Zambonis and Mistletoe - A Holiday Romance (The Renegades Series Book 4)

by Melody Heck Gatto

“Yes. I really like him.” Rylee was beaming. “Something really odd happened the other night.”

  “Oh? With Nick?”

  “No.” Rylee quickly responded. “I’ve been enjoying his company and we sorted out all that other stuff with Kourtney. He’s such a gentleman. I just hadn’t been ready to move on before now; your brother was it for me. No one could come close to what he meant to me. It’s been holding me back all these years.”

  “I know.” Paige softly croaked.

  “I’m sorry. I’m not bringing this up to upset you. Scott came to me in a dream last night. I know that sounds stupid.”

  “Not really, go on.” Paige’s voice perked up.

  “Please tell me I’m not sounding crazy.”

  “Look, it’s happened to me too, so please, go on. I’m listening.”

  “He basically told me that I deserve to be happy and it’s time for me to move on. Not to mention my necklace fell off while I was sleeping.” That other stuff about him always loving her was for her; Paige didn’t need to hear all of that.

  “My big brother was always the smart one.” Paige whimpered a bit before clearing her throat. “So, did you listen to him?”

  “I did. I think I’m ready to put my heart back out there.”

  “Good! So when are you going to see him again?”

  ***

  It had been about a week since Nick spent the night. He’d had meetings out of town. Rylee guessed that’s what happened when one was GM of a company.

  She had been back in the regular schedule rotation at work since her ankle was better. This week she was on administrative assignment, which meant sitting at the nurse’s station doing paperwork. She preferred working one-on-one with the patients, versus processing patient files, but at least she was still keeping busy while he was away—and there were cookies.

  Filing and answering questions was getting old fast, but she was happy to be back, surrounded by people and craziness. Not to mention it was Christmas Eve and she was giddy with holiday cheer—or maybe it was a sugar high from all the goodies. The nurses’ station was decorated for Christmas, with a plate of holiday cookies that never seemed to get empty, thanks to the abundance of bakers on their floor.

  “Merry Christmas, Rylee!” Betty called as she pushed a cart by the nurse’s station. It was filled with small treat bundles for each patient.

  “Merry Christmas, Betty!” Everyone was so filled with cheer; it was nice.

  She felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Hopeful it was Nick, she pulled it from her smock. Nick’s name displayed on the screen, with a text:

  Hey Rylee, miss u. You going to be home tonight?

  A smile crept across her lips as she read his message. She was surprised by how much she’d missed him this past week. Her fears of getting involved with someone new had subsided. It was too late now. She was involved, and she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

  Quickly she typed a response:

  Yes, I’m done at four. Will I see you tonight?

  Before she could set her phone down, his reply buzzed:

  Yes. See u then. I’ll bring pizza.

  Nick and his pizza. She was starting to think he didn’t know how to cook.

  She wanted to squeal out loud, feeling like a teenager all over again. Of course she didn’t have much to compare it to, because her carefree teenage years ended the day Scott died. After that, she’d never seriously looked at another guy, and falling in love again had been the furthest thing from her mind.

  She looked at the clock on her computer as she finished her last patient file for the day. It was almost four, close enough to put her stuff away and get ready to leave.

  “How does this cookie tray continue to stay filled? We’ve been eating all day!” She laughed. She knew for a fact she had done nothing but eat cookies all day and watch nurses start their shifts and refill the tray, not to mention the ones she herself had brought in this morning. While Nick was gone, she had busied herself by doing a lot of Christmas baking. She liked the smell filling the house.

  She grabbed her purse, punched out, and pulled on her jacket. Stepping outside the hospital, she looked at the gloomy skies. The weather forecaster was calling for snow today. She slowly walked to her car. She still had to be careful but she was happy to be rid of the crutches. It was cold and when a shiver ran through her, she wished she would have worn her heavier jacket today. She liked to look nice, but it wasn’t always worth being a slave to fashion, especially when that fashion didn’t keep her warm.

  As she drove home she watched the sky, hoping to see a snowflake fall. She did see a few faint flurries but she was looking forward to a full blown snowfall. The type of large snowflakes that fell in Christmas movies when the two main characters kissed for the first time, or finally realized they were head over heels for each other.

  Once she was finally home, she lit a few cookie scented candles and went to the kitchen to retrieve the cookies she made for when Nick came over. She placed them on a Santa Claus platter and put them on the kitchen table. Sugar cookies decorated like Santa faces, stockings, and Christmas trees. Peanut butter kiss cookies. Snowballs. Snickerdoodles with red and green sugar. Yeah, it’s not obvious that I’ve been lonely since Nick has been gone.

  The team had been on the road a lot, so Paige hadn’t even been home. Rylee picked up a Santa face cookie, and snacked on it as she walked into the living room and adjusted the furnace. The temperature outside was slowly dropping.

  Looking at her watch, she saw it was four-thirty. Nick hadn’t said what time he would be over, but she wanted to get changed out of these scrubs. She turned on the radio on her way to the steps as she hurried upstairs to her room. After tossing her dirty clothes into the laundry she looked in her drawers for a pair of gray yoga pants—her favorite comfy pants—and a pink off the shoulder long sleeve cotton top. It felt strange to admire herself in the mirror. It had been too many years since she cared what someone else thought of her.

  The doorbell rang. Nick! She ran down to the living room and swung open the front door. There stood Nick, in blue jeans and a heavy winter jacket, but what made her speechless was what he was dragging along with him. A big fresh Christmas tree!

  “What the…?” She tripped over her words, not forming a full sentence.

  “Surprise!” Nick yelled. “Merry Christmas Eve!”

  “Nick! Oh my God, you got me a tree! A real and beautiful tree!” Her eyes teared up. They had talked about her wanting one and having missed the tradition, and he remembered! She was starting to think he really was a keeper. He was absolutely perfect. It was probably the tears in her eyes blurring her vision, but she thought she saw a halo around his head and heard the jingle of bells.

  But of course, she had the radio on so it had to have been something on the air.

  He smiled as he carried the tree into the house, handing her a bag that contained a new tree stand. He really had thought of everything. She wasn’t even sure where the one was that they used to use.

  “Can you set that stand up? Where do you want this?” he asked.

  “Um…” She looked around her house. The corner by the front window was where Pap always put the tree; that way you could see it from outside too. “In this corner by the front window,” she said, as she slid the small chair that was currently there out of the way.

  She put together the tree stand and sat it down on the floor. Her mind flooded with memories of helping Pap with putting together the tree stand. She and Paige would direct him which way to move the tree until it was just perfect.

  Nick set the tree into the tree stand. “Perfect.” He stood back and admired the tree. “What do you think?”

  As Rylee looked at the tree and then at Nick, Jolly Saint Nick played over the radio. “I think it’s absolutely perfect.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Nick beamed with pride as she gushed over the tree. It made him happy that Rylee was so thrilled with the tree he’d brought her. She’d really wante
d one, but it felt as though repeating her Pap’s tradition all by herself seemed to scare her. Now she had a new tradition. They had a new tradition. He’d been raised with a strong sense of tradition himself, and his mother always went all out with Christmas, so he understood how important that was to Rylee.

  “I’m glad you like it.” He smiled, still standing in her living room in his jacket. “The pizza! Oops, it’s still in my car. Be right back.” He hurried out to the car, and as he turned to walk back into the house, Rylee plugged in the front window lights. He looked down the block at all the lit up houses. To be honest, he loved all this stuff. It reminded him of when he was a kid, and Christmas still seemed a magical time of year. “Rylee,” he called as he walked in the door, “C’mere.”

  “What is it?” She spun around from admiring her tree.

  “C’mere.” He motioned, then set the pizza down on the coffee table and grabbed her hand, walking her outside to the porch. “Look.” He smiled at the sky.

  “It’s snowing!” She squealed. Her face lit up as she watched the large white puffs fall from the sky.

  She spun around amidst the falling snowflakes. When she looked back over at Nick, he grabbed her around the waist, and pulled her to him. He covered her lips with his, kissing her long and hard as the cold flakes fell against their faces. As if it were instinct, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and he let his warm lips do their thing.

  He nipped gently at her bottom lip, and slid his tongue into her mouth. She felt so comfortable in his arms, like she was meant to be there.

  He pulled back slowly, and looked up at the falling snow, before returning his eyes to her. “You are really beautiful, Rylee.” He stood admiring her as the snowflakes began to fall harder. He loved her fiery hair, perfect for his fingers to tangle through it, and her creamy skin made him want to bury himself in her. He loved the way she was so effortlessly beautiful even wearing her sweats, but it was the joyful smile on her face right now that gripped his heart. He’d do almost anything if he could make her smile at him like that every day for the rest of his life.

  ***

  As she watched the snow fall around Nick’s gorgeous smiling face, the sound of jingle bells ran through her ears. Could it be that she hadn’t been hearing things all this time? Maybe since it was because on Christmas Eve everything seemed magical, but she had asked for ‘love’ on her letter to Saint Nick, and snow, and a real tree.

  Wait a minute… is it simply me? Maybe I’ve had too many cookies, but Nick? Jolly Saint Nick? Snow? The Tree? Her head was spinning, and she didn’t know what to believe.

  Before she could think about it another minute, Nick covered her mouth with his again and she melted into his kiss, his lips soft and warm, even as the cold balls of ice fell on their skin.

  Rylee’s face warmed from that impulsive kiss. She grabbed his hand and led him into the house. “I think you should help me decorate my tree.” She smiled.

  “I would love to. Where are the decorations?” He slid off his jacket and hung it up beside the door as though it was something he did every day.

  “They’re in the basement. I can go get them.” Rylee started to move towards the basement door.

  “Oh, no you don’t! That ankle is still healing. You relax, I’ll find them.” Nick insisted, and his sexy demeanor overpowered her.

  “You can’t miss them. There are two big red totes down there, the only red ones.” She grabbed a piece of a cookie off of the plate in the kitchen and returned to the living room, while the radio played the Carpenters ‘I’ll be Home for Christmas’. She turned to see Nick carrying both totes up the steps into the living room. “Nick! You can’t carry both of those!”

  “Wanna bet?” He laughed as he set them both on the couch. Rylee was dizzy at the way his muscles stretched the sleeves of his shirt. He rubbed his hands together eagerly. “Okay, the lights should go on first.”

  “They would be in the box that says ‘lights’ on the top.” She grinned at him with her hand on her hip.

  “You’re cute.” He smirked back. “Cookies?”

  Rylee giggled. “Yeah, there’s a tray on the kitchen table. Help yourself. I’ve been bored this week, hence the wide variety of cookie.”

  He leaned over close to her and pressed his lips gently against hers. “I missed you, Rylee.”

  His lips were warm and soft. She’d missed him too, missed everything about him. She wondered how she’d become so attached so quickly.

  “I was counting the hours until I could see you again.” He sucked at her bottom lip and pulled her body close.

  Every inch of her frozen body felt as though it were thawing; how she’d longed for this feeling. The feeling of needing someone so badly it hurt. The ache of missing him when he was away, and the excitement of seeing him when he returned. The only place she wanted to be right now was with him. She knew, positively, this was her time to be happy.

  “I missed you too,” she whispered, barely audibly. Then she smelled the pizza. “Oh! I forgot all about the pizza. Shouldn’t we eat it before it gets cold?”

  Looking over at the bare tree, Nick agreed. “I guess we should.”

  She pulled away from him to go get plates. The desire that coursed through her body was going to have to wait.

  Nick pulled the colored lights out of the tote as she went to the kitchen, and was already stringing them when she returned with the plates.

  “Aren’t you going to eat?” she asked, standing there watching him wrap the lights around the tree.

  “I will, but you start; don’t let it get cold. It’s Christmas Eve. I want to get the lights on so we can decorate it. Together. Do you want all these lights on the tree?” he asked, looking at four strands of lights before him.

  “Yep,” she said, as she munched on her pizza. She watched him struggle a bit, as he climbed a little step stool to reach the top of the tree. “Do you need my help?” The tree fit perfectly in her living room, the top of it just tall enough to fit the star, and that was it. He even knew the perfect tree to get me.

  “Nope, I got it,” he said as he started to get a rhythm down as to how he was putting the lights on.

  Rylee went back to the kitchen and when she returned with the cookie tray, she was surprised he was almost done stringing the lights already. An old memory came to her and she let out a little giggle. Nick turned to look at her curiously.

  “What’s funny?”

  “It’s nothing. Just a funny memory came to me. Watching you get those lights on there so easily reminded me of the year Pap let Paige and I do it, and it took us almost an hour!” Saying the words out loud made her giggle again and made Nick laugh too.

  “I’m pretty good at stringing Christmas tree lights, what can I say?” He shrugged, sure of himself. Once he was done he grabbed a slice of pizza. “Hope pepperoni was okay.”

  “It’s perfect,” she said. She had been using that word a lot tonight, but that’s exactly what tonight was. Perfect. They sat together on the couch and took a break to enjoy the pizza while it was still warm.

  “So, there’s a game on tomorrow at one,” Nick mentioned as he took a second piece of pizza, trying to match Rylee, who was already on her third slice. “Do you want to watch it on television together?”

  “Yeah, I’d love to.” She smiled. The thought of curling up on the couch to watch the game with him gave her a warm feeling inside. Pushing her plate aside, she wandered over to look through the tree decorations. She was trying to think of the best way to decorate the tree this year. Recently they hadn’t been hanging a lot of the traditional ones they used to use when Pap was around. Plus they’d put up the tiny tree last year that she bought at the drug store, so they only needed a few bulbs to fill it.

  She could feel Nick watching her. “I’m trying to decide how I want to decorate it. We have lots of colored glass balls, then we also have our traditional family ornaments, but they’re from when Paige and I were young, and Gram’s and Pap’s.” It wa
s a wrench to think about doing this without Pap, and maybe it was time to start her own traditions.

  “Your Gram didn’t take any of those decorations with her?” he asked.

  “She did, actually.” She paused for a second. “She said she took the ones that meant the most to her, because she was only going to have a small tree in her new place.” She thought about that. The ones that meant the most. Maybe Rylee needed to start something new as well, only put the ones on that meant the most to her, then fill in the rest with the festive colored ball ornaments and garland.

  “I think you just answered your own question,” Nick said as he finished off his fourth piece of pizza.

  “I think I did too.” She smiled at him.

  She sorted through the special store bought decorations and the homemade ones she and Paige created as kids. A few she set on the couch, but she left the others in the box. One was of a mouse bowling; he had on a bowling shirt too.

  “This one was my Pap’s. I always loved it as a kid. He loved to bowl, so I bought it for him. This one”—she picked up a granny bear hugging two baby bears—“is one Paige and I bought for Gram. Then these are a few Gram bought for Paige and me. This was the one Gram bought for me the year I graduated from nursing school.” It was a little girl dressed like a nurse, tending to her teddy bear with a Band-Aid on his head.

  “I like that one,” Nick said, as he slid his hands around her waist.

  “These are going on the tree.” She smiled and he helped her carry them over to the tree. “Will you help me hang them?” she asked, hoping this would be her new tradition, decorating her tree with Nick.

  Maybe she was getting ahead of herself. Or maybe it was her Pap giving her a little nudge, because it felt right having Nick here decorating the tree with her.

  “Definitely.” He smiled as he helped her put them each in just the right spot. Then he carried the tote of colored bulbs over to the tree. “Is there any special way you want these on the tree?” he asked.

  “Nope, just start filling in the spaces.” She glanced at him. “And if I don’t like where you put it, I’ll be sure to move it.” She smirked.