Page 84 of Carpenter's Christmas Bride

Dozens of kids from the ballet community mingled with family she’d known all her life, and she spotted plenty of faces that were familiar but that she didn’t know as well, since they were Aidan’s friends.

“Oh, wow,” Kenzie breathed when she realized that the stage area held the beautiful set pieces for the wedding scenes in Sleeping Beauty.

“I thought you might like that,” Grandma Lee said with twinkly eyes as she approached.

“Great-Grandma Lee,” Walt yelled. His husky voice was filled with excitement as he ran over to throw his arms around her, as if they hadn’t just left her ten minutes ago at the church.

“Oh, Walt, I’m so glad you’re here,” his great-grandmother said. “There are lots of children here today, and I’ll bet they would love to have a dance party with you.”

The two of them headed into the thick of the party together, leaving Kenzie and Aidan relatively on their own for the first time since their wedding rings had gone on their fingers.

“How do you feel?” Aidan asked quietly.

“Are you kidding?” she asked. “It doesn’t get better than this. How about you? Is my grumpy carpenter ready to face a couple of hours of being friendly?”

“I don’t think I’m grumpy anymore,” he said, frowning.

She tried and failed not to giggle.

“Fine,” he said, giving her a smile. “I’m not grumpy when I’m with you.”

“That’s all Walt and I can ask,” she told him, squeezing his hand.

“Aidan, Kenzie,” Sebastian Radcliffe said, approaching them with a smile. “Congratulations.”

The local rancher had moved out from the city last year, buying up land like it was his mission in life. It turned out, it had been. He was smiling at the two of them now, looking like James Bond in his bespoke suit.

“To you as well,” Aidan said. “How’s Emma?”

“She’s incredible,” Radcliffe said, with a faraway look in his eyes. “You’ll see her soon. She got pulled into a conversation the minute we walked in.”

“That sounds like Emma,” Kenzie said, with a fond smile.

“Listen,” Radcliffe said. “I hate to talk shop on your wedding day, Webb. But I just wanted to put a bug in your ear.”

“Talk to me,” Aidan said.

“You know Emma and I are settling on the homestead,” Radcliffe said. “The buildings are historic masterpieces, but they haven’t been kept well.”

Kenzie knew the Williams family hadn’t really had the resources to maintain the massive estate over the last few generations, as more and more Williams kids had gone off to the city instead of working the land.

Logan and his new wife Caroline had opened some school and tourist attractions on the land to try and reinvigorate the place, but things were taking off slowly.

Luckily, Baz Radcliffe had fallen madly in love with the youngest of the current Williams siblings, and the billionaire seemed committed to saving the place.

“Understood,” Aidan said. “It’s a shame, those are some of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that,” Radcliffe said. “When I heard you were moving back to Trinity Falls, I hoped I might be the first to get on your client list.”

Aidan squeezed Kenzie’s hand and cleared his throat. She knew to her bones he was trying not to shout with excitement and throw his arms around the other man.

“I know it’s a lot,” Radcliffe went on. “But you’re an artist, and I expect your fees to go along with that. You’d have an unlimited budget for supplies. And of course, there’s probably decades of work on the homestead for a master carpenter, so it goes without saying that there’s no rush. You’re free to go at your own pace and do other jobs in between, or help out around here, if you want. I hear you volunteer down at the firehouse too. That’s commendable.”

Aidan was basically being offered his dream job. And Radcliffe had done his homework—he knew Aidan was going to be starting his business out here, and even that he had signed up to help out with sets at the ballet theatre and was a volunteer firefighter.

Now it was Kenzie’s turn to try not to scream and hug Sebastian Radcliffe.

“That’s… well, that’s about the best wedding present I could ask for,” Aidan told Sebastian, his voice deep with emotion.

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