Baby's First Christmas. Laura Marie Altom

Zach replied. “I want custody of my kids if Jessie won’t marry me.”

      Holt sighed. “The only way you can achieve that is through the courts, Zach.”

      “I was thinking flowers, maybe some time alone together—”

      “You called for my opinion,” Holt said. “Becoming a father with a woman whom you’ve greatly aggravated is not a position of equanimity, you know.”

      He wasn’t sure what equanimity was, but it didn’t sound like he was in a good place with Jessie. “But if you met her—”

      “I did.” Holt sniffed. “Not that you brought her by. Helen invited me to come meet the newest Tulips citizen.”

      Zach frowned. “I doubt you’ll ever be able to call Jessie a citizen of Tulips.”

      “At the rate you’re going, no.”

      Everybody is a critic. Zach said, “Do you have any advice, or are you just going to ride the Zach’s-A-Louse bandwagon?”

      “Legal documentation. And remember she has two legal eagle brothers. The deck may be pretty well stacked in her favor.”

      “Legal eagle brothers?” Zach listened to the dial tone in his ear. “That was so helpful.”

      Drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, he looked at the three small, two-story houses that so delicately hid the strength residing within them. Jessie did fit in with that group of strong women, he realized. He had been attracted to her strength from the moment he’d met her. She wasn’t the kind of woman who flirted. She didn’t put on airs around a man. With Jessie, he’d learned that what he saw was pretty much what he got, straightforward and honest.

      That was some small comfort, but he couldn’t help mulling the rebound factor. She’d been in a vulnerable time in her life when they’d met.

      He conceded that he might have come across as a bit ham-handed and perhaps even a bit horny. Those might be reasons she hadn’t taken his marriage proposal seriously.

      “Like I just jump on every cute girl I meet.” He stared at Helen’s house through slivers of sleet bouncing off his windshield. He owed it to his children—and he and Jessie—to present himself and his plan one more time, even if he had to do it in Miss Helen’s living room.

      He got out of the truck and went to the door. On the door hung a piece of paper that read, “At Liberty’s.” He went to the middle house and rang the doorbell. Duke answered, shaking his head at his brother. “Next door,” he said, while Molly-Jimbo barked a welcome at Zach. Duke closed the door. Zach headed to the final house, finding the front door open and about ten women standing in the entryway of Miss Pansy’s.

      “Did I miss a party?” he asked, wondering how he could have missed seeing the parked cars or commotion or something.

      The ladies went quiet. In front of the fireplace sat Jessie. At her feet were small gifts of welcome, ranging from knitted baby booties to decorated cloth baby diapers. There was even a stack of recipe cards.

      Pansy came over to give him a hug. “We’re having a very tiny, most last-minute welcoming party. Holt’s been by as well.”

      “I heard,” Zach said, not feeling too happy that he was left out of the fun.

      “Well, it’s a wonderful day for hot tea and cookies,” Pansy said. “And who knows when we might get another chance to introduce Jessie to some of the girls? Thankfully your brother didn’t mind rounding everybody up in his truck and bringing them over. It couldn’t have been more fun if it was a sleighing party! Duke even wore a Santa hat.”

      Jessie watched him, her eyes wide and somewhat worried. Since some of the “girls” were between sixty and eighty years of age, Zach realized his audience was one of romantic souls.

      He decided to play to that audience. “Hi, Jessie.”

      “Hi.” She barely glanced at him.

      Whew. Frosty as the cold air outside. “Hope you’ll forgive me about the car,” he said. “I got carried away.”

      A murmur went around the room.

      “You certainly did,” Jessie said.

      “Though I kept your car in excellent shape,” he said.

      “Yes,” Liberty said. “You owe me for plastic—”

      “I certainly do,” Zach said quickly, before the subject could move from his intentions to his sins. “Jessie, I know I asked you to marry me too quickly—”

      The murmur went around the room again, this time with more excitement. Jessie watched him, her gaze suspicious.

      “But I want you to know I’m willing to wait,” Zach continued, “a long time, if I have to, to get your ‘yes.’”

      The ladies turned to look at Jessie, whose cheeks had gone strawberry-pink.

      “Thank you,” Jessie replied, “but my answer must remain no. You lied to me, Zach Forrester, and I’d never be able to trust you. Plus, it was a silly scheme, if you ask me. I should send you a bill for all the travel inconvenience you’ve caused me.”

      This wasn’t going to be easy. “I’d pay that bill and any other,” Zach said. “You could have come to get your car anytime. Why didn’t you?”

      The audience turned to look at her again. Jessie shifted on her chair. “I didn’t want to see you again.”

      The room went so silent a teacup could have cracked and no one would have noticed.

      “By the time Thanksgiving passed, I realized I was expecting,” she said, lifting her chin. “I decided this was something I needed to do myself. Of course, at the time, I thought something was terribly wrong with my car and you were honestly trying to get it repaired. I had no idea you’d simply hijacked it.”

      The ladies leveled frowns on him.

      Miss Helen stood. “Well, I must say, perhaps this isn’t the time or place for this discussion,” she said gently. “But all the same, Jessie, I must speak on behalf of Zach.”

      Zach blinked. Was one of the town’s most sturdy pillars going to put in a good word for him?

      “Zach has ever been the more impulsive Forrester,” Helen said, with Pansy nodding in agreement. “And yet, he has a heart of gold so that one must love him in spite of his foibles.”

      Jessie looked surprised to hear that, as was Zach himself. Go on. Now we’re getting somewhere, he thought gratefully. He wanted to be loved in spite of whatever that thing was she said he had.

      “His brother spent a great deal of time trying to derail our best plans,” Helen said, “but Liberty’s tamed him now so there’s very little chance of that.”

      The ladies laughed. Jessie shifted again, not meeting Zach’s eyes.

      “Pepper is her own woman. Very independent, much more so than her brothers.”

      “Hey,” Zach said, “can Duke and I vote on that?”

      “It’s true and you know it,” Pansy said. “If you’d but admit it. She went off and got a medical degree. She is trying to grow the town with the clinic she wants to start.”

      “Well,” Helen said, “Duke’s idea of growing the town is to just hope and pray the sky rains interested newcomers who want to settle a fair piece from city life.”

      “He’s becoming more broad-minded,” Liberty said.

      “Only because you have a shop in the city as well as here,” Helen said. “He’s learned to admit that there must be something that draws people to a place. We had no railroad and we’re no port city. Big industrial farms have changed the livelihoods for many of us. We missed some opportunities to show that our light