A Second Chance Christmas: Kennedy Family Christmas, #4

By Jamie K. Schmidt

This Christmas, it's just Jace and Erica.  Their daughters are celebrating the holidays with their husbands' families.  But it's all bah humbug without "the kids." And now that you mention it,  Erica has the holiday blues that are making her question if is she truly happy in her marriage.  Erica is a former MMA fighter who now owns a gym. Jace is a busy trial lawyer. They're not boring people, so why is their marriage so boring?  At a Christmas gift swap, Erica gets a book on "How to Spice Up Your Love Life." She thinks it's worth one last try if she can get Jace to pay attention to her long enough to try out some of the shocking things in the book.

 

A Second Chance Christmas is a seasoned romance between two people who never fell out of love.  It's best enjoyed with a glass of wine in front of a roaring fire.

 

Don't miss Mari and Leo's story in A Casual Christmas
Don't miss Tessa and Ben's Story in A Not So Casual Christmas

Don't miss Becca and Justin's story in A Chaotic Christmas

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jamie K. Schmidt
• Release date: Nov 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201603182

Jamie K. Schmidt

USA Today bestselling author, Jamie K. Schmidt, writes erotic contemporary love stories and paranormal romances.  Her steamy, romantic comedy, Life’s a Beach, reached #65 on USA Today, #2 on Barnes & Noble and #9 on Amazon and Apple Books Her Club Inferno series from Random House’s Loveswept line has hit both the Amazon and Barnes & Noble top one hundred lists. The first book in the series, Heat, put her on the USA Today bestseller list for the first time, and is a #1 Amazon bestseller.  Her dragon paranormal romance series has been called “fun and quirky” and “endearing.” Partnered with New York Times bestselling author and former porn actress, Jenna Jameson, Jamie’s hardcover debut, SPICE, continues Jenna’s FATE trilogy.

Book preview

Chapter One

Erica dodged the jab headed at her chin, and sent a right hook spinning into Lena’s temple.  Staggering back, Lena held up her gloves in submission.

Shit, sorry, Erica danced away.  Was that too hard?

Lena was wearing padded head gear, though.  Erica didn’t think she tagged her that badly.

No, my fault. I’ve got a headache.

Spitting out her mouthpiece into her glove, Erica glared at her student. You know you shouldn’t be training when you’re sick.

It’s a mild one. I needed the stress relief of sparring, though.  That time of year.

Erica grunted. She could understand that feeling.  Christmas was always a pressure cooker, especially in the Kennedy family.  But with all of her daughters married off and having Christmas at their own houses this year, there shouldn’t be any stress.  And yet, there was.

This time, it was her husband Jace that was the problem.

Or maybe it was her.

Please coach, I want to keep training.

Lena needed to work on her hand speed if she wanted to up her game.

Okay, grab the focus mits, Erica relented.

Lena slipped out of the ring and got them from their spot on the back shelves while Erica took off her gloves.  She was young and fit and had the potential to be a champion.  Erica just wasn’t sure if she had the drive to do it. Returning to the ring, Lena handed the sparring pads to her and Erica strapped them on. Lena got into her fighting stance and Erica braced herself to take the hits.  The first dozen punches landed firmly on the pads, but Erica didn’t budge.

Let’s try that again with a little more power behind those strikes.

Yeah, okay, Lena said.

The next few punches were harder. Good. Now, let me see some combos, Erica said. One, one, two, she called out as Lena struck the pads. Faster now.  Fast hands.

They continued training until Lena’s time was up.

Solid effort, Erica said, wiping the sweat off her forehead. See you tomorrow.

Thanks, Coach.  Lena showed off by hurdling over the top ropes.

That’s a good way to get hurt, Erica kvetched.  But it was like talking to her daughters.  They didn’t listen to her either.  And if she was being honest, if she was thirty years younger, she’d probably be doing the same thing.

Getting out of the ring the old fashioned way, Erica motioned for the next two fighters waiting to spar to go at it.  They were just renting time instead of taking lessons, but she watched for a bit and called out some pointers that they could either listen to or ignore.

Erica couldn’t help it.  She loved training fighters.  When she had been their age, there wasn’t a lot of places a woman fighter could compete.  She wasn’t quite good enough for the Olympics, but Erica managed to find small promotion companies that toured who were looking to showcase a few good looking women beating the shit out of each other.

Those were the days.

Grinning in remembrance, she walked around her gym, seeing that everything was in order and that her manager and best friend, Hailey didn’t need her help. Which was good because she had about an hour before her next training class, and all she wanted to do was sit down and have a cup of coffee.

Settling into her office chair, she loaded up a K-cup into the Keurig.  Thanks for covering for me this morning, she said to Hailey when she came into their shared office and sat at her own desk. Jace