Christmas Passion and Hot Cocoa Cookies

By Erin Rose

Ballet instructor Mila is overworked, underpaid, and hasn't had a day off in months—or a date for that matter. Her condoms? Almost expired. Her favorite toy? Fully charged. With the Christmas recital and bake sale looming, Mila’s drowning in responsibilities.

Tech expert Levi's home in Edenville to take care of his niece while his sister is having her new baby. He runs into his old flame, Mila, and is happy to be her distraction—relieving her burdens at work and between the sheets.

When his life in the city calls, he must return home without the woman he’s always loved, unless he can find a way to stay on her cast list when the curtain falls.

• Language: Unknown
• Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
• Release date: Nov 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781509243877

Erin Rose

Erin Rose is the combined pen name for best friends and disastrous duo, Kathleen Erin and Kathryn Rose. A high school English Language Arts teacher by day and a mommy of one by night, Kathryn Rose stays up until the audaciously late hour of 11:00PM to write and on the odd occasion play World of Warcraft with her husband and college sweetheart, Josh. Rose delights in punning, 2000’s throwbacks, and swooning over rugged bad boys turned good-guy love interests. When not writing, Kathleen Erin can be found wrangling a child, or three, or seven. As an adoptive and foster mom, her family keeps her hands and heart full. Her husband, Gavin, is her biggest supporter. When they can get a babysitter, they can be found in a kayak or at karaoke. Erin is a lover of dark romance, industrial rock, and baseball. (Go Cubs!)

Book preview

Mila smiled. If she could bottle her students up and keep them this sweet forever, she would. Levi? Is that your grandpa?

Uncle, actually.

A set of black and white Converse stepped into Mila’s peripherals. She followed a pair of dark wash jeans that sculpted the curves of his calves and hugged his thighs; up, up, up—lord, did this man do ballet? He needed to. Next came a plain white tee stretched taut across his chest,

clinging to his defined shoulders and arms like he’d come from a superhero audition.

Finally, she reached his eyes.

Warmth spread over her ears and into her cheeks. He was gorgeous. Ridiculous, just-stepped-out-of-a-magazine, gorgeous. A trim, brown beard framed a strong jaw and stormy, gray eyes were painted on his face like a seascape.

Christmas Passion and Hot Cocoa Cookies

by

Erin Rose

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

Christmas Passion and Hot Cocoa Cookies

COPYRIGHT © 2022 by Erin Rose

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: [e-mail]

Cover Art by Jennifer Greeff

The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

PO Box 708

Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

Publishing History

First Edition, 2022

Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-4387-7

Published in the United States of America

Dedication

For all the women who need a break, and for the men who help us take one.

Chapter One

Mila

Hair spray hung in the air, thick and bitter as Mila walked face first into a cloud of it. She sputtered and ducked, careful not to rub her eyes with glitter-stained fingers. Mila wasn’t even certain how the hell it got there. She was responsible for twelve tiny little mice, none with costumes involving glitter, yet there it was, stuck to her hands like glue.

She tiptoed behind the cyclorama, her ballet slippers whispering across the wooden floor. She spun past a group of silent teens, their breaths held tight within their vibrant pink costumes while they awaited the robust, welcoming notes of the oboe—their cue to enter the stage for The Waltz of the Flowers. Stagehands dressed in black from head to toe lingered in the wings, ready for the moment the lights dropped and they’d race across the stage, dragging the painted cardboard they’d cut and decorated to resemble bowls of candies and sweets.

Backstage, the silent cast and crew vibrated with energy. This was it. The last night before tech week. The last night for mistakes. Come Monday, each rehearsal would go as if they had a live audience before them. But that didn’t worry Mila—not after four years of the same routine. Come opening night, they’d be ready. Even the sweet, tiny, adorable little mice.

Mila directed the youngest ballet class. Her charges were always cast as the Rat King’s army in Edenville Dance Academy’s production of The Nutcracker.

And of course, being four, they were also the most prone to misplacing pieces of their costumes.

Mila slipped out the stage door and darted into the darkened, side corridor of the theater. She hurried toward the lobby, squinting against the bright fluorescents.

Piper! Mila waved the set of mice ears she’d rescued from backstage above her head. I’ve got ‘em.

A little brunette rose from her seat on the lobby floor, a grin spreading her rosy cheeks. Thank you, Miss Mila.

Mila knelt and fitted the headband over Piper’s hair. I think we’ll need to attach this with bobby pins. Unless your momma wants to put a bow in your hair and tie the ears in place.

I’ll tell her. Piper tugged on the ends of the headband. When Mommy gets home with my baby sister, I’ll get a new bow.

Baby sister? No, no, no. Delilah wasn’t supposed to arrive until after Christmas.

Tilting her head, Mila leveled her green eyes with Piper’s brown ones. Is Momma having the baby soon?

She went after breakfast. Piper did a little spin, fanning out her tutu. Daddy says they’ll be home after two sleeps. Tonight is one, so another sleep and I get to meet the baby!

But the bake sale was in a week. A thrill of panic flashed through Mila. No. Not going there. She pursed her lips and swallowed down her treacherous thoughts. If Sarah—the self-elected team mom of the preschool dance class—was too busy surviving the post-baby fog to help with the event, Mila would have to lean on the other parents. Baby Delilah was far more important than their dance academy’s meager budget.

Mila dusted her hands over her own black leotard and scanned the smattering of parents lingering in the lobby. They congregated near the white-painted cinder block walls, examining the posters for their Spring season. One mother held her toddler close to a window, letting him trace the twinkling outdoor lights with his hand. Who dropped you off, then? Is your grandma in town? According to previous small talk with the family, Sarah’s parents had moved away after retirement.

My Levi’s staying with me. She substituted the L for a Y, the name coming out more like Yee-vi than Lee-vi.

Mila smiled. Her students were the absolute sweetest. Levi? Is that your grandpa?

Uncle, actually.

A set of black and white Converse stepped into Mila’s peripherals. She followed a pair of dark wash jeans that sculpted the curves of his calves and hugged his thighs up, up, up—lord, did this man do ballet? He needed to. Next came a plain white tee stretched taut across his chest, clinging to his defined shoulders and arms like he’d come from a superhero audition.

Finally, she reached his eyes.

Warmth spread over her ears and into her cheeks. He was gorgeous. Ridiculous, just-stepped-out-of-a-magazine, gorgeous. A trim, brown beard framed a strong jaw, and stormy, gray eyes were painted on his face like a seascape.

She knew those eyes.

With a squeal of joy, Piper leaped into the man’s arms. He balanced her on his hip, as if he’d done it a thousand times before, and offered Mila a hand.

She accepted, and he pulled her to her feet. Piper chattered away at a million miles a minute, but Levi stared at Mila. His gaze skimmed the length of her body, and a smile curled his lips

Yes—she’d known a Levi once, a Levi with misty gray eyes and a wide smile. But that Levi was a skinny, would-be skater boy with floppy hair who used to ride shotgun when her high school sweetheart, Toby, picked her up for school senior year. Not to mention he had a different last