Christmas Cookie Baby

by Laura Marie Altom

  At the same time, he climbed out.

  Sergei followed, but when she approached, he cast her an arctic glare before heading over to Vic.

  Ignoring him and his cold shoulder, she waddled the rest of the way to Colby, throwing herself into his arms. Tears followed in an uncontrollable gush. “I’m s-so glad to see you,” she said against his chest, loving his strength and smell and sheer breadth. “Y-yes, I’ll marry you,” she cried. “I’m so sorry. When I thought Vic and I were going to die—it was horrible, Colby.”

  “I can imagine.” Instead of murmuring comforting words into her hair, he delivered an awkward pat to her back. Instead of lifting her up for the reunion kiss she’d spent the past endless minutes dreaming about, he released her as if he found the act of touching her repugnant.

  “Colby?” She slowly unclasped her fingers from where she’d clenched his T-shirt, which was still damp from her tears.

  “I’m relieved you and the baby are safe,” he said, “but…”

  “But what? Didn’t you hear me? You don’t have to be mad at me anymore. I’ve seen the light—literally,” she added on the heels of a nervous laugh. “You were right—about everything. We’ll make a beautiful family, and I do trust you, and love you, and our life is going to be amazing.”

  Instead of their usual warm sea-green, his eyes had grown stone cold.

  “Now that we know you’re okay,” he said, “Brody’s going to ferry you and Vic to Anchorage. You won’t miss your flight.”

  Her heart thundering as though an entire sled dog team raced through her chest, Rose released another nervous laugh. “Sweetheart, I’m not going to Anchorage.” She threw herself at him in another hug, but just when she’d gotten comfortable, he gripped her shoulders, lightly pushing her away.

  “Yes, Rose. You are going. Now.” He whistled and Brody looked in their direction. “Vic, whenever you’re ready, Brode’s going to ferry you over to get a new fuel line.”

  Vic nodded, then knelt to gather the few tools he’d already spread on the ground.

  “Colby?” Rose trembled all over. “Colby, please. Didn’t you hear me? I want to marry you. I love you. Look—I even have proof.” More than a hint of desperation in her tone, she ran as best she could the short distance to her purse to get Colby’s hat. “Look,” she said, waving it on her short trip back to his side. “I know I shouldn’t have, but I took this the night we were rescued. I was wrong, Colby—about everything. I loved you then, only I was too afraid to admit having fallen for you in only one, incredible night.”

  “My hat? That’s your so-called proof?” He laughed. “While I’m flattered I was a good enough date that you wanted a souvenir, some corny Santa hat doesn’t mean you love me. You could’ve died. You were understandably scared. But scared doesn’t equal love—not after that proper little speech you delivered back at the house. In fact, I’ll bet if you think hard enough, you could even come up with a label to identify your sudden change of feelings. Maybe some kind of Stockholm syndrome thing.”

  “How can you say that? You don’t know what’s going on in my heart!”

  Toying with the tether rope to his plane, he said, “Better than anyone, Rose, I do know what’s going on inside you, and it ain’t pretty. Emotionally, you’re a scared little girl living in a grown woman’s body. You have this academic view of the world, neatly assembling every emotion and person into textbook-perfect case studies—but you know what? I don’t want to fit into one of your studies. I want to be the only study. I wanted to be your whole life. But you turned me down one too many times. Consider my offer rescinded.” Stepping onto the float in front of Sergei and Tanner, he said, “Somehow, we’ll reach an equitable custody agreement, but as for the two of us being a couple—we’re history.”

  “Yo, Rose!” Brody shouted. “Your ride’s back here!”

  One trembling hand on her baby, she put her other over her mouth, not caring who saw her meltdown.

  How could he do this me? How could he be so cruel?

  Stupid questions considering how often she’d been cruel to him. Belittling his desire to raise his son. Not trusting him to be a kind and caring husband to her. Yet again, he’d been right in his biting words, only now there was nothing she could do to repair the damage she’d done.

  She lowered her hand from her mouth to try apologizing once more, but it was too late. By the time she figured out what to say, he was already back in his plane, waving at her to step back.

  When she refused to budge, to break her stare, Brody slipped his arm loosely about her shoulders, guiding her to his plane. “Sorry,” he said. “You two could’ve gone the distance.”

  “Then talk to him. Please. Make him understand that—”

  “Don’t embarrass yourself.” Brody squeezed her shoulders. “It’s over.”

  Colby broke the lake’s peace by starting his plane’s engine.

  “B-but I love him!” Rose said on the heels of a sob.

  “Really?” he asked, even as Colby maneuvered his plane to a takeoff position.

  “I think I do.” Swallowing hard, she added, “Isn’t that enough?”

  “For Colby, nope.” Stone-faced, Brody guided her the rest of the way toward his plane. “Thinking you love him isn’t anywhere near enough. He’s your basic all-or-nothing kind of guy.”

  THAT NIGHT AT the lodge bar, Colby stared at the tall-neck beer in front of him. It’d been staring back for nearly an hour, but he still hadn’t taken a drink.

  Some drunken fool had put about twenty bucks’ worth of my-wife-left-me-and-took-my-truck-and-hound-dog country music on the jukebox. Colby’s head throbbed in time with the blinking neon Coors sign behind the bar.

  Brody should’ve been back by now.

  What a day. Hell, he might as well go a little further and include the whole damn week.

  The way that woman played him ought to be criminal.

  She’d wrestled his heart like a dog with a new squeaky toy. He’d busted his ass trying to make her happy, but nothing worked. For her to then say some goofy Santa hat proved she’d changed her mind and loved him? That was crazy. Just plain nuts. People didn’t change on a dime. They just didn’t. If anyone should know that, it was Rose. After all, she was the one with all those damned book smarts.

  “How’s it going?” Tanner asked, easing onto the stool beside him.

  “How do you think?”

  “You ever gonna drink that beer?” he asked. “Polchech says that’s the last one, then we have to switch to tap ’til he gets another shipment.”

  Polchech was the bartender currently shoveling his way through a plate of Nugget’s lasagna.

  “Take it,” Colby said. “Guess I’m not in the mood for drinking.”

  “Wanna fly down to Cordova? See if we can score?”

  “Jeez, Tanner.” Colby scowled. “Way to go on the sensitivity. No wonder Jenny left you.”

  “What? Because she left—told me she never wants to see me again—I’m supposed to be a monk?”

  “You made a lifelong vow to be faithful to her, remember?”

  After taking a long swig of his newly acquired beer, he said, “She’s the one who left me. Plus, our divorce is officially final. I’d say that pretty much cancels any and all vows.”

  Colby shook his head. “I’m sorry man. Really. But I’ve got my own issues. Catch you later.”

  Tanner grabbed Colby’s sweatshirt sleeve, yanking him back. “You know what your problem is, Davis?”

  “Why don’t you tell me, Muldoon?” Colby steeled his jaw. Closed his hands into fists.

  “You’re just too damned loyal. Like a big old hound dog, just waiting around for a pat on your dumb, blind head.”

  “You’re wasted,” Colby said through gritted teeth, “so I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”

  As if sensing a fight, the guys in back stopped playing pool to watch.

  “Pretend all you want, bud, but that girl played you like a fiddle. Hell, she�
�s probably back in Chicago right now, chatting up some dude she met in the airport lounge. How do you even know that baby she’s carrying is yours? What if she’s not even pregnant? Like she’s just messing with your mind? Like some UFO conspiracy thing, that—”

  Bam.

  Colby hit his so-called friend hard and fast, connecting his fist with Tanner’s smug jaw.

  In slow motion, Tanner fell off his stool, cracking the back of his head against the bar.

  Colby was ready to give him another blow at the first smartass comment out of his mouth, but a crowd stepped in to stop him.

  “Let him be,” somebody said.

  “He’s just drunk. He didn’t mean anything.”

  “You’ll be all right.” Someone patted Colby’s back.

  Someone else tended to Tanner.

  No. Colby knew he wasn’t anywhere near all right, and he feared he might never be again. Jeez, he’d just hauled off and punched one of his best friends.

  Colby held out his hand to Tanner to help him up, but Tanner batted it away.

  “I was just keeping it real.” Tanner spit blood on Colby’s right hiking boot.

  “Yeah, well, next time, keep it to yourself.”

  “Come on, there, big fella,” Polchech said to Tanner, helping him to his feet.

  Tanner wobbled for a second before regaining his footing, then took one look at Colby and swung.

  The fight was back on.

  “WELL…” BRODY STOOD with Rose at the security gate for her flight. “Guess this is it.”

  The strength of her sudden hug in the midst of a human river of traffic moved him to the point that after she let go, it took him a few seconds to regain his composure.

  After dropping off Vic, she’d had three hours to kill before her flight, so he’d taken her to a hole-in-the-wall beer joint that served good burgers and even better onion rings. They’d talked for every minute of those hours, and she’d told him the whole story, right down to the secret she’d only just told Colby—she’d fallen hard for him that first night they were together, but was too afraid of a repeat of the horror she’d lived through with her father to ever claim Colby in the first place. She’d also told Brody that in the back of her mind she wondered if she hadn’t returned to Kodiak Gorge to do exactly that—claim her man. Her baby’s father.

  But then, when things between her and Colby seemed too good to be true, she’d feared they couldn’t.

  Standing here now, watching her blink back tears, Brody knew his heart couldn’t take it a minute longer.

  He’d known Colby literally all his life, so he figured if anyone had a right to interfere in that life, he was the one.

  Grasping Rose’s small, cold hands, he asked, “You like surprises?”

  She nodded. The happy expectation lighting her face transformed her from defeated to a full-on gorgeous woman, practically glowing with hope. Brody’s chest tightened. If she weren’t already carrying his best friend’s baby, he’d have made a play for her himself.

  “Then come with me. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “THANK YOU,” ROSE said to Brody around midnight when he stopped his truck in front of Colby’s house. “For everything.”

  She slid across the seat to throw her arms around him in a warm hug.

  “It was my pleasure.” Pulling away, he laughed. “I just wish I could be around to see the look on Colby’s face when you show up at his door.”

  Rose nibbled her lower lip. “Do you think he’ll take me back?”

  “Remember, you’re in Alaska now. Time for you to assert yourself. This isn’t a matter of giving the man a choice. It’s about telling him how it’s going to be.”

  “You’re right. I’m in control.” She fumbled with the door’s handle, then felt her old familiar fears return. “Funny,” she said, finally shoving the door open. “If I’m in control, how come I feel faint?”

  Laughing again, he climbed out to carry her bags to the porch.

  Unsure of her next move, she watched him.

  “You’ll be fine,” he said, climbing behind his truck’s wheel. “Now ring the doorbell so I can go home and get some shut-eye.”

  With a wave, Brody was gone, save for the faint smell of exhaust hanging in the air, and the glow of his taillights through the dirt road’s dust.

  Rose straightened her shoulders for the march up to the house that—if all went well—would soon be her home. Either Colby would take her back, or she’d spend the next couple of days out here sleeping with the bears, because one thing was for sure. She wasn’t leaving until Colby hadn’t just given her an answer, but the right one!

  Her footsteps sounded abnormally loud on the porch steps when the only sounds they had to compete with were the whining bugs. In the airport restroom, she’d changed from her black dress and heels into a comfy pair of maternity jeans and a pink sweatshirt. She’d never realized sneakers could clomp so loudly.

  Her stomach growled.

  Even that was noisy!

  Heart pounding, mouth dry, she knocked on Colby’s door.

  There were no lights on inside, just a faint blue glow. She guessed the TV was on in the loft. She knocked again, and when there was still no sign of life, she tried the door, only to find it open.

  Terrified, excited, ready to burst into tears at the first sight of the man she loved, Rose eased the door open and stepped inside before closing it silently behind her.

  Her tennis shoes were thankfully quiet on the hardwood floor.

  From upstairs spilled the laugh track and bouncy music of an old Seinfeld episode.

  Taking the stairs slowly, she forced herself to breathe, praying Colby was awake since she didn’t have the heart to wake him. But she doubted her nerves could stand not knowing his reaction to her return until morning.

  At the top of the stairs, she released a deep sigh before approaching the bed. “Colby?” she asked softly.

  She crept closer, closer—except that he wasn’t there.

  On TV, Seinfeld faded into a cat-food commercial.

  Meow, meow, meow…

  If he wasn’t in bed, where could he be? She checked the master bath, but found that empty, too. She deliberately avoided looking at the tub where she’d made the worst decision of her life.

  Creeping back downstairs, she glanced at the couches, thinking he might’ve fallen asleep there, but nope.

  He wasn’t in the kitchen, either.

  Her stomach growled again, and on her way past the pantry—the pantry that, if all went well, would soon be hers—she opened the door, flipped on the light, then foraged for a can of squirt cheese and a box of her favorite crackers. There they were. One mission accomplished.

  She flicked off the light and was backing out the door, arms loaded with snacks, when from out of the darkness a familiar male voice said, “Stop right there, and put down whatever the hell you’re stealing ’cause I’m in no mood to deal with a thief.”

  “Colby, it’s me.”

  He flicked on the kitchen light, blinking at the sudden glare. “Rose?” He set a baseball bat on the counter, his shoulders sagging. “What are you doing? I might’ve hurt you.”

  “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m fixing a snack.”

  “Let’s back up.” He shook his head as if to clear it. “Why are you fixing a snack in my kitchen? I thought you’d be on your way to Chicago.”

  Calmly putting her treasures on the counter beside the bat, she flipped open the cracker box, taking a whiff of salty, tangy, spicy goodness. “Mmm… I’ve been craving one of these all day.”

  Stepping to the counter to pop the lid on the cheese, then squirt out a circle atop her cracker, he said, “What’re you doing here, Rose?”

  He handed it to her, and she popped the whole thing in her mouth, closing her eyes while she chewed. “Mmm…this is so good.”

  He rolled his eyes—one of which she now noticed was black. The left side of his jaw was swollen.


  She gasped, touching her hand to his bruised cheek. “What happened?”

  He flinched from her touch, pushing away her hand. “Nothing. It’s no big deal.”

  “Yes, it is. You’ve been in a fight.”

  He shrugged.

  “Colby? What happened?” She reached out again to touch him, but he flinched.

  Oh, boy. She took a deep breath.

  Looked like this was going to be tougher than she’d figured. Maybe she should just save all her questions about his fight for another time, and proceed to the next item on her agenda.

  Digging into her pocket, she said, “Brody and I had a nice day. He took me out for the best cheeseburger I’ve ever had, and then we went shopping.”

  “You and Brody?” He raised his eyebrows.

  “We went ring shopping because, just as you’ve pointed out so many times, this baby of ours is going to need a father.”

  “Oh. Let me get this straight. Since I turned you down, you went running to Brody and he snapped you up?” He curved his hands into fists.

  Snatching up the baseball bat, he stormed to the front door.

  “Colby, wait!” Rose ran after him, catching him at the door by clutching the back of his shirt. “You misunderstood. It wasn’t like that.”

  He spun around. “Tell me what it was like. I’d really like to know.”

  Never had Rose seen him so enraged—not even the time she’d pulled out those custody papers she’d had her lawyer draw up. Could the fact that he was so insanely jealous at the mere thought of her hooking up with Brody be a sign in her favor? That he still felt something for her?

  She licked her lips, unsure where to begin.

  “I’m waiting,” he said, right hand on the door.

  His left hand held the bat, so she worked it loose, leaning it into the nearest corner. His hand free, she grasped it, fumbling with his ring, but eventually slipping it on. “Brody took me shopping for your ring—and mine,” she said, holding up a matching band. “We can have a proper ceremony tomorrow, but tonight, I want us to have one all our own. I want—”