The Billionaire Athlete’s Christmas Fling - Leslie North Page 0,53

daughter hanging. Not now, and not ever. They had a life in front of them.

It wouldn’t be the one Tana had planned on when she first got the job offer at the Elk Lodge. But it would be something amazing. It had to be.

Speaking of the greatest kid on the planet—or thinking of her, she supposed, since there was nobody in the cottage to talk to—Tana needed to figure out something special for her. Something to make up for the upheaval in her life.

There were no ski slopes in her parents’ town, but maybe she could treat Lindsey to some borrowed studio time at one of the dance places. Once upon a time, Lindsey had been in love with tutus and pliés.

Tana was halfway to the door when a knock sounded, startling her. She set the box in her arms down before pulling the door open. “Chase! What are you doing here?”

Chase stood there, feet planted, looking slightly out of breath and as gorgeous as ever. His presence flooded the room along with the morning sun. He looked slightly tousled, as if he’d just climbed out of bed. Tana was seized by the urge to drag him directly back to her bedroom. Against all reason, because she was leaving. The bed wasn’t made, but they didn’t need sheets to do what she wanted to do. She didn’t need sheets to lose herself in Chase’s body and forget all the things that hurt her.

“I couldn’t get a hold of you.” His green eyes shone with light and hope, and Tana couldn’t catch her breath, either. “Your voicemail is full, and nobody at the lodge can get you to pick up, either. But I had to see you. I had to talk to you. I kept coming by here to see if you’d come back. It’s been two days, and I—I can’t let you drive away for the last time without hearing me out.”

“I—” Her life was in shambles around her, or at least it had been until this moment. Chase was the first real spark of hope she’d felt, aside from Lindsey, in days. A spark she didn’t want to feel. “I emailed my resignation this morning, and I don’t want to talk to anyone from the Elk Lodge. Anyone, including you,” Tana huffed. She’d done enough crying, and now she needed to stay strong. But it was hard with him standing in front of her.

“If you don’t like what I have to say, then I’ll turn around and leave, and I’ll never bother you again. Okay?”

I want you to kiss me. Less talk. More kissing. “Go ahead. I’m listening.” It was the easiest way to get him to leave.

“What happened in the past isn’t important to me. What’s important to me now is that you know I believe in you. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did when I found out about that arrest. It wasn’t up to you to divulge every detail when you didn’t know how I felt about you.”

“How you felt?”

“How I feel. I love you, Tana. That’s why I went to find the bracelet.”

“Wait, what?” Tana tried to wrap her head around what Chase just said. Impossible. All of it. Thinking back to the morning it happened, she knew she’d been all over the slopes with Emily. The odds of Chase finding a delicate tennis bracelet made for a child were astronomical. And the odds of him falling for her? Miraculous. She wasn’t sure which shocked her more—the bracelet or the I love you. “You found it in the snow? On the slopes? But you don’t ski anymore.”

“I do now.” Chase grinned. "I skied until my leg gave out. Landed almost on top of it. But I found it. It had a broken clasp. I took it back to the family, and Emily confessed that she’d made up the story about it being stolen.”

“Chase, that—that couldn’t have been easy, searching in the snow. Are you okay?” Even the bunny hill would have been painful for him. And yet he’d kept going. For her. Tana thought her heart might explode into a ball of glitter and song. Gratitude sang in her veins. She could be thankful for this, even if he said nothing else to her.

“I’m fine. I’m completely fine. And it’s over, Tana. You’re cleared. Right before all this happened, my brother told me he was going to give you the promotion. After I returned the bracelet to Emily and her parents, I talked to