When I walk into the office hours later Mia looks at me expectantly. I nod, and she jumps for joy.
“I still need to finish it. Please cancel anything I have this morning.”
“You got it. Coffee?”
“Oh yeah, that would be great. Thanks, Mia."
The extra-large coffee comes a little later, with a chocolate bar from Nicki's stall.
"How are Nicki and Ash?" I ask.
"You mean, you want to know how Ash is," she teases.
I shrug, and she relents.
"He's smiling like someone who's had all the Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas candy fed to him in a single weekend. And I know I'm not wrong, so as soon as you're finished with that book, you're taking me out to lunch so we can celebrate findingthenew best-selling author of the year, and you can spill all the beans on Ash."
I can’t help my grin. Three days till Friday, the Christmas lights, and another weekend together.
17
ASH
"Ash!"
I hear my name called from a distance and immediately see my sisters running toward my stall.
"Hello, troublemakers, are you ready to have some fun?" I say when they crash into me.
"Yes!" they both say at the same time. "Can we have a candy cane?"
"Hmm..."
"How about cotton candy?"
"And hot cocoa."
I laugh at their requests, knowing I'll probably give in to all of them. After all, it's not every day you get to see the Christmas lights turn on.
I see Victoria approaching the stall. In the last week, she's been a lot more civil toward me and has kept the usual criticisms to a minimum. Part of me wants to believe she's sorry for what she did, but I think she would have done it anyway. Maybe she just wishes it hadn't had such an impact on me.
"Good afternoon, Ashton," she says. "The stall looks really nice. Very festive."
"Thank you."
I brought extra produce today to make sure I didn't run out. The market is required to stay open later to encourage the local office workers and commuters to stay on after work and wait for the lights.
There are additional food trucks, and all the Christmas candy you could possibly want. I've been smelling cinnamon and pumpkin spice all day, and I'm in such a great mood, not even having to see Victoria for the handover of the twins is going to ruin my mood. Plus, Xander is joining me shortly.
"Do you need any help here? Maybe you can take the girls for a walk around the market."
I can't even pretend I'm not shocked because Victoria, who I've never seen do a day's work that isn't looking after her daughters, is offering to work the stall?
The girls get too excited to let me have a moment to look into Victoria's eyes for the ulterior motive I'm sure is there somewhere.
"If you don't mind, then I'd love to look around," I say.
I take my apron off and she extends her hand to take it from me. She puts it on over her winter coat and there’s a small part of me that sees the relationship we could have had. The teamwork. Building the business together. But I don't want to dwell on it, so I take the girls' hands and start off by showing them Nicki's stall.
