Page 21 of Have a Bear-y Little Christmas
“I’m cold, Mama,” Max said, his voice small, and it was like the short woman practically teleported him, instantly wrapping him up in a hug.
“I’m so sorry, big man. The food is taking a minute. Come on, why don’t we go inside and find a table for all of us.” Her concerned eyes returned to me, her brows knitted together. “Will you come find me once our order is up?”
“Sure.”
Max’s lips were pale and pressed into an uncomfortable, thin line. Jeannie quickly pulled up the same face covering she had so only his eyes were showing, then hurried them inside.
“He’s cool, Daddy,” Eva said, walking forward and automatically taking my hand. “He said he liked my hat and he and Addy talked about killing people!”
“Youwhatnow?” I blurted. I knew kids could say the darndest things, but surely there was a line!
“She’s making it sound worse than it is,” Addy said somewhat defensively. “We were talking about how crazy it is that ice is so hard since it’s just water, then he mentioned watching a crime show where a guy thought he did the perfect murder because he used a weapon made of ice, then melted it! It wasrelevantto the conversation. We weren’t planning a murder!”
“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Eva said.
I truly had no idea what to say, but I was grateful that Max and my girls were getting along. Thankfully, I was saved fromhaving to come up with something to say to that because our order number was called.
“All right, can you girls help me by carrying your drinks while I get the rest?”
“Yeah!”
“Okies!”
The three of us headed into the community center. I scanned the room, then spotted Max’s bright smile. His scarf and parka was sitting in a pile on the chair beside him.
When he saw me, he waved. If I wasn’t holding a tray, I would have waved back. His movement caused Jeannie to look up from where she had been digging in their bag, and I locked eyes with one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen.
Ohfuck!
Chapter 7
Jeannie
Friends in Strange Places
Of all thethings I’d thought might happen when I brought my son to the free kids’ night at the ice-skating rink, Max swooping to the rescue of a young girl and that young girl having the hottest father possible definitely was not one of them.
I didn’t want to objectify the guy, and I appreciated all the different forms of masculine beauty, butgoddamn, if this guy wasn’t just the crème de la crème.
His eyes were an intense green, and his thick, curly hair was just long enough to fall loosely around his head, almost effortlessly perfect in its imperfection. His face looked like it had been carefully carved by a Renaissance sculptor, and he had downright stupidly long lashes. And by stupidly, I meant incredibly attractive.
He was tall and muscled, and he had a thickness to his middle that reminded me of strongmen from strength competitions. God, his hand was the size of my entire face!
I’d been a bit awestruck when I came across him on his knees on the ice, looking at his injured daughter like she was the center of the whole world. I had quickly told myself to curb my enthusiasm, because there was a really good chance that he was married. I couldn’t see a ring on his hand, but he was wearing gloves—even if they were fingerless—so not seeing a wedding band meant nothing.
But then he dropped the bomb that his wife had died. For just a hair of a second, I was horrified that he would use it as an excuse to hit on me—I’d heard of weirder things in my time—but from his reaction, I could tell he was just as shocked that those words had left his mouth as I was at hearing them. I’d panicked, not knowing what to do, but it had put me more at ease, because he was clearly as good at putting his foot in his mouth as I was. It kind of put us on equal footing.
Heh, pun very much intended.
“So, that’s what you look like under there,” Remy said as he approached with a tray overloaded with food. I still felt a bit guilty that he was spending so much on Max and me, but I wasn’t about to let my pride steal warm, tasty food from my son. There was no way I could afford more than a single small hot chocolate. Besides, this strange man feeding me and my son meant that the snacks in our bag could be saved for another day, so I was saving money, which really was a double win.
“What, were you afraid I had another mouth or something?” I shot back as he set the tray down. The delicious aroma of the food tickled my nostrils, and my mouth began to water. I hadn’t even realized I was hungry, but I’d skipped breakfast and only had a packet of ramen for dinner the previous night, so it made sense.
“Nah, not multiple mouths,” he said, grinning at me. “More like an Alien or Predator situation.”
I huffed, tossing my hair over my shoulder. “H.R. Geiger has nothing on this work of art,” I countered airily. And just like earlier, the two of us stared at each other before bursting into laughter.
Was it peak comedy? Absolutely not. There was no Netflix special in our future. But that didn’t really matter. It was cool how easily this stranger and I were clicking. I liked to think of myself as a fairly socially adept person, especially after everything I’ve gone through and all the complicated situations I’ve navigated in my life, but now that I thought about it, I hadn’t really interacted with any other people my age outside of work and my son’s medical team. I hadn’t even realized that I had allowed my world to get so narrow, which I suppose wasn’t surprising given the circumstances.
