Page 16 of Carpenter's Christmas Bride

“She was way behind me,” he told her. “I think she was a freshman when I was a senior.”

“Well, she danced here in town with her grandmother, of course, and then she was accepted into an academy in New York to dance with the ballet there when she was only a year or so into high school,” his aunt said. “She got into the professional company after that and danced for years before she finally made it to the bigger parts. This winter was her first principal role.”

“Wow,” he said, impressed.

“Except she got badly injured during her very first performance,” Aunt Leticia said, shaking her head. “There was a piece about it in the Philly paper this morning, if you’re curious. It’s devastating.”

“Maybe that’s why she cried so much,” he realized out loud.

“She cried?” Aunt Leticia echoed in horror.

“Well, she hit my car—” he began.

“Good heavens,” Aunt Leticia said. “Are you okay? Is she okay?”

“Oh, it was just with a shopping cart,” he said. “But I sort of yelled at her.”

“A shopping cart?”

“Well, it was a very full shopping cart,” he said defensively.

“Why would you yell at her after all she’s been through?” Aunt Leticia asked with a frown.

“I didn’t know about all that then,” he said, feeling even more annoyed with himself than she was. “Anyway, I think we’re good now.”

“Why did she have a shopping cart?” Uncle Simon called to him from the family room.

“Are you good with Mallory now, too?” Aunt Leticia asked at the same time. “I want to be able to show my face in town.”

Aidan felt another pang of guilt for not exactly explaining or apologizing to Mallory, even when he’d seen her today. He’d been hoping maybe his aunt had said something, but it sounded like maybe she hadn’t.

“Well, she was the one who recommended me to MacKenzie,” he said. “So I guess we’re all good now.”

Aunt Leticia nodded, looking satisfied.

“You’d better do a great job for MacKenzie Forrest,” his uncle called to him from the other room. “That kid could use a win.”

She’s not the only one, he thought to himself.

But when his gaze returned to Walt, who was concentrating hard, his little mouth pouting slightly, Aidan remembered how incredibly lucky he already was.

The last thing he needed to be thinking about was romance.

6

KENZIE

Kenzie sat at one of the café tables in Mal’s bakery, nursing a peppermint tea and watching her bestie at work.

She already knew that Mal came to the bakery most mornings at an ungodly hour to start the incredible offerings in the glass case. But she hadn’t breathed a word of complaint this morning, and she didn’t even look particularly tired.

And while Kenzie was pretty sure her friend would never exactly get rich from running a small-town bakery, the place seemed to do a brisk business, and the customers all had really nice things to say. Mal had clearly made her dream job into a reality.

Imagine having a dream that you could do your whole life…

She watched Mal hand a paper coffee cup and a croissant wrapped in wax paper to the girl who ran the bookshop, and then help a little boy choose a doughnut, looking truly happy the whole time, even though she had several more customers to serve and no guarantee that the line would ever get any shorter.

Kenzie wondered what would happen if her friend sold all the baked goods this morning. Would she just have to close up for the day? But the line was already getting shorter now, so maybe that wasn’t a real threat.

---