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Okay, so that was really sweet. "I'm sure she knows, and she's there with you."
"I know she is. I can feel her smiling at me, so happy that I'm surrounded by my family."
Sofia sighed, suddenly missing her mom.
Keegan's arms tightened around her. "What's the sigh for?"
"Your story made me miss my mom."
He rubbed her back. "I'm sorry. I know you were close."
"We were." She trailed her fingers over his forearm. "I'm so glad every day that she didn't have to see what I'd married."
"Screw that. She's looking down at you right now, damned proud of who you are and that great kid of ours. Our moms are probably toasting us with champagne right now, rolling their eyes at how long it took their kids to find each other again, celebrating the fact that a sixteen-year-old rebel got us straightened out."
Sofia laughed. "My mom definitely would think that." Her heart already felt lighter. "Okay, confess something else."
"All right." He paused for a moment. "Christmas is my most and least favorite holiday."
She smiled. "Okay, I'll bite. Why is it your most favorite?"
"All the baked goods, baby. It's a baker's heaven!"
She laughed. "I thought you were going to say because you get to celebrate with your family."
"That, too, but I don't want to give them all swelled heads. Gotta keep them in line, you know."
The warmth in his voice made her smile. She had to admit, she was a little jealous of his huge family, and having so many people at his Christmas dinner. "Why is it your least favorite?"
"The damned mistletoe."
"What did mistletoe ever do to you?"
"It hangs there, taunting me, mocking me because I have no one good to kiss. Every Christmas that goes by, I see that mistletoe and I think, 'damn, once again, I got no hot babe to make out with.'"
She laughed out loud then. "There's no chance that you have a shortage of women to make out with. You're this hot celebrity billionaire."
"Exactly." He paused for a moment. "Sofia, you talk about how you have trust issues, but I have them too. After my mom died, I was tossed into a foster system that had nothing good to show me."
She rolled over to face him, tucking her hands against her chest while she listened.
"I learned I had to be on my own, and trust no one. Eventually, I trusted the Harts, and I still do. Completely. But when outsiders come knocking, they usually want something. None of us have formed deep friendships or bonds outside the family. Even Brody and Tatum knew each other from our under-the-bridge time." He looked at her. "It's a gift to be with you, to know that you want nothing from me."
She thought about that. "I do want something from you."
"Great." He tightened his arms around her. "I thought you'd never ask. How can I be your knight in shining armor?"
"Not mine. Gabby's." She paused. "Just don't break her heart."
He smiled. "That's it? That's all you want from me?"
"Yep."
"Promise." He leaned in. "What about her mom's heart?"
"Don't break that either," she whispered as his lips brushed over hers.
"Is it mine for the breaking?"
