Page 35 of A Christmas For Holly

I glanced at his hands again. They were pale, fingertips a bit red from the cold but not frostbitten. Good. But still, he wasn’t warming up fast enough for my liking.

“You’re still shaking like a leaf,” I said, trying to calm my voice.

“I’m cold, that’s all,” Holly muttered again, his voice weaker this time. “It’s not a panic thing. I’m not panicking.”

I didn’t believe him. Not for a second.

“You could’ve frozen out there, you know?” I tried to keep the frustration out of my voice. “You’re lucky I found you when I did.”

“I was nearly back at the cabin,” he defended.

“It’s another two miles, you idiot. Uphill. In a freaking snowstorm.”

Holly kept his hands in front of the vent, his eyes fixed on the dashboard. I shifted in my seat, glancing through the windshield at the falling snow. The storm wasn’t letting up, and I headedup to his cabin, taking forever to climb the otherwise empty mountain road.

“I could have walked all the way,” Holly announced, but the shivering betrayed him.

“Fucking idiot,” I muttered, navigating the rest of the way to the cabins. The snow was falling hard, covering the road faster than I could drive through it. I pulled in behind his ridiculous Lamborghini half-buried in the brilliant white snow—and killed the engine.

I exited the car, the cold hitting me like a slap. The wind was brutal, shoving fat, heavy snowflakes into my face and stinging my skin with bits of ice. I walked closer to the road, angling my phone around, trying to find a signal. The snow fell harder than I’d thought—thick, relentless, piling up fast. We weren’t getting out of here anytime soon.

Finally, I saw a flicker of bars on the screen and sent a quick message to the family chat, letting them know where I was:safe with Holly, stuck at K Cabins.I watched until the message wassent;that was all I could do now.

As I turned back toward the car, I saw Holly scrambling out. “You have a signal?” he called, his voice muffled by the wind.

I waved my phone in the air, the bars gone. “Briefly,” I said, pocketing it again as the cold seeped deeper. I couldn’t feel my fingers, and we needed to get inside before this storm worsened.

Then, without wasting time, I hustled him toward the door.

“Key?” I asked.

“Huh?” Holly’s brow furrowed as though he hadn’t heard the question. His hands were still full of those damn books.

I sighed, rolling my eyes before stepping close and rooting through his jacket pocket. He stiffened but didn’t stop me as I fished out the key and unlocked the door. I let us in, closing the door behind us. The cabin felt as cold and empty as it had earlier, the chill seeping into every corner.

“You let the stove go too low.”

“I did?” He blinked at me as he dropped the books onto the dining table with a softthud, finally letting go of them. He shrugged at the backpack over one shoulder, but it was caught on his coat, and after a few aborted starts, he stopped tugging at it and stared at me miserably. I might have smiled at the pout he gave me had I not been so worried. I helped him with his backpack, and after it was off, he began stripping off his outside clothes. I copied him, trying to shake off the cold that had settled into my bones.

He'd stopped shaking—clearly not as bad off as I’d thought.

I tried not to stare, but after all this time, even after not playing since… what, last season? Holly still had that skater’s build—broad shoulders tapering down to a narrow waist, and yeah, the guy had a skater’s ass. Muscles, lean and defined, still there, although he’d retired.

He wore a plain gray T-shirt and old sweatpants that hung low on his hips. His dark hair was tousled, and he looked exhausted and more than a little wary. His gaze flicked over to me, and he shrugged when he caught me staring.

“Thank you. Again.”

“Why didn’t you take your car? Are you trying to get hypothermia?”

He winced. “No. I don’t have proper winter tires and the Lambo… I could have trashed it… and I thought it would be nice to walk in the snow.”

I rolled my eyes at that. “Oh, you sweet summer child.”

“Look, I’ll be okay,” he said, his voice quieter now. “You can leave.”

I shook my head, crossed my arms, and glanced out of the window, where everything was dark. “Only a stupid, irresponsible idiot goes back down that mountain road in the middle of a snowstorm, and I’m not stupid.”

Holly’s lips twitched as though he were considering arguing but didn’t have the energy. He let out a long breath, sagging a little. The weight of whatever was going on inside him was too heavy for him to hide anymore.

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