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    Christmas Pucks and Kisses: Men of the Ice
    Christmas Pucks and Kisses: Men of the Ice
    Christmas Pucks and Kisses: Men of the Ice
    Ebook91 pages38 minutes

    Christmas Pucks and Kisses: Men of the Ice

    By Michele Shriver

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    About this ebook

    Alternate Captain Alex Gray is a leader on and off the ice for the San Antonio Generals, and his wife Kristin is active in community and the team’s charitable ventures. Together, they’ve become known as the golden couple—happily married, and with two beautiful children, on the surface, they appear to have it all.

    Now, as Christmas approaches, the couple that others look to for guidance and advice when things go wrong is having problems of their own. A tragic loss has left Kris depressed and melancholy—feelings that are only exacerbated by the holiday cheer that surrounds her everywhere she goes.

    After months of being shut out, and his efforts to cheer up his wife and return the spice to their marriage falling short, Alex is at a loss as to what to do. Can a Hollywood Christmas classic provide the impetus for a bold gesture that will bring joy and laughter back to the Gray household in time for the holiday?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSMC Publishing
    Release dateNov 29, 2017
    ISBN9781386844792
    Christmas Pucks and Kisses: Men of the Ice
    Author

    Michele Shriver

    Michele Shriver grew up in Texas and now lives in the Midwest, where she has a general law practice. In her free time, she enjoys bicycling, Zumba fitness and watching sports on TV. She is working on her second novel, a spin-off of After Ten.

    Read more from Michele Shriver

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      Book preview

      Christmas Pucks and Kisses - Michele Shriver

      Michele Shriver

      SMC Publishing

      Christmas Pucks and Kisses: A Men of the Ice Holiday Novella

      By Michele Shriver

      Copyright 2017 Michele Shriver

      Published by SMC Publishing

      All Rights Reserved

      This is a work of fiction. All characters, locales and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      Authors Notes and Acknowledgements

      Readers of my Men of the Ice series will already be familiar with the Generals’ alternate captain, Alex Gray, and his wife Kris, as they’ve made plenty of appearances in the previous books. To outsiders, they’ve often seemed like a golden couple, but recently, in writing other books in the series, I learned there was more going on with Alex and Kris. Maybe their perfect marriage wasn’t so perfect after all. But why? What changed?

      I realized there was a potential story there for this married couple, and when the opportunity presented itself to write a Christmas novella for boxed set, I decided to tell Alex and Kris’s story. That set never made it to fruition, but with the story in progress, I wanted to finish it and Alex and Kris back to their happy ending.

      I hope you enjoy this little bonus holiday addition to the Men of the Ice series, and stay tuned for the conclusion of the series in 2018. I’m not quite done with my sexy hockey guys, or their girls.

      Thank you for reading, and happy holidays!

      Michele

      Chapter One

      Kristin Gray should have been in her element. After all, the third annual San Antonio Generals holiday toy drive would get underway in a week. During each of the previous two years, Kris relished her role as the de facto leader of the group of players’ wives and girlfriends—the WAGs as they were affectionately known—that hosted the toy drive in conjunction with the Generals Charity Foundation. She loved the cause of helping to bring a Merry Christmas to need children in the San Antonio area, and with a knack for organization, she was an excellent choice to spearhead the event, especially since her husband Alex was one of the leaders on the team.

      This year, however, Kris struggled to muster her usual enthusiasm for the event. Part of the problem was that she couldn’t find any enthusiasm for the holiday itself. Alex would say she lacked enthusiasm for anything, and it wouldn’t be far from the truth. The reality was, the past eight months had been a struggle for Kris. She wasn’t excited about Christmas this year because she wasn’t excited about anything, and hadn’t been for the past six and a half months.

      Depression was an ugly beast, and right now, that beast had a firm grip on Kris. Despite her best efforts to loosen its grip, the beast only held on tighter. Nothing seemed to help. Not even the late summer getaway to a resort in South Carolina where one of Alex’s teammates had honeymooned over the summer. Colton had raved about the resort, so Alex, desperate for anything that might snap Kris out of her funk, booked a trip for them. Things started out well enough, at least until Alex suggested trying again for another child, and the beast’s grip returned. All Kris could think about was the baby she lost, and after three days—which included an ugly fight and even uglier tears—Alex admitted defeat and they returned home.

      Kris loved her husband for trying to inject spark back into their marriage. She loved Alex, period. But suggesting it was time to try again to get pregnant, while Kris still mourned the pregnancy that wasn’t meant to be, only made matters worse.

      Also making things worse was the sight of the glowingly pregnant Angie Rollins, Kris’s partner in crime for the toy drive, sitting across from her during a working lunch to discuss the event. Angie munched on a huge hamburger while Kris picked at a salad, her appetite having disappeared along with her joy for life. One more thing she could blame the beast for.

      You’ve barely touched that salad, Angie observed gently.

      I’m not hungry, Kris muttered.

      Meanwhile, I can’t seem to stop eating. I’ll probably gain fifty pounds with this pregnancy.

      I doubt that. Kris set her lips into a thin line. I gained twenty-five with Mycah, and I felt like I was bigger than a house. I liked being pregnant, though. Maybe that was why she’d been so willing to add to their family, with Mycah in second grade and Avery in preschool. It seemed like the perfect timing. Or not.

      I do, too, Angie said. I don’t know when I’ve felt happier, or more alive. She stopped to take a drink of water. And I’m being insensitive. This must be an incredibly difficult conversation for you.

      It’s not easy, Kris admitted. Still, she didn’t begrudge Angie her happiness. "But it is nice to have someone to talk to." As her closest friend, Angie know about the miscarriage, while none of the other women did. It came so early in the pregnancy that very few people knew they were even expecting a third child. In some ways, that was easier. At least she was spared the sympathetic gestures. Unfortunately, it also meant Kris suffered in silence.

      I’m always here for you, Angie said. You know that.

      I do, yes, and I appreciate it. Kris took a smile bite of salad. She didn’t savor it, but she choked it down. "It’s

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