Season's Schemings: A Holiday Hockey Rom Com by Katie Bailey

Author:Katie Bailey [Bailey, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eleventh Avenue Publishing Inc.
Published: 2023-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

17

MADDIE

One very eventful hour later, Sebastian and I are walking into our designated bedroom with the premise of “freshening up for dinner”—which earned a loud guffaw from Adam’s grandmother as she slugged back her fifth brandy of the evening.

The second the door closes behind us, Seb chucks our bags on the ground and falls on the bed, laughing. “Oh my gosh, Mads, that was insane.”

I don’t reply, because I’m too busy staring at the four-poster bed he’s currently sprawled across, his big chest rising and falling as he chuckles to himself. The bed itself is lovely—made of a mahogany wood that plays off the dark wood walls, and the green and crimson flannel bedspread matches the curtains. There are about ten huge, fluffy pillows on top, but they’re all mussed up thanks to Sebastian’s current starfish position.

I love a good throw pillow, and resist the urge to shoo Seb off the bed so I can fluff them all up and put them back in place.

As I’m paused in the doorway, reflecting on this, Seb props himself up on one arm to look at me. “What? You don’t think that went well? I’m pretty sure I made a good first impression.”

He definitely did.

After we dropped our H-bomb, Adam ogled us like a goldfish, and then proceeded to handle the shock of meeting his athletic hero in the flesh—and finding out the guy is now married to his ex—by asking tons of personal, almost intrusive questions, rapid-fire style. All of which Seb answered calmly, with perfect composure, as he played with my hair and pretended to be head-over-heels in love with me.

But on top of that, Seb was slick enough to show up with wine and chocolates for both our host and my mother, and then won all the women over by dropping compliments on literally everything in sight (including the heinous art on the walls). And also by pretending that he thought Adam’s tiny, sassy, gray-hair-in-a-bun grandma was his aunt.

Then, as if that wasn’t enough, Seb went on to ask my stepdad and Adam’s father questions about their lines of work in criminal defense law. In turn, he regaled them with some appropriately hilarious tales about being in the NHL, spending time in the sin bin, and someone named Wayne Gretzky.

I may or may not have thought that Seb was saying Wayne Jetski at first, which is a way better name. Seb was unimpressed to the max with me, because apparently this Gretzky character is a Canadian hero.

Who knew.

But that’s not what I’m concerned about right now. Because I’m only now realizing that, as we are a married couple, the guest bedroom Alicia assigned us has only one bed.

Because what newlywed couple sleeps in separate beds?

I sink into a decorative armchair in the corner. “I didn’t think about the sleeping situation.”

He looks at the flannel comforter, then back up at me. Shrugs. “No big deal. What’s a few sleepovers between a temporary husband and wife?”

My brain is misfiring right now—obviously payback for the chaos I caused downstairs.

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