by Ann Yost
She didn’t know why she’d made the suggestion, but after she’d climbed into the four-poster, she began to think about a match between her sister and her ex. They were a lot alike, brash, funny, smart, sassy. They might do very well together. She closed her eyes and fought the image of Luke’s hand in Crystal’s hair. A deep aching chasm opened up inside her. It was as cold and lonely as the empty bed. She loved Luke Tanner. The question was, did she love him enough to let him go?
Chapter Twenty-One
On Christmas morning Jessie woke early, often and alone. Each time she checked with the hospital’s information line. Luke was doing fine. It was an immense relief. She managed to restrain herself from asking whether Crystal was sleeping in his hospital bed. She’d trust her instincts on this. If she sensed he wanted out of their engagement, she’d let him go with her blessing. Maybe not her wholehearted blessing. She wasn’t convinced Crystal would make him happy.
And Jessie wanted to try. She wanted to be the one to complete his life. She realized she’d never wanted anything in her life as much as she wanted to make Luke happy. It was a scary feeling.
Her bare feet hit the cold floor, and she hurried into the bathroom. She’d filled her life with her family’s concerns. She’d never let another man anywhere near her heart. And now, within a matter of days, the green-eyed sorcerer had gotten under her skin. Her heart twisted. If she lost him, it would hurt. Still, she couldn’t be sorry. She never again wanted to go back to that half-life.
She’d had a taste of love and nothing less than that would do for her now.
She decided to reward her own insight. She picked up the phone and punched in the number she’d long since memorized.
“His condition is the same as it was an hour ago when you called,” the information nurse said.
There was some irony in her voice. “He’s sleeping peacefully.”
Yeah, but is he sleeping alone? Jessie found the fortitude not to ask the question.
****
Luke felt the searing pain before he opened his eyes. He struggled to orient himself. Why did his eyelids feel like they were weighted with rocks? Why did his thigh feel like it had been slashed?
He forced one eye open. He recognized the IV drip bag at the same time he became aware of the excruciating pain in his leg. Oh yeah. Eleanor Prendergast’s shot had pierced his femoral artery. He took in shallow breaths and tried an old trick, one that had gotten him through the break-up. He visualized himself shoving the pain into a lock box and walking away.
The pain receded a bit, and he opened his other eye. There was an empty cot in his room. Jessie. She’d stayed with him. His heart lurched, and his body tensed all over again triggering the pain. It was less this time though. Jessie was here. He wondered when he’d started needing her like this. He couldn’t put his finger on the moment everything had changed. He pictured her in the church last night, wearing that ridiculous bathrobe. Her warning scream had given him a split second to dive behind the baptismal font.
She’d probably saved his sorry hide. Again.
He frowned. He’d cure her of that risky habit once they were married.
Heat that had nothing to do with the injury shot through his body. He planned to spend a lot of time instructing her in the future. He planned to spend a lot of time buried in her sweet warmth. He wondered if she knew he loved her.
He groaned as he lifted up to look around. A sense of anticipation dulled the pain and spiked his temperature. Any minute she’d come through that door, and her bright smile would light his heart.
The door opened and pain stabbed him.
Only part of it due to his leg.
“Where’s Jessie?” He growled.
His ex-wife floated over to his bed and sat on the side of it, the picture of beauty and grace. She wore a white turtleneck and her lush, spun-gold hair drifted around her shoulders. Her makeup was, as always, perfect. She ignored his ill-tempered greeting.
“How are you feeling sweetheart? Can I get you some breakfast? Or maybe a kiss?”
He fell back on the bed. “A painkiller.”
“I’ll call the nurse.” She leaned closer then flinched. “You could use a shower, too. And a shave.”
He squeezed his eyes shut. He needed all his energy to fight the pain. The door opened, and his hopes rose again until a no-nonsense nurse strode across the room and checked the settings on his monitors. She hissed in a breath and flipped a switch.
“Good God. Your morphine drip isn’t even turned on. I was told someone would stay with you last night.”
“I couldn’t really sleep on the cot. It wasn’t comfortable,” Crystal explained, defensively. “One of the interns let me use a bed in the lounge.”
The nurse had one those bony, horse-like faces, but at the moment it was the most beautiful face in Luke’s world.
“This patient is barely twelve hours out of surgery,” she snapped. “The drip should have been at full force.”
The next time Luke woke the room was empty again. At least the pain was manageable now. Where was Jessie? Had something happened to her? An accident on treacherous roads? Where were his clothes? His cell phone?
By the time Crystal appeared twenty minutes later, he’d worked himself into a state of high anxiety. He scowled at his ex-wife.
The amethyst eyes widened. “If I didn’t know better, sweetheart, I’d think you aren’t happy to see me.”
His heart was pounding, and sweat broke out between his shoulder blades. A sense of mindless urgency drove him.
Where was Jessie?
“Crystal,” he said, “I want you to call the house. Find out if everyone’s all right.”
“Sure, sure.” She took her cell phone out to the hallway where the reception was better. Three minutes later she returned. “All present and accounted for,” she said. “They’re playing Yankee Swap.”
“What?”
“Something about passing out random Christmas presents. Sounds like they’re having fun. I heard a lot of laughter in the background.
Jessie says ‘hi.’”
Jessie says ‘hi?’”You talked to her?”
Crystal tilted her head to one side, a gesture which used to drive him crazy. She sat gingerly on the edge of the bed. “What’s all this about, Luke?”
He didn’t answer. He tried to process the obvious lack of interest. What had gone wrong?
“I know you told me last night that you were going to marry her,” Crystal went on, “but, honestly, she doesn’t seem like an in-sickness-and-health kind of a girl. I was the one who rode in the ambulance with you. I was the one who stayed all night.”
“In the intern’s lounge.”
She laid her cool fingers on his hand. “So that’s what this is about. I insisted on my own bed. Believe me, you have nothing to be jealous about.”
He forced his jaw to unclench. He was taking his disappointment with Jessie out on Crystal, and it wasn’t fair.
“I appreciate your being here, but we have to get things straight between us.”
The conversation was interrupted when his surgeon came through the door with a hearty “Merry Christmas,” on his lips.
Merry for whom, Luke wondered, sourly.
****
Jessie put on pantyhose and heels and the Christmas red dress her mother had brought from Chicago and then went downstairs to greet her family and her Mystic Hollow friends, Mabel Ruth, Millicent, and Maude.
After a hearty brunch of quiche, fresh fruit, sweet rolls, orange juice, bacon, and coffee, conversation about the excitement from the previous night, the group moved to the parlor for carol singing and a gift exchange. Kit took the role of Santa as he doled out unmarked gifts that included a shiny silver whisk for Howard, a book about spells titled That Old Black Magic, for Monica, a men’s shaving kit for Gillian and a Ouija Board for Kit himself. Jessie opened a box of cat food while Mabel Ruth got a size six cashmere sweater, Millicent received chandelier earrings, and Maude got the pr
omise of a kitten.
Jessie answered the house phone. She told Crystal they were all thinking about Luke and her. It hurt to listen to the possessive tone in the other woman’s voice. She told herself she could stand this for one more day. She told the others Luke was awake and Monica jumped up.
“Let’s all take them breakfast!”
Jessie knew it was emotional suicide for her, but she couldn’t resist. She helped her mom pack up the food and Great-Aunt Blanche’s Wedgewood dishes, then they divided into two vehicles and set out for the hospital.
Her heart squeezed when she saw Luke’s sunken eyes underlined with dark crescents. His face looked thin and stark with a day’s growth of whiskers, and he had an IV needle taped to his hand.
Crystal, on the other hand, looked fresh and beautiful.
She updated them on Luke’s surgery and his condition. Jessie half-listened while she set out the food. She knew all the facts. She longed to lay her cheek against his, ask how he felt, whisper comfort in his ear, but it wasn’t her place.
“If all goes well,” Crystal said, “he can leave the hospital in a couple of days then recuperate at home with supervision for about two weeks.”
Supervision? Did that mean Crystal intended to take care of him?
“We’ll probably hire a day nurse,” Crystal added, “but I’ll be there at night.” Her smile included everybody. Jessie waited for Luke to refute his ex-wife’s words, but while his eyes never left Jessie, he said nothing until general talk broke out again. As she placed the food and juice on his tray he grabbed her wrist.
“I need to talk to you.”
Her heart bounced around like a racquet ball. This was it. He was going to insist on the marriage, and she was going to have to say ‘no.’ She felt the tears gather in her throat and she swallowed hard.
While Luke and Crystal ate, more visitors arrived. Francine’s arms were full of bagels and cream cheese, and Zach’s arms were full of Francine. Neither of them could stop grinning.
Francie looked at the breakfast food. She threw a laughing glance at Jessie. “That’s Mystic Hollow for you. Any kind of a crisis and we’ll bury you in food.”
Luke’s eyes met those of his friend. “Looks like you might have an announcement to make.”
“We’re getting married,” Zach said, simply. The huskiness in his voice revealed the extent of his emotions.
“I’m so happy for you,” Jessie said to Francine under cover of the general rejoicing.
“We talked,” the redhead said. Her face glowed. “Bobby had blindsided him with the news that Karl Reeves isn’t his father. He and Karl talked. One of these days he’s going to talk to Earl Russell, too. He gets it now that everyone loves him. Especially me.” She exchanged a sizzling look with the ex-marine. “Everything’s going to be okay,” she said, softly. “And those letters to Bobby Ray? It turns out they were really written by…”
Jessie realized, almost too late, what Francie was about to reveal. She burst into loud hacking coughs.
“Jessie,” Maude said. “Are you all right?”
Kit grabbed a pitcher of ice water and poured some into a glass. Jessie waved it away. She had to keep the interruption going long enough for people to forget what they’d been talking about. She had to keep Francie from breaking Luke’s heart by revealing Crystal’s secret.
By the time Crystal entered the room, Jessie’s face was red, and tears streaked down her cheeks. “What’s going on?”
“Jessie is performance coughing,” Luke said, dryly. “She’s trying to keep Francie from blurting out the truth about you and Bobby Ray.”
Shock cut off the coughing, but now her nose was running. She sneezed. Millicent handed her a tissue. She blew and then looked at Luke. “You knew?”
He nodded.
Crystal sent an apologetic look to Francine. “I am sorry about that. Bobby and I didn’t mean to hurt anybody.”
Zach’s thick eyebrows wrinkled into a frown, but Francie slipped her arm around his waist and squeezed. “All’s well that ends well,” she said, softly.
“I feel that way, too,” Crystal said. She moved next to Luke and knit her fingers through his. Jessie had to look away.
It was time to get out of there. “We’d better let Luke get some rest,” she said to the others.
“I’ll walk you all to the elevator,” Crystal said, grabbing the shorter woman’s arm, and propelling her out the door.
“I need to talk to Jessie. Just for a minute.”
Luke’s quiet words kept Jessie behind while the others headed for the elevator.
She sat on Crystal’s cot. It was tidy and pristine just like the woman who’d slept there last night.
“First, I want to thank you for the warning. Eleanor Prendergast was shooting to kill.” He frowned. “But this rescuing business has to stop. It’s dangerous.”
She suspected he hadn’t heard about Eleanor’s second shot and Bosco’s heroic interference. She figured he didn’t need to know.
“Do you hear me, Jessie? No more rescues.”
She could safely promise that. Suddenly she felt unbearably sad, but she didn’t want him to know.
“It was an adventure though, wasn’t it?” She kept her tone bright. He didn’t smile. “Why didn’t you stay with me last night?” The question didn’t make sense.
“It would’ve been a little crowded in here.”
“You’re my fiancée.”
She didn’t tell him Crystal had claimed a closer relationship. What was the point? This was the moment of truth and she had to find the courage to lie.
“Kit and I had things to talk about.”
Luke’s eyes never left her face. “You gonna tell me he proposed and you accepted?”
His flat tone irritated her. “You could at least pretend to be upset.”
“I’m not upset,” he said, slowly, “because I know it didn’t happen. There’s no way you’d agree to marry another man. You’ve promised yourself to me, and let me say right now, I intend to hold you to the promise.”
There it was. That darned sense of honor.
“I made a mistake when I ran away from the wedding. I was a coward, and I let everybody down. I have to give it another chance, Luke.
Surely you can see that.”
He shook his head. “You can’t fool me, Jessie.
I know you. Right down to your yellow boots.”
“We’ve known one another less than a week.”
“It’s eerie,” he said, ignoring her comment. “Sometimes I feel like I’ve always known you. And it’s more than that.” The smile was gone now. “I trust you. I know you’d never leave me. Not you, Jessie.”
His certainty irritated her. “How on earth do you know that?”
“Because you love me.” The words were simple and, unfortunately, unarguable. Jessie couldn’t think of anything to say. She just stared into those kryptonite eyes.
Crystal reappeared and sat on his bed. They were such a handsome couple, such perfect opposites of dark and light, male and female. She put her hand on his, and he didn’t draw back.
Jessie tried to ignore the crack in her heart.
“I have to go,” Jessie said.
“Thanks for coming,” Crystal replied, all warmth and smiles. “And don’t worry about this guy. I’ll make sure he has a merry Christmas.”
Jessie walked out the door and down the corridor toward the elevators. She half hoped she’d hear Luke’s voice calling her back. The other half of her knew there was nothing to go back for.
****
As soon as Jessie disappeared around the corner, Crystal made an excuse to get out of the room. Luke wasn’t having that.
“Come here.” He kept his voice low and, he hoped, kind but firm. She came over to the bed, a wary look in her beautiful eyes. He patted it, and she perched on the edge. Her face was as smooth as ivory and right now it was equally as pale.
“What do you really want from me?”
She
gave an elegant little shrug. “I want a fresh start. We had high hopes once. Why not again?”
“It’s not going to happen.”
“You said that before, but you don’t mean it. You can’t. You’ve always loved me. Everybody knows it.”
He thought about Jessie’s transparent excuses to break their engagement. Everybody certainly thought that he loved Crystal.
“You need to find a man who can love you for the person you are underneath the beauty.”
“That’s you.”
He shook his head. “You made the right decision two years ago even if it was for the wrong reasons. I loved the beauty, Crystal. I think it was over before we ever got married.”
“But everybody said we were the picture perfect couple.”
He sighed and picked up her hand. “That’s what I’m talking about. Life isn’t a portrait. Marriage is give and take and arguments and problems and irritating relatives and an endless series of compromises, all of it made palatable by the friendship between two people.”
“What about the passion?”
“And the passion,” he agreed. “I imagine you felt the passion with Bobby Ray.” She hung her head. “This isn’t about guilt. I just want you to see the difference. I got tangled up in the rush of having the most beautiful girl around choose me.
I don’t even really know you.”
“You could get to know me.”
He shook his head. “I couldn’t. It’s too late for that. I’ve proposed to Jessie, and I’m going to marry her.”
“But, don’t you see? You don’t have to. Didn’t you see the ring on her finger? She’s planning to marry Kit Carstairs. She doesn’t need you.”
“I need her,” he answered her quietly. It was the simple truth. He needed Jessie with an intensity he’d never felt before. She warmed him, excited him, fed him, and accepted him. He wasn’t going to explain all that to Crystal.
The look on his face must have convinced her because a rare look of defeat appeared in her lovely eyes.
“She’s what you really want?”
“Yes.”
She stood and he felt an instant’s compassion. “Where are you going?”
“Home, eventually,” she said, picking up her long white coat and her purse. “Tonight I’m going to a party with Roger. He’s that hot intern.”