“It should be pretty clear on the highway for you.”
“You aren’t going to come?”
“I can stay here with Pax until you’re back.”
“Oh, I forgot. I want to go by the vet’s with Pax, too. He said to drop in anytime. But I don’t have a clue how to get there. I thought you could come along and show me, and you know him, too.”
“Maybe he has a cure for candy-cane addiction.”
She laughed at that, the way she’d laughed in the dream, and he put that sound into his reality. “Pax still hasn’t forgiven me for taking the candy canes off the lower part of the tree.”
Jake had no dizziness, no nausea, no pain. He could go into Eclipse with her today. “Okay, I’ll go with you to Luke’s.”
“Thank you. Oh, one other thing. Seth called right when I hung up with Julia. He’s really tied up with work, but since there isn’t an emergency any longer, he’s planning on coming closer to Christmas. He and Ben will fly in and stay at Wicker Pines in one of the guest cottages, so they can spend all their time with Sarge. Seth thinks he’s going to be seeing you, too.”
“I hope he can stay more than just a day or two,” Jake said.
“Will you be there with them?”
He didn’t have any idea yet where he’d be on Christmas, so he told her the truth. “I don’t know.”
* * *
JAKE AND LIBBY never got to Eclipse. They ended up heading to Cody after Julia called the house again to tell them Sarge was asking for Jake. So, they’d headed north to Wicker Pines. The visit had been wonderful, and Sarge had been thrilled with the two-foot-tall potted live Christmas tree they’d gifted him, which Libby had remembered seeing in the store on their first trip. It came with multicolored twinkling lights already on it and some red and green decorations attached to the boughs. The rehab room had brightened up, and so had the man in the hospital bed. He’d been lucid and participated in conversation, even correcting Jake a few times when he got a name or place wrong.
“He’s doing well, isn’t he?” Jake asked as Libby drove out of Cody and onto the highway heading south. Snow was cleared past the shoulders of the road now, and the traffic was light.
“You don’t have to answer me on any of this, okay? I just want to say it.”
She gave him a thumbs-up and he kept talking. “Getting the tree for Sarge was a great idea. That really made him happy. Calling Seth and Ben was an even better idea. All things considered, I’m glad we came here today.” He chuckled softly. “Also, thank you for getting me a knit hat while you were in the store. Green was a nice choice. Christmassy, you know.”
Libby couldn’t resist glancing at him long enough for him to read, “Thumbs-up is boring.” Then she looked back at the road. She’d never been bored around Jake. She liked talking to him. She liked seeing him smile and she liked the way he cocked his head slightly to one side when she spoke.
“A conversation face-to-face is the best way to talk to anyone. So, for now, you drive, and I’ll shut up.”
She gave him a thumbs-up but flashed him a smile before focusing on the road.
When they got to the ranch and let Pax out to run, Jake shifted over behind the wheel so he could put the truck in the garage. Libby went into the house. It was warm, and the Christmas tree glowed by the hearth. Fresh pine smelled so wonderful in the space. She took off her boots and jacket, then sank down onto the couch.
When she checked her cell, she saw that while in town she’d missed four texts and two emails. She exhaled, then turned off her useless cell phone and pushed it into her jeans’ pocket. She had the landline now, but she still wasn’t sure about talking to Roger just yet. She didn’t want to feel as if she was intruding on his work and keeping him from something more important than talking to her.
That thought almost took her breath away because she knew it was true. She closed her eyes tightly and that didn’t change anything. Right then, what he was doing on-site in Mali was more important than she was, than their wedding was, probably more important than being here for Christmas with her.
She was startled when she heard Jake say, “Do you have time to talk?”
He was standing over her and she got to her feet. She couldn’t talk to him. “You know, I need to get work done. I’m slacking off.”
“Maybe later,” he said, and she had a feeling she should have agreed. “Whenever you can spare some time today.”
She sighed. “You know what, sit down and we can talk. Work can wait for a while.”
Jake hesitated, then sat on the couch.
Instead of staying next to him, she sat on the old rug facing him, crossed her legs, and took a breath. “Okay, now we can talk.”
He was frowning. “Is there something wrong, something you didn’t tell me at Wicker Pines?”
She blinked. “What? No, nothing.”
“I know you talk to Julia a lot and thought maybe she’d told you something you didn’t think I should know.”
“Why would you think that?”
He shrugged. “You tend to want to protect people.”
He was right, but wrong at the same time. “Nothing is wrong at Wicker Pines. I promise. I’m working through some things, but they aren’t about you or Sarge. Julia is really thrilled with his improvement both physically and emotionally since you’ve been there for him.”
He seemed to ease up at her explanation. “That’s good.”
“I’ll tell you anything I find out. I promise, and I keep my promises.”
“Yes, you do,” he said. “So, what’s bothering you?”
She didn’t plan on it, but she found herself telling him about the decision she’d made about Roger’s mother and the wedding. It just spilled out and Jake silently let her talk. When she finally stopped, he actually smiled at her. “So, the real Liberty Connor showed up after all?”
She didn’t understand. “What are you talking about?”
“You finally drew a line in the sand. You’re going to have a face-to-face with your future mother-in-law and negotiate. I think it’s a great plan. And, knowing you, you’ll end up getting a lot of what you want for your wedding.”
He got all of that out of her rambling dissertation. “You know, you’re right. I can’t believe I just kept letting it go, all the calls and the texts and the ideas for the wedding, and her expecting me to work for the foundation…”
“Why did you?” he asked.
She knew why. But it was embarrassing. “I hate to admit this, but his parents, their position, their money, their station in life, it’s all so far beyond mine. They know about my foster care years and the adoption, but I think they wish he’d asked someone better qualified to marry him, a socialite or whatever.”
“What does Roger say about your plan for a meeting?” he asked.
She wished he hadn’t brought it up. “He wants me to take care of things. But I think it should be both him and his father there, too, so there’s no misunderstanding.”
“You’re right. It should be. It affects all of you.”
“I know, but he’s so busy and has so much going on. I can’t ask him to just let everything go to be here.”
“Liberty, you’re going to marry the man, whether it’s at the justice of the peace’s office or in a palace. Maggie and Sarge had their problems with her parents, but the two of them stuck together, immovable, and her parents came around. They were in it together, all the way to the end. Just my opinion, but he’ll be here at Christmas and things will probably calm down, then maybe he’ll agree to go to the meeting. Him going to the meeting can be his birthday present to you. How’s that?”
She wished it was that simple. But from the way Roger had spoken so cavalierly about their wedding, she was wondering now if he’d even be here at Christmas. “Yes, maybe. I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.”
“M
aybe you need to call Roger and have him come back earlier? Not for a showdown, but so you and he can be alone. I’ll be gone, and the two of you can have your privacy to work out whatever’s going on.”
“I can’t demand he drop everything to come here.”
“Then you drop everything and go to him?”
She wished she wanted to do that, because she might have. But she knew if she intruded at the site, he might not even have any free time to be with her. Then it dawned on her that she didn’t want to leave the ranch. It felt right being here, and even more, she didn’t want to leave Jake and Sarge. They were becoming important to her. “No, I can’t do that. He needs to concentrate on what he’s doing.”
“What about your mother? She must be excited about you getting married.”
“Oh, she is, very excited about it.” In that moment it hit her, and it hit her hard—she had been shutting her own mother out of the wedding plans worrying about Roger’s mother. That made her feel slightly sick.
“All I wanted to do was plan my own wedding. Ever since I was small, I wanted my mom to make my wedding cake, not have some fancy seven-tiered wonder on stilts. I wanted to wear her wedding dress, and only invite close friends and family.”
“That’s what you should have.”
“I don’t think his mom and dad see their only son getting married in anything less than a huge production for hundreds of guests. I’m not sure how I can get a compromise, but I’m going to try.”
“Is eloping an option?” Jake asked with a smile.
She chuckled at that. “Only if Roger doesn’t mind being disowned.” She exhaled. “I’ll do the meeting on my own, if I have to.” Hesitating, she rocked a bit closer to him. “Between you and me, his parents kind of scare me.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
JAKE THOUGHT THEY’D talk a few minutes, then he could broach him leaving in a few hours. But he could tell Liberty was dead serious. “How do they scare you?”
“With their expectations,” she said simply. “And I sure don’t want to embarrass them in any way in front of their friends.”
“How could you possibly do that?”
With a seriously intent look in those green eyes, she said, “For an example, at the reception they want a six-course meal for three hundred guests. His mother wants pampered salmon. No joke. Add high-priced champagne, along wine from their own label and a string quartet for the music.”
He shook his head. “Wow.”
“If they have the string quartet, you know what means.”
He didn’t. “No, what?”
“Slow, romantic music, like waltzes or classical pieces, and dancing them in a dress with a twenty-foot train.”
“No conga lines?” he asked, hoping against hope that he’d finally get a smile out of her. That didn’t happen.
“I wish,” she said, and her shoulders sank on a sigh.
Then he thought he understood one of her problems. He rested his forearms on his knees and leaned closer. “Let me guess. Liberty Grace Connor doesn’t know how to dance, and Roger and his parents don’t have a clue that you don’t have a clue.”
She looked embarrassed, then nodded. “I don’t and they don’t.”
“Why not?”
“Roger and I never had an occasion to dance, so it never came up. I kind of thought I could take dance lessons while Roger was away, then I came up here, and that’s not going to happen before he comes back.”
It seemed surreal to him that he was discussing her wedding with her, and even more disconcerting, he wanted her to have the wedding she wanted, which really sounded pretty impossible after what she’d just told him. “You should be able to be honest with him.”
That brought color to her cheeks. “I’m not sure how he’d react.”
“You’ve never had an argument with him?”
She shook her head sharply. “No. Just about our plans I had for us before the wedding, and things are just sort of out of whack right now. He’s there. I’m here. If I could just get the dancing thing to go away, I could deal with pampered salmon.”
“You are a bit of a control freak, aren’t you?” he asked.
“No, well, maybe. I don’t like surprises, and I don’t like not knowing how things will go. And I don’t like feeling stupid.” She shrugged. “Okay, I need control. I admit I feel safe with control. Is that what you mean?”
In all of his adult life, Jake had never felt such a need to make someone smile and relax as he did right then. That was ridiculous. She rubbed her bare ring finger as she lowered her head. Of all of her worries about the wedding, there was nothing he could do about any of them, except for one—dancing. He’d do one last thing to help her before he drove away.
“It’s not hard to dance,” he found himself saying to try to encourage her.
Liberty looked up at him as she tucked her hair behind her ears. “Easy for you to say.”
“You never went to your prom or anything?”
She nodded her head. “I certainly did in my junior year. A kid named Kevin asked me to dance. I crushed his feet so badly that he tripped and went facedown on the floor. He never spoke to me again.”
“That sounds pretty rough,” he said, barely holding back a smile.
She cocked her head to one side and narrowed her eyes on him. “Don’t tell me you can dance?”
“Sarge had us all go through his idea of a social manners course while we were here. It included dance lessons.”
“You’re joking, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m as serious as Kevin’s crushed feet.”
She almost smiled. He’d come so close. “And you did it?”
“Sarge wanted us to at least have a semblance of manners. He was big on his boys having skills.”
Color deepened in her face. “I have skills, no matter what anyone might think.”
He’d worded that wrongly. “Dancing is a learnable skill. If I can learn to dance, you can.”
“Thank you, but I wasn’t thinking of the two-step.”
He clicked his tongue at her. “Liberty Grace Connor, I do believe you might just be a bit of a snob yourself.”
He liked it that she blushed so easily. “Sorry, what I meant was, they won’t be doing the two-step at my wedding.”
“Too bad. Your future mother-in-law might lighten up if they did. However, despite doing a mean two-step, my skills go beyond that.”
“And you were good?”
“I was good. I am good.”
“Okay, if you’re good, could you show me the basic steps for the waltz?”
He could show her the steps… “I’ll try.”
“Shoot, I’m sorry. Of course, you can’t hear the music.”
He didn’t know why her saying that shook him. He’d give anything to wipe that look of sympathy off her face. Then he thought of a way he might be able to do that. “Pick a song, any song that you think is slow and nice and memorable. If it’s in Sarge’s collection, I’ll know it. He always said, ‘If you feel the beat, you’ll move your feet.’”
She shifted. “I love Christmas music, but I don’t want to dance to ‘Jingle Bells’ at my wedding.”
When Jake moved to stand, Liberty scrambled to her feet. He felt steady and headed past the pool table to the closet that held the CD player. When Liberty came up behind him, he asked, “What is your favorite slow Christmas song?”
“I guess, ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’?”
He hadn’t thought about that song for years until it had invaded his dreams. “Is that what you want?”
“It is, as long as it’s okay with you?”
“You’ve got it,” Jake said. Five minutes later, the worn braided rug was rolled back, and the music was ready to play. Libby had thankfully thought of Sarge before they started. Knowing she wouldn’t be a
ble to hear the phone ring over the music, she’d called Wicker Pines and spoken to Dr. Miller himself, who’d told her Sarge was sleeping and his numbers were their best yet. Jake turned the volume higher on the CD player until he was satisfied. Then he came across to where Liberty stood in the middle of the cleared area in front of the couch. As they faced each other she pointedly looked down at his feet protected only by his socks. “I told you about Kevin, so maybe your best bet is to put on boots.”
“I’ll take my chances,” he said. “Face me with a bit of distance between us so you can see my feet clearly, and I can see you singing,” he said. “I’m leading, so if I step back, you step forward, and if I step to my left, you step to your right. Got it?”
“I think so.”
“I’ll show you the basic steps, and you watch. Can you sing the words, so I know where I am in the song?”
“Sure, if that makes it easier.” She waited until the song began again, then Liberty began to sing along to it. Jake moved easily in a simple pattern. They went through the full song twice as she watched him move, then she looked at him. “Can we try it now?”
Jake blinked at her. “What?”
“I want to dance. I thought this was what we were leading up to. I think I can do it now.”
His heart sank. He’d been stupid, thinking he could just show her the steps and have her mimic them. Now she wanted to dance with him, and he wasn’t sure he could be that close to her and keep a mental distance. “I don’t know if you need to.”
“I do,” Liberty said as she came closer.
Jake stared at her as she put her hand on his left arm then lifted her right hand, waiting for him to take it in his. He couldn’t back out, and he took her hand and lightly placed his other hand on her waist. He kept space between them. “Whenever you’re ready,” he told her.
Jake watched her lips as the song started again. It was like the dream; he could almost hear her singing as they started the pattern. At first, she failed miserably, stepping on his feet twice, not that she had much weight behind the contact. He hoped she’d give up then, but she kept going, starting the song again, and this time she began to move with more assurance and matched his steps.
Harlequin Heartwarming December 2020 Box Set Page 64