Page 70 of Mechanic’s Christmas Match

Rory watched her go, feeling paralyzed.

All this time he’d seen Ana and understood her so perfectly. He loved her for exactly the woman she was, and for the woman she would be fifty years from now.

And all this time, she hadn’t seen him at all.

21

ANA

Ana fumbled her coat on as she made her way across Park and turned onto Ambler Road.

The wind was stronger now, bending the trees and ripping the tears from her eyes before they had a chance to fall. Huge gusts of snow swirled, sticking to the roads and sidewalk, and gray clouds blotted out the sky, turning day to night. The lights in the shops glowed in such a cozy way compared to the onslaught outside.

When she finally got to the shop, the sign had been turned to Closed, and she sighed in relief. Her mom and Theo must be upstairs, taking a break.

She hurried up the stairs, feeling better as soon as she opened the door to the apartment and saw the two of them. Her mom was warming up leftovers in a pan, and Theo was playing, a smile on his little face when he looked up to see Ana.

“Aunt Ana,” he sang out, running to her as she shook the snow from her hair.

She swept him up in her arms. He was getting awfully big and heavy for that, but she didn’t care one bit.

“I’m so glad to be home with you,” she told him.

She looked over at her mom, who was frowning as she pulled the leftovers off the stove. The roses Rory had given her stood in a vase on the counter, the box of chocolates beside it.

Theo wiggled to be put down, and Ana placed him down gently and watched him run for his plastic tools and pretend to fix the sofa.

He wants to be just like Rory, she realized.

Hot tears prickled her eyes as she hung up her coat, and she moved to the kitchen without realizing she was doing it, gravitating toward her mother as she always had in times of crisis.

“Tell me,” her mom said softly, her eyes on the steaming chicken and rice she was spooning into a bowl.

“It’s not going to work,” Ana said softly, grateful to her mother for not looking at her while she explained.

“Why not?” her mom asked.

“He’s not ready for a family,” Ana said simply.

“He told you that?” her mother asked.

“I can just tell,” Ana said. “He backed off so fast when Theo came to us.”

“Do you really believe that?” her mother asked, looking up at her at last. “Or are you just using Theo as an excuse because you’re scared?”

“I…I…” Ana stammered.

She meant what she’d said.

But if she was being honest with herself… maybe she was just a little scared.

The life she shared with her family was already filled with challenges, and she already juggled the competing needs of the shop, the boy she was raising, and the mother who she worried was overworked or lonely.

If not for Mal and Valerie, Ana’s whole world would be spent under the roof of this building.

And even though they weren’t talking about romance right now, Ana wasn’t blind to what was going on with her two best friends. It was starting to feel like both of them would be coupled up any day now, forever changing the life Ana had been clinging to.

“It’s okay to be scared,” her mom said, placing down the pan and coming around the corner to wrap an arm around her waist. “Loving someone is scary. You make yourself vulnerable when you put your heart on the line. And sometimes that hurts. Losing your father broke both of our hearts, but aren’t you glad we had him while we did?”