Maverick Christmas Surprise. Brenda Harlen

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СКАЧАТЬ with a grouping of leather furniture around a stone fireplace and a towering Christmas tree that almost touched the vaulted beam ceiling.

      “Look at that,” she said to Cody, her voice a reverent whisper as she moved closer. “It’s almost as big as the tree at the mall where we saw Santa.”

      Of course, Cody didn’t understand what she was talking about and would have no memory of the event even if he did. By the time they’d got to the front of the line and it was his turn to see the jolly man in the red suit, he was fast asleep. Beth hadn’t wanted to wake him and risk ending up with a photo of an unhappy or crying baby. Instead, she had a beautiful photo of her nephew, decked out in a red velvet Santa sleeper and matching hat, peacefully tucked into the crook of Santa’s arm.

      She’d bought two copies of the photo and had framed and wrapped the second one as a Christmas gift for her sister. Of course, she’d invited Leighton to go to the mall with them, but her sister had waved off the suggestion, insisting that Cody was too young to even care. It was undoubtedly true, and yet, Beth couldn’t let the occasion of his first Christmas pass without a visit to Santa.

      She pushed the memory aside to focus on the tree in front of her now. It wasn’t just big, it was beautifully decorated in what she would call “country chic,” with burlap ribbon, handcrafted wooden ornaments, home-sewn felt shapes, crocheted snowflakes, tied clusters of dried fruit, sprigs of berries and striped candy canes.

      And unlike the plastic tree in the mall, this one was real. She could smell the rich, fragrant scent of pine in the air.

      “Did you get lost?”

      She started, turned. “What?”

      A smile twitched at the corners of Wilder’s mouth, somehow making him look even more unbelievably handsome, and making her wonder what was wrong with her that she could be so immediately and undeniably attracted to the man who might very well be her nephew’s father.

      “I asked if you got lost,” he said.

      “Oh, no. I mean, I took a wrong turn, and then...” She shrugged. “I got distracted. You have a beautiful home.”

      “It’s got good bones,” he said, turning to exit the room, no doubt expecting her to follow. Which, of course, she did. “But it’s also been a lot of work to renovate and update.”

      “Have you done the work yourself?” she asked, glancing at the framed photos on the sideboard as they passed through the dining room. She was tempted to pause and examine the pictures more closely, but her empty stomach growled to remind her that she had other priorities at the moment.

      “Me, my brothers and our dad,” he said, handing her a ready-made bottle for the baby.

      “Thanks,” she said. “But I would have mixed up his formula.”

      “I just followed the instructions on the label.”

      She nibbled on her bottom lip, not wanting to appear ungrateful but needing to ask, “Did you use previously boiled water?”

      “That’s what the instructions said to do,” he pointed out. “Plus Hunter, one of my brothers, gave me a crash course on basic childcare.”

      “He has kids?” Beth guessed, testing the temperature of the formula by shaking a few drops onto the inside of her wrist.

      “One. A six-and-a-half-year-old daughter.”

      “There’s no better teacher than experience,” Beth said. “But in the absence of experience, there are some good childcare books that help. Leighton had about half a dozen beside her bed when she was pregnant.”

      She didn’t tell him that she’d bought the books for her sister, or admit that Leighton hadn’t cracked the covers on most of them. Because her sister had never been a fan of book learning—preferring to figure things out as she went along.

      “I have to admit, that surprises me a little,” he told her. “The Leighton I knew wasn’t really the maternal type.”

      “I wouldn’t have thought so, either,” she admitted, as she settled into a chair at the table to give Cody his bottle. “But everything changed when she found out she was pregnant.”

      Wilder grabbed a mug from the cupboard and filled it from the carafe on a warming burner. “Are you a coffee drinker?” he asked.

      “Only on days ending in a ‘y,’” she told him.

      He chuckled at that as he reached for another mug, then filled it with the steaming brew.

      “Cream? Sugar?”

      “Cream, please.”

      He opened the fridge to retrieve the carton, then added a splash to her cup and set it in front of her.

      “Thanks.” She lifted the mug to her lips and sipped. “That’s good and strong.”

      “It’s the only way my dad knows how to make it.”

      “So this is his house?” she guessed.

      Wilder nodded. “When we first moved to Rust Creek Falls, in the summer, Xander and Finn lived here, too. But Xander and Lily have their own place closer to town now, and Finn and Avery renovated a cabin on the far side of the property, so it’s just me and my dad left.”

      “So you’ve got three brothers?” She wasn’t just making conversation; she was genuinely curious to learn more about his family, who might prove to be her nephew’s family, too.

      “No, I’ve got five brothers.”

       “Five?”

      He nodded.

      “Wow. Six boys. Your mom obviously had her hands full,” she remarked.

      “Maybe that’s why she took off before my first birthday,” he noted.

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