Something in her voice made him curious to know more, to understand the sadness he heard in that softly spoken word.
“Didn’t your parents let you pick up candy thrown by strangers?” He kept his voice light, teasing. “On second thought, I should talk to my parents about letting me do that.”
“Well, when there are big signs announcing who is on each float, it’s not really like taking candy from strangers,” she conceded. “But to answer your question, no, my parents didn’t. This is my first ever Christmas parade.”
“What?”
She’d grown up in Coopersville. The Christmas parade was an annual event and one of the highlights of the community as far as he was concerned. How could she possibly have never gone to one before?
“You heard me, elf boy.”
He smiled at her teasing.
“How is it that you haven’t ever gone to a Christmas parade before when I know you grew up here and the parade has been around for more decades than you have?”
She shrugged a fur-covered shoulder. “I just haven’t. It’s not a big deal.”
But it was. He heard it in her voice.
“Did your parents not celebrate the holidays?” Not everyone did. With his own mother loving Christmas as much as he did, he could barely imagine someone not celebrating it, but he knew those odd souls were out there.
“They did,” McKenzie assured him. “Just in their own unique ways.”
Unique ways? His curiosity was piqued, but McKenzie’s joy was rapidly fading so he didn’t dig.
“Which didn’t include parades or candy gathering?”
“Exactly.”
“Fair enough.”
“You know, I’ve seen half a dozen people we work with in the crowds,” she pointed out. “There’s Jenny Westman who works in Accounting, over there with her kids.”
She smiled, waved, and tossed a handful of candy in the kids’ general direction.
“I see her.” He tossed a handful of individually wrapped bubble gums to the kids, too, smiling as they scrambled around to grab up the goodies. “Jenny has cute kids.”
“How can you tell with the way she has them all bundled up?” McKenzie teased, still smiling. “I’m not sure I would have recognized them if she wasn’t standing next to them.”
“You have a point. I think she just recognized us. She’s waving with one hand and pointing us out to her husband with the other.”
Still holding her smiling, waving pose, McKenzie nodded.
“I imagine everyone is going to be talking about us being together on this float.”
“We’ve had dinner together every night this week. Everyone is already talking about us.”
“You’re probably right.”
“And the ones who aren’t will be after tonight’s office Christmas party.”
“Why? What’s happening tonight?”
“You’re going as my date. Remember?”
“I remember. I just thought you meant something more.”
“More than you going as my date? McKenzie, a date with me is something more.”
“Ha-ha, keep telling yourself that,” she warned, but she was smiling and not just in her waving-at-the-crowds way of smiling. Her gaze cut to him and her smile dazzled more than any jewel.
“You look great, by the way,” he said.
“Thanks. I owe it all to Cecilia. She worked hard putting this together and got to my house at seven this morning to do my hair and makeup. She came up with the lights and promised me that my hair, the real and the fake she brought with her to make it look so poufy and elaborate, wouldn’t catch fire. I admit I was a bit worried when she told me she was stringing lights through my hair.”
“Like I said, you look amazing and are sure to help the mayor win best float. Cecilia’s good.”
“Yep. Works at Bev’s Beauty Boutique. Just in case you ever need a cut and style or string of Christmas lights dangled above your head on twisted-up fake hair.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” He reached over and took her gloved hand in his and gave it a squeeze. “I’m glad you agreed to do this.”
She didn’t look at him, but admitted, “Me, too.”
When they reached the final point of the parade, the driver parked the eighteen-wheel truck that had pulled the float. Lance jumped down and held his hand out to assist McKenzie. The mayor and his wife soon joined them. He’d just been discharged from the hospital the day before and probably shouldn’t have been out in the parade, but the man had insisted on participating.
“Thank you both for being my honored guests,” he praised them in a hoarse, weakened voice. He shook Lance’s hand.
“It was our pleasure,” Lance assured the man he’d checked on several times throughout his hospital stay despite the fact that he wasn’t a patient of their clinic. He genuinely liked the mayor and had voted for him in the last election.
The mayor turned to McKenzie. “Thank you for saving my life, young lady. There’d have been no Christmas cheer this year in my household if not for you.”
McKenzie’s cheeks brightened to nearly the same color as her plush red dress. “You’re welcome, but Dr. Spencer did just as much to save your life as I did. He’s the one who did the Heimlich maneuver and your chest compressions.”
“You were the one who revived me. Dr. Spencer has told me on more than one occasion that your actions are directly responsible for my still being here.”
McKenzie glanced at him in question and Lance winked.
“If there’s ever anything we can do.” This came from the mayor’s wife. “Just let us know. We are forever indebted to you both. You’re our Christmas angels.”
“We’re good, but thank you,” Lance and McKenzie both assured them.
“Amazing costume,” the mayor’s wife praised McKenzie further.
They talked for a few more minutes to those who’d been on the mayor’s float, then walked toward the square where the rest of the parade was still passing.
“If it’s okay, I’d like to swing by to see Cecelia at the shop.”
“No problem,” he assured her. “I need to thank her for making you look so irresistibly cute.”
McKenzie
