ALISSA'S MIRACLE

by Ginna Gray

  For all her teasing, it was Alissa who was nervous on the drive to Brenham.

  Perhaps bringing Dirk home with her wasn't that good an idea, she worried. After all, he was a solitary man. He wasn't used to a large, close-knit family like hers. He might feel claustrophobic or overwhelmed.

  When her family got together, they tended to be boisterous and uninhibited. And direct. Her siblings thought nothing of asking blunt questions or giving unsolicited advice. She was their baby sister and they loved her, and they felt they had every right to see to her well-being.

  If she knew her brothers, the first chance they got, they would give Dirk the third degree, about everything from his family background to his bank account.

  And then there were the children. Callie and Roger had three, and with Joe and Dolores's brood that made seven. If Tyler and Kimberly came, that would total nine children, ranging in age from three months to fourteen years.

  The house always rang with their squeals and laughter, and recently, since Joe's son, Todd, had become a teenager, rock music. Their parents kept a rein on their rambunctious behavior inside the house, but when the younger children were outside they ran and played like little wild men.

  Alissa cast a worried glance at Dirk as he drove west along highway 290. On either side of the divided highway, stands of enormous oak trees dotted rolling pastures, with their herds of placid cows, and fields lying fallow under the bleak winter sky. Alissa always enjoyed the drive to Brenham, but today her emotions were in such turmoil that she barely noticed the peaceful scenery.

  Was it wise, or even fair, to take a forty-year-old bachelor into that environment? He had made it plain that he did not want a family. She would like to think that he had convinced himself of that because it was easier than dealing with the pain and disappointment of not being able to father children. But what if he simply didn't like them?

  She devoutly hoped that wasn't the case, because children were part and parcel of her family. Her nieces and nephews were very dear to her, and being with them was the closest she would ever come to experiencing the joys of being a mother.

  Brenham was only an hour or so's drive from Houston, and she spent a lot of her free time visiting her family. What if after two days with all of them Dirk changed his mind about marrying her?

  Casting another glance his way, she twisted her hands together in her lap. How could he be so cool? So calm? Didn't he know he was about to be put under a microscope? It wasn't fair. He hadn't turned a hair since he made up his mind to accompany her, and she was a nervous wreck.

  Her nieces and nephews must have been watching for them through the windows, because the moment Dirk stopped the car in the drive, they all came pouring out of the old farmhouse to greet them.

  "Aunt Litha! Aunt Litha!" two-year-old Maude Ann, Callie's youngest, cried, running toward her with her arms outstretched.

  Alissa bent and scooped the child up in her arms and immediately received a smacking kiss on the lips. Laughing, she returned the favor, giving her niece a squeeze, her fears—and Dirk—momentarily forgotten.

  The little girl clasped Alissa's cheeks tightly between her chubby little hands and, nose-to-nose with her, looked gravely into her eyes and lisped, "I've been waitin' 'n' waitin' 'n' waitin' for you, Aunt Litha. I thought you wathn't comin'."

  "What? And miss Christmas with you, precious? Silly goose, you know Auntie Lissa wouldn't do that." The toddler squealed and crowed with laughter as Alissa tickled her tummy.

  Standing to one side, Dirk experienced a twinge of guilt as he watched the exchange. Alissa was loving and natural with the little girl, her face glowing with love.

  She would be a wonderful mother, he realized with a pang. She was maternal and giving, a gentle, nurturing woman who deserved to have a family of her own. Perhaps he was doing her a disservice by marrying her. The unselfish thing to do would be to set her free and let her find someone else, a man who would allow her to adopt the babies for which she so obviously longed.

  The thought made his chest tighten and brought an instant stab of pain. He scowled. To hell with that. Right or wrong, she was his now, and she was going to stay his.

  Smiling over the children's heads at Dirk, Alissa saw his scowl, and her heart sank. Apparently what she had feared was true. He was looking straight at the children, and there could be little doubt that they were already getting on his nerves.

  She didn't have a chance to dwell on the matter, as the other children swarmed around, shouting her name and vying for attention—all except Todd. At fourteen, it wasn't cool to show too much enthusiasm for an aunt's visit. With his hands in his back pockets and a disinterested expression on his face, he assumed a slouched stance at the back of the pack.

  When Alissa had finished greeting the others and done her best to introduce them to Dirk, she shifted Maude Ann to one hip and raised an eyebrow at the boy. "Well? Don't I at least get a hello?"

  Todd shuffled his feet and tried to look nonchalant. "Hi, Aunt Lissa," he mumbled, turning pink.

  "Oh, for heaven's sake. You can do better than that," she scolded, and hooked an arm around Todd's neck and kissed him on the cheek. His face turned bright red, but she could tell by his grin that he was pleased.

  She introduced Dirk, and Todd shook his hand with the awkward self-consciousness of a teenage male. Dirk, bless him, pretended not to notice, treating the boy as though he were a man, and Todd's thin chest puffed with pride.

  The moment they stepped into the house, her sister and brothers and their spouses surrounded them. For a few moments, it was pandemonium. Alissa was hugged repeatedly, and everyone talked at once, and the women oooed and ahhhed over her engagement ring.

  Joe and Tyler, and even Callie's husband, Roger Werner, looked Dirk over as they shook hands, but each man seemed to like what he saw, although that didn't stop any of them from asking not-so-subtle questions throughout the evening.

  After the initial awkward period, to Alissa's great relief, her family appeared to approve of Dirk and everyone seemed happy about the engagement. The only person who expressed any reservations was the one whom Alissa had expected to be the most enthusiastic: her sister, Callie.

  "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" she asked when they stole a few minutes alone together in Alissa's bedroom while she unpacked her bag.

  "Why do you ask that?" she countered. "Don't you like Dirk?"

  "Actually, I like him a lot. He's smart and successful and interesting, in an intense sort of way. He not exactly handsome, but he's deliciously good-looking, if you like the tall, dark and dangerous type. I mean, honey, that is one potent male animal. Are you sure you're up to handling a man like that?"

  A weak chuckle escaped Alissa. "Not really, but I don't have much choice. I love him."

  "Hmm. Yes. I can see that," her sister murmured, studying her. "Still, don't you think you're rushing things? You haven't been going out with him very long."

  "Heavens, Callie, I've known the man for fifteen years. It's not as though we're strangers."

  "Hmm. Maybe. It's odd, though, after being married to a sweet, unassuming guy like Tom, that you would fall for a man like Dirk. When I see the two of you together, it makes me think of a lamb and a hungry wolf."

  "Callie, Dirk wants to marry me, not have me for lunch."

  "That's another thing. Doesn't it strike you as strange that a man like that has waited so long to settle down? With those killer looks and all that smoldering sexiness, he's probably had to beat the women off with a stick for years."

  "And you're wondering why he would settle for someone like me," Alissa said, unable to hide the hurt in her voice.

  "No, of course not! Oh, damn. Now I've gone and hurt your feelings. Honestly, sweetie, that's not what I meant at all. You're lovely and sweet and smart as a whip, and any man would be crazy not to want you.

  "Don't pay any attention to me. I'm just being an over-protective big sister, that's all. Anyone with eyes in their head can see that
Dirk is crazy in love with you."

  Alissa's smile was wan. "Oh, really? And just how, may I ask, can they do that?"

  "Why, by the way he looks at you when you're not watching."

  Alissa's heart gave a thump. She tried to subdue the hope that sprang up inside her, and at the same time appear unconcerned. "How he looks at me? And how is that?" she managed, forcing a note of amusement into her voice.

  "How? Like a starving man looking at a feast he plans to devour, that's how."

  As usual when they all got together, dinner was a noisy affair, with the adults and older children gathered around the long trestle table in the oversize farm kitchen and the little ones at a smaller table nearby. They talked about general things for a while—the unseasonably cold winter they were having, the crowds of Christmas shoppers, the traffic on the drive up from Houston, the news that Callie had received that morning from their aunt in Tulsa.

  Tyler asked Dirk several questions about the electronics industry, and soon they were discussing the boom in technology and business applications and eventually they began discussing the economy and the general outlook for the near future.

  Sitting beside Dirk, Alissa felt a glow of happiness deep inside her. He seemed to be totally at ease with her family, melding right into the group, talking freely, even laughing now and then, something she hadn't seen him do nearly enough. Dirk had always seemed so serious and driven and slightly aloof, wrapped in that air of mystery that kept him apart from others.

  During a brief lull in the conversation, she nudged him, and when he turned his head and those silvery eyes locked possessively on her, she felt a thrill shiver through her body. Would she always react that way when he looked at her? she wondered.

  Smiling up at him, she murmured, "Aren't you glad now that you came?"

  His gaze ran over her, studying the happiness in her face, the sparkle in her eyes. Unable to resist, he placed a quick kiss on her lips. "Yeah," he admitted quietly when he raised his head. "I am."

  "And we're glad you could join us," Joe put in, hearing the exchange. "We're especially pleased that all the family could make it this year, since this may be our last time to spend Christmas together here at the farm."

  "Joe! Why did you have to bring that up now?" his wife scolded.

  "That's right," Callie put in. "Couldn't you have waited until after Christmas?"

  "Putting it off won't change anything. Besides, Tyler and Alissa have a right to know."

  "Know what? Bring what up?" Tyler looked back and forth between his brother and sister. "What's going on?"

  "You could have at least let them enjoy the holiday before you told them."

  "Told us what? For Pete's sake, would someone just spit it out?"

  Joe glanced at his wife, then at Callie and Roger. Their grim faces sent a cold trickle of alarm down Alissa's spine. Callie pressed her lips together and huffed. "Now that you've brought it up, you might as well go ahead and tell them. Tyler won't rest until you do, anyway."

  Joe nodded, and fixed his serious gaze on Alissa and Tyler. "I'm afraid that unless things change drastically, and soon, we're going to have to sell the farm."

  "Oh, no!" Alissa gasped.

  "Sell! You can't!" Tyler objected.

  "I don't like it any better than you," Joe said in a weary voice. "But we have no choice. We've been operating in the red for three years running. That drought last year nearly did us in."

  "Dammit! This place has been in our family for over a hundred years. This is Forrest land." Roger made a restive movement that drew Tyler's attention, and he quickly amended, "Forrest and Werner, now. My point is, it belongs to our family."

  "Not if we can't pay the taxes," Roger interjected for the first time. "And if there's another drought this spring, we won't be able to do that."

  "Isn't there something we can do?" Alissa asked.

  "With crop prices being what they are, and the beef market down, it doesn't look good. Not for the small farmer."

  "This is not exactly a small farm," Tyler argued, shooting his older brother an angry look.

  Long ago, before their father passed away, Joe had purchased the farm adjacent to the old homestead, and he and his family lived there, less than a mile away. When Callie married Roger, it had been decided among the family that they would legally combine the old homestead with Joe's farm and operate them as one to keep expenses down. Over the years they had been slowly buying back Alissa's and Tyler's shares in their parents' farm.

  "By today's standards it is," Joe replied. "The only farmers who are making it these days are the really big guys, the ones with many thousand acres under the plow."

  "Can't you buy more land? I noticed the old Buchweiss place across the road is up for sale. That's the biggest farm in the county. If you bought it, you would more than triple the size of this farm."

  "Yeah, and it would cost an arm and a leg. I just told you, we've barely been getting by. We don't have any money to put down on a place that size, and I don't think old Mr. Ott at the bank would be interested in loaning that kind of money to a couple of broke farmers."

  For several seconds, a somber silence engulfed the group. Even the children were quiet.

  "Here now, that's enough of that," Callie declared. She stood up and began to stack the dishes. "This is Christmas. We're here to have a good time with our loved ones. I don't want to hear any more negative talk. We're not completely down yet. Something will come along. It always does.

  "Now get a move on, people, and lets get this kitchen cleaned up. We have a tree to decorate."

  Trimming the tree on Christmas Eve was another of many family traditions, one in which everyone took part. While the women cleaned the kitchen, the men brought in the tree they had cut down in the woods on the north end of the farm earlier in the day. The tree was so huge it nearly touched the twelve-foot ceiling in the parlor.

  The next few hours were spent hanging lights and ornaments and tinsel. Some of the decorations were homemade by the various children in the family, including some old ones made by Alissa and her sister and brothers when they were kids. Many were not particularly pretty, but that didn't matter; they were part of their traditional decorations, and each one was lovingly placed on the tree.

  The adults did most of the work, but Dirk noticed with interest that they included the children, too—from Todd right down to little Maude Ann. Only three-month-old Emma was not part of the work crew.

  Dirk had intended to merely observe, but the others wouldn't hear of it, and he quickly found himself on a stepladder hanging ornaments on the highest branches, per instructions from Alissa and the other women.

  When they finally finished, they plugged in the tree and sat back to admire their handiwork. The lamps were turned off, leaving the room lit by only the twinkling colored bulbs on the tree and the flickering flames in the hearth. Couples paired off, and the children sat on the floor in a semicircle in front of the tree. Except for a few murmurs of appreciation, a hush fell over the room.

  Suddenly Maude Ann got up and walked over to where Alissa and Dirk sat on the sofa. Clutching her teddy bear, Sam, to her chest, she looked at Dirk solemnly. "Todd sayth that you ith gonna be our uncle. Ith you?"

  "Yes. I guess I am. Is that all right with you?"

  She cocked her head to one side and continued to study him with dark, unblinking eyes, her cherubic face sober as a judge's.

  Dirk had done business with powerful executives, presidents of countries and billionaires, but no one had ever scrutinized him quite so thoroughly as this pint-size female.

  "Yeth," she pronounced finally. With that, calm as you please, still clutching her teddy bear, she climbed into his lap and snuggled against his chest. Sticking her thumb into her mouth, she stared, sleepy-eyed, at the tree.

  Dirk was too stunned to move. He had never held a child before in his life, that he could recall. He was amazed at how light she was, how delicate. She weighed no more than a sack of feathers.

&
nbsp; She was wearing a long flannel nightgown with pink butterflies on it, and her bare feet stuck out at the bottom. To Dirk's eyes, they were incredibly tiny.

  A sweet scent drifted up to him from her hair. He glanced down at her head, leaning so trustingly against his chest, at the dark curls that clung to his shirt, and the strangest sensation came over him, a pressure that tightened his chest until it was almost painful.

  When he looked up, Alissa was watching him with a tinge of worry in her eyes. "Do you want me to take her?"

  He looked down at the child again, and his arm tightened about her. Smoothing a tumble of dark brown curls off the child's forehead, he shook his head. "No. She's fine where she is."

  As always in the Forrest-Werner family, Christmas came early the next morning.

  A few minutes before sunrise, Joe and Dolores and their children, after exchanging gifts among themselves at their home, arrived at Callie's and rousted the rest of them out of bed for the traditional family gift-giving.

  Like all of the adults, Alissa had been pulled from bed by anxious children and hustled out of her room. She wasn't wearing a speck of makeup, nor had she had a chance to give her hair a few swipes with a brush. They'd barely given her time to throw her robe on over her nightgown.

  At first, when she encountered Dirk on the landing, she felt self-conscious. He had managed to pull on a pair of jeans beneath his robe, but otherwise he was as disheveled as she. Her embarrassment was instantly forgotten when she noticed how devastatingly appealing he looked, all sleepy-eyed, with mussed hair and crease marks from his pillow lining his face, the lower half of which was shadowed with a twenty-four-hour growth of beard.

  He would look like that every morning when she woke next to him, she thought, and her heart skipped a beat.

  Alissa tried to apologize to Dirk, but the noise level was so great, all she could do was mouth the words over the heads of the children as they and the rest of the adults were herded downstairs and into the living room.

  The huge tree stood in one corner of the old-fashioned parlor, and the brightly wrapped presents at its base reached far out into the room. As soon as everyone was seated and the children were given the go-ahead by Callie, they attacked the gifts like a swarm of locusts. Only Todd and his thirteen-year-old cousin Susan, who had been given the job of handing out the presents to the adults, did not immediately join in the frenzied activity.