Page 79 of Carpenter's Christmas Bride

He leaned in closer, his eyes drifting to her mouth and up to her eyes again.

She felt a pull that made her think of gravity, only stronger, and she couldn’t help leaning in to meet him in the middle.

When he pressed his warm lips to hers, she nearly swooned. Her whole life had been leading to this moment, and now that it was here, it felt like she was melting and crystalizing all at once, starting down the path of the person she would become—a wife, a mother, a grandmother running a ballet school and giving the best advice.

The audience began to cheer, and she pulled back immediately, feeling a little embarrassed that their first kiss had happened with a hundred people watching.

Aidan smiled at her, as if to tell her that it was okay to pull away.

“I’ll start looking for work in Minnesota,” he told her, slipping the candy ring onto her finger.

“I don’t want to go to Minnesota,” she told him.

There were oohs, and aahs in the audience.

“Back to New York, then?” he said. “I can work with that.”

“No,” she whispered.

Sounds of surprise came from everyone around then. Kenzie tried to ignore the noises of people who thought she was quitting on her dreams. Only she knew her dreams.

“No?” he asked.

“I was going to talk with my grandmother first,” she said. “But I might as well say it now. I want to stay right here. If you and Walt don’t mind a quieter life.”

“Mind it?” he said. “We’d love it.”

There were chuckles and cheers throughout the theatre, and even some of the dancers whooped backstage.

“Okay,” Kenzie said firmly. “Sit down now, please. The show must go on.”

“Anything for my fiancée,” he said, happily taking the seat beside her and wrapping his big hand around hers.

“Let’s go from the top of cue eighty-seven,” Grandma Lee’s voice called out happily from the booth.

The lights dimmed slightly, came up again, and the dancers did tiny reprisals of each dance in the ballet, while the audience cheered for them.

Aidan squeezed Kenzie’s hand, Walt snuggled into her neck, and Kenzie knew right down to her bones that she had made the best decision she could have made—the only one that was in her heart.

In the whole world, there was no place she would rather be, and no one she would rather be beside.

24

KENZIE

Kenzie stood at the barre in her home on Christmas Eve and studied herself in the mirror, feeling strangely at peace.

All her life she had been looking in the mirror to find flaws and correct them, or to confirm that her hard work was paying off. Tonight, she was looking at a woman who had put on a few pounds eating delicious foods over the last few weeks, and who wasn’t as strong or flexible as she had been a few months ago.

But instead of dwelling on those things, she found herself noticing the twinkle of happiness in her eyes instead, and enjoying her slightly softer curves and rounder cheeks.

Who am I kidding? I didn’t have any curves at all before, and I’m probably just wishfully thinking that I have them now. But I like where I am. I like being MacKenzie Forrest.

It felt good to look in the mirror and be satisfied. There would be plenty of other areas in her life where she would be reaching and striving soon enough. Teaching, choreographing, and running a non-profit would surely stretch her creativity in ways she couldn’t imagine right now.

And she wasn’t going to be MacKenzie Forrest for long. She was having so much fun with Aidan and Walt lately that it was harder and harder to say goodbye at the door each night. They had decided on a fun and casual wedding just after Christmas, when her parents were back in town.

Aidan had worried that she would miss having a big fancy wedding with hundreds of eyes on her. But she explained that she’d had enough performing to last a lifetime, and what she really wanted was something smaller and more intimate—something that felt like it was just for the three of them.

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