Page 58 of Carpenter's Christmas Bride

“Your wish is my command,” he told her, leading the way so that he could put the tokens in the slots. “Ready?”

“Very ready,” she told him, leaning her crutches against the wall and grabbing her mallet.

“Here we go,” he said as the music began and the lights on the machine started to swirl.

Kenzie slammed her mallet down on the first mole so fast he hadn’t even realized it was rising up. He was so mesmerized that he missed his while she hit another. The expression of concentration and delight on her face made him smile inside.

“Come on, Webb,” she yelled. “I thought you hit things with hammers all day.”

“These are mallets,” he told her, whacking a mole a little too late.

“Whatever they are, put them to work,” she told him. “We want those tickets.”

He laughed out loud and joined her, doing his best to keep up with his energetic ballerina. When the scores rolled up at the end he groaned out loud and made a show of being distraught that she had beaten him so soundly.

“Sore loser?” she teased him.

“You didn’t just beat me,” he moaned with a smile. “You mopped the floor with me.”

“Well, get used to it, partner. I play to win,” she told him.

“How about the driving game,” he said, pointing to a double seater with steering wheels. “Loser buys ice cream for the winner.”

“You’re on,” she said, laughing and grabbing her crutches.

By the time they were out of tokens, Aidan’s face ached from smiling so much. He couldn’t remember the last time that happened. He and Kenzie headed up to the counter with a big handful of tickets.

“Okay, let’s see,” the lady said, feeding the tickets into the machine on the counter. “Two hundred twenty-seven. You can choose anything in that bin.”

The two of them crouched by the glass counter and realized at the same time that there was only one bin of prizes worth up to five hundred tickets.

“I guess neither of us did that well,” Kenzie whispered to Aidan, which for some reason made him want to crack up all over again.

“Okay, kids,” the lady said. “Red or blue?”

“Definitely blue,” Kenzie said.

As the lady lifted the bin out, Aidan realized that the only thing in the bin was ring pops—red and blue ring pops.

“Here you go,” she said, handing the prize to Aidan.

“Very nice,” he replied, suddenly feeling awkward.

It’s not a real ring, he told himself. But that only made him feel like even more of a weirdo. Act normal…

“You keep it,” Kenzie said flatly.

Had she figured out that he felt weird about giving her a ring? Did she feel weird about it too?

“Thanks,” he told her, shoving it quickly into his jacket pocket. “Let’s go get that ice cream I owe you.”

She nodded but he couldn’t help noticing that she wasn’t smiling up at him like she’d been doing all day.

I’ll get her the most massive ice cream cone she’s ever seen, he told himself as they headed back into the relative silence of the mall. That will cheer her up.

But a touch of the magic between them had disappeared, and he wasn’t exactly sure why, but he couldn’t help thinking it was his fault.

17

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