Her Cinderella Heart by Ruth Scofield

Author:Ruth Scofield
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2006-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Cassie heard the doorbell late in the day. It was almost dark. She opened the door, seeing a young man with a delivery of long-stemmed red roses. Her gaze on the box, her breath caught.

“For me?” she questioned the young delivery man. He squinted his eyes through round glasses.

He glanced again at the address, and said, “Are you Cassandra Manning?”

“Yes.”

Placing the box into her hands, he said, “Then they’re yours.”

She’d never received roses before. She turned back into the house, excited to receive roses from Peter, but still hurt over his snub at church. All through the service, she’d sat beside Pam and smothered her hurt feelings with silence.

Finding a vase, she opened the box with care, marveling at the deep red color of the flowers. She was aware of the note…but she saved that for reading later. At that moment she wanted to appreciate her roses without thinking of who had sent them.

She carried the vase into the living room and set them on the mantel. Then she decided they’d look better on the dining room table. She stared at them at that location. They looked lovely there, but she spent hardly any time in the dining room. Finally, she settled for the coffee table in the living room, where she often curled up on the couch.

She sat there now, and at last pulled the note from its envelope. The signature was Peter’s, all right. Only two short sentences apologized for his snub this morning.

“My deepest apologies, sweetheart. Next time.”

Her heart began to pound. He’d called her “sweetheart.” Did he mean that?

Whether he did or not, she’d enjoy the roses. She wouldn’t read too much into the apology, she decided. She’d just enjoy the attention for what it was. And the lovely roses.

Another surprise came the next morning at school.

“Miss Manning, would you please come to the office?” an announcement came over the buzzer, just before noon.

Cassie glanced up. Her class was in the middle of a math lesson. She glanced about the room, and said, “William, would you please act as monitor, and everyone else, stay put. Do the exercises on page twenty-three. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Cassie rose from her desk, and brushed down her denim skirt. Could Mrs. Hagan, that too-involved mother, be calling again? The woman called more often than Cassie was comfortable with, but she usually saved the calls until the end of the day. She left her classroom and hurried down the long hall toward the office. She approached the front desk, her anxiety showing, she was sure.

“What is it, Terry?” she asked the secretary.

“A delivery came for you,” Terry said, her eyes sparkling. “A personal delivery. I thought you might want these right away to put them in water.”

A personal delivery? She glanced at a smiling Terry as she accepted a florist’s box. The principal watched from her doorway, and the part-time secretary was smiling.

She glanced back at the box. Enormous curiosity overtook her anxiety. She lifted the lid. This time it was pink roses, two dozen of them.

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