Rebecca Winters - Christmas in Texas - Christmas Baby Blessings / The Christmas Rescue

“He gets around.” Seagal sighed. “I’ll tell Capri, although she’s on strict bed rest. I don’t know who she could interview in a hurry.”

“I’m working late every night, too,” Jade said. “I won’t let her down.”

He glanced around the shop, looking for anything out of place. “You don’t ever get anybody in here who’s not a customer?”

“Nope. Everybody needs something this time of year. The shop is booming.” The phone rang, and Jade went to pick it up. “Tell Capri hello for me.”

Nodding, he picked up the two arrangements, heading to his truck.

“Is love in the air?” someone asked him, and he put the arrangements in the truck bed before he turned to face Justin Morant.

“Hey,” Seagal said, surprised to see the rodeo champ in Bridesmaids Creek. He pounded Justin on the back with enthusiasm. “What are you doing back in town?”

“It’s the holidays,” Justin said, “and I’ll be leaving again as fast as I can.”

Seagal laughed. “I remember feeling that way.”

Justin raised a brow. “Something change around here?”

“No.” Seagal secured the arrangements and dusted off his hands. “It’s still small-town, gossip-at-the-speed-of-light, sweet Bridesmaids Creek. I just missed it.”

Justin eyed the flowers in the truck. “Looks like you missed something. Maybe not the town as much as your wife.”

“You’re probably right. Say hello to your folks for me, Justin. It’s good to see you.” He went to get into the truck, then a thought hit him. “If you’ve got five minutes to help me out, Capri’s on complete bed rest, and Jade Harper’s watching the shop for her. She had a ton of orders today and could use a deliveryman.”

And a strong male, in case anything strange happened.

Justin shrugged. “Be happy to help any way I can. Heard about the twins. Congratulations.”

“Who’d you hear it from?”

Justin grinned. “Everybody I’ve run into. Say hi to Capri for me. You sure were lucky when you roped that one.”

Seagal got into his truck and pulled away.

Yeah. He’d gotten very lucky.

But then his luck had run out.

* * *

“I’M SUSPICIOUS,” Capri told Kelly after Seagal left. “He’s being far too attentive.”

Kelly smiled and handed Capri a cup of hot tea. “He’s going to be a father. Anyway, you know Seagal has always been good with detail. It’s probably what moved him up so fast in the force.”

“There’s something else going on here,” Capri said. “You don’t know him like I do. Seagal never gets this focused unless there’s a case.”

“Isn’t it possible you’re his only case?” Kelly sipped at her own cup of steamy hot tea in a floral teacup. “This blackberry currant tea is fabulous.”

Capri shook her head. “It’s probably the pregnancy making me a little paranoid. Hormones going wild.” She put a hand on her stomach. “I think I’m having a bronc buster and a cheerleader.”

“Active, huh?” Kelly laughed. “Tell me again why you and Seagal decided to call it quits?”

Capri put her cup down. “I never got comfortable in the marriage, and I don’t think he did, either. I always felt like he still cared for Daisy, and Seagal said I didn’t trust him, and that bothered him.” She thought about it, remembering. It was still pretty painful. “Daisy called the house even after we were married, always on some pretext of needing something from Seagal. She claimed they were just friends, but I knew she still cared about him. Not that I was surprised. Seagal said she hadn’t wanted to break up—he did. I just happened to be the first date he had.”

“But why did you marry him if you were so worried?” Kelly asked.

“I wanted him,” Capri said softly. “I wanted to believe that all the late nights wouldn’t make me crazy. He wanted to get promoted and moved to a different division, then got into the Rangers. I was busy taking over the flower shop. We grew apart.”

“Not too apart to make babies,” Kelly said, her tone gleeful. “When you found out you were pregnant, you should have realized then that Seagal was never going to let you go through with the divorce.”

“I didn’t want to tell him for just that reason.” The memory upset Capri, which the babies seemed to notice. Inside her, they felt as if they were rolling, tumbling, fighting for space. A sudden cramp shot across her abdomen, pinching and slicing. She closed her eyes against the pain, waiting for it to pass. “Darn my brother Beau,” she said after a moment. “He ratted me out.”

Kelly laughed. “Good for Beau.”

“I’ll take care of him later.” Capri leaned back against the pillow. “I know Seagal too well. There’s a reason he’s back in town, and it isn’t all about these babies. He claims it’s about the drugs in the floral arrangements, but I think there’s something else. He takes a lot of phone calls when he thinks I don’t notice, and his phone must get a hundred texts an hour.” She sighed, wishing the cramp would pass, and forced a smile at Kelly. “Intuition. It’s kind of a wife thing, I guess.”

“But you’re not worried about Daisy anymore now, are you?”

“No.” Capri shook her head. “I think she moved on to Jack, just like you said.”

“I know,” Kelly said, “and it makes me want to pinch her head off.”

Capri smiled. “I remember that emotion.”

“So, what are you going to do now? You’re not really going to go through with the divorce, are you?”

Capri could barely focus on her friend’s question. The pain was getting worse; it was harder to hold back a groan.

Something was different; she knew it. “Kelly,” she said, forcing her voice above a whisper but having to push against the pain, “having never experienced pregnancy I’m no expert, but I think these babies want to be here in time for Christmas.”

Chapter Five

Seagal figured he’d set a new record for speed by the time he got to the hospital. He sprinted inside, leaving Jack at the curb to park the cruiser.

Capri looked pale, tired and in pain when he jogged into the room the nurse led him to. “I thought I told you to stay still,” he said to his wife, trying to make light of the situation to calm his heart, which was trying to beat out of his chest.

“I listened,” Capri said. “Funny how your children didn’t. Maybe a case of like father, like babies.”

He glanced at the doctor. “What’s happening?”

Dr. Blankenship finished looking over the charts he held. “You’re about to meet your children, Seagal.”

Seagal’s gaze locked on his wife. He’d never wanted to hold her and comfort her so badly. “This is it, lady. There’s no turning back now. We’re going to be parents.”

Capri gave him a very slight smile. He could tell she was really hurting. “There was no turning back when I first met you, Seagal,” she said, then groaned and closed her eyes.

Nurses hustled Capri onto a gurney. He followed helplessly, not sure what to do. His heart thundered. No one seemed to care whether he went in to the big room that looked like an operating room, and then suddenly, a nurse helped him into something she called a birth coach’s shirt. She showed him where to wash and made him put sterile covers on his shoes.

“Are you all right?” the elderly nurse asked him.

He was pretty sure he’d know her if she’d take off her mask, but at the moment his brain was short-circuiting. “I’m fine. Is she going to be all right?”

“Your wife is going to be fine.”

The nurse left him, and Seagal hung at the back of the huge room, watching everything. He didn’t want to get in the way of the medical personnel; he felt so useless. Was he supposed to take pictures? He and Capri hadn’t discussed his role.