Page 84 of The Hockey Grump Saves Christmas

“Then that must have been an adventure.” I want her to know I’m not like that dick, that as far as I’m concerned her life choices are perfectly valid.

“It has a great theater program,” she says. “But I also picked it because there’s a direct train to Providence from Penn Station, so I wouldn’t have to rely on my parents being around to drive me back and forth for holidays. And because the school offered me a great scholarship if I took part in a program that engages with local communities. And thank God I took that offer, because that was where I found my soul.”

“Then that was a perfect decision for you,” I tell her.

“I did my education master’s online, though,” she says. “I’d met Todd in my last year of college, and he got a job on a research project into pine barren ecosystems in Hudson Highlands State Park. So it was either move here to be with him and study remotely, or do long distance. I had the pull of Aunt Lou being here too, so…” she shrugs. “Anyway, he’s now presumably thriving in his bigger and better pine barren opportunities in Alaska.”

“I don’t see a small-town vibe in you at all.” I slide my hands up her thighs until they rest on her hips.

“Oh, pray tell, what do you see?” she asks, gesturing to herself.

Christ, that’s a dangerous question. And a can of trouble-worms I am not prepared to open.

“I see someone who’s moving more than a thousand miles away because she thinks sheshould, not because she wants to. And no happiness comes from a move like that. Trust me.”

“You’ve moved just because you should?”

“Hockey is all moves just because you should.”

“You mean you’re not happy in New York?”

“Oh, I fucking love New York. But I was as miserable as ass in St. Paul.”

“Well, God help the world if I’ve seen you at your most deliriously happy.”

“You literally just told me I look happy. And three nights ago, did I not seem extremely fucking happy?”

She raises her eyebrows and digs her teeth into her top lip in a way that makes me want to bite it with mine.

Then she rubs her arms and gives a little shiver.

“Has this made you chilly?” I nod at the ice cream.

“Maybe,” she says.

“Stick it back in the freezer, then come over here. I’ll start the fire.”

I head into the living area and take down the stockings Natalie hung from the mantle last week, in case they’re a fire hazard, before holding down the two buttons till the click-click-click turns into thewhooshof a catching flame.

“Thank God this is gas,” I call back to the kitchen. “If you had to wait for me to rub two sticks together, you’d die of hypothermia.”

She slides the freezer drawer shut and crosses the room to sit on the edge of the large raised hearth.

“Hmm, this is nice.” She nods at her socked feet wiggling into the deep pile of the thick cream rug.

“You need something for your top half too.” I grab the Christmas blanket with the overly cutesy village ice-skating scene on it that she draped on the back of the sofa last week.

Crouching down in front of her, I wrap it around her shoulders. “There you go.”

“Thank you,” she says, pulling the edges together at her chest. “But you’ve only done that so you don’t have to look at it.”

“Don’t you think I’ll look at it more if it’s wrapped around you?” When did I become as cheesy as fuck? Is this what Christmas in a small town does to people?

But given the smile that lights up Natalie’s face and the way that it makes my heart beat faster, I can only be grateful for the cheese.

And while I want to remove every item of her clothing as soon as possible, my heartbeat isn’t that raging passionate one from the other night. This time the thuds are fast, but also somehow calm and steady.

Right this second, and for the first time in my life, every pore of my body, every cell in my brain, feels alive—not just with pure desire, but with a warmth and an affection for this quirky woman who’d do anything to make people happy. Even dress up in a bunny costume and jump on a stranger.

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