A Mountain Springs Christmas

Chapter 12

twelve

CONNOR

Connor walked with Katie onto her parents’ front yard, which was not only covered in a layer of crunchy snow but was filled with decorations. In the midst of the decorations sat a couple of tables, and people in coats stood around, socializing. At a quick glance, it looked like everyone who was at the Santa Hat activity earlier in the week was present, plus a few extras.

“I’m sorry that I’m having you go from spending all day in a cold apartment to spending all evening in the cold outdoors.”

“You do remember that I hang out on ice for a living?”

Katie laughed. “So I guess you’re used to it.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about me.”

“Still, we should get hot chocolate first.”

As they neared the hot chocolate table, Katie sucked in a quick breath. “I did tell you that caroling is part of the hay ride, right?”

“No.”

She grimaced. “Sorry about that. Can you sing?”

“ Well ? No. Enthusiastically ? Yes. Mostly, I’ve learned that if you do anything enthusiastically, people will forgive it not being done well.”

She smiled. She’d asked the universe for a man who would serenade her, even if he couldn’t sing. It sounded like the universe answered. “You and my gran-gran would’ve gotten along well.”

Mr. and Mrs. Allred were behind the table, ladling hot chocolate into cups. Connor shook Reid’s hand and thanked both he and Elizabeth for inviting him, once again, into their family traditions. He also verified that it was still okay that he come to spend the three days he had off hockey for Christmas with them. The closer it got, the more grateful he was to have a place to go. Before long, he had a cinnamon caramel hot chocolate in his hand that was even better than the stuff that Laura had overnighted to him along with his essentials.

As another family walked toward them, Katie said, “I think you’ve met all of my family. And this is my brother-in-law Jack’s sister, Rachel, and her husband, Nick. These are their kids Aiden and Holly. And this sweet little girl,” she said, bending down to ruffle the fur at the sides of the neck of a rough collie that looked like she could be Lassie, “is Rosy.”

“Oh, hey,” Aiden said, “I saw you on TV!” He looked to his mom. “He was the one on TV, right?” Then he turned and called out louder, “Grandpa, is this guy on your team?”

“He sure is, buddy.”

“Hi,” Connor said, holding his hand out to the little boy. “I’m Connor Greene.”

Aiden, who looked like he might be seven, grinned at him. “I liked watching you play. It made me want to play hockey, too.”

Forget making it to the playoffs. Comments like that made him feel as though he had the best job in the world. “That makes me happy to hear.”

The big black lab that he’d seen at Allred’s home during the Santa Hat activity came over to Aiden, and Aiden started rubbing the sides of her neck. Then Katie asked, “How is Bailey doing?”

“She’s doing so good,” Holly said. “She had five of the cutest little puppies. I’m talking like the cutest puppies on the entire planet.”

“They really are,” Katie said to Connor. “I got to see them a few days ago.” Then she pulled out her video camera. “I better start filming.”

She shadowed him as he chatted with everyone for a bit. The day was already long, but it had been a good one. He bonded with some of his teammates more this afternoon arranging flowers, of all things, than he had since he’d first stepped foot in Denver.

He felt like he’d bonded with Katie more, too. He never would’ve guessed he would’ve liked making floral centerpieces or bridesmaid bouquets, but he’d had fun doing something so out of the ordinary with her. He suspected he would have fun doing pretty much anything with her.

He could tell as they’d stood outside his car that she wanted to kiss him, and he really wanted to kiss her. He nearly did. But he really liked Katie. Possibly more so than anyone he’d ever dated. And he didn’t want their first kiss to be right after she thanked him for his help as if he expected something in return. He didn’t want it to feel like a “You’re welcome”— he wanted it to be something much more than that.

They all made their way to the hay ride, which was two flatbed trailers hooked to Mr. Allred’s truck. They both had hay bales stacked in ways that gave plenty of seating options on both trailers, with blankets covering them. As soon as he and Katie took a seat, Aiden said, “Okay, I’m sitting right here,” and sat down next to him. Holly sat on Aiden’s other side.

“Do you like hockey?” the boy asked.

“I do.”

“Is it cold on the ice?”

“It is at first. But we dress warm, and once we start really playing, it kind of keeps us from getting too hot.”

“That’s cool. Do you like scoring goals?”

“It’s my favorite part.”

“Are you in love?”

“Wh— what?” Connor stammered.

“My uncle Jack fell in love on this hay ride two Christmases ago.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Uh, huh. And my mom fell in love—”

“—with my dad,” Holly cut in.

“—last Christmas. Well, maybe they didn’t fall in love on the hay ride there. Maybe it happened at Jack and Noelle’s wedding because that’s where the hay ride went last time.”

“But they for sure fell in love on the hay ride back,” Holly said. “Maybe you can fall in love this year.”

“Wow. This sounds like a really magical hay ride.”

Both kids nodded, then Aiden said, “It is.”

He glanced at Katie, who looked like she was trying not to chuckle audibly, and gave her a smile, keenly aware that she had the video camera on the whole time and likely caught whatever reaction had been on his face.

He quickly got into the groove of the hay ride. They ooh ed and ahh ed at every house they went past that had lights and/or Christmas decorations in their yard. When Mr. Allred pulled over at someone’s house, they all hopped off, including the dog, Captain, went up to the door, and started singing a Christmas carol. He made sure to sing enthusiastically. Mostly because it seemed to make Katie happy.

In between the stops, Katie filmed quite a bit, including several interviews with her family members for the video she was preparing for them. She even interviewed him. She filmed the caroling, too, which he was pretty sure was part of what she would send to the Glaciers.

Mr. Allred had driven them in a big loop through Mountain Springs, making a lot of stops for them to sing, including several houses where they were having big family parties. When they were a couple of blocks away from the Allred’s home, Katie said, “I’ve been sitting too much and my legs are cold and getting numb. Do you want to walk the rest of the way back with me?”

Of course, he did. As Mr. Allred came to a stop at a sign, they hopped off the trailer, then gave him a wave, and he continued on without them.

A few stops back, snow had started to gently fall. It wasn’t the bigger storm they were supposed to get— just a gentle snow before the storm. Enough to look beautiful as it lazily fell, making the night a little less dark and a lot more quiet.

“Thank you for being such a good sport about all this,” she said. “I’ve had nightmares of being assigned a player who was a grump, and I ended up having no good footage to turn in.”

“Oh, like our first filming session at the school?”

She chuckled. “Exactly like that.”

“Did I ever apologize?”

“You apologized and acknowledged that it made things rough for me as the person under contract to turn in the footage. But you didn’t apologize while dressed as Santa’s elf, which would have made it even better.”

“I’m pretty sure that costume is in the landfill now.”

“Bummer,” she said, her breath making little cloud puffs with her words. “What I wouldn’t give to see a smiling Connor Greene wearing it.”

Why did that make him want to go out and buy an elf costume?

There was only maybe half an inch of snow on the sidewalks and roads so far, but everything else still had several inches from a previous storm. The new snow softened everything. It reflected the light of the moon, making it feel almost like it glowed from a light within, casting everything in a faint, bluish light.

As they came under the warm golden glow of a street light, Katie stopped and looked up. The light caught each of the snowflakes, highlighting their meandering path to the ground. “It’s so pretty!”

So was his view. She tilted her head up, opening her mouth to catch snowflakes on her tongue. She caught several and grinned, and he just gazed at her, bathed in the golden light, snow falling all around them. Those blue-with-gold eyes held the perfect mix of determination and optimism. Her knit cap was pulled down over her ears, and her light brown hair peeked out just enough to frame her face, showcasing cheeks and a nose reddened by the cold and a smile that could melt an entire rink of ice.

During the hockey season, he never kept his eye out for someone he might want to date. In the off-season, sure. He’d found plenty of people to go on dates with, but none who ever felt right. None who pulled at his heart the way Katie had from that first moment at her parents’ home. Or really, since that moment he had knocked into her at the department store, making them both fall to the ground.

How, when he moved to the one place in the country that he least wanted to go, did he manage to find the one person who would capture him the way that Katie had?

A snowflake fell onto her eyebrow. He pulled off one of his gloves and reached out to brush it away with his knuckle. Another one fell on her eyelash and she blinked a few times, never taking her eyes off of his.

Until her eyes fell to his lips. They came immediately back to his eyes, searching. He moved a bit closer to her, a signal that if she wanted a kiss, he wanted it, too. With everything in him. She leaned in slowly at first, then she slid her arms around his neck and pulled him close, pressing her lips against his.

Her lips were cold from the night air, but as soft as the falling snow. They moved against his carefully as if she was testing for his reaction. He put his still gloved hand at the small of her back, pulling her close, his other hand sliding to the back of her neck, his fingers, still warm from being in a glove, tangling into her hair.

Her lips responded by moving more purposefully, more sure, as she pressed against him and the soft snow fell all around them. When she ended the kiss, she did by only pulling back the smallest amount, keeping her body still pressed against his, the warmth of her breath mingling with his, their cold noses touching.

“Oh, my,” she said. “You, Connor Greene, are an amazing kisser.”

He smiled into her lips, then gave her another kiss. “Feel free to make sure that’s still true as many times as you’d like.” He hoped she wanted to take him up on it often. It wasn’t like he hadn’t experienced some decent kisses in his life. But he was pretty sure this kiss just changed his world. Nothing was ever going to be the same.