“Okay, you don’t need to act so shocked. Plus, it’s not really a date.”
Courtney folded her arms. “Explain.”
“I’m working with the dad of one of Aiden’s classmates on that fireplace, and we are getting together with our kids.”
“Divorced?” Courtney asked.
“No. Widowed.”
“Oh! A single dad!” Lucy said. “My heart just melted like snow on a warm spring day.”
“I don’t know,” Rachel said, fiddling with a piece of lint that was on her skirt. “His wife passed away more than a year ago, but up until a couple of days ago, he was still wearing a wedding ring.” She looked at her friends. “Do you think that’s a bad sign?”
Courtney cocked her head. “I think that’s the sign of a guy with the capacity to love someone deeply. Where are you going?”
“To Downtown Park to see the snow sculptures and Christmas village.”
Lucy wagged her eyebrows. “I heard that if you both wear Santa hats when you walk under the arch to the train that goes around Santa’s village, you’ll fall in love.”
Rachel chuckled, shaking her head. “Yeah…My six-year-old told me the same thing. He also believes in Santa Claus.”
Tonight,Rachel said yes to Aiden wearing his Santa hat to the park. But because she also didn’t want her kid to freeze to death, she said yes to him wearing it on top of a knit hat that would actually keep his adorable head warm.
As they got out of the car and walked to where they could see Nick and Holly waiting by the manger scene, she laughed out loud when she saw Nick’s hat—it was knit, like all of theirs were, but his was red with fluffy white around the base and a white pom on top. She loved that Christmas was in his heart enough to do something like choosing to wear a knit Santa hat in public. A lot of guys might have been embarrassed. She wondered if he had any idea how attractive it made him.
Not that the guy needed any help in that department. He even looked attractive in a winter coat and boots. And the fact that he was holding his little girl’s hand made her heart get a little melty, too.
“Hi,” she said as they reached them, not meaning for her voice to come out nearly as breathy as it did. Maybe that was a side effect of a melting heart. She cleared her throat like maybe it was the cold or something that had caused it, but by the way the corner of Nick’s mouth pulled up just a bit, he didn’t buy it. “Should we go check out the snow sculptures?”
They had only looked at a single sculpture together—a couple of carolers—before Aiden and Holly ran to the next one. It was a giant Santa head and shoulders as if he was a mythical beast rising out of the ground. As the kids raced on to one that looked like it was probably supposed to be Snoopy lying on top of his dog house, Rachel said, “We might think we’ve lost them for abit, but I’m betting they’ll come back to pull us to look at a dozen different sculptures before we’re done.”
Nick laughed as they meandered through the sculptures filling the open area of the park. “I expect nothing less.”
Nick stopped walking to watch their kids gaze in wonder at a sculpture that looked like a miniature log cabin with Santa at the chimney, so she took the moment to sneak a peek at him. Those striking eyes of his were crinkled at the sides from smiling and he looked so thrilled that the two kids were getting along. At least, they were for that exact moment.
She noticed his hat again and was suddenly very curious about his childhood. As they started walking through the sculptures again in the same direction the kids were heading, she asked, “What was Christmas like for you growing up?”
He looked up a bit and gave a slight shrug. “Pretty typical, I guess. Tree, stockings, a special dinner, a present we could open on Christmas Eve that was always pajamas, presents Christmas morning.”
Everything she had craved as a child. “I need to hear more about the Christmas Eve pajamas. Matching or not?”
He chuckled and scratched at the stubble on his jaw. “Always one piece—the kind with feet that zips up. And always matching for all of us, my parents included. For as many people who have the Christmas Eve pajamas tradition, ours was probably a bit more unique just because of the fabric.
“One year, it was reindeer. And I’m not talking pictures of reindeer on the fabric, I mean it was like a reindeer costume. There was even a hood with antlers. Another year, there were these green fringe pieces hanging down that made us look like Christmas trees. One year, it was elves, another, gingerbread men.”
He chuckled again. “One time, it was the words ‘You’ll shoot your eye out,’ with a pair of glasses as the O’s, you know, fromA Christmas Story. My dad loved that movie. There was a flap in the back of those pajamas. Oh, and one year, they were covered in Christmas lights that glowed in the dark. I think it prepared me for my future in-laws’ ugly sweater party.”
She was trying not to listen with her mouth dropped open in awe and longing. “Your family sounds fun. Do you see them often?”
He shook his head. “Not nearly as often as I’d like. Since my dad was in the military and we moved all around, it kind of gave everyone wanderlust. We are spread all over the world now, so we only get together during the summer every other year.” He glanced over at her as they stopped to watch the kids check out a snow sculpture of a man sitting on the actual park bench. “Have you moved much?”
“No. My wanderlust is limited to travel, which I guess is to be expected when you work for a travel magazine. We’ve lived in Mountain Springs since Aiden was a year old.”
“So you didn’t grow up with all this?” He motioned to the entirety of everything in the park.
“Nope. I grew up in Erie.”
“And what was Christmas like for you? What kind of traditions did you have?”
