Baby's First Christmas: The Christmas Twins / Santa Baby

“I could, but you’ll probably tell me a few more things you’re keeping from me. You’re kind of like a firecracker that way. If I wait long enough, information just explodes—”

“Zach,” she said, “are you in shock?”

“Yes.”

She sighed. “I thought so. I’ve been a bundle of nerves because I knew how mad you’d be.”

“Well, I am mad,” he said, “but I’m not going to be upset in front of the children.”

“The children?”

“Yes.” He put a protective hand on her stomach. “They need to know from day one that they’re loved, anticipated and cherished. Our family is very close, in our own oddly special way.”

She looked at him. “So the reason you’re acting so nonchalant is that you’re faking it for the children?”

“Faking it doesn’t sound right.” He touched her carefully constructed eyelashes. “From now on, I don’t want you wearing any more of this goo around me.”

“I make my living with this goo,” she said, and he nodded.

“I make my living with bulls and things, but I’m not going to make you look at them all the time. I prefer natural skin on my woman.”

“Zach, I am not your woman. I will never be your woman,” Jessie said. “I don’t even know you.”

“That’s going to be a problem,” Zach said, “since I am your prince charming. Your knight in shining armor.”

“I don’t need the platitudes of fairy tales,” she said hotly, making Zach laugh.

“Okay, we’re stuck with each other for life,” he said. “How’s that for relationship lingo? When we’re at the boys’ soccer matches, we’ll introduce each other as ‘this is the person I’m stuck with forever.’ People won’t talk, I’m sure. Not in Tulips.”

He wasn’t going to make her life easy. Racing ahead into the future, thoughts of Zach made her brain whirl. Ever since the thin blue line had shown up on her pregnancy test, and the super-shocking news of a double pregnancy had been confirmed by her doctor, Jessie had been holding her breath. Trying to think how to tell a man she barely knew that he was going to be a father. She hadn’t thought of baby names, nor soccer games, nor what the two of them would be to each other. She’d dreaded having to tell him, but since she knew his worst fear—that he’d be a father and his children would never know him—she wanted him to know as fast as she could tell him. Dealing with all the other consequences she’d put on the back burner.

He had the pot on the front burner, turned to full boil. Strangely, he didn’t seem to mind the heat. “I thought you’d be scary about this.”

“I’m going to be scary in a little while,” Zach said easily. “When I have to tell Pansy and Helen, I’ll probably be at my worst. They’re going to be so pleased.” He gave her a wry glance. “My brother the sheriff says he wants the town to grow organically, which is not quite what the Gang wants. They’re going to love the fact that they’re getting two little organic sprouts out of one Forrester. They’ll say it serves me right, and then smile into their fragile little teacups.”

“I don’t understand.”

He shook his head. “Just be prepared for the Gang to give you a very large baby shower.”

“I don’t want that,” Jessie said quickly. “Can’t we come to an agreement about this?”

A frown crossed his face. He stared down at her, his brows knit tightly together. “Agreement?”

She swallowed. “Um, a custody agreement?”

“No,” he said, his gaze like dark glass, “and never talk like that in front of the children again. Ever.”

ZACH WAS MORE SURPRISED than he let on to Jessie about his impending fatherhood. But he wasn’t surprised this was happening. The moment he’d seen her, he’d known she would change his life—and she had.

They didn’t even know each other, and what he did know about her signaled a bumpy road ahead. She was flighty. He was methodical. She was spoiled. He was hardworking.

Those differences were just the beginning. He looked at her, imagining her with a big, round belly, and wanted to rub his hands with glee. Twins! It was a Christmas miracle as far as he was concerned, and he wanted this new phase in their relationship to start well. He wasn’t saying one thing to upset her. “Were you planning on telling Helen and Pansy? Is that why you really wanted to go into town?”

“I…don’t know.” She put her keys into her purse and sat back down. “I know I was planning on telling you. That’s all I knew.”

“So you’re moving out here with me,” he said, leaning against a wall, quickly trying to devise a plan. “Or I’m moving somewhere with you.”

“No,” Jessie said. “We’re not moving anywhere, at least not together.”

He frowned at her. “Look. We’re not throwing away what we did as just an afternoon of freebie sex. We need to become closer.”

She appeared to shrink into her coat. “I don’t understand you. I know that this is your worst fear come true.”

“Yeah.” He scratched under his hat. “Funny how it doesn’t seem that bad now that it’s happened. If that was my life’s biggest fear, maybe I never had anything to be really afraid of.”

She smiled. “You’re not going to say that I tried to trap you?”

“Did you?”

“No!”

He laughed. “Oh, come on. Leave a guy with a little ego.”

She stood. “I’m not interested in your ego. I would never cling to a man, or trap him, or—”

“Jessie,” he said softly, reaching for her hand to calm her down, “when I met you, you were hot-footing it away from a boyfriend or ex-fiancé or husband or something. You’re clearly not the kind of woman who lets men influence her life. I know you’re a big shot in your company and that you’re more likely to wear pants than panty hose. I get it, okay? Don’t keep worrying that I think you’re some thimble-brained woman who can’t take care of herself.”

“Thimble-brained?”

“Those things Pansy and Helen are always using to sew with and stuff.”

She nodded. “Nice analogy.”

He gave her a wry look. “I know you’re not ready to walk down the aisle with me. You can relax. The electric fence you’ve got up around you is shooting sparks at me.”

She sighed. “I don’t mean to be so uneasy.”

“Well, don’t get too comfortable, either,” Zach said, grinning. “I don’t want to be taken for granted now that you’ve gotten what you wanted from me.”

“Zach!”

He crossed his boots and stared at her. “You did say you had planned to get pregnant as soon as possible after the wedding.”

“Yes, but my fiancé was not a stranger.” She gave him a haughty look. “Wanting children is not unusual inside a marriage.”

He shrugged. “I should hire myself out for stud. I have bulls that don’t perform so successfully.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m leaving to tell Pansy and Helen. I need female advice. Yours isn’t worth a damn.”

“That’s what I hear,” he said cheerfully. “It comes from being middle child.”

“Whatever,” she said.

“I’ll drive you if you promise not to steal my truck.”

“You have no worries,” she said, and he nodded.

“Good. We can break the news together. First we have to tell Duke, of course. Pepper we can tell by phone because we hardly see her anymore.”

Jessie backed up a step. “You can tell your brother by yourself.”

He grinned, liking that she was feeling a little bit nervous. It made him feel big and strong and protective. “Duke won’t throw you in jail.”

She stiffened. “Of course not! What charges would he have?”

“You were trespassing,” he reminded her.

“I was lost,” she snapped.

“You did assault my livelihood with a deadly weapon. Poor Brahma Bud.”

She sniffed. “Any other charges?”

“You did steal my heart,” he said, trying to be light but realizing the moment he said it that he’d made a serious error. Jessie’s eyes went dark.

“I stole nothing worth keeping, then,” she said. “Consider it returned.”

“Whew, prickly,” he said. “Did you know you have a habit of being prickly when you’re nervous?”

She stared up at him, her gaze very serious. “Did you know you have a habit of trying to be funny when you’re nervous? It doesn’t go over very well.”

“Why would I be nervous?”

“Impending fatherhood, a woman you only met once, your worst fears realized, telling your brother—” She paused. “I can’t decide which of those nerves of yours is most rattled.”

“You may have a point.” He rubbed his chin. “I don’t know how to act. Mainly, I don’t want you to go away before I get to know you better. That’s my biggest worry now.”

He meant it, even if sounded silly. How could he do the right thing for her, and for his children, unless he knew who Jessie Farnsworth really was?

“These kids of mine are going to matter to me a lot,” he said gruffly. “I know you’ve got a busy life, but…marry me, Jessie.”

Chapter Seven

An offer of marriage from Zach was the last thing Jessica had expected from him. Her heart took a dizzying leap. If only it were that easy.

“I know you’re not the marrying kind,” he said, “but we could probably work out a satisfactory arrangement.”

She blinked. “Arrangement?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what. But something we could both live with.”

The front door opened, and they moved away from each other. Duke walked in, sleet spilling off his hat. “Howdy,” he said to Zach. “Well, hello, Jessie.”

“Hi, Duke,” she said, sending a worried glance Zach’s way. Her composure had deserted her with the marriage proposal. Surely he hadn’t been serious!

Yet a secret part of her wondered what marriage to Zach might be like.

“Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Duke said. “Liberty says she needs some bolts of plastic covering she stored in one of the barns. I’m not sure which one. Hellish weather to search four barns but at least you made it in before the storm, Jessie. I heard the roads were freezing up just east and north of Tulips. It’s on its way here.”

Zach frowned. “Plastic covering?”

“Yeah. There should be several rolls of it. Big enough to cover the carpet in a wedding chapel.”

“I never saw bolts of plastic,” Zach said.

“You don’t go into all the barns regularly,” Duke said. “Jessie, you look well. Are you in for a couple of days?”

She shook her head. “I wasn’t planning on it.”

Duke looked from Jessie to Zach. “Well, good to see you all the same. I’m off to root around out there.”

“No!” Zach crammed a hat on his head and pulled his keys from his pocket. “I’ll look. You stay here and keep Jessie company.”

Duke looked bemused. “I don’t think I should do that, Zach. I believe she came to see you.”

Zach nodded. “That’s true. So I’ll just head off now and do that looking around for you. I’ll call you if I find any of the plastic. In the meantime, grab some soup off the stove and try to warm up.”

Duke looked at him. “Hell, Zach, you wouldn’t have even known I was at the ranch if I hadn’t walked in. Just pretend like you don’t know I’m on the property and go on doing what you were doing.” Duke turned to leave. “You’re acting nuttier than a Christmas fruitcake, which, by the way, the ladies whipped up for us. Full of pecans and things. Be sure to stop by my office and have a bite, Jessie. The Gang can cook for certain, and this is the time of year when they really get their aprons on. Our neighboring-town baker, Valentine, has challenged them to a poppyseed cake bake-off, and that’s a holiday snack I look forward to.”

Zach slid out the door while his brother was completing his polite goodbye to her. Jessie looked at Zach’s retreating back, surprised. “He definitely doesn’t want you to get chilled,” she told Duke.

“He is one strange apple that fell off our family tree. If I didn’t know better, I’d think there was something in one of the barns he didn’t want me to see.”

“Oh,” Jessie said. “I thought strange was his normal behavior.”

“I can see why you’d think that.” Duke sighed. “Come on. I can’t leave you here alone, though my brother has no manners. You can sit in my nice warm truck while we search. Who would want to get married the first week in December, anyway?” he grumbled, holding Jessie’s elbow as she walked so she wouldn’t slip.

Jessie shook her head. “Liberty’s brave to handle gowns and wedding details. I’d be too worried to have brides as my clientele.”

They got in Duke’s truck. “Zach says you do makeup for conventions of women. That sounds just as challenging as brides. Women in search of beauty would terrify me.”

Jessie smiled. “Female dreams aren’t scary. Really, they’re not. Females want what males want.”

“I’ve only been married a couple of months and haven’t figured that out yet,” Duke said with a chuckle. “What the hell?” Stopping the truck, he shone the brights into the barn, which Zach had obviously reached at a breakneck speed.

Jessie squinted into the darkness. “Looks like a whole lot of plastic wrap covering something big.” She got out of the truck and followed Duke.

Zach was busily tucking the plastic onto a large roll, while diligently keeping his back to whatever object he was removing the plastic from.

“What the hell?” Duke asked. “You didn’t use Liberty’s wedding aisle-covering stuff, did you, Zach?”

“Quite by accident,” Zach said. “You two go on back to the house and get warm. I’ll be done in a jif and bring this plastic with me.”

“Yeah, but what the hell you used it for is what I want to know,” Duke said, approaching Zach. But Jessie already knew.

“My car!” she said. “You jerk, you never got it repaired.” Anger flooded her. “Which means it was never broken in the first place.”

“Well,” Zach said, and he would have said more, but Jessie turned away so she wouldn’t slap the excuse right out of his mouth before he could tell her any more lies.

She got into Duke’s truck without saying a word. Duke also got in, leaving the plastic wrap behind, and silently started the engine. Unable to stop herself, Jessie peeked at Zach. He stood forlornly in front of her car, which was still half-covered with wrap. Sleet began pelting the roof of the truck and bounced off the barn roof.

“Storm’s coming in,” Duke said gently. “I’m sure not making excuses for my brother, but you don’t want to drive that pretty car in this weather, anyway. It’s not good for a convertible.”

She was too mad—and too hurt—to speak.

Duke sighed. “I’ll drive you into Pansy’s. One of the old gals would just love to put you up for the night. Or longer. They’ll pamper you thoroughly.”

She nodded. He turned the truck around, leaving Zach.

“I’d like to say something good about my kid brother—”

“You should arrest that car thief, Sheriff.” The words came out a whole lot more bitter than she wanted them to sound.

“I never considered that,” Duke said. “You have a point. But you don’t really want him locked up, do you?”

She sighed. “He’d just get on your nerves while you tried to work.”

“Are you sure you don’t know my brother very well?”

Well enough to be having children with him. “Better than I’d like to, at this point.”

“When the weather clears and it’s safe for you to drive out from the ranch, I’ll make certain Zach gets your car to you, in complete working order.”

“Thank you.”

“I have to be honest, I’m a bit surprised by my brother’s behavior. Though I’m trying not to rush to judgment, I’d like to apologize on behalf of the Forrester family for my brother’s prank. I really am surprised by him.”

Duke would be more surprised if he knew he was going to be an uncle.

He pulled into a driveway. “But these three houses are friendly territory. Miss Pansy’s, Miss Helen’s and then Liberty’s house, which she’s also converted into a wedding shop. We still stay here when we need to be closer to town, though. When bad weather comes in, I like being near my office. I can walk from here.”

The houses were small and quaint, certainly not like anything Jessie had ever lived in. “Are you sure I won’t be putting anyone out?”

“The ladies will be delighted to have company. I promise.” He waved to them as they came out on their respective porches, and Jessie smiled, delighted to see the ladies again. Duke came around to her door just as Zach’s truck pulled up behind them in the driveway. He got out, slamming his door.

“I can take over from here, Duke,” Zach said.

“I don’t think so,” Duke said with a scowl. “You have a lot of explaining to do, and I don’t know that you’re operating honestly where this woman is concerned.”

“I’m trying to marry her,” Zach said.

“That might have nothing to do with honesty on your part,” Duke snapped, but Jessie’s eyes widened. Pansy clasped her hands together, and Helen’s mouth puckered.

“That’s no proposal,” Helen said, coming forward to shoo Jessie toward her house. “Pansy, be careful coming down those steps. Come on over and I’ll make us some tea. It’s so good to see you again, Jessie. We wondered when you’d return.”

“Yes,” Pansy said, giving her a hug. “When is the baby due?”

Duke stared at her, surreptitiously shooting a glance at her midsection, which was concealed by her red wool coat. “Baby?”

“How did you know?” Jessie asked Pansy.

“You glow, my dear. You simply glow. And you’ve put on a teensy bit of very flattering weight.”

Duke put his hands on his hips. “Is that why you stole her car?”

Helen gasped. “Stole her car?”

“Yes. It’s hidden in one of our barns.”

Pansy gave Zach’s arm a light slap. “Shame on you, Zach. Your parents would be so disappointed.”

Zach sighed. “You people are not helping.”

“I bet those rascals found the car and never told us,” Helen said to Pansy. “I’m going to give them what-for when I see them.”

Pansy nodded. “Jessie, we sent out a search team to check on your vehicle. But they failed us.” She gave a haughty sniff at Zach. “You can’t hijack a lady when you want to get to know her better, even if she’s having your child.”

“Children,” Zach said.

“Children?” Duke repeated, glowering at his brother.

“We’re having twins,” Jessie said.

Duke grinned. “Way to go, Bro! Nice shooting!”

The women groaned. “Come on, Pansy,” Helen said. “We’ve had enough excitement for the night, and Jessie needs her rest.”

Pansy wiped the delighted grin from her face so she could level a stern look at Zach. “And no climbing through windows or any other shenanigans to talk to Jessie. She’ll talk to you when we’re good and ready. You just go cool your heels, Zach.”

Jessie was fine with that. She was stunned to find that Zach had lied to her. “Thank you for the ride, Duke,” she said, allowing Pansy and Helen to lead her away.

“Hey! How about my marriage proposal?” Zach asked.

“We never heard one,” Helen called over her shoulder as they walked away. “We heard a stubborn man trying to get his way with little effort, though.”

“Thank you,” Jessie said as the door closed behind them. It was nice to be out of the cold, and even better to be inside the welcoming doors of Helen’s cozy house. “The only bright spot in this is that when Liberty finds out Zach used her precious wedding floor covering to protect my car, she’s going to be annoyed. I don’t know that it can be used now for the purposes for which it was intended.”

“It’ll be good for Zach to have a bunch of females peeved with him,” Pansy said, taking Jessie’s coat. “Hopefully, it’ll smarten him up.”

“That’s for certain.” Helen set the kettle on the stove. “He’s been quite spoiled since we have so few males in town. So few reasonably intelligent males.”

Pansy giggled. “So much for our spies. They’re either terrible at their job, or conspiring against us.”

Jessie looked at the women. “Why would your friends not tell you if they knew my car was perfectly fine?”

“To be on the boys’ side,” Helen said simply. “This town has always been about the battle of the sexes. And we girls always win.”

Pansy giggled as the three of them sat at the table together. A pretty lamp with a cut-out shade sent warm light around the kitchen. Jessie relaxed, feeling like she was home for the very first time in her life.

Chapter Eight

Zach cooled his heels for as long as he could stand it—approximately ten hours—and despite the bad weather, drove over to Helen’s. He just had to see Jessie. Okay, she’d shocked the hell out of him. He hadn’t reacted appropriately—heaven only knew he hadn’t done anything appropriately.

But there was a lot of history in his life that forced him to seek appropriate action where Jessie and his kids were concerned. He’d had a major Christmas present tossed at him, and he was determined to learn how to keep it.

Fortunately for him, he was a Forrester, and so far, the Forrester family was one-for-one on figuring out when to keep their hands on their pregnant significant other.

Pepper would be too smart to let herself get ahead of the romance, he thought sourly. Younger sisters shouldn’t be so calm, cool and collected about everything—only the men in the family seemed to have a hard time with relationships.

“It should be the other way around,” he muttered, thinking about last night’s impromptu proposal which had brought him no credit whatsoever with Jessie, Duke or the Gang, either, for that matter. As much as they adored hearing about proposals, they’d barely paid his any attention.

They hadn’t taken him seriously—which seemed to be a theme in his life. He stared at Helen’s house, wondering how to approach the puzzle his world had become. Should he try romance?

“Little late for that.” Jessie wouldn’t take him seriously on the romance issue. He had to be very careful with his pursuit because she possessed a natural-born wanderer’s foot. She could take off any time, in any method of transportation, and it might be months before he laid eyes on her again.

Perhaps help was required in this matter. He pulled out his phone and dialed Holt, investor and civic-minded counterpart to the Gang. Holt sided with the ladies, but he also sided with the men sometimes, and was guaranteed to give a rational and unbiased opinion.

“Holt,” he said when he heard a brisk hello on the other end of the line.

“Yes, Zach,” Holt said. “I already know why you’re calling. I heard your little lady is back in town wanting her car, and that you told her I was supposedly fixing it. I don’t like being in the middle if I don’t know what’s going on.”

Great. Life wasn’t good when the only hairdresser in town was in a tizzy with him. “Sorry about that. It seemed like a good excuse at the time.”

“It didn’t work, though, did it?”

“No,” Zach said, sighing.

“So now she’s returned, and she wants her car, and you want some visitation. That’s what I hear through the grapevine,” Holt said.

“Grapevine’s right,” Zach replied. “I want custody of my kids if Jessie won’t marry me.”

Holt sighed. “The only way you can achieve that is through the courts, Zach.”

“I was thinking flowers, maybe some time alone together—”

“You called for my opinion,” Holt said. “Becoming a father with a woman whom you’ve greatly aggravated is not a position of equanimity, you know.”

He wasn’t sure what equanimity was, but it didn’t sound like he was in a good place with Jessie. “But if you met her—”

“I did.” Holt sniffed. “Not that you brought her by. Helen invited me to come meet the newest Tulips citizen.”

Zach frowned. “I doubt you’ll ever be able to call Jessie a citizen of Tulips.”

“At the rate you’re going, no.”

Everybody is a critic. Zach said, “Do you have any advice, or are you just going to ride the Zach’s-A-Louse bandwagon?”

“Legal documentation. And remember she has two legal eagle brothers. The deck may be pretty well stacked in her favor.”

“Legal eagle brothers?” Zach listened to the dial tone in his ear. “That was so helpful.”