Kissing Under the Mistletoe - By Marina Adair Page 0,86

in something the women in his life decided to talk.

Gabe lifted his mug, took a big sniff of hazelnut and caffeine, and could almost taste the first sip. He brought the cup to his mouth—

“Gabe?”

“Uh huh,” he mumbled, watching her over the rim of his cup. When she didn’t continue, he tilted the cup back and the liquid touched his tongue—

“I know it’s not polite to ask someone for a present, but...”

The clank of ceramic on granite sounded as he set the mug down and turned his attention fully on Holly. Women tended to like that. And he could tell by the way she clasped her hands in front of her chin and smiled that, five years old or not, so did Holly.

“But?”

Holly took a big breath and exhaled so slowly Gabe was afraid she was never going to get on with it. Once she opened her mouth, he was suddenly afraid the only way she would stop talking was when she ran out of oxygen.

“Lauren’s got a single mom just like me. Only Ms. Isabel is divorced from all three of Lauren’s daddies, which is kind of neat because she gets to have four kitties of her very own, one at each house, and I don’t even have one kitty of my very own. Well, not yet because we had to move and Ms. Jordan isn’t our landlord anymore and Mr. Chester doesn’t allow any kind of pets, not even goldfish. He says his wife’s allergic and she would smell it all the way to her house and then where would he be?”

She gave a dramatic pause, her hands out to her side in a dramatic question.

Gabe swallowed, hard. So that was what Regan had been talking about the night of the Christmas party when he pretty much fired her and kicked her to the curb. If the kid wanted a cat for her birthday, he would figure out a way. Even if it meant paying Chester an insane pet deposit.

“I can talk to Chester about letting you have a cat.” Hell, if Regan was on board he’d even buy Holly the cat. Let her pick out one of those expensive white ones with the flat face.

“No, then Mrs. Chester would divorce him and he’d come live at the apartment, and then we’d have to move again. And I just got my own bed.”

And his day got shittier and shittier as the story went on. Every Christmas Gabe dressed up like Santa for his little cousins and his employees’ kids. This year he was feeling more like the Grinch.

“Lauren was telling me that all three of her daddies want to go to the Christmas musical. But every kid only gets two tickets and I only have one parent.”

Gabe saw where this was going and his heart ached for the little girl in front of him who wanted to make her friend happy, but desperately wanted more than one person in the crowd clapping for her.

Holly mushed a soggy flake against the side of her bowl with the spoon, then her hand stilled. “Ms. Isabel asked me if my daddy was coming.”

Everything inside of Gabe stilled. He’d already decided not to even tread there about Richard. Now the opportunity his brothers had been hounding him for was being handed to him. Only it meant using a little girl’s sadness about missing her daddy.

“Is he?” Gabe asked with a forced a casualness that he sure as hell didn’t feel. The last thing he needed was for Holly to pick up on his tension and mention this conversation to her mom.

Eyes firmly on her cereal, she shrugged her little shoulders. “I don’t think so. He’s not around much. So Ms. Isabel said it isn’t nice to waste and that I should give my extra ticket to Lauren so all her daddies could go.”

Gabe rested his elbows on the counter and resisted the urge to hang his head in his hands. He would do anything to find Richard if it meant putting an end to this entirely screwed-up situation. Unless that anything included hurting Holly. Or Regan.

“Were you saving it for your dad, hoping he would come?”

Holly looked up at him. Her eyes vulnerable and uncertain. “I was hoping you would come.”

Strong hands massaged Regan’s back, easing her from a dead sleep. Feeling like a content cat, she rolled over and stretched. She opened her eyes and blinked twice, trying to get her bearing, but all she could see was the most gorgeous