Can't Love Christmas

Thirty Three

They pulled the rental van into the parking lot, and Ash was pleased to see it wasn't too busy. She grabbed the containers and hauled them into the pub with her.

Rowan saw them enter from behind the bar, and walked up to meet them. Ash hefted the containers into his arms right away.

"You win treats."

He struggled to keep the tower of containers upright. "What is this for?"

"Apparently, we will be baking this weekend, which means we just need to get this out of my house to make room for the new stuff."

"So my baking skills weren't good enough and you need to replace me?"

"Basically. I'm sure you can find a use for them right?"

"Yeah. No problem. Feel free to sit wherever you want, I'll be there shortly."

Ash led her family to a booth on the opposite side of the bar from Rowan's usual booth. True to his word, Rowan appeared a few moments later.

"Hi folks! Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a great day."

Tana looked delighted at the reappearance of Rowan. "Rowan! I had no idea you would be here! What a nice surprise. We had a wonderful day together. Ash mentioned that the pub was doing a Christmas dinner tonight so we thought we would stop by."

Ash's face flamed red and she focused on the table when she could feel Rowan's eyes on her. "Yeah, well if anyone had warned me you were coming I might have actually had some food at my house."

Rowan jumped in to tease her right away. "But Cinders, if they told you, it wouldn't really be a surprise now would it?"

"Cinders?" Reese asked, sharing a look and smirk with Ryan.

Ash turned and stuck her tongue out at Rowan, trying not to be swayed by the grin on his face. He laughed in return and sent her a wink. Ash prayed no one else in her family noticed.

"Now, does that mean you are all interested in our full turkey dinner tonight?"

Darren spoke up, "Yes please, Rowan. That would be great."

"Can I get you all anything to drink?"

"What does the dinner include?"

"Anything you see at the bar."

As he took their orders and sauntered to the bar, all eyes turned to Ash. Tana couldn't hold back her curiosity any further. "Ash, is Rowan your boyfriend?"

"What?" The blood drained from her face, "no, of course not."

"No need to get defensive, I was just curious."

"Well, we're just friends."

They all fell quiet as Rowan returned with their drinks. Miss Charlene followed behind him with five plates of turkey dinner. "Oh Ash, so glad to see you dear. When you texted me earlier I didn't realize you were asking for yourself. Who do we have here tonight?"

At Miss Charlene's comment, Rowan gave her a puzzled look, mixed with something else Ash couldn't identify, and made a silent departure to the kitchen. Ash felt a heavy weight settle in her stomach, but she returned her attention to Miss Charlene. "Miss Charlene, this is my family. They surprised me for Christmas today. My mom, Tana, my dad, Darren, and my siblings Ryan and Reese."

Miss Charlene beamed. "Oh how wonderful! A pleasure to meet you all. There's nothing quite like spending Christmas with family, is there?"

Tana and Miss Charlene began talking, while the rest of the group dug into their meals of turkey, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, and fresh dinner rolls. Rowan returned with a bowl each of cranberry sauce and gravy for the table, which Miss Charlene took for her cue to leave.