A Christmas Blessing (13 page)

Determination swept through him. “Try me,” he said tightly.

To his annoyance, Jessie actually laughed at that. “Oh, Lucas, I intend to.”

Chapter Nine

W
ith Jessie’s challenge ringing in his ears, Luke retreated to the barn. He figured it was the only safe place for him to be and still be within shouting distance of the house in case of a crisis. Inside, even in his office with the door shut, he couldn’t escape Jessie’s unrealistic expectations for their future. As brief as her presence had been, she had pervaded every room, leaving him with no place to hide from her or his unrelenting thoughts about her.

What she wanted from him, though, was impossible. How could they possibly have a relationship without bringing the wrath of the entire family she admired so much down on them? Couldn’t she see that they were as doomed in their way as Romeo and Juliet had been? Or had she considered and then dismissed the problems? Could he possibly be that important to her?

He hunkered down on a bale of hay and distractedly tossed apple sections to Chester. The goat seemed to accept the unexpected largesse as his due. When Luke grew distracted and forgot to offer another chunk of apple, Chester butted him gently until he remembered. He scratched the goat behind his ears and wished that all relationships were this uncomplicated.

Dealing with goats and horses and cattle was a hell of a lot less troubling than dealing with a woman, Luke concluded when Chester finally tired of the game and wandered off. Food, attention, a little exercise, a few animal or human companions and their lives were happy. Women, to the contrary, sooner or later always developed expectations.

To avoid dealing with Jessie’s fantasies, he considered saddling up one of the horses and riding off to check on the cattle. He manufactured a dozen excuses why such a trip was vital to the ranch’s operations, even though he had a perfectly capable foreman in charge, a man who could probably account for every single head of longhorn cattle on the ranch without Luke’s help.

Unfortunately, he could see through every excuse. He had no doubts at all that Jessie would be even quicker to see them for what they were: cowardly reasons to bolt from all the emotions he couldn’t bear to face. While being someplace else—
anyplace else
—held a great deal of appeal at the moment, Luke wasn’t a coward. Which meant, like it or not, staying and seeing this through.

Finally, tired of having only Chester and the horses for company when the most beautiful, if unavailable, woman in the world was inside, Luke heaved himself up and headed back to the house. Maybe Jessie had come to her senses while he was gone. Maybe his body had become resigned to celibacy.

And maybe pigs could fly, he thought despondently.

He found her sitting in front of the fireplace in the kitchen mending one of his shirts. As an inexplicable rage tore through him, he yanked the shirt out of her hands.

“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.

Jessie didn’t even blink at his behavior. “There was a whole basket of mending sitting in the laundry room waiting to be done,” she said calmly as if that were explanation enough to offer a man who’d clearly lost his mind.

“Consuela’s the housekeeper around here, not you.”

“Is there some reason I shouldn’t help her out?”

“It’s her job,” he insisted stubbornly.

Jessie merely shook her head, gave him that exasperating look that was filled with pity, and reached for another shirt. “It’s my way of thanking her for all the meals she fixed before she left.”

“She fixed them for me,” Luke said, clinging to his stance despite the fact that even he could see he was being unreasonable. There was a quick and obvious remedy for what ailed him but he refused to pull Jessie into his arms, which was clearly where his body wanted her, where his long-denied hormones craved her to be.

One delicate eyebrow arched quizzically at his possessive claim on the meals Consuela had fixed. “Does that mean I’m no longer allowed to eat them?” Jessie inquired. “You planning to starve me into leaving?”

“Of course not,” he snapped in frustration. “Just forget it. I’m going to my office.”

“On Christmas?”

“If you can sew on Christmas, I can work.”

“I’m not sure I see the connection,” she commented mildly. She shrugged. “Whatever works for you.”

Luke clenched his fists so tightly, his knuckles turned white. Why had he never noticed that Jessie was the most exasperating, the most infuriating woman on the face of the earth? She was so damned calm and…reasonable. He didn’t miss the irony that he considered two such usually positive traits to be irritating.

To emphasize his displeasure, he plunked the cellular phone on the table in front of her. “Call my parents,” he ordered tightly, then stalked away.

With any luck at all, Jessie would be tired by now of his attitude, he thought with only a faint hint of regret. After all, how long could a woman maintain this charade of complacency in the face of such galling behavior? She’d be packed and gone by the time he emerged from his office. His life could return to normal.

He glanced over his shoulder just as he headed through the doorway. She was humming to herself and, if he wasn’t mistaken, there was a full-fledged smile on her face. He had the sinking realization that she wasn’t going anywhere.

* * *

Jessie wasn’t entirely sure why she was being so stubborn. One devastating, spine-tingling kiss hardly constituted a declaration of love.

Still, with every single bit of intuition she possessed, she believed that Luke was in love with her. That kiss was a symptom of stronger emotions. She was certain of it. She simply had to wait him out. Sooner or later, he would see that she wasn’t afraid of the consequences if she stayed. He would see, in fact, that she welcomed them. Eventually he would realize that together they could even conquer all of the opposition they were likely to arouse.

The unexpected ringing of the cellular phone startled her so badly, she pricked her finger with the needle she’d been using to stitch buttons back onto Luke’s shirts. Should she answer it? Or take it to Luke in his office? Of course, by the time she carried it through the house, whoever was calling would probably give up thanks to her indecisiveness.

It was guilt over her own failure to call Harlan and Mary that finally convinced her to answer on the fifth ring.

“Hello,” she said tentatively.

“Who the hell is this?” Harlan Adams’s unmistakable voice boomed over the line.

An odd mix of pleasure and dismay spread through her. “It’s Jessie, Harlan. Merry Christmas!”

“Jessie?” he repeated incredulously. “You’re okay. What the devil are you doing over at Lucas’s? Why haven’t you called? My God, woman, Mary’s been out of her mind with worry.”

Jessie decided that rather than responding to the questions and the barely disguised accusations Harlan had thrown out at her, she’d better go on the offensive immediately.

“I went into labor on the way to your house,” she explained. “I was scared to death I’d deliver the baby in a snow drift. Luke’s ranch was the only place nearby. You have a beautiful granddaughter, Harlan. I’ve named her Angela.”

As she’d expected, the announcement took the wind out of his sails. “You’ve had the baby? A girl?”

“That’s right.”

“Mary,” he called. “Mary! Get on the other line. Jessie’s at Luke’s and she’s had the baby!”

Jessie heard the echoing sound of footsteps on White Pines’s hardwood floors, then the clatter of a juggled, then dropped, phone. Finally, Mary’s breathless voice came over the line. “You had the baby?”

“A girl,” Jessie confirmed. “Angela. She is so beautiful, Mary. I can’t wait for you to see her.”

“But why are you at Luke’s? Why not a hospital?”

“Angela was too impatient to get here. With the blizzard and everything, I figured this was my best bet.”

“But the doctor did get there in time?” Mary asked worriedly.

Jessie hauled in a deep breath before blurting, “Actually, Luke delivered her. He was incredible. Calm as could be. You would have been so proud of him. I don’t know what I would have done without him.”

The explanation drew no response. Jessie could hear Mary crying. Eventually, Harlan spoke up.

“I don’t get it, girl. That was three days ago. Why haven’t you called before now?”

“The phone lines are down and Luke had misplaced the cellular phone. He hunted all over for it. It finally turned up this morning, buried under some papers.” It was a stretch of the truth, but Jessie had no intention of filling them in on her own battle with Luke over this very phone.

“No wonder we couldn’t reach him,” Harlan grumbled. “That boy would lose his head if it weren’t tacked onto his neck.”

Jessie sighed. She’d never noticed that Luke was particularly absentminded, not about anything that mattered. The observation was just another of Harlan’s inconsequential put-downs, uttered without thought to their accumulated cutting nature. She’d practically bitten her lower lip raw listening to him do the same thing to Erik. If she had thought it would help, she would have told him to stop, but she had known the order had to come from Erik.

“Well, it doesn’t matter now,” Harlan said. “Now that we know where to find you, I’ll have my pilot pick you up in an hour. There’s a landing strip not far from Luke’s. He should be able to get you there.”

“No,” Jessie said at once.

“Beg pardon?” Harlan said, sounding shocked by her unexpected display of defiance.

“Jessie, darling, you must be anxious to be away from there,” Mary protested. “We know how difficult it was for you to see Luke after what happened to Erik. Please, let Harlan send for you. We want you here with us and we can’t wait to see the baby. You should be with family now.”

“Luke is family,” she reminded them.

“Yes, but…well, under the circumstances, you must be under a terrible strain there.”

“No,” Jessie insisted. She took a deep breath and prepared to manufacture an excuse that not even strong-willed Harlan Adams could debate. “The baby has no business being dragged around in weather like this, not for a few more days anyway. By then the roads will be clear and I can drive the rest of the way.”

“Oh, dear,” Mary promptly murmured. “She is okay, isn’t she?”

“She’s just fine, but she’s a newborn and it’s freezing outside. I’ll feel better about bundling her up and taking her out in a few days, I’m sure.”

“Well, of course, you must do what you think is best for the baby,” Mary conceded eventually, but there was no mistaking her disappointment.

“Nonsense,” Harlan said, heading down the single track his mind had chosen with dogged determination. “I’ll send a doctor along in the plane to check her out. The baby ought to be seen by a professional as soon as possible, anyway. I’m sure Luke did his best, but he’s not a physician. Don’t worry about a thing, Jessica. I’ll have Doc Winchell at Luke’s before nightfall. Then you can all come back together. We’ll have you here in time for the party Mary has planned. It’ll be a celebration to end all celebrations.”

“But, Harlan, it’s Christmas,” Jessie argued. “You can’t expect the doctor or the pilot to disrupt their plans with their families to make a trip like that.”

“Of course I can,” Harlan countered with the assurance of a man used to having his commands obeyed. “You just be ready. I’ll call back when they’re on their way. Put Lucas on.”

Defeated, Jessie sighed. “I’ll see if I can find him.”

She took the phone she deeply regretted answering down the hall to Luke’s office. She tapped on the door, then opened it. He was leaning back in his leather chair, staring out the window. There was something so lonely, so lost in his expression that her heart ached. If only he would let her into his life, then neither of them would be alone again.

“Luke, your parents are on the line,” she said and held out the phone.

He searched her face for a moment, his expression unreadable. Finally, he took the phone and spoke to his father.

“She’s fine, Daddy. The baby’s fine. I’m sure it’s not the way Jessie would have preferred to deliver her baby, but there were no complications. She came through like a real trooper. She was back on her feet in no time. And the baby’s a little angel.”

He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “No, Daddy, I’m sure Jessie hasn’t been overdoing it. She knows her own strength.” His expression hardened and his gaze cut to Jessie again. “No, she didn’t mention that you were sending Doc Winchell. I’m sure she’ll be relieved. Right. We’ll be expecting him.”

Most of Harlan’s side of the conversation had been muffled, but Jessie heard him asking then if Luke intended to come to White Pines with her.

“No,” Luke said brusquely. “I told Mother before that I have things to do here.” His expression remained perfectly blank as he listened to whatever his father said next. Finally he said, “Yes, Merry Christmas to all of you, too. Give my best to Jordan and Cody.”

He hung up the phone and turned back to the window. “Shouldn’t you be packing?” he inquired quietly.

Tears welled up in Jessie’s eyes. She hadn’t expected him to be so stubborn. For some reason, she had thought when the time came, he would realize that he belonged at White Pines for the holidays every bit as much as she did. More so, in fact.

“I’m not leaving you here,” she insisted.

He turned to confront her. “You don’t have a choice. Harlan’s taken it out of your hands. I told you that was exactly what would happen if you called him. It’s for the best, anyway. It’s time you were going.”

“I didn’t call. They called here.” Jessie lost patience with the whole blasted macho clan of Adams men. “Oh, forget it. You can’t bully me, any more than your father can. If I want to stay here, I’ll stay here.”

He regarded her evenly. “Even if I tell you that I want you to go?”

“Even then,” she said, her chin tilted high.

“Why would you insist on staying someplace you aren’t wanted?”

“Because I don’t believe you don’t want me here. I think you want me here too much,” she retorted.

“You’re dreaming, if you believe that,” he said coldly.