Baby's First Christmas. Laura Marie Altom

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СКАЧАТЬ shaking his head at his brother. “Next door,” he said, while Molly-Jimbo barked a welcome at Zach. Duke closed the door. Zach headed to the final house, finding the front door open and about ten women standing in the entryway of Miss Pansy’s.

      “Did I miss a party?” he asked, wondering how he could have missed seeing the parked cars or commotion or something.

      The ladies went quiet. In front of the fireplace sat Jessie. At her feet were small gifts of welcome, ranging from knitted baby booties to decorated cloth baby diapers. There was even a stack of recipe cards.

      Pansy came over to give him a hug. “We’re having a very tiny, most last-minute welcoming party. Holt’s been by as well.”

      “I heard,” Zach said, not feeling too happy that he was left out of the fun.

      “Well, it’s a wonderful day for hot tea and cookies,” Pansy said. “And who knows when we might get another chance to introduce Jessie to some of the girls? Thankfully your brother didn’t mind rounding everybody up in his truck and bringing them over. It couldn’t have been more fun if it was a sleighing party! Duke even wore a Santa hat.”

      Jessie watched him, her eyes wide and somewhat worried. Since some of the “girls” were between sixty and eighty years of age, Zach realized his audience was one of romantic souls.

      He decided to play to that audience. “Hi, Jessie.”

      “Hi.” She barely glanced at him.

      Whew. Frosty as the cold air outside. “Hope you’ll forgive me about the car,” he said. “I got carried away.”

      A murmur went around the room.

      “You certainly did,” Jessie said.

      “Though I kept your car in excellent shape,” he said.

      “Yes,” Liberty said. “You owe me for plastic—”

      “I certainly do,” Zach said quickly, before the subject could move from his intentions to his sins. “Jessie, I know I asked you to marry me too quickly—”

      The murmur went around the room again, this time with more excitement. Jessie watched him, her gaze suspicious.

      “But I want you to know I’m willing to wait,” Zach continued, “a long time, if I have to, to get your ‘yes.’”

      The ladies turned to look at Jessie, whose cheeks had gone strawberry-pink.

      “Thank you,” Jessie replied, “but my answer must remain no. You lied to me, Zach Forrester, and I’d never be able to trust you. Plus, it was a silly scheme, if you ask me. I should send you a bill for all the travel inconvenience you’ve caused me.”

      This wasn’t going to be easy. “I’d pay that bill and any other,” Zach said. “You could have come to get your car anytime. Why didn’t you?”

      The audience turned to look at her again. Jessie shifted on her chair. “I didn’t want to see you again.”

      The room went so silent a teacup could have cracked and no one would have noticed.

      “By the time Thanksgiving passed, I realized I was expecting,” she said, lifting her chin. “I decided this was something I needed to do myself. Of course, at the time, I thought something was terribly wrong with my car and you were honestly trying to get it repaired. I had no idea you’d simply hijacked it.”

      The ladies leveled frowns on him.

      Miss Helen stood. “Well, I must say, perhaps this isn’t the time or place for this discussion,” she said gently. “But all the same, Jessie, I must speak on behalf of Zach.”

      Zach blinked. Was one of the town’s most sturdy pillars going to put in a good word for him?

      “Zach has ever been the more impulsive Forrester,” Helen said, with Pansy nodding in agreement. “And yet, he has a heart of gold so that one must love him in spite of his foibles.”

      Jessie looked surprised to hear that, as was Zach himself. Go on. Now we’re getting somewhere, he thought gratefully. He wanted to be loved in spite of whatever that thing was she said he had.

      “His brother spent a great deal of time trying to derail our best plans,” Helen said, “but Liberty’s tamed him now so there’s very little chance of that.”

      The ladies laughed. Jessie shifted again, not meeting Zach’s eyes.

      “Pepper is her own woman. Very independent, much more so than her brothers.”

      “Hey,” Zach said, “can Duke and I vote on that?”

      “It’s true and you know it,” Pansy said. “If you’d but admit it. She went off and got a medical degree. She is trying to grow the town with the clinic she wants to start.”

      “Well,” Helen said, “Duke’s idea of growing the town is to just hope and pray the sky rains interested newcomers who want to settle a fair piece from city life.”

      “He’s becoming more broad-minded,” Liberty said.

      “Only because you have a shop in the city as well as here,” Helen said. “He’s learned to admit that there must be something that draws people to a place. We had no railroad and we’re no port city. Big industrial farms have changed the livelihoods for many of us. We missed some opportunities to show that our light could shine brightly,” Helen said. “But along comes Zach, and he disagrees with his brother, and has a big idea.”

      Zach nodded, liking the way Helen was making him look smart and important, all very necessary to be the man he thought Jessie might want. She began packing the welcome gifts into a sack, looking at him askance.

      “I’m starting to see a theme here.”

      “What?” Zach asked.

      “Good ideas, wrong follow-through,” she said.

      “Possibly,” he said, “though I really believe my ideas are just bigger in scope than other people are willing to comprehend at the moment.”

      She pursed her lips at him, a gesture he very much appreciated. Made him want to kiss those red cherry-puckers again—this time for hours. No more quickies for him! Next time he got his hands on Jessie—

      “It’s better than Duke’s idea,” Helen told Jessie. “He just wants us to grow the town organically. Like every person here of child-bearing age could either adopt or become pregnant with the amount of children we’d need to grow this town. I’m so sick of the word organic I could scream.”

      “What would you do differently?” Jessie asked, and Zach was amazed that she was so interested.

      “We suggested matchmaking balls and dances and all kinds of things, but Duke was being selfish and didn’t want other men around Liberty,” Pansy said.

      Liberty laughed. “I brought my business here, and that definitely brings customers to the saloon. Then we try to keep people by showing them the beautiful countryside and down-home warmth we offer.”

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