19. Kenzie

19

KENZIE

A few hours later, Kenzie was curled up in a chair in her own living room, watching Aidan and Walt put up a Christmas tree by the bay window.

“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” played on the radio, and she had a mug of hot chocolate in her hands. She couldn’t ask for much more.

Aidan had come back with Walt, who was bursting with excitement because they had a surprise for Kenzie. He waited with her, with the front door propped open, as Aidan went back to the truck and came back with a fragrant tree.

“I got it from the firehouse sale,” he told her.

Kenzie had forgotten all about how Cassidy Farm donated trees to the firehouse, which they sold in town each year to support the station.

“It’s not too big,” Walt told her. “They didn’t have many left.”

“It’s just right for me,” Kenzie told him, not saying out loud that she literally would have had no tree at all if they hadn’t brought her this one.

And suddenly, the idea of a tree didn’t make her feel lonely at all.

“We’re gonna watch a movie,” Walt told her, leaning against her knee as they both watched Aidan place some of the smaller ornaments toward the top of the tree. Walt had already done the ones closer to the bottom.

“Should we watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas ?” Kenzie asked him.

“Daddy brought A…A…A ,” Walt struggled.

“ A Christmas Carol ,” Aidan said. “It’s rated G, and Walt liked the description when we read it.”

“Oh, that’s a good story,” Kenzie said.

“It’s a movie,” Walt told her.

“But it’s based on a book,” she told him. “So are a lot of ballets, like The Nutcracker .”

“Is there a movie of The Nutcracker?” Walt asked hopefully.

“There are some movies of it,” Kenzie said. “But you just reminded me that I have three tickets to go see it at the ballet theatre tomorrow afternoon.”

She glanced up at Aidan and he nodded to her, a gleam of excitement in his eyes.

“Would you and your dad like to go with me, Walt?” she asked.

“ Yes ,” Walt crowed.

“Okay, who’s going to put the angel on top?” Aidan asked.

“ Me, me, me ,” Walt yelled excitedly .

“Oh, thank you, Walt,” Kenzie told him. “I could never reach all the way up there.”

Aidan handed him the angel, and Walt took it reverently in his little hands.

“See how her skirt has an opening?” Aidan asked Walt.

Walt nodded.

“You’ll put her on top of the tree with that tiny little branch in her skirt to hold her on,” Aidan explained. “Okay?”

“Okay,” Walt said, raising his arms with the angel in one of them, ready to be lifted.

Aidan swept him up effortlessly, and Kenzie watched as Walt placed the angel in her place of honor, his little face soft with wonder.

“Great job,” Aidan told him softly as he set him down. “Should we plug in the lights and see how it looks?”

“ Yes ,” Walt cried.

“Okay, let’s count down from three,” Aidan said with a smile.

“Three,” Walt yelled as Aidan knelt to plug in the lights. “Two… one.”

Aidan pushed the plug into the wall and the whole tree came to life. The lights twinkled, highlighting all the ornaments Kenzie had put on the tree every year since childhood.

Her favorite, a painted plastic ballerina that was a gift from her grandmother when she was small, hung right at Kenzie’s eye level. The ballerina’s colorful paint was chipping, but it made Kenzie’s heart soar to see her dancing on the tree, like she did every year .

“Wow,” Walt said softly.

“It’s so beautiful,” Kenzie told them. “Thank you.”

Aidan stepped back to admire the tree and she couldn’t help feeling that he was more handsome than ever now that he was relaxed with a satisfied smile on his face and his little shadow by his side.

An hour later, they were curled up on the sofa in the family room, with a half-empty pizza box on the coffee table in front of them.

They had started the movie with Walt sitting between them, but he had scrambled into Kenzie’s lap during one of the scary parts with the Ghost of Christmas Past, and gotten very comfortable there.

Now he was leaning back against her, his warm, snuggly weight so pleasant against her chest that she wished she could freeze time. His breathing was evening out, so she was pretty sure he was falling asleep. And if she wasn’t careful, she might fall asleep herself.

“Do you dance in a big dress?” he suddenly asked her.

On the screen, a young Ebenezer Scrooge was at a country dance.

“Um, no,” she told him. “In the ballet, the dresses are called tutus, and they have to be kind of small and shorter than that, so the audience can see what our legs are doing, and so it’s easier for our partners to lift us up. And they look soft, but ballet dresses are scratchy.”

“I’ll bet Kenzie had a pretty dress like that for prom though,” Aidan said .

“No,” Kenzie said, chuckling. “I was already in New York by junior year. I never went to prom.”

“What’s that?” Walt asked.

“The prom is a fancy dance, just like this one,” Aidan told him. “Teenagers all go to it, and they get to dress up and be fancy, and have fun.”

“Not Kenzie,” Walt said sadly.

“Nope,” Kenzie said. “But I got to dance in the ballet.”

“With a scratchy dress,” Walt remembered.

Kenzie frowned. He was making it sound like kind of a bummer.

“It’s okay,” she told him. “I was doing what I wanted to do, so I was very happy.”

He snuggled back in quietly and soon she felt his breathing even out again. She and Aidan watched the rest of the movie in friendly silence. When it was over, she turned to him.

“This was really fun,” she said. “Thank you for coming over.”

“Thanks for having us,” he replied, his deep voice sending a tingle down her spine. “It means everything that you let me bring him here.”

“He’s the most important thing in your world,” she said simply. “I would feel the same way if he were my son.”

An expression flickered across Aidan’s face and was gone so quickly Kenzie couldn’t name it.

“Well, we should get going,” he said, clearing his throat.

Kenzie nodded, drinking in the sight of the sweet little boy in her arms and trying to memorize what it felt like to have him there.

“He really likes you,” Aidan said gruffly.

“I really like him too,” she said, smiling.

Aidan bent and kissed the crown of her head before scooping his boy out of her arms.

Walt murmured a little in his sleep and then went quiet again on his daddy’s shoulder.

“I’ll text you tomorrow,” Aidan told Kenzie quietly as he headed for the door.

Feeling happy and content, she got up after they left and got ready for bed, humming to herself the whole time. The phone rang as she was slipping under the covers, and she smiled when she saw it was Mal.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey, Kenzie,” Mal said. “How are you holding up?”

“He stopped by,” Kenzie said. “And told me he likes me and wants to date.”

“ Wow, ” Mal said. “That’s awesome.”

“We were supposed to go to dinner tonight,” Kenzie said. “But Walt had a bad day at winter camp, so they both came over and we all watched a movie together. It was really nice.”

“You what?” Mal asked.

“We watched A Christmas Carol ,” Kenzie told her. “And we ordered a pizza.”

“As long as you’re happy,” Mal said lightly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kenzie asked.

“Well, it just seems like he’s telling you what you want to hear and then doing the exact same thing as before,” Mal said. “But maybe it’s good to take things slowly. ”

“I… I don’t have a lot of dating experience,” Kenzie admitted. “Is this bad?”

“I don’t really know,” Mal said. “I just know that if he thinks you’re special, he’ll treat you like you’re special.”

Kenzie frowned. She felt special when she was with Aidan. And she adored Walt. Was she really supposed to want to go out to some fancy dinner with Aidan and leave Walt at home every time?

Maybe it’s not meant to be true love if I’d rather stay in for a family night…

“Anyway,” Mal said, “I think the real big news is that your boot is coming off tomorrow. How are you feeling?”

“Nervous,” Kenzie admitted. “And excited, I guess.”

“I’ll be right there with you,” Mal said. “No matter the news.”

“Thank you, Mallory,” Kenzie said, suddenly feeling super emotional. “You’re the best.”

“Right back atcha’,” Mal laughed. “Now get some sleep. We’re going to find a way to live it up afterward no matter what they tell you.”

And for as much as Kenzie had fretted over the news she would get tomorrow, it suddenly seemed a lot less important to her.