He could tell as they’d stood outside his car that she wanted to kiss him, and he really wanted to kiss her. He nearly did. But he really liked Katie. Possibly more so than anyone he’d ever dated. And he didn’t want their first kiss to be right after she thanked him for his help as if he expected something in return. He didn’t want it to feel like a “You’re welcome”— he wanted it to be something much more than that.
They all made their way to the hay ride, which was two flatbed trailers hooked to Mr. Allred’s truck. They both had hay bales stacked in ways that gave plenty of seating options on both trailers, with blankets covering them. As soon as he and Katie took a seat, Aiden said, “Okay, I’m sitting right here,” and sat down next to him. Holly sat on Aiden’s other side.
“Do you like hockey?” the boy asked.
“I do.”
“Is it cold on the ice?”
“It is at first. But we dress warm, and once we start really playing, it kind of keeps us from getting too hot.”
“That’s cool. Do you like scoring goals?”
“It’s my favorite part.”
“Are you in love?”
“Wh— what?” Connor stammered.
“My uncle Jack fell in love on this hay ride two Christmases ago.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Uh, huh. And my mom fell in love—”
“—with my dad,” Holly cut in.
“—last Christmas. Well, maybe they didn’t fall in love on the hay ride there. Maybe it happened at Jack and Noelle’s wedding because that’s where the hay ride went last time.”
“But they for sure fell in love on the hay ride back,” Holly said. “Maybeyoucan fall in love this year.”
“Wow. This sounds like a really magical hay ride.”
Both kids nodded, then Aiden said, “It is.”
He glanced at Katie, who looked like she was trying not to chuckle audibly, and gave her a smile, keenly aware that she had the video camera on the whole time and likely caught whatever reaction had been on his face.
He quickly got into the groove of the hay ride. Theyoohed andahhed at every house they went past that had lights and/or Christmas decorations in their yard. When Mr. Allred pulled over at someone’s house, they all hopped off, including the dog, Captain, went up to the door, and started singing a Christmas carol. He made sure to sing enthusiastically. Mostly because it seemed to make Katie happy.
In between the stops, Katie filmed quite a bit, including several interviews with her family members for the video she was preparing for them. She even interviewed him. She filmedthe caroling, too, which he was pretty sure was part of what she would send to the Glaciers.
Mr. Allred had driven them in a big loop through Mountain Springs, making a lot of stops for them to sing, including several houses where they were having big family parties. When they were a couple of blocks away from the Allred’s home, Katie said, “I’ve been sitting too much and my legs are cold and getting numb. Do you want to walk the rest of the way back with me?”
Of course, he did. As Mr. Allred came to a stop at a sign, they hopped off the trailer, then gave him a wave, and he continued on without them.
A few stops back, snow had started to gently fall. It wasn’t the bigger storm they were supposed to get— just a gentle snow before the storm. Enough to look beautiful as it lazily fell, making the night a little less dark and a lot more quiet.
“Thank you for being such a good sport about all this,” she said. “I’ve had nightmares of being assigned a player who was a grump, and I ended up having no good footage to turn in.”
“Oh, like our first filming session at the school?”
She chuckled. “Exactly like that.”
“Did I ever apologize?”
“You apologizedandacknowledged that it made things rough for me as the person under contract to turn in the footage. But you didn’t apologize while dressed as Santa’s elf, which would have made it even better.”
“I’m pretty sure that costume is in the landfill now.”
