To her astonishment, Luke chuckled. “Darlin’, that’s nothing to get all stressed out about. That’s just Mother and Dad. Talk louder and stand your ground. Sooner or later, they’ll get the message.”
Jessie recognized the wisdom of his advice. She’d even seen how well it worked in action. She’d just lost her strength to fight there for a minute. She gazed up at Luke, tears still shimmering in her eyes, and offered a watery grin. “Quite a welcome, huh?”
He grinned. “Can’t say I’ve ever minded having a woman hurl herself into my arms,” he teased.
His gaze captured hers and held. Suddenly the teasing light in his eyes died out, replaced by something far more serious, something far more compelling. Jessie’s breath snagged in her throat.
“Luke,” she began huskily, then cleared her throat and tried again. “Luke, what are you doing here? Yesterday you flat-out refused to come. Did something change your mind?” She thought of the ring she’d left behind and the odd call he’d made the day before when he’d discovered it.
“I suppose you could say I came to take the pressure off you.”
She regarded him uncertainly. It wasn’t exactly the response she’d been anticipating. “In what way?”
He shrugged. “With me around, Daddy will be so busy trying to take charge of my life again, he won’t have time to go messin’ in yours.”
“That’s what you think,” she said dismally. “Harlan could fiddle with the lives of an entire army platoon without missing a beat. As for your mother...” She sighed heavily.
Luke grinned. “Don’t I just know it,” he said, matching her sigh with apparent deliberation. “Maybe we should both just hide out in here for the duration.”
An intriguing idea, Jessie thought. She was stunned, however, that Luke had suggested it, even in jest. Or, perhaps that was the point. Perhaps he intended to tease and taunt her as he might a younger sister, robbing her of any notions that he thought of her in any kind of sexual way. She searched his gaze for answers, but whatever emotions had been swirling there a moment before had given way to pure amusement.
“I have an idea,” he said. His voice had dropped to a daring, conspiratorial note.
“What?” she asked suspiciously.
“I saw this very bored young woman sitting right outside your door. I have a feeling she would be more than glad to babysit for a bit.”
Jessie rolled her eyes. Obviously Lara had decided to stay within shouting distance. “I’ll bet,” she muttered. “She’s there under orders from your mother.”
Luke chuckled. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Let’s let Lara do her thing. You and I can go to lunch.”
“I just ate breakfast,” Jessie protested.
“Obviously you haven’t noticed the roads into town. By the time we get there, it will definitely be lunchtime.”
“Won’t your family be expecting you to eat lunch here? Have you even seen your father or mother yet? Or Cody?”
“Not hide nor hair of them. I snuck in the back way,” he admitted. “You can help me keep it that way a little longer. Are you game?”
Jessie would have hopped a bus to nowhere if it would have gotten her away from White Pines for a little while, long enough to get back her equilibrium. A trip into town with Luke sounded perfect.
“You tell Lara,” she said. “I’ll get my coat.”
As he started toward the door of the suite, Jessie called after him, “Luke?”
He glanced back.
“I don’t have any idea what really brought you here, but I’m very glad you came.”
An oddly wistful expression came over his face for an instant. It was gone in a heartbeat.
“Maybe I just heard your prayers for a knight in shining armor,” he taunted. “My armor’s a bit tarnished, but I can still stand up to a common enemy.”
Hearing him expressing the view of Harlan and Mary that she’d been thinking to herself only a short time earlier made Jessie feel suddenly guilty. For all of their bossiness, they had always been kind to her. The huge pile of Christmas presents stacked in the corner—everything from a silver teething ring to a car seat for the baby, from a golden locket to a filmy negligee and robe for her—attested to their generosity.
“They’re not that bad,” she countered.
“Don’t need a hero, huh? Want me to head on home, then?”
Jessie had the feeling he would be only too relieved to comply. For a multitude of reasons, she wasn’t sure she could bear it if he left.
She leveled a challenging glare at him. “Just try it, Lucas. You’ll have to walk through me.”
He winked at her. “An interesting idea.”
That wink stirred ideas in Jessie that could have gotten her arrested in some parts of the world, she was sure. Harlan and Mary would certainly have been scandalized by her thoughts. She grabbed her coat before she was tempted to act on any one of them.
As if he’d read her mind, Luke inquired lazily, “In a hurry, darlin’?”
“You have no idea,” she replied in a choked voice.
“Oh, I’ll bet I do.” He touched a finger lightly to her lips. “Hold those thoughts.”
Jessie had no problem at all complying with that rather surprising request. She doubted she could have banished them with a solid whack by a crowbar. What she couldn’t comprehend to save her soul was why Luke had suddenly taken it into his head to torment her like this. Whatever his reasons, though, she intended to make the most of his presence.
He might walk away from her and from White Pines eventually, but if he went this time it wouldn’t be without putting up the fight of his life for his heart. Jessie intended to claim it, this time for good.
12
Luke was having a great deal of difficulty remembering what it was that had originally brought him to White
