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I nodded. “And Mom and Lindsay really did see me kissing a mannequin on the street.” I slapped a palm to my forehead. “That’s why everyone’s been saying how stressed I am all the time. Oh, wow.” I reflected on my family’s behavior for the past week. “Everyone has been really sweet and understanding to me this whole time. Even Lindsay. And they all just kind of went with it. Except that time Lindsay sent you to the restaurant, Josh.” I couldn’t hold back a laugh. “She must have been so confused when you came back and told her Tanner was a real guy and you didn’t know what she was talking about.”
Josh smiled and scratched his head. “Yeah. She really didn’t know what to think. I wondered why she’d looked at me so strangely.”
“Oh, well,” I said. “It will be something for Lindsay and Troy to talk about in Bora Bora.” Although Lindsay and Troy never did much talking. It was probably unlikely they’d start on their honeymoon. “No wonder no one ever charged me for Tanner’s movie or ice skating ticket. And he never had his wallet with him.”
Faye lifted her elegant shoulders in a tiny shrug. “Well, he wasn’t real, dear, to anyone but you and Josh. It’s not like he had a wad of cash and a credit history. You didn’t project any of those for him.”
I felt like I could ask questions all night and still not be satisfied. How did one justify the existence of magic in one’s own life?
“It’s Christmas magic,” Josh said, voicing my own thoughts. “There really isn’t any other kind, is there?”
“There’s love,” I said.
Josh wound an arm around my waist and kissed the side of my head.
Faye squealed and clapped her hands. “A+ to my latest, brightest students! I know the two of you will be very happy together. Forever.” She picked up Tanner’s torso. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do.”
“Thank you, Faye,” I said, my heart swelling with gratitude for this love filling me to overflowing and the expanding wave of joy rolling through me.
“You’re welcome, sweetie. And I won’t even make you name your firstborn after me.” She winked before turning away.
Josh gave me a squeeze, and I leaned into him as we ambled from the room. It could only be a good thing, I decided, to start a relationship on the foundation of Christmas magic. And love.
Chapter Twenty-Three
We won’t be late for the plane, will we?” I asked Josh as we strolled down the busy sidewalk.
“No, we have plenty of time.” He squeezed my hand. “Besides, we have a car. No schlepping our luggage on the subway.”
I squeezed his hand back. “Nice. London’s calling…me.”
He smiled and stroked my cheek. “So I hear.”
The curtain at the front of Bainbridge’s display window twitched. Christmas was over, but the store was leaning in to big post-holiday clearance sales. “Thank you for bringing me here,” I said. Josh draped his arm around me and gave me a side hug. “Faye texted that he’s all put back together again, and I don’t have to be sad.”
He leaned down, concerned eyes on mine. “You never really were, were you? I mean, he wasn’t real. And you have me.”
I loved that Josh sounded jealous of my ex, even when my ex was a mannequin that looked exactly like him and had his personality. I kissed him, and we spent a moment locked in each other’s gazes, my heart dwelling on the wonder of our love. “I’m glad I have you. I’m thrilled, really. It was just sad to see him broken and falling apart. I felt like I’d done that to him.”
Josh nodded and brought my hand up. He brushed the backs of my fingers with his lips.
The curtain parted, and there stood Tanner looking whole and healthy and completely like a department store mannequin, not an ounce of reality in sight.
I let out a breath, and Josh and I studied him, holding hands.
I raised my eyebrows and put my hand on the glass. “I can’t believe I ever thought he was real.”
“Well, he was. To you. And to me, I guess. That was part of the magic.”
I lifted my shoulders and let them drop. “I know. But it still seems so impossible.”
While we watched, Faye climbed into the window, picked up Tanner, and with a little wink at me, carried him offstage again.
“I guess that’s it,” I said, turning to go. I paused when Faye reappeared, carrying another mannequin into the display.
This one was also male but had red hair and green eyes. He was wearing a black leather biker jacket and ripped jeans. Certainly not something Tanner would ever wear.
The woman to my left gasped and grabbed the sleeve of my coat. “Did you see that?” she asked, her face aglow with wonder. “That mannequin! He justwinkedat me.”
I smiled and squeezed Josh’s hand.
“Yeah, they do that sometimes,” I told her.
