A bright pink hat and scarf with a flurry of blonde hair between them caught Jesse’s eye as he picked Romeo up from the ice for the third time in the last ten minutes. His little brother was never going to get the hang of this, and Jesse’s already limited patience just hit its limit when he spotted the girl from the restaurant – Mandi.
Frowning, he realized that Mandi wasn’t unaccompanied. She was with his dad’s “very good friend”, which he interpreted to mean “girlfriend”. It was the first time they’d been introduced to someone Dad was seeing, and his feelings were ambiguous. Yes, his dad deserved to be happy, but – like Romeo – he’d kind of been hoping his parents would reconcile and get back together.
With the shake of his head, he grabbed Romeo by the arm before his butt could hit the ice again and decided his own romantic life was more interesting than his father’s.
“Steph,” he called to his sister, who was having much better luck keeping Jake upright. “Help Romeo. I see somebody I know.”
Her shrewd blue eyes zeroed in on the girl outside the rink and she puckered her mouth into an unimpressed scowl. “I see who you think you know.”
“Aww, jeez, c’mon Steph. Cut me a break here.”
Haughtily rolling her eyes, she informed him, “I’m cutting you a break only because I’m curious about Dad’s friend. Come here Romey. Jake… stay close.”
After both little brothers were securely on their feet, she waved to her father, who was sipping coffee along the railing. A nod of her head indicated the direction that Jesse was going in, and Dad’s eyes followed, lighting up when he spotted the group of females from lunch. He lifted his hand in a wave of thanks and strolled in that direction, a grin evident even on his scarf-shrouded face.
He really seems to like her. I haven’t seen him look that happy in a long time.
“Hi.” The darker haired of the two girls from lunch skidded to a stop beside her. “I’m Ashley. Need some help with skating lessons? I have two cousins about their age and we just taught them to ice skate last year.”
“I’m Stephanie, and sure. That would be great, actually. Jake is the one in the red hat. He’s doing a little better than Romeo. I don’t think he’s going to fall, but if he does, maybe you could help him back up again?”
The girl’s smile was friendly and she agreed without hesitation. As she skated toward the middle Bongiovi boy, Stephanie called out to him, “Jake! That’s Ashley, she’s going to help you.”
“I don’t need help,” he staunchly announced mere seconds before his feet slid out from under him. “Ouch! Darn it!”
“Yeah, like I said…” Extending a hand to the youngest of the brood, she encouraged, “Come on Romeo. One foot in front of the other…”
Pleased when he managed to scuffle a short distance without landing on the ice, Stephanie dared trust him enough to turn her attention to Ashley. “So… What does your aunt do for a living?”
If this woman was going to date her father, she’d at least like to have the peace of mind that Sheridan wasn’t going to take advantage of him.
Ashley’s bright blue scarf lifted along with her shoulders. “She used to own a bunch of bookstores, but she sold them to be a hippie – or so my mom says. Aromatherapy and other weird things, I think.”
A hippie. That’s… interesting. And so very not Dad.
“Hello again, ladies,” Jon greeted his girlfriend and the sister that strongly resembled her, pulling his wool scarf away from his mouth to speak. While his mouth was unfettered, he bent in to press a lingering kiss against Sheridan’s cheek. She was beautiful with her nose and cheeks the same shade as the hat and scarf matching the cherry-red sweater he knew was under her jacket. “Fancy yourselves a spin around the ice?”
“Not me,” Sheridan declined with a laugh. “I’ll end up sprawled on my face like Bambi.”
“Oh, bull.” So far, Jon liked the feisty Riley. She didn’t seem to have any trouble speaking her mind, and that pleased him. Based on their brief phone conversation and the things Sheridan had said about her, he’d been a little afraid she would go all fan-girl when they met. “You do just fine. Go get your skates, and get him some, too, while you’re at it. I want to talk to him for a minute.”
“No.” The stubborn tilt of her chin delighted him. “No way in hell I’m leaving you alone with him. I don’t trust you.”
“Oh, please,” Riley pooh-poohed. “What am I going to do? Show him embarrassing baby pictures? I don’t have any with me.”
“S’ok, Kitten. I won’t listen to a thing she says.” Her eyes sparkled when he winked at her. “Promise.”
With only a minimal amount of grumbling, she got his shoe size and unwillingly trudged toward skate rental. He was actually surprised at how little of a fight she posed. Maybe she had an ulterior motive in getting him out on the ice and, if so, he was an idiot for agreeing to this. He couldn’t skate for shit, either.
“Sooo…” Riley led in with a discerning lift of the brow that arched over emerald eyes that were eerily like her sister’s. “How did the whole Christmas shopping thing work out?”
“I’m… pleased.”
“Yes, but the question is, will Sheridan be pleased?”
Thinking of the black velvet box that was in the top drawer of his dresser, wrapped in red and gold, Jon could answer with confidence. “Yeah, I think she will.”
“That means you’re not going to tell me what you got?”
He tossed his depleted paper coffee cup into the trash bin a few feet away, then turned his mega-watt smile on her. “That’s exactly what it means. But I put your insight to good use if that makes you feel any better.”
“I’m a nosy woman, Mr. Bongiovi. The only thing that’s going to make me feel better is seeing it in person.”
Laughing outright in her face didn’t earn him any favors with Riley, whose blonde eyebrows knit with annoyance. Yes, he definitely liked Sheridan’s sister. “Then I guess you’ll feel better on Christmas day, if she wears it, Ms. …” He realized he had no idea what her last name was.
“Mason,” she grumbled good-naturedly, as Sheridan returned clutching both the skates and the new world record for speediest rental.
“Did she drive you nuts? Or embarrass you? Or me?” his kitten interrogated with the proficiency of a well-seasoned vice cop.
Jon accepted the scuffed black ice skates with a chuckle. “No on all counts. Your sister is quite charming in her own pit bull kind of way, and I kind of like the way she flusters you. You’re usually so...together.”
“Yeah, well leaving the new man in my life with the woman who knows all my embarrassing secrets is enough to make anybody a neurotic mess.”
“Oh, get over it already,” Riley demanded with a delicate snort. “Blood is thicker than pheromones. Most of the time. Although… my lips would get pretty loose for good seats at Madison Square Garden.”
Throwing his head back, Jon chortled with delight. Riley Mason was a character, and he loved the way the sisters interacted. It reminded him of his brothers, without all the bawdy swearing and name-calling.
Sheridan cinched up the last lace on her skates with a feminine grunt and stood, now a good three inches taller than her sibling. With a glare down her aquiline nose, she condescendingly informed Riley, “Mom still doesn’t know about what happened to her heirloom clock the night of your junior prom, but I do. Remember that.”
“Bitch.”
“Hey now,” Jon interrupted with amusement, folding Sheridan’s gloved hand in his own leather-sheathed fingers. “No bloodshed in front of all the little ones. C’mon.” He tugged lightly to propel her in the general direction of the ice. Let’s see if you can keep me from breaking a hip out there.”
Taking it slow and easy, they both managed to find themselves upright and gliding somewhat smoothly through the mid-afternoon crowd. Jon saw that his oldest son was spinning Sheridan’s niece in a circle and both were laughing, while the other niece and Stephanie were skating rings around his younger boys. It all felt very… domestic.
“Hey, you,” Jon greeted quietly – intimately – as though he hadn’t already said hello twice this afternoon. “I’m glad you came.”
But she was still stuck back at the edge of the rink with her quarrelsome sister, and quibbled, “Well that makes one of us. I’m sorry about Riley.”
“Don’t be. I like her. I was just thinking that you two remind me a lot of me and my brothers.” He grinned down into her face as they swung easily around the end of the ice, carving out their own lazy curve. “Except I’m Riley and you’re Matt.”
“Remind me to send Matt a nice anti-stress oil and diffuser for his house,” she grumbled contrarily.
This was such a different side to the uber-confident, poised woman he’d come to know so well in the last few weeks. If he hadn’t already had a major thing for her, this petulant youngest sibling routine would have cinched it. She was adorable.
“He’s tough enough to take it. I made sure of that.” His mind going in a different direction, Jon recalled the stress he’d inflicted upon her in the last couple of days – stress that could have easily triggered the end of their beginning. His glee dimmed under the somberness of his next words. “How about you? You tough enough to take the shit I threw at you and still want me?”
Wide emerald eyes snapped up, but he was too busy paying attention to where their skates were taking them to meet her gaze. Her quiet remarks sufficed in the wake of visual reassurance. “I’m tough enough to take anything as long as I think you trust me.”
This was not a conversation he wanted to have while fearing for his Humpty Dumpty ass, and Jon guided them to the edge of the rink opposite where Riley stood. Propping one hip against the rail, he kept their fingers locked and peered intently into Sheridan’s face.
“I trust you, Kitten.” At her single nod, he pushed, “Does this mean it’s alright? I know this craziness is still going on, but you and me… We’re okay?”
Those pretty, cosmetically-smudged eyes went soft and she gently extracted her hand from his grip. Working her right glove free, he saw the blood-red nails that had enamored him the first night pop free. They were quickly folded in against the chill, and Sheridan pushed back the sleeve of both her jacket and sweater, thereby scooting the tight-fitting bracelet out of the way.
There, looking just as perfect as when he’d left it, was his signature darkening her fair skin.
“If we weren’t okay, I would’ve bleached it into oblivion.”
He had his girl, his kids, the future and a beautiful winter day at The Rock. Everything, in this moment, was right with the world. Jon bent his head, lips barely closing over his grin enough to allow a kiss against the delicate pulse-point.
“Can I just say that I’m very glad you didn’t?”
Her smile was worth a million bucks just then. And her gentle touch to his face made him feel like a million bucks. There were good things ahead for them. He just knew it in his bones.
“So, tell me…” he cajoled as she poked her fingers back into the protective warm of her glove. Gliding gracelessly back into the flow of ice traffic, he slid Sheridan a sly glance out of the corner of his eye, completely oblivious to everyone around them. “You have any more works of literary genius that you’d like to throw my way? Yanno, to tide me over ‘til Christmas Eve?”
