“Also, Dad made almond flour monk fruit biscotti,” Olivia finished, leaning into Gracie. “I know how youlovea sugar-free treat, Miss Gracie.”
Gracie just laughed and glanced into a glorious living room that somehow managed to be masculine and perfectly decorated.
Maybe a little too perfectly—definitely what she’d call “model home” flawless, with a floor plan that took advantage of asweeping view of the snow-streaked mountain peaks and some ski lifts in the distance.
She checked it out while Marshall made small talk with Benny, and they all ended up in an enormous contemporary kitchen. There, more sunshine streamed over marble counters and pale oak cabinets.
Olivia bounced on her toes. “Benny! The snow is perfect and I’m going to stupid sunny Calif?—”
“Liv.” Marshall gave a quick warning look. “It’s not stupid.”
“Well, I don’t know why Mom had to move there. If she was still in Pittsburgh, at least I could see my old friends. But, no, she had to go to California.” Olivia sighed dramatically, lifting a jacket from a hook in the mudroom off the kitchen where Gracie hung hers.
Gracie knew enough about Marshall’s shared custody arrangement to understand that he’d had Olivia last year for Christmas, so this holiday was for Bianca.
“How much time do I have left, Dad?” Olivia asked.
Marshall glanced at his watch. “Your mother lands in a few hours. She has to deplane, meet us outside of security, then get you back to the gate for the flight back to L.A. So, we have to leave here at one o’clock at the latest.”
“And I need to get to work, Benny,” Gracie said. “We should let the kids exchange gifts and get out of your hair.”
“My hair needs snow in it!” Olivia announced, grabbing Benny’s arm to yank him through the mudroom and back into his boots. “We have time for me to destroy you in a snowball fight. Can we take the dogs?”
“Until they get cold,” Marshall said, laughing at his whirlwind of a daughter.
Benny grinned. “You’re going down, Olivia.”
“Am not!”
Kids and dogs disappeared outside, and almost immediately, Gracie spotted them running off a snow-covered deck into the yard.
“I thought they’d do science experiments,” she said, laughing. “Instead, war.”
Marshall leaned closer, voice low. “War will keep them occupied.” He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her into him. “And we’ll have…peace.”
He punctuated that with the lightest kiss, holding her against his broad chest, his strong athlete’s arm lifting her an inch off the floor with ease.
When she came back to Earth, breathing was…a challenge.
“So this wasn’t all just a dream,” she whispered.
He smiled and kissed her forehead. “It’s a dream, all right.” He looked down at her, nothing but warmth and kindness and goodness in his ebony eyes. “Can I get you something? Coffee or tea? Sugarless biscotti?”
“Tea would be great.” Somehow, she managed to ease away, nodding. “If it’s got peppermint and not…peptides.”
He groaned and punched his chest. “And she mocks.”
“Playfully,” she assured him, slipping onto a barstool at an island the size of, well, a football field.
He poured steaming water into two mugs while she watched the kids play, flashes of color and movement against the snow.
“Olivia’s going to be a mess before her flight,” she mused.
“I think that’s her evil plan.” He brought the mugs over. “Make her mother mad.”
“Do they not get along?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Bianca’s not maternal and Olivia is…a unique challenge.”
