His Texas Christmas Bride

Suddenly, everything seemed amplified. They couldn’t talk about this here. Nick trained his eyes on the patient chart tablet for a long moment, trying to gather his thoughts—looking for something, anything, that might right this rapidly sinking ship. Her emergency contact was her friend Kate, or at least he assumed it was Kate. Kate Thayer, the chart read, friend. No husband or boyfriend or significant other. Becca had named her parents as next of kin. Which completely eliminated the possibility that she’d gotten married since the last time—the only time—he’d seen her. But wait—he scrolled back up to the top of her chart to check. Yes, marital status was listed as single.

He looked back at Becca.

She was the last person he’d dreamed he’d run into today.

He’d wanted to see her again. In fact, he’d thought about her often since that night. When he’d finally accepted the job, he’d planned on trying to look her up. How many Beccas could there be in Celebration, Texas? But he hadn’t had much spare time lately. Between wrapping up his job in San Antonio and moving to Celebration, he’d been slammed. He’d been in town only five days. His possessions were still in boxes stacked inside his apartment because he’d hit the ground running since moving.

And here they were. Reunited.

And she was three months pregnant. He didn’t need a calculator to do that math.

“When did you get back into town?” she asked.

Her question answered something that had been lurking in the back of his mind. Had she come here looking for him?

Of course she hadn’t. It said right on her chart that food poisoning had brought her into the emergency room.

Then another question elbowed its way into the forefront of his mind: When had she planned on telling him? Was it even part of her plan? If he hadn’t changed his mind and accepted the job, would he have even known about the pregnancy?

“I’ve been here less than a week.”

“I see.” He glimpsed a note of sadness in her eyes. Or maybe she was simply mirroring his own confusion back at him.

She looked small and fragile lying there. Despite everything—the bombshell, the uncertainty—he still had the damnedest urge to gather her in his arms and protect her.

Wasn’t that how they’d gotten into this situation in the first place?

With that thought firmly in mind, he reminded himself that he was at work. In this moment he was her attending physician. Thoughts like that were off-limits. She was off-limits.

“Sally will be here in a moment to check your vitals. When everything checks out, you can go home. You’ll want to follow up with your obstetrician, and, of course, if you start feeling ill, call your doctor. Or come back to the emergency room. If it’s an emergency.”

She was quiet while he updated her chart.

When he’d finished, essentially signing off as her doctor, he said, “When are you available?”

“Excuse me?”

“We need to talk.”

She shrugged, then lowered her voice. “Listen, I’m not going to try to force you into anything you don’t want to do.”

“Let’s not talk about this here.”

Even though he hadn’t meant to offend her, and he wasn’t putting her off—he was on the clock, and they needed privacy—she looked offended.

“When are you available?” he repeated.

“I don’t know. I guess, whenever I feel stronger.”

Really, there was no sense in delaying.

“How about tomorrow?” he said.

Chapter Two

Thirty minutes later, Becca was in Kate’s car on her way home. It was cold outside on this mid-November evening and she felt the chill down to her bones. It amplified how weak and vulnerable she felt.

Despite how she’d wanted to reconnect with Nick, how she’d tried to find him right after she’d found out that she was pregnant, she hadn’t been prepared for the reunion to happen this way.

Even though he deserved to know the truth, she’d wanted the disclosure to be on her terms. The vulnerable side of her wished she was still safe in her cocoon, the only one who knew about the baby. No one to please. No one to convince that this child was wanted and dear and loved—even if he or she was a surprise. She had just come to terms with the situation herself. Now things had suddenly gotten complicated again.

Becca stared out the passenger-side window into the inky sky. The trees were beginning to shed their leaves and stood stark and bare in the chill night.

How symbolic, she thought. Exposed. Stripped down to the naked branches with nothing to hide what lay beneath. Somewhere from deep inside, a voice reminded her that some of these trees had lined Celebration’s Main Street for centuries. They’d endured winters and storms and climate changes to see another season.

This was simply a new season of her life.

Nick was coming over tomorrow to talk. While she understood that he needed time to digest the news—just as she had—he hadn’t seemed very happy about it. And she wasn’t sure she was ready to deal with that right now. But if not now, when?

When they stopped at a red light, Becca felt Kate’s gaze on her. Kate was such a good friend. This was all fresh news to her—huge news that her best friend was pregnant and going it alone. Well, not exactly alone. Not anymore. So, it was actually a double bit of juiciness, and not once since they’d left the hospital had Kate pushed her to give up the goods.

Becca knew she didn’t owe anyone an explanation, but Kate did deserve to know what was going on.

“So, I’m pregnant,” Becca offered. “And Nick is the father.”

Kate’s eyes were wide, but all she did was nod.

“I probably should’ve told you sooner so that you didn’t find out like this, but I wasn’t ready to tell anyone. Still, I hope you know how much I appreciate all you’ve done today. You’re such a good friend, Kate.”

“I’m glad I was here for you today,” she said. “For the record, you don’t have to tell anyone anything until you’re ready.”

The two sat in silence and Becca let the solidarity wash over her.

“But he is a good-looking guy,” Kate added. “I can see the temptation.”

A hiccup of a laugh escaped Becca, and for a moment the tension lifted. “I know, right?”

Kate’s curiosity was almost palpable.

“Liam’s never mentioned Dr. Ciotti.”

The statement was a question. Kate was testing the water to see how Becca would warm to telling her more. The light turned green, and Kate accelerated at a gentle pace.

“He hasn’t even been at the hospital a week,” Becca said. “Since they’re in different departments, I’m not surprised he hasn’t mentioned him. They may not have met yet.”

That was a long shot. The hospital wasn’t large. Most of the staff knew each other at least by sight.

“How did you two meet?” Kate ventured. “You don’t have to answer that if you’re not ready to talk about it.”

The cat was already out of the bag. She couldn’t blame Kate for being curious. If the situation were reversed, she’d want to know. Then again, Kate was married to a fabulous man. It was a relationship made in heaven, though it hadn’t started out that way. Her husband, Liam, had been a widower when Kate had first met him. He came with adorable twin teenage girls and the expected amount of baggage that a man who had lost his first love much too young would bring to a new relationship. But Liam and Kate were soul mates. Despite fate’s cruel curveball, they’d been given a chance at happiness, and they’d taken it.

Becca tried to keep her mind from wandering to the possibility that she and Nick might be soul mates.

She really shouldn’t go there. For her own peace of mind.

The best way to make sure she didn’t was to tell Kate the story of the night she met Nick.

“No, it’s okay. I don’t mind. Remember the night that Victor got in the drag racing accident?”

“Yes.”

“That night at the hospital Rosanna was so mad at me.”

Kate slanted her a glance. “Why was she mad at you? You weren’t driving.”

“I wasn’t, but I was the one who taught Victor how to drive a standard transmission.”

They came to a stop sign, and Kate shot her a glance that conveyed she clearly didn’t understand Rosanna’s anger.

Really, who did understand her sister? It seemed as if she was angry most of the time.

“She said if I hadn’t taught him, he wouldn’t have been tempted.” Becca shrugged. “That’s Rosanna logic for you. But I know she was just upset. Victor was banged up pretty badly. Anyhow, when the doctor came to give us the prognosis, I asked him to clarify something, and Rosanna tore into me. She told me I didn’t get to ask questions. She told me to leave.

“I wanted to give her some space, so I walked away. I went over to the nurses’ station to get a cup of coffee. I just wanted to give her a chance to calm down. When I was pouring the coffee, this guy—this drop-dead-gorgeous guy—was standing there, and he told me he didn’t mean to butt in, but he couldn’t help but overhear the exchange with my sister. Everybody had heard her, I’m sure. He told me he was a doctor, and he explained what Victor’s doctor had said.”

“That was Nick?” Kate asked.

Becca nodded.

“And then what? Did he ask for your phone number?”

Becca ran a hand over her eyes. Ugh. This was so embarrassing. Kate knew her well enough to know she didn’t sleep around. In fact, the last time she’d had sex was with her boyfriend two years ago.

“Not exactly. I went back over and rejoined my family, but Rosanna was just hysterical. My dad suggested that it might be a good idea to give her some space. He told me to go get something to eat, which really meant I should disappear for a while. He said he’d call if there were any changes in Victor’s condition.

“So, I walked over to Bentleys across the street from the hospital. I was just going to sit there for a while, get a decent cup of coffee—the stuff at the nurses’ station tasted like dirty water, and it was only lukewarm. I was going to bring some coffee back for my folks and Rosanna. A peace offering. I just wanted to give her a little time.

“And who do you suppose walked into Bentleys?”

“Nick?”

“How did you guess?” Becca laughed, but the sound was dry and brittle. It wasn’t funny. It was embarrassing. Kind of pathetic, really.

“That night Nick and I seemed to be on a trajectory toward each other. I came in and sat down at a booth and ordered my coffee. And for some reason everything that had been bottled up began spilling out. I started crying, and I couldn’t stop. I mean, I wasn’t making a scene or anything, but the tears just wouldn’t stop. The next thing I knew, I saw Nick through the window. He was parking a motorcycle, and a minute later, he was standing by my table, offering me a napkin for my tears.”

“And the rest is history?”

“After he’d told me what the doctor had said, he’d checked on Victor and learned that, though he was banged up pretty badly, he was stable. He was going to be fine. And then the rest is history.”

Even though they were both adults, and she knew Kate wouldn’t think badly of her, Becca couldn’t look at her friend. Instead, she stared straight ahead.

“I’ve never had a one-night stand before,” Becca said. “I do, and look what happens.”

They were in front of Becca’s condo now. Kate killed the engine and reached out and put a hand on Becca’s arm. “Honey, I’m not judging you. You’re a grown woman, and you’re free to do whatever you want with your body. As long as you’re safe—”

“We used protection.” She hadn’t meant to sound so defensive. She took a deep breath and tempered her tone. “Obviously, something went wrong.”

Kate nodded. “What are you going to do now?”

Becca shrank into the shadows as she watched two of her neighbors, Mrs. Milton and Mrs. Cavett, who had the condos on either side of her, extract themselves from Mrs. Milton’s ancient Cadillac Deville. Mrs. M’s late husband had purchased the car brand-new, and she was still so proud of it she’d tell anyone who’d care to listen. If Becca had heard the story once, she’d heard it twenty-five times.

For that matter, both of her neighbors loved to gossip. People affectionately called them the Busybody Twins. Between the two of them, they prided themselves on knowing everything about everyone who lived in the sixty units at Lake Celebration Landing Condos. What they didn’t know, they made up.

Once they learned of Becca’s pregnancy, word would be all over the tiny condo complex.

Becca shouldn’t care. She shouldn’t let other people’s opinions of her matter. But it did matter. She’d always been the good girl, the one people could count on, the community-minded good example.

Now she’d be known as the one who got knocked up.

Well, it is what it is.

She just needed to make sure her baby didn’t grow up feeling like a mistake.

“I’m going to have a baby,” she said. “Tomorrow, Nick is coming over, and we’re going to figure it out.”

* * *

Nick steered his motorcycle into a parking space at the Lake Celebration Landing Condominiums, a neatly landscaped, compact grouping of townhomes on the east side of Celebration.

His gaze picked out unit four. Becca’s place. Glossy ceramic planters with yellow and rust-colored flowers flanked the red front door, which sported a wreath of wheat stalks and small pumpkins—or were those gourds? It was hard to tell. Whatever they were, they screamed fall and hinted that Becca took a lot of pride in her home.

The amber porch light glowed in the dusk. She was waiting for him. Or she was home, at least. Of course she was; she was expecting him, even if last night as he’d signed her discharge papers she hadn’t seemed overly eager to see him. He swung his leg over the bike’s seat and stood, hesitating a moment.

Was a person ever really ready for a conversation like this? Yesterday morning when he’d opened his eyes, he’d had no idea how his life was about to change.

But they had a lot to talk about. He’d made a list. Because he knew if he didn’t write down the important things he might get distracted. Becca Flannigan made him stupid like that.

Nick hated acting stupid. Stupid equaled out of control, and out of control usually ended in disaster.

He reached in the storage console on his bike and pulled out a paper grocery bag. It contained chicken noodle soup and a small box of saltines. Becca was probably sick of bland food by now. But at least it was something. He wasn’t showing up empty-handed, he thought as he knocked on the door above the wreath.

He heard a dog bark and then a soft murmuring he imagined was her way of gently quieting the animal.

Funny, he knew so little about this woman. As he stood on her front porch, it almost felt like a blind date. However, when she answered his knock, and he saw her there, looking much more like herself, or at least more like the woman who had swept him away when they’d met, he felt that attraction, that visceral pull that had hit him hard that first night.

She wore blue jeans and a simple blue blouse that brought out the color of her eyes. She’d pulled her golden-brown hair away from her face with a black headband. She didn’t wear much makeup. The color had returned to her cheeks, and her skin looked so smooth he had to fight the urge to reach out and touch her.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi, Nick.” The dog, a red-and-white, low-to-the-ground model, barked a greeting and jumped up on his leg.

“Hey, there, buddy,” Nick said.

“Priscilla, get down. I’m sorry about that. Just tell her no, and she’ll stand down.”

“It’s okay.” He dropped to one knee, setting the bag down so he could use both hands to scratch the dog behind her ears. The animal showed her appreciation by jumping up again and licking Nick’s nose.

“Priscilla. Stop it,” Becca said. “Mind your manners.”

“She’s a corgi?” Nick asked as he got to his feet.

“Yes. A very spoiled corgi who needs to learn how to listen.”

Nick smiled. “We had a corgi when I was growing up. They’re great dogs.”

“Yes, they are. Come in.”

She stepped back to allow him room to pass. As he stepped into the foyer, he could smell the faint scent of her perfume—something floral—which brought him back to that night. As it had before, it tempted him to lean in closer and breathe in the essence of her. His mind flashed back to how she’d looked as he’d made love to her—soft and sweet and incredibly sexy in an understated way that had driven him mad.

He blinked away the thought and held out the bag.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“It’s for you. Although you probably don’t need it now. You look like you’re feeling better.”

He’d been at the hospital from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. And then he’d gone home to get some sleep. When he’d called her this afternoon to confirm she was up for meeting this evening, she’d said she was fine. She’d taken the day off from work to rest. Since they were meeting tonight, it hadn’t made sense to drop it by earlier. Besides, it might’ve given her the wrong idea. That he wanted more than he was prepared to give.

It was all true and valid.

So, why did he feel like a jerk?

“Thanks.” She accepted the grocery bag and peered into it. “Ah, soup and crackers. Thank you. I’m almost completely back to normal, except for being a little tired. But that’s par for the course lately.”

She shrugged and ducked her head as she turned away to shut the door. Her body language made her seem a little vulnerable in the wake of her admission.

Nick had taken a few steps out of the small foyer and into the nicely decorated living room before she caught up with him. The room, which featured shades of greens and blues, had a traditional feel, but it certainly wasn’t old stodgy traditional. It looked as if she’d put a lot of thought into the decor. Still, it wasn’t so decorated that he couldn’t imagine kicking back and watching the Cowboys or the Mavericks on a flat-screen on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

His mind tried to lead him to other things they could do on a lazy afternoon, but he reminded himself why he was here tonight, and the thought was instantly sobering.

“Sit down.” She gestured toward a couple of chairs arranged across from the couch that were upholstered in a blue-and-green geometric pattern. The couch—a big, overstuffed number—looked a hell of a lot more comfortable, but tonight wasn’t about comfort. It was about figuring things out.

He took a seat on the closest chair.

The dog had trotted into the room with a rawhide in her mouth and plopped down next to his feet, ready to do some damage to her chew toy.

“May I get you something to drink?” she asked.

He wondered if she meant wine or beer or something tamer like water or coffee. The only thing they’d had the night they met was coffee. He didn’t even know if she drank.

His gaze drifted over her stomach for a quick moment. Of course she wouldn’t imbibe alcohol now.

“I’m good,” he said. “But thanks.”

She sat on the couch across from him.

“You worked today?” she asked.

So, they were going to make small talk before they got to the heart of the matter. Okay, for a few minutes. His ex-wife had told him he wasn’t good at chitchat. According to her, he wasn’t good at communicating. Period.

It was true; he usually didn’t have the patience for meaningless conversation. What was the point? That’s why he didn’t care for cocktail and dinner parties, and it was a big part of the reason he was divorced now.

That and his tendency to be a workaholic. Delilah had complained a lot about him never being home. He’d told her that was life with an ER doctor. Eventually, she’d left him for his best friend, who also happened to own the lawn service that did their yard.

He wasn’t sure which was sadder...the fact that their breakup had been such a cliché—the only thing that could’ve been worse was if she’d left him for the pool boy—or the overwhelming sense of relief he’d felt after he’d signed the divorce papers.

After that, he’d buried himself in work. Emergency medicine suited him so well. It was fast-paced and involved a revolving door of patients. He could keep it all about work and not get too personal. He’d make sure they were stable and hand them off to their primary care doctor.

It was clean and simple. No need for small talk or building relationships beyond the situation that had brought them into his emergency room.

“I’ve worked twelve-hour shifts for the past five days. Actually, it’s my first night off since I took the job.”

“Are they ganging up on the new guy?” She smiled and her dimples winked at him.

“No, they’ve been so shorthanded that the other doctors haven’t had much time off in a while.”

She was quiet for a moment and he could see the wheels turning in her mind. She glanced at her hands, which were in her lap, before looking back at him.

“Why didn’t you take the job at first?” she asked. “Because they did offer it to you, didn’t they? Please, tell me you didn’t decline because of what happened between us.”

A pretty shade of pink bloomed on her cheeks.

“Wait, don’t answer that,” she said. “It’s a dumb question. Of course you didn’t turn down a job because of me. It’s just that I tried to get in touch with you after I found out I was pregnant, but all the hospital would tell me was that you didn’t work there.”

He nodded. So she’d tried to find him. He wondered if she’d been discreet when she was doing her detective work. No one had told him that a woman claiming to be carrying his child had been there looking for him. Then again, how would an employer break that news to a new hire? And would she really have told a complete stranger why she was looking for him? Not likely.

“I couldn’t justify relocating on the first offer,” he said. “But I could work with their counteroffer. So, just in case you were still wondering, no, my turning it down had nothing to do with you or what happened between us.”

“I didn’t even know your last name,” she said.

Exactly. They hadn’t exchanged much personal information beyond first names. He’d thought that was the way she’d wanted it, and it had made their meeting sexy and exciting.

“So, I take it you’re keeping the baby.”

“Of course I am. I have a good job. This place isn’t a palace, but it’s big enough for a child and me.”

They sat in silence for a moment. The furnace ticked and then clicked on. A car honked somewhere outside.

“Look,” she finally said, “I won’t try to force you to be part of this child’s life. We will be perfectly fine on our own. I just thought you should know.”

“Would you be willing to take a paternity test?”

“Excuse me?”

“A paternity test. Would you take one?”

Her mouth opened and shut before she could utter a word.

It wasn’t an unreasonable request, but the way she glared at him made it seem as if he’d asked her to move to Mars. The look in her eyes cut him deeply.

But he couldn’t go there. Or rather, he couldn’t let her work her way into that soft spot where instinct and feelings lived and eclipsed common sense. Instinct and feelings had never served him well. That’s how they’d gotten themselves into this mess in the first place. He made a mental note not to call the pregnancy—or the baby—a mess. If she was reacting this way to a paternity test, she’d probably smack him if he called the situation a mess.

It was all so new that the pregnancy and baby didn’t seem as if they were one and the same. That his child might be growing inside Becca...

The thought hit him like a punch in the gut. He would not make a good father. He was married to his job. Children were too unpredictable. They were too fragile. He knew for a fact he did not do well with unpredictable and fragile. He’d learned the hard way. The ER was a different type of unpredictable. It was based in science and methodical procedure. He never knew what he’d get one night to the next in the ER, but no matter what was thrown at him, he could follow procedure and tame the chaos. He could fix people.