Page 57 of Chocolate Cherry Cabin

“And a private guest, I hear?” Maverick, his captain, chimed in. “Looks like Coach has a girlfriend.”

The men laughed, for some reason finding the idea humorous.

“Y’all going to focus on the game and get me a win tonight so Miranda doesn’t fire us all?” he retorted.

“Got to impress the lady,” Landon cooed.

Louis gave him a level look. He hated to admit it, but he would love a win tonight. “I’ll buy y’all Christmas gifts if you pull off a win.”

“Oh, he’s serious about this one.”

“Who is it?”

Louis ignored the question and moved to the whiteboard in the locker room. “Listen up. Tonight we’re turning up the heat and earning a W. And here’s how we’re going to do it.”

8

It was Monday morning, two days after her date with Louis, and Hannah still couldn’t stop smiling. On Saturday she’d done something spontaneous, something just for her. An adventure. And she’d loved it. Going to an NHL game—where her team won!—and sitting in the VIP area was incredible. As was taking a plane and hired car to get there—with the coach, no less. Being Louis’s date had been fun. Surprisingly so.

Her friends were right. She needed more adventure. And Louis, even if he wasn’t the type to settle down with a family, was the right man to help her heal from her divorce and learn to live and rediscover herself.

She’d practically stalked his house yesterday, even though she’d known he was away for practice and meetings. They’d had two away games in a row, and another tomorrow night. She wanted more time with Louis. More adventure. More surprises. More feeling special.

“Miss Hannah, how many sleeps until Santa?”

“Hmm? Oh.” She brought herself back to the present, to work. With Christmas morning only three days away the kids at the day care were pretty much bonkers. And she loved every second of it.

Kneeling on the floor, Hannah took three-year-old Anya Elm’s hands in her own and gently curled down two fingers. “This many sleeps until Santa comes to your house.”

Anya wiggled and grinned.

“Do you think you can wait that long?” Hannah asked.

Anya shook her head and Hannah felt a twinge of sadness. Santa was supposed to come today, but Garfield Goodwin’s girlfriend, Mrs. Fisher’s twin sister, had called earlier to say he was down for the count with the stomach flu.

Hannah had called half a dozen people, searching for any male in the county willing to don the suit. She’d failed, and then had had to break the news to the kids. No Santa visit today. They’d taken it like troopers. Troopers who’d lost their platoon in a horrifying and grueling war.

Hannah had been about five seconds from grabbing the sack of gifts hidden by the door and putting on the suit. Or from calling Louis and begging him to abandon today’s schedule and rescue her. But the man needed to sleep and work. On Saturday night they’d flown home late, not getting in until two in the morning. The last thing she’d wanted to do this morning was wake him up and ask for a favor. A favor she was certain he’d say no to.

So instead she’d moved craft time up by an hour.

“Maybe we could make some reindeer food,” she said to Anya. “Have you done that before?”

The girl shook her head again.

“That settles it. Let’s get the rest of the kids and make some reindeer food for Rudolph and his friends.”

Like the little leader she was, Anya gathered up the few playmates whose families weren’t yet on holiday, and they settled at one of the low tables to get started. There were only ten kids, which was fine for Edith and Hannah—when Edith wasn’t busy in her office.

“Do you know what helps reindeer fly?” Hannah asked the children.

“Snowshoes!” replied April Wylder’s five-year-old son, Kurt, who then burst into giggles.

“Ice cream,” another said.

“Wings?” asked Anya.

Hannah held up a tiny container of glitter. “This does.” She showed them a small plastic bag. “And they love oats. So what we do is we mix these two together, and then on Christmas Eve we sprinkle it out in the yard where you think Santa might land his sleigh, so the reindeer can eat it.”

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