Page 26 of Just Home for the Holidays
“I could. It would astound them. Usually I just call on Christmas Day.”
Chloe heard something in Hunter’s tone that warned her she was getting close to a secret. She put her hand in his, intending to coax a little more from him, but found Mandy and the girls in their path, watching them with obvious curiosity.
“This my sister, Mandy, and her daughters, Daphne and Alexandra,” Chloe said, because there wasn’t much choice. “This is Hunter.”
Hunter shook hands with Mandy, who gave him a good survey.
“I take ballet,” Daphne supplied and did a little twirl. Her hair was brushed into a topknot with a tiara clip wrapped around it.
“I don’t,” Alex said. “It’s stupid.”
Daphne gave her sister a poisonous look, but Hunter squatted down and avoided a war. He pointed at Le Carrousel Magique, a reproduction merry go ’round that was a fixture in the park. “You should pick your horse early,” he advised in an undertone. “So you can head straight for it when it’s time for your ride. You don’t want to get stuck with the cart.” He made a face and Alex giggled.
“The cart is lame,” she said and he nodded agreement.
He really had a touch with females of all ages.
Mandy meanwhile met Chloe’s gaze over his head.“Hot,”she mouthed with a wink.
Chloe nodded, then looked away from her sister’s approval. She let her gaze linger on Hunter, as if she was besotted with him, and let her sister worry about it a bit.
He certainly wasn’t hard on the eyes.
And that kiss. It had warmed her to her toes, and left her hoping for another.
“Mom said we weren’t having a ride,” Daphne informed Hunter. “The line is too long.”
“It is a long line,” Hunter agreed. “But you can buy tickets online for specific times. Like this.” He held up his phone, displaying his purchase of five rides for 10:30.
The girls squealed.
“Not all of us,” Chloe protested. She wouldn’t waste the ticket, but she wasn’t going to ride a carousel horse like a kid. She’d have Hunter give it away.
“Afraid to do something silly?” he asked, his eyes glinting, and one more time, she realized he was daring her.
“Of course not.”
“That bay has my name on it,” he said, straightening then bumping her shoulder with his. “How about you?”
“Why that one?” Alex asked.
“Because all the best horses are bays, preferably with a white star on the brow,” he said with such conviction that Chloe wondered how much he knew about horses—and how he knew about horses at all. He ducked her gaze, which didn’t surprise her one bit. “Which one’s yours?” he asked the girls.
Daphne and Alex raced to the fence, each insisting that she got to choose first.
“Thank you, Hunter,” Mandy said. “I didn’t realize they sold the tickets that way. Let me pay you back.”
“My treat,” Hunter said amiably. “You can’t come to Bryant Park and not ride Le Carrousel Magique. It would be a tragedy to miss the best part.”
Chloe was aware that the carousel was there all year, and not part of the holiday decor.
“But all of us?” Mandy asked.
“Come on,” Hunter teased. “You know you want to.”
Mandy laughed, giving in easily. “Only if I get the frog.”
“No one’s going to fight you for that one,” Chloe said and they laughed together.
