Page 77 of Carpenter's Christmas Bride

“I’m a dad, and I can’t play games, so I’m laying it all on the line,” he went on. “MacKenzie Forrest, will you marry me?”

He held out the item he’d been holding in his hand and the faded house lights caught it, causing it to shimmer in the light.

“It’s a ring pop,” Walt announced happily.

He was right. It was the same blue ring pop Aidan had shoved in his pocket the other day at the mall.

“I’ll replace it with a real ring as soon as possible,” he whispered.

The ladies sitting in front of them smiled.

All Kenzie wanted was to launch herself into his arms.

“Aidan, do you mean this?” Kenzie heard herself ask instead.

“Yes,” he said. “Of course I do.”

“And it’s not just because of Dmitri?” she asked. “We’re just friends.”

“Nope,” Aidan said, shaking his head.

“Just so you know, I’m already married, buddy,” Dmitri stage whispered from his spot by the back wall. “And we’ve got three little girls.”

The audience began to giggle in earnest.

“It doesn’t matter,” Aidan said firmly. “This is what I want, and it’s what Walt wants too.”

Kenzie bit her lip, knowing she had to answer, but afraid that he wasn’t backing down after hearing about Dmitri only because he had an audience.

“Can you think about it a little bit more?” she asked in a loud enough voice for everyone to hear. “We should spend a little more time together.”

“Sure,” he said, his face falling a little. “Of course.”

When he stood, he looked incredibly awkward.

“Sit down,” Kenzie whispered to him. “Put Walt between us in case he has questions about the ballet. As soon as the dancing starts people will forget all about us.”

Aidan was in a haze, but the big man did as he was told and took his seat, sending Walt to sit between them.

Only a few seconds later, Grandma Lee came out in one of her beautiful flowing dresses and welcomed everyone to the production, which Kenzie realized was going to start a few minutes late for the first time in its history at the ballet theatre, all because of her own disorganized love life.

Her cheeks heated even though Grandma Lee gave her a twinkly-eyed smile before stepping off the stage and heading back to the booth.

Then the lights went down, the music came up, and for an hour they were all transported by the beautiful story of a childhood Christmas and the magic of a little girl’s imagination.

Walt wiggled in his seat beside her a few times, but it was mainly because he was so excited—especially when the Nutcracker Prince fought the Rat King. When intermission came, Aidan took him to the bathroom while Kenzie stepped outside for a little cold fresh air.

She moved down the steps of the theatre’s main entrance and slipped up onto the porch entry to the office where she could be alone and look out over the village.

There were a few cut Christmas trees left across the street on the library lawn, and lights and decorations adorned every shop and house she could see from here. Trinity Falls was magical at this time of year. She had missed it more than she knew.

“Seems like opportunities are cropping up for you at every turn,” Grandma Lee’s warm voice said as she joined Kenzie on the porch. “Artistic director of a professional ballet company, huh? And you can bring your new husband and son if you want?”

“It doesn’t feel real,” Kenzie said, shaking her head. “But wait. How did you know?”

“Oh, news travels fast in a small town,” her grandmother said. “All the kids were going nuts over it on that app backstage.”

“BeeBop,” Kenzie said, smiling in spite of herself. “Who would have thought you’d find all this out from an app instead of from me?”

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