Page 31 of Offside for Christmas
"Ellie!" Mac spotted her first, as always. "You made it! We were starting to think you chickened out. Last to arrive? That's not like you."
"Like I'd miss this." She set down her bag and accepted his enthusiastic hug. "And for the record, I'm not late—I'm precisely on time. You're all just annoyingly early."
"About an hour. Luke's claiming the kitchen, Jamie's already into the beer, and Cole's—"
"Outside," Luke called from where he was arranging platters of food on the kitchen counter. "Said he needed air."
"Translation: he's overwhelmed by our awesomeness," Mac added, grinning. "Very atmospheric brooding happening out there. You should check on him."
"I'm sure he's fine—"
"Ellie." Jamie appeared with a beer in hand. "Go. He's been out there for twenty minutes. Either he's having a moment, or he's planning to make a run for it. Either way, you're the only one he might actually talk to."
"Why would I be—"
"Because you're Ellie," Luke said simply. "And he actually listens to you. Which is more than he does with the rest of us."
Mac wiggled his eyebrows. "Also you look really pretty and maybe he needs to see that."
"I'm going outside to check on ourteammate," Ellie said firmly, ignoring the heat in her cheeks. "That's all."
"Sure, sure." Mac was already grinning at Jamie. "Twenty bucks says they come back in together holding hands."
"You're on," Jamie said. "I say it takes until after the gift exchange."
"I hate all of you," Ellie muttered, but she was smiling as she grabbed her coat and headed for the back door.
She found Cole on the back porch, leaning against the railing with his arms crossed, staring out at the woods. Snow was falling steadily now, dusting his dark hair and the shoulders of his henley. He looked like something out of a winter sports catalog—all sharp angles and brooding intensity against the white landscape.
Ellie's heart did that stupid flutter thing again.
"Hiding?" she asked, moving to stand beside him at the railing.
"Thinking." He didn't turn to look at her, but she saw the corner of his mouth twitch.
"About?"
"How I got here."
"Mac texted you the address—"
"Not geographically. Existentially." Now he did turn, and his expression was somewhere between amused and genuinely contemplative. "Two months ago I was playing in the NHL. Now I'm at a Christmas party in Vermont with people I barely know, about to play White Elephant and probably lose at beer pong."
"Is that..." Ellie chose her words carefully. "Is that bad?"
Cole's eyes met hers, and she watched something shift in his expression as he took in the green dress under her open coat, the effort she'd put into her hair, the fact that she was here, outside, checking on him.
"I don't know yet," he said.
They stood there for a moment, the snow falling around them, the sound of Christmas music drifting from inside the cabin. It felt suspended somehow, like they were in a snow globe someone had just shaken.
"For what it's worth," Ellie said, "I'm glad you came."
"Why?"
"Because you showing up means you're trying. That you're giving this—" she gestured vaguely toward the cabin, the team inside "—a chance. And that's... that's enough."
Cole studied her face like he was trying to memorize it. "You're not what I expected."
