Ruth was always beautiful. With her hair pulled back, no makeup, in an icing-streaked apron, and with a smudge of flour on her face, he couldn’t keep his eyes off her.
Seeing her in a curve-hugging sweater with her dark hair curled, and makeup drawing attention to her eyes and lips? Well, he was in trouble. As he drove them to a Greek restaurant she recommended, he had to force himself to keep his eyes on the road.
The food was great and the conversation between them was natural and easy. As they lingered to talk over coffee and baklava, he felt something shift inside him. He’d always known he wanted to spend time with her and get to know her, but the more he did, the more he realized he wanted…more.
The realization sank deep inside him. It was warm and pleasant but scared him just the same. He was falling for her but had no idea if he would ever get her to relax and take a chance on loving him.
“Thanks for lunch,” Ruth said as they left the restaurant. “I still say you should have let me pay since it was my idea.”
“Don’t worry about it. I wanted to.” He opened her car door for her then went around and got in before saying, “What I’d really like to do is cook dinner for you sometime. What do you think?”
Ruth smiled at him, her eyes wide with excitement. “I’d love that. Are you sure?”
“Of course. Surely you’ve figured out by now that I like to show off.”
She laughed and sat back in her seat. “I’ll say. Okay, so how about Sunday?”
“My family is having a get-together Sunday evening. How about if I cook you lunch instead and then you can go over to my parents with me?”
“Sounds fun, except, do you think Lori will—”
“Be annoying? Probably. I’ll tell her to knock it off, so don’t worry about that. Now, what are you going to do with the rest of your day?” He hoped she’d say nothing so he could figure out a way to keep her with him.
“I usually spend Sunday night doing my books and planning out my calendar for the week. Otherwise, I get into the store on Monday morning and panic because I don’t know what to do first.”
Mason nodded. He understood, so he’d try not to be selfish.
When they pulled up in front of his parents’ house again, they got out of his car and began walking slowly over to hers. The front door of the house opened and his parents and Lori’s family came out, all wearing jackets and nice clothing.
“You’re back,” David called, running over to them. “Are you going to go with us?”
Mason took Ruth’s hand so she wouldn’t run off to her car without him. “Depends on where you’re going.”
“To a Madi’s choir concert. I don’t want to go, but Mom says I have to.”
Mason laughed. “But you want me to go?”
“It will be more fun if you’re there.”
“Yeah? Lucky for you, I’d love to go to Madi’s concert.” He looked across the yard at Lori as she came towards them. “Why didn’t anybody tell me about it before now?”
“I did,” Lori said. “I knew you’d probably forgotten, and when Ruth called to ask you to lunch, I figured you wouldn’t want to be reminded. But since you made it back in time…” As her unfinished sentence hung in the air, she turned to Ruth. “Would you like to go with us?”
“She’s got work to do tonight,” Mason said, trying to spare Ruth from having to excuse herself.
“Actually, I’d love to go,” she said. “I love music.”
Mason looked down at her in surprise. “Really?”
She grinned. “Unless you don’t want me to.”
He put his arm around her and tugged her against him. “Of course I want you too. Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’m in the mood to procrastinate on work stuff anyway. And I make Christmas cookies all day, every day right now. I’d like to actually enoy the season myself.”
“There’s room in my van if you want to ride along,” Lori offered. “It might be a squeeze, but parking will be crazy down at the church.”
“Sounds good,” Ruth said. “Let me grab a jacket out of my car. You’d better get one too, Mason.”
A few minutes later, Mason found himself crammed into the back seat of a van with old happy meal boxes around his feet in a space no man of his height should be forced to squeeze into. Of course, he was also pressed against Ruth, so that wasn’t too bad, but all of her attention was focused on his niece Layla in the booster seat on her other side. He had to admit that she was adorable playing with the toddler and he loved that she was such a good sport about everything, though. Much better than he was.
Lori was right about the parking. They had to park almost two blocks away. It was getting colder as night fell, especially with a brisk north wind sweeping past them in gusts.
“Wow,” Ruth said. “It’s freezing out here.” She cuddled up closer to him, gripping his hand.
“Have you seen the forecast? This north wind is going to cool things off all week, maybe even bring some snow with it.”
“Whatever. They always put snow in the forecast because people like to see it in there this time of the year. It usually doesn’t happen though.”
“I’m hoping it does.”
Silence fell between them as they walked. They’d fallen a little behind the rest of the group, so Mason took the chance to enjoy the moment. The houses behind the church were all trimmed in lights and the church itself was decorated with white lights, green garlands with big red bows, and a lit-up nativity scene that was almost life-size. They stopped to look at it for a moment.
“My last cookie display is going to be a nativity, complete with a gingerbread stable,” Ruth said. She took her phone out and snapped a picture of the display. “This one is beautiful. I love the tender expression on Mary and Joseph’s faces.”
“You’re going to try to recreate that with icing?”
She grinned. “Just wait and see. It’s going to be amazing.”
Mason smiled back and took her hand again after she put her phone back in her pocket. “I have no doubt. It’s just impressive.”
“What amazing art will you be doing with chocolate this week?”
He had no idea. Where Ruth liked to plan and prepare ahead of time, he liked to wing it and see where things took him. But his competitive spirit wasn’t about to let her think she had an advantage over him. “You’ll have to wait and see. It’s top secret.”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head as he led her inside to find a seat. “You know, we should be hearing back on our bids for the Candy Cane ball any time now. Probably by the end of the week.”
Mason frowned. How would the bids affect their relationship? It was so new. He wasn’t even sure what it was.
For the first time, he started to hope he wouldn’t get the job. When he’d submitted it, he’d been driven by the success of his business. And while that was still super important to him, he realized that having Ruth in his life might just be more important.
“Ruth, whatever happens, I hope it doesn’t affect things between us.”
She squeezed his hand. “No, it won’t. I’ve already told myself that I can handle the disappointment. I promise I won’t resent it if you win. At least—if I do—I won’t let you see it.” She laughed, but there was a hint of strain in it, as if she was still trying to convince herself.
He hoped she was right. “There’s my family. Looks like they saved us some seats.”
The concert was more than just his niece’s choir singing. There were three other choirs along with an orchestra. They all performed several songs each, all of them adding to the rich experience. Some of the numbers were light and funny, some classic and complex. But the ones he enjoyed the most were the gentle and spiritual hymns that added so much meaning to the night.
Part way through, Ruth leaned her head on his shoulder. The floral scent of her shampoo rose up around him. It was intoxicating. He wished that the night could end with them cuddled up somewhere quiet and dark like this. But with no one else around of course. He knew the time wasn’t right for that, though. For now, he’d have to be content with whatever she was prepared to give him.
And truly, just being with her was amazing. Especially now that he felt he was getting to know who she was at her core.
She was so comfortable with his family, so ready to be around them even though Lori had done her best to make everything awkward and embarrassing. She was supportive, generous, and willing to change when she saw a flaw in herself.
As the strains of “Oh Holy Night” filled the auditorium, he decided to do all he could to keep her close.