It Started at Christmas...

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 grimaced. “Cute is not how a woman wants to be described.”

“Well, you already had beautiful, sexy, desirable, intelligent, brilliant, gorgeous, breathtaking—”

“You can stop anytime,” she interrupted, laughing.

“Amazing, lickable—”

“Did you just say lickable?” she interrupted again.

He paused, frowned at her. “Lickable? Surely not.”

“Surely so.”

“I said likable. Not lickable.”

“You said lickable.”

He did his best to keep a straight face. “You’d think with those elongated ears you’d have better hearing.”

She touched one of her pointy ears. “You’d think.”

“So maybe I’ll just thank her for your costume that’s lit up my day so far.”

McKenzie reached up and touched her hair. “That would be accurate, at least.”

“All the other was, too.” Before she could argue, he grabbed her hand and held it as they resumed walking toward Bev’s Beauty Boutique.

The wind was a little chilly, but overall the weather was a fairly mild December day in mid-Georgia.

“Oh, goodness, look at you two,” Bev gushed in her gravelly voice when McKenzie and Lance walked up to the shop. Lance had met her at a charity function a time or two over the years he’d been in Coopersville. A likable woman even if he did always have to take a step back because of her smoky breath.

Bev and a couple other women were outside the shop, watching the remainder of the parade pass.

“Cecilia, you outdid yourself, girl! McKenzie, you look amazing.” Bev, a woman who’d smoked her way to looking older than she was, ran her gaze over Lance’s trousers, jacket, and big Christmas bow tie. He’d borrowed some fake ears and a nose tip from the community center costume room from a play they’d put on several years before. “I’m pretty sure you’re hotter than Georgia asphalt in mid-July.”

McKenzie laughed out loud at the woman’s assessment of him. Lance just smiled and thanked her for her hoarse compliment.

“You do look amazing,” Cecelia praised her friend. “Even if I do say so myself.” She pulled out her cell phone. “I want a picture.”

“You took photos this morning,” McKenzie reminded as her friend held her cell phone out in front of her.