“But, Harlan, it’s Christmas,” Jessie argued. “You can’t expect the doctor or the pilot to disrupt their plans with their families to make a trip like that.”
“Of course I can,” Harlan countered with the assurance of a man used to having his commands obeyed. “You just be ready. I’ll call back when they’re on their way. Put Lucas on.”
Defeated, Jessie sighed. “I’ll see if I can find him.”
She took the phone she deeply regretted answering down the hall to Luke’s office. She tapped on the door, then opened it. He was leaning back in his leather chair, staring out the window. There was something so lonely, so lost in his expression that her heart ached. If only he would let her into his life, then neither of them would be alone again.
“Luke, your parents are on the line,” she said and held out the phone.
He searched her face for a moment, his expression unreadable. Finally, he took the phone and spoke to his father.
“She’s fine, Daddy. The baby’s fine. I’m sure it’s not the way Jessie would have preferred to deliver her baby, but there were no complications. She came through like a real trooper. She was back on her feet in no time. And the baby’s a little angel.”
He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “No, Daddy, I’m sure Jessie hasn’t been overdoing it. She knows her own strength.” His expression hardened and his gaze cut to Jessie again. “No, she didn’t mention that you were sending Doc Winchell. I’m sure she’ll be relieved. Right. We’ll be expecting him.”
Most of Harlan’s side of the conversation had been muffled, but Jessie heard him asking then if Luke intended to come to White Pines with her.
“No,” Luke said brusquely. “I told Mother before that I have things to do here.” His expression remained perfectly blank as he listened to whatever his father said next. Finally he said, “Yes, Merry Christmas to all of you, too. Give my best to Jordan and Cody.”
He hung up the phone and turned back to the window. “Shouldn’t you be packing?” he inquired quietly.
Tears welled up in Jessie’s eyes. She hadn’t expected him to be so stubborn. For some reason, she had thought when the time came, he would realize that he belonged at White Pines for the holidays every bit as much as she did. More so, in fact.
“I’m not leaving you here,” she insisted.
He turned to confront her. “You don’t have a choice. Harlan’s taken it out of your hands. I told you that was exactly what would happen if you called him. It’s for the best, anyway. It’s time you were going.”
“I didn’t call. They called here.” Jessie lost patience with the whole blasted macho clan of Adams men. “Oh, forget it. You can’t bully me, any more than your father can. If I want to stay here, I’ll stay here.”
He regarded her evenly. “Even if I tell you that I want you to go?”
“Even then,” she said, her chin tilted high.
“Why would you insist on staying someplace you aren’t wanted?”
“Because I don’t believe you don’t want me here. I think you want me here too much,” she retorted.
“You’re dreaming, if you believe that,” he said coldly.
Jessie’s resolve almost wavered in the face of his stubborn, harsh refusal to admit his real feelings. “I guess that’s the difference between us, then. I believe in you. I believe in us. You don’t.”
“That’s a significant difference, wouldn’t you say?”
“It’s only significant if you want it to be.”
“I do.”
A tear spilled over and tracked down her cheek. “Damn you, Luke Adams.”
“You’re too late, Jessie,” he told her grimly. “I was damned a long time ago.”
For all of her natural optimism, for all of her faith in what a future for the two of them could hold, Jessie couldn’t stand up to that kind of bleak resignation.
“Angela and I will be gone before you know it,” she said, fighting to hold back her tears as she finally admitted that she was defeated.
In the doorway she paused and looked back. “One of these days you’re going to regret forcing us out of your life, Luke. You’re going to wake up and discover that you’ve turned into a bitter, lonely old man.”
That said, she straightened her spine and walked away from the man she’d come to love with all her heart. Regrets? Luke was filled with them. They were chasing through his brain like pinballs bouncing erratically from one bumper to the next.
Was he doing the right thing? Of course, he was, he told himself firmly. He had to let Jessie go. He had to let her walk out of his life, taking the baby who’d stolen a little piece of his jaded heart with her. They weren’t his to claim. They were Erik’s and they were going home, where they belonged. They were going to a place where he no longer fit in.
He would have stayed right where he was, hidden away in his office, but Jessie was apparently determined to make him pay for forcing her out of his life. She appeared in the doorway of his office, bundled up, her long hair tucked into a knit cap, her cheeks rosy, either from anger or from a trek outdoors. He suspected the former.
“We’re leaving,” she announced unnecessarily.
Luke had seen Doc Winchell arrive in a fancy four-wheel-drive car a half hour earlier cutting a path through the fresh snow. He’d been expecting to see it driving away any minute now heading back to the airport. He’d been listening for the sound of the back door slamming shut behind them, then the roar of the car’s engine. The silence had taunted him. Now, though, it seemed they were finally ready to go, and he was going to be forced to endure another goodbye.
“Have a safe trip,” he said, refusing to meet her condemning gaze.
“Aren’t you going to come and say goodbye to Angela?”
“No,” he said curtly and felt his heart break.
“Lucas, please.”
She didn’t know what she
