“It sounds like your family had a lot of traditions.”
“We did. Copious amounts of them actually. But that day was always my favorite. It was hopeful and exciting. We’d go home after skating and be chilled to the bone. Mom would’ve had something cooking in the crockpot all day and we’d have a hot meal by the fire. If I could go back and have one more of those days…” He trailed off and cleared his throat before looking over at me and smiling. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Did you have any Christmas traditions growing up?”
“No,” I said. “I was never in one place long enough for a tradition to stick. I grew up in the foster system.”
Ethan’s brows drew together.
I held up a hand. “I’m not one of those sad stories. I was placed with good families. I was really lucky. I’m still close with my foster family actually and I met my best friend in one of my homes. I never thought about it much but I guess Christmas has never meant much to me because it was one of the things that slipped through the cracks when I was a kid.”
Ethan nodded his understanding. “I suppose when it’s all said and done it is just a day, isn’t it?”
I appreciated that he didn’t pity me, more than he could ever know. “Only for some of us,” I said softly.
Ethan tipped his chin toward the exit of the market. “We should probably head back to the office, wouldn’t you say?”
He was right. Time had passed us by and we both had a lot of work to do. We made our way down the last aisle of vendors. Children ran amongst the crowds, their laughter billowing in their wake whenever they rushed past. I found myself laughing as a little girl stole a donut from her brother’s bag of goodies and took off with it as he yelled after her.
Ethan slipped away for a moment to get rid of our empty cider cups and I tucked myself out of the way beside a heater. I warmed my hands and turned my back on it as I waited.
When Ethan returned, he had a small box in his hands. He held it out to me. “I know Christmas isn’t your thing, Kathryn, but everyone deserves a little bit of magic to start the holidays on the right foot.”
I could feel his eyes on me as I lifted the lid of the box and peered inside. There, nestled amongst a bed of tissue clippings, was a sparkly red Christmas ornament. It was hand painted with a piece of holly on it trimmed in gold, and it was magnificent.
I ran my fingers over the holly and looked up at him as butterflies took flight in my belly. “I don’t have a Christmas tree,” I reminded him.
He offered me his elbow. “You can hang it anywhere you like. Or just leave it in the box if you prefer.”
I stole another look at the pretty thing before putting the lid back on. I hooked my elbow through his and held the little gift box close as we made our way back to the office.
Maybe this whole Christmas thing wasn’t so bad after all.
Chapter 18
Ethan
It had been a long week.
Ever since our visit to the Christmas market, Kathryn and I had been operating at maximum capacity in order to get everything done in time for the Christmas Love event at the market coming up and the gala. We were stretched pretty thin to make sure everything was going according to plan and neither of us had much time to give the other a hard time.
We were cooperating.
Jon hardly interrupted us while we were working. He too seemed pleased at our progress and I doubted he wanted to step in and risk stirring things up between us. He’d left Kathryn and me to our own devices, and so far, it looked like it was paying off.
Kathryn finalized all the finishing details for the gala event over the first half of the week while I got the ball rolling on the Christmas Love event. She’d insisted we do it this way to ensure one job was completed by the end of the week before moving into the next project. She liked to keep things streamlined and simple, and I had to admit, her strategy paid off.
Now we were both working on the market event. We’d already run some entry-level ads that targeted the demographic of both the Perfect