The Texas Tycoon’s Christmas Baby

by Brenda Harlen

  Jason knew it was true. His father had always been devoted to his family. And now his family included Eleanor, and Eleanor’s children were part of the family, as well—including the new daughter-in-law he didn’t yet know was his daughter-in-law, because he’d been with his new wife when Penny made the announcement to the rest of the family.

  “Mom was asking for you,” Penny told Rex.

  “Is it okay?” His gaze moved from Eleanor’s daughters to her eldest son. “Do you mind?”

  “Go ahead,” Blake said. “You’re the one she wants right now.”

  There was no bitterness in the words, and Jason knew there could have been, as the rekindling of Rex’s romance with Eleanor would have inevitably reminded Blake that his mother had only married Devon McCord because she was pregnant with him.

  “Thanks,” Rex said, already on his way back to his wife’s room.

  Jason wasn’t clear on all of the details of those past relationships, but he knew enough to be grateful that neither he nor Penny had been involved with anyone else immediately prior to hooking up. If their relationship didn’t work out, they would have no one to blame but themselves.

  Maybe Penny was right—maybe the odds were stacked against them. But Jason never backed down from a challenge, and he never saw failure as an option.

  Penny held back a smile as she watched her new stepfather practically race down the hall to his wife’s side. She’d had some reservations when she realized her mother and Rex had married so hastily, but after her conversation with Eleanor in the library—was it really only eight days ago?—she accepted that her mother was truly happy with her new husband, probably happier than she’d ever been before. And while she was happy for her mother, she was also a little envious because she didn’t know if she would ever love anyone the way her mother loved Rex, or if she would ever be loved the same way.

  Jason had married her, but she had no illusions about his feelings for her. All she had were hopes and dreams. Hope that he would someday grow to love her as much as she loved him, and the dream that they would live happily together as a family.

  “She’s going to be okay.” Jason, obviously misinterpreting the reason for her silence, slid an arm across her shoulders.

  Penny nodded. “I know. I just didn’t expect that it would shake me up this much. I mean, it was just appendicitis, but maybe it’s because it came so close on the heels of her breast cancer scare that I’m being forced to accept that she won’t be here forever.”

  “But you’re not going to lose her anytime soon,” he said.

  “No, thank God.” And then she remembered, and she winced. “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “For being insensitive. I didn’t even think about the fact that you’ve already lost your mom.”

  “A long time ago.”

  “I don’t imagine that makes it any easier.”

  Jason shrugged, not wanting to think back, to admit how big a hole had been left in his life when his mother was gone. It had been his first real experience with death and with grief.

  Yeah, he’d only been a kid when his mom died, and he’d been devastated. But he’d been wise enough to see the effect that her death had on his father, to realize that the day they buried his mother he’d lost a part of Rex, too. And he realized that loving someone meant giving them a piece of your heart, and that once that piece had been given, you could never get it back. He’d vowed then that he would always protect himself from loving and losing so much.

  A valiant objective for a ten-year-old boy, but as the years passed and his grief faded, so did his resolve. He started dating in high school, had some minor flirtations and more serious crushes, but he still didn’t know what it meant to really love someone. Then he met Kara Richardson in college.

  Loving—and losing—Kara had renewed his determination. Since her tragic death, he never let anyone else get too close, never let himself fall in love again. Not that he’d ever been tempted, really. At least not until Penny.

  Now—well, it was a little late to be having second thoughts about making Penny his wife, and soon she would be the mother of his children. It was almost too easy to imagine a future with her, living side-by-side with her, raising their children together, growing old together, maybe even loving one another.

  No, he wasn’t going to go down that road again.

  No way.

  His brother nudged him with an elbow, forcing his thoughts back to the present.

  “I think it’s time to take your wife home,” Travis said, nodding toward Penny.

  She was nestled in a vinyl chair by the door and struggling to keep her eyes open. He knew she tired easily these days because of the pregnancy, and today had been a long and emotionally draining day for her, something he should have realized without his brother pointing it out to him.

  He went to her and took her hand to draw her out of the chair. She came without protest, a testament to how truly exhausted she was.

  “We’ll check back in tomorrow,” Jason announced to her family. “But for now, I’m taking Penny home.”

  Except that after they’d said their goodbyes and left the hospital, one important question remained unanswered: where was home?

  Penny woke up when the car stopped moving and the engine shut off. It took her a moment after that to realize she was in Jason’s car and that his car was parked in her mother’s driveway.

  As he’d already climbed out of the driver’s seat and was coming around to open her door. She had to wait until he’d done so before she could ask “What are we doing here?”

  He shrugged. “I just thought, with everything that’s happened today, you might feel more comfortable staying here tonight.”

  “Oh. Yeah. Thanks.” She wasn’t sure if she sounded grateful or disappointed or just tired. Because she wasn’t sure if she was grateful or disappointed, but there was no doubt about the tired.

  “We never talked about where we were going to live,” Jason said, as he walked with her up to the door.

  “We never talked about a lot of things.”

  “I’d like you to move into my place.”

  She was tempted to argue, maybe because she’d gotten so used to arguing about everything, but when she thought about it, she realized it made sense. She was going to have a baby of her own, she needed a home of her own; she couldn’t expect to continue living at her parents’, especially now that she was married. And now that Eleanor had married Rex.

  Besides, Jason’s downtown condo, though not as big or fancy as his penthouse in Houston, had a spare bedroom that could be converted into a nursery, and it was conveniently located near Foley Industries’ Dallas office and McCords’ flagship store.

  But even while they’d been dating, when she asked why he didn’t come to Dallas more, so they could spend more time together, he’d insisted that his base of operations was in Houston. More importantly, Barb, his secretary-slash-assistant, was in Houston, and he couldn’t manage without her.

  Of course, that might have been just his excuse to keep things from getting too serious between them, because while she’d had illusions of a relationship, he’d only been on a fact-finding mission. Now that they were married, he must have reconsidered.

  “You’re going to move to Dallas?” she asked, seeking clarification on that point.

  Jason frowned. “No. I was referring to my place in Houston.”

  Her heart sank. “I can’t move to Houston.”

  “Well, you can’t expect that I would move to Dallas.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because my office is in Houston.”

  “You have an office in Dallas, too,” she reminded him.

  “My base of operations is Houston.”

  “Mine is Dallas.”

  He let out a long-suffering sigh. “It’s been a long day, Penny, do you think maybe we could argue about this tomorrow?”

  “I don’t want to argue about this at all.”

  “Could
have fooled me,” he muttered.

  She narrowed her gaze. “If you think you can just issue orders and I’m going to blindly obey, think again. I’m your wife, not your puppet.”

  “I don’t want a puppet,” Jason assured her. “What I want is to have a rational conversation.”

  “Are you suggesting that I’m being irrational?”

  “I’m suggesting that we should table this discussion until we’ve both had some sleep.”

  “Fine,” she said, because to argue such a logical point might be construed as irrational.

  “Thank you.” He leaned over to brush his lips against her cheek. “Good night, Penny.”

  The man she’d married only a few hours earlier, who had given every indication of being interested in a real wedding night while they were in Vegas, had just walked away after kissing her cheek.

  Her cheek.

  “Good night,” she replied, more baffled now than tired.

  But he was already gone.

  Chapter Eleven

  Jason picked her up in the morning to take her back to the hospital. Penny claimed that she didn’t need him to drive her, reminding him that she had both a license and a car of her own, but he felt strongly that—less than twenty-four hours after they’d exchanged wedding vows—they should at least give the appearance of a united couple. Throughout the drive, though he was sure they were both thinking about their unfinished discussion from the night before, neither of them mentioned it.

  He popped into Eleanor’s room to say hi to his new mother-in-law, who congratulated him enthusiastically on having the good sense to marry her daughter; then he claimed that he had some things to do at the office, promising to come back to get Penny in a couple of hours.

  There wasn’t anything urgent going on at Foley Industries. After all, it was Saturday, and he’d expected to still be in Vegas with his bride. Obviously, his father’s call had come at the right time, because if they hadn’t been interrupted, he would have made love with Penny. And although he knew he would have enjoyed every minute of it, in the bright light of day—without her subtle scent fogging his brain—he realized that intimacy between them might not be the best way to keep their emotions out of the mix.

  When he returned to the hospital later, it was with a renewed determination to keep their relationship within clearly established boundaries.

  As they were leaving the hospital, Penny said, “Paige invited us to meet her and Travis for dinner tonight.”

  “I’m not feeling very sociable,” he told her.

  “I suggested we have dinner at your condo instead of meeting at a restaurant somewhere.”

  “Well, call her and tell her that something came up.”

  “What something?” she demanded.

  “I don’t care what you tell her, but I’m not in the mood for another interrogation by your sister.”

  “Who is now your sister-in-law,” she pointed out. “And who is also engaged to your brother.”

  “Fine,” he said, though it was anything but. “We’ll have Travis and Paige over for dinner.”

  “I intended to anyway,” she told him.

  He scowled. “You would really have gone ahead with your plans without me?”

  “I’m not going to fall in line with whatever you want whenever you want, like—” she snapped her jaw shut, leaving the rest of the statement unfinished.

  “Like what?” he asked. “Or should I say—like whom?”

  “Dinner’s at six.”

  Clearly, she wasn’t going to answer his question. Of course, he didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. She only had one sister, and Paige wasn’t the type to be told anything by anyone. Which meant that Penny had to be talking about her mother.

  Eleanor didn’t strike Jason as a doormat, either, and he knew his father would never have fallen for a woman who didn’t have her own ideas and opinion. But he’d heard stories about Devon McCord ruling everything in his domain—business and family included—with an iron fist. Not that he actually used his fists, at least as far as Jason knew, but there were a lot of ways to manipulate and control, and he sensed that Penny had witnessed enough to vow that she wouldn’t let herself be subjected to the same.

  In fact, two of the things he’d most admired about Penny while they were dating were the sharpness of her mind and the strength of her convictions. Maybe not as much as he’d admired her sexy body, but any man who claimed to be more attracted to a woman’s mind than her body was either a liar or not getting any.

  He sighed and resigned himself to admiring her mind, because he didn’t think he was going to be in a position to admire anything else, anytime in the near future.

  Jason grilled steaks for dinner, which he served with baked potatoes, green salad and warm, crusty rolls. Conversation flowed easily around the table, and Penny gradually relaxed, accepting that it was unlikely her sister and her husband would come to blows. In fact, they weren’t just civil to one another but almost friendly.

  When Paige went to the kitchen to dish up the cheesecake she brought for dessert, Penny automatically followed to help her.

  “You’re worried about something,” she noted, as her sister carefully lifted the chocolate-caramel-pecan confection out of the box.

  “Nope, just thinking about how much I’ve been dying to taste this.”

  “Come on, Paige. I know you better than that.”

  Paige took the knife her sister handed her. “Okay, I guess I was thinking—and maybe worrying a little—about the fact that you’re actually married.”

  “You said I should get married.”

  Paige sliced through the cake. “I said you should think about it.”

  “I did think about it,” Penny said. “And then I did it.”

  “What changed your mind?”

  “It wasn’t any one thing, really.” She resisted the urge to tell her sister it had been two things, because she and Jason had decided they would keep the news of the twins to themselves, at least for a while. “I guess I just finally decided that if he was so determined to be there for me and our baby, I would let him.”

  “I think there’s more to it than that,” Paige said.

  Penny handed her a stack of plates. “What else could it be?”

  “I think you’re still in love with him.”

  Her sister always had had a sixth sense when it came to knowing what was on Penny’s mind—and in her heart. “I don’t know what my feelings are right now,” she said, unwilling to admit to anyone else the feelings she’d just recently acknowledged to herself.

  “Are you happy?” Paige asked gently.

  Penny sighed. “I don’t know if it’s the pregnancy hormones or our history or my own insecurities, but one minute I’m excited and optimistic, confident that we can make this work. The next I feel this overwhelming sense of disappointment and doom, as if I’ve just made the biggest mistake of my life.” She added forks to the plates. “He wants me to move in with him.”

  “Your husband?” Paige feigned shock. “What is he thinking?”

  Penny smiled. “Okay, I know I sound ridiculous, but it’s just another one of those things we never talked about before we got married.”

  “Well, you’ll have lots of time to talk now.”

  “His penthouse is in Houston. I work in Dallas.”

  “It’s the age of technology—you can work anywhere you want, without being tied to a specific office,” her sister reminded her.

  “But my doctor’s in Dallas, too.”

  “So you’ll come back for your appointments or you’ll find a doctor in Houston,” Paige pointed out reasonably.

  “You’re right,” Penny admitted. “I guess I’m worried that this is one more thing that Jason is getting his way about.”

  “It’s not a contest.”

  “I know,” she said again.

  “And Jason’s not Dad,” Paige said gently.

  “I know that, too. I mean, when I’m thinking logically
and rationally, I know. And then I have moments of panic, when I think I’ve given up my identity to be his wife. And then I have moments of doubt and self-pity, when I’m sure this marriage will never last and then I won’t be his wife anymore.”

  “Honey, you are seriously messed up.”

  Penny managed to laugh through her tears.

  “So, when are you moving?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Well, if you need any help, let me know.”

  “A lot of help you’ll be, since you’re mostly living at Travis’s ranch now.”

  “Can you blame me for not wanting to spend a minute apart from the man I love?”

  No, Penny couldn’t blame her. She could only hope that someday the man she loved would love her even half as much as Travis obviously loved her sister.

  After dessert, Penny decided that Jason should help Paige with the dishes, because she needed to talk to Travis.

  “What happened to the one who cooks being exempt from cleanup?” Jason grumbled.

  “You grilled steaks, you didn’t make coq au vin,” Penny said. “Though I’m sure you could, if you wanted to.”

  Her husband didn’t look appeased as he carried the dessert dishes into the kitchen.

  Paige picked up the wineglasses. “And since I’m guessing they want to talk about my engagement ring, I’m more than happy to let your wife sneak off with my fiancé for a few minutes.” Then she turned from Jason to Penny and warned her sister, “But only a few.”

  “I’ll bring him right back,” she promised, nudging Travis toward the French doors that opened onto the patio.

  “You’ve finished the design?” he asked, as soon as she closed the doors, so as not to be overheard by those still inside.

  “Last week,” she told him. “And I know I should have sent you the sketch, but—” she pulled the ring out of her pocket and handed it to him “—I thought I’d let you see it in 3-D instead.

  “I don’t always have a specific customer or inspiration for my designs,” she told him. “But I wanted this one to mean something to both of you, something more than just a means of showing off the new gem you discovered together.”