by Tina Leonard
“Don’t water down the story, please,” she told Seagal.
“You created the floral displays for Christmastown?” he asked, shifting into cop mode.
“Yes, like I did last year. Everything was almost the same this year, with a few minor changes, mainly involving the types of flowers that were available.”
“This year drugs were concealed in the arrangements. Specifically, pot seeds. They were brought in in the containers you ordered, and then hidden in the bottoms of the vases. It would have been a clever plan if they hadn’t been such blabbermouths. And that guy we nabbed was a rush of good information.”
She frowned. “Impossible, Seagal. I worked on every one of the displays myself.”
He nodded. “I know. That’s what Kelly said. They had to have been concealed after you did the designs. Nice pajamas, by the way.”
She’d forgotten she was in her happy-face pajamas. And it was late. Mrs. Penny would be having a field day—no doubt her phone line was buzzing. “You have to go, Seagal.”
“Actually, I have to stay. Official capacity.”
“I don’t want the rumor mill starting up, and I’m sure you don’t, either.”
He made no move to stand. “I could ask for another officer to take over, but frankly, I figured you’d be more comfortable with me in the house than a cop you don’t know.”
“Not quite,” she said, fibbing like mad. No one would believe that the two of them staying under one roof was coincidental or official. That was the problem. “What happened to Mrs. Penny’s nephew? Kelly said he was supposed to be the Santa.”
“Last-minute change.” Seagal looked pleased about that. “Why didn’t the proverbial grapevine let me know I was going to be a dad? Even in Dallas, I should have heard about it from my old cop buddies here in town. My partner usually keeps me informed of the news in Bridesmaids Creek.”
She frowned. “Because I didn’t tell anyone you were the father. Only Kelly knew.”
“Ouch.”
Capri sat down, finally deciding Mrs. Penny’s curiosity was going to have to wait. “It seemed best, considering our situation.”
She didn’t think she’d ever seen her husband look more unhappy, except when they’d decided to separate.
“The divorce is final in two weeks,” he said quietly. “The day after Christmas. You weren’t planning on giving us much of a chance to get back together.”
“Because of a pregnancy?” Capri shook her head. “Seagal, if you’d wanted to come home, you would have long ago.”
“I can’t blame you for feeling that way.” He cast a longing eye at her stomach. “You look beautiful, by the way.”
Secretly she was flattered, even if she knew Seagal was being kind. “Thank you.”
He nodded. “It’s true.”
She didn’t say anything else. Things were too uncomfortable between them as it was.
“What are we having?”
She looked at him, seeing real interest in his eyes. “I don’t know. I didn’t want to find out,” she fibbed.
“I’m going to be there,” he said softly.
He leaned back on the sofa, trying to seem casual. The depth of his voice told her that Seagal was anything but casual.
“All right. Just no looking under the sheet or seeing me naked.”
He smiled. “Always good to know the ground rules.”
Her heart beat a little harder at his smile, but she’d always loved Seagal’s smile, and just about everything about him. “Will you be comfortable sleeping on the sofa?”
“Well, I’d be more comfortable in our—”
“You’re familiar with the kitchen, I’m sure,” she interrupted. “I’m not happy about you being here, but I guess Mrs. Penny will just have to have some gossip with her bagel in the morning.”
Shrugging, he scooted down in the sofa and closed his eyes. “Good night.”
She studied her almost-ex-husband. “Exactly what is it you’re protecting me from?” she asked, thinking she was in far more danger from Seagal.
His eyes remained closed. “The man we arrested today was part of a small-time gang using your shop to transfer drugs. Now he’s in jail, but someone else will take his place. Your shop might have proven to be convenient. We want to bust this crowd, but obviously we don’t want you caught in the middle, since there may be hometown boys involved.”
“I don’t know a single person in BC who would dabble in illegal drugs,” Capri said. “We have our troublemakers, but no one who would do something like that. If there really are drugs in Bridesmaids Creek, they have to be coming from the outside.”
Seagal shrugged. “I can’t say any more than I have. But I’m hanging out here with you until the BC guys have everything pinned down.”
She didn’t want Seagal in close quarters with her. No telling what might happen if they shared a roof.
They’d shared a bed before—that part of their marriage had been wonderful. But a marriage wasn’t built solely on sexy fun.
“I can close the store for a few days,” Capri said, knowing that wasn’t really feasible. She had employees to think of, and arrangements already ordered for holiday parties and even a wedding.
“That would stop the traffickers for a few days, but not the long term. Simpler to just catch them while the situation’s hot.”
Capri eyed her husband lying on the sofa he’d never been keen on—he’d far preferred the leather sofa in the den—and thought he looked sexier than the last time she’d seen him. He’d shattered her heart when he’d left, and now he was back, wanting to protect her, and see his child born.
The situation was definitely hot.
“This is not the way to spend Christmas,” she said. “Haven’t you heard that holidays are stressful?”
He pushed his Stetson low on his face. “Then don’t stress me out, dollface.”
Stress him out? She was pregnant, someone was using her grandmother’s shop for illegal activity and her sexy about-to-be-ex husband wanted to be her bodyguard.
“Merry Stressmas,” she said, and went off to bed.
Chapter Two
Seagal let himself out of Capri’s house the next morning to check the perimeter of the small, three-bedroom home. The fact that his wife and child might be in danger chilled his blood. He’d nearly had heart failure when he’d heard that the feds were nosing into a drug ring in Bridesmaids Creek—and who should be involved but his darling, everybody’s-best-girl, almost-ex-wife.
Imagine his shock when he learned from a very reliable source that his wife was about to make him a dad. Heart failure. Capri had always brought him to his knees, but now…now she staggered him.
She hadn’t planned to tell him. He knew Capri better than she realized. Oh, she would have told him after the birth of his bundle of joy, and not one second before.
Because she knew he’d be right back here in Bridesmaids Creek—and she didn’t want him back.
Tough. She was going to have him. That baby was going to know its dad—no matter what sexy mama had in mind.
“Hey!”
Seagal glanced up. His fellow officer Jack Martin idled at the curb in one of Bridesmaids Creek’s new police cruisers. He strolled over to greet Mrs. Penny’s nephew.
“What’s up, Jack?”
Jack grinned. “Considering that your car is parked in Capri’s driveway, I’m surprised you are.”
Seagal ran a hand over his unshaven chi
n. “Just barely. Did you bring me a latte, or is this a social call?”
His buddy grinned. “Neither. Just wanted to let you know that you were a hit last night. The kids said you were the best Santa ever. You’ve been voted Santa Most Likely to Repeat next year.”
Seagal grunted. “I couldn’t get out of that itchy suit fast enough.”
“Scrooge.” Jack handed him a coffee in a white cardboard cup. “Have a jolt on me. Figured you didn’t sleep much.”
Seagal sipped the beverage gratefully. “I didn’t. As sofas go, it’s not made for sleeping. I always despised that flowery thing, and now it’s my bed. I think that’s called karma. I wanted to get rid of it, and somehow that poufy nightmare outlasted me.”
Jack laughed. “Does my aunt always keep an eye on you like this? I’d like to think she’s proud of me, but I’m pretty sure she’s got her radar trained on you.”
Seagal glanced over his shoulder, waving at the pink-roller-wearing Mrs. Penny. She had a white phone tucked firmly up to her ear, chatting away. Mrs. Penny waved back, thrilled to have been noticed. “You know your aunt and her friends run this one-horse town. If it wasn’t for her, we’d still be—”
“The creek no one ever heard of.” Jack put the cruiser in Drive. “True, but you’re definitely in her sights for the next few weeks. Just so you know. I won’t be down the street before she calls me wanting to know all.”
“I’m good with it. She makes great chocolate chip cookies.”
Jack grinned. “I know. By the way, I was told to give you a nudge to snoop around your wife’s flower shop.”
Seagal’s cup didn’t quite make it to his mouth. “What am I looking for?”
Jack shrugged. “Anything suspicious. Especially check out the employees, and anyone who seems to hang around a lot. You get the idea.”
“Yeah, but—” Seagal considered what Jack was saying. “The drugs could have been moved after Capri put the arrangements out at Christmastown.”
“Probably. Just check around.”
Jack drove off. Seagal grabbed the newspaper lying on the sidewalk and waved to Mrs. Penny before heading inside the small painted house, ruminating on how he could snoop around Capri’s shop without getting her annoyed at him. She’d always been super-independent. And they weren’t on the world’s best terms.
Now he had to scope out her business and her home.
Nothing good could come of this.
“Good morning.” He looked at Capri as he walked into the kitchen. She seemed pale, not her usual sparkly self. “You all right?”
Capri picked up her purse. “I had a little stomach upset last night. It kept me up, so I’m going to let Dr. Blankenship check me over.”
“I’ll drive you,” Seagal said quickly.
She looked at him. “Kelly’s going to take me, thanks. Don’t you have work?”
He did—her. “Nothing I can’t handle. Cancel Kelly and let me sub in. A dad should be there if his young son is causing his mother heartburn. And anyway, isn’t Kelly part of the Christmastown cleanup team this morning?”
Capri hesitated. He loved how she’d pulled her blond hair up into a bouncy ponytail to get it out of her face. She no longer wore the skinny jeans and cute cropped sweaters she’d once favored, but she was still all kinds of beautiful as far as he was concerned. Sexier than ever, actually. He felt his own heart get a little burn in it that had nothing to do with anything he’d eaten and everything to do with his wife keeping him at arm’s length.
“Yes, she is. So am I, but Dr. Blankenship said I could cross that fun off my list immediately.” She looked at Seagal. “I guess you can take me to the doctor. Thank you.”
“Great.” He grabbed his keys and tried to help her to the front door. Capri waved him off. “Because I was about to play the guilt card on you.”
“That would be a new one,” Capri said.
He thought she sounded tense and realized she didn’t feel well at all. “Hey, you want me to carry you?”
“No,” Capri said. “I want you to walk very slowly and don’t do anything to get Mrs. Penny in a lather.”
“Too late,” Seagal said, waving again to Mrs. Penny. It seemed rude not to acknowledge her at her lace-festooned lookout.
“It’s going to be all over town that you spent the night,” Capri said, not thrilled.
“Yeah, well. Could be worse, right? Could have been her nephew, my buddy Jack.”
He helped Capri into the car. She eased in as though she was trying not to disturb fragile packaging. “Are you sure I shouldn’t take you straight to the hospital?”
“I’m fine.” Capri put a hand on her stomach and looked out the window, deliberately avoiding his gaze. He pulled out of the drive, resisting the urge to mash the pedal to the floor.
“You’re almost seven months pregnant,” Seagal said. She’d kicked him out—though she claimed he’d left—four months ago. “How did I not notice?”
“Even I didn’t know.” Capri sighed. “The first trimester was a dream. I didn’t realize I was pregnant until the end of the third month. The second trimester was more difficult, at least for me. I didn’t start showing for quite a while, I guess because I’m tall.” He felt her gaze on him. “I did have a little bit of stomach distress when you were still here, but I assumed it was extreme annoyance. So I ignored it.”
He grimaced. “Turned out it was a baby?”
She sighed. “You might as well know. There are two. Not even Kelly knew that.”
Seagal slammed the brakes at the stop sign out of pure reflex. “Two what?”
“Babies.”
Shock. Brain-hit-with-a-stun-gun shock. “We’re having twins?”
“That’s right. Drive. I don’t want to be late.”
Seagal couldn’t get any words past his throat. No wonder Capri seemed so big. She was big. “When were you going to tell me?”
“When you got over the initial shock of finding out you were going to be a father.”
He grunted, his heart racing. Two? There were no multiples in his family, or hers, as he recalled. “How did that happen?”
“You made love to me a lot,” Capri said, “and something hit bingo would be my guess.”
He had made love to her as often as possible. To be honest, making love to Capri was pretty much the best part of his day. He missed it like crazy.
He missed her like crazy.
“I should never have left,” he said. “You talked me into a separation, but I knew better at the time. I was right. We belong together.”
She shrugged. “Not because we’re going to be parents, Seagal. Children won’t fix what was wrong with our marriage.”
He parked in front of the doctor’s office. “Sit right there and do not move, Miss Independence. I’m coming around to shoehorn you out. I’m afraid if you move the wrong way, we’ll have babies sooner rather than later.”
Seagal hurried around to help her out of the car, amazed that his wife actually remained seated, patiently waiting for him. The soft blue dress fell around her tummy, catching his eye. It looked as if a watermelon had taken up residence inside his delicate wife. He eased her from the seat, trying to brace her. “I came back not a moment too soon, I can tell. I’m not leaving your side, Capri.”
“Obviously,” she said, sounding as though she was gritting her teeth a bit. “You’re assigned to me.”
“That’s right,” he said cheerfully, reminded that she could
n’t dislodge him even if she wanted to.
“Assigned isn’t the same thing as marriage,” Capri said, walking slowly into the doctor’s office. “You can stay with me until the cops figure out that I’m not in any danger. The whole drug thing is purely a coincidence. Then you can go back to wherever you came from.”
That didn’t sound good. Seagal wisely kept his mouth shut, hovering over his wife as she checked in, then helped her to a chair. He received several smiles from the other women in the waiting room and relaxed a bit. His wife was going to have to get over her idea that their marriage was a foregone failure.
He hadn’t come back to fail. When Beau, Capri’s beloved “baby” brother, had told him that Capri was having a baby, he’d pulled every department string possible to get himself assigned to the case—and ultimately, to her. Having worked his way up in the Texas Rangers, he was something of a hometown hero. It hadn’t been hard to get assigned back to BC.
It was terrifying to think he had only two weeks to win back his wife.
Capri would be mad as a little bee if she knew how determined he’d been to get back into her life. He’d wanted to keep her out of danger the second he heard about the case building in Bridesmaids Creek. But when he’d heard that she was pregnant, Seagal had known he had to move heaven and earth to be with her.
And he wasn’t leaving her ever again—not if he could convince his opinionated and cutely stubborn little wife otherwise.
* * *
“TOTAL BED REST,” Dr. Blankenship said. He gazed sternly at Capri.
The expression on the doctor’s face unnerved Seagal. Rarely had he seen the physician look so concerned.
“Bed rest?” Capri said. “I have a lot to do. I’m doing the flowers for a wedding. I’m also scheduled for some Christmas parties—”
“Total bed rest,” Dr. Blankenship cut in, shaking his head. “We talked about you needing to be in bed last week, Capri.”
“What?” Seagal looked at Capri in disbelief. “What were you thinking?”