11. Kenzie

11

KENZIE

K enzie sat on the sofa feeling like a child on Christmas morning as her best friend handed her a stack of library books, the volumes crinkling in their protective coverings as she took them in her hands.

“All romances?” she asked hopefully.

“All romances,” Mal confirmed. “And nice ones—nothing you’d be ashamed for your grandma to catch you reading.”

Kenzie laughed at that idea as she looked through the books, smiling at the pretty covers.

“I saw your carpenter while I was at the library,” Mal said. She was using the light, indifferent tone that told Kenzie she very much knew she was spilling a juicy tidbit.

“Oh yeah?” Kenzie asked, pretending to examine the back of one of her books.

“He and his little boy were up in the kids’ section, but I could hear every word they said,” Mal said .

“Aren’t the romance books in the back?” Kenzie asked.

“Well, I pretended to be looking at the town history stuff,” Mal admitted. “Because as I was walking past, I heard them asking Miss Caroline for books about ballet .”

“What?” Kenzie demanded, forgetting to play it cool.

“The kid wanted a book about a ballerina, ” Mal said. “And Aidan asked if she had anything like that.”

Kenzie swallowed hard, and reminded herself that of course Walt was a very little boy, and he would be interested in the new people he met.

“Then once she got those books for Walt, she asked Aidan if he wanted any books about ballet,” Mal said. “She told him they had some really good biographies.”

“He didn’t, did he?” Kenzie asked, figuring the answer had to be no. It was one thing for Walt to want to know more about his new friend, but Aidan wasn’t going to take such an interest in her.

“No,” Mal confirmed, shaking her head. “But he did ask her if they had anything about sports injuries.”

Kenzie blinked at her bestie for a moment, trying to think of any other reason he would want a book like that.

“He wants to help you, Kenzie,” Mal said, her eyes wide. “Or at least he’s interested. It’s not like he has a sports injury of his own.”

“Wow,” Kenzie said again, not sure what to think.

Before she had time to sort out her feelings, there was a knock on the door and it opened a few inches.

“It’s Aidan and I’ve got a helper with me,” the familiar deep voice called out. “Are we okay to come in?”

Mal’s eyes got wide as saucers, and Kenzie had to hold in a giggle. They were like little kids getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar—gossiping about Aidan and then having him show up in the middle of the conversation.

“Absolutely,” she called back to Aidan.

The door opened all the way, and Aidan stepped in, his neutral expression turning into a frown when he spotted Mal on the sofa beside her.

“I didn’t want to make you get up,” he said defensively.

“I’m the one that told you to just knock and come in,” Kenzie reminded him with a friendly smile. “I’m glad you’re here. I’m excited to be able to get back to training.”

“We won’t finish today,” Aidan warned her, his frown still firmly in place.

“I know,” she told him. “But we’ll be one day closer, right?”

“Hey, I grabbed your tools,” another male voice said from outside.

“Bring ‘em in,” Aidan said, stepping inside to make room for the other man to come in with what he was carrying.

Kenzie could feel Mal tensing up beside her. She turned to her friend to see what was going on.

“Declan Hawkins,” Mal murmured, as if she were in a trance.

“Hey, Mallory,” Declan said lightly as he entered with two massive tool bags, his muscular arms straining the limits of his red and black flannel.

Mal looked like she was melting.

Kenzie tried not to smile at her friend’s obvious crush.

“Hi,” Mal squeaked, leaping up and scrambling for the door before seeming to remember her best friend was still on the sofa. “See you tomorrow, Kenzie.”

“Oh,” Declan said, looking after her in a confused way. After a moment, he shook his head with a little half smile and crouched over one of the bags, looking through it for something.

Declan Hawkins had been the head of the popular crowd in high school, but a little before Kenzie’s time. Back then, he was on the football team and the honor roll, and he’d been voted the head of the student union. Even now he carried himself like a leader, though he had taken over his father’s local roofing business when the older man got hurt, instead of going off to conquer the world like everyone expected.

And the fact that Kenzie knew that much about him ought to have clued her in to Mal’s crush. Mal had been catching her up about people in town, but why a roofer who they hadn’t even been in school with?

Kenzie figured Declan and Mal had something in common, with both of them sticking around when others had moved on. And they both seemed really happy running their own businesses right here in town.

“We’re going to start carrying in the mirrors,” Aidan said, interrupting her train of thought. “You can stay in here if you want, but you’ll have to stay really still and try not to distract us. Those big sections of glass are heavy and dangerous.”

She noticed he was being gentler than before, and making eye contact too.

“Uh, I’ll just go in the kitchen for a while,” she told him, feeling her cheeks heat as she scrambled for her crutches and tried to grab the small stack of books.

“I’ve got them,” he told her brusquely, grabbing the books from the table.

She died a little inside as he looked at the cover of the one on top. It featured a holiday scene with a man and a woman embracing, a little boy standing beside them, holding the man’s hand, with a big smile on his little face.

Seriously, Mal? I get it that you’re trying to tell me something with this book. But how could you leave me with it when he’s right here?

Clearing his throat, Aidan wrapped a big hand around all of the books in an obvious ploy to make it look like he hadn’t noticed that cover. But the truth was written all over his face.

Kenzie swung herself off to the kitchen on her crutches, feeling grateful for once that Aidan kept up such a firm wall between his thoughts and his conversation.

When she reached the kitchen, she headed to the little window seat overlooking the front yard. She had spent plenty of time here curled up with a book over the years while her mother cooked or talked on the phone with her friends, sipping endless cups of hazelnut coffee and sounding alternately like an advice columnist and a gossip columnist. Kenzie was never sure if she learned more about life from the books she was reading, or her mother’s frank revelations.

At any rate, scooting into the pleasant space now made her feel more relaxed again. After all, she was free to read what she wanted and it was unlikely that Aidan would say anything about it.

“You like these books?” he muttered as he handed them to her.

Gobsmacked, she stared at him for a moment, wondering what had gotten into her stoic new friend.

“I haven’t read them yet,” she said carefully after a moment. “But yes, I like this kind of book, if that’s what you mean. I like books about found family and I like stories to have a happy ending.”

He only grunted noncommittally.

“What?” she said, ready for him to tell her that romance books were silly.

“It’s nice for stories to have a happy ending,” he said, shrugging.

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

She nodded back, wondering what kind of maniac would disagree.

“But real life isn’t like that,” Aidan said, gesturing to the books that now rested on the table in front of her.

“Oh no?” she asked. “What would your aunt and uncle say to that? Seems to me you have a perfect example of a happy ending right in your own family.”

He blinked at her as if he hadn’t thought about that.

“And why should entertainment be realistic anyway?” she demanded. “It seems like nobody cares about realism when a man has a science fiction book in his hand, even though that’s nothing like real life.”

Aidan’s eyebrows shot up and he looked like someone had slapped him. He was getting her point, all right. She waited for him to pull himself together and double down on his backward ideas about what a person should read. But he surprised her instead.

“You’re right,” he said simply, making eye contact with her again. “Sorry if I offended you. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s okay,” she said, shrugging and looking back down at her books. “You’re not the only person to think that a man and woman falling in love and being happy is less realistic than Jurassic Park.”

He made a funny little sound, and she looked up, stunned to realize that Aidan Webb was chuckling.

“Are you laughing at me?” she demanded, smiling at him so he would know she was teasing.

He was looking at her with softness in his eyes and her heart fluttered helplessly in her chest.

“Sorry to interrupt you lovebirds,” Declan said suddenly from the doorway. “But I’m double-parked out front, so we should probably start unloading.”

“Right,” Aidan said, straightening up quickly, his usual frown back on his face. “Let’s go. Stay in here, Kenzie.”

“Happy to help,” she quipped, grabbing a book.

Aidan didn’t react, but Declan chuckled.

“Hey, my mom is reading that one,” he said, indicating the book in her hand.

Naturally, she had grabbed the one with the couple and the little boy on it.

“How is it?” she asked.

“Well, she was reading it last night and again at the breakfast table,” Declan said. “So I’m going to guess pretty good. ”

“Perfect,” Kenzie said happily.

The men headed out to start the project, and she settled in with her book.

She got into it quickly, in spite of the sounds in the other room, and was happy for the distraction. As soon as Aidan pointed out that working with the big mirrors was dangerous she had been worrying about it in the back of her mind. But the book really was good, and she found herself getting lost in it until her eyelids started feeling heavy.

Kenzie snapped awake, and for a moment she was completely confused. The window seat was drenched in sunlight now, and the book lay on her chest. She must have dozed off for a minute.

No noises came from the family room anymore. The house was completely silent except for the gurgle of the radiator and the faint sound of chickadees chirping in the big tree out front.

She stretched and got up, grabbing her crutches, and heading back to the family room. It was much brighter than usual, and it took Kenzie a second to realize that it was because the mirrors were up, reflecting afternoon light all over the room.

The guys had done a great job. She would be able to see herself from head to toe when she trained now. And as soon as Aidan put a barre up for her, she could get to work. She wanted to thank him, but there was no sign of either of the men .

She looked around and noticed a folded piece of paper wedged in the back door. She headed over and grabbed it, unfolding it as she stood by the door. It was a note, written on the back of a hardware store receipt.

Kenzie,

We finished up, but I didn’t want to disturb you while you were reading. This is it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow to install the barres.

-Aidan

Kenzie read the note a second time, and then a laugh bubbled out of her chest.

She never would have thought Aidan Webb would be a writer of thoughtful notes. And she hadn’t been reading. She had obviously been sleeping pretty hard if she hadn’t heard him come in to tell her he was leaving.

He hadn’t even shot her off a quick text. The man was really trying to let her sleep. Smiling to herself, she carried the note back to the kitchen and instead of throwing it away, she decided to use it as a bookmark.

I’m not being weird about it, she told herself. I just don’t have a bookmark handy.

She grabbed her books from the kitchen and carefully headed back into the family room with them, placing them gently on the table by the sofa, and chuckled again at the idea that Aidan must have tiptoed away when he found her asleep.

She pictured his frowning face as he jotted down the note, and she laughed again, charmed by his good manners.

In the mirror, another Kenzie laughed along with her. That version of her also had a sleepy look on her face, and her leg in a big boot. But she looked happy .

Kenzie had often been told she had a sunny disposition, but she had dismissed it. A lot of people were cheerful. It was nothing unusual.

But thinking about it now, she appreciated her nature. And it was thanks to Aidan making her see herself in a new light. She was lucky, really. What would it be like to always have a frown, and to greet every new situation with suspicion and dread?

But he’d been different today, back in the kitchen, when they talked about books. He was more relaxed with her now.

Her eyes were drawn back to the note in her hand again. He would be back tomorrow. Maybe there was something she could do to help him brighten his mood.