My Kind of Christmas

found the rest of them. “No partying or playing tonight, gentlemen. I’m making Angie a pot of chili and we’re going to play a little Scrabble. Then I’m out of here. Aiden, thanks for the cabin. It almost feels like home.”
    “My pleasure. And listen, if you need more time, let the Navy know. They’d really rather have you washing battleships than messing up one of their pretty F-18s if you’re not ready for that duty.”
    Patrick laughed.
    “If you need something, call me first,” Colin said, putting out his hand. “I think I owe you big. I owe all of you big, but if I remember…”
    “I remember,” Patrick said, taking his hand in a firm shake. “I came to your rescue when you were strung out on Oxy and you threw me out. Threw my clothes on the lawn.”
    “Did I apologize for that?” Colin asked with a grin.
    “Not that I can recall.”
    “Good. It’s better to just return the favor.”
    And then there was Sean. “Listen, Paddy—I know we butt heads sometimes. Okay, Riordans butt heads regularly. But you know we’ve got your back. Right?”
    “Right,” he said, shaking Sean’s hand.
    “You lost a good friend—I can’t say anything that will make that better. But your brothers are always there for you. Sometimes even when you’d rather we’d just go away.”
    “Considering the number of times you losers have had me on the other side of this equation, I’m just going to say thank you. And move on.”
    Then it was time for the really hard part. His last night with Angie.
    Patrick was ready to call on every ounce of courage and compassion he could muster to get her through the night and his early-morning departure. But he’d been woefully unprepared for the fact that Angie would prove to be the really strong one.
    “You know how there are people in your life that change everything?” she asked. “The kind of friend without whom you can’t make a paradigm leap into a new realm, into unchartered territory and new possibilities? The kind of friend who you’re always your very best self with? Was Jake that kind of friend?”
    “He was.”
    “Before you go, I want you to know you’ve been that kind of friend to me,” she said. “I came up here to get away, struggling to know myself better, working on where I’d go next, trying so damn hard to change. And you encouraged me every step of the way.”
    “Ange, you had all that, you were all that without me around—it was just time....”
    She shook her head. “With you on my team I felt so much was possible. You backed me in everything. You’re a wonderful partner. Paddy, you showed me a whole new world. I’ll never settle again.”
    “Never, ever settle, babe,” he said. “You’re too good.”
    “If Jake meant as much to you, I can sure understand why you have to head to Oklahoma. If you owe him as much as I feel I owe you, you’re doing the right thing.”
    He shook his head. “And here I thought I’d have to prop you up.”
    “Nah, I’m not sorry. This has been the most wonderful month of my life.”
    And now Patrick owed her. You hardly ever run into the kind of person who can really hold you in an open hand, never threatened or competitive, always loving you enough to want you to have everything you’ve imagined possible. Angie, only twenty-three, had that down. She was all selfless love. She was going to leave her mark and the world would be a better place for it.
    “I want you to know…letting you go to do what I have to do—I haven’t faced anything harder,” he told her.
    “You’re strong, Paddy,” she said. “Just believe in yourself the way I believe in you.”
    He held her through the night. When he found he couldn’t sleep, he just inhaled her scent and told himself he’d rest later when he couldn’t savor the moment anymore. He’d sleep when she was out of his reach. But this time they had left, he wasn’t about to waste it.
    In the wee hours before dawn, he slipped out of bed, dressed quietly and went back to her. He kissed her sleeping eyes. Without opening them, without looking at him, she said, “Just kiss me, tell me you love me and go.”
    He sat on the edge of the bed, slid his arms under her, lifted her against him and covered her mouth in a powerful, deep, emotional kiss. She didn’t open her eyes; she didn’t choke on a sob. “I love you,” he said against her lips.
    Her small tongue licked in his taste. “And I love you.”
    * * *
    Patrick had plenty of time before he