The Bad Boy's Redemption
when she’d been spread out on the floor in front of him looking so damned sexy he’d been pretty sure he was going to lose his mind from wanting her.
    He grinned in response, unable to resist laying a hand at the small of her back, though he knew it was best to keep public displays of affection to a minimum in front of his family unless he wanted to be cornered for twenty questions before dinner. He’d already been through the ringer with Tucker and Daisy—who had given him hell yesterday about keeping the letter a secret from Olivia for a few more days. He could do without any more familial interference.
    He would tell Olivia when the time was right.
    This was his relationship and his decision and he didn’t want to do anything to ruin her first holiday back in Lover’s Leap. He wanted today to be perfect for her, filled with all the wonderful things she remembered about a Brody Christmas and a few happy surprises…once he had the chance to sneak away and get them ready.
    “Colt, you get out the sandwich bread and plates and napkins,” Sarah said, making it clear he wouldn’t be sneaking off anywhere anytime soon.
    Colt had always been his mom’s kitchen helper—a side effect of being too little to go help the big boys chop and tote firewood when he was kid—and some things never changed, even if he was now bigger than Blake and taller than Dylan.
    “Olivia, if you want to grab the condiments out of the little fridge, I’ll head out to the garage and get the sandwich meat and cheese from the big fridge.” Sarah paused by the door to the garage, turning back to Colt with a serious look. “I think sandwiches and that veggie tray I’ve got on the table should be enough to hold everyone over until dinner time, don’t you, honey?”
    “It’s more than enough, Mom,” he said, gathering three types of bread from the pantry. “And you know Dad will end up making popcorn when the kids come back inside after building snowmen.”
    His mom smiled, but he didn’t miss the flash of sadness in her eyes. “I remember when you were the kid coming back inside. Time is going by too fast. It seems like we just got you home and now…”
    She didn’t finish the sentence before she bustled out the door, but she didn’t have to.
    He knew she was referring to his return to the marines and had the sneaking suspicion that Daisy might have gone back on her promise to keep her mouth shut. He made a mental note to corner his sister and convince her to stop stirring up unnecessary trouble and then focused on the job at hand.
    It was what he was good at and by the time he’d helped Seth’s boys and their friends make sandwiches and joined Olivia at the card table set up in the living room to handle overflow seating, he had forgotten the strained moment in the kitchen.
    He and Olivia ate their ham and cheese while catching up with Blake, who had taken over running the ranch four years ago when his last tour of duty in the Middle East was over. They talked cattle prices and construction schedules for the cabins Blake was installing at the rear of the property—hoping to take some business off the hands of the ranch retreat up the road—and then helped clean up the mess and get the kids dressed for playing outside.
    Since Dylan and his son were out of town this year, it was only Seth’s two boys and their two friends competing in the children’s snowman contest, but the adults did their part to fill the yard with snow people, the way they had when they were young.
    Daisy made a snow mermaid, Tucker and Seth teamed up to make an enormous snow ogre, and Colt and Olivia made a three-headed monster snowman with half a dozen stick arms protruding from its sides and five noses.
    “Why does it have five noses if it only has three heads?” Twelve-year-old East, Seth’s oldest, cast a judgmental look at Colt and Olivia’s creation.
    “Because it looked funnier that way,” Colt said, throwing his arm around Olivia’s shoulders

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