Stella Bagwell - A South Texas Christmas

With a soft chuckle, he patted the little hand resting on his forearm. “Not really. You’re an attractive young woman and I’m a man. Put the two together and something usually boils up.”

Pursing her lips to a disapproving line, she stared straight ahead. “Maybe in some cases. But I have no intention of doing any boiling. In the kitchen or anywhere else,” she added for good measure.

Her comment only produced a laugh from him and the sound was so light and contagious that Raine couldn’t help but tilt her head around to him and smile.

“Okay,” she conceded. “What do we need to know about each other?”

He shrugged with nonchalance, but deep inside Neil was shocked at how very interested he was in this woman’s life. She was different, very different from the women he’d known in the past. There was something sweetly naive about her. Yet on the other hand there was a sultriness to her green eyes that made him think she wasn’t all soft innocence. She was taking a big risk of ruining her relationship with her mother in order to go after what she wanted—a father. Obviously she was a woman who would hold on tight to her dreams. But was a father the only man she had in her dreams of the future? Neil wondered.

“Oh, just the simple things,” he told her. “Like where you grew up. Your likes and dislikes, education, anything and everything. Remember, we’re supposed to be close.”

Raine released a long, pent-up breath. “Close! Neil, I’ve never introduced a man to my mother before. She’s going to start getting ideas that we truly are serious. She’s going to question me all about you, then start warning me how dangerous you are.”

Neil chuckled. “I’m a lawyer. I’m always dangerous,” he teased.

She rolled her eyes. “And are you always this lighthearted? Aren’t you ever serious?”

“Do you mean with women or my work?”

“Women—uh, work. Both,” she finally added in a fluster.

“I don’t get serious with women,” he said. “But I do with my work.”

Slowly she digested his comment as they strolled along the river’s edge. It didn’t surprise her to hear this man admit to being a confirmed bachelor. Everything about him screamed that he was as free as an eagle. But Raine did wonder why he’d chosen the single life. She couldn’t believe it was simply for sinful pleasures. He was more complex than that. “So you’re not married?” she asked.

“Never considered the idea. What about you?”

Raine suddenly felt loneliness press heavily upon her shoulders. “No. I haven’t yet met a man who’s made me want to take that much of a step. And I’m not sure that I would know how to be a good wife.”

His face was perplexed as he glanced down at her. “That’s an odd thing for a young woman like you to say,” he said.

Raine focused her attention on one of the boats drifting lazily by them. The vessel was filled with a young couple and two children that were obviously their offspring. The little group was the perfect, happy family, she thought. They probably even lived in a two-story house in the suburbs or maybe a hacienda in the country. They had cats and dogs that had the run of the house and the yard, and were treated like family members, too. This coming Christmas would be very special at their home. Lots of relatives would gather. There would be eating, dancing, joking and plenty of laughter.

“Raine? Are you still with me?”

She suddenly noticed a hand waving up and down in front of her face and with a burst of embarrassment she realized she’d been daydreaming about the very thing she’d always wanted.

“Uh—I’m sorry. What were you saying?”

“I was asking why you had doubts about being a wife.”

She kept her gaze carefully away from him and on their surroundings. She didn’t want him to see just how lost and afraid she felt when it came to dealing with men and the idea of having a family.

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