Page 131 of The Hockey Grump Saves Christmas

There’s a warm laugh from the audience. But a quickglance at Nat finds her staring at me like I just climbed out of a spaceship and she’s not sure if I’m friend or foe.

There’s no backing out at this point, not without looking even more of a fool than I already do. “Do you, O illustrious mayor,” I ask, “grant me the privilege of permission to try?”

Nat glares at her aunt and shakes her head.

Aunt Lou claps and bounces a little at the knees like this is the most exciting thing she’s seen in a very long time.

“O, dear Gabriel, Knight of the Sticks, King of the Pucks, I grant you all the permission you need to put a smile back on my beloved Natalie’s visage.”

Excellent improv from Aunt Lou. I couldn’t have planned it better.

Natalie widens her eyes at her aunt, giving her a hard stare that clearly displays her distress that Lou is not only playing along, she’s doing it with gusto.

I take Nat by the elbows and turn her to face me.

“Then here, in front of this gathering of townsfolk, I ask you, Natalie of Bourne, if you will hear my plea. My grovels, if you will.”

She digs her teeth into her bottom lip for a second, then meets my eyes. The spark I saw for the first time when I ripped off that bunny head is back.

“This had better be good,” she says, barely moving her lips and at a volume for only my ears.

The claps and chants start up again, but this time it’s “Grovel! Grovel! Grovel!”

With the sexiest of her mischievous smiles, Natalie takes a step back and joins in. “Grovel! Grovel! Grovel!”

Nicely played. I have never appreciateda challenge more. A challenge to bring my best game. A challenge to play to win.

But no season opener or playoff decider could make me as nervous as this. I have way more confidence in my odds of winning the cup than I do of winning Natalie right now.

It doesn’t help that I’m in front of her home crowd. This is like playing an away game against a team with the most ardent and loyal fans imaginable. I don’t only need to turn Nat around, I need to get her whole town on my side too.

I take a deep breath of the cold evening air. What the hell was it that I’d prepared to say?

“Okay, here goes.” It’s time to drop the weird play language and be myself. And that’s possibly the most terrifying part of all this.

“I knew from the moment I pulled off your bunny head that you were different.” There are mutterings ofwhat?accompanied by puzzled looks and shrugs. “Those blue eyes hit mine and woke up something inside me that had been lying dormant my whole life.”

Now she digs her teeth into her top lip but never takes her eyes from my face.

“I’m like Wendolyn,” I continue, finally remembering this first part that I rehearsed over and over on the drive up here. “My heart was closed and frozen. Until that moment when you thawed it in an instant. I’ve been trying to ram it back into the freezer ever since. But goddammit, it just keeps melting every time I so much as think of you, picture your face, or recall the scent of your hair.”

I have to stop to clear my throat before I can continue.

“And you are Sir Percival,” I tell her, “with a heart that’s wide open and generous with its love.”

I’m all out of rehearsed speeches now.

“Just look at all this.” I gesture to the kids, their parents, and the gathered locals. “None of this would have happened without you. At least not in this way. Not in a way that creates the atmosphere I could feel even when I was hiding right at the back over there. And don’t you dare try to give me credit for it. This is all you.Youdid this. The credit is all yours because of that indefinable special spirit you have inside you.”

Good God, the smile on her face, the shine in her eyes, the flush of her cheeks all make me want to grab her right now. But I have a plan and, goddammit, I’m going to see it through.

“I know I was a total—” I look around at the kids. “Well, let’s just say I didn’t exactly cover myself in glory with the way I left.”

Natalie shakes her head. “You were a total buttface.”

A ripple of snickers runs through the kids.

“Is it okay to say that?” I ask in a whisper out of the corner of my mouth.

---