Page 18 of You Make It Feel like Christmas

Both of them turned at the sound of the little boy’s voice. His mom, an attractive woman in a long, fur-lined coat and boots that put her several inches above Maisie’s height, ran her hands over his messy blond hair.

“Hey there,” Nick said, his voice slightly different from his usual somewhat growly, almost rusty tone. This one was next door neighbors with friendly.

“You’re Nick King. My dad says you’re one of the best right wings to ever hit the NHL,” he said, awe in his tone, his stance, and his wide eyes.

Maisie watched the smile blossom on Nick’s face but she felt tension in his body even though they weren’t touching.

“Oh yeah?”

The little boy nodded and Maisie noticed the mom eyeing Nick like a piece of candy. It made her want to curl into him and run away at the same time.

“My mom says you’re the hottest,” the little boy added unabashedly.

Maisie bit her lip to keep from laughing. The mom wasn’t wrong.

The woman’s cheeks pinkened but she handled it well, laughing and giving a little shrug. “Can’t argue with facts.”

Even though Maisie was standing right there, the mom moved in a little closer.

How often did this sort of thing happen to him?

She’d only googled him online after their night together but most of the pictures of him were hockey related.

There might have been a few images of him at events with model-looking women.

She’d heard stories from her brother, who worked with a lot of sports stars, about their proclivities.

The thought of Nick engaging in any such things with anyone made her stomach swirl.

Edging away from them, Maisie tried to ignore the little stab of unnecessary and unwarranted jealousy.

Nick ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up. Maisie’s fingers itched to smooth it out, to take his hand and settle him. But it wasn’t her place no matter how much he flirted with her or talked about second chances.

The little boy held up a piece of paper and a pen. “Can you sign this?”

Maisie slipped away while Nick signed the paper, finding her brother and Colton in the back of the shop looking at the most adorable Christmas village ornament display.

“Do you think Nat will like this?” Jake held up a palm-sized ornament of a miniature ice rink surrounded by snowcapped trees and the tiniest little skaters gliding across the shiny surface.

“Oh, it’s gorgeous. She’ll love it.” Maisie took it from his hands, turned it. She sent him a sly look when she saw the price tag. “My gift better be this good.”

Colton laughed. “I adore you.”

While the two of them went to pay, Maisie realized that Nick had slipped outside, so she went to find him.

Even though he seemed fine, she couldn’t help remembering the way he’d looked pressed against the front door yesterday, like fear had overtaken him.

She recognized panic attacks because her best friend’s mom had them.

Witnessing them, letting them play out while trying to reassure someone, was harder than she ever imagined.

It made her feel helpless, though, with Nick, she’d felt… needed.

Smiling at holiday shoppers on the sidewalk, she found him in a tiny little alleyway between two of the buildings, leaning on the brick wall. Nick was frowning at his phone.

“Hey.” She came up beside him.

Lifting his head, his gaze caught hers and she hated the way her heart did a little cartwheel from an almost nothing interaction. Fortunately, he looked panic free.

Actually, he looked somewhere between amused and irritated.

“You run away fast enough? You left me out to dry with that mom. The second you walked away she made a half-dozen innuendos. Seriously, I’m just grateful her son was there or who knows what she would have said or done. ” He tucked his phone away.

Maisie stopped herself from laughing because he looked serious. “Please. You’re a big boy and more than that, you must be used to it.” Say you’re not. Or say you are but you hate it.

When he said nothing, she started to babble. “That exact thing probably happens all the time. I’m sure it can get old now and again but who doesn’t like being adored and idolized, right? Especially by gorgeous women who would do anything to get your attention.”

His fingers closed around her biceps, pulling her from her own mini spiral.

Even with the bulk of her jacket, his hand wrapped almost all the way around.

He turned her so they were closer together, front to front.

“I’ve never been that guy. I’ve got a past, just like I’m sure you do, but a person who wants me for all the wrong reasons has never been a turn-on for me.

And for about six months now, there’s only one woman whose attention I’ve missed and craved. ”

The words and the moment froze between them like a director had yelled “cut.” She couldn’t breathe or form words.

Her heartbeat fluttered against her rib cage, likely trying to remind her she needed oxygen.

“Then why didn’t you call? Why did you leave ?” The words felt like they were ripped from her body. She’d buried those questions deep but his own admission had pulled them from the rubble.

His hands on her arms pulled her closer.

“Honestly? I got a text from Ellie. Our mom was in the hospital. She died later that day. When I left, I was just worried about getting to my sister but my life felt like it spiraled from there and I was so in my head over you, wondering if I’d made up how great you were, worrying none of it was real.

I got time off for the funeral but not much and I was on the road and the more time that passed, the less I felt like I could reach out.

And then I got into it with a reporter, got suspended.

” His words sped out of him like a freight train before it hit a wall, then stopped, leaving only the sound of his rapid breaths.

He looked away then back at her. “Then my anxiety issues started up and then I got injured. And now, here we are.”

Maisie told herself to take a breath, not just dive in the way she’d wanted to since the moment she saw him both then and this time around.

His posture relaxed and her body curved into his without thought.

Of its own volition. Nick gripped both arms now, gently but firmly, and turned her so her back was against the wall.

He lowered his head. “I don’t hook up with women.

I hadn’t been with anyone in over a year when I met you, and if it wasn’t for your gorgeous fucking eyes and your wicked smile and the way you move so gracefully through a room seeing everything except how absolutely perfect you are, I would have been able to avoid you too.

You just kept showing up in my path.” His breath came out warm on her cheek, jagged, and she felt his chest rising and falling against her own.

He sounded as helpless about his feelings as she felt about her own.

Just like that night, reason fled and she could only feel.

Going up on her tiptoes, she closed her arms around his neck, fusing their bodies as close together as she could while her mouth crashed into his and she kissed him like she’d dreamed of doing again every single day for the past six months.

It took less than a breath for him to yank her even closer, one of his hands stroking up her back to rest between her shoulder blades, the other traveling down to the curve in her lower back.

He pressed his body into hers, taking over the kiss, drowning them both in a pool of unparalleled need.

She shouldn’t want like this. Like there was no way to ever get enough.

One or both of them made some sort of incoherent sound and together they fell deeper into a kiss that bordered on brutal in its intensity.

It was like neither of them had been able to fully breathe in the time they’d been apart and now, coming together, their mouths frenzied, his tongue seeking, her fingers gripping his hair, they could finally fill their lungs.

When he pulled away just enough to see her, his breath came in harsh bursts.

His hands came up to cup her face in the softest, sweetest caress, so at odds with the tension coiled in his body, the need in his gaze.

His eyes roamed over it like he was memorizing her.

Then, he lowered his mouth again but this time, kissing the corner of her lips, up and along her cheekbone, and the gentleness stole what was left of her senses.

She closed her eyes and let the feel of his lips tracing their way over her cheek, along her temple, across her forehead and then down again, wash away everything else that existed in this moment other than the two of them.

He whispered her name and she knew she’d hear it in her dreams.

In the background, somewhere in the hazy puddle of her mind, she heard the jingle of bells and her brother calling her name.

Nick pulled away slowly, looking every bit as dazed as she felt. Jacob’s voice called her name again.

Leaning in, Nick pressed a quick kiss to the tip of her nose. “Go,” he whispered.

Her legs weren’t altogether steady when she walked away from him.

She turned the corner of the alley and nearly ran into her brother.

“Hey. We were just looking for you.” He frowned, looking down at her. “You okay?

Nodding, she started walking so he’d fall into step beside her. Colton leaned on the hood of her Jeep.

Maisie pressed her fingers to her lips. They felt like they had their own heartbeat. “I’m fine but I need hot chocolate.”

She felt Nick behind them. The scent of his cologne was wrapped around her like a delicious-smelling blanket.