Page 26 of Snowed In With The Second Chance Daddy

Trevor winces, his eyes shut tight, pink icing dripping down his nose.

At first, I think he might actually be pissed off, but then he smiles. “Okay,nowit’s on.”

I dart away as he reaches for his spoon of blue icing, ducking down when he tries to catch me with the projectile of icing. “You’re making a mess!”

“You started it!”

I can’t stop laughing. “That’s a lie, and you know it!”

Trevor scrambles around the island toward me, and I run the opposite direction.

It’s cat and mouse, around and around the island.

I need more ammo, which means I’ll need to take a risk. I fake him out by starting one way and going the other.

But Trevor’s bigger than me. Longer legs, arms, all that. And tough I manage to get another spoonful of icing, he grabs me up a moment later.

I scream out, the spoon flying out of my hand.

Trevor grins. “Got you”

I try to catch my breath and realize I can’t. I’m held tight in his arms, up against his chest, close like we used to be. Close like we belong to one another.

I rest my head against him and glance up into his face.

Our eyes meet. Where I expect to see disdain, I see a solemn smile and sad eyes.

We both remember.

And with the realization that what we are feeling is not the present, but the past, we disentangle.

“Sorry about your cookie, I–” He pushes curls from his forehead.

“Oh, it’s fine. It was funny, it was…” I try to laugh it off, but I’m all turned around, topsy turvy.

“We should clean up.” I grab a rag hanging over the faucet. When I turn, Red is standing in the hall, just outside the light.

She was watching us. I pretend like I don’t notice her.

However, it’s clear whether she admits it or not what she and Oliver are trying to accomplish by me being here.

She’s going to learn the hard way that Trevor McCoy and I are nothing but a memory. For all of us.

5

TREVOR

Visitingthe Christmas market with the Hawthorn family isn’t as fun as it was when we first started the tradition. When it was just us guys, we’d get drunk on German beer and eat more Wiener schnitzel than we knew what to do with.

Now, it’s just a night of glorified babysitting.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s something about seeing the market through the eyes of a child that is fun and exciting, but all that stops once someone needs a bathroom and the porta potties are all the way at the other end of the market.

I’m more of a glorified chaperone than anything, and that’s just fine. It’s one night.

Still, that doesn’t mean I don’t keep checking my watch to see if I can get away with sneaking away yet.

Hayden, Jarred and June’s son, cries out for my attention. “Uncle Trevor, lift me up!”

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