With a smile I’d never be able to forget, she put her arms around my waist again and dragged me back on to her. I rolled us both over, tugging the blankets with me until we were wrapped up like a burrito, my snow angel draped across my body.
We stayed like that for a long time, catching our breath and reveling in each other’s bodies without saying a word. But then she laughed, a deep, throaty sort of laugh, and it was catching. I laughed, too.
“Do you think they know?” she asked once she’d stopped laughing long enough to catch her breath.
“Your parents always knew. Besides, they’ve been trying to get us back together the whole time I’ve been here.” I laughed again, and my breath fanned through her hair and sent it flying, tickling the skin along my collarbone.
“Yeah, they have been,” she conceded. “Did you— No, never mind.”
“Did I what?”
“Did you come here to get us back together? Did Mom and Dad know you were coming and set this all up?”
“Nope. They had no clue. I had three goals when I got on the plane.”
She’d started moving her hands over me again, meaning the boneless sensation after her orgasm was starting to wear off. Her fingers tickled as much as her hair did. “Three goals?”
“Yep. I was going to get all my gym equipment out of your house.”
“That one’s done.”
“Then I wanted to talk to my lawyer about getting joint custody.”
She cringed against me. “Well, I know you went to talk to him.”
“He didn’t give me much hope for that.”
“And the third?”
“Spend every last moment I could with Marley.”
“You don’t get enough time with her,” she said, pain putting an edge in her voice. It hurt her as much as it hurt me.
“No, I don’t. But I doubt that it would be enough even if I could be with her every moment of every day.”
“If you were with her that much, I promise you’d want a reprieve at least every now and then.”
I chuckled. “Probably. But since that’s not a possibility anyway…”
“But you can be with her more than you have been lately. If we come to Portland.”
“Are you really serious about that?” I’d been practically holding my breath since she’d mentioned it earlier, refusing to get my hopes up in case she changed her mind.
“Yes. If it’s what you want.” Her voice had gone soft and uncertain, so I wrapped her up tighter in my arms.
“Why wouldn’t I want it? I want you. I want Marley. I want us.”
“But I’ve hurt you so much, Mitch.”
“If I didn’t love you so much, you wouldn’t have been able to hurt me so deeply.”
“I can’t just excuse it all away, though. I can’t undo it.”
“We can’t undo the past. All we can do is make a new path forward.” I kissed her brows, trying to ease away the tension she carried there. “We’re meant to be together. I want you to be with me. I want us to be a family again.”
She sighed, and I felt some of the strain slip out of her body. “We’ve always been a family.”
We had been, ever since her parents first let me sleep on their couch when I was fourteen years old. Mia and I were thirty-one now. For more than half my life, she and her parents and siblings had been home for me…and there’s no place like home for the holidays. I couldn’t be more content than I was at that moment.
Wrapped up together, sharing our warmth, we stayed in the treehouse far longer than we likely should have, considering the temperature. We made love again, and we talked some more. We were definitely going to have to do a lot more talking. I needed to understand everything I could about how she’d felt lost in our relationship before if I was going to be able to help keep her from getting lost again. And even if we loved each other and forgave each other, there was definitely some lingering pain and resentment.
But if we worked together, if we talked about it and made sure we each knew where the other stood at any point, I thought we had a real chance to make it work this time. We could be a family. Hell, we’d even be stronger now because we’d been through such a tough time and we’d been forced to fight for what we wanted.
Eventually, we made our way down from the treehouse and back into the house. She pulled me into her room, and we slept in a tangled mass of limbs.
The next day, Marley climbed all over me again, and Mrs. Jennings kept giving me approving glances, and everything fell into place just like it had been for years. Mia and I snuck off a few times, when we put Marley down for her nap or if we could count on one of the other adults to keep an eye on her. During those times, we kissed and touched and enjoyed each other, or sometimes we talked and made plans. Just like with a mid-season trade, Mia couldn’t just pick up and leave on the spur of the moment like I would have to. She had to make arrangements and pack, and it was going to be a big process. If we were lucky, she could join me in Portland before Valentine’s Day. That was a hell of a long time away, though, considering we were just getting back together.
Instead of having Zach take me back to the airport as had been the plan, Mia and Marley came with me when the time rolled around. I held on to Marley for as long as possible, soaking up all the hugs and kisses she would dole out, before handing her off to her mother. Mia leaned in to kiss me right before I had to go through security, to the sound of whistles and catcalls from a few of the locals in the airport.
She was grinning when we broke it off. “See you soon. I love you.”
“Not as much as I love you.”
“More.”
“Prove it.”
With Marley in her arms, Mia stretched up on her tiptoes to kiss me one more time. That had been our routine for years, every time I’d had to leave for a road trip. It felt good.
I turned and headed for security, looking over my shoulder to see the two most important girls in my life waving at me just before they were out of sight.
“Finally getting your girl back, Q?” the security guy asked me as I handed over my passport and boarding pass.
Small towns. I sighed, but it was more of contentment than annoyance. “Yeah. And none too soon, either.”
He scribbled something on the boarding pass before handing it all back to me. “Well, happy new year to you. Looks like things are on the upswing, eh?”
He had no idea. I got through security and waited until time to board the plane. It wasn’t very full, and I had a window seat. I looked out over the sea of snow below us as we ascended, unable to stop smiling.
I’d gone home for Christmas with three goals. I accomplished two of them, attempted the third—but had something much better come along to complete my holiday hat trick.
Life couldn’t be better.
Catherine Gayle is a USA Today bestselling author of Regency-set historical romance and contemporary hockey romance with a New Adult feel. She’s a transplanted Texan living in North Carolina with two extremely spoiled felines. In her spare time, she watches way too much hockey and reality TV, plans fun things to do for the Nephew Monster’s next visit, and performs experiments in the kitchen which are rarely toxic.
If you enjoyed this book and want to know when more like it will be available, be sure to sign up for Catherine’s mailing list. You can find out more on her website, her blog, at Red Door Reads, at Hockey Romance, at Facebook, on Twitter, and at Goodreads. If you want to see some of her cats’ antics and possibly the occasional video update from Catherine, visit her YouTube account.
HOLIDAY HAT TRICK is book 5.5 novel in the Portland Storm series. If you enjoyed it, please look for the other books in the series: BREAKAWAY, ON THE FLY, TAKING A SHOT (a novella), LIGHT THE LAMP, DELAY OF GAME, DOUBLE MAJOR (another novella), and IN THE ZONE. The sixth novel, COMEBACK, will release in February, 2015. The seventh novel, DROPPING GLOVES, will release in April, 2015.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Page
Table of Contents
Dedication
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
About the Author
Other Catherine Gayle Titles
Holiday Hat Trick Page 7
