Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Holiday Hat Trick: Portland Storm, #8
    Holiday Hat Trick: Portland Storm, #8
    Holiday Hat Trick: Portland Storm, #8
    Ebook111 pages1 hour

    Holiday Hat Trick: Portland Storm, #8

    By Catherine Gayle

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    USA Today bestselling author Catherine Gayle presents another novel in the emotional Portland Storm hockey romance series.

    All Mitchell Quincey wants on his break from the Portland Storm this holiday season is to spend as much time as he can with his baby girl. If he can get his ex-wife to agree to joint custody, then it’ll be a holiday worth celebrating. But when he shows up on Mia’s doorstep, for the first time ever, Mitch is thrown off his game. He’s still 100% in love with her.

    Mitch’s unannounced arrival has Mia all out of sorts. To argue over the phone is one thing, but looking at the one man she’ll always love is harder than she thought. With her family surrounding them, Mia tries to keep Mitch at bay, but he’s always been able to leave her flustered—and hot.

    Suddenly, Mitch changes gears and has only one goal in sight: win back Mia’s heart for good. With assists from her family and a bit of mistletoe magic, Mitch just might end up with a Holiday Hat Trick.

    The Portland Storm hockey romance series

    1) Breakaway

    2) On the Fly

    3) Taking a Shot

    4) Light the Lamp

    5) Delay of Game

    6) Double Major

    7) In the Zone

    8) Holiday Hat Trick

    9) Comeback

    10) Dropping Gloves

    11) Home Ice

    12) Mistletoe Misconduct

    13) Losing an Edge

    14) Game Breaker

    15) Defensive Zone

    16) Power Play

    17) Neutral Zone

    18) Free Agent - releasing February 8, 2018

    19) Journeyman - releasing August 9, 2018

    20) Sleigh Bells & Slap Shots - releasing December 13, 2018

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNight Shift Publishing
    Release dateNov 28, 2014
    ISBN9781942177036
    Holiday Hat Trick: Portland Storm, #8

    Read more from Catherine Gayle

    Related to Holiday Hat Trick

    Titles in the series (7)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Love in LOCKDOWN

      May 7, 2020

      Love in LOCKDOWN
      7 min read

    • Article

      Epithalamium

      Jun 1, 2023

      Epithalamium
      16 min read

    • Article

      My Funny, Angry Dad

      Mar 19, 2022

      My Funny, Angry Dad
      6 min read

    • Article

      Becoming Us

      Jun 23, 2023

      Becoming Us
      3 min read

    • Article

      My Best Friend

      Oct 1, 2020

      My Best Friend
      6 min read

    • Article

      His Last Gift

      Nov 25, 2023

      His Last Gift
      6 min read

    • Article

      Australia Reads At Home

      May 18, 2020

      Australia Reads At Home
      7 min read

    • Article

      Jason the Heat Guy

      Jan 11, 2021

      Jason the Heat Guy
      11 min read

    • Article

      I’ll Not Risk Myself

      Feb 10, 2024

      My phone reception is better outside the laundromat, so I spend most of my time waiting for laundry on the bench near the door. I don’t talk with my friends, but I surf the news. I like to know what’s going on. I don’t like people to know about me, t

      13 min read

    • Article

      Ellie Kemper

      Oct 22, 2018

      The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star on her new essay collection, befriending animals and the perks of being a redhead

      2 min read

    • Article

      Dawn Neesom Mind Of My Own

      Nov 28, 2023

      We should all take a moment to remember good – and bad – times Marley was dead: to begin with.’ Possibly one of the most famous opening lines from one of the most famous Christmas stories ever- Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It doesn’t matter

      4 min read

    • Article

      Love Is All Around

      Jan 16, 2020

      IT’S a leap year, gulp. As if the Valentine’s gush isn’t enough, now the girlfriends and single ladies among us must publicly announce our undying love by proposal. I’ve spent at least two leap years and nearly a decade of Valentine’s Days concentrat

      4 min read

    • Article

      Good Guysfinish Last

      Oct 6, 2020

      Good Guysfinish Last
      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘Sing to It’: Featured Fiction from Amy Hempel

      Mar 25, 2019

      If she was home at night in her husband’s bed, did he care what she did with her days? The post ‘Sing to It’: Featured Fiction from Amy Hempel appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Fatherhood at 1:10AM

      Dec 2, 2019

      Fatherhood at 1:10AM
      9 min read

    • Article

      Still SEXY? Kind of…

      Dec 22, 2021

      Still SEXY? Kind of…
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Boy Next Door!

      Jul 20, 2023

      The Boy Next Door!
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Gift of Sobriety

      Sep 26, 2022

      The Gift of Sobriety
      8 min read

    • Article

      Saying Goodbye to Sara

      Nov 10, 2021

      — We never really know when it will be the last time we talk to someone, the last time we see them, the last hug. The time was 2:23pm. Or there about. It’s hard to pinpoint the precise time when you’re in that deep sleep state where time seems not to

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Ones We Sent Away

      Aug 7, 2023

      The Ones We Sent Away
      47 min read

    • Article

      Anxiety City

      Jan 18, 2020

      Anxiety City
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Holiday Hat Trick

    4/5

    9 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Everything from Catherine Gayle is gold! This is a sweet holiday novella.

    Book preview

    Holiday Hat Trick - Catherine Gayle

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

    Holiday Hat Trick

    Copyright © 2014 by Catherine Gayle

    Cover Design by Kim Killion, The Killion Group

    All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any electronic or mechanical means—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without written permission.

    For more information: catherine@catherinegayle.com

    For Melissa, because you planted the idea for a holiday novella in my brain even though I was supposed to be taking a break.

    All Mitchell Quincey wants on his break from the Portland Storm this holiday season is to spend as much time as he can with his baby girl. If he can get his ex-wife to agree to joint custody, then it’ll be a holiday worth celebrating. But when he shows up on Mia’s doorstep, for the first time ever, Mitch is thrown off his game. He’s still 100% in love with her.

    Mitch’s unannounced arrival has Mia all out of sorts. To argue over the phone is one thing, but looking at the one man she’ll always love is harder than she thought. With her family surrounding them, Mia tries to keep Mitch at bay, but he’s always been able to leave her flustered—and hot.

    Suddenly, Mitch changes gears and has only one goal in sight: win back Mia’s heart for good. With assists from her family and a bit of mistletoe magic, Mitch just might end up with a Holiday Hat Trick.

    HOLIDAY HAT TRICK is Book 5.5 in the Portland Storm hockey romance series written by USA Today bestselling author Catherine Gayle. If you enjoy it, look for the other books in the series in the following order.

    BREAKAWAY

    ON THE FLY

    TAKING A SHOT

    LIGHT THE LAMP

    DELAY OF GAME

    DOUBLE MAJOR

    IN THE ZONE

    HOLIDAY HAT TRICK

    COMEBACK

    DROPPING GLOVES

    HOME ICE

    MISTLETOE MISCONDUCT

    LOSING AN EDGE

    GAME BREAKER

    DEFENSIVE ZONE

    POWER PLAY

    There are also currently two boxed sets of books within the series, if you would prefer to purchase them in that way.

    PORTLAND STORM: THE FIRST PERIOD (Contains Breakaway, On the Fly, Taking a Shot, and Light the Lamp)

    PORTLAND STORM: THE SECOND PERIOD (Contains Delay of Game, Double Major, In the Zone, Holiday Hat Trick, and Comeback)

    Also, join Catherine’s mailing list to receive ICE BREAKER, a Portland Storm short story prequel that you can’t get anywhere else.

    Want to join in the Portland Storm discussion? Join the Facebook reader group Cat’s House.

    Interested in buying your own customizable Portland Storm and Tulsa Thunderbirds jerseys, T-shirts, and more? Find out how here.

    I HAD THREE days, three tasks to complete, and zero time to waste.

    There were only three days because I was a member of the National Hockey League’s Portland Storm, and we were on our league-mandated days off for Christmas. I’d left Portland for my hometown of Brandon, Manitoba, as soon as the team had finished our final game before the break. I barely made it through security and to my gate in time for the flight, but I would have lost half a day had I waited until tomorrow. As it was, I was due to catch the last possible plane out on the afternoon of the twenty-sixth so as not to miss morning skate on the twenty-seventh. So really, I supposed it wasn’t even three full days when you got right down to it. That was why I couldn’t mess around.

    Particularly when you considered the three tasks I’d set for myself.

    First, I planned to clear out the last of my things from the small house in our hometown that I’d shared with Mia for the past seven years until our divorce over the summer. We’d moved around a lot during hockey season over the years, but we’d always kept this little house near our families for when the off-season rolled around. I’d need a little help to get my training equipment out, but Jason Redwine and Zach Farmer—two guys who’d been my friends for as long as I could remember—had promised the use of their trucks, along with whatever physical strength was necessary. We would take care of it all together, much as we’d done almost everything over the years, at least until I made it to the NHL. These days I wasn’t always around to help them out when they needed it, but if I could help, I did.

    Second, I wanted to spend every spare moment with my little girl, Marley Lynn. I didn’t know what Mia’s plans for the holidays might be, but she’d have to adjust them. Mia might have custody, but Marley was my daughter, too. A daughter I hadn’t seen in months, not since she was just beginning to crawl. Marley was over a year old and she was walking. I had missed so much already, and I’d be damned if I’d let my ex keep my daughter from me while I was in town and could spend time with her. I’d lost so much time already that I’d never be able to get back. I didn’t even know if she’d remember me—I mean, I Skyped with her sometimes, but that wasn’t the same as being live and in the flesh, and during the season we didn’t get enough time off to travel home very often—but I couldn’t worry about that or I’d just tear myself up worse.

    And third, I had a meeting scheduled with my lawyer so we could file a formal petition with the courts for joint custody. Mia had been granted full custody at first, because she was breast feeding and my life was far from stable—I had played for eight different NHL teams in the last five years—but things were changing now.

    Marley was eating solid foods, and it looked like I might have finally found a home with the Storm. I had contacted a reputable nanny service and knew that I could take care of Marley if she came to stay with me for short visits. I wanted to be able to have longer visits with my little girl—at least something more than the nonexistent ones I was currently receiving.

    I was supposed to get a couple of hours a few days a week, but since I wasn’t even in the same country as Mia and my daughter, those visits weren’t happening other than during the offseason, so really only three or four months out of the year. At the very least, I wanted the courts to order Mia to bring my daughter to me on occasion. I’d pay for it, but going for months on end without even seeing my baby, without hearing her infectious giggle was killing me. It was bad enough that I hadn’t heard Mia laugh, hadn’t seen her smile, in so long I almost couldn’t remember how her eyes lit up. If we kept going like this, the same would be true for Marley. I’d be damned if I was going to let that happen.

    All of this was running through my head for the thousandth time as I headed for the regional airport’s baggage claim. I didn’t have a checked bag to collect since I would only be here a few days, but it was where my buddies would be waiting for me.

    I saw Zach first when I rounded the corner. Actually, it was only Zach. No Jason. It was well after midnight by the time my flight got in, and the late hour was visible in the lines around Zach’s eyes. He had followed in his father’s footsteps and gone into construction after his dreams of pursuing a hockey career had been dashed, although he’d taken it much farther than his dad ever had. Zach built custom homes. In fact, he’d built the very home that Mia was currently living in. He’d probably worked a full day, ten hours or maybe even more, before coming to pick me up. That didn’t stop him from reaching for my hand and slapping the other on my back as he pulled me close in a hug.

    Mitchell Fucking Quincey. You look like ass, he said, laughing.

    I look better than you. I sniffed. "I smell better than you, too. You couldn’t take a shower before

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1