Page 70 of It's Mother-Pucking Christmas!

I took a long swig from the bottle. Then another. Wanting to drown out those sad blue eyes.

“I’m a shitty person,” I slurred to Gracie when she found me hidden behind the Christmas tree, just me and my emotional support bottle of liquor.

“No, you’re not.” She rubbed my back.

“I broke up with Ryder.”

“Why?” Gracie cried.

I blinked away tears. I couldn’t throw my brother under the bus. Not yet. Not after I’d sacrificed everything. “I don’t know,” I lied.

My aunts crowded around. “You’re single again?”

“Dakota, you can’t keep doing this.”

“It’s a pattern. She has a pattern. It’s toxic behavior,” Violet shouted.

My uncles railed at me. “Right before his big game?”

“Dakota, what the fuck.”

My mom declared, “Well, I’m still supporting him.”

“Me too!” My aunts piped up in unison.

“You could have cost him his big chance!” Uncle Nate yelled at me. “You couldn’t wait until after Ryder got signed, Dakota?” He shook me. “You ruined his life!”

I started sobbing.

His wife shushed Nate. “Just leave her alone. We don’t know what happened.”

My little brother looked relieved and mouthed “Thank you.”

See? It was worth it for him, right? I was still a good sister at least.

Even if I was a terrible girlfriend and deserved to spend every Christmas alone then get run over in the middle of Main Street by a pack of rabid reindeer.

26

RYDER

“Ifigured you’d be out on your hot date,” Rick said, “not playing hockey in the cold and dark.”

“What about you?” I shot back, switching to my outside edge as I ran the high-precision drill.

“We’re trying to make sure Utah doesn’t get fired next year,” Mike announced as he and Pete stepped onto the ice with me.

Up in the stands, some fans who’d snuck into the stadium hung out, watching us practice. The girls screamed when they saw me look up.

None of them was Dakota.

“She broke up with me,” I admitted.

“Damn.” Pete gave me a hug. “You’ll get ’em next time, College Boy.”

“You…” Mike looked at me, suspicious. “You don’t look that sad or heartbroken, considering you lost the love of your life.”

“I’m going to win her back,” I said fervently. “You were right. I came on too strong. I’m going to give it a rest for a couple weeks, then try, try again. I’ll never let her go.”

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