Luke stepped in front of her and blocked her view of the living room. “Everything’s under control. Why don’t you go back to bed? You must be exhausted after being up half the night.”
“I’m awake now. What broke?”
“Nothing important.”
“What’s all that stuff you’re carrying?”
“For someone who’s half-asleep, you ask a lot of questions. Did you get a job I don’t know about as a reporter?”
Ignoring the question, she blinked and took a step closer. Her heavy-lidded gaze studied the boxes. When the contents finally registered, her face lit up with astonishment. “Christmas decorations?”
Luke sighed. So much for his surprise. “Christmas decorations,” he confirmed, then shifted out of her way so she could see past him.
“I thought Angela should have a tree for her first Christmas,” he admitted sheepishly. “You made it pretty clear last night how you felt about the lack of holiday spirit around here. I decided you were right.”
Jessie’s eyes widened. “Luke, it’s...”
“Awesome?” he suggested, after trying to study the tree objectively. Despite the impressive size of the room, the tree took up a significant portion of it.
“Huge,” Jessie declared.
“I know. It didn’t look nearly as big outside.”
Before he realized what she intended, Jessie turned and threw her arms around his neck. “Thank you,” she said, kissing him soundly.
Her lips were warm and pliant against his, impossibly seductive. The impulsive gesture almost caused him to drop the remaining boxes. “Jessie!” he protested softly, though there was some doubt in his mind if he was warning her away to save the decorations or his sanity.
She regarded him uncertainly for the space of a heartbeat, but apparently she chose to believe he was worried about the ornaments. She claimed several of the boxes and carried them into the living room. Then she took a thorough survey of the tree and pronounced it the most incredible tree she had ever seen. The glint of excitement in her eyes was enough to make Luke’s knees go weak. If she ever directed a look half so ecstatic at him, he could die a happy man.
“Don’t do a thing until I get back,” she demanded as she headed from the room.
“Where are you going?”
“To get dressed and to make hot chocolate.”
He thought she looked exquisite in her robe, a pale pink concoction that was all impractical satin and lace. As for the hot chocolate, he was plenty warm enough as it was. “Not on my account,” he said.
“On mine,” she said, visibly shivering. “I’m freezing in this robe.”
The innocent comment lured him to look for evidence. He found it not in the expected goose bumps, but in the press of hard nipples against the robe’s slinky fabric. “I’ll turn the heat up,” he countered eventually. Anything to keep her in that softly caressing robe.
Apparently she caught the choked note in his voice or the direction of his gaze, because her expression faltered a bit. A delectable shade of pink tinted her cheeks. “It’ll only take a minute,” she insisted. “Besides, we can’t possibly decorate a tree without hot chocolate. I’m pretty sure there’s a law to that effect.”
Luke found himself grinning at the nonsense. “Well, we are nothing if not law abiding around here. I’ll test the lights while you’re gone.”
“But don’t start stringing them on the tree, okay? I want to help.”
“You mean you want to give orders.”
She grinned back at him and his heart flipped over. “Maybe,” she admitted. “But you wouldn’t want to end up with blank spaces and have to do it all over again, would you?”
He shot her a look that was part dare, part skepticism. “Who says I’d do it over?”
“It is Angela’s first tree,” she reminded him in that sweet, coaxing tone she used so effectively. “You want it to be perfect, don’t you?”
He laughed. “So that’s how it’s going to be, is it? One teeny little mistake and you’re going to accuse me of traumatizing the baby’s entire perception of Christmas?”
He glanced down at Angela and saw that she’d fallen fast asleep amid her nest of pillows. “Look,” he said triumphantly. “She’s not even interested.”
Jessie waved off the claim. “She won’t sleep forever. Test the lights, but that’s all, Lucas.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
When she’d gone, Luke tried to recall the last time he’d taken orders from anyone. Not once that he could think of since moving out of his father’s house. More important, this was absolutely the only time he’d ever taken orders and actually enjoyed it.
Something had changed overnight, Jessie decided as she searched through her luggage for the festive red maternity sweater she’d bought for the holidays. She’d fallen in love with the scattered seed pearl trim around the neckline. Except for its roominess, it made a stylish ensemble with a pair of equally bright stirrup pants and dressy flats.
Suddenly she was overwhelmed by the Christmas spirit. It wasn’t just the sight of that incredible tree. It was Luke’s thoughtfulness in getting it for her. There was no mistaking that the tree and his shift in mood were his gifts to her.
She thought she’d seen something else in his eyes, as well, something she didn’t dare examine too closely for fear she would confirm the attraction that had scared her away from White Pines.
Twenty minutes after she’d left him, she was back with a tray filled with mugs of steaming hot chocolate topped with marshmallows, and a plate of Christmas cookies she’d found in a tin, plus slices of her own homemade fruitcake. It made an odd sort of breakfast, but who cared? It fit the occasion. She also brought along the radio, which she immediately tuned to a station playing carols.
“Now?” Luke asked dryly, when she had everything set up to her satisfaction.
Jessie surveyed the ambience and nodded. “Ready. Did you check the lights?”
“All the strands are working,” he confirmed. “More than we could possibly need even for this monster. I suspect half of them were used outside last year.” He regarded her
