The fact that he was slower now buzzed like a fly inside Cole’s brain—one of those sticky little persistent fuckers—and irritation snapped the muscles joining his neck to his shoulders taut. He tightened his grip on the cane. Jane barely knew him, and already she was judging his physical capabilities.

So now there were two prickly adults in the room giving off sparks.

“Can I come?” Finn asked at just the right moment, popping the tension like a balloon.

“No.” Jane shut him down quickly, returning her attention to her son. “Bath and bed for you.”

“Aww, please, Mommy. I’m not tired.”

“But Mary Poppins is waiting.”

That seemed to mollify Finn. “Did you know,” Cole said, “the woman who wrote Mary Poppins was born in Australia?”

Jane appeared unimpressed with Cole’s literary knowledge, but Finn’s interest was obviously piqued. “Where kangaroos and koalas and kidnas live?”

“Yep.”

“And steroids?”

“Alrighty then.” Jane jabbed a quick glare in Cole’s direction as she lifted Finn down from the bench. “Let’s not keep Mr. Hauser any longer.”

Cole disliked being called Mr. Hauser. It reminded him of his father, and his old man didn’t deserve that much thought. Everyone from coaches to teammates to friends and the media just called him House, a nickname he’d been given in his rookie year by a sports journalist who’d described him as being built like a brick shithouse. Now, of course, with the cane mimicking a famous TV doctor of the same name, life was bizarrely imitating art. Even if the infuriating object wasn’t going to be a permanent fixture.

But Jane did not look in the mood to be contradicted right now. “Yes, okay. Well…I guess I’ll be leaving.”

She nodded stiffly. A beat or two passed where nobody moved, but it was clear Jane was waiting for him to go. Cole’s stomach growled as he inclined his head, then turned away, heading for the door.

“See ya, Mr. Hauser.”

Cole faltered at the chirpy little goodbye, then smiled. “Hoo-roo, Finn,” he said as he limped out of the room.

…

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Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

Unlike the hero of this book, I love Christmas! The tinsel, the carols, the tree, the lights. So it was super fun to give my surly rancher a big, fat, OTT Christmas with every wonderfully kitschy thing I could find on the internet thrown into the pot! I hope you enjoyed the sweaters, dominatrix Barbie and the cat baubles as much as I did putting them down on the page.