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As Natalie made the pancakes, Chris sat on the counter “helping” her. She caught Declan staring at them a handful of times as he moved in and out of the kitchen, smile still plastered on his face. More than once, her cheeks heated as memories of the night before danced through her mind. Maybe she was part of the reason he was smiling.
Sitting at the dining room table, eating breakfast while Chris talked endlessly about what he hoped Santa was bringing him felt so domestic andright. Over the last two years, she’d missed this. The family dynamic.
If Addy was with them, Natalie would call this moment perfect.
But she couldn’t get attached to the idea of Declan and Chris. Declan wasn’t sure he could handle a relationship. And it was probably more than just his crazy ex. Professional athletes had to live and breathe their sport. And Natalie certainly didn’t have much extra time, not between teaching and parenting her daughter. The life she’d left at home felt all the more lonely, though, as she soaked in the moment with Declan and Chris. Before the week was over, they’d have to talk because she’d be lying if she said she didn’t want more of this enigma of a man. But was it even in the realm of possibilities?
Natalie helped Declan clean up the kitchen as Chris disappeared into the great room.
“Do you want me to take Chris out in the snow again? Give you some time to beSanta?”
He tilted his head in her direction, his eyebrows pulled together.
“Time to wrap gifts?” She chuckled. “Unless you’re one of those people who does their shopping in November and has it all wrapped by the second week of December.”
“Definitely not. I did most of my shopping the day before we came.”
“Ok, maybe I can take Chris out snowshoeing.”
“What?”
“You know, snowshoeing?”
Declan shook his head, so she headed to the closet, where she pulled out a snowshoe and held it up to him.
“That’s ridiculous. You can’t play tennis in the snow.”
She rolled her eyes.Seriously? “Mr. Sports Ball Player doesn’t know what a snowshoe is? It’s not a tennis racket. You strap it to your foot.”
His brow furrowed, disbelief marring his face. “You’re telling me you walk around with those on your feet?”
She laughed. “Yes.So you don’t sink in the snow. You need more winter in your life.”
She grabbed her phone off the counter and did an image search for snowshoeing, then showed him the pictures.
“I’m going to pass on stomping around in cold slush. Save that for people who don’t like the rules of organized sports,” he teased.
“To be fair, baseball is likethemost boring sport.”
Declan gasped and placed both hands over his heart. “You wound me. You claim it’s boring, but I recall you enjoying the hell out of third base last night.” He waggled his brows, that rarely seen dimple peeking through along with his smirk.
“Oh stop.” She whacked his chest with the back of her hand and shook her head at his playfulness, but she couldn’t stop her smile.
He angled closer, hovering by her ear. “Maybe tonight I’ll remind you of how much you love running the bases.”
“We can probably make that happen.”
He growled but had to move away when Chris came charging back into the kitchen, ready for a fun adventure.
Even with his dad’s aversion to winter, Chris surprised her and took to snowshoeing right away. He would probably be really good at skiing or snowboarding too. Could she talk Declan into doing something like that?
Crap.
These thoughts had to stop. She refused to be the girl who got attached to a vacation fling.
But even as she repeated the mantra, images of the two of them with Chris and Addy flitted through her mind. It might be too late to worry about getting attached.
14
