Page 63 of Small Town, Big Storm

Gosh, it’s been a long time since I’ve been in here.

I purposefully avoided being exactly where I am the last few years, serving drinks and setting up tents outside during the previous Home Ice Classics, doing my best to stay far, far away from the rink.

Not only because I don’t know how to skate.

But because I didn’t want to remember.

Being huddled in the stands with my friends, watching Storm and the guys play.

Cheering for goals, yelling at the refs for penalties.

Hanging around afterward and hoping he’d notice me.

That he’d smile at me.

He had…

And then he’d gone.

Left me?—

“Storm!”Holly shouts, running across the space.

And gathering the attention of every single Cedar Hollowian in the place.

Yeah, this is so going to be on the town’s Facebook page.Or maybe it’ll make the front page of the freaking Cedar Hollow Gazette again.

I glare at Gertie Walkins as she surreptitiously takes a picture of my daughter throwing herself into Storm’s arms.

Better to glare than acknowledge how the gentle hug he gives her in return makes my heart squeeze.

And my stomach twist.

And the anger that’s been sitting just below that ever since he came back into town boil.

Or maybe it’s that the anger’s always been there.

Ever since the day he left.

My daughter wriggles out of his hold and starts chattering away.

“…and then we had popsicles!But Gerald took Asher’s so I gave him half of mine,” she finishes as I reach them.

I wince at the mention of Wilder Reed’s son sharing a grimy popsicle with Holly.

The man is—has always been—a germaphobe.

He definitely won’t be party to popsicle-sharing.

Well, I mentally shrug, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

(Because I certainly won’t be sharing.)

And anyway, kids get dirty, germs get shared, popsicles get stolen by geese.That’s just Cedar Hollow, and since he and Asher have now permanently moved back to town after Wilder was traded to the Hawks a few weeks ago, the man is just going to have to deal.

Apparently, hockey players returning home is becoming a trend around here.

Speaking of which, the girls better ask him to play in the Cedar Hollow Classic too.