“That hardly sounds fair,” she said. “I’ll cook all the meals. You clean up.”
“No,” Luke insisted, his voice tight. “We’ll do it my way. And since you’ve already done breakfast today, I’ll handle dinner. You’re done for the day. Go take a nap.”
“I wonder why I never noticed before what a bully you are,” she commented, her expression thoughtful.
The observation didn’t seem to trouble her a bit, but he found it insulting. “I am not a bully. I’m just trying to divvy things up fairly.”
“You have an odd notion of fair,” she observed. “Oh, well, never mind. I won’t argue for the moment. Maybe you should consider the pancakes a bribe,” she suggested.
Luke’s gaze narrowed. “A bribe? For what?”
“So you’ll do what I want, of course.”
“Which is?”
She opened her mouth, seemed to reconsider, then closed it again. “No, I think we’ll wait and talk about it later. I think you could use a little more buttering up.” She stood and headed for the door.
Luke stared after her in astonishment. “Jessie!”
His bellow clearly caught her by surprise. She halted in the doorway and looked back. The glance she shot him couldn’t have been more innocent if she’d been a newborn baby.
“Yes?” she said.
“What kind of game are you playing here?”
“No game,” she insisted.
“You want something, though. What is it?”
“It can wait. Enjoy your breakfast.”
“Tell me now,” he ordered.
She smiled. “I don’t think so.”
She closed the door with quiet emphasis before he could even form another question. Suddenly, despite himself, he found himself laughing.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said aloud. “Maybe I underestimated you, after all, Jessie Adams. Seems to me you have gumption to spare, more than enough to take on the Adams men.”
On the other side of the door, Jessie heard the laughter and the comment. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, Luke Adams,” she murmured sweetly.
Unlocking the puzzle that Luke represented had become a challenge she couldn’t resist. And drawing Erik’s family back together seemed like the best Christmas gift she could possibly give to all of them. She’d come to that conclusion during a long and restless night.
Erik wouldn’t have wanted his death to split them apart. He wouldn’t have wanted the unspoken accusations, the guilt and blame to stand between Luke and his parents. Whatever had happened on Luke’s ranch that day, Erik would never have blamed the big brother he’d idolized. He would have forgiven him. As much as Erik had craved his independence, he had loved his family more. If he hadn’t, he might have fought harder to break free from Harlan’s influence.
If, if, if...so many turning points, so many choices made, a few of them deeply regretted.
If she had accepted Harlan’s offer to fly to his ranch, then the storm and her unexpected labor wouldn’t have forced Jessie into accepting Luke’s help and his hospitality. If that wasn’t a sign from God, she didn’t know what was. Obviously, He had given her a mission here and the most readily accessible place to start was with Luke. After all, Christmas was a time for miracles.
With the snow plows uncertain, she figured she had a few days at least to utilize her powers of persuasion. By the time the roads were cleared, she was determined that she and Angela wouldn’t be going on to Harlan and Mary’s alone to celebrate the new year and a new beginning. Their son would be with her.
By late that afternoon, Jessie’s plans and her temper were frayed. She hadn’t seen more than the flash of Luke’s shadow the entire day. He’d managed to sneak lunch onto the table and disappear before she could blink. She’d passed his office, just in time to see him vanish into the library. She’d bundled up and trailed him to the barn, only to see him riding away on horseback. A gimpy old goat had been gamely trying to follow him.
Shivering, she had trudged back inside only to hear Angela screaming at the top of her lungs. Nothing she’d done had settled the baby down. Angela was dry and fed. For the past twenty minutes, Jessie had been rocking her in front of the fire in the kitchen. Angela’s great, hiccupping sobs continued unabated.
“A few more minutes of this and you’ll have me in tears, too,” Jessie murmured in distress. “Come on, sweetheart. You’re tired. Go off to sleep, like Mommy’s little angel.”
Blessed silence greeted the suggestion. Five seconds later, Angela screamed even louder than before. Obviously she’d only taken time off to rev up her engine.
Jessie could feel the first, faint beginnings of panic. Already uncertain about her mothering skills, her inability to soothe her baby seemed to confirm just how unprepared and inept she was.
Because the rocking seemed to be making both of them more jittery than serene, she stood and began to pace as she racked her brain for some new technique to try.
She tried crooning a lullaby, singing an old rock song at full volume, rubbing her back. She was at her wit’s end when she heard the back door slam.
Luke hesitated just inside the threshold. “What’s all this racket?” he demanded, but there was a teasing note in his voice and a spark of amusement in his eyes. “I could hear both of you all the way out at the barn. Chester took off for parts unknown. The horses are trying to hide their heads under the hay.”
“Very funny,” Jessie snapped just as Luke reached for the baby. She relinquished her all too readily.
“Come here, angel,” he murmured consolingly. “You were just missing Uncle Luke, weren’t you?”
Jessie’s traitorous daughter gulped back a sob, then cooed happily. Held in the crook of Luke’s arm, she looked tiny, but thoroughly contented. Jessie wanted to warn her that a man’s arms weren’t a guarantee of protection, but maybe that was a lesson it was too soon to teach. If the feel of Luke’s strength could silence the baby’s cries for
