A Child Under His Tree

by ALLISON LEIGH,

  “I am his daddy. And that’s the damn problem!” His voice rose.

  She straightened abruptly, her stomach clenched. “If you break his heart, I will haunt you to your grave.”

  “I’m trying not to break anyone’s heart! Especially his.” He shoved his hand through his hair again. She noticed almost absently that it was shaking.

  “Here.” He held out the envelope again. “Just take it. Then you can decide how long you want to haunt me.”

  She snatched it out of his hand, yanking out the sheet of paper inside. “What is it?”

  “It’s an authorization form for the state of Idaho, adding me to Tyler’s birth certificate as his natural father. All you have to do is sign it.”

  “You’ve already signed it.”

  “And Mary Goodwin from my office notarized it about ten minutes ago when I bribed her to leave her family’s holiday so she could save mine. She’ll notarize your half of the form when you sign it. After it’s submitted, Tyler will get a new birth certificate. I won’t have to do one more thing for the world to know I’m his legal father. With all of the rights and the responsibilities that come with it.”

  He took a step closer to her. “And you won’t have any more reason to keep believing that this marriage is only about our son.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “This marriage is about us, Kelly. I love you. Not like when we were fifteen. But not all that differently, either.”

  Her knees felt like water. She would have sat if there’d been a spot, but there was none, because Caleb just kept stepping closer and closer until she was well and truly backed up against the dresser behind her.

  “You are the woman I can’t get out of my head. You are the woman I don’t want to get out of my heart. I can’t lie and say that I don’t love you more because you are the mother of my child. Because you are the mother of my child. I want us to be a family. And even if we didn’t already have Tyler, I’d still want you for my wife.”

  “Why now?” she whispered. “Why couldn’t you have done this yesterday? Last week? Why wait until today and—”

  “Because I was afraid you’d change your mind about marrying me. You agreed for Tyler’s sake.”

  Her eyes were wet. “And today?”

  “I finally realized I need you to change your mind about marrying me for Tyler’s sake.”

  She frowned. “And you tell me I’ve got convoluted thinking.”

  “It’s as simple as it gets.” He suddenly knelt in front of her.

  Her heart climbed into her throat, and the form slid out of her nerveless fingers.

  “Marry me, Kelly Rasmussen.” He took her hands in his and kissed her fingertips. “Marry me because I’m the only man for you. Marry me because you’re the only woman for me. Marry me because you believe I love you as much as I believe you still love me.”

  She pressed her lips together and pulled one hand free of his to brush his hair off his forehead. “That’s quite a mouthful, Dr. C.”

  His eyes searched hers. And she finally recognized the uncertainty there. Recognized the love.

  And it was like being bathed in warm, radiant light.

  “Is that a yes?”

  She nodded. “I love you. Still.” She leaned over him and slowly kissed his lips. “And I do believe you.”

  The bedroom door suddenly opened. “Reverend Stone’s finally here—” Lucy stopped, taking in the sight of them. “Okay. Should I back up here? Yep. That’s what I’m doing. Backing up. Reversing the truck. Beep, beep.” She closed the door again.

  “I don’t know how my brother-in-law stands her.” Caleb straightened. He set the form Kelly had dropped on the dresser and patted his lapel. “I had a pen—”

  She slid her arms around him. “We’ll find a pen soon enough. Right now we have something more important to do.”

  “Kissing you?” He obliged so slowly and thoroughly that she once again felt decidedly weak-kneed. But only in the best way possible.

  “That is always important,” she agreed. “But I was thinking more along the lines of our wedding.”

  “You’re really sure?”

  She looked into his eyes. “I’ve loved you since I went over the handlebars of my bicycle in front of you half my lifetime ago. I loved you even when I thought I hated you. And I loved you when I looked into our son’s eyes for the first time. Yes, I am really sure.”

  He smiled the same smile she’d always loved and tucked her hand through his arm. “Then let’s go get married.”

  And they did.

  Epilogue

  “Santa left you a present.” Caleb dropped a thick envelope on Kelly’s lap.

  “Santa doesn’t come until tonight,” Kelly reminded him humorously.

  “Yeah, well, Santa and I have a connection.” Caleb sat down on the porch step beside her.

  “A good thing, considering the length of Tyler’s Christmas list.”

  Caleb grinned and her chest felt all fluttery. She wondered if that would ever go away. And hoped it wouldn’t.

  “Daddy, look! I’m making a snow angel.”

  “I see that.” Caleb lowered his voice, leaning closer to her. “Does he know it takes more snow than we’ve got to make a decent snow angel?”

  She laughed. There were barely two inches of snow covering their postage-stamp-size yard. “He’s entertained,” she said. “And he’ll have plenty of snow when we go out to your sister’s for dinner before the Christmas Eve service at church. How were things at the hospital?”

  “Fine. Two newborns overnight. I don’t know what’s in the water around here, but people are having babies right and left.” He gave her a sidelong smile. “Want to drink the water?”

  She laughed softly. “Dr. Yarnell is taking out my birth control implant after New Year’s. Who knows how long it’ll take for me to get pregnant.”

  “My swimmers are pretty strong. He’s proof.” Caleb grinned and nodded toward the boy sprawled on the ground near the spruce tree. The tree boughs carried even more Christmas ornaments than the first time Kelly had seen it, thanks to Tyler’s and Caleb’s efforts.

  She wasn’t sure which one of her men was looking forward more to their first Christmas together.

  “It’s more about my hormones than yours, which you know perfectly well, Dr. C.”

  “Well, Mrs. B, we’ll just have to keep practicing, then.”

  She didn’t bother hiding her smile. Because even though she could hardly wait for the day when they gave Tyler a baby sister or brother, it was blissfully satisfying the way Caleb liked to practice. “So what’s in the envelope?” It was catalog thick.

  He shrugged and worked his fingers up the back of her winter coat beneath her shirt. “Open it and see.”

  She shivered and wriggled. “Your hands are cold. Put on gloves.”

  “Why? This is more fun.”

  She laughed softly. “You’re impossible.”

  “And you love me anyway.”

  She rubbed her head against his shoulder for a moment. “That I do.” Then she slid her gloved finger under the envelope flap and tore it open. She tipped out the contents onto her lap and then stared blankly at the documents. “What is this? A sales contract?” Not for her mother’s farm. That was still tied up in probate and would be for months still. “I thought we agreed to wait on the Johansson place.” Even though it meant remaining in the apartment for a while longer, neither one of them had been able to wholeheartedly plow forward on the property. It was definitely cozy, but they were making do.

  “It isn’t the Johansson place.” He reached over and flipped a few pages until he came to one with a phot
ograph.

  She recognized it immediately, and her heart just sort of tumbled wide. “That’s the Perry barn.”

  “If you agree. We could start building in the spring. Decide later if we want to replace the barn or not.”

  “Not,” she murmured. “I didn’t know the property was even for sale.”

  “It wasn’t. I finally found the owners in Seattle. I can be persuasive when I try.”

  Her fingers traced over the photograph. “Yes, you can.”

  “So what do you think?”

  She squirmed again as she felt his hand caress her back and begin to travel lower. “About what you’re doing right now or buying the Perry place?” She set the papers aside.

  “Either. Both. Take your pick.”

  She laughed and turned her lips to his. “I think they’re both pretty darn perfect.”

  “You’re pretty darn perfect,” he said against her lips. Then he moved his hand and grabbed hers, pulling her to her feet.

  She laughed. “Caleb.” She looked toward their son meaningfully.

  “Take your mind out of the bedroom,” he murmured and tugged her toward the corner of the yard where Tyler was still vigorously swishing his arms and legs in the snow.

  Caleb sat down next to their son and stretched out on the ground.

  Delight bloomed inside her. Tyler was giggling wildly. “What are you doing?” Though it was perfectly obvious.

  “Making snow angels.” Caleb held out his hand. “You going to join us?”

  She cherished the picture he and Tyler made and took his hand.

  “Always.”

  * * * * *

  EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT

  Crown Prince Armando enlists Rosa Lamberti to find him a suitable wife—but could a stolen kiss under the mistletoe lead to an unexpected Christmas wedding?

  Read on for a sneak preview of

  WINTER WEDDING FOR THE PRINCE

  by Barbara Wallace

  “Have you ever looked at an unfocused telescope only to turn the knob and make everything sharp and clear?” Armando asked.

  Rosa nodded.

  “That is what it was like for me, a few minutes ago. One moment I had all these sensations I couldn’t explain swirling inside me, then the next everything made sense. They were my soul coming back to life.”

  “I don’t know what to think,” she said.

  “Then don’t think,” he replied. “Just go with your heart.”

  He made it sound easy. Just go with your heart. But what if your heart was frightened and confused? For all his talk of coming to life, he was essentially in the same place as before, unable or unwilling to give her a true emotional commitment.

  On the other hand, her feelings wanted to override her common sense, so maybe they were even. As she watched him close the gap between them, she felt her heartbeat quicken to match her breath.

  “You do know that we’re under the mistletoe yet again, don’t you?”

  The sprig of berries had quite a knack for timing, didn’t it? Anticipation ran down her spine ceasing what little hold common sense still had. Armando was going kiss her and she was going to let him. She wanted to lose herself in his arms. Believe for a moment that his heart felt more than simple desire.

  This time, when he wrapped his arm around her waist, she slid against him willingly, aligning her hips against his with a smile.

  “Appears to be our fate,” she whispered. “Mistletoe, that is.”

  “You’ll get no complaints from me.” She could hear her heart beating in her ears as his head dipped toward hers. “Merry Christmas, Rosa.”

  “Mer…” His kiss swallowed the rest of her wish. Rosa didn’t care if she spoke another word again. She’d waited her whole life to be kissed like this. Fully and deeply, with a need she felt all the way down to her toes.

  They were both breathless when the moment ended. With their foreheads resting against each other, she felt Armando smile against her lips. “Merry Christmas,” he whispered again.

  Don’t miss

  WINTER WEDDING FOR THE PRINCE by Barbara Wallace

  Available December 2016

  PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY

  www.millsandboon.co.uk

  Copyright ©2016 by Barbara Wallace

  ISBN: 978-1-474-04184-3

  A CHILD UNDER HIS TREE

  © 2016 Allison Leigh

  Published in Great Britain 2016

  by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

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