As I follow Elle and Alex off the bus I shift Danny onto my other hip, careful not to drop him by clumsily falling over. Glancing around I am glad that I've shoved my shades onto my face, the glare from the sun against the white blanket of snow blindingly bright.

"What's that Danny?" I say, pointing towards the hills.

"Snow!" He squeals gleefully and I grin, nodding as I follow his parents towards the large resort. We'd finally made it to Alaska for Christmas after nearly ten years of dreaming. My sister brought her husband and her son, and I couldn't have been happier to be spending the holidays with my family.

"Yeah!" I exclaim, smiling at the sight of his excitable face.

"Can we play?" He asks as I place him down on the ground, Elle stopping and turning back towards us.

"Can we?" I echo, grinning at my tired looking sister.

"Later." Elle warns as Alex grabs hold of their bags, wheeling my giant suitcase behind him. He's such a gentleman.

"You're no fun." I pout at my sister, who promptly rolls her eyes and takes off after her husband.

"No fun!" Danny repeats, grabbing hold of my hand and I giggle at his reply as we follow the adults into the building. I glance around at the gorgeous log cabin interior as soon as we enter, warm, musky tones and lit fires with fluffy rugs in front of them instantly making me smile. I point out the fires to Danny, something he's barely ever seen, never having a need for the warmth back in California.

My nephew was born three years ago, Elle and Alex wasting no time after they married. I loved him from the moment I first held him in my arms, a strange sense of protectiveness washing over me. He had the same eyes as my Dad, bringing a tear to my eye almost instantly. It was perfect.

Having a nephew is great, you can indulge in all your maternal instincts, fully placate any part of you that wants a baby, and then hand them back at the end of the day. My sister has to deal with the tantrums and the riots that I unintentionally create. It's not like I expected him to want cake for breakfast after I secretly handed him a piece one morning. Totally not my fault that Elle had to deal with a screaming child for the next four mornings.

I stay with them every other weekend, desperate to stay close to my godson. And my sister of course. Plus, it gives Becky time to have one night stands in the apartment without having to explain it all to me when I see them sneak out. We had to set some rules, limit the amount of times a week she can bring a guy into the apartment, and exactly which ones she should even be bringing in at all. I don't want any weirdos coming in, having access to my medicine cabinet, my closet. I think Becky scares them enough when they enter our apartment anyway, it's straight into the bedroom, with a quick 'hello' shot my way as I sit on the couch eating ice cream, and then a swift half hour before they run out, shirtless as they fling the door open and make their escape.

Becky isn't one to have breakfast.

"Alright." Elle grins, turning back to face us. "Anna, you're in room 392. And we are in 391."

"Am I staying with Aunt Annie?" Danny smiles broadly up at his Mother.

"No Danny."

"Oh." His little face falls and Elle grimaces slightly before grabbing hold of his hand.

"You're staying in with Mommy and Daddy." I smile at him, "I wish I was."

"You do?" He asks, his little nose scrunched up.

"Absolutely!" I reply, "They're going to read you a bedtime story every night."

"They do that anyway!" He objects, giggling slightly.

"But it's different here." I grin, "You're in a magical place." I remind him, lowering myself to his level, "The stories told from a Mommy or Daddy when you're away from home have the power to give you magical dreams." I whisper to him.

"I don't believe you." He replies, eyebrows furrowed.

"Alright." I shrug, standing back up. "But I know it used to happen to me when we went away on holidays."

"It did?" His eyes widen.

"Alright, shall we?" Elle interrupts. "I think Daddy is about to faint." She grins and I glance over at Alex, still juggling all the bags, attempting to hold them all up as we stand around chatting.

"Let me take a couple of those!" I giggle as I grab two of the bags off of the top of the pile, Alex's relieved face coming into view.

"I thought you'd never stop talking." He breathes out and I laugh as Elle grabs a bag from him, Danny trailing next to her.

"Let's go see our rooms." Elle grins and we turn, making our way to the elevator.

*~*~*

Two hours later I knock on my sister's door, having answered her 'SOS' message within three minutes, pretty speedy if you ask me. I can imagine that Danny is probably having a tantrum, or maybe we accidentally left one of the suitcases on the coach after we got off. Hell, maybe we even left it at the airport. That would not be pretty, my disorganized sister having done a complete U-Turn and become ridiculously organized after having her sweet baby boy.

"Ann! Thank God!" She exclaims after opening the door.

"What is it?" I ask, taking a step inside, "Is everything okay? Where's Alex?" I scan their room, coming up short.

"He's in the bathroom." She shrugs, "We really want to take a nap, and I was just wondering if you could take Danny out for a few hours."

"Nap?"

"The journey was exhausting." She justifies and I cross my arms.

"Really?" I question, "It was only an hour from the airport and you both slept on the plane whilst I entertained Danny."

"Please Ann! Just an hour!" She pleads and I screw my nose up at her insistence. Why is she so desperate to get rid of her son for an hour, to palm him off on me... Oh!

"You don't want to nap!" I accuse, scanning over her robe clad body. "I know exactly what's going on here!"

"Anna! I don't know what you're suggesting!" Elle hisses.

"Do you always wear those stockings to bed?" I retort and her eyes widen, glancing down at her exposed leg and quickly pulling the long robe back around her.

"Alright!" She admits, crossing her arms, "We just want half hour of alone time."

"Half hour?" I mutter and she nods.

"We don't always get to..."

"Ew!" I cut her off, grimacing. I really don't need to know anymore. "Alright! I'll take him!"

"Thanks sis." She grins just as Danny potters out of the small adjoining bedroom.

"Danny!" I grin at him.

"Aunt Annie!" He squeals, skipping over towards me.

"What do you say we go and find some candy?" I ask and his face instantly lights up.

"Yeah!"

"Anna!" Elle says in a warning tone. Really Els? This is how you want to play it when you want me to entertain your kid so that you can have sex? If I want candy, I'm gonna have the damn candy.

"Do you want to have sex with your husband or not?" I retort quietly so that Danny can't hear.

"Fine!" She gives in, shooting me a glare as I grin, holding my hand out to my nephew.

"Let's go!" I exclaim.

"Mommy and Daddy aren't coming?" He asks, his little face furrowed up in confusion.

"No darling." Elle smiles at him, reaching down and tucking one of his blonde curls behind his ear.

"Why not?" Danny asks, and I can't help the smirk that spreads across my face, looking down at the ground to cover my amusement.

"We're going to have a little nap." Elle explains, her voice a little squeaky.

"I like to nap." Danny replies.

"Um..."

"Food, Danny?" I interrupt, finally stepping in to help my flustered sister out.

"Yeah!" He yells, "What food do they have here?"

"I don't know, let's go and see." I gesture and he follows me out into the corridor, Elle smiling gratefully at me before shutting the door. She's lucky I'm hungry. Although who am I kidding, I'm always hungry...

"What food would you like to get whilst Mommy and Daddy nap?" I grimace as I say the words, pressing the button to call for the elevator.

"Cake!" Danny squeals, clapping his hands together.

"You kid, are definitely my nephew." I grin as the elevator dings, the doors flying open.

*~*~*

"Do you like it?" I ask, gesturing to the slab of chocolate cake in front of Danny.

"Yeah!" He confirms and I grin, digging into my own red velvet slice of heaven in front of me. It's perfect, just what I needed after a six hour flight and a one hour coach journey. Elle had settled Danny down to sleep as soon as we'd gone into our hotel rooms, but even so I am startled by the fact that he is so cheery after such a long day.

He did sleep on the plane, along with my sister and Alex, something I was extremely jealous of. I spent over an hour attempting to get comfortable enough to sleep, eventually giving up. There's nothing easy about falling asleep on public transport and I will never understand how people can do it. What if someone had stolen my purse?

Shoving another forkful of cake into my mouth I watch my little nephew as he attempts to slide the cake around his plate, playing with his food. Normally I'd stop him but come on, we're on vacation! If the kid wants to have a little fun, let him! As long as he doesn't waste the cake in the long run, I'm happy.

Looking out of the window beside me I smile at the sight of the snow covered mountains that surround the resort, a true Christmas feel to them. Elle and I have been dreaming about this kind of vacation for so many years, it's almost surreal that we are finally here. Truly magical.

Glancing back at Danny I take another big bite of cake before hearing a loud commotion coming from the other side of the restaurant. My eyes are automatically drawn to it as my nephew absentmindedly continues eating, not a care in the world.

The group of guys are raising their whiskey glasses in a collective cheers, all laughing as they drink. Looking at their chiselled jawbones and impeccable hair I know I've never met them before but I can't shake the feeling of familiarity when I look at them.

The dark haired one on the right takes a step to the side and my eyes widen as I realize that it's Ryan Webber, famous football player. Glancing at the others their faces all start falling into place, all players for the same team, the team that I followed for quite a while over a year ago.

The team that Brett played for.

This cannot be happening, how can this even be possible? I've spent five years apart from him, not having to see him anywhere other than on my TV and in the media.

He's probably not even here, he stopped playing for them more than a year ago, he probably has new friends. Teammates are pretty fickle right, they'll only stay friends when you see them everyday?

Even so my heart begins to pound in my chest, frustration rising at the thought of being in this situation all over again.

"Aunt Annie are you okay?" The concerned little voice of my nephew tears me back to him and his now empty plate.

"Yes of course." I beam at him, stuffing the fork into my cake and shoving some into my mouth, having to force myself to chew on the incredible sponge, a slight nauseous feeling in my stomach.

A sudden eruption of roars tears my eyes back towards them once more and I quickly swallow, the lump of cake getting stuck in my throat as I see the absolute bane of my life once more.

Brett Winters in the god damn flesh. All over again. He's let his stubble grow out a bit, giving him a more manly look than when he was plastered all over the news. His body is still impeccable, his grin infectious as he pats Ryan on the back, grabbing hold of a glass from the bar.

He's late to the party, but he's still here.

"Let's go!" I exclaim to Danny, swiftly grabbing him out of his chair and placing him on my hip, turning away from the table and rushing for the exit, my dream Christmas shattered into a thousand pieces.

"Aunt Annie you forgot your cake!"

It's too late to save the cake Danny.

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