His Texas Christmas Bride (Celebrations, Inc 9)

by Nancy Robards Thompson

  It was just a necklace. It wasn’t as if he’d bought her a ring.

  The string quartet began playing a classical tune that Nick recognized but couldn’t name—maybe “Ode to Joy” or that one by Pachelbel, maybe something else. It was pleasant, and for the first time in days—perhaps even since he and Becca had reconnected and he’d learned he was going to be a father—he sat back and took a deep breath.

  Liam was one of Jake’s groomsmen. He and Jake’s three brothers, whom Nick had met briefly at the rehearsal dinner last night, stepped out and took their places beside Jake at the front of the ballroom.

  He’d have to remind himself to rib Liam about cleaning up well and about making him miss the football game tonight.

  The musical ensemble shifted into another familiar but unidentifiable piece, and a couple of tiny girls in white dresses with deep red sashes tottered down the aisle carrying baskets that were nearly as big as they were and scattering handfuls of flower petals.

  One decided to stop midway along the journey to the altar, blinking at the people all around her. She looked as if she was about ready to burst into tears, but the other little girl, who looked as if she might be a year or two older, walked back and took her by the hand and restarted her journey.

  The guests awwed and cooed at the adorableness. Nick stewed in the thought that weddings as a general rule were daunting.

  After seeing his parents’ marriage go up in flames and failing at his own attempt, he’d probably stop midway to the altar and question what he was doing, too.

  Becca was the first bridesmaid to walk down the aisle.

  She looked beautiful in the clingy red dress that hugged her in all the right places. She caught his eye as she marched past and smiled. He smiled back. An unexpected warmth started in his solar plexus and radiated outward. What was it about this woman? She had his mind performing a one-eighty every time he saw her. Just a minute ago, he’d been thinking how he wasn’t cut out for marriage, that he couldn’t be a family man or be part of a close-knit community. Yet every time he set eyes on her, something inside him wanted to recalibrate his life compass and see if it might point to a different true north.

  Anna was a beautiful bride as she walked down the aisle on her father’s arm. And when Jake swiped at a tear as his father-in-law gave Anna’s hand to him, Nick had to admit he couldn’t remember seeing anyone look as happy.

  The minister called the dearly beloved together and said a few words about guests being fortunate to witness the joining of these two souls.

  “I only wish Jake’s father and mother could be here today,” said the minister. “Jake, your father was a good friend of mine, and I know both of your parents are here in spirit. I know they’re thrilled that these two are being joined in holy matrimony, since they knew Anna practically all of her life, too.

  “On this Thanksgiving weekend, I urge everyone to hold loved ones close. If there’s someone you haven’t talked to, call them.”

  Nick thought of his father. He really did owe it to him to reach out to him and tell him about the babies. Becca’s words about forgiving himself rang in his head.

  He knew it was true.

  He watched the kind, smart, beautiful woman who was carrying his children. He wondered for a moment if there was something wrong with him.

  Because surely, if he couldn’t love her, he didn’t deserve love. She was right, he needed to forgive himself before he could move on and love anyone else.

  The first step to forgiveness started with contacting his father.

  * * *

  “I have a surprise for you,” Nick said after he put a basket of garlic bread on the table and took his place across from Becca.

  “Dinner and a surprise?” she asked.

  Nick had already surprised her by calling her this morning and asking if he could cook dinner for her tonight. Apparently, spaghetti and homemade meatballs was his specialty, and he wanted to make it for her.

  Here they sat, in his tiny studio apartment, a single white taper candle lit between them, with delicious food on the table and the smell of garlic and Italian seasoning hanging in the air.

  “How would you like to meet my father?” Nick asked.

  “What? When? I’d love to meet him. Did you call him?”

  Nick nodded and smiled.

  “And?” she demanded. “Tell me everything.”

  Nick braced his elbows on the table and laced his fingers together. “The more I thought about it, the more I realized you were right. I owed it to him to tell him about the babies.”

  She waited a moment for him to continue, but when he didn’t, she said, “How did that go?”

  A look of tenderness passed over Nick’s face. It was an expression she hadn’t seen before, and she was a little mesmerized.

  “Better than I expected,” he said. “It was a little strained at first. I mean, it’s been sixteen years since we last talked. I can’t believe he still has the same phone number. But he does. He said it was good to hear from me. That he thought about me often and wondered where I was.”

  Becca had to wonder why the man hadn’t tried to get in touch with his son. Surely he didn’t blame Nick for what happened to Caiden. But people had their own quirks and ways of dealing with heartbreak.

  “I asked him to come. Told him I’d send him a ticket. He wants to meet you. The only thing is, he’s flying in the day we are supposed to tour the Dallas hospital.”

  Becca held up her hands. “That’s okay. We can reschedule.”

  Nick shook his head. “No need. He lands in the evening. We can go to the airport after the tour and pick him up. Would you be up to having dinner with us?”

  “Of course, I’d love to. Thank you.”

  Becca’s first thought was Nick is introducing me to his father. But then the voice of reason set in. He hadn’t seen the man in sixteen years.

  “But are you sure you don’t want to meet with him first? So the two of you can have some time alone to catch up? I could meet you for dessert or maybe lunch the next day? Is he staying with you?”

  Nick glanced around the room. “No. I’m pretty picky about who I share a bed with. I made a reservation for him at the Celebration Inn.”

  She thought about how he’d been right there with her to break the news about the babies to her parents. Even though Nick had already told his father, she wondered if maybe he wanted her there for a little reinforcement during the first meeting.

  She reached out and took his hand. “Nick, I’m so happy for you. It has to be a good sign that he’s willing to come and see you.”

  Nick shrugged. “At least it’s a step in the right direction.”

  * * *

  On the day of the hospital tour when Becca’s phone rang she thought Nick was calling to say that he’d arrived and was waiting outside her office to pick her up for the drive to the hospital.

  She picked up her phone with one hand and answered the call as she closed out of the computer file that she’d been working on with the other.

  “Becca, it’s Nick. I’m sorry to do this at the last minute, but can you meet me at Southwestern Medical Center? I had a hectic morning. We were pretty busy, and then a reporter showed up wanting to interview me for an article about aortic dissection. I should have asked her to reschedule, but I didn’t and it ended up going a lot longer than I expected. If I pick you up, we’ll be late.”

  Becca closed the folder on her desk and glanced at her watch. “No problem. I’ll meet you there at four. Unless you want to reschedule, or you know, I could just have the babies at Celebration Memorial. That would be easier on everyone. Lots of healthy twins are born there every day, Nick.”

  “Unless an emergency happened, and they couldn’t give you the treatment that you’d need.”

  She loved the way h
e got all protective and puffed up when it came to making sure she got the very best OB care possible, but was this specialty hospital really necessary?

  “Nick, think about it,” she said. “What would happen if there was an emergency? Couldn’t they just put me in an ambulance and send me to Southwestern Medical Center?”

  He was quiet on the other end of the line, and for a moment she thought they’d been disconnected.

  “Nick?”

  “Yep.”

  She was beginning to see a pattern: when he got stressed, he became very uncommunicative.

  “Look,” she said, “I understand that you’re busy, but taking this tour seems like a lot today with your dad coming in. Let’s make him our priority and reschedule.”

  “My children are my priority—”

  “They’re mine, too, Nick. I hope you’re not questioning that. I’m just trying to keep things in perspective.”

  “The tour was arranged as a professional courtesy,” he said, as if he hadn’t heard her. “I’m not going to ask for a reschedule at this late date.”

  Fine. Got it.

  His children were his priority. He’d made that exceedingly clear. Good grief, this guy could run hot and cold. One minute he was talking about introducing her to his father—and she thought that just maybe he might feel something for her, too. And the next minute there were reality checks like this that shifted everything into perspective and reminded her that she shouldn’t let her heart get carried away. Even though it already had.

  “Okay,” she said. “I’ll meet you at Southwestern at four o’clock.”

  Five minutes later, as Becca was waiting at the elevator to leave the office, Kate appeared with her purse on her arm.

  “Fancy meeting you here,” Kate said. “Is Nick here to pick you up for the appointment?”

  Becca took a deep breath. “No. I’m meeting him there. Some things came up at the hospital, and if he picks me up, we’ll be late. Where are you off to?”

  “I have an appointment with the superintendent of schools to talk about the foundation funding Get Lost In A Book Week. Are you okay? You seem a little rattled.”

  Becca shrugged. “Nick’s father is arriving tonight. I’m sensing that he might be a little nervous about that, though he won’t admit it.”

  It was either nerves, or Nick was pulling away. Or maybe she was superimposing her own anxiety onto Nick. The only thing she knew for sure was that she would be glad when the hospital tour was over. Maybe then she’d have more clarity about whether or not she was comfortable delivering at Southwestern Medical Center. Nick was a doctor. She knew she should trust him, but not at the expense of going against her own instincts. And for some reason her instincts were telling her she wanted to have the babies closer to home.

  “He said it’s been a long time since he and his father have communicated, right?”

  Becca nodded. Nick had been increasingly hot and cold since Thanksgiving and the string of festivities in between.

  “Sometimes he’s hard to read, and other times I worry that I am reading too much into our relationship.”

  Kate’s brows knit together. “He acted fine at the tree lighting, and he was attentive at the wedding. From my perspective, you two looked like a couple. A cute couple, as a matter of fact. And now he’s introducing you to his father. Of course, I’m not you, but it looks to me like you have yourself a boyfriend.”

  Becca rolled her eyes at her friend. “A boyfriend. What does that even mean?”

  What did it mean? She would certainly like to know.

  “I never took you for somebody who needed to slap a label on a relationship,” Kate said.

  “I’m not looking for a label. But I am looking for answers.”

  She gazed at her friend. If there was anyone in the world Becca could confide in, it was Kate. The elevator arrived, and the two stepped inside.

  As soon as the doors shut, Becca said, “I could really fall for this guy, Kate. I guess I’m just protecting my heart.”

  Kate’s expression turned tender. “Could fall for the guy or have fallen for the guy? I’m guessing the latter.”

  Becca shrugged, not ready to say the words out loud. Maybe she wasn’t even ready to admit it to herself. So she changed the subject.

  “Maybe it would be a good idea for me to let him meet with his father alone tonight. I mean, they haven’t seen each other in years. Maybe I should give them a little time? What would you do?”

  They stepped off the interior elevator and walked together across the lobby toward the lift that would take them to the parking garage.

  “Did you ask him if that’s what he wanted?” Kate asked.

  “I did.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He wants me to come with him.”

  “Well, there you go. Let him make that call. Unless you’re the one who is having doubts.”

  “Me? Not a chance. I was the one who urged him to call his dad and tell him about the babies. I wanted to pay for part of his ticket as a Christmas present from the two of us, but when I asked him about it, he skirted the issue.”

  Kate grimaced. “Do you want me to be honest?”

  “Always.”

  “Don’t make an issue where there’s not one.”

  “I’m not making an issue of it. I just thought he might wait so we could tell him together. I thought we were bringing him here to tell him about the babies, but Nick told him on the phone when he talked to him...”

  “Are you disappointed that he told him without you?”

  “No. Well, sort of, I guess...but that’s selfish. I know that, and I wouldn’t admit it to anybody but you. I guess I thought it would be similar to when we told my parents together.”

  The truth was, he had gone with her as moral support—not because they were the happy, loving couple giddy about sharing joyous news. Things were different with his dad. Realistically, Nick probably needed an opener, a reason for calling his dad. When you haven’t spoken with somebody in nearly two decades, hello, how have you been? doesn’t always get it. You’re going to be a grandfather does a lot better cutting through the minutia.

  “I’m a big girl. I understand why he did what he did. Now I guess this trip is more about the two of them, and that’s great.”

  “But his dad wants to meet you. Or Nick wants to introduce you.”

  “Right. He does. Or so Nick said. But since he’s already told him we’re expecting, this trip is more about them healing their relationship and making things right between them. I’m all for that. It has to happen before anything else can be right. He’s only here for two nights. I just don’t want to cut into their time.”

  Kate smiled at her. “You’re going with him. Be glad about it, and everything will be fine.”

  Kate hugged Becca.

  “I don’t mean to give you a hard time. I just wish you’d stop giving yourself such a hard time.”

  In the car, Becca grappled with her feelings. Kate was right. She was always so logical. Becca needed to stop reading more into this than was really there. She needed to ignore the hollow feeling that wanted to consume her. In fact, when she felt too empty and off-kilter, she knew that’s when she needed to erase her mental Etch A Sketch and focus on the positive.

  As she drove to meet Nick, though, she should’ve been focusing on the car to her right. If she had been, maybe she would’ve been able to stop before it ran the stop sign and hit her car.

  Chapter Twelve

  By the time Nick got the news that Becca had been in an accident, he was already at Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, waiting for her, wondering why she was late when she was usually early.

  Kate had called him and told him she’d been in a fender bender. She’d witnessed the accident. Apparently,
a teenager had been texting and ran a stop sign and hit the right fender of Becca’s Honda. The boy hadn’t been going very fast, but as a precaution, Becca had been transported by ambulance to Southwestern Medical Center, where she’d been examined.

  Even though Kate had assured Nick that the accident wasn’t serious, as he waited, Nick was in a numb haze.

  Thank God for air bags and seat belts.

  Several hours later, after the doctor had released Becca and assured him that she and the babies were fine, he’d insisted on driving her home. Kate had put her car back in the parking garage. He told Becca he’d drive her to work tomorrow and they’d make arrangements to take her car into the body shop to be fixed. But on the way home from the hospital, realization set in. If he’d picked up Becca as he’d promised, rather than being so consumed with talking to that damn reporter, this would’ve never happened. He could’ve gotten her and his children killed by not following through. She hadn’t even wanted to go on the blasted tour. This would’ve never happened if he hadn’t been so focused on himself and so insistent on not inconveniencing his colleague at Southwestern Medical Center.

  He felt Becca’s gaze on him, but he kept his eyes glued to the road, not wanting to have a wreck be the cause of Becca being in two accidents in one day.

  Wouldn’t that just be par for his course?

  In his life, tragedy seemed to appear in pairs. His brother had died and his parents divorced. Delilah had divorced him and married his best friend. Because he didn’t pick Becca up, she’d gotten into that accident. He’d be damned if he was going to look away even for a second and endanger her again. He drove with extraordinary care to keep the pattern from repeating itself today.

  He didn’t expect life to be strife-free. Ups and downs were a part of the package. The down times made the good times better.

  But the rough times in his life—the times that had produced the worst despair, Caiden’s death, his parents’ divorce, Delilah sleeping with his friend—it all could’ve been prevented if he’d just done the right thing.