A Mountain Springs Christmas

Chapter 19

nineteen

KATIE

When Katie woke up, all she knew was that she was gloriously warm and that her hip hurt. It took a minute of blinking at her surroundings to remember that she was on the floor in the office at the ice rink. She vaguely remembered Connor lying on the floor beside her as she fell asleep, but he wasn’t there now.

She thought of Biscuit and found him curled up in her coat near her head. He looked so blissfully asleep. She gave him a little pet on the head, then stood up and stretched. Then she laughed when she saw the pajama pants she was wearing. She did remember changing into them last night, but she hadn’t noticed that the fabric print was of pink flamingos, dressed in hockey gear, playing a fierce game of hockey.

It was so unbelievably sweet of Connor to brave such a bad snowstorm to find her. She wasn’t even sure how he found her. Or how he got them into this place. She spotted her cell phone that had been in her coat pocket— it was plugged into a charger on the desk of whoever’s office this was.

She unplugged it and scrolled through her notifications. There were several texts from Emmalee, starting from when her phone had shut down during their conversation, asking if she was okay. They got increasingly panicked until the last one.

Emmalee: I called Connor. Don’t worry. He’s got you.

Don’t worry. He’s got you.

Things got so much worse than she ever could’ve guessed they would. But he showed up when she needed him most. Just like when he showed up to help with the flowers. He was there when it mattered, even when she told him not to be. He somehow seemed to understand when she genuinely didn’t want help with something and when she truly did need help but either didn’t want to ask for help or really didn’t want to accept it. She just kept finding new things about him to fall in love with.

She sent Emmalee a text thanking her for being such a great friend, and then she slid the phone into the pajama pants’ pocket. She ran her hands over her face to help her wake up, then drained the rest of the water bottle that Connor had given her last night.

Then a thought occurred to her, and it felt ridiculous that it hadn’t occurred to her sooner. Connor didn’t say that he was leaving Denver, just that he was thinking about asking. It wasn’t a done deal. She could fight for him; let him know how she really felt, because it mattered to her. He mattered to her. If he was going to leave, he wasn’t going to leave not knowing how she felt.

She finger-combed her hair, then headed out of the office wearing Connor’s socks and no shoes, in search of him. This was a small-town rink, so there weren’t many places he could be. Sounds led her to the ice, and she found him skating in big lazy circles on the ice, looking at the ice like he was deep in thought.

He hadn’t noticed her yet, so she just watched him. Hockey may be a hard-fought sport played by big, strong athletes, but this man was nothing but graceful on the ice. Every movement flowed. Even with the meandering nature of his turns, everything looked perfectly controlled. Effortless.

It was clear the moment he noticed her because he was suddenly alert, upright, focused. “You’re awake already.” He skated over to her with just a few strides and skidded to a stop right at the waist-high wall that separated the aisle where she stood and the ice, his skates spraying a small arc of ice. “It’s still early.”

She shrugged. “Probably because it’s Christmas morning. It’s the day you’re supposed to wake up the earliest, right?”

He chuckled, but his eyes were searching hers, checking to see if she was okay.

“Or maybe it was because I could sense in my sleep that I was wearing awesome pajamas.” She took a step back and motioned at the flamingos in all their glory. Then she met his eyes. “And the fact that I was so toasty warm. Thank you .”

He gave her a smile. “I’m just glad you’re okay.” He moved his hand, like he wanted to reach up and maybe cup her cheek but then decided against it.

“I need to apologize.”

“No, I do.”

She held up a hand. “Hold on. I really need to. I could tell last night that it was probably a bad idea to head out into the storm and that I was just being stubborn about it and not listening to reason. I was on edge from finding out that you wanted to leave and apparently decided to react by making a phenomenally bad decision. I’m very sorry that I made a choice that caused you to get into a bad situation to save me. And I’m also very grateful that you did.”

“I don’t want to be traded.”

She froze. “You… don’t?”

He shook his head. “No. I mean I did the day I was traded here. But then I met you and everything changed.”

“It did?”

He met her eyes. “Everything.” And then, after a long moment, he put his hands on his hips and looked up, his feet skating him in a small, tight circle. “And then, after getting home from a hard game in Charlotte, I ran into my dad yesterday morning.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Oh?” She didn’t know where his dad lived, but she had gotten the impression that it wasn’t close.

He nodded. “We didn’t talk for long. Just enough for me to notice that he had a new wife, a son, and a daughter, and to make a comment about him replacing us.”

Katie winced.

“Yeah, I didn’t handle it well. And then, apparently, because I’m a glutton for punishment, when I arrived in Mountain Springs yesterday, I drove past the house we used to live in.”

“You mean the place where you lived when your parents’ marriage imploded— ”

“— and I became an angry teen. Yeah, that one. It was stupid, I know. It was like everything in a twenty-four-hour period started taking me down. First, smaller things, then bigger and bigger, and I decided to finish it off with a bang. To fully bury myself in every hard thing.”

“Connor, that sounds awful. Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve helped.” She paused for a moment. “Okay, I recognize the contradiction in wanting you to come to me for help when I didn’t go to you for help. But I would have listened.”

“You are really good at that. And at helping me to see the bigger picture.” He tried to hide a smile and added, “As long as I don’t lead with ‘I want to be traded away from here.’”

She looked down, laughing quietly. “Yeah, probably best not to lead with that.”

“Anyway, it kind of all got into my head and I started only looking at that, which wasn’t so helpful. If I had looked at the whole picture, I’d have known exactly what I wanted. I want you.”

A warmth and light filled her whole chest at hearing his words. “You know,” she said, “I was fully ready to come out here and do everything I could to convince you to stay. Even with hair that has spent way too much time in a hood and while wearing hockey-playing flamingo pants.”

“You definitely convinced me to stay.” He reached out and placed a hand at the side of her neck, his thumb lightly brushing the skin just in front of her ear, and she leaned into his touch.

Then he wrapped his other arm around her waist, pulling her close, and gently pressed his lips against hers. There was something about this kiss that was different from any other they’d shared, and it wasn’t just the waist-high wall that was between them. It felt more sure. More confident. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sunk into him, soaking in the feel of being cherished by this man that she couldn’t imagine loving more, yet knowing that every day, she would love him more than she had the day before.

Eventually, they ended the kiss, and she looked out over the ice. “So… Do you think they have skates here that are my size?”

His eyebrows rose. “Do you skate?”

She shrugged. “Kind of. I haven’t for years, but I went with friends for fun when I was a kid. I never had a teacher or a coach or anything. But I’d like to try.”

He took her to the skate rental area and she put on a pair, walking over to the ice with wobbly ankles. With one hand on the short wall, she stepped onto the ice, and one skate slid more than the other. She had to hurry to try to pull her feet together. She went a little way on the ice, moving slowly and with tiny strides. Still holding onto the wall, Connor at her side.

“Are you good?”

She nodded. “I’ve got this.”

“Of course you do.”

She tried to let go of the wall but nearly fell. “No, no, I don’t have this!”

In a second, Connor’s strong arm was around her waist, supporting her. Her ankles were still feeling wobbly, but she dared let go of the wall, trusting in Connor’s strength and balance. He skated around the rink with her, as slowly as she needed while she worked to find her balance and figure out how to move her legs. The further they went, the more she figured it out, and the more Connor loosened his arm, turning control over to her.

During their second time around the rink, she was doing so much better that he dropped his arm from her back and slipped his hand into hers. She grinned at him as she found that she could do it. She could stay upright and skate forward with only his hand as a failsafe.

The third time around, she was so proud of how well she was doing. It hit her that relationships were about helping each other. Supporting each other. Not feeling like she needed to be so independent that she pushed him away. It was about finding that beautiful interdependence where they helped and supported each other as they both fully became who they were supposed to be. She hadn’t really understood the concept until now.

By the fourth time around, she had gotten to where she could skate a bit faster. As they went down the long straight part, she tipped her face up, feeling the wind from their speed blowing across her. She closed her eyes for a moment, knowing that he had her hand and would keep her going in the right direction. She felt free. Like a bird flying down low to a lake, skimming just above its surface.

As they reached the curved part of the rink at the end, Connor grabbed her other hand and spun the two of them in a circle before coming to a stop. She laughed at the joy of it. “I can see why you love this.”

He grinned at her. “It’s pretty great, isn’t it?”

She grinned right back.

“Are you hungry?”

“Why? Are we going to walk to the nearest restaurant, find a hidden key, and go inside? Are there hidden keys everywhere? Do you know where they all are?”

Connor laughed an unrestrained laugh that she loved. “No, but Knox, the man who owns the rink, called a bit ago to see if we made it safely and to make sure that we are doing well. He said he keeps snacks in his office and told me where. Do you want breakfast?”

“I sure do,” she said, realizing how hungry she was.

As they took off their skates and headed back to the office, he said, “Oh, and I texted your parents to let them know where we are.”

Her eyes widened. “Thank you! I didn’t even think of that— they’re probably waking up about now.”

In the office, Connor gathered protein bars, snack-sized bags of crackers and chips, and a couple of little cups of mandarin oranges. Biscuit woke up at hearing them, so Katie bent down and gave him a good rub on the sides of his cute face. She turned to Connor. “Do you think it’s still snowing?”

“It stopped a bit ago.” He put the snacks into the middle of her blanket, added three water bottles, then gathered the edges of the blanket up and put it over his shoulder. “Come with me.”

Katie scooped up Biscuit, and then she walked with Connor along the aisle that separated the ice from the bleachers, and around to the front doors, which were in the middle of an area that made a big half circle with floor-to-ceiling windows.

The view beyond the glass was incredible. Deep snow covered everything, making it a sea of white. The sun was getting close to rising, and the sky was turning a beautiful pink that reflected on the snow below. “Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?” she asked.

She felt his eyes on her as he said, “Yes, I have.”

Connor spread out the blanket, and the two of them sat down on it and ate a Christmas breakfast that wasn’t exactly the traditional cinnamon rolls that her mom made, but it was now her favorite Christmas breakfast. They ate and played with Biscuit and chatted as the sky changed from pink to a light blue.

The moment the sun poked its head over the mountain, it lit up the snow, making it shine like it was made of silvery-golden glitter. She wasn’t sure she’d seen anything so incredible.

“Katie?”

She looked over at him.

“Merry Christmas,” he said and kissed her on the cheek.