Free Twist of Fate (A Holiday Romance Novella) by Rachael Anderson Page A

something. “She’s engaged, Mom. The wedding is set for the end of January, which you already know.” Although they’d come a long way in the past week, Ty wasn’t about to tell her the truth about Kenzie’s fiancé—not when he couldn’t be sure she’d stay out of it.
    Her lips pursed for a moment before she said, “Let me tell you something I learned when I started dating your father. I’m not sure I’ve ever told you this, but he had a girlfriend at the time. She was away at school, and he’d promised to wait. But then he met me.” She smiled. “At that point, I learned a valuable lesson: Here and now is better than there and then. You’re here. You’re now. And you’re so much better.”
    Ty smiled. If only he could get Kenzie to believe that as well. “And what if she wants Brad to be the here and now? She did say yes, after all.”
    His mom patted his cheek and gave him a knowing smile. “I’ve seen the way she looks at you. It’s you she wants—you can trust me on that.” She followed the pat up with a kiss on the cheek, and then headed for the security line.
    Ty watched her go, wishing he could be as confident. But if Kenzie felt for him even a part of what he felt for her, she could never go through with that wedding. Yet the date was still set. The church still scheduled. The caterer still booked.
    And the ring still on her finger.
     

“THEY WERE FUNNY things, those snowmen,” Kenzie read aloud to her class from one of her favorite picture books. “When it snowed, they grew. When the sun came out, they melted. And when the kids showed up to play, they smiled. For those were the moments that—”
    “Look!” Treven’s voice called out. The rest of the class began talking, murmuring, and pointing fingers.
    Kenzie followed the fingers to the door, where Ty stood, balancing their beautiful gingerbread house in one hand and a large plate of frosted gingerbread cookies in the other.
    Her heart skipped a beat. Maybe even two.
    “Who wants cookies?” Ty said to the kids.
    They all squealed and jumped from their seats, rushing toward him. “Whoa.” Ty’s eyes widened as he quickly lifted both the house and the cookies above their heads.
    Kenzie laughed and raised her voice. “Only those students who are sitting quietly in their seats will get a cookie.”
    The throng buzzed back to their seats in seconds, staring at Ty expectantly.
    “Impressive.” Ty walked to Kenzie and handed her the house, which she held up for her students to see.
    “Isn’t this awesome?” she said.
    The kids nodded and called out their approval.
    “I think so, too. And because Mr. Ty’s such a nice guy, he’s going to let us display it in our classroom.” Her hand rose to quiet all the excited talking. “But, do we touch displays?”
    “No,” they chorused.
    “Do we break displays?”
    “No.”
    “Do we look at and admire displays?”
    “Yes,” most of them said. Treven was on a roll with the “no’s.”
    Kenzie set the house down. “That’s right. I’m going to put this over here for now, and then during our free time later, you may get a closer look. If you’re really good, then maybe tomorrow, before you leave for Winter break, I’ll let each of you pick a few pieces of candy to take with you. How does that sound?”
    “Yay!” came the calls.
    Kenzie smiled. “In the meantime, Ty also brought us some cookies. And do we eat cookies?”
    “Yes,” came the shouts. Even Treven got it right this time.
    Kenzie moved to help Ty pass out the cookies. His mom had outdone herself. There were gingerbread men, houses, Christmas trees, stars, and drums—all about the same size so that none looked bigger than another. Kenzie made a mental note to call LouAnn later and thank her.
    “Do you guys remember when Mr. Ty came to our class to tell you about computer programming?” A couple of students responded with unenthusiastic “yes’s.” Kenzie held back a smile. “Well, today he asked if he