3. Aidan

3

AIDAN

A idan stood on the sidewalk for a moment, watching the little red hatchback out of the corner of his eye.

It sat stock-still in the parking lot, with no signs of moving.

His emotions were all over the place after his bizarre interaction with the car’s owner. As usual, he had been hotheaded and impatient, with the end result that he found himself sort of wanting to make sure she got out of the parking lot okay.

He couldn’t get the visual of her out of his head. When he’d first leaped out of his truck, he’d expected that the person whose cart it was would be up the hill getting into their car.

His eyes had landed on the tiny woman with the long blonde hair, balancing on one crutch and a massive boot cast, her delicate features already melting into an expression of sorrow as she tried and failed to stop the cart in time .

Guilt had landed heavily on his shoulders, and he’d tried to apologize, something he wasn’t good at, but she was crying too hard to notice.

He’d actually never seen anyone cry like that, like the tears were just exploding out of her eyes. And now she was just sitting there in her car.

She’s fine, he told himself firmly, turning and heading across the street to run a few errands. She’s probably just catching her breath after you yelled at her.

It seemed like he’d been doing more than his share of that lately. He hadn’t always been such a grump. Last Christmas, everyone around here had loved him. He’d volunteered to help out at a house on Yale Avenue where the owners had gotten behind on maintenance when the husband fell ill, and he’d even built shelving for the owner of the bookshop when she got in a pinch.

It just went to show what a difference a year could make.

He tried hard not to think about Sharon, but his mind showed him a photo of his ex’s wedding announcement. And he heard her voice in his head.

I’m pregnant and Chris got a new job, so we’re moving to Chicago, she had said lightly, like she was telling him the weather forecast. I’ll try to visit with Walt when I can.

He just couldn’t get past the fact that she was just leaving Walt—their beloved son, the beautiful little boy who had been Aidan’s whole reason to live since the moment the doctors placed him in his arms.

Or maybe it was more accurate to say that she was trying to replace him.

Thoughts of Walt’s mother sent Aidan down a rabbit hole of anger and frustration. It took everything he had not to let Walt see that side of him, but he did a good job. It was a little harder to keep it all in check when he dealt with anyone but his boy.

Like that girl today. It hit him hard that he had been cruel to her. Maybe he was only dwelling on it because she had been so transparent about the way it made her feel. But the look in her eyes haunted him.

Focus on something else, he told himself.

He headed into the heart of the village, passing the library and crossing the street. The bakery was open, he could see lights on inside. He sped past it as quickly as he could, sneaking a glance inside.

But it was no good. He couldn’t see if the owner was in there or not.

She’s doing well with that place if Aunt Leticia is right, he told himself. Maybe she has her employees in there working the weekends.

Aidan had been on one toweringly disastrous date with Mallory, the owner. He wasn’t really in the dating mindset. But his aunt had set him up, and he could never say no to Aunt Leticia.

It didn’t help that Aidan’s regular sitter had canceled on him and he’d had to hire someone new at the last minute. The idea of leaving Walt with someone he didn’t know had him pretty freaked out. And his nervousness must have been contagious. The sitter had texted him every five minutes all night—always with silly questions about how to use the microwave or the television, but he’d kept his phone in his hand anyway, fearing the worst every time it buzzed .

The result of it all was that he’d been late to the date, and then on his phone throughout the whole dinner. He probably should have apologized and explained everything to Mallory, but what was the point? He didn’t want to see her again anyway. He didn’t want to date at all. He just wanted to focus on his son and his growing carpentry business.

As he walked past the other shops in town, he noticed all the Christmas displays and decorations. He and his siblings had been really into it when they were kids, getting excited every time another storefront was newly decorated.

As an adult, he couldn’t help thinking about all the time and effort that went into it, and the cost, too.

“Well, hello there, young fella,” Joe Cassidy said with a twinkly-eyed smile. The older man was leaning against the wall outside of Mario’s Pizza, clearly waiting for someone.

“Hi, Mr. Cassidy,” Aidan said. “Good to see you.”

“You too, son,” Joe said, turning to the door of the shop. It opened, and Joe’s teenaged grandson, Wyatt, stepped out with a few friends, carrying a stack of pizza boxes.

Aidan kept moving, trying not to think about the fact that one day Walt would be ordering a stack of pizzas and having parties with friends, sometimes not even at his own house.

I need to have a nice place by then, Aidan thought to himself grimly. A house that’s big enough and cool enough that all the parties happen where I can keep an eye on them.

Satisfied with this solution to his imaginary dilemma, he reached the corner of Park Avenue and glanced into Gabriel’s Drugstore. Amazingly, the old drugstore was pretty much the same as he remembered it from high school. Lacy snowflakes had been painted on the big windows to celebrate the holidays.

He turned left onto Ambler Road, and a moment later he was stepping into the toy store. An incredible display celebrated the holiday in the front window, including a tiny toy sleigh pulled by reindeer that had been suspended in the air on nearly invisible wire.

Nearly…

Aidan stopped for a moment, thinking of a better way to do it. He studied the set up for a moment, calculating in his mind…

“Thanks for stopping in,” a friendly voice chirped. “Are you interested in the reindeer set? They come with a sleigh and a little Santa Claus, of course.”

“No, thanks,” he said, turning around and taking in the lady, who was decked out in pink from head to toe. “I was, uh, looking for blocks.”

“What kind of blocks?” she asked, tilting her head slightly in a way that made him think of a big pink bird.

He wasn’t really sure what she meant. Blocks were blocks.

“My son and I are in from the city for a while,” he explained. “My aunt and uncle used to have some of the old toys from when I was a kid, but my uncle used all the Tinkertoys making bird feeders and the Bristle Blocks melted when someone left them on the radiator.”

“Aidan Webb,” the woman said, smiling and shaking her head. “I don’t know why I didn’t recognize you at first.”

He looked at her more closely. She looked sort of familiar from high school. Was this the girl Levi Williams always had a thing for?

“Lily?” he guessed.

“Yes,” she said, laughing. “You really seem different, Aidan.”

“How did you figure it out then?” he asked.

“Oh, there’s only one guy around here who builds enough bird feeders to run out of Tinkertoys,” she said. “From there, I just had to figure out which of the Webb cousins you were.”

“You sure you aren’t a police detective or something?” he joked.

She laughed and shook her head politely at his joke.

“So how old is your son?” she asked.

“He’s four,” he told her.

“Okay,” she said. “I think he would actually love Magna-Tiles. I have a couple up front if you want to play with them and see what you think.”

He trailed after her, amazed at the idea that she would guess he wanted to play with the new blocks before committing to them. She directed him to a pile of colorful, more or less flat shapes that looked almost like the pieces of a stained-glass window.

“They’re magnetic,” she told him, grabbing a few. “So you can build with them and take them apart again in a snap. They’ll stand up if you get the angles right. It’s really fun.”

He watched as she built a little box that snapped itself into place, and then picked up a few pieces himself and began to build.

“Wow,” he said, after a few minutes. “I would have loved these when I was a kid.”

“Me too,” she told him with a smile.

“Okay, then,” he said, forcing himself to stop playing. “I’ll need like a million of these.”

“I love that attitude,” Lily said. “We have two obstacles. First of all, they’re expensive, which can be an issue. And secondly, I don’t have any of the bigger boxes right now, but I will be getting more right before Christmas.”

“Oh,” he said, trying not to start yelling for the second time in a day. He hated for Walt to be bored.

“Here’s what I’m thinking,” she said, grabbing something from under the counter. “If you don’t disagree with the price, grab this smaller box, and make sure he likes playing with them. If he does, text me and I’ll try and get a bigger box in early. Then I can set it aside and message you when it’s here.”

She grabbed a pink pen with a fluffy pink feather on it from the cup by the cash register and jotted something down on it.

“This is the price on the bigger set,” she said.

The number was big enough that his eyebrows lifted.

“That’s fine,” he said flatly, knowing Walt was worth it. The boy needed wholesome things to occupy him, and if the parenting books Aidan was constantly checking out at the library were right, blocks and building were good for coordination and development.

“Great,” she said. “Just jot down your number there and I’ll give you a buzz as soon as I’ve got it. Anything else I can help you with?”

“No, thank you,” he told her, impressed that she was so efficient and businesslike in spite of all the pink.

“Okay, then,” she said. “Feel free to browse if you want.”

“Thanks,” he said.

But he had no interest in looking around. He’d done what he came here to do. Now it was time to take care of what he’d put off earlier. The bell over the door jingled merrily as he headed out of the shop and back out into the cold breeze.

He’d promised Aunt Leticia that he’d pick up a loaf of sourdough bread from the bakery to go with the pumpkin soup she was making for lunch. He’d been half-tempted to grab a loaf of something from the Co-op, but his aunt would know the difference.

Besides , he thought to himself as he turned back onto Park and headed to the bakery, maybe she’s not even there. Or if she was there, maybe she’d have too many customers to get into it with him.

Taking a deep breath, he headed into the bakery.

He was greeted with the delicious scent of fresh bread and something with cinnamon. He was also greeted with the sight of a shop that was completely empty except for himself and Mallory, who stood behind the counter.

“Hey,” he said casually, wondering if maybe they could just pretend the date never happened.

“How can I help you?” Mallory asked. She was scowling at him, like she had plenty to say, but was too polite .

That worked just fine for him.

“My aunt loves your sourdough bread,” he said. “Can I get a couple of loaves?”

She looked pleased for a moment, like she couldn’t help being happy to hear someone liked her work. Then she seemed to remember herself and frowned at him again, but not with as much gusto as the first time.

“How many is a couple?” she asked.

“Let’s do three,” he said, thinking about his hungry cousins and all the kids.

“I do have three,” she said, bending to grab them from behind the glass.

He waited while she put each loaf into its own bag and sealed it with a little sticker before ringing him up.

Can’t you just buy a loaf of bread anymore without someone slapping their branding on it? he wondered to himself.

“I thought you’d be back in the city,” she said as she handed him the bags.

“I had a big job cancel,” he said, trying not to wince at the thought of it. “I thought we’d come out here for a couple of weeks since we had the time.”

“Well, if you’re looking for work out this way, I have a friend who needs a contractor to redo a room for her,” Mallory said, glancing up at him with interest.

Aidan frowned. He had planned to spend time with family, but he could already sense that he was getting on his aunt’s nerves being underfoot all the time. And he was pretty sure he could easily find a sitter for Walt with all his connections in his hometown.

Besides, how was he supposed to say no to this perfectly nice woman who he’d taken on the worst date ever?

“Sure,” he said. “Give me the address. I’ll stop by on my way home.”

“Wow,” she said, brightening up again. “Great. I’ll jot it down for you. Go around to the back door when you get there.”

He watched her scrawl down an address over on Vassar on his receipt, wondering why he was supposed to go to the back door. Maybe it was an older person and they had a hard time hearing the doorbell.

Either way, his willingness to help them out seemed to have softened Mallory’s attitude toward him. She was actually smiling as she handed him the receipt.

If he ended up taking the job, then maybe it would feel like they were even, and he wouldn’t have to worry about picking up bread next time.

Aidan liked that idea.