from her lips. And just like that, the spell was broken. For now.