Laura Marie - Baby's First Christmas

“I did not,” she said. “If I’d loved him, why would I be sitting in a Ford?”

He mulled that. “Perhaps you said Ford in a slightly disdainful tone.”

She laughed.

He noticed irritation slipping into his comfort zone. “Fords are the kings of the road, I’ll have you know.”

There was no response to his allegation. No argument, no comment, nada. He rolled his eyes. “If you’re going to have my baby, you’re going to have to understand a few things.”

“I am not having your child,” Jessie said. “As much as I wanted a baby, I would not want to make one with you.”

Rubbing his chin, he said, “So you’re not going to claim your pregnancy is a result of wanting to catch me?”

“I don’t think so. And who says I’m pregnant?”

She’d become so saucy. Snooty, even.

“I wouldn’t even be talking to you right now if you hadn’t stolen my car,” she said. “Never mind claiming you as the father.”

“Aha! You admit it! You wouldn’t have told me if I’d given you a baby.”

“I would have told you,” Jessie said, “but it wouldn’t have mattered to me. I wasn’t trying to catch any old guy just to get over my broken heart.”

“I thought you said you weren’t in love with him.”

“Oh.” She glanced at him, her lovely eyes hidden by the dark glasses. “My ego was bruised like any normal woman’s would be.”

“That’s code to mean you did love him.” Zach thought about that. “So you slept with me on the rebound. Revenge lust.”

“Oh, hell no,” Jessie said, laughing. “I just—”

He waited, watching the smile slip from her face.

“Well, it’s one or the other,” he said. “Either you slept with me to subconsciously avenge your boyfriend’s treatment of you, or you are, in fact, attracted to me.”

“Maybe I was just having a bad-girl moment?”

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.”

“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.”