Page 6 of Unexpected Christmas with the SEAL

“Do you live under a rock?’

“No. In a cabin.”

“Does it have Wi-Fi?”

“Sometimes.”

She made a noise in her throat. “I’m going to go check on the chickens.”

Even though she didn’t invite him, he followed her.

He liked Hannah, and he could tell she was warming up to him, too.

Sort of.

Slowly.

Painfully slowly.

Cal confused her.

And she was already confused, so his presence just compounded that confusion.

She was sad because she had nowhere to be for Christmas and was alone. And yet, this sexy redheaded SEAL with the scars all over his freckled hands, and green eyes the color of spinach, wouldn’t leave her alone.

Maybe it was because his presence was at the behest of her uncles, not because hewantedto be there. Because he wanted to be with her. It was because he was friends with her uncles and doing them a favor by babysitting her, so she didn’t blow up the ranch and kill all the animals.

If he had a choice, he probably wouldn’t be there, either.

Probably wouldn’t want to be around her for Christmas, just like everyone else.

Her mother and step-father were down in Florida at their timeshare, and did not invite Hannah. Her father and step-mother lived in Utah, and were having all her step-mother’s family over for the holidays. So there was no room for Hannah. There never was.

And her brothers—Will and Sam—were in Hawaii with their wives and kids. Hannah wasn’t invited to join them, either. Will said that because Hannah didn’t have a partner or kids, they all thought she would be bored and feel like a ninth wheel or whatever.

So much assuming.

Just because she was on the fence about having children of her own, didn’t mean she didn’t love the crap out of her nieces and nephews. She spoiled them rotten and was one-hundred percent hands on and present with them when she was around. There was a reason they called her their “favorite” aunt. Because she’d earned that title.

And she would have gladly tagged along to Hawaii and babysat while the couples went on dates.

But they didn’t even consider her.

Didn’t even offer. And when she brought that up to Will on the phone, he just said that he and Sam figured she’d be bored, so they didn’t want to make her feel like she had to come.

That just proved how little anyone in her family really knew her.

So, there she was, alone on the ranch in Colorado, because nobody wanted her around for Christmas. And her uncles didn’t even trust her to feed the goats, so now she had a broad-shouldered SEAL as her babysitter.

There was a reason she cried herself to sleep last night.

It was because this Christmas was going to suck even more than the Christmas two years ago when she broke her hip slipping on ice. At least when that happened, she was in the hospital with nurses and doctors and didn’t feel so lonely.

Yes, she was feeling sorry for herself. Was throwing a one-person pity party complete with streamers of despair and balloons of melancholy.

But whatever. Nobody was around to see it. Nobody was around to care.

And the one man that was there was only there out of obligation and probably didn’t give two horseshoes about why she was alone for Christmas.

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