His Texas Christmas Bride (Celebrations, Inc 9)

by Nancy Robards Thompson

“Absolutely,” she said. “I can’t wait to catch up. I’m staying with my sister until I get settled. You remember Hannah, don’t you?”

  Becca nodded.

  “Let me give you my cell number.” As Lucy rattled off the number, Becca added it to the contacts in her cell. “Please, give me a call, and we can set up something.”

  Becca was never so glad to get away from anyone. As she and Nick walked away, the sinking feeling hit her that bringing him here had probably been a bad idea. A very bad idea. How the heck had she figured she and Nick would get lost in the crowd when every night at a Celebration High School football game was like homecoming? Especially when most of the people in town had never met Nick and probably thought she didn’t even date.

  She wondered for a moment if it was too late to suggest that they do something else. In fact, she glanced up at him ready to ask him if they could leave, but his eyes met hers, and in that split second she didn’t care if the two of them stayed or went. She didn’t care if people asked questions or wanted to meet the new guy.

  Things would work themselves out the way they were meant to.

  But tonight, he was there with her.

  That was all that mattered.

  “I noticed how you evaded her question,” Nick said. He looked as if he was trying not to laugh.

  “You think it’s funny, huh? What was I supposed to say?”

  Her heart dared her to tack on the words boyfriend, fiancé, baby daddy, but her mouth chickened out.

  “Actually, I thought it was pretty skillful.”

  “And I noticed that you just skillfully evaded my question,” she said.

  He smiled at her again. “Did I? I guess I didn’t understand the question.”

  “I’ll give you that. It’s sort of a hard one to understand, isn’t it?”

  Thank God the color announcers chose that moment to inform the crowd that tonight was senior night and that the football players, cheerleaders and band members would have their photos taken on the field with family members during the halftime break.

  “Oh, shoot,” Becca said. “I completely forgot it was senior night.”

  “Did you forget you were supposed to have your picture taken at halftime?” Nick teased. “After we get our food, I’ll hold your cheeseburger for you if you need to go freshen up. Although if it’s as good as you say it is, I can’t guarantee it’ll still be here when you get back.”

  “Very funny. My nephew Kevin is on the football team, and he’s a senior.”

  “You have two nephews? Victor, the one who was in the emergency room that night, and Kevin?”

  “Three, actually, and a niece. Victor belongs to my sister. Kevin and Marshall, who is a junior, are my brother Mark’s sons. They’re all on the football team. My niece, Nora, who is Mark’s daughter, is a cheerleader.” She waved it away. “I have a big, complicated family. If my sister realizes I’m here and I avoided the photo, it could cause a pretty bad scene. But the funny thing is, if I wanted to be in the photo, she would probably find a reason that I shouldn’t. You remember my sister? She’s the one who threw me out of the emergency room the night we met.”

  “Oh, right. I do remember her. She was kind of scary. Although, I have thought about thanking her for throwing you out, because if she hadn’t...”

  Oh. Oh!

  Becca could read a whole lot into that. Again, her brain wanted her to ask him if he realized that if Rosanna hadn’t been in such a rage that night, they probably wouldn’t be expecting twins next May. But her mouth couldn’t ask the question. And if she couldn’t ask the question, he couldn’t refute or clarify exactly what he meant, and she could go on believing that he was happy they met.

  Thank goodness her parents wouldn’t be there tonight. She wouldn’t have suggested going to the game if she thought they’d be here.

  They never went to the games when the temperature dipped below sixty degrees, which it was tonight and on most Friday nights in November. Her mother had suffered a case of pleurisy ten or fifteen years ago. The cold aggravated the condition—even after all this time. Becca suspected Isabel used it as an excuse to avoid certain functions—such as football games, which were at the bottom of her mother’s list of fun things to do, along with root canals and gynecologist appointments.

  Of course, Rosanna would be there because Victor was second-string varsity. He didn’t play much, if at all, but it was rare for a freshman to make the varsity team. Even if he rode the bench, he did it proudly. Rosanna would be holding court in the bleachers with the other football moms.

  Since it would be shoulder-to-shoulder crowded, Becca didn’t worry about running into Mark and Rosanna. And, honestly, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if she did. She’d simply introduce Nick and tell them—tell them what?

  * * *

  As they made their way toward the concession area, Becca saw Kate and Liam heading toward them. Kate’s eyes flashed, and a broad smile overtook her face when she caught sight of them.

  “You’re here,” she said, greeting Becca with a warm hug.

  “We are,” said Becca. “Nick asked me to show him something quintessentially Celebration. Since the entire population of the town will be here tonight, I thought I would give him Celebration in one fell swoop.”

  “You’re a brave man, Dr. Ciotti,” said Liam. “I didn’t attend my first game until my daughters made the cheerleading squad.”

  They all looked down at the track.

  “Amanda and Calee are so excited to be cheering with Nora this year,” Kate said. “Nora is Becca’s niece. Did she tell you? And her nephews are on the team.”

  “She did,” Nick said.

  “Ooh, I can’t watch.” Kate gestured toward the cheerleaders. They were organizing to do one of their stunts. Nora and one of Kate and Liam’s girls were at the base of the pyramid holding the leg of Liam and Kate’s other daughter, who was teetering high on top.

  Becca winced right along with her. “They’re adorable and so athletic, but I can’t watch them do those stunts. I’m always so afraid they will fall and get hurt.”

  Kate sighed. “But their coach is all about safety. So we’ve all agreed that as long as they’re vigilant and they play by the rules, we won’t embarrass them by hiding our eyes when they perform stunts and acrobatics.”

  “We’d rather them be here than out who knows where.” Liam slid his arm around Kate’s shoulders. “Not that we would let them go to who knows where, but it is good that they are involved in something that takes up so much of their time.”

  Kate had married into her ready-made family and adopted Amanda and Calee when she and Liam wed. Liam had lost his wife in a tragic accident, and both he and the girls had benefited from Kate’s nurturing touch.

  “Are you two coming over on Sunday night?” Kate asked, directing her question mostly toward Nick.

  “What’s going on Sunday night?” Nick said.

  “You are new to the area, aren’t you?” Liam teased.

  “Every Sunday night we get together to watch the Dallas Cowboys play football. Well, the guys watch the game, and the ladies usually gather in the dining room. This week, we’re making wedding favors for Anna Adams and Jake Lennox’s wedding. You might know them from the hospital. Anna is a nurse, and Jake is an attending.”

  “Right. I met them on my first day at the hospital, actually,” said Nick.

  “Well, then, in addition to football on Sunday night, you might want to mark the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend on your calendar.”

  “Is the whole town invited?”

  “Pretty much,” said Kate. “A lot of people from the hospital are on the guest list. I hope you have a nice suit. You can be Becca’s date.”

  Becca felt her face heating up. She wished she could grab one—or maybe she’d need two—of he
r niece’s pom-poms so she could stuff them in Kate’s mouth to shut her up.

  “Since I’m the new guy, I’ll probably get the honor of working that night. Someone will have to hold down the fort.”

  “We will have to see about that,” said Kate. She flashed a smile that Becca knew meant you can thank me later. “They’ve made arrangements for the shifts to be covered.”

  “We’d better find a seat before kickoff,” said Liam. “If we stay here much longer, this one will be planning your wedding.”

  “Okay, let’s hear it for my friends Mr. and Mrs. Awkward, guaranteed to make everyone feel uncomfortable. We’re going now. Bye-bye.”

  “You’re welcome to sit with us,” Liam called after them.

  “Thank you, but if we wanted to be tortured all night, my sister is right over there.” Becca gestured with her head toward the crowd in the center of the bleachers, the area that was reserved for the Celebration Quarterback Club. Then she hooked her arm through Nick’s and steered him away.

  “See you Sunday,” Kate called.

  Becca waved goodbye without looking back at her friends. She knew Kate and Liam meant well, and she wasn’t mad at them for being so forward. In fact, Becca hoped Kate hadn’t scared off Nick and that he wanted to come to the football gathering Sunday night. The five couples who got together every Sunday night in the fall were some of her best friends. Over the years she’d watched them meet and marry their sweethearts. She was the last single in the bunch.

  Now that she thought about it, if Nick didn’t want to come, she wasn’t going to push him. The two of them would be the lone singles swimming in the sea of married couples. That would levy an altogether different kind of pressure than what Kate and Liam had joked about tonight.

  Once they were a good distance away, Becca withdrew her arm from Nick’s.

  “I’m sorry about that,” she said.

  “About what?” he asked.

  His question threw her for a moment, but she recovered.

  “They love to joke around. The football parties are fun. It’s a great excuse for everyone to get together. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea and think that it would be a night full of pressure, of them pushing us together. It’s mostly guys in one room and women in another—especially this week, since we’ll be busy with the wedding favors. With as many people as Jake and Anna are inviting, it’s going to take a village to get them done on time.”

  Before he could answer, they walked into the midst of a rush of latecomers who had just purchased tickets and were streaming into Denison Field, obviously intent on getting to the bleachers to find seats before kickoff. Becca and Nick were momentarily separated. But once Becca found her way through the crowd, Nick was waiting on the other side for her. Her stomach did a little stutter-step—as it did every time she saw him. There was this momentary rush of disorientation over the fact that this gorgeous man—this man who looked dark and a little bit dangerous—was actually very kind and caring, even if he was still a bit of a mystery.

  * * *

  Nick knew Kate and Liam’s good-natured banter was just that—good-natured banter. He also knew they wouldn’t say things like that if they didn’t welcome him into their inner circle. Sure, there was a grain of seriousness to it, and if he let it, it might bother him—only because he wasn’t used to other people being so into his business. But as he looked around at all of the people who’d turned out tonight for the football game, he realized living in a small town like Celebration meant people would be in your business. It was a given. Celebration wasn’t like San Antonio, where it was easy to be a face in the crowd. Here, new faces stood out in the crowd, and the community made it their business to find out about their new neighbor.

  His gaze snared Becca’s as she walked toward him. Someone stopped her and greeted her with a hug. It gave Nick a chance to watch her without her realizing he was staring. She looked gorgeous in her tight jeans and blue-and-white Celebration High School Wildcats spirit shirt. Her navy blue peacoat hung open so that the T-shirt underneath was visible. He couldn’t help but notice how the V-neck emphasized her breasts, which had been sexy as hell before the pregnancy, and appeared to be even fuller now.

  A man would have to be dead not to notice how good she looked. And damned if that same aching need that had drawn him to her that first night didn’t threaten to consume him again.

  When she reached his side, he took her hand. “We wouldn’t want to get separated again. I might not be able to find you amid the throng of sports fans here tonight.”

  She smiled at him, and they found their way to the small outbuilding to the right of the bleachers where the band boosters were selling food.

  The smell of grilled burgers and hot dogs filled the air, and Nick’s stomach rumbled. He wasn’t sure the concessions would feed what he was hungry for, but for now it would have to do. They got in line just in time for the marching band to begin playing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” All of the cooks put down their spatulas and removed their hats; the money takers stood and put their hands over their hearts. Everything stopped until the piccolos trilled the last trill and the cymbals put the final exclamation point on the national anthem.

  When it was all over and the announcer started speaking, Becca asked, “What are you going to have?”

  He smiled at her, tempted to say, The same thing I had that night at Bentleys. But she had acted so jumpy over Liam and Kate’s teasing that he didn’t want to push it.

  Right now, he was content to be out with her on this beautiful, cool fall evening, holding her hand and enjoying her company.

  “I think I’ll have a cheeseburger and fries. They must be serious if they’re operating their own FryDaddy.”

  “Best fries in town. I highly recommend them.”

  The crowd went wild as the team ran out onto the field. The announcer informed everyone that if the Wildcats won the game tonight they would advance to the semifinals for the district championship. The crowd cheered again, and several people leaned on air horns. The band broke into a rousing round of what must’ve been the school’s fight song. After another exuberant cheer, the crowd settled down until the Wildcats won the coin toss and elected to kick the ball to the visiting team.

  “It’s nice that the town supports the team so well,” Nick said. “I guess in its own way Celebration isn’t really the sleepy little town that I thought it would be.”

  “No, the people around here tend to make their own fun. It may not be a wild party—unless you come over to Kate and Liam’s for football Sunday—but it’s nice.”

  It was nice. It was everything he imagined being part of a small community would be. He wasn’t exactly sure how he felt about that. If truth be told, the small-town closeness was one of the reasons he had turned down the job in the first place. But when they came back with an offer he couldn’t refuse, well, he simply couldn’t refuse.

  They ordered their food—two cheeseburgers, two orders of fries, a bottle of water for Becca and a can of cola for himself—and made their way over to a group of high-top patio tables that were off to the side but still allowed them a partial view of the field.

  Since most of the people in attendance had crowded into the bleachers, the area where they enjoyed their meal was mostly empty except for a small knot of teenagers who obviously had no interest in watching the game.

  “Does Kate know about the latest development in our little adventure?”

  “No, we were busy today, and... I don’t know. I guess I’m still getting my head wrapped around our growing family.”

  “Rebecca?”

  The voice came from behind him, so he couldn’t see who it was, but good grief this woman was popular. Granted, Celebration was a small town; Becca Flannigan obviously knew everyone who had ever lived here.

  But he only had to take one look at her face to
realize she wasn’t thrilled to see this person.

  Nick turned around and saw an impeccably dressed woman with the same basic bone structure and clear blue eyes as Becca. At that moment he caught a glimpse of what Becca might look like in twenty-five or thirty years. This had to be Becca’s mother. The distinguished man with silver hair at her side had to be Becca’s father.

  “Rebecca, you’re here. Good. I meant to call you today to remind you that tonight is senior night, and Kevin is getting a family portrait made on the field, and we all need to be in the picture. Make sure you meet us at the half.”

  The woman stopped abruptly and trained those piercing blue eyes on Nick. The way she tilted back her head gave her the appearance of looking down her aquiline nose.

  “Rebecca, who is this? Please, introduce your friend to us.”

  Even though it was more of a command than a request, Nick stood. “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Flannigan, I’m Nick Ciotti. Very nice to meet you.”

  As he greeted Becca’s mother and shook her father’s hand, some of the missing pieces to the puzzle fell into place.

  While the Flannigans were cordial, they were also a bit cold and aloof. The way they carried themselves and the way they dressed suggested affluence. Nick could see through the stuffy, polite veneer to the judgmental subtext lurking below.

  Later at halftime, as he stood at the chain-link fence that separated the track and football field from the bleachers, he watched the dynamics among the Flannigan family. As Becca joined her nephew’s senior night photograph, he realized that he and perfect, beautiful Becca Flannigan were more alike than he’d realized. Even though she was part of a big, wealthy family—the opposite of his working-class parents—he sensed that Becca felt just as alone in the world as he did.

  Chapter Six

  Two nights later Becca sat at Kate’s dining room table sipping caffeine-free pumpkin spice chai tea and chatting with five of her best girlfriends as they filled mini mason jars with monogrammed candy.

  Anna and Jake had gotten engaged over the summer and had planned on getting married the following spring, but Regency Cypress Plantation and Botanical Gardens, which was booked out for nearly two and a half years, had an unexpected cancellation, and Anna and Jake had been able to grab it.