Page 6 of The Hockey Grump Saves Christmas

“Good to know. I’m going to get your bike and put it in the trunk. You can toss the suit in there too. Then I’m going to drive you home. To theretirement home.” He sighs like that’s the most ridiculous part of the evening. “Then I’m going to come back here, unplug the light show that would put the Vegas strip to shame, finally get the peaceful evening I came here for, and tomorrow you’re going to come back and make it all disappear.”

He turns away and stomps through the snow toward the garage, shaking his head.

“Um,” I call after him.

He spins around on the spot. “What now?”

“I can’t really, you know”—I waft the bunny hand I’d taken off toward my left ankle—“walk.”

His broad, square shoulders slump as far as solid muscle will allow, and he moves back toward me.

His eyes meet mine again for a fraction of a second as he offers me his elbow for the second time. And it makes me feel a bit…funny.

“Come on, Bugs,” he says, and I swear there’s a hint of good humor buried under that air of resignation.

I hook my hand in the crook of the strongest arm I have ever felt in my life. And the hunk of maleness attached to it leads me toward his Porsche SUV.

CHAPTER 3

GABE

“Do you know people in Warm Springs?” my unexpected passenger asks as I pull out of the driveway and head right back the way I just came. “Is that why you bought a house up here?”

Talking to anyone had not featured heavily on the list of things I’d planned to do this evening. Talking to an overly chatty, bunny-suit-wearing woman who’s covered my understated new house in Christmas decorations so overstated they should be preserved for posterity in a museum for the overstated, would never have gotten anywhere near the list.

At least she’s not wearing the suit anymore. Helping her out of it wasn’t the worst job I’ve ever had though—and it would have been more pleasant if we hadn’t been doing it in wind and snow. But since she’s currently got only one functioning ankle, I kind of had to assist. And also, maybe slightly because I caused her injury. Not that she didn’t bring it on herself, obviously.

Anyway, removing the suit revealed a body that matched the face in its levels of gorgeousness. Full breasts under a gray sweatshirt, the curve of her hips in the tight jeans—jeans that hugged her round backside when she bent down to rub her ankle.

As for her question, I don’t even remember who it was who mentioned Warm Springs to me years ago, just that they said it was a nice quiet small town, not too far from the city, where you can get away from it all.

My brain must have banked that information, because it popped right back to the top of my mind when I was suddenly looking for a place to escape the holidays.

“Nope,” I say. “Don’t know a soul here. That’s kind of the point.”

“So you’re not just cranky, you’re a loner too?”

I concentrate on the road ahead. The snow is a lot thicker than when I drove up. But at least the wind has dropped.

“Those are quite the assumptions to make about someone you met only fifteen minutes ago and whose name you don’t even know.”

“What’s your name?” She turns in her seat to face me a little more.

Oh Jesus. “Gabe.”

“Hi, Gabe,” she says and holds a hand toward me. “Nice to meet you. I’m Natalie.”

“Shame. I kinda prefer Bugs.” I take my right hand off the steering wheel and have just made contact with the tips of her warm fingers when a shape darts out from the bushes alongside the road.

I snatch my hand back and grab the wheel with both hands. “Fuck.”

I slam my foot on the brake. “Ow.”

The jolt sends a sharp pain shooting through my left shoulder again. “Fuck. Ow.”

Natalie slaps both hands on the dash to steady herself.

The Cayenne’s tires slip a little in the snow before it comes to a stop. And I find myself eye to eye with the second piece of wildlife of the evening. But this one isn’t made of fake fur and filled by a human. This is a real one. A real red fox, standing stock still in the full beam of my headlights. One paw lifted. Snowflakes drifting gently around it like the perfect Christmas card scene.

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