Page 13 of You Make It Feel like Christmas

T HEY HAD SEVEN OUT of ten items and hadn’t seen the guys in a several minutes. She’d taken note of Nick joining up with them again and she found herself seeking him out more than once while they checked items off the list.

She wanted to tell herself it was a friendly interest in his well-being.

Concern for his obviously worked-up state.

But she’d felt the jagged edges of the panic surrounding him and had wanted, so badly, to pull him into her and soothe him any way she could.

His sexy innuendos and larger-than-life confidence were hard to ignore.

But the way he’d gripped her hand, let her stand still with him, and the look in his eyes when he came out of it burrowed into her skin and her heart indelibly.

“The app says we’re tied,” Natalie said after uploading their snow angel picture.

Maisie whipped around from where she’d been taking a photo of the clouds kissing the Cascade Mountains. “What? We’ve been watching. They haven’t done the same amount as us.” Her thoughts and attention had wandered but not enough to jeopardize their lead.

“If my brother can find a way to win, he will. Don’t underestimate him. Colt’s the same,” Ellie said. She waved them over. “Come on, we’ve got our footprints right here, let’s upload this one, too.”

“Your turn to do the uploading, Maze,” Nat said, passing her the phone. “Also, I’m getting hungry.”

“You’re eating for two, honey,” their mom said.

“That’s actually a myth, Mom. You should know that.” Most of the time, it seemed like her mom knew everything and if there was a small sliver of information she was unaware of, her dad knew the answer. They were, undoubtably, the smartest people she knew.

The women gathered by their footsteps in the snow and took the selfie.

It glitched while Maisie was uploading so she had to do it twice.

“What I know,” her mom said. “Is that my daughter is having a baby and needs to make sure she’s eating right and taking care of herself or letting us take care of her. You girls get so caught up in things, you forget to look after yourselves. At least Natalie has Kyle to watch out for her.”

Maisie looked up from the phone, irritation flashing. Right. Because on top of earning scholarships, getting a bachelor of science before attending vet school, then opening her own clinic, she had also found a man.

Sighing, she tried to breathe through the stitch in her chest. Her mom loved her. She knew she did. She just wished Maisie was more. And had more. Degrees, a thirst for knowledge, a passion for more, and a partner to wrap her life up in a pretty bow.

“Let’s go. We have twinkle lights and the Christmas sign,” Nat said.

They hustled, saw the guys taking a photo of the same sign they were headed toward before they got the twinkle lights by one of the outbuildings.

They were sitting on the porch when the guys wandered back. Maisie started humming “We Are the Champions.”

“Wow,” Jacob said, his smile too wide for someone who lost. “You’re usually such a sore loser.”

Colton and Kyle laughed. Asher ran to his mom and Nick just arched one brow at her with a slight smirk, clearly back to himself.

“Maybe I am but since I won this time, it doesn’t matter,” she said, standing up, her hand on her camera so it didn’t sway.

“In what world did you win?” Nick asked.

Maisie looked at the other women then back at Nick, her heartrate speeding up a touch. “ This one. We won. We’ve been sitting here for ten minutes.”

Jacob held out his phone. “Seems like wasted time.”

She looked at the screen just as Natalie swore then apologized from behind her. “Maisie, you didn’t upload the last photo.”

She whipped around, ignoring her brother’s phone to look at Natalie’s. The Seek and Find app showed the two teams but only the guys’ team had a bunch of stars flashing over their list.

A garbled sound left her throat. “That’s not right! You watched me. I totally uploaded it.”

“Did we win, Uncle Nick?” Asher jumped off the stairs and raced back to his uncle.

“Are you on my team?”

Maisie turned around in time to see Nick pick Asher up and hold him high as his nephew giggled out a “yes.”

“Then we won, buddy.”

The guys high-fived and sang “We Are the Champions” loud enough that a few of the people walking through the tree lot looked over.

Part of her wanted to laugh but another wanted to challenge them to a do-over.

She wasn’t known for being the best sport but as the youngest of three, growing up in a household where her siblings excelled at every damn academic thing put in their path, these things mattered to Maisie.

What she lacked in ability to understand a textbook on the first read through, she made up for in card, board game, and challenge skills.

This was her arena. And currently, everyone was looking her way.

It’s fine. Just a game. Just some lighthearted fun. She forced a laugh. “Technicality but okay.”

“Maisie,” her mother said. “Winning isn’t the most important thing.”

“Maybe not but it was the point,” Maisie said.

Nick bit his lip, eyes wide. Right. Not making the best impression.

“Be a good sport,” Jacob said.

Easy for him to say. He was good at everything.

“Technology shouldn’t work against us,” Natalie said, enough of a sulk in her tone to appease Maisie.

Ellie walked over to Asher and pulled him into her arms. “I, for one, am excited to change into pajamas and watch some holiday movies. If that’s losing, I’m all for it.”

Maisie’s shoulders relaxed. “You’re right, Ellie.” She didn’t stick her tongue out at the guys but she did give them a saucy look before walking past them. “There’s more important things than winning.”

She heard Natalie grumble, “Like snacks? I’m really hungry.”

Her mother laughed behind them.

Shaking off the last of her poor sportsmanship, she went up the stairs. “I’ll put everyone’s reindeer onesies in their rooms. Boys, you’re only off the hook for now.”

She turned around at the door when her brother called her name.

“Can we borrow your camera to take pictures of you ladies in the onesies?”

All of the guys laughed, including Nick. She bit her cheek to keep from laughing along until she was in the house.

At the top of the stairs, a wide landing spread out into a U shape with bedrooms and the bathroom along the right wall, a hallway that went to the left, and, she knew from exploring, another hallway that went left from there, creating the other arm of the U .

Each wing, because the openness, high ceilings, and spacious rooms definitely granted them that title, had three doors off of it.

It was a dream house regardless but as a photographer, she particularly loved all the hard lines paired with soft décor. After dropping off the onesies she’d had specially made, she headed for her room to put hers on.

She stopped short when she rounded the corner. Nick was coming up the stairs and stopped on the landing. His smile spread in slow degrees, going from cute to hot in too few seconds. Any lingering grumpiness over her loss dissipated and spread like liquid heat through her limbs.

“Where’s your jammies?”

She wanted to wear the pajamas. She’d had them custom made from a woman she knew through her fashion photography days. They were fun and the pictures would be adorable. So, why did the thought of wearing them in front of Nick make her want to hide in her bedroom?

“I’m about to change,” she said primly.

He walked past the bathroom door between the two bedrooms to stand in front of her. “Need any help?”

She laughed. He was so cocky and she liked it. Really liked it. Almost as much as the other sides of him she had a feeling he didn’t let others see all that often. “Really? Mr. Cheats at Scavenger Hunts? That’s your cheesy line?”

Amusement settled in his often-guarded gaze. It was one of the first things she’d ever noticed about him. “I’m really glad you weren’t in charge of nicknames when I got mine. And we didn’t cheat. You just lost.”

Before she could respond, he leaned a shoulder on the wall like they had all the time in the world. Like standing this close didn’t impact his pulse or breathing in the slightest.

She focused on his words, or tried to, rather than the scent of his soap or deodorant or whatever addictive chemical he rubbed on his skin to make him smell so freaking good. “So, is King your nickname? That’s what it says on your jersey. How come it doesn’t say Kingston?”

Just the right corner of his mouth tipped up. “You watch my games, Maze?”

The use of her nickname, that very few people used, that he’d used that night, stunned her into quiet. Her mouth dropped open and her breath got caught. So much for playing it cool. “No. I mean, I saw your jersey. I don’t watch hockey.”

He pushed off the wall and somehow, moved closer. “Ever, or because of me?”

She rolled her eyes, opened the bedroom door. “Your nickname could be King Ego.”

His lips twitched. “That’s not an answer.”

She stepped into the room and to his credit, he just leaned in the doorway instead of following her all the way inside.

She picked up the reindeer pajamas and faced him, hoping her voice came out steadier than her legs currently felt.

“I don’t watch hockey. After that night, I googled you.

There’s a lot of pictures of you in your jersey.

” A lot of pictures of him in suits and a few of him in a tuxedo, several of him in shorts and T-shirts, a couple shirtless.

But she wasn’t admitting to staring at those.

The humor in his expression fled. “You shouldn’t have had to look me up on the internet.

I’m sorry. Everything about that night was real but I’m not going to say leaving shit out about who I am isn’t just like lying.

But I liked the way you looked at me, knowing nothing about my career.

I was just some guy you kept running into. ”