Ashleigh's Dilemma Read Online Free

it would look good in the hall leading from her front door. 
    “ Indian Church - it's probably why we're sitting here today,” Patrick said and quickly continued,  “As I said, I lived for... gosh it must have been almost twenty years on the coast, mostly on Vancouver Island, just outside of Campbell River. Just standing in those forests was like... for me anyway... standing in a church.”
    Ashleigh immediately said, shaking her head and ada mant; “I don't believe in God. I don't go to church.”
    “But you appreciate beauty; that's what I'm talking about.”
    That stopped her. Again, without looking at him, she nodded. A red hue had returned to her face as if he had caught her out on something she preferred had remained hidden. He found out later she had been raised a Catholic and the experience had not been a happy one.
    They talked on until the allotted forty-five minutes was up. In the parking lot, Patrick offered, calling to her as she headed to her hybrid without glancing back at him. “That was good. I mean, that went all right.” Ashleigh reluctantly acknowledged him with a brief nod, still without looking at him.
    “A hike, then?” Patrick persisted. “Sunday? The McKeldin area - it's just up on Merrickville Road, only a few miles from here?”
    Ashleigh hesitated as she was about to climb into her car, saying neither yes nor no.
    Patrick pressed, “Eleven o'clock, then?”
    “Maybe.”
    She climbed into her car. He held the door, stopping her from closing it.
    “Let go.”
    “Say yes, then!”
    “Yes.”
    He let her shut the door and she drove off without so much as a glance back or a smile, but with her hand half-raised in a motionless wave. That was something anyway, he thought.
     
    Sunday came. Eleven o'clock. Eleven fifteen... Eleven thirty and still no Ashleigh. Patrick sighed and struck out on his own across the parking lot. It was too good to be true, he thought; but at the same time, he knew from their lunch three days earlier that she had been less than enthused. It may be for the best he thought just as Ashleigh drove up and then past him. She didn't smile as she passed, but just nodded, keeping both hands on the wheel. She parked and stepped out, lifted a hand to acknowledge the best and most vibrant smile Patrick could muster, and then walked back toward the gate away from him. She was wearing  brand new and very stylish hiking clothes, Patrick noted; she looked good, athletic; but if she'd worn them even once before he'd be amazed. Still, he didn't notice any crease lines so they must have been laundered at least once. She was heading toward the gate to pay the voluntary two-dollar fee. She was fumbling with the yellow envelop as Patrick approached.
    “Nice to see you again, Ashleigh; but I was beginning to wonder.” To his ears, he sounded peevish but he didn't feel that way. Above all, he did not want to give her the idea he was in any way upset by her being a bit late. 
    “Sorry, I was running late,” she said and ripped off the tag, punched out the date, and stepped around him, heading back to her car to place it on the dash all the while not giving so much as a glance in his direction. What he didn’t know was that she had stopped along the side of the road and waited for a few moments until she felt better. It was her nerves, she knew. They were hard to control.
    Patrick led the way along the trail. It was a beautiful fall day; the day was warm, the sky a cloudless blue, and the leaves, still mostly on the trees, a riot of color. The wind rustled through the trees sending spirals of leaves tumbling downward to land at their feet. They walked side by side kicking up the leaves and as Ashleigh slipped into the day, the sunlight, and Patrick’s easy company, she began to open. Soon they were bantering back and forth, she not looking at him but keeping her eyes looking forward along the trail. Patrick discovered that Ashleigh had a PhD in Physics from Johns Hopkins , which