Page 124 of Mistletoe and Mischief

“I do.” Ted hesitated. He must’ve thought it was a dumb remark, too. But then he added, “And I like your mother.”

His announcement fell like bricks from the sky.

“What about my dad?” Bailey asked.

“Yeah, our dad,” Sophie echoed plaintively.

“Oh, dear,” Beth whispered. “If you two have any hopes that your father and I are getting back together, you need to forget them. It’s much too late for that.”

14

“Who’d be calling on Christmas Eve?” Bobby Polgar asked when Teri hung up the phone. It was after dinner, and the children were—finally—all snug in their beds.

“Beth Morehouse,” Teri said. “She wants to know if it would be all right if she dropped the puppy off tonight instead of in the morning.” Actually, it sounded as though Beth needed to get out of the house.

“What did you tell her?”

“I said come on over.”

Bobby glanced into the family room, where he had three scooter-riders out of the boxes ready for assembling. The triplets were eight months old now and crawling. Robbie, the firstborn, was already standing on his own. Teri figured he’d be walking soon; the boy was fearless. Little Jimmy, the middle child and the smallest, was content to continue crawling, and Christopher, the youngest by a couple of minutes, loved sitting on the floor, banging pots and pans. Bobby felt sure their son was destined to be a drummer.

“I asked James to give me a hand assembling these,” Bobby admitted a bit sheepishly.

“You’ll do fine.” Her husband might be a chess genius, but he didn’t excel in certain other areas—like household repairs. Or “assembly required” toys.

“Are the boys down for the night?” Bobby asked.

Teri nodded, too exhausted for a detailed description of what it took to get all three to fall asleep at roughly the same time. Their nanny had the next two days off to spend the holidays with her family, and it felt like she’d been gone for a month. Teri’s sister, Christie, had agreed to help make Christmas dinner and look after the triplets.

“Come and sit with me,” Bobby said, holding his arm out to Teri.

She sat beside him on the sofa and laid her head on his shoulder. Bobby was semi-retired these days, following the birth of his sons, and Teri was grateful. Bobby and his best friend, James, had developed a chess-based computer game that consumed a great deal of their time, since they were now working on the second version. Still, Teri was glad to have her husband at home instead of on the road.

Closing her eyes, she remembered how she’d met Bobby Polgar. It had definitely been an unusual introduction.... He was in a championship chess match in Seattle and to everyone’s shock he was losing. The chess world was aghast that the great Bobby Polgar could be toppled. One look at the chess player on the TV screen told Teri what his problem was. Bobby was distracted by his hair, which was too long and kept flopping in his eyes. He needed a cut.

In retrospect she was astonished that Security had let her through to see him. When she explained why she’d come, Bobby had stared at her as if she was some kind of lunatic, but he’d allowed her to trim his hair. Then she’d quietly left. Bobby had gone on to win the match and afterward he’d sought her out. Crazy as it sounded, that was how it all began.

She wasn’t quite sure when she fell in love with him. In the beginning, she’d fought against having any feelings for this man. Really, what could come of it? She was a hairdresser from a little backwater town and Bobby Polgar was a champion chess player admired by the whole world. He might be infatuated with her for a while, but his affection would quickly wane. She’d bore him, and Bobby would soon grow tired of her.

Talk about an odd couple! But fall in love with him she did, despite her efforts not to. And when she fell, she fell hard.

She’d questioned why an intellectual like him—a celebrity to boot—would love someone like her. He’d said that she brought emotion into his life, that he liked her practical and intuitive approach, that she’d taught him how tofeel.

Before that tournament in Seattle, every minute of Bobby’s life had been involved with chess. He lived, breathed and slept chess. It was all he thought about, all he cared about...until he fell in love with her.

“You’re smiling,” Bobby said now, brushing the hair off her forehead almost as if she were a child.

“I was remembering our honeymoon.” They got married in Las Vegas. Bobby had been in a chess competition there, and they were given the most luxurious penthouse suite in the hotel. The morning after their wedding night, Bobby had to leave for a chess match. Teri had stayed in bed and turned on the television to watch her husband play.

She knew from the first move he made that his mind wasn’t on the game. He was thinking abouther,thinking about coming back to the room and making love to her again. Then something happened; she could almost see the transformation taking place.... His expression changed. Even his posture changed. Bobby had realized that the sooner he won, the sooner he could return to their room. His focus, his attention, went straight into the game. His opponent didn’t stand a chance. The poor man lost in record time. A second later, Bobby popped out of his seat and raced for the elevator, the camera crew on his heels.

Teri had been waiting for him....

The doorbell chimed and Teri sighed, not wanting to leave the comfort of her husband’s arms and the warm memories that had wrapped themselves around her. She started to get up, but Bobby stopped her.

“I’ll get it.”

As Bobby was rising to his feet she slipped her hand around his neck and brought his mouth down to hers for a lengthy kiss. They broke it off when the doorbell chimed again.

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