Christmas Is for Lovers: 6 Hot Holiday Romances

by Box Set

  I set up the coffeepot and went to change into my swimsuit. Off the back part of my home was a room with glass walls and an endless pool—not one of those long exotic pools, but one that had the current running through the water for swimming in place. Both Matt and I used it on a regular basis, although Matt used the submerged treadmill more than I did to build his leg muscles. I preferred to slip over the wall at the end of the pool and rest in the hot tub section after my workout.

  In high school and college, I’d swum competitively, and now Matt did. Between the two of us, this one room was one of the best investments on my property.

  I put in a good thirty minutes of hard swimming and then took a shower before heading back to the family room to check on our guest. She was still sleeping soundly, so I poured myself some coffee and opened up my laptop to get some work done.

  On the screen was the e-mail from which I had turned away last night. It stared at me accusingly from the screen, and I wanted to put my fist through my computer. Damn that woman. Why the hell did I ever get involved with her in the first place? I clicked the e-mail closed without reading it again. I wasn’t up to dealing with this crap today. I had enough with the beautiful stranger sleeping on my sofa.

  What was I going to do with her? I didn’t really have much choice in the matter. The roads were horrible, and there was no way I was going to attempt them or allow Matt to do so.

  Looks like we’re going to have an uninvited house guest for a few days, I thought.

  I glanced over my shoulder toward the living room. Having a good-looking woman around for a few days couldn’t be too bad—unless she had a possessive boyfriend who was going to come after me when he found out she was here.

  Geri strolled bleary-eyed into the kitchen and climbed up on my lap.

  “Morning, sweetheart, how did you sleep?”

  “Okay.” She snuggled into the crook of my neck. The only time this child was quiet was when she was sick or first thing in the morning. While she easily woke up early, she was not a morning person and kept to herself for a good forty-five minutes to an hour before her personality kicked in.

  I loved these moments in the morning when she didn’t want anything more than to breathe the same air I breathed. It made all the rough patches in life seem more bearable, less overwhelming. I kissed her forehead. “Do you want some juice?”

  She shook her head no against my shoulder.

  “Okay.”

  I cuddled her to my side and went about reading some of the news. The big story was the snowstorm, not that it was big news to those of us that lived in northern Pennsylvania, not too far from the New York state line. Lake Erie was just north of that, and we got snow—lots of it.

  The weather report stated that our area had already received twelve inches and another thirty to thirty-six were expected over the next three days. Hell of a storm to be stuck in, that’s for sure.

  “Is the lady still here?” Geri asked softly.

  “Yep, right where you left her. She will probably wake up soon.”

  Geri climbed down from my lap. “I’m gonna go check on her.”

  “Okay, don’t bother her, but keep an eye on her and tell me when she wakes up.”

  “’Kay,” Geri mumbled as she left the room, her favorite stuffed rabbit tucked under her arm.

  A few minutes later, I heard Geri talking and went to see if our guest was awake. Her bright blue eyes flashed up to mine as she remained reclined on the couch.

  Man, I don’t think I have ever seen such beautiful eyes, I thought as I sat down and listened to Geri and her talk. Yeah, young children said things out of left field, but one could learn things about people from listening to them. I learned that Robin Cove must have recently gone through a breakup because she thought boys were jerks. That answered my question about a possibly lunatic boyfriend or husband.

  She also wasn’t very keen on having unknown men take her clothes off, but hopefully she understood why we had done it. We weren’t trying to be perverts, although this morning in the shower the memory of her long slim legs had given me some ideas.

  When Matt had come down, I’d quickly put things into motion. “Matt, let’s get changed, and we’ll go out to Robin’s car and get some of her things.”

  “Are we taking the truck or the snowmobiles?”

  “Snowmobiles. I want to hook up the carts to them and then we can bring back anything that is in her car. We received almost a foot of snow last night, the truck might have issues.”

  “Awesome.” He grinned as he ran up the stairs two at a time.

  “You have snowmobiles?” Robin asked.

  “Yep, three of them.” She glanced at Geri. “The other one is for guests; she’s a little too small to drive her own.”

  “But I can steer all by myself,” my daughter stressed proudly.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Robin asked as she stood and pooled the blanket in a pile on the sofa. Matt’s pants fit her perfectly, and I had to remind myself not to stare as I remembered what was under them.

  “It’s really not a problem, Robin. You’re welcome here. We have plenty of food, lots to do, and I already told you that it will help us from killing each other out of boredom.” I scooped Geri into my arms and asked her, “Can you behave for Robin while we are gone?”

  She nodded.

  “Okay, it shouldn’t take us too long. Matt said your car was only a couple of miles away.”

  “Daddy, can I have something to eat?” Geri asked as I put her down.

  “I can help her get something,” Robin offered as she crossed her arms over her chest.

  “I thought about making pancakes when we return. Why don’t you eat a piece of fruit?” I said to Geri and then looked at Robin. “You should rest.”

  “I’m fine, really. I can cook breakfast if you’d like me to.”

  “How about if you see how you feel in about an hour? If you’re still feeling up to it, you can start. Geri can show you where things are, and I’ll help when I get back.”

  “Deal,” she said with a smile that made me pause for a second. I didn’t want to like her smile, and I sure as hell did not want to feel anything when she unleashed it on me. I spun from her before I could say anything further and walked down the hall to my wet room to pull our snowmobile gear from the closet.

  I was coming back down the hallway to yell for Matt when the bathroom door opened and Robin stepped out and right into my arms. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s alright,” I replied as I became mesmerized by her gaze and let my hands slip slowly down her arms and away. “I should have been paying more attention.”

  Neither of us moved as we studied one another. She was probably eight, maybe nine inches shorter than I was, and I loved the way her hair shifted back from her face as she looked up at me.

  Crap! No, I did not love the way it looked. The last thing I needed to be doing was thinking like that around this stranger.

  Matt walked around the corner at that moment and broke the connection we had. He studied us before he smirked my way. Yeah, I definitely didn’t need that.

  “You ready to go?” I asked abruptly as I turned back around to return to the mudroom, slightly flustered at the effect Robin had just had on me.

  “Yeah, I’m ready.”

  He excused himself as he passed Robin and followed me.

  As we put on our gear, I suggested, “After breakfast, I’d like your help shoveling the walkways. I’ll plow the driveway later.”

  “Can I plow it?” Matt asked.

  I threw him a glance. “Sure, if you don’t knock down my mailbox like you did last time.”

  “That was an accident,” he laughed. “You know that.”

  “Yeah, but you have to be more careful. Mistakes waste time and money, I’ve taught you better than that.”

  “I know,” he kind of growled back at me, and I would have called him on it, but I was feeling pretty growly myself at that moment. We finished dres
sing and then traipsed through the snow to the garage that held the snowmobiles. I punched in the code and the door went up. “She’s hot, isn’t she?”

  I glanced over my shoulder at Matt who was staring back at the house. “Who? Robin?”

  “Yeah,” he turned wide-eyed to me.

  “Keep your eyes to yourself young man; she’s a little too old for you.”

  “But not for you, Dad.”

  “If I was looking for a woman, I’d find one myself.” We bustled into the garage and shut the door so we could keep the snow out while we prepared the snowmobiles.

  “You should be looking, Dad. You’re still young. All men need a good woman in their life.”

  “Says the man who just learned how to shave a year ago,” I threw back at him.

  “Hey, you should get to know her; she seems like a nice person.”

  “I’m sure she is, Matt, but she’s not here for me to get to know. She’s here because she was in trouble, and now she can’t leave. Let’s get the romantic notions out of your head and go do what we need to do.” I pulled out one of the carts, “Besides, I just got out of a relationship with a woman who you said was a nice person and turned out to be a psycho.”

  “Fine,” he grumbled.

  But he’d planted the seed in my mind. Actually, the seed had already been there, but his words had added the fertile soil to help it germinate. The moment I’d looked into Robin’s eyes last night, I knew I wanted to know more about the woman behind them, and that thought alone scared the shit out of me. My winning streak with women was pretty much non-existent.

  Hearing that she was single urged that desire along, and when she’d barreled into me outside the bathroom, I’d momentarily forgotten my vow of no more women in my life. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so enthralled to just look in a woman’s eyes—or had to force myself to step away from one.

  What confused me was the why of it all. One look in Robin’s eyes, and it had sparked something deep inside my soul. A full fireworks display had gone off in my head, something that had never happened before and that I didn’t particularly want—not with the malarkey that Molly was pulling.

  I should have cut my losses earlier instead of telling myself to give it some more time. Giving it more time had only brought out the worst in her when I told her I didn’t want to get married. Been there, done that, not interested in ever doing it again.

  “Matt, go back inside and grab a wire coat hanger. We’re going to need to try and get the car door unlocked.”

  “What if we can’t get them open?” he asked as he prepared to open the garage door.

  “Then we’re going to bust a window. I’ll pay to have it replaced. Grab the duct tape off the shelf in the back room, too. I have some plastic over here that I can use to cover the window if we need to do that as a last resort.”

  A few minutes later, we had the carts hooked up and ready to go. Before I put my goggles over my eyes, I glanced up at the house. Robin was holding Geri up, and they were waving out the window. I waved back.

  Man, I don’t know why, but I sure did love that sight. I sighed and glanced over at Matt, who promptly winked at me.

  We made it out to her car with no problem, and as I stood beside it, I glanced inside and saw how packed it was. “Glad we brought two carts; we’re going to need them both to haul all this stuff back.”

  “Looks like she was moving,” Matt yelled over the wind as I tried to slip the coat hanger inside the door.

  After a few minutes, I realized it was useless. The cold had probably frozen the mechanism. “We’re going to have to break the glass. Let’s do it on the passenger side, so the glass is off to the side.”

  I sure was glad we had the heavy clothes on that we did. I had to wonder how long she’d been exposed to the elements. If Matt hadn’t found her when he had, she might not have made it.

  We made quick work of getting into the car and pulling out all her stuff. I found her purse and cellphone in the front seat and added them to the growing pile. I left the car key under the front visor, and we taped the broken window as best we could and headed back.

  When we returned, I saw Geri in the front window waving to us excitedly, but there was no sign of Robin. The house had four windows along the front above the wooden wraparound porch. I checked each one to make sure I hadn’t missed her. It had taken us almost two hours to get out there and bring the stuff back, and I hoped that everything was alright in the house.

  “Let’s put the stuff in the garage for now, and we can bring it into the house later.”

  Matt nodded over the revving of his engine and pulled his snowmobile into its spot. I followed close behind him.

  When we stepped into the house, the smell of honey, barbeque sauce, and bacon filled my nostrils.

  “Oh, man, she cooks,” Matt said excitedly. “I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I smelled that.”

  “Yeah, me neither.”

  We rushed to get our gear off and hung up to dry, and I followed Matt down the hall and into the kitchen.

  I stopped at the doorway and stared at the scene in front of me. Geri was wearing an apron, and Robin wore one of my sweatshirts. It came so far down, it covered her butt. They were standing at the stove, flipping pancakes, and my heart thudded strangely in my chest.

  “I hope you don’t mind. I was cold. Geri grabbed me one of your sweatshirts,” Robin said apologetically as she glanced over her shoulder.

  The woman could wear any piece of clothing I owned, I thought silently, and Matt elbowed me before walking over to the counter. Damn, I needed to stop thinking like that.

  “No, not at all,” I replied when my tongue finally obeyed the message from my addled brain.

  “Did you guys have any problems?” she asked as she assisted Geri in flipping another pancake.

  “No, not unless you call breaking one of your car windows a problem,” Matt quipped with a laugh.

  She spun around to me. “You what?”

  Chapter 5

  Robin

  I was already head over heels in love with this little girl as she snuggled on the couch with me and we watched cartoons. I couldn’t remember the last time I had watched television, much less cartoons.

  Geri giggled every now and then. I couldn’t help smiling at the sound and the feel of her against me. I’d kind of hoped that by this age, I would have had a child or two already, but to make that kind of life-changing decision, I needed a good man to share it with me.

  I didn’t want to think about Josh—not right now. Right now, I wanted to enjoy the little fairy tale family that I had found nestled in the snowy woods for a few days, and then I would go back to the dungeon of my reality.

  I glanced around the living room again. Wood beams lined the walls and high vaulted ceiling. A five-bladed ceiling fan circled slowly, pushing heat down. The walls were covered with frames, but not of fancy artwork, these precious pictures were all photographs of them and other people they knew.

  The furniture was big and bulky, but the room was so large that it made it look homey and not cramped. A large braided rug covered the wooden floors in front of the couch and two leather chairs, and the fireplace was a wonder all its own. The hearth extended out into the room with an intricate stone pattern in warm beiges and browns, and the mantle was filled with more photographs.

  This room in particular screamed family, and I loved it. I could get used to a room like this. Hell, I was already feeling at home here, so much so that I was ready to check out more of the house.

  “Why don’t we get the food started? Are you going to help me?”

  “Yes!” she squealed and tumbled off the couch, grabbing my hand and pulling me up.

  I hid the pain from her tugging the best that I could. My entire body ached, and my lower back and head throbbed, but if the least I could do for these people was feed them, then I was going to do that.

  One thing I knew how to do—and do well—was cook. The fact that
I’d been a catering chef before I’d had to up and quit was a bonus. I loved working with food, and being in a kitchen was like paradise to me—especially this kitchen. Holy cow! This was one hell of a gourmet kitchen for a house in the woods, but then again, this house seemed like more than just a cabin in the forest. From what I could tell, it was huge.

  There was a double oven in the wall, and a huge working island with a sink off to one side, plus another larger sink on the far wall in the center of the counter. The fridge was the largest I’d ever seen in a private home, and I gaped at the shining black surfaces nestled in the wood.

  I didn’t ever want to leave. “Does your dad like to cook?”

  “Yep, he loves to cook, but he hates the dishes. He makes Mattie do the dishes—and me, too.”

  A man after my own heart, I thought. I’d better watch that line of thought since I would only be here for a few days.

  “Do you like to cook?”

  “Yeah, but Daddy does most of it. Sometimes Mattie cooks, but I make the best hot chocolate.”

  “You do make the best hot chocolate, with just the right amount of marshmallows on top.”

  She grinned up at me, and I shivered.

  “Do you think your daddy would mind if I wore one of his sweatshirts? I’m still a little cold from last night.”

  “I don’t think so. Come on, you can pick one out.” She pulled me out of the room and down the hall, turning down another short hall near the back of the house that I hadn’t noticed earlier when I had visited the restroom. Of course, that might have had something to do with the handsome man who had caught me as I had launched myself at him earlier.

  The look on his face had warmed my insides more than the fire had, that was for sure. For those few seconds, time had stood still and there had only been us.

  When Geri let go of my hand, she was in her father’s room. Naturally, it was all earthy and manly, and I absolutely loved it. The dark greens and blues on the quilt and the armchair by the window looked inviting and cozy.