TheSurpriseChristmasBride
Page 13
Steven snorted.
They ignored him.
“We can go back to the way we were,” Jake went on. “It was all right, wasn’t it?”
“’All right’ isn’t good enough, Jake,” she said quietly. “Not anymore. I want to be loved. I want a realmarriage. And in real marriages, people talk to each other. Trust each other.” Her bottom lip quivered a bit, but she charged ahead. “For weeks you’ve been watching, waiting for me to do something that would prove to you I was just like Linda. You’ve been holding your breath, almost hoping for the chance to say, ‘See? I knew I shouldn’t love you.’ Instead of realizing I am nothinglike Linda, instead of snatching at our chance for happiness, you chose to sit back and throw stones at everything we had.”
“I never said you were like Linda.”
She sucked in a breath and let her gaze slide over him slowly before looking into his eyes again. Disappointment filled her, and Casey shook her head slowly. “You didn’t have to say it. It was there. Between us. Every day.” She snatched her purse from the counter, then reached back and grabbed hold of Steven’s jacket. Tugging her ex-fiancé toward the door, she told her husband, “Fine, then, Jake. If you think what you saw is enough reason to throw away my love, great. You win. Now you don’t have to put up with me.”
“Where are you going?” Jake moved closer.
“Why do you care?” She shoved Steven through the open door, grabbed her coat and glared at the man she loved. “I don’t understand how I could be so in love with a man as impossibly arrogant and stupid and pig-headed as you, Jake Parrish!” Walking into the mudroom, she snapped, “But if I try reallyhard, maybe I’ll get over it.”
Then she was gone and his only company was a delighted dog and the echo of the door slamming shut.
“Where are we?”
Casey blinked and looked at Steven. “What did you say?”
He worked his jaw back and forth, then said again, “Where are we?”
She glanced at the building directly in front of them. Holiday paintings decorated the windows of Annie’s beauty shop. She almost sneered at Santa and his happy elves. Strange, she didn’t even remember heading for Annie’s place. But then, she hardly remembered the drive into town, either. So angry at Jake she could hardly speak, she had simply demanded Steven’s keys, climbed into the driver’s seat of his Porsche and taken off with Steven in the passenger seat.
Vaguely she recalled hearing her ex-fiancé groan when she occasionally failed to engage the clutch of his precious car, but she’d ignored him. Every ounce of her being was too filled with images of her husband for her to think of anything else.
Of all the hardheaded, insulting, chest-pounding Neanderthals she’d ever known, Jake Parrish took the prize.
Imagine that fool actually believing that she would cheat on him! Oh, she understood about Linda. Fine, the woman had been a treacherous bitch. But for him to tar her with the same brush was unforgivable.
“Casey,” Steven said, “do you know a good doctor in town? I really think I ought to have my jaw looked at.”
She glared at him briefly. “You’re talking, Steven. It’s not broken.”
“I don’t know.” He held one hand to his cheek and worked his jaw again. “I hear it popping when I do this.”
“Then don’t do that.” Grumbling under her breath, Casey opened the car door and got out, slamming the door behind her.
She didn’t wait for him to follow her. Instead, she stomped through the few feet of slush to the beauty parlor and went inside.
The silence was deafening.
Jake rolled his shoulders, glanced at the dog and scowled. “What are yousmiling about?”
Stumbles ducked his head and scuttled out of the room.
Disgusted with himself and the whole situation, Jake started pacing, his boots clicking angrily against the tiles.
“What did she expect me to think?” he demanded of no one. “I come in the door to my own house and find her with another man and I’m not supposed to be mad?”
His words echoed back at him and he flinched at the loneliness of the sound. He came to a sudden stop and looked down at the now shiny-clean pie plate. Stumbles had eaten every last crumb.
Lemon meringue.
Jake’s favorite.
She’d been making his favorite pie. From scratch. For him.
His gaze shifted to the table where the day’s paper lay alongside an opened Christmas catalog and a list of gifts to buy for Lisa, Annie, his aunt and uncle, and his father.
Casey had been thinking about him. She was always thinking about him.
“Then Iwalk in the door and start acting like some deranged actor in a third-rate play.” He slumped against the cooking island and let his mind drift back over the past several weeks.
Laughter had filled the house. There was a warmth to the place that hadn’t been there since he was a child. Even now the scent of the Christmas tree wafted to him, making him feel the season as he hadn’t in a very long time. Every time he walked through the door, he felt the welcome in the air. Felt Casey’s love.
For weeks he’d been surrounded by that love. Somehow he’d been given a second chance at happiness. That too-young girl he’d wanted so badly five years before had come back into his life and given him everything he’d ever dreamed of.
And he’d allowed his fear of losing that happiness to ensure that he did.
Of course she wasn’t like Linda. On some gut level, he’d always known that. It was only his pride that had kept him from acknowledging it until now, when it was too late. Had she left him for good? Was she so disgusted with him she was never coming back? And could he live without her?
No.
He couldn’t.
“So, what are you going to do?” he muttered, and braced both hands on the cooking island behind him. His mind filled with images of Casey and chocolate éclairs and long slow deep kisses.
His imagination drew mental pictures of Casey—in a few more months her belly round and heavy with their child. Her warm smile and the gleam in her eyes as she looked at him.
Abruptly he pushed away from the counter and raced outside. There was only one thing he coulddo. Get her back. Where she belonged.
With him.
“Casey!” Annie called out a welcome as the door flew open. “I was going to call you in a few minutes. I just saw the newspaper.”
Casey cringed and glanced around the tiny shop, dismayed to find one customer in the chair and two other women on the sofa waiting their turns.
She didn’t want to talk about the ad she’d taken out in the local paper. Not now. Not when everything had changed so drastically. Dammit, she’d had such high hopes that the ad in the paper would convince Jake to take a chance on their happiness.
“What’s wrong?” Annie asked, and walked toward her friend and sister-in-law, customers forgotten.
“What isn’twrong?” Casey muttered. “That would take far less time.”
“Oh, no. What did Jake do now?”
The front door opened again and Annie’s gaze shifted to the newcomer.
“Annie,” Casey said on a sigh. “Meet Steven.”
“Steven? TheSteven?”
“Why did that sound like ‘TheJack the Ripper’?” Steven asked.
“Sorry. Jeez,” Annie winced in sympathy “—what happened to you? Your cheek is purple.” Her gaze shot to Casey. “Jake?”
“Jake.”
“I don’t mean to be a bother,” Steven interrupted. “But could I have some ice, do you think?”
“Sure. Get it yourself.” Annie jerked her head toward the back room.
Steven’s eyebrows lifted, but he went.
Annie turned to Casey. “What’s going on?”
“Annie, I don’t even know. Jake came in the house, found me hugging Steven and slugged him.”
“Oh, boy.”
Rushed whispers erupted from the corner waiting area, and Casey glanced at the two middle-aged women. Imm
ediately the pair straightened up and pretended an air of casual disinterest. The customer in Annie’s chair didn’t bother to pretend. She had her neck craned back so far to listen that Casey was surprised her head didn’t snap off.
Too bad for Jake, she thought. He hated gossip so much he really shouldn’t go around hitting people.
Steven came back into the room just then, a sandwich bag full of ice held to his jaw. His interested gaze swept over Annie slowly, appreciatively. When he met her steely blue eyes, he shrugged helplessly, then looked at Casey.
“Will you be all right here if I leave?”
“Running out on her again, eh?” Annie said.
He stiffened. “I didn’t run out on her.”
“Jilt’s an ugly word.”
The whispering started up in the corner again, and Casey sighed. She was going to be the subject of Simpson gossip for months. If not years. Decades from now, her grandchildren would be hearing the story of the day their grandma’s old boyfriend had come to town and how their granddaddy had cleaned his clock.
“Of course she’ll be all right,” Annie snapped. “Why wouldn’t she be?”
“I didn’t mean to imply anything.”
Casey looked away from them. She didn’t have the energy to referee. She stared through the window at Main Street, hardly noticing the brightly colored plastic candy canes that hung from the lampposts or the evergreen swags stretched across the narrow drive. Casey sighed tiredly and felt what little strength she had left disappear as Jake drove up. She frowned when he parked the Jeep directly behind Steven’s car, blocking it from moving.
“Hey, Jake,” Mr. Holbrook at the hardware store said. “Congratulations.”
Jake smiled, nodded and wondered what the hell the man was talking about.
“I think it’s just so sweet!” This from an older female voice. Jake turned to see Dolly Fenwick grinning at him from the sidewalk. “And so romantic,” she continued with a heavy sigh. “You tell Casey I said Merry Christmas.”
He nodded. What was going on? Jake glanced at the car Casey had sped away in. Blocked by the Jeep, that Porsche wasn’t going anywhere. At least not if Casey tried to leave in it.
Hurrying to the beauty shop, he opened the door and stepped into the most important fight of his life.
Steven dropped his ice bag, bent his knees and lifted both fists like an old-fashioned prizefighter. Bobbing and weaving, he prepared for battle.
Jake frowned at him. “I didn’t come here for you,” he said.
Steven’s eyebrows lifted, but he slowly dropped his fists, still keeping a wary eye on Jake.
“Why didyou come?” Casey asked tiredly.
“I came to get you.”
“Why? Afraid I stole the family silver?”
There was a muffled snort from the cluster of chairs in the corner.
“Dammit, Casey!” He realized he was shouting so he lowered his voice. “I came to take you home.”
“I’m not going home.”
“Atta girl,” somebody murmured.
“You’re not leaving me.” Amazing he was able to squeeze those words out past the tightness in his throat. He glanced around the little shop, from his sister’s disgusted expression to Steven and to the older ladies watching him with open interest. He dismissed them all. He didn’t care who heard him. He didn’t care if people talked about him for weeks. All he knew was that he had to convince his wife to give him another chance. He only hoped he could figure out the right things to say. “I won’t let you leave me, Casey.”
“Leave you?” Surprise tinged her voice.
“Everything you said is true,” Jake blurted, and stepped closer to her. “I was a jerk. I was standing back and trying not to care. But I cared, anyway.”
“You did?” She cocked her head and watched him carefully.
“Of course I did.” He closed the space between them, but didn’t touch her. He couldn’t risk that yet. If she moved away from him, it would hurt too much. “I loved you from the beginning, Casey.”
“Say that again.”
He smiled. “I love you. Always have. Please, Casey, don’t leave me. Stumbles and I would never survive.”
Her lips twitched. “A dirty trick, using Stumbles against me.”
“I’m desperate.”
“How desperate.”
“Enough to try anything. Say anything. Casey, I love you. Come home with me. Give me the chance to prove to you I can be foolishly lovesick as well as anybody.” Risking it now, he placed both hands on her shoulders. “Don’t leave me, Casey.” He lowered his voice and bent his head so only she would hear him say, “If you leave, the loneliness and the pain will kill me.”
“You big dummy.”
He blinked and jerked his head back. “What?”
“You are such a dummy, Jake.” She grinned at him and shook her head. “I wasn’t going to leave you.”
“You weren’t?” The knot in his chest loosened, and breath came easily again to his straining lungs.
“Of course not.” She reached up and smoothed one hand over his cheek. He turned his face into her touch. “I don’t give up thateasy,” she said solemnly. “You’re an aggravating man sometimes, Jake, but I love you.”
He pulled in another breath.
“I don’t stoploving you just because I’m angry. I only left the house because I needed to get away before I gave you the swift kick you deserved.”
“From now on I give you permission to kick me whenever I need it.”
“I’ll remember that,” she told him. Turning her head slightly, she looked at Annie. Her sister-in-law was grinning from ear to ear and wiping away a trickle of tears. “Hand me the newspaper, please.”
Confused, Jake watched his sister grab the Salutationand slap it into Casey’s waiting hand.
“If you read the paper in the morning like everybody else in town,” Casey said, “you would have seen this hours ago.” Opening up the front page, she held it in front of her like a shield and waited for him to read it.
Jake’s gaze swept the headline once, then again, just to assure himself he wasn’t imagining things. But he wasn’t. A smile spread slowly across his face. Now he understood what the people outside had been talking about. No doubt everyone in town would be discussing it for weeks.
But thiskind of gossip he could grow to like.
He looked at the headline one last time and felt the last of his doubts and worries slip away. Right across the top of the page in bold black letters were the words: CASEY LOVES JAKE: A FOOL FOR LOVE.
He lifted his gaze to his wife’s smiling face. Taking the newspaper from her, he tossed it to the floor and reached for her. He held her close to him and felt his world come right again.
With Casey in his arms, he had everything he would ever need. Looking down at her, he whispered, “I guess being a fool for love can be a good thing.”
She nodded. “If the fool you’re in love with loves you right back.”
Then he kissed her, long and deep, and neither one of them heard the applause from the delighted onlookers.
Epilogue
Christmas afternoon…
“We really should get busy,” Casey said, and snuggled closer. She and Jake were lying on the couch. “You know everyone will be here soon.”
“No hurry,” her husband muttered, holding her more tightly to his side.
She laughed and lifted her head to look down at him. “You’ve been saying that all day, Jake.”
Of course, she wasn’t complaining. Why would she? Spending Christmas day making love to a husband who adored her was a dream come true.
He smiled as he ran one fingertip across her jaw. “A man’s entitled to spend his first Christmas with his new wife any way he chooses.”
“Is that so?” One eyebrow arched high on her forehead.
He nodded. “It’s a rule, I think.”
Chuckling softly, she laid her head on his chest and stared at the Christmas tree, its lights b
lazing, its odd assortment of well-loved ornaments looking somehow…regal.
“It’s a perfect Christmas, isn’t it?” she whispered.
“Perfect,” he repeated, and wrapped both arms around her. Outside, snow twisted in a cold wind and slapped against the windows. But inside, a fire burned, both in the hearth and between the two people lying so close on the sofa.
Beneath the Christmas tree a small mound of presents, wrapped in festive paper, lay waiting to be opened and appreciated. Close by, Stumbles snored gently, lost in dreams.
“Don’t you want to open your present before your family gets here?” Casey asked as she listened to the steady beat of his heart beneath her ear.
“Nope,” he said, stroking her back gently. “I’ve already got my presents.”
She tipped her head back to look up at him and found him watching her through eyes that no longer hid his love. “You do?”
“I do. The only present I’ll ever need is you. And the baby. And you.”
She smiled. “You already said that.”
“I want to say it. Over and over. As many times as you can stand to hear it.” Cupping her cheek with one hand, he said, “I love you, Casey. More than I ever thought possible. Every day with you is magic. Every day is Christmas.”
Tears stung her eyes, but she blinked them back before raising herself high enough to kiss him gently. “I love you, too, Jake. Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas.”
Then he kissed her, and when she closed her eyes, she could still see brightly colored lights twinkling merrily.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-0849-4
THE SURPRISE CHRISTMAS BRIDE
Copyright © 1997 by Maureen Child
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.