16. Aidan

16

AIDAN

A idan had to smile as he walked Kenzie out of the department store. He was carrying so many bags that he thought he might have to run them out to the truck before they grabbed lunch.

“What are you smiling at?” she teased.

“You shop like my Aunt Leticia,” he said, shaking his head.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded.

“You shop like you’re on a mission,” he said, thinking about it. “You headed straight for the sale racks and made your way right through before you hit the toy department with that coupon. I felt like I was twelve again.”

“I got a lot on my budget though, didn’t I?” she asked.

“You bought out half the store,” he said. “You even got them clothes the next size up.”

“You never know when a growth spurt will hit,” she said, shaking her head. “It would be awful to have no new clothes at Christmas just because you grew an extra inch since Thanksgiving. ”

“Wow,” he said, impressed that she would think of that when she didn’t have kids of her own.

“It happens in the middle of The Nutcracker sometimes,” she explained. “The costume crew will have to suddenly let out the kids’ clothes for the party scene.”

“I never even thought about that,” he admitted.

“Anyway, I think we did well in there,” Kenzie said, eyeing the bags he was carrying. “And hopefully the mom will be happy with the gift card if there’s anything I missed.”

“You thought of everything,” Aidan told her, meaning it. “Are you ready for some lunch?”

“Sure,” she told him.

“There’s a nice sit-down restaurant on the other side of the mall,” he told her. “It’s authentic Italian food.”

“That sounds nice,” she said, nodding. But the sparkle was gone from her eyes.

He hadn’t thought she was a snob, but maybe in New York you didn’t eat at random restaurants. After all, she had said she hadn’t been to a mall since she was a kid.

“We don’t have to eat here,” he told her. “We can eat wherever you want.”

She bit her lip and he felt a pang of guilt. Maybe she had just wanted company for a shopping trip, and she didn’t want to have to eat with him.

“Or I can just take you home?” he offered.

“No, no,” she said, smiling up at him again. “It’s just…”

“Just what?” he asked.

“I kind of wanted to eat at the food court,” she murmured.

He blinked at her for a moment, truly stunned .

“It’s dumb,” she said quickly. “It’s all junk food.”

“No,” he said right away. “It’s awesome. You can get whatever you want there. It will be great. And it’s not even all junk these days.”

“Really?” she asked, her eyes doing that sparkling thing again.

“Of course,” he said. “Come on.”

They headed to the food court, and he got her set up at a table where she could see every single restaurant before he excused himself to dash out to the car and deposit their purchases.

By the time he got back in, she had mapped out a game plan.

“Are you sure?” he asked her.

“Very sure,” she said with a big smile.

He squashed down his fatherly instincts and went along with it, buying her a toweringly unhealthy meal that included sides from half the restaurants in the place.

“You don’t have to keep paying for everything,” she said worriedly.

“Are you kidding me?” he teased. “I’d pay a lot more than this to watch you try to eat it all.”

She laughed and his heart squeezed like it was trying to hug her.

Back at the table, she closed her eyes for a moment of silent reflection, and then managed to put away more food than he would have thought possible, based on her tiny frame, all while peppering him with endless questions about Walt.

“So, is he excited about kindergarten?” she asked, picking up her cheesesteak .

“Yeah, I think so,” Aidan said, not wanting to bring up his worries about the kid being able to sit still in school. “I can’t believe you’re eating a food court cheesesteak. You know that’s not a real one, right?”

But she only laughed and took a big bite, her eyes closing in ecstasy as he watched her. He shook his head, feeling younger than he had in years.

When she had done her best with her meal, he carried their trays back to clean them up and then returned to the table to find her gazing out at the Christmas activity display in the mall with what he swore was longing in her eyes. The main attraction over there was a bouncy house that was like a larger-than-life snow globe.

“Looks like fun, right?” he teased.

“Yeah,” she said, sounding like she meant it.

“Stay here a second,” he told her, following a sudden inspiration.

Her eyebrows lifted, but he jogged over to the display before she had time to question him.

It was the middle of a weekday. The parking lot was full of adults on their lunch breaks trying to get a jump on their Christmas shopping, but there weren’t many people inside with kids. The mall Santa seemed to be playing a game on his cell phone.

“Excuse me,” Aidan said to the grown man dressed as an elf.

“How can I help you?” the man replied, giving Aidan a strange look, which maybe made sense since he didn’t even have a kid with him .

“My, uh, friend wanted to play in the snow globe,” Aidan said. “Is there an age limit?”

“Your friend ?” the elf asked.

“Over there,” Aidan said, pointing to Kenzie.

“Oh,” the elf replied, sounding intrigued now instead of judgmental.

“She’s having a tough Christmastime,” Aidan went on, repressing the urge to punch the guy in the nose. “I think she would get a kick out of standing in the snow globe.”

“She won’t jump?” the elf asked.

“She’s on crutches,” Aidan pointed out.

“She can’t bring those in there,” the elf said.

“Of course not,” Aidan replied.

“ You won’t jump? he asked sternly.

“Scout’s honor,” Aidan said.

“Okay,” the elf said. “Five bucks each.”

“Keep the change,” Aidan told him, handing him a twenty.

The man brightened and nodded to Aidan, looking like he felt he had made a wise decision. Aidan jogged back over to Kenzie.

“What did you just do?” she asked.

“I got permission for us to go in that snow globe,” he told her. “But you can’t take your crutches in there.”

“No way,” she breathed.

“Come on,” he told her. “Before the guy changes his mind.”

She smiled and took her crutches when he handed them to her. Together, they headed over to the snow globe.

“Welcome,” the elf said to Kenzie, in a much friendlier way than he had spoken to Aidan. “Can I take those for you while you enjoy the snow globe?”

“Sure,” Kenzie said, handing them over. “Thanks.”

They slipped off their shoes and Aidan lifted her carefully into the bouncy house. As soon as she was inside, she started smiling like she had won the lottery.

“We’re not allowed to jump,” he warned her as he climbed in and offered her his arm for support.

She laughed as she took it, and he had to chuckle too at the idea of her jumping on one foot with that big boot on the other.

“Here we go,” the elf said from outside.

Suddenly “Winter Wonderland” was playing on hidden speakers and fake snow began to fall inside the snow globe. Fans inside the bouncy house kept the snow airborne, and lifted Kenzie’s hair from her shoulders.

The snow was only tiny Styrofoam spheres, but they clung to Kenzie’s golden hair and looked almost like real snow on her red sweater. She laughed, throwing her head back and Aidan thought he had never seen a more beautiful sight.

Outside the snow globe, a few shoppers had paused to watch them, staring openly at the two adults doing something so frivolous.

But inside, there was a kind of magic happening between the two of them, and a growing joy that made this madness feel like the farthest thing from frivolous Aidan could think of.

“Thank you,” Kenzie said, just loudly enough that he could hear her over the fans and the music .

Her eyes were serious now, even though her pretty pink lips were still smiling. Without meaning to, he found his hand reaching out to cup her face in his hand, his thumb caressing the apple of her cheek.

The way she looked up at him made him feel like a new man—a man with the kind of optimistic outlook that allowed him to take risks to get the things he wanted.

His eyes had just slid down to her mouth again when the music and the fans suddenly stopped.

“Hey there, lovebirds,” the elf said, sticking his head in. “I hope you had fun. If you want, you can have a free photo with Santa.”

“No, thanks,” Aidan said, frustrated about the interruption.

“ Yes,” Kenzie sang out at the same time.

“Okay, then,” the elf said with a big smile, offering her his hand.

Aidan felt an unexpected wave of jealousy hit him and he blinked in surprise. Surely Kenzie wasn’t about to fall in love with a middle-aged man in an elf suit.

“I’d better let Aidan help me,” she said, glancing back at him.

He scrambled out quickly and then held his hand out to her, feeling more like himself the moment she took it. When she had gotten herself to the opening, he swept her up in his arms and lowered her gently to the ground. She laughed a little breathlessly and waited as he knelt to slip her shoe back on her good foot for her.

“Thank you,” she said softly.

An image of him on his knees before her with a ring flashed through his mind and he got to his feet quickly, wondering where that had come from.

Kenzie took her crutches and headed over to see Santa Claus. Aidan was relieved to see that he was a sweet old man who had no ulterior motives in offering a pretty young girl a free photo.

Kenzie smiled at Aidan and he felt like his heart would burst.

She whispered something in Santa’s ear, and he chuckled. Then the elf counted down and took the photo.

A moment later she was making her way back to Aidan, two wallet sized photos in hand.

“He gave me two,” she said excitedly.

“One of those is for me,” Aidan said, swiping it from her before she could argue.

“Did he ask you what you wanted for Christmas?” he asked her.

“Of course,” she said.

“What did you tell him?” he asked, a strange feeling in his chest like it was filled with tiny bubbles.

“If I tell you, it won’t come true,” she said firmly, her eyes moving away from his for the first time since they had sat down to eat lunch.

“If you say so,” he said gruffly.

“Whoa, an arcade,” she said, her voice bubbling with excitement.

“Do you want to go in?” he asked, but he already knew the answer.

She nodded, heading that way. The loud music assaulted his ears, but he followed. One day, he would be spending plenty of time in these things with Walt .

“Hang on,” he told her, slipping a ten into the change machine.

It spit out a pile of tokens, and he scooped them up, then turned back to a smiling Kenzie.

“Awesome,” she said.

“What do you want to play?” he asked her.

She pointed to the Whack-a-Mole game in the corner.

“Really?” he asked.

“I’ve always wanted to try,” she said, shrugging as best she could with her crutches.

“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.