She glared at him, not entirely sure what to make of this new mood. “Well, believe it.”
“We might not find it till spring.”
“So what?”
“You were the one who mentioned how cruel it was to leave my parents wondering and worrying about you.”
Jessie’s determination faltered ever so slightly. Apparently she was every bit as thoughtless as he was. “The phone lines are bound to be up soon. We’ll call then.”
He regarded her quizzically. “And if there’s an emergency?”
“What kind of emergency?” She couldn’t seem to keep a faint tremor out of her voice.
“The house burning down. The baby getting sick.”
Jessie felt the color drain out of her face. “Oh, my God,” she murmured, clambering out of the pickup. She tumbled into the snow, then struggled back to her feet. Before she could steady herself, Luke was beside her.
“You okay?”
“We have to get that phone.”
He gave her an inscrutable look. “I’ll get it. You go on inside. Despite the charming winter attire you appropriated from me, you’re not really dressed for this weather.”
She eyed him distrustfully. “You’ll bring it inside?”
“Hey, I’m not the one who tried to bury it. I knew exactly where it was in case we really needed it.”
She scowled at him. “Don’t start trying to make yourself into a saint now, Lucas. It’s too late.”
He turned back and, to her astonishment, he winked at her. “It always was, darlin’.”
Luke retrieved the cellular phone and barely resisted the urge to roll in the snow in an attempt to cool off his overheated body. The effect Jessie had on him was downright shameful. His blood pounded hotly through his veins just getting a glimpse of her. The kiss they had just shared could have set off a wildfire that would consume whole acres of prairie grass.
Damn, why had she been so willing? Why hadn’t she smacked him, put him in his place, blistered him with scathing accusations? The instant he had hauled her into his arms, he’d half-expected the solid whack of her palm across his cheek. When it hadn’t come, he’d dared to deepen the kiss, dared to pretend for just a heartbeat that he had a right to taste her, a right to feel those cool, silky lips heat beneath his, a right to feel her body shuddering with need against his.
The truth of it was, though, that he had no rights at all where Jessie was concerned. Even though she seemed to feel that that kiss had opened up a whole new world for the two of them, he knew better. He knew it had paved the way to hell, destroying good and noble intentions in its path.
He stuck the phone in his pocket and continued on to the barn, where he fed Chester and the horses. Chester nudged his hand away from his pocket, searching for his treat. Instead, there was only the phone.
“Sorry, old guy. I left the house in a hurry. I forgot your apple. I’ll bring two when I come back later.”
The old goat turned a sympathetic look on him, as if he understood the turmoil that had caused Luke to fail him.
“Good grief, even the animals are starting to pity me,” he muttered in disgust and made his way back to the house, where he found Jessie singing happily as she worked at the stove.
The table had been set with the good china. Orange juice had been poured into crystal goblets. The good silver gleamed at each place. Luke eyed it all warily.
“It’s awful fancy for breakfast, don’t you think?”
“We’re celebrating,” she said airily.
He wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that. It hinted that she wasn’t letting go of the momentary craziness that had gripped the two of them in the pickup. “Celebrating what?”
She cast an innocent look in his direction. “Christmas, of course,” she said sweetly.
“Oh.”
She grinned. “Disappointed, Lucas?”
“Of course not.” He glanced around a little desperately. “Where’s Angela?”
“Sleeping.”
“Are you sure? Maybe I should go check on her. She doesn’t usually sleep this late.”
Jessie actually laughed at that. “Surely a grown man doesn’t have to rely on a three-day-old baby to protect him from me, does he?”
Luke felt color climb up the back of his neck and settle in his cheeks. “I just thought she ought to be here,” he muttered. “It is her first Christmas morning.”
“She’ll be awake soon enough. Sit down. The biscuits are almost ready.”
He stared at her incredulously as she bent over to open the oven door. The view that gave him of her fanny made him weak.
“When did you have time to bake biscuits?” he inquired, his voice all too husky.
“You were in that barn a long time,” she said. She glanced over her shoulder. “Cooling off?”
Luke stared at her. What had happened to the sweet, virtuous woman who’d arrived here only a few days earlier? What did she know about her ability to drive him to distraction? Get real, Lucas, he told himself sternly. She was as responsible for the heat of that kiss as you were.
“Jessie,” he warned, his voice low.
“Yes, Lucas?”
She sounded sweetly compliant. He didn’t trust that tone for a second. “Don’t get into a game, unless you understand the rules,” he advised her.
“Who made up these rules? Some man, I suspect.”
“Oh, I think they pretty much go back to Adam and Eve,” he countered. He fixed his gaze on her until her cheeks turned pink. “I figure that gives ’em some credibility. People have been living by ’em for centuries now.”
Jessie shook her head. Judging from her expression, she seemed to be feeling sorry for him.
“You are pitiful, Lucas,” she said, confirming his guess.
He stared at her, a knot forming in his stomach. “Pitiful?”
“You don’t know what to do about how you feel, so you start out hiding behind an itsy-bitsy baby and now you want to put God and the Bible between us.”
“Right’s right,” he insisted stubbornly.
“And what was meant to be was meant to be,” she countered, looking perfectly confident in making the
