Christmas in the Rink by Dora Hiers

Author:Dora Hiers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: christian Fiction
ISBN: 9781611164275
Publisher: Pelican Ventures Book Group
Published: 2014-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

6

Conner closed his eyes, strumming familiar music, the combination of chords he’d created rolling off his fingertips by rote. Since leaving home without his skates, his guitar had become his traveling companion. It had kept him sane during all those lonely nights while deployed overseas, when the dreams and the memories of Chaney in his arms had kept him awake well into the morning. He plucked the last note and glanced over at Chaney.

She reclined against the couch with a pillow clutched to her chest. Had she fallen asleep?

He glanced at the clock above the mantel. Eleven. How had the time slipped away so fast? A sigh slipped from his chest, and he carefully set the guitar next to the couch. He could at least cover Chaney before he left. With one palm on the rug, he hoisted himself to his feet.

Chaney’s lids popped open. “That was beautiful.”

He gave her a hand up, scrounging every ounce of self-control not to tug her into his arms, but he kept her smooth fingers grasped in his for a couple seconds longer than necessary, not allowing her to wander too far away. “I thought you were asleep.”

“No. Just thoroughly enjoying the music. Who is it by?” She tucked a stray strand of hair behind an ear, her sleepy eyes creating all sorts of havoc with his heart rate.

“Me.” She hadn’t ridiculed him for being an auto mechanic, so he trusted that she wouldn’t beat him up over this.

“Really?” Admiration lit up her face, along with something else. Pride? “So not only are you an excellent mechanic and extremely talented skater, but you also create music like that? Wow!”

“Woman, you keep talking like that, it’ll go to my head. You won’t be able to stand to be around me,” he teased.

She dipped her head to her chest and mumbled, “Like that’ll ever happen.”

Had he heard her correctly? Uncertainty crept in. Best to let that go. It was late, and he needed all his faculties around her. He scooped up his guitar and headed towards the door.

Her stocking-clad feet padded across the hardwood behind him. “Conner?”

He stopped in the dim light of the foyer, hiding in the shadows. He didn’t want Chaney to see the longing reflected from his eyes. The ache for a home full of joy and laughter, of love and life, of children and making memories, the ache that was literally painful. “Yeah?” His voice came out gruffer than he’d intended.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

Ask him something? Dread pitted in his gut. He scrubbed the whiskers lining his jaw, waiting.

“You don’t have to say yes, but please promise you’ll think about it.”

He’d do anything to make her happy, even attending church if she asked him again. He could handle the questions. It was her reaction that he worried about. “Just spill it, Chaney.”

“My students have a recital on Christmas Eve. We’re not nearly as prepared as we should be right now. I could really use your help.” Her head tilted up towards him.

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