Echoes in the Bayou (33 page)

 
One could almost guarantee that Sterling would show up
with a batch of freshly baked cookies that Ava would serve on an antique
platter. Holiday music played softly in the back ground and each day at work
felt more like a gathering of friends. All that was missing she told them was
the snow. "Oh don’t worry honey, soon you'll be up to your ears in the
stuff," he grinned.

"Speaking
of snow," Kelly said. "We've got to go shopping for some more winter
clothes Ava; you're going to need to keep warm." She patted the
small lump on her friend's belly.

"Shopping?
Now you're speaking my language girls, where and when?" Sterling asked and
they all began to chuckle
.

 
 The
ring, ring
of the bell above the door signified that their first customer of the day had
arrived.  But this customer hardly looked like he cared anything about
antiques.

"Well
I was wondering when you'd decide to grace us with your presence,"
Sterling said to the man. Ava and Kelly exchanged looks as the handsome man
shook hands with Sterling.
"Please dear god
don’t let him be gay," Kelly murmured to her.

Ava had
to hide her grin behind her hand so she wouldn’t embarrass herself or her
customer by laughing
.

While
Sterling talked to the stranger, Ava and Kelly sipped their hot chocolate and
stared at the poor man as if he were a piece of meat.  His dark brown hair
was shaggy in a sexy bad boy way and he wore a heavy duty lumber jacket that
stopped midway between his incredibly tight butt. He stood at least six feet
tall and his eyes were the color of the hot cocoa they were drinking. "I
want him," Kelly mumbled and again, Ava had to hide her grin.

 
"Ava, Kelly, I'd like to introduce you to Adrian
Wright."

Yes you ar
e
,
Ava thought to herself as
she shook his hand.
This guy is perfect for Kelly
.

Once the
introductions were made, Adrian went on to explain the reason for his visit.

"Well
Miss Montgomery," he said.
  "It's
Ava, please call me Ava," she grinned. She couldn’t stop grinning and
neither could Kelly.

"Okay
A
va. I came by to see if you've hired anyone to
take care of the snow removal for the season. I'm responsible for most of the
snow removal in this area and I wondered if you would like to use my services."

She,
Kelly, and Sterling glanced at one another and Ava had to bite her tongue to
stop herself from laughing.

"Yes
we'd like your service
s, very much so!"
Kelly blurted out. She turned red the moment the words came out of her mouth
and Adrian couldn’t help but smile.

 
"Well there you have it Mr. Wright, we would be
more than happy to use your services. And would that include my home as well?
We only live down the street but the driveway is pretty long."

Adrian
nodded his head. "You moved into the Chamberlain's place right? The bi
g Victorian?"

She
looked at him with curiosity. "Oh trust me honey, we knew you were moving
here probably before you did!" Sterling said in jest.

"Welcome
to small town living," Adrian joked
.

Since
Christmas was only a few days away, Ava decided to do some holiday match
making. "So tell me Adrian, how does your wife feel about you being out
all night plowing?"

"I
wouldn’t
know, I don’t have one." He smiled
and took the cup of coffee that Kelly had poured for him.

"No?"
Well I'm surprised to h
ear that, but how about a
girlfriend?"

He shook
his head. "Nope, don’t have one of those either.
"

"Well
this just keeps getting better and better," she grinned at Kelly.

"
Damn woman, just get to the point will you? Adrian,
Ava here is trying to set you up with Kelly, so once again Kelly this is
Adrian, Adrian this is Kelly." The four of them burst out laughing at the
crassness of Sterling's statement. "What?" He said when they all
looked at him.

"I
was just saying what you all were thinking
! Now
you two get better acquainted while Ava and I get to work. Come on Miss
Ava," he insisted as he and Ava walked towards the back.

Ava
looked at him with warmth in her eyes. "What'd I do?" He questioned
her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Oh
it's nothing; it's just that someone I used to know liked to call me Miss Ava
that's all. When you said that just now it reminded me of her.
"

"Well
judging by the look on your
face I'd say that
you liked this woman very much and I have no doubt that she loved you."

"How
is it that you know just the right thing to say?" she playfully nudged him
.

He
smiled. "I told you It's a gift." He winked
.

Chapter Twenty Three

It was
Christmas morning and Magnus was sitting on the sofa, he had spent the night at
his parents place as was tradition and now he sat showered, dressed, and
thinking about no one but Ava. Why hadn’t she tried to contact him? She hadn’t
replied to any of his emails either. The last time he spoke to her was shortly
after she'd arrived in Vermont. She told him that she had arrived safely and
that the house was even more beautiful now that it belonged to her.

She'd
even said that she couldn’t wait for him to see it, but now there was nothing,
no contact what so ever.
Not even a call to wish
me a Merry Christmas,
he thought.
"Well don’t let me stop you from living your life," he mumbled and
stared out into the early morning.

"Why
so m
elancholy son? Are you missing your
Ava?" His mother asked.

He turned
away from the window and faced her. "I am mom, but she hasn't been in
contact with me and I'm afraid that I lost her.
"

"Son, she needed some space is all so give it
to her. Finish your book tour if you must and when you get all of this out of
your system go to her."

"Get what out of my system? Mom, what are you
talking about?
"

"Magnus,
I've seen this side of you before. You've got the same look in your eye that
you used to g
et when you worked with your daddy.
You're in this for the wrong reasons, you used to love to write son and you
were humble about your success."

Magnus
released a snicker. "Mom, I've gone on book tours before.
"

"I
know you have son but you've never been th
is
calculated about it. Yes you've written another best seller but have you
actually taken the time to ask some of your readers what the book has brought
to their lives? Or what about it they like so much? I bet you haven’t even done
that have you son? And you used to thank each and every fan when you signed
their books. Now I bet you barely look up when a reader comes to you for an
autograph."

 
Magnus knew that she was right; he barely looked at
his fans anymore, let alone ask them what part of the book they enjoyed the most.
He missed that, he missed that personal interaction he had with his fans.
"Things have gotten too commercial for you son, after this tour you need
to reprioritize and figure out what you want out of life. Your father and I
won't be around forever Magnus and you're our only son, we need some
grandchildren to spoil. Call her," she said and kissed him on the cheek.

Steve had
told him that all of the information that was on his old phone had been synced
into the new one so he found it odd that when he searched through his contacts
for Ava's number, it was gone. 

"Merry
Christmas to you too buddy, I hope you're getting some much needed rest.
Remember we head back out in two days," Steve reminded him. As if he could
forget.  Steve had expanded his tour to the
Southwest.

"Yeah
I got it Steve listen, I thought I asked you to sync all my contacts onto the
new phone?"

"I
did.
"

"Well
if that's the case then how come I can't find Ava's number on my phone?
"

Steve sat
on the other end of the line rolling his eyes. "Guess the tech at the
phone stor
e messed up sorry about that." He
lied.

"Well
hey; I don’t suppose you could get in touch with Kelly could you? She knows
Ava's number by heart I'm sure."

"No
can do
buddy, Kelly and I are in the middle of a
divorce, you know this. My lawyer wants me to have no contact with her what so
ever."

Magnus
nodded his head. "Right, I forgot about that. Okay, so give me Kelly's
number and I'll ask her myself."

"S
orry, can't do that either. Magnus, she's no longer on
my cell plan so I'm sure she's gone ahead and gotten a new number." Once
again Steve lied.  His wife was dropped from his cellular plan but even
though she'd switched carriers, she'd been able to keep the same number.

"Thanks
for nothing Steve," Magnus said and ended the call
.

 
After sending her another email, he then located the
number to the shop. It would be closed today but he hoped that there would be
an answering machine. If not, he'd keep calling until he got through.

 "Where
you able to get through to Magnus?" Kelly asked. She and Adrian had come
into the kitchen. They had just finished exchanging gifts. Adrian told her that
even though he just met her, it didn’t seem right not to exchange gifts and she
agreed. He'd gotten her a hat, scarf, gloves and bag made by a local designer.
"It's the most thoughtful gift that anyone has ever given me," she'd
told him. And she meant it, it was a gift that he'd taken the time to think
about and she appreciated that.

 
She'd gotten him several flannel shirts, a pair of
timberland boots and several other novelty gifts. "I promise I'll do
better next time," she winked.

"You
did perfect," he told her and boldly gave her a k
iss.

Seeing
them kiss brought an ache to her heart, she was trying very hard to remain upbeat
but it was becoming more and more difficult because she couldn’t get in touch
with Magnus. She'd thought that today of all days would be when he would
contact her
but so far there was nothing.
"He's changed his number or something," she told them. "When I
tried calling it says the number is no longer in service. Well that's that
then." She took a deep breath.

 
Kelly went over to her friend. "Ava, I am sure
there's a reasonable explanation for all of this, but for now you've got to
stop worrying about him and try to enjoy the day. This is your favorite holiday
remember? So let's try to enjoy it."

"You're
right; come on you two, let's go open the rest of th
e presents. And when Sterling and Anthony get here maybe they'll bring
the snow," she joked.

Ava left
her cell phone in the kitchen; she didn’t want to have to carry it around
checking it every second to see if Magnus had called. This day in particular
she found herself talking to the baby that was growing inside of her. She
talked about Christmas being her favorite holiday and how this time next year,
she would be even more excited because she would be spending the holiday with
the new addition to the family. "You and I are going to make a great team
kid. No matter what," she laughed and caressed her belly.

 December
didn’t bring snow but January certainly did and the small town came together as
it braced itself for the first major storm of the new year. Neighbors began
checking on one another making sure that they had everything they needed to
weather the storm. Ava had been advised to close the shop and cancel all
deliveries so she did just that, and while she and Kelly stocked up on all the
necessities, Magnus tried calling the store once again. He was in New Mexico
and had gotten wind of the major snow storm that was headed for the northeast.

"God
I hope she's alright," he whispered as he listened to the phone ring and
ring. Even though she had opened the shop the very next day after moving in,
she had inadvertently forgotten to set up the voicemail account on the store
telephone. And she hadn’t bothered with setting up phone service for the house;
she'd been so use to using the cell. "I'll get to it eventually," she
told herself. It wasn’t a priority.