Baby's First Christmas. Laura Marie Altom

by him.”

      Duke would be more surprised if he knew he was going to be an uncle.

      He pulled into a driveway. “But these three houses are friendly territory. Miss Pansy’s, Miss Helen’s and then Liberty’s house, which she’s also converted into a wedding shop. We still stay here when we need to be closer to town, though. When bad weather comes in, I like being near my office. I can walk from here.”

      The houses were small and quaint, certainly not like anything Jessie had ever lived in. “Are you sure I won’t be putting anyone out?”

      “The ladies will be delighted to have company. I promise.” He waved to them as they came out on their respective porches, and Jessie smiled, delighted to see the ladies again. Duke came around to her door just as Zach’s truck pulled up behind them in the driveway. He got out, slamming his door.

      “I can take over from here, Duke,” Zach said.

      “I don’t think so,” Duke said with a scowl. “You have a lot of explaining to do, and I don’t know that you’re operating honestly where this woman is concerned.”

      “I’m trying to marry her,” Zach said.

      “That might have nothing to do with honesty on your part,” Duke snapped, but Jessie’s eyes widened. Pansy clasped her hands together, and Helen’s mouth puckered.

      “That’s no proposal,” Helen said, coming forward to shoo Jessie toward her house. “Pansy, be careful coming down those steps. Come on over and I’ll make us some tea. It’s so good to see you again, Jessie. We wondered when you’d return.”

      “Yes,” Pansy said, giving her a hug. “When is the baby due?”

      Duke stared at her, surreptitiously shooting a glance at her midsection, which was concealed by her red wool coat. “Baby?”

      “How did you know?” Jessie asked Pansy.

      “You glow, my dear. You simply glow. And you’ve put on a teensy bit of very flattering weight.”

      Duke put his hands on his hips. “Is that why you stole her car?”

      Helen gasped. “Stole her car?”

      “Yes. It’s hidden in one of our barns.”

      Pansy gave Zach’s arm a light slap. “Shame on you, Zach. Your parents would be so disappointed.”

      Zach sighed. “You people are not helping.”

      “I bet those rascals found the car and never told us,” Helen said to Pansy. “I’m going to give them what-for when I see them.”

      Pansy nodded. “Jessie, we sent out a search team to check on your vehicle. But they failed us.” She gave a haughty sniff at Zach. “You can’t hijack a lady when you want to get to know her better, even if she’s having your child.”

      “Children,” Zach said.

      “Children?” Duke repeated, glowering at his brother.

      “We’re having twins,” Jessie said.

      Duke grinned. “Way to go, Bro! Nice shooting!”

      The women groaned. “Come on, Pansy,” Helen said. “We’ve had enough excitement for the night, and Jessie needs her rest.”

      Pansy wiped the delighted grin from her face so she could level a stern look at Zach. “And no climbing through windows or any other shenanigans to talk to Jessie. She’ll talk to you when we’re good and ready. You just go cool your heels, Zach.”

      Jessie was fine with that. She was stunned to find that Zach had lied to her. “Thank you for the ride, Duke,” she said, allowing Pansy and Helen to lead her away.

      “Hey! How about my marriage proposal?” Zach asked.

      “We never heard one,” Helen called over her shoulder as they walked away. “We heard a stubborn man trying to get his way with little effort, though.”

      “Thank you,” Jessie said as the door closed behind them. It was nice to be out of the cold, and even better to be inside the welcoming doors of Helen’s cozy house. “The only bright spot in this is that when Liberty finds out Zach used her precious wedding floor covering to protect my car, she’s going to be annoyed. I don’t know that it can be used now for the purposes for which it was intended.”

      “It’ll be good for Zach to have a bunch of females peeved with him,” Pansy said, taking Jessie’s coat. “Hopefully, it’ll smarten him up.”

      “That’s for certain.” Helen set the kettle on the stove. “He’s been quite spoiled since we have so few males in town. So few reasonably intelligent males.”

      Pansy giggled. “So much for our spies. They’re either terrible at their job, or conspiring against us.”

      Jessie looked at the women. “Why would your friends not tell you if they knew my car was perfectly fine?”

      “To be on the boys’ side,” Helen said simply. “This town has always been about the battle of the sexes. And we girls always win.”

      Pansy giggled as the three of them sat at the table together. A pretty lamp with a cut-out shade sent warm light around the kitchen. Jessie relaxed, feeling like she was home for the very first time in her life.

      Chapter Eight

      Zach cooled his heels for as long as he could stand it—approximately ten hours—and despite the bad weather, drove over to Helen’s. He just had to see Jessie. Okay, she’d shocked the hell out of him. He hadn’t reacted appropriately—heaven only knew he hadn’t done anything appropriately.

      But there was a lot of history in his life that forced him to seek appropriate action where Jessie and his kids were concerned. He’d had a major Christmas present tossed at him, and he was determined to learn how to keep it.

      Fortunately for him, he was a Forrester, and so far, the Forrester family was one-for-one on figuring out when to keep their hands on their pregnant significant other.

      Pepper would be too smart to let herself get ahead of the romance, he thought sourly. Younger sisters shouldn’t be so calm, cool and collected about everything—only the men in the family seemed to have a hard time with relationships.

      “It should be the other way around,” he muttered, thinking about last night’s impromptu proposal which had brought him no credit whatsoever with Jessie, Duke or the Gang, either, for that matter. As much as they adored hearing about proposals, they’d barely paid his any attention.

      They hadn’t taken him seriously—which seemed to be a theme in his life. He stared at Helen’s house, wondering how to approach the puzzle his world had become. Should he try romance?

      “Little late for that.” Jessie wouldn’t take him seriously on the romance issue. He had to be very careful with his pursuit because she possessed a natural-born wanderer’s foot. She could take off any time, in any method of transportation, and it might be months before he laid eyes on her again.

      Perhaps help was required in this matter. He pulled out his phone and dialed Holt, investor and civic-minded counterpart to the Gang. Holt sided with the ladies, but he also sided with the men sometimes, and was guaranteed to give a rational and unbiased opinion.

      “Holt,” he said when he heard a brisk hello on the other end of the line.

      “Yes, Zach,” Holt said. “I already know why you’re calling. I heard your little lady is back in town wanting her car, and that you told her I was supposedly fixing it. I don’t like being in the middle if I don’t know what’s going on.”

      Great. Life wasn’t good when the only hairdresser in town was in a tizzy with him. “Sorry about that. It seemed like a good excuse at the time.”

      “It didn’t work,