Laura Marie - Baby's First Christmas

“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.

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.”