His Texas Christmas Bride (Celebrations, Inc 9)

by Nancy Robards Thompson

  Nick’s mind flashed back to his brother, Caiden, and that day when everything changed. The usual heavy feeling of guilt showed up and threatened to weigh him down, but he mentally shook away the thought. He wasn’t going to bring his heavy baggage here. Today he was going to hear his child’s heartbeat for the first time—maybe even see the sonogram picture.

  With due respect to Caiden, he locked memories of his late brother in the recesses of his heart as he followed Becca through the maze of stations and stops, where they performed tests and took her vitals before finally showing them to an exam room.

  “The doctor will be right in,” said the nurse. “Make yourself comfortable.”

  Becca settled herself on the exam table. Nick didn’t know how anyone could be comfortable sitting there.

  “Are you sure you don’t want the chair?” Nick asked, surprised by the protective feelings that had come to life inside him.

  “Oh, no, thanks,” she said. “I’m fine here. They’ll do a sonogram. So I’ll need to be on the table for that. I might as well stay here.”

  “How often do you have to come in for checkups?” he asked.

  “Once a month right now, but the closer I get to my due date, the more often I’ll have to come in. You’re a doctor. You didn’t know that?”

  “In case I forgot to mention it, obstetrics isn’t my specialty.”

  “Yeah, I think you mentioned it.” She smiled at him. “Nick, I’m really glad you came with me today. I know this probably seems a little overwhelming, but having you here has made it so much easier for me.”

  “I haven’t really done anything.”

  “Yes, you have. Just by being here.”

  She looked small and fragile sitting on that table. Nick had to fight the overwhelming urge to pull her into his arms and tell her he was willing to do anything he could to protect their child. But he didn’t want to lead her on, and he didn’t want to promise her anything he wasn’t 100 percent certain he could deliver.

  Memories of Caiden rattled that cage in the back of his mind, reminding him it probably wasn’t in anyone’s best interest—certainly not Becca’s or the baby’s—to promise more than financial support.

  Becca had no idea how foreign the concept of family closeness was to him. Very few things scared him, but that was one of the things that did. Only because it was so big and so crucial—and in his experience, very unforgiving. One misstep and not only did you screw up your own life, but the person, the people who were counting on you, too...

  Stop. You’re not doing this now.

  “By the way, I’m off Friday night,” he said, taking his thoughts in a 180-degree turn.

  Her face brightened. “Do you want to go to the football game?”

  “That would be fun.”

  “It’s a high school game. Is that okay? But the entire community turns out. I can’t think of anything more typically Celebration than that.”

  “Sounds...fun.”

  “Did you play when you were in high school? Or even college?”

  “Who, me?” He shook his head. “No. I didn’t play sports.”

  “Too busy studying? When you were in high school, were you one of those übersmart guys who ruined the grade curve for everyone else?”

  He’d ruined a lot of things for a lot of people when he was a teenager, but the bell curve wasn’t one of them.

  “No, I had to work much harder just to keep up. I had a part-time job that edged closer to full-time when I was in school, and then right after high school I joined the marines.”

  Her eyes widened, and her mouth formed an O. “Yet another thing I didn’t know about you. You’re a constant surprise, aren’t you?”

  He winked at her. “I try my best.”

  “Well, during football season the whole town shows up for Friday night football games. This year, Celebration High has a pretty good record. It’s the first time since I can remember that they’ve been contenders for the district championship. It should be fun. I’m glad you want to go.”

  “What time does the game start?”

  “Seven.”

  “Would you like to grab a bite to eat before the game?” he asked.

  “That would be great. If you’re up for the full experience, we could grab something there. The band boosters grill burgers and hot dogs and sell chips and sodas.”

  “Sounds like a meal fit for a king. How about I pick you up at six?”

  Someone rapped on the door, and the doctor and his assistant entered the small room.

  “Hello, Becca,” he said. “How are we doing?”

  He cast a curious glance at Nick, who was trying his best to disappear in the corner.

  “Hi, Dr. Stevens. I’m feeling great, thank you. I’d like to introduce you to Dr. Nick Ciotti, the baby’s father.”

  Nick recognized the practiced nonchalance with which Stevens greeted him. He was congenial, but there wasn’t a trace of surprise that, at the three-month mark, Becca had finally produced the baby’s phantom father.

  After they shook hands and exchanged generic pleasantries, Becca told Stevens about the food poisoning and he got down to business asking her a series of questions.

  “Have you felt the baby move yet?”

  Becca shook her head. “No, not yet. Should I have already felt this?”

  “No. Not necessarily. For a first pregnancy it could happen as early as fourteen weeks, but generally it happens between sixteen and twenty-five weeks.”

  “That’s a wide range.”

  “Each pregnancy is as individual as the parents.”

  He asked her questions about morning sickness—she told him it had gone away; about fluid leakage and spotting—no to both; and whether she’d been taking her prenatal vitamins—religiously.

  Then the doctor pulled over the fetal Doppler machine. Nick knew this machine because they had them in the emergency room. Dr. Stevens held a small probe against Becca’s slightly rounded belly and moved it around until they could clearly hear the heartbeat.

  The doctor listened for a moment and frowned.

  “Is everything okay?” Nick asked.

  The doctor moved the probe around more, seemingly lost in what he was doing.

  “Dr. Stevens?” Becca said. “What’s wrong?”

  “Don’t get your hopes up, because we need to do an ultrasound to confirm it, but I believe I hear two heartbeats. There’s a chance that you might be pregnant with twins.”

  * * *

  “Twins?” Her voice cracked. “I’d just gotten used to the idea of one child. And now Dr. Stevens confirms there are two babies. The rules keep changing on me here. Or should I say the reality keeps changing. And multiplying.”

  Nick smiled at her. The smile reached his eyes, making them crinkle at the edges. Ooh, those incredible hypnotizing brown eyes that looked darker and more soulful than ever right now.

  “Obviously, I’m no expert, but I hear change is par for the course with children. Just when you think you have it all figured out, everything changes.”

  He shrugged.

  “For someone who claims to know nothing about children, you sound pretty wise. Are you sure you’re ready to do this?”

  What a dumb question. They didn’t really have any choice now. Or at least she didn’t. She was still bracing herself, preparing for the moment that he changed his mind. And if learning that there was not one but two babies didn’t send him running... She couldn’t quite let down her guard and let herself go there yet.

  “I don’t see how either of us really has a choice,” he said.

  She couldn’t read him. Or maybe she simply didn’t want to because she couldn’t handle any more changes until she digested the fact that they were having twins.

  If it had thrown he
r for a loop, how in the world must he really be feeling?

  * * *

  An hour later, as they walked to the parking lot, the toe of Becca’s boot caught an uneven edge of sidewalk and she did an awkward little stumble-dance to keep herself from falling.

  An instant later, Nick’s hand was around her waist steadying her. Her body was warm where he touched her. Or maybe it was just that the stumble had awakened the cymbal-banging monkey, and it was playing a wild staccato in her chest.

  “I’m fine. Thanks.” Her voice was a squeaky octave too high. She flashed him an awkward smile as heat crept up her cheeks, and she quickened her step away from him.

  Gaaa! Leave it to her to be klutzy at the worst possible moment. She took a deep breath and blew it out as the burn of indignity taunted her.

  “I guess I’d better get used to the uncertainty of parenthood,” she said. “Just when I think I have it figured out, I realize I don’t even know how I feel. I mean, I’m trying not to get too freaked out over his comment about twins making it necessary to classify the pregnancy nearly normal. Why? I should’ve asked questions, but I was too stunned. Now that everything is sinking in, I have a million questions. I’m going to stew about them until my next appointment. Do you know what he meant by nearly normal?”

  “Do you want to go back in and ask him?”

  “I hate barging back in. It would throw off their schedule. I’ll call them tomorrow.”

  “He mentioned that Southwestern Medical Center specializes in high-risk deliveries. I can check into it for you—for us.”

  Nearly normal pregnancy. High-risk delivery. Just hearing the words made her head swim.

  She was so glad Nick had come to the appointment with her, and good grief, how would she be feeling right now if he’d left her to go this alone?

  She needed to at least pretend as if she was in control of her emotions. But her body still tingled where he’d touched her, and a tear had leaked out of the corner of one eye and was meandering down her cheek, and then another one followed. She tried to take a deep breath, but it sounded so shuddering and pathetic.

  She attempted to turn away before Nick could see how ridiculous she was being, but before she could, he’d caught her and had drawn her back into his arms.

  “It’s going to be okay,” he said. “Let’s just take this one step at a time. I promise I will do everything in my power to make sure you don’t have to worry about anything.”

  His words were soothing, and she stayed in his arms until she had regained her composure. She pulled back a little to wipe her eyes, but first she looked up at him. His gaze snared hers, and then he was looking at her mouth, and she was leaning into him.

  When he took her chin in his hand and drew her closer, she felt his warm, mint-scented breath so near that every feeling—every dream and desire she’d had since the first moment she’d set eyes on him that night at the hospital—played out before her eyes. Since then, since learning she was pregnant, since finding him again, one of the things she tried not to think about was the way his arms would feel around her, protective and strong. The way his lips would taste... That taste that was so uniquely Nick.

  Then he kissed her. Despite everything, the kiss surprised her. The tentative touch and softness of his lips were a sexy contrast to his masculinity—even better than she remembered from that night at Bentleys. The warmth lingered, melting the chill in the air. His mouth was so inviting, and even though a voice of reason sounded in a distant fog in the back of her mind, saying she really shouldn’t be doing this, she couldn’t quite make herself stop.

  He pulled her closer, enveloping her in his arms.

  Again, he dusted her lips with a featherlight kiss, as if he were trying to kiss away all of her doubt and insecurity. When his mouth finally covered hers, he kissed her with such an astonishing passion, she was sure it had to have come from his soul.

  It was a deep, demanding kiss, and it sent all of her senses reeling and let loose a yearning that consumed her entire body. The way he touched her—one hand in her hair, holding her protectively in place, while the other slid down, caressing her back, edging its way underneath the hem of her blouse until the skin-on-skin contact made it too hard for her to catch her breath.

  A low groan of desire broke through the sounds of the cars whooshing by on the highway and a horn honking in the distance. She realized the moan had come from her. If she knew what was good for her, she’d stop now before she got too attached to this man who might or might not choose to be in her life—and even if he did stick around, he might want things to be strictly platonic. Unlike this very not platonic kiss.

  She pulled back, muttering something about it being late and needing to go and not wanting to keep him from the hospital.

  She knew the contrast was jarring, and she saw the confusion on Nick’s face as she drove away. When she looked in her rearview mirror, he was still standing there watching her.

  Chapter Five

  Nick paid for their football tickets, and they entered the gates at Denison Field. She hadn’t been to many football games lately, but the field looked exactly the same as when Becca had gone to Celebration High School.

  It was hard to believe it had been seven years since she’d graduated. Yet stepping through those gates it felt as if she were transported back in time. She had gone away to college at the University of Florida, and yet she’d chosen to return to her hometown.

  Celebration was a place like no other. Even though everybody knew everything about everyone in town—for the most part, though she’d managed to keep her pregnancy a secret, for now, anyway—it was nice to be part of something bigger than she was, something exactly like this town.

  “Welcome to Denison Field,” she said to Nick. They had arrived a half hour before the game was supposed to start, and the place was already filling up. “I spent a lot of time here as a teenager. As you can see, the whole town turns out for the games. Especially when the team is doing well.”

  She laughed.

  “Everybody loves a winner,” Nick said.

  “Don’t they, though?”

  Becca inhaled the scent of flame-grilled burger. “Mmm, smell that? It’s the best burger in town.”

  The left side of Nick’s mouth turned up in a sardonic grin. “If the best burger in town is cooked by a bunch of band parents, should I be worried about my new hometown?”

  “Absolutely not. The dads have gotten together and they run a food truck on weekends to raise money for the band. They’ve managed to buy a fleet of new tubas and outfit seventy-five kids with brand-new marching uniforms.”

  “That’s enterprising. I hope they can cook as well as they can fund-raise.”

  “Are you kidding? Apparently, the burger recipe is one that Stubby Blanchard’s great-grandmother came up with decades ago. Rumor has it that Ray Isaac, the chef at Bistro St. Germaine, offered to buy the recipe and exclusive rights from Stubby, but Stubby wouldn’t sell. Now Ray has made it his mission to figure out the recipe on his own. The town has been calling it burger wars. The funny thing is, even though Ray graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, he can’t seem to figure it out.”

  “It’s probably some strange ingredient we’d never think of, like peanut butter or baking soda,” said Nick.

  “Baking soda? Don’t say that out loud around Stubby. Because he gets uneasy about people trying to deconstruct his burger—and baking soda?”

  First, Becca made a face, and then she shrugged. “Watch the secret ingredient turn out to be just that!”

  “Becca Flannigan? Is that you?”

  Becca turned to see Lucy Campbell, an old high school friend she hadn’t seen since graduation.

  “Lucy! How are you? When did you get back into town?”

  “Just last week. I moved back from California. I went out th
ere to try my hand at starting my own fabric line.”

  “You always were so artistic,” Becca said. “How did it go?”

  “Well, the cost of living is so high, I had to take another job to support myself, and it was difficult enough to find time to devote to my designs, much less take time off work to meet with potential investors. So I decided to move back and concentrate on my art. And who’s this?”

  Lucy all but batted her lashes at Nick. He seemed to have that effect on women.

  “Lucy Campbell, this is Nick Ciotti. Lucy and I were good friends in high school. I can’t believe we lost touch over the years.”

  Lucy offered Nick her hand; Nick shook it.

  “Nice to meet you,” he said.

  “Nice to meet you, too, Nick. Sooo—” Lucy looked back and forth between Becca and Nick. “Are you two dating?”

  The subtext to Lucy’s question was is Nick taken or is he fair game? Even though Becca knew that Lucy was a harmless flirt, she couldn’t help but feel a tad territorial. Because the truth was she didn’t know what to say.

  Actually, Lucy, tonight is our first date. Unless you count going to the obstetrician together and the night we slept together three months ago when I didn’t even know his last name. Oh, did I mention that we’re having a baby? Actually, we’re having two babies. Twins!

  Good Lord.

  Not unless she wanted the news broadcast all over town. Sure, Lucy was harmless, but it was the rare soul in this town who could keep a juicy secret like good-girl Becca Flannigan getting knocked up. Especially if they were the one who got to break the news.

  Becca figured the best way to head off the question was simply not to answer it.

  “Lucy, it was great to see you. We need to run, but let’s get together sometime soon and catch up. Okay?”

  Maybe by then she would know what to say. Because right now she hadn’t given up hope that maybe she and Nick might figure it out and make it work. The thought cued the cymbal monkey in her chest, and it began banging away again.

  Becca gauged right. Lucy had enough class to know better than to push the question.