Page 12 of Spark

No sign of her, but Adam, Lucy’s husband, walked out of the kitchen and shook Dex’s hand. “Merry Christmas, man.”

“Yeah,” Dex said unconvincingly. “You, too.”

“Come on,” Hugh said. “Game’s about to start.”

Okay, maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all. Dex could sit in a corner with a beer, watch a game, and do his best to avoid Hattie, though that shouldn’t be too hard since it looked like she planned to hide from him for the rest of the day.

* * *

Goddammit. Lucy seemed to be throwing Hattie and Dex together whenever possible.

Hattie forced a smile at Dex and frowned at her friend when Lucy all but shoved him into the seat beside her on the couch. It was time to open presents, and the kids were all gathered around the tree, looking for their names on the cards—well, the ones old enough to read were. The rest were being held back by their parents.

Hugh was sitting on the floor, hanging on to the back of three-year-old Brody’s shirt to keep him from trying to tear open another gift that wasn’t his. Milly, who was seven and Hugh and Shay’s eldest, had the job of reading out the names and handing gifts to everyone. Shay held their youngest, Gracie, who was fast asleep despite the insanity, and Connor, who was four, was lying on the floor, throwing wrapping paper in the air and giggling when it came back down on top of him.

Helping wrangle the kids was Noah, Darcey’s younger brother. He was fourteen, and had Joe and Darcey’s son, Rhett, who was also three, on his shoulders. The little guy was watching Connor hurl paper around and laughing like crazy.

Darcey walked back into the room and handed out more drinks, and Joe caught his wife’s hand on her way back. “Kept your seat warm, peaches.” She laughed, and he grabbed her around the waist and planted her on his lap.

Dex shifted beside Hattie, and she glanced up at him. He looked pained. She tried to give him room because his thigh was pressed up against hers and having him this close was extremely distracting, but there wasn’t any room to move. She’d done her best to avoid him since they got here because as soon as she’d seen him, her instant reaction had been to do the exact opposite.

Which was not the right thing to do after ending their one-night stand midway and fleeing. Just because they’d been thrown together again today in some kind of freaky what-are-the-odds deal did not mean he was happy about it.

“You left.” His words from earlier played through her mind again.

Yes, and she’d wished she hadn’t every minute since. She really didn’t like the idea of Dex thinking she’d been afraid of him. And going by the frown he’d worn since they’d arrived, she thought he might still be thinking something like that.

“Who’s this one for?” Milly said, holding up a gift. Hattie inwardly cringed. She’d gotten something little for Lucy’s cousin when she’d found out he’d be there today, worried he’d feel left out since she got token gifts for everyone else.

“Um, that one’s for Dex…from me,” she said, feeling like an idiot.

Dex made a rough sound that she felt low in her belly, and she glanced up at him again. He was frowning even more. Great.

“I knew Lucy had a cousin coming so I…” She shrugged as Milly handed it to him.

As his big fingers awkwardly tore open the paper, Hattie took a large sip of her punch and tried not to think of all the lovely wicked things he’d done to her with them.

He held up what was inside, and his brows lifted.

They were red socks with tiny Christmas trees all over them. Everyone looked at the socks and then down at Dex’s huge feet.

“Peter heater,” Joe said. “Problem solved.”

Darcey started giggling, then Lucy and Shay joined her, but they were full-out laughing.

Dex actually blushed, shifting in his seat and looking insanely uncomfortable.

And to make it all so much worse, Hattie kind of laughed as well. It was more a nervous laugh than anything else, because, yes, she’d seen his…um, “peter” up close and personal. And honestly, she wasn’t sure one of those socks was big enough.

“Okay, next gift, Mills,” Hugh said to his daughter. “Something for Brody.” Brody was still trying to escape his father and nosedive into the pile of wrapped gifts remaining under the tree. Milly got down on the floor and dug through until she found one, then took it to her little brother. Brody squealed in delight and tore it open, barely looked at what was inside, then tried to run for the tree again.

Hugh scooped him up and started flying him around the room like he was an airplane, and everyone went back to opening gifts and talking and laughing.

Except Dex, who quietly observed everything that was going on around him.

Hattie found herself leaning into his side a little, maybe wanting to reassure him? She didn’t know, but whatever it was, she couldn’t help herself.

* * *