Chapter 10

A bear.

A fucking bear.

"Fucking shit," I growl, scooping Jolie up when she stumbles and increasing my speed, taking us between the trees, the rocks and the roots, the piles of snow, the ice and pine needles.

Running as fast as I can in the fucking snowshoes.

Which aren't conducive to speed.

A fucking bear?

Seriously?

Something I can't focus on since I'm concentrating on running in the clown shoes, on not dropping Jolie, not leaving her behind to become bear food.

I like her.

I kind of wanna keep her.

So, I keep running, down the path, moving significantly faster than we did coming up. Somehow managing to not trip and fall and break our fucking necks.

Or trip and fall and leave us as bear fodder.

Or—

I burst out onto the beach, skidding to a stop, body tensing as I pivot around, searching the trees for any sign of a lumbering black bear.

A pissed bear who we presumably disturbed from a winter slumber.

What the fuck?

Were we really that loud? To wake a fucking hibernating bear?

"I think we're good," Jolie says, smoothing her uninjured hand over my chest, resting it on the side of my neck. "You can put me down now."

I take one more look then set her carefully on her feet, steadying her as she finds her balance.

"Thanks for not leaving me behind," she says.

I grin over at her, chest heaving, hands dropping onto my knees. "You're tiny. You wouldn't make much of a snack for a bear." I shrug, sucking in a breath, releasing it slowly so as to steady my pulse. "No point in leaving you behind."

Her smile—damn, it's pretty.

"Brutal," she says, and, God, I love seeing her like this, sparks of humor and spice, happiness and good humor, all without one sign of fragile. Just Jolie. Lucky fucking me. "But smart." She moves close, our snowshoes bumping as she stretches up and kisses me. "I like it."

"I like?—"

Crunching behind us has us jumping and whipping around.

My pulse is in my throat, racing like a fucking locomotive…

Until I see Lake, goofy grin on his face, snowshoes dangling from his hands as he makes his way toward us.

"I fancied a hike," he calls out.

"Fucking hell," I growl.

Jolie leans against me, mouth twitching. "Should we send him up our trail?"

"He deserves it," I say. "The shit stirrer." I scowl. "But the team needs him to keep putting points on the scoresheet."

Jolie huffs out a laugh. "And I—and the rest of the populace—need him to continue gracing billboards."

I glare down at her. "Really?"

She just grins up at me. No fragile in sight.

We were just chased by a bear, and she's laughing at me, grinning as she gives me a hard time. After surprising me with a thoughtful gift…and giving me an orgasm that?—

Yeah, the bear was worth it.

But still, "Is this where I point out, I'm on a billboard too?"

She stretches up again, lips brushing my cheek. "Yeah, baby, this is the point where you can say that." Her lips hit my ear. "And I can vouch for your abs being as nice as his."

Damn right they are.

We bend over, unstrap our snowshoes, and I take both sets in one hand.

The snow and sand are mixing here and it's easier to just walk the rest of the way back to the car.

"Lake, just so we're clear," she says without preamble as my teammate comes up beside us, "I'm not into thruples."

I blink.

Lake blinks.

She giggles. "And now that I've shocked two big, tough hockey players"—she takes my free hand and draws me forward—"Lake, feel free to hike away, but not on that trail unless you want to disturb a hopefully hibernating bear?—"

"Hopefully hibernating?" Lake asks.

"Leo, baby." A tug. "We've worked up my appetite"—she glances at me, winks—"let's go eat."

Then she starts forward, towing me along, leaving a gaping Lake behind.

My smile is so wide my fucking face hurts, and I probably look like an idiot.

But I can't bring myself to care.

Not with this woman glancing back, gaze hitting mine, her pretty gray eyes sparkling with humor, her mouth curving and kissable, her fingers tight in mine. "Leo?" she asks.

I pick up my pace, match our strides. "Yeah, sweetheart?"

"I know what I want for Christmas."

"What's that?"

She hesitates for a moment, gaze going to the clear sky overhead, cold sunshine on her skin, turning it golden.

Then she glances back up at me, mouth tipping up at the edges.

"Will you go on a second date with me?"

My lips drop open, and I almost miss the mischief in her eyes.

But I don't as she adds, "Minus the side of bears."

God, I freaking like this woman.

Especially, when she laughs as I tease back, "Perfect, because I don't have enough wrapping paper for that."

Especially, as she brushes her lips over mine again.

Especially, as she drops back down to the soles of her feet, takes my hand again, and we walk down the beach.

Together.

Christmas magic in the air.

A future in the sky above.

And sleeping beers sheltered in the trees.