The Texas Christmas Gift

The woman grinned and extended her hand. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said.

They certainly were friendly, Eve noted. Maybe the most amiable exes she had ever seen. “Nice to meet you, too,” she replied.

A tall forty-something man ambled up with a baby in his arms.

“And this is Craig, my husband,” Carleen continued. “With our baby, Tiffany.”

And what a beautiful baby she was, Eve could not help but note.

The one-year-old had a cloud of dark curly hair, like her mom’s, and Derek’s vivid sea-blue eyes. She was dressed in a white turtleneck, ruffled red velvet overalls and shiny, high-topped shoes. Spying Eve, she beamed, her smile revealing four teeth, two on the bottom and two on top.

Eve had never been much of a baby person. She saw no reason to lust after something she likely would never have. But something about this little girl captivated her attention.

Still grinning, Tiffany lifted her chubby little hands to her face and spread her fingertips over her eyes. “Peek—boo!” she chirped to Eve.

Eve couldn’t help it; she chuckled. She lifted her hands to her own eyes and covered them playfully. “Peekaboo to you, too!”

Tiffany threw back her head and chortled. Without warning, she lurched out of Craig’s arms and reached for Eve.

Eve caught the infant, cuddling her close. It wasn’t the first time she had ever held a baby. However, it was the first time she’d held one and felt something catch in her heart.

“She’s a real people person,” Carleen noted proudly.

Craig agreed. “Never met a stranger...” he teased.

Tiffany settled in Eve’s arms. She had that wonderful baby-fresh scent. A smear of what looked like strawberry yogurt at the corner of her mouth. More of it on her hands.

Tiffany tilted her head to one side. She looked at Eve. “Mommy?” she asked.

“No, I’m not a momma,” Eve said.

Although for the first time in her life, she found herself wanting to be.

Behind Craig came half a dozen more kids, from toddlers to teens. One of them was holding a wet baby wipe.

“And the rest of our brood,” Craig continued. Catching Eve’s confused look, he said, “From my marriage to my late wife.”

They all certainly looked happy, Eve thought, like the ideal blended family.

Craig took the wipe and handed it to Eve as more introductions were made.

Too late. The little girl’s sticky fingers had found their way to Eve’s hair and were wrapped in the long, silky strands, transferring strawberry yogurt even as they tugged.

Tiffany giggled.

Derek jumped in. “Honey, you can’t do that,” he chided, working to free the tiny fingers.

“It’s okay,” Eve said.

And despite the stickiness, she really didn’t mind.

The close contact had given her a glimpse into the little girl’s personality. And what was there was all sweetness and innocence.

She could see why Derek was so bent on being as close to his daughter as he could. And she admired the friendship and cooperation his ex and her new family demonstrated, as Carleen put a hat and jacket on their little girl before Derek took charge of putting Tiffany into her car seat. Craig and the kids carried several large bags of clothes and toys, and a stroller, out to the car.

“I hope you can find something for Derek without too much delay,” Carleen told Eve pleasantly.

Craig nodded. “Life will be a lot easier for them when they’re in a house instead of a hotel.”

Where was the acrimony that usually existed in recently divorced couples? Eve wondered. Not that there was a residual attraction between them, either. The only love Carleen and Derek seemed to harbor for each other was the old-and-trusted-friends variety. Although why that would be a relief to Eve, she didn’t know. She was just helping Derek buy a house, not becoming part of this unorthodox situation.

Eve returned Carleen’s and Craig’s smiles. She dipped her head in acquiescence, promising, “I’ll do my very best.”

* * *

“ANYONE EVER TELL you that you have the patience of a saint?” Derek asked several hours later, as he paced the length of his two-bedroom hotel suite, his drowsy daughter in his arms.

He had shed the suit and tie shortly after they’d walked in, emerging from the bedroom in a pair of worn jeans and the same pale blue dress shirt he’d had on earlier. With the first two buttons undone, sleeves rolled to just below the elbow and the hem untucked, he looked casual and at ease. Having gotten a glimpse of the man he was in his off hours, Eve liked what she saw. It also gave her hope that she would eventually be able to connect with him on a more congenial level, and talk some sense into him when it came to looking for a place to call home.

In the meanwhile, Tiffany had resisted being tucked in, so Derek was now “walking” her to sleep. It seemed to be working, Eve noted, as she watched the little girl lay her head on his broad shoulder and slowly close her eyes.

Eve smiled as Tiffany yawned again and cuddled even closer against her daddy’s big strong frame. Eve sighed despite herself. Was there anything more compelling than watching a man tenderly care for a child?

Abruptly aware that Derek was watching her as intently as she was watching him, Eve brushed aside the fantasies he’d been engendering all evening and reassured him with a smile. “Not to worry. Adjusting my schedule to my client’s is a necessary component of my vocation.”

She hadn’t planned to be there through Tiffany’s dinner and bath, but it had given her time to get better acquainted with Derek and his daughter and intermittently ask him questions about what he wanted in a home. Which in turn gave her a better idea what properties to show him.

Noting his daughter was now sound asleep, Derek carried her into the adjacent bedroom and set her ever so gently down in her crib. He paused to cover her with a blanket, and then returned to the living room. With his dark hair attractively mussed, the hint of evening beard rimming his handsome face and his long legs emphasized by close-fitting jeans, he was the epitome of masculinity. And way too sexy for her own good, Eve reminded herself.

He plucked the bottle of sparkling water from the room service tray, filled two glasses and added ice, then handed her one. “Ready to get down to business?”

She accepted the beverage with a smile. “Let’s do it.”

She brought up the map of Highland Park on her computer. The town was three miles north of the center of Dallas, and only 2.26 square miles in size. Yet it had approximately 8,900 residents, most living in very luxurious and expensive homes. “Exactly how close do you want to be to your ex-wife’s place?”

Shrugging in response, he pulled up a chair beside her at the desk. He turned it around and sank onto it, his long limbs on either side of the seat, his arms folded over the back. After a moment of deliberation, he slanted Eve a glance. “Next door wouldn’t be bad.”

She turned toward him so abruptly her stocking-clad knee brushed his denim-clad thigh. A flicker of sensation swept through her. “Seriously?”

He lifted his shoulders in another shrug. “Just because Carleen and I are divorced doesn’t mean we can’t give Tiffany the same level of familial happiness she would have enjoyed had we stayed together.” He studied Eve over the rim of his glass. “You don’t believe that can happen?”

She paused, not sure how to answer that. “You two seem to get along great.”

Her caution made him smile and search her eyes. “And you think that’s weird.”

Eve wanted to deny it. But she sensed if she was less than honest, she would lose him as a client. She shifted so they were no longer in danger of touching, and leaned back in her seat. “I think it’s commendable.”

He waited, still studying her.

Eve gulped some water, aware she was going to have to open up even more. “And...unusual,” she said finally.

She lowered her eyes to the strong column of his throat and the tufts of springy, dark brown hair beneath his collarbone, then quickly looked back up. Clearing her throat, Eve tried for diplomacy. “I’m not married. Never have been. But from what I’ve seen, sharing custody can be really challenging.”

He lifted a brow. “You mean ugly.”

“Or just plain difficult.” She shrugged, still feeling as if she were walking through a minefield, courtesy of Derek McCabe. “Given that there are so many emotions involved in these kinds of situations...”

His gaze drifted over her face slowly, before returning to her eyes. “You’re wondering why I’m okay with my wife remarrying.”

Was she that easy to read? And why did she, a consummate professional who made a point these days to keep her personal feelings out of every business situation, really want to know? Telling herself it would help her find the right home for him if she knew more about the overall situation, she shifted a little closer. “Are you?”

He nodded, then rose and walked back to the room service table where several desserts sat untouched. He picked up a plate and gestured for her to have at it, too. “Maybe if Carleen and I had been head over heels in love, I’d feel differently.”

He’d chosen the slice of coconut cake garnished with berries. Eve picked up the crème brûlée.

He settled himself on the sofa. She selected an adjacent wingback chair and spread a napkin over her lap. “But you weren’t in love?” This was getting more interesting by the moment.

Derek exhaled, regret sharpening his handsome features. “We were really great friends from the moment we met at Harvard Business School. We both worked in the financial sector, and wanted the same things, including high-powered careers—and kids. And we figured if you were going to have a family, you should be married.”

“So you tied the knot.”

Savoring another bite of cake, he nodded. “For the first couple of years it was great. We moved back to Texas, where our families were from. We had work and each other. And then Carleen and I met Craig. One of Carleen’s coworkers, he had recently lost his wife to cancer. Needless to say, our hearts went out to him. We started helping him with his brood of kids whenever we could. But I was traveling a lot with my job then, so Carleen spent more time over there.” There was a long silence. “The experience made her really want children, so we started working on a family of our own. She had just found out she was pregnant when I walked in one day and saw the way they looked at each other.”

Eve’s heart stilled. She paused, her spoon halfway through the sugary crust on her crème brûlée. “They were having an affair?” She couldn’t fathom that, remembering the two people she’d met earlier.

Putting his empty plate aside, Derek exhaled roughly and clamped a hand to the back of his neck. “No, they were both too principled for that. But it was clear to me that Carleen was in love with Craig, the way she never had been with me.” He paused, rubbing the tense muscles.

Eve watched Derek rummage around for a coffee cup. Finding one, he filled it from the decanter on the room service tray. “You must have been devastated,” she said.

The look on his face said he had been. “I thought about ignoring it,” he confided quietly, coming back to sit on the sofa. “Just hoping and praying whatever it was they were obviously feeling would fade.”

Eve remembered that they had separated early in Carleen’s pregnancy. “But you didn’t do that.”

He shrugged and turned his eyes back to hers, a mixture of remorse and acceptance visible there. “I realized I couldn’t live a lie for the rest of my life. So I asked Carleen about it, and she finally admitted what I had already observed. That, in an ideal world, she probably would have ended up with Craig...but she was married to me, and she intended to stay married to me.”

“You disagreed?”

He gestured with a weariness that seemed to come from deep in his soul. “Pretending feelings don’t exist doesn’t mean they aren’t there. I wanted Carleen to be happy. And I knew she belonged with Craig.”

That was gallant. But... “You weren’t the least bit jealous?”

He rubbed his jaw in a rueful manner, then drawled, “Let’s just say I wanted what they were having for myself.”

That made sense, Eve thought. Everyone was entitled to the love of a lifetime. Whether or not a person ever actually achieved that was a different matter entirely.

“So, the two of us split up,” Derek continued. “I stayed involved with the pregnancy and was there for the birth. For propriety’s sake, we waited to finalize our divorce until Tiffany was six months old. A short engagement followed. And then Craig and Carleen got married in late October and relocated from Houston to Dallas—so that Carleen could have a job with greater flexibility. I made arrangements to follow suit.”

Eve studied the attractive man sitting opposite her. He really was one of the most honorable men she had ever met. But she couldn’t help but wonder if all that selflessness came with a price.

* * *

DEREK WASN’T SURE why he was talking about any of this. He certainly didn’t need to tell Eve about his broken marriage in order for her to find him a suitable home. And yet there was something about the way she looked at him, as if she wanted to understand—not just the situation, but get to know him in a way few did—that had started him talking, and kept him talking when he should have stopped.

“This is the point where you tell me I should have made the most of my ex’s foibles and fought for full custody of my kid,” he said cavalierly, wanting to see her gut reaction to his situation. To find out if she was as skeptical and disapproving as his family and friends had been. Emotional affairs, many had pointed out to him, were a lot more destructive than sex with someone outside the marriage. For that alone he was owed full custody.

Eve looked puzzled. “How would that have benefited Tiffany? She needs a mommy and a daddy, doesn’t she?”

Glad to see she wasn’t the vengeful type, Derek nodded gratefully.

“And you work full-time. And probably still travel,” Eve continued.

“Although less than I did before,” he said.

She compressed her lips, then took her last bite of crème brûlée and set the dish aside. “Having parents who rue each other’s very existence is no help to anyone, believe me.”

As interested in Eve as she apparently was in him, Derek sat back in his chair and sipped his coffee. “And you know that because...?”

She got up and poured herself a cup of coffee, too. “My father wanted nothing to do with me, not when I was a kid or after I grew up.”

Derek winced. “Wow. That’s harsh.”

Eve added cream, then sprinkled in a packet of sugar. She stirred the coffee, tasted it, then went back and sat down at the other end of the couch. “You get used to it. For a lot of years, I wished my mother and my biological father had gotten along. Then I began to accept that if they had no use for each other, it was really better that we never saw him. You, on the other hand, have managed to stay friends with your ex and her new husband. The fact you do get along can only benefit all seven of the kids involved.”

Her ready understanding boosted Derek’s morale. “So you don’t think I was a fool?”

Eve shook her head. “I think you were noble.” She flashed him an encouraging smile and continued to hold his gaze as she sipped her coffee. “No, I think you were realistic, that you did the right thing for everyone.”

Not sure when he had enjoyed a woman’s company this much, he smiled back at her. “Thanks.”

“So.” Her expression determined, Eve rose gracefully and headed to the desk where she’d set up her laptop computer. “Back to the house-hunting.”

When Derek joined her, she glanced up at him from the computer. “I don’t want to waste your time, but I really want you to look at more than one home.” Before he could object, she continued firmly, “There are three immediately available properties in your stated price range in Highland Park, within a two-mile radius of Tiffany’s other home. I’ve emailed you the specs on all three, to peruse at your leisure. Two are having unadvertised open houses tomorrow afternoon, for qualified buyers only. The other is available only by appointment. Would you like to hit all three at once tomorrow?”

Derek did—for reasons that didn’t have as much to do with house-hunting as they should. “We’ll have to take Tiffany with us,” he warned.

Eve’s expression softened in a way that let him know what a good mother she would be one day. “Shouldn’t be a problem,” she assured him confidently.

Derek watched her put her laptop back in the case. “Can we do it after her afternoon nap, say, at two-thirty?”

“Absolutely.” Eve gathered up her belongings and headed for the door.

Derek walked with her. She hesitated in the entry, and for a brief moment he was tempted to kiss her. As if sensing it, Eve drew away. “I’ll see you then,” she said briskly, before moving off down the hall.

* * *

“YOU’RE LOOKING A lot better,” Eve told her mother happily the next morning after arriving at the hospital to visit her.

Marjorie accepted with a smile the stack of magazines Eve had brought her. “How are things going with Derek McCabe?”

A little too well on the personal side, Eve thought uncomfortably. She moved a chair closer to the bed and sank into it. “We’re looking at three properties this afternoon.” Marjorie, who had every luxury listing in the area memorized, considered the plan thoughtfully as her daughter specified which ones they were seeing. “Is he going to be easy or difficult to please?”

In what way? Eve pushed the unexpectedly amorous thought aside. “It’s too soon to tell.” All she knew for certain was that Derek had an enormous capacity for giving—to the point he probably had Christmas in his heart all year long. And Eve envied him that. She had trouble getting into the holiday spirit at all.

Marjorie paused. “I know I’ve said this before, but...be careful. I don’t want to see you hurt.”

Eve clasped her mom’s hand, happy that she didn’t seem as weak and fragile as she had the day before. “Believe me, I don’t want to be hurt, either.” One devastating love affair had been enough to last her a lifetime.

“You don’t need a man in your life to be happy,” her mother continued.

Oh, how well Eve knew that. She squeezed her mother’s fingers. “You don’t have to worry about it, Mom. Derek is just a client. I’m his real estate agent.” She paused to let her words sink in. “And nothing more.”

It didn’t matter how physically and emotionally attracted she was to him, she thought. At the end of the transaction, she and Derek would go their separate ways. And that would be that.

Chapter Three

“Not exactly what you had in mind, hmm?” Eve asked Derek as they left house number two and headed down the long curving stone walk to his car. It was a beautiful December day with clear blue skies, and warm enough that only light jackets were required.

Derek turned to her. He had showered and shaved before meeting her, and he smelled of sandalwood and pine. “I’ve been in nice homes before, lots of them.”

“But no open houses where free Botox injections were offered?”

He mimed a shudder and moved closer, the sunlight picking up the mahogany in his short dark hair. “I know plastic surgery and other enhancements are popular in Dallas,” he said in a low voice. “But to do it as part of an open house...”

“A bit tacky?” she asked wryly.

“You got that right.” He shifted Tiffany to his other arm while he fished for his keys.

Seeing he needed assistance, Eve held out her arms. She expected the tyke to slide into them as easily as she had the day before. Instead, Tiffany turned away and buried her face in her daddy’s shoulder.

“Sorry,” Derek murmured.

“No problem,” Eve returned easily. She was about to offer to help him reach his keys, but slipping her fingers into the jeans pocket adjacent to his fly did not seem like the best idea. She turned away to survey the beautifully landscaped lawn.

With Tiffany cuddled on his shoulder, Derek fished some more. He finally got what he needed and unlocked the doors. While he put Tiffany in her car seat, Eve slid into the passenger side of the Jaguar.

Yet another anomaly in this situation.

Normally, she drove clients around.

But since Tiffany’s car seat was already in his SUV, and they were apparently a hassle to put in correctly, Derek preferred to do the driving.

He settled himself behind the wheel, grabbed his designer shades and adjusted them over his eyes. Which was a shame, Eve thought, because now she wouldn’t be able to use his gaze to intuit what he was thinking; she’d have to rely on his body language and tone of voice to try to figure him out.

Stifling a sigh, she put on her own sunglasses to guard against the glare.

Derek stretched his right arm along the back of the front seats, turned to make sure all was clear and reversed out of the drive. “As if that Botox party wasn’t weird enough...what was with the free massages at that first place?” He put the car in gear, then sat idling while Eve punched the address of their next possibility into the GPS built into the dashboard.

“It was part of the promotion for the property,” Eve explained. “A way to get qualified buyers, ones who can afford a seven-or eight-million-dollar home, out to see it.”

Derek drove off when the suggested route popped up on the screen. Shortly thereafter, he made the first turn. “The thinking being, if you actually tried out the home gym and the pool and the sport court, and then had a free massage...” He waited for a traffic jam on Mockingbird Lane to clear.

“And a catered lunch in the gourmet kitchen.” Noticing her skirt had ridden up slightly on her thigh, Eve discreetly tugged it down. “You’d be hooked.”

He shrugged. “It might work. If that was what you wanted.” The home had a billiard room and a home theater, swimming pool and crowd-sized hot tub.

“I’m guessing it was too much of a bachelor pad for your taste.” Even though it had been just down the street from his ex.

“It didn’t exactly spell family,” he agreed drily.

Eve brought out the specs she had previously sent him. She refreshed his memory with a few photos from the sales brochure while they sat at a stoplight. “You may like the next one.”

“Daddy!”

Derek glanced at his daughter via the rearview mirror. She looked ready to start fussing at any moment. “Hi, honey,” he said, turning around to smile at her briefly, before picking up the conversation where they’d left off. “I hope so,” he stated quietly. “Tiffany’s been a trouper, but she’s really tired.”

Unfortunately, the next property elicited as many frowns and scowls from both Derek and his little girl as the first two had. Luckily, there was no open house going on, so they were free to talk frankly. “What is it you don’t like about it?” Eve asked, trying to get a handle on what it was Derek truly wanted in a home.

He walked around the huge rooms.

Part of the estate of a late oil tycoon, it had been built in the early eighties, and recently staged and updated in sophisticated neutral palettes.

“Let me count the ways,” he said, placating the little girl he held in his arms with the baby bottle of apple juice he’d brought in with them. “The marble floors are way too cold and hard. The floor plan is awful, and I think the spiral staircase could be dangerous for a kid.”

Okay, Eve noted, that was a start.

She edged closer. “It’s five streets over from your ex’s home. The staircase could be replaced. And it has a nice big backyard with a fence, and room for a really nice play set.”

Finished with her juice, Tiffany pushed the empty baby bottle at Eve, then reached out and touched Eve’s hair. The little girl smiled as she got a fistful, and held on tight.

Afraid to move, Eve smiled back at her and stayed very still.

Derek came to the rescue, his touch tender as he extricated her from his daughter. Which in turn made Eve wonder what kind of lover he would be. Probably excellent, if her feminine intuition was any indication. Not that she should be thinking this way...