Sleighed by the Farmer’s Daughter (Sweet Christmas Kisses)

Chapter Nine

Mackenzie smiled softly, feeling a warmth she hadn’t expected. “The feeling’s mutual. I’ve been comfortable with you since we met out in the storm. That connection has grown each day. We’re friends now and will continue to be after this storm. You won’t get rid of me when the snow clears. I want to meet your family. They sound as amazing as mine. Speaking of which, you’ll get to practice a great big family holiday with mine before you finish your drive into the mountains to see yours. Now, how did you mess up your family’s Christmas?”

“I was hoping I’d distracted you from that,” Seth said wryly.

“Nope, if you want to skip the topic, you’ll have to man up and say you’re not sharing. I get the sense you need to air this out like all the other damaging secrets you’ve been keeping locked in your heart. Sometimes, saying them out loud takes away their power. They stop being so scary. You see how flimsy and weak they are and can move past them. Sometimes, you need another person to help you put them in perspective since you have only been studying them from your side of the glass. What happened?” Mack prompted.

Seth took a deep breath as he swapped cookie trays. “On Christmas day, my mom always sent my brothers and me out of the house before present-opening time so we could get our energy out. She didn’t want her big boys tearing up the house when we opened our gifts. My brothers and I walked by the lake in our town. Eric and I were playing keep-away with my little brother Jason’s hat, and it wound up on the ice. Jason ran out to get it, but it was a windy day, and it kept blowing further and further out. Before Eric and I knew what was happening, Jason had fallen through. I ran around trying to find a stick or something to pull him out with, but Eric just charged out there after him. When I arrived with a long piece of driftwood, Eric had punched a hole in the ice and had Jason by the coat. We pulled him out and got him to safety, but it was close. Eric’s hand was cut pretty badly by the ice, and blood was smeared all over his clothes. When my mom saw the boys, she lost her mind. She told me it was all my fault because I was the oldest, and it was my job to protect my younger brothers. Jason wound up with pneumonia, and the hospital bills put a lot of extra strain on the family finances. Christmas that year was ruined, and by the following year, Mom had decided she couldn’t take being poor anymore and left. We woke up on Christmas morning, and she was gone.”

Mackenzie wiped her hands on a damp kitchen towel as she made her way around the table to stand next to Seth. Cupping his cheek, she brought his reluctant gaze to her, noticing the way his mesmerizing green eyes glistened with tears he was too manly to shed.

“Listen to me; I know nothing of your mother or her motives. What I do know a great deal about and consider myself an expert on is the teasing nature of children. My brothers and I have done some pretty amazingly dumb things with and to each other. It’s part of growing up. If we don’t do crazy things on a small scale when we are young, then we do crazy things on a larger scale when we get older, and someone usually dies because understanding that our actions have consequences is part of living and will be learned at some stage. That day on the ice, you and your brothers learned a very valuable lesson. You didn’t mean for Jason to nearly die and get sick; it just happened. No fault. No blame. Your mother was distraught that her child was in danger and said some hurtful things she didn’t mean. If you were to ask her about them now, she would no doubt feel bad for blaming you or not even remember saying them because of the heat of the moment. As for your mother leaving, she was an adult, and you were a child. You did not make her leave; she made that decision on her own. Her life. Her choices. Don’t carry that weight; it doesn’t belong to you and isn’t doing anyone any good for you to hold on to it.”

Without asking, Mack hugged Seth, holding him tight for a long moment. He knew she meant it to be platonic, but he felt their hearts connect nonetheless.

Pulling away from the embrace, Seth kissed her forehead tenderly. “Thank you. I think I needed to hear that.”

“You’re welcome. If you need to talk more about any of this, I’m here for you. I meant it when I said we’re friends. For now, I’ll have mercy on you and allow the topic to shift. We gotta get back to work, and all this mushy stuff is distracting me.” Patting his arm affectionately, Mack resumed her work at the other end of the table.

By two in the morning, the bulk of the baking was done, with only a few finishing touches left for the morning. Their laughter and lively conversation mingled with the lingering scent of baked goods.

As they cleaned up, the weight of their achievement settled in. They had turned a near disaster into a triumph, all thanks to teamwork. Seth had been right; Mackenzie had gotten a Christmas miracle, and it was him.

Seth was taking the last batch of gingerbread men out of the oven as Mackenzie turned to grab the lid of the powdered sugar container tucked under her arm. The two collided in a scene worthy of any sappy rom-com. In an attempt not to burn her, Seth released the hot pan of little brown men, which crashed to the floor. Jumping back, trying not to burn her stockinged feet, Mack released the container of sugar, which exploded in a cloud of confectioners’ dust. They stood staring at each other in the aftermath, then burst into peals of exhausted laughter.

Catching her breath and collecting the broken cookies, Mack quipped, “At least you waited till the last batch to start murdering the little men.”

Surveying the damage, Seth scoffed, “Me? What about you? If you wanted it to snow, we could have just stepped outside for a moment. You didn’t have to try and make it happen in here.”

Mack glanced around the kitchen, which had almost been clean, and saw the fine coat of sugar coating every surface within ten feet of where they stood. “Oh, man! We were so close to bed,” she groaned.

“We’ve got this. I’m setting a timer. I bet we can have this all done in ten minutes.” He drew a line down the of the mess his finger. “Want to race me? Last person done gets to push the manure cart tomorrow.”

“You’re on!”

Eight and a half minutes later, Mack declared victory as Seth took his last sticky sponge over to the sink.

Exhausted but satisfied, Mackenzie turned off the oven with a weary yet triumphant smile. “I can’t believe we did it.”

Seth wiped a streak of sugar off her cheek and grinned back. “Told you we would.”

“Thanks, Seth. For everything,” Mackenzie said, her gratitude deep and sincere. “I couldn’t have done this without you.”

“Anytime, Mack. Besides, now I can add ‘expert cookie baker’ to my resume,” Seth joked, his tired eyes twinkling.

They turned the lights off in the kitchen. The house was quiet except for the ticking of the clock and the whistling of the wind outside. Making their way upstairs, they said good night at their doors. Tomorrow would bring more challenges, but for now, they could rest, knowing the heart of the festival—hundreds of lovingly baked cookies—was ready to bring joy to Santa’s Village.