Baby's First Christmas

He rubbed a light finger down her arm. “I don’t think so, Jessie T. You’re possibly a case, but I also think you’re a damn sexy woman who just needs the right man to unlock all your secrets. And I have to warn you—I’m pretty darn good at knowing just how a woman likes her lock picked.”

SEVERAL HOURS later it was time to stop for gas. After Zach had bragged about his prowess with women, Jessie turned on the radio and lost herself in her thoughts. Much of what he’d said bothered her—though she would never admit that she’d simply slept with him to avenge herself on her ex. The thought had crossed her mind, of course, but she didn’t have to do that to make herself feel better. The simple act of walking away from him had washed away any need for salving her hurt feelings.

The truth was, attraction had surged inside her fast and hot the second she realized Zach had every intention of seducing her. Her answer had been yes, yes, yes. The focus of her body had been entirely in the here-now-more with Zach.

Her desire for a baby with her ex had been a misplaced sense of emptiness she’d been trying to fill. She knew that and more about herself now. Thanks to the cowboy, she could move past all those feelings of confusion and concentrate on growing as a person and as a woman.

“I don’t need change as much as I used to now,” she said. “I don’t have to beautify everything.”

“Yeah, you do,” Zach replied, his voice muffled by his hat.

“I was always afraid of letting people down, so I learned to fake everything. I’m never faking again.”

“I have to worry about a woman who admits to being a fake. I’d almost worry about our sex life except I know for damn sure you weren’t faking anything then.”

He didn’t have to sound so proud. “You never know. A woman who’s had as much practice as I have at faking might be very good at it. Super-convincing.”

Grunting, he shoved his hat off his face. “Want me to drive? You’ve been driving for four hours solid.”

“I like driving this beat-up Chevy,” Jessie replied, happy to tweak him.

“Jessie, there are certain things I would never do in my life,” he began, his voice full of that pompous confidence she had begun to recognize and maybe even admire. “Drive a Chevy is one.”

“Really?” she asked, as if she hadn’t known he was going to get crazy over her remark.

“Second, I would never let a woman annoy me.” Zach took her black sunglasses from her face. “I’m damn tired of not being able to see your big baby blues.”

“Give me those.”

“Nope,” Zach said happily, sticking them inside her carpetbag. “Take you a week to find those now that they’re safe inside the loch.”

“The loch?”

“A deep, mysterious lake. This purse is symbolic of the loch in your life. You could hide a baby inside this bag, actually,” he said, holding it up with wonder, “and lots of other secrets, which is how you operate your life, I’m betting. You know what, I’ve had saddlebags smaller than this handbag.”

“You’re obsessed with my purse.”

“But the question is, is it a purse or a suitcase? For the woman who’s always prepared to run from the first sight of danger?”

She pursed her lips, fully aware he was probing her for information. “Zach, I’m a simple girl. You’re making this too hard.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-eight.”

“Just a baby.”

She conducted a mental eye roll or two to allow herself to stay calm. “How old are you, grandpa?”

“Twenty-eight.”

She laughed. “And Duke?”

“Thirty. Pepper’s twenty-seven. She’s the pistol of the family.”

“I liked meeting her. She seems very level-headed. And somehow sad.”

“Sad? Pepper’s not sad. Pepper’s the smartest one of the family.”

She had definitely picked up on some wistfulness in Pepper’s personality. “Zach, while we’re at the convention in Los Rios—”

“Which I’m looking forward to, by the way.”

“Maybe you could find something to do locally.”

“Nah. I know one of the convention speakers and I’m hoping for a front-row seat.”

She didn’t think that was such a good idea. “There aren’t as many women at the conventions as you think there are.”

“Oh.” He touched her hair. “I had a horse once with hair the color of yours. Very shiny.”

“I suppose that’s a compliment.”

“But you’ve got all this stiff stuff in your hair today, and your lashes suddenly look like spider legs,” he said, drawing near to inspect her. “And there’s a lot of red gloss on your lips.”

She frowned. “So?”

“So it bugs me. You look like you’re hiding the real you. Like you’re in costume or something. So is this convention for the grand poobahs of fakers? Because I thought you were giving up on that stuff.”

He was in for a big surprise. “Zach, you should call and check on my car.”

“I’ll do that when we get to the convention. I’m sure I’ll have time between seminars.”

She shook her head. “You’re not going to any seminars.”

“I’m not?”

“No,” she said, knowing she didn’t want Zach that much in her life. There needed to be a fine line between what she did and who she knew. Not every family was homespun like his, not every community was apple-pie sweet. “Here’s where you and I part ways.” She parked the truck outside the hotel, handed him the key and grabbed her carpetbag. “Happy trails, Zach.”

Chapter Five

“Zach decided to accompany Jessie at her convention,” Pansy told Helen. “And Pepper just called to tell me that she abandoned him—left him high and dry in Los Rios.”

Helen cocked her head. They sat inside the Tulips Saloon, the spot of many a cozy meeting and many a scheme. It was a wonderful second home for the women of the town. They were proud of the tea shop they’d created. Once a lackluster cafeteria with few customers, they’d overridden Duke’s objections to calling it a saloon and decided to make a gamble for the tourist trade. “I knew that girl had spunk. I knew she was right for our town the minute I laid eyes on her.”

Pansy dusted off the chairs with a tea towel. “She’s a bit fancy.”

“Zach needs fancy. It will be good for him.” Helen smiled. “Those Forrester kids always liked whatever was completely opposite from their own personal experience.”

That had been true in Liberty and Duke’s case. Duke was stubborn, and Liberty was…stubborn…Helen pursed her lips. “Or maybe they like their own mirror image.”

“Then that would make Jessie all wrong.” Pansy got a fresh tea towel and began polishing silver sleigh-shaped vases. She’d bought pretty red flowers to go in the vases for color and to spiff up the ambiance of the Saloon. “There’s definitely something going on between those two that is different from Zach’s usual pattern, and I suspect he’s interested in her or he wouldn’t have gone with her.”

“Yes,” Helen said thoughtfully. “But if she left him in Los Rios, what’s he going to do now?”

“He’s on his way home, according to Pepper. And not happy about it, either. She said he was all set to learn about the life of a princess.”

“It sounds like there’s an edge to those words,” Helen said. “I found Jessie very down-to-earth.”

“Yes,” Pansy agreed. “But still, she’s definitely not the type to settle in Tulips, Helen.”

Helen frowned, unwilling to concede that point and yet wondering if her good friend was right. She’d taken a shine to Jessie, she had to admit.

“Remember the goal is to grow Tulips,” Pansy said gently. “Duke says it has to be done organically. No bachelor cattle drives.”

“Oh, what does Duke know?” Helen had given up on the idea of the bachelor balls when Duke had decided to go along with Zach’s idea of building a new elementary school. Zach had wanted to bulldoze the Tulips Saloon, and Duke had saved her precious tearoom from that fate. Zach had gotten his way about the elementary school—a very good idea but Helen only admitted that secretly—and in return, Helen had to give up her schemes for bringing men to Tulips.

But with so many single women in the town, it was hard to grow Tulips without males, and doing it organically might not be possible. Certainly not quick. Zach had dated most of the appropriate females around these parts and none of them had gotten him as far as Houston, much less Los Rios. “We have to work with what we have sometimes, Pansy.” She considered her words for a moment. “Do you remember the first rush of being in love?”

Pansy put down her tea towel in surprise. “I remember madness and delight and anticipation.”

Helen’s cheeks pinked. “So do I. I also remember that the wonder of love was that it didn’t have any rhyme or reason to it.”

“Yes,” Pansy said, “the emotions were simply there. They existed no matter how much I couldn’t believe them or understand them.”

“Which would perhaps point to why a woman would leave a handsome man stranded in a strange town.”

“Not stranded,” Pansy said. “She left him his truck, after all.”

“True. We may not have gotten the whole story.”

“I’m worried about her car,” Pansy admitted. “Something seems fishy about Zach sending Jessie’s car to Holt, our lovable hairdresser.”

“Holt is wonderful with mechanics. He loves cars! Particularly vintage and special cars. He’ll do a wonderful job for Jessie.”

“Yes,” Pansy said, sinking slowly into a Queen Anne antique chair with cherry blossom design. “Except that Holt never got the car.”

Helen blinked. “Holt doesn’t have Jessie’s T-bird?”

“No.” Pansy raised her chin. “I asked him what was wrong with Jessie’s car, and he said he didn’t have a pink T-bird, nor had he ever met a Jessie. Nor had Zach called him about fixing any kind of vehicle.”

“Oh, my,” Helen said. “This is not good.”

“I only gently suggest that we mind whom we claim is leaving whom high and dry.”

“Point taken. This is a tasty dilemma,” Helen said. “Poor Jessie.”

Pansy sighed. “I do believe so.”

“We’re going to need the boys for this one,” Helen said, and Pansy nodded.

“As inept as they are, they are the perfect ones to ferret out the male dynamic for us.”

“And Jessie’s car, to be sure,” Helen said. “We must always fortify the position of the female.” She reached for the phone. “I will call in the spies, such as they deem themselves.”

Pansy smiled. “I love living in Tulips.”

BUG CARMINE, self-annointed parade master of Tulips—if they could ever talk Duke into letting them have a parade—and Hiram, who lived in the cell Sheriff Duke presided over by choice, stared at the fancy pink car hidden in one of the Forrester’s barns.

“That’s some set of wheels,” Bug commented. “Mrs. Carmine would like to take a spin in that.”

“Looks like a sin-mobile to me,” Hiram said. “In my day, girls that drove something like that would have been the ones you wouldn’t take home to Mother.”

“Yeah.” Bug placed the cover carefully over it again. “Now that we’ve found it, we have to make a decision. Either we tell the ladies it’s here and they bust Zach, or we say we didn’t find it, and let matters really get hot in Tulips.”

“Can’t put ‘Here Lives A Car Thief’ on a town billboard.” Hiram shook his head. “Still, I like the idea of putting one over on the TSG. What crime has Zach committed anyway? It’s good that he likes a girl enough to steal her car.”

Bug sniffed. “In my day, we sent flowers as a token of our affection.”

“These are different times,” Hiram said, “as you should know from what the Tulips Saloon Gang regularly put us through.”

“There is that,” Bug agreed. “We can’t tell on Zach. Bringing the TSG down on his head—well, I couldn’t stand to see that happen to him.”

“Yeah, they’re still mad at him for his idea to bulldoze the saloon and make an elementary school out of it.” They walked out of the barn and closed the door. “As far as I’m concerned, I never saw a thing,” Hiram said.

“Nor me.” Bug shook his friend’s hand.

“My conscience is clear,” Hiram said with satisfaction as they walked away. “I do love keeping secrets from the gals, and tonight, I’ll sleep like a baby with my conscience for a blanket.”

TO ZACH’S SURPRISE, days passed without any word from Jessie. When the weeks slipped into December and he still hadn’t heard a word from her about her beloved car, he knew he had a big problem on his hands.

A tulip-pink convertible land yacht wasn’t easy to hide. It was only a matter of time before Duke or Pepper went into that outlying barn for something. Duke was busy with Liberty and the new baby, and Pepper was busy doing whatever she was doing, but time wouldn’t be on Zach’s side forever.

He couldn’t believe Jessie hadn’t returned for her car. He’d thought he was being so smart, so in control of the situation.

Of course, he should have known better when Jessie asked the convention security to have him blocked from the site under the guise of it being for women only, a trick she had eerily in common with Pansy and Helen and the other TSG members. He’d hung around until the convention was over but he’d never caught another glimpse of Jessie. The people at the checkout desk had been supremely unhelpful, but he’d finally bribed a young clerk into telling him that the entire mascara-and-lipstick crowd was long gone. The president, the clerk had told him in a whisper, had left by helicopter.

No wonder he hadn’t seen Jessie escape. He’d only been patrolling the glass-and-brass hotel doors, not the rooftop.

Maybe she’d never return and he’d have a lifetime souvenir of the one golden afternoon they’d shared. He’d forever remember how he’d worried that she’d give him a child, and she’d given him a vehicle instead. Not to mention that it was a completely inappropriate ride for him to be seen driving, so she’d cornered him in a lose-lose situation that would do nothing except color his reputation pink or get him in deep brown with Duke.

“Okay, you win,” he muttered under his breath. “Just come get your damn car before Duke finds it.”

JESSIE LOVED spending the weeks leading up to the holidays on the road. Her job was glamorous and fun. She loved to travel. Meeting people and helping women to look their best was her favorite part of the job, especially at this time of the year. This was her moment to help ladies shine, like ornaments that stayed in storage all year and came out radiant for the holiday season.

Hopefully, what she taught them stayed with them the rest of the year, too. That hope of helping women was what she’d built her position on at her company, and was the driving factor behind its success today.

Hot pink was the color of her life.

Her parents had known that when they’d chosen her car, her promotion gift. No mere heiress’s job, her father had said that her vision held the direction the company needed.

She looked at her best friend as they sat in the living room of her suite at the world-class hotel her parents owned. Fran Carter was also her secretary and together the two of them had cooked up this year’s special holiday look. It had almost been glittering and fabulous enough to keep her mind off a certain cowboy, but Jessie hadn’t forgotten him despite the miles she’d put between them.

It would be impossible to forget Zach.

“So, Jessie T.,” Fran said, curling up on a coffee-colored suede sofa, “we know all about how to cry so your mascara won’t run and your fakies won’t fall off, and how to make things look a helluva lot prettier than they really are. But I don’t know a makeup trick for what you need.”

Jessie shook her head. “The thing is,” Jessie said slowly, “I think I would have fallen for Zach no matter what. He was pretty smooth for a man who grew up far away from sophisticated surroundings.”

Fran nodded. “You could call him.”

“I really can’t,” Jessie said. “If I do, he’ll think I’m just looking for my car.”

“It was a helluva calling card you left him,” Fran said. “Eventually, he’d understand that your call wasn’t completely about your vehicle.”

“I’d never met anyone as stubborn as Zach. I’m afraid I didn’t exercise good judgment in leaving him behind. My feet seemed to take flight of their own accord.” No man had ever made her feel that nervous before, and escape had seemed the logical and only action.

“You’ve always put your job first,” Fran said. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. So you had a fling. It’s completely understandable.” She giggled. “Although out of character, I’ll admit.”

Jessie looked out the window at the skyline of the city. It was beautiful in Dallas, and she loved living here. But…“This is not where I want to raise a child,” she said quietly.

“I know,” Fran said. “Which is the real reason he’ll know you calling is not about the car.”

“His worst nightmare,” Jessie murmured. “He told me so more than once.”

Fran nodded. “We all have nightmares eventually.”

Jessie touched her stomach. His nightmare was actually her dream come true.

At least part of her dream.

Chapter Six

It was a cold December this year, with gray twilight skies leading into dark nights. Zach hung candy canes on the Christmas tree in the Forrester living room rather morosely, thinking that Duke’s child was too young to appreciate the decorations, and nobody but him seemed to carry on the holiday spirit.

Only this year, his holiday spirit had been flagging. Even a visit from the ghost of Christmases past would have livened things up a bit for him.

The ghost he’d least expected to appear got out of a yellow taxi and turned toward the house, catching him gawking out the window at her. His breath completely left him as Jessie waved hello.

She’s come to get her car, Zach thought, squashing the relief rushing through him that Jessie had returned to Tulips. The doorbell rang. Zach dashed a hand through his hair, wished he was clean-shaven and decided he didn’t care what had brought her back. He just thanked his lucky Christmas stars he was going to get to lay eyes on her one more time.

She’d scared him by leaving his pink ransommobile so long without even a call to check up on it.

He jerked open the door.

She looked at him silently.

“Do I know you?” he asked, trying to be funny. So many emotions rushed through him that he lost his place in his be-cool script.

“In the biblical sense,” Jessie said, strolling into his living room. “Neither of us knows each other in any other sense, of course.”

He’d forgotten how his wit never disarmed her—she could come right back with her own zinger. “I’m surprised you could find your way back here without a trail of bread crumbs or something.”

She pulled a checked cashmere scarf from her neck. “The taxi driver didn’t have any trouble finding the Forrester ranch.”

She wouldn’t even admit that she knew exactly where he lived—er, where her car was. He narrowed his gaze on her. “Make yourself at home, I guess, since you’re here.”

“Thank you.” Sitting gingerly across from the tree, she studied his efforts. “Just getting started?”

He’d been at this chore all afternoon. “Yes. I suppose your tree is up and looks like Mrs. Claus decorated it personally.”

Jessie blinked. “I never did ask you how Brahma Bud was. I hope he didn’t suffer any effects from hitting my car.”

Zach crossed his arms, taking in the delicate bones of her face and the gentle lines of her features. “You hit him, as I recall. He was minding his own business, entirely unaware that females driving pink cars might be bad for his health.”

“So he’s fine.”

Zach sighed. “Yes. Thank you for asking.”

She nodded. “I was worried about him.”

“So worried that you called. Say, did you know that some people actually leave a building by helicopter when they’re avoiding someone?”

Jessie stood. “I’ve come at a bad time. If I could just have my car keys—”

“Certainly.” Reaching into a cabinet in the living room, he pulled out the keys and handed them to her. “And now that you have what you want, let me show you to your car. I think you’ll find that it’s been kept in the very best possible condition.”

“Zach—”

He turned. “The car is this way. I’ll drive you to the barn. I’m sure your schedule doesn’t allow you much time to sit and chat.”

She looked at him for a long moment. “No. It doesn’t,” she finally said. “And I’d like to pay a visit to the ladies before it gets any later.”

He raised a brow, surprised. “Pansy and Helen?”

“Well, yes,” Jessie said. “I don’t expect to be coming this way again, and I’d like to say hello.”

Of course she wouldn’t come through Tulips again. His heart began a restless pounding as he considered his options, which appeared few and unfortunate. As in none. He couldn’t keep her here: he’d already tried that and she’d shown a remarkable ability to outwit him. He’d tried romance, but she hadn’t been exactly banging down his bedroom door to throw herself into his den of sexual pleasure again. A normal woman would, he told himself sourly, just to keep his pride from ebbing away. “Are you hungry?” he asked suddenly. The silence had stretched long, he was out of options and blurting anything, even the offer of a hamburger, was his brain’s desperate appeal to keep her with him another moment or two.

“I am,” she said solemnly. “Are you?”

If she was hungry, he was hungry. Whatever it took. “Ravenous,” he said. “I could eat a horse. And the barn.”

Jessie looked at him. “I seem to be eating more lately.”

Her eyes widened. He glanced down the length of her body, admiring her pretty red coat, her winter boots and pantsuit of some soft fabric which went well with her whiskey-colored hair. “You look great to me,” he said. “If you’re eating more, it’s certainly going in the right places.” Her breasts looked great, he thought. Her figure was curvaceous, perhaps a bit curvier than he remembered, but heck, at the time he hadn’t been paying as much attention to the form as the opportunity to…his gaze shot to hers. “Everybody seems to eat more during the holidays.”

She nodded slowly, her eyes holding his.

His heart began to beat hard in his chest, nearly stealing his breath, almost painfully choking it from him. “You wouldn’t be trying to tell me in your refined way that you’re…eating more because you’re eating for two, would you?” he asked, his whole body tensing as he watched her eyes.

Her gaze dropped for just an instant, but in that instant he knew that he had followed in his brother Duke’s footsteps. “I’ll be damned,” he murmured, trying to sort out how he felt. Delighted, devastated, shocked, scared—

“Actually, three,” she said quietly, her eyes moving back to catch his.

He blinked. “Three what?”

She shrugged. “I’m eating for three. Me, and the twins. Merry Christmas, Zach.”

JESSIE WATCHED as Zach sat heavily, his gaze locked on hers. Helplessness washed over her.

“So much for your method,” he said. “I could have said no, I could have worn a raincoat, but I fell for you like a starving man for food.”

She walked out the front door, keys in hand.

Catching her hand, he turned her toward him. “What’s your hurry? Looks like we’re going to be spending a lifetime together, City.”

“It’s so annoying when you call me that,” she snapped, wishing she felt more relieved now that he knew but only feeling guilt. “My name is Jessie.”

“And a wonderful name it is, gorgeous.” He kissed her on the lips, surprising her so much she didn’t pull away. “We’ll be naming the twins together.”

She hadn’t thought that far ahead. Names had not been high on her list of priorities—figuring out how to tell Zach had been first. “You could take one, and I’ll take the other.”

“Nah.” He gave her stomach a mischievous eyeing. “Two? How are they both going to fit in that little tiny tummy? Two of my big, strapping sons?” He put a hand on her still-flat stomach. “If they’re anything like Duke and me, they’re going to be fighting for space constantly.”