CEO's Marriage Miracle

And for Leo to do it in front of Frankie...

But suddenly a deep, warm laugh rang over the snow, echoing back from the hills, and she saw Seb kneeling in the snow, making snowballs for Frankie to lob back at ‘Uncle Leo’.

‘Wow,’ Noemi said. ‘I didn’t expect that.’

‘Neither did I,’ Maria said, faintly, watching as Anissa came and joined Seb and Frankie’s side, all three of them teaming up to pelt Leo with snow. ‘Not ever.’

Maybe Seb was right. Maybe he really had been changed by the recent turmoil in his life.

Seb hoisted Frankie up onto his shoulders to give him the height advantage, and gamely took more snowballs to the chest from Leo as Anissa supplied Frankie with his own ammunition. They all laughed and shouted and joked, and even from a distance Maria could see the joy on her son’s face.

This was what she’d wanted for him. This was why she’d come back.

For family. Because however helpful and polite her mother might have been since she’d moved home, it couldn’t make up for her father’s cold glares and mumbled complaints. And she knew from her own childhood that their house could never provide the loving family relationship she wanted for Frankie.

She’d do her best alone, of course, and that could be enough. But why should he have to settle for just her when he could have all this?

As Seb turned and grinned at her, his cheeks pink and his eyes bright, for the first time Maria believed that maybe this could really work.

Because the Seb she’d left would never have had a snowball fight with a two-year-old. Would never have let himself appear so relaxed and uncaring about his reputation.

The Seb she’d left would have been stuck in his office and never even made it outside in the first place.

‘Maybe he really has changed,’ she murmured, the thought settled in her mind at last.

‘Maybe he has,’ Noemi agreed, sounding every bit as astonished as Maria felt. ‘Who knew? Christmas miracles really do happen.’

* * *

The minute the first snowball hit him, Seb had his usual, instinctive response to anything unexpected or unwelcome—to turn and yell first, then give whoever had attacked him the trademark Sebastian glare until he or she went away. Then Frankie had giggled, and he’d realised that his usual instincts were what had got him into this mess in the first place.

Seb turned and saw his new brother and his girlfriend waiting for his reaction. It also didn’t escape his notice that Leo had another snowball packed down in his hand, ready to attack.

This was war, then.

‘Throw one back, Papà! Throw another snowball!’ Frankie cried, and Seb laughed—sudden and true and deep. Pure instinct and happiness.

When had he last laughed like that? Had he ever?

He couldn’t remember. Which probably said more than it didn’t.

So Seb bent down and made snowballs for his son to throw at his uncle, and wondered how it had taken him thirty-two years to find this kind of contentment.

Wondered how he could keep it now that he had.

The afternoon fell into a flurry of snow attacks and laughter, Anissa abandoning Leo to assist Seb and Frankie in their fight. Seb hoisted his son onto his shoulders, barely even feeling the snowballs Leo tossed at him—obviously, Uncle Leo would never throw them at Frankie, but Seb was perfectly fair game.

Somewhere in between flying snowballs Seb turned towards the chalet and saw Maria and Noemi watching them, both smiling. And then all he saw was Maria’s eyes, and the hope that flared in them.

He was doing something right. But he knew, in a sudden blinding flash like sunlight on ice, it wasn’t going to be enough.

He could meet every target in her business plan, achieve every goal she set him. But it still wouldn’t be enough.

Because he didn’t want a business partnership. He wanted a marriage, a family. A connection.

And even he knew that took more than a signed contract.

But how did he convince Maria of that?

* * *

Two hours later, the sun was starting to slip below the mountains, and they had all taken refuge back in the chalet to warm up. Leo slapped Seb on the back as he ran a towel over his soaking wet hair.

‘No hard feelings, brother?’ Leo asked, and Seb was sure he could hear just a hint of anxiety in his question.

He flashed Leo a reassuring smile. ‘I was just wondering if this is what it would have been like to grow up with you.’

Leo grinned back. ‘Oh, I expect it would have been much worse.’

‘I think it’s so lovely you’re both reliving the childhood you missed out on,’ Noemi said drily. ‘Because two more children is absolutely what we need around here.’

‘I’d have thought it was good practice for you,’ Seb joked, and she rolled her eyes.

‘Do you want to get a drink? We could go into town, check out that new bar that opened,’ Leo suggested, and for moment something inside Seb longed to say yes. To hang out with his new brother and build on this tentative relationship they’d been building.

But there was another relationship he had to tend to first.

‘Another night?’ he suggested. ‘I want to help Maria get Frankie to bed. Poor little guy was exhausted.’ Frankie might not have learned a whole lot about skiing that afternoon, but he’d certainly had a lot of fun.

And maybe he’d learned something about family, too. Maybe they both had.

‘Another night,’ Leo confirmed, patting him on the shoulder again as he headed across the room towards Anissa.

Slinging the damp towel over his shoulder, Sebastian headed up the stairs to the master suite to find his wife and child.

He heard them before he saw them—the squealing and splashing leading him straight to the large bathroom attached to the master suite. Leaning against the doorpost, he watched as Maria paraded a series of ducks along the edge of the oversized bathtub. Frankie waited until they were all lined up just right, then swept an arm across to knock them all into the water, giggling manically as he did so.

‘He still likes his bath, then,’ he observed. That was something he remembered from when Frankie had been a baby—how he’d loved to splash about in the water when it came to bath time. Not that he’d often been there to see it, but some nights, if he’d got home early, he’d caught the end of it.

He’d loved those nights. Why hadn’t he tried harder to make sure there were more of them?

Sometimes it felt like the man who had lost Maria, who had lived through that awful last argument and watched her walk away, was a totally different person. With a year’s distance, he couldn’t understand why he hadn’t seen the same things then that he knew in his heart now. How much Maria mattered to him. How every moment with Frankie was precious.

How his marriage was something to be grateful for every day.

Maria started slightly at the sound of his voice, but turned to look at him with an easy enough smile. ‘He definitely still loves his bath. Almost as much as it seems he likes snowball fights.’

Seb couldn’t help but grin as he thought about the afternoon they’d spent together. ‘He did seem to enjoy it, didn’t he?’

‘We have snowball fight again, Papà?’ Frankie asked, looking up from his ducks.

‘Maybe tomorrow, piccolo,’ Seb replied. ‘For now, I think it must be nearly your bedtime.’

‘Would you like Papà to read you your bedtime story?’ Maria asked. Frankie nodded enthusiastically, and Seb thought his heart might burst at the sight.

This. This was what mattered. This was all that mattered.

And he’d do whatever the contract with Maria said if it made sure he kept it for ever.

For ever would give him time to convince her that this wasn’t just business between them. It was family.

CHAPTER NINE

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‘I THINK HE’S ASLEEP,’ Seb whispered, as he padded through the doorway from the room she and Frankie shared, leaving the door a little open. ‘His eyes were closing all through that last story.’