* * *
Bess was having trouble concentrating.
Maybe it was the way they were going somewhere together in the evening, in a way that felt like a date, even though she knew darn well it wasn’t a date, any more than their shopping trip over the weekend for dollhouses and baby dolls had been a date.
And maybe it was the way he had kissed her beneath the mistletoe the previous evening, in a way that had left her wanting more...
All she knew for certain was that Jack looked incredibly handsome in the gray suede jacket worn with a blue button-down and jeans that brought out the cobalt blue of his eyes.
“Um...” She tried to focus on his question. Still tingling all over from where they had pressed up against each other, she checked her list. “Crates. Betty suggested we get a small plastic travel crate for the ride home for each of them, and then a large wire crate with a divider for use at home.”
“Why a divider?” Jack asked as he pushed the cart toward the crates.
She fell into step beside him. “Apparently, if the sleeping space is too big, it causes issues.” When he looked down at her, she explained, “If you have a divider, you can make their resting space as small and cozy as they need, then enlarge the space gradually as they grow, until you take the divider out altogether.”
His eyes crinkled at the corners. “Sounds reasonable.”
Unfortunately, there was only one extra-large-size metal crate, suitable for full-grown dogs, on display. While Jack flagged down an employee to check for another, Bess perused the nearby sleeping cushions.
Jack returned just as her phone signaled an incoming message. She checked the screen. “Oh, wow, poor guy,” she murmured with a heartfelt sigh.
He quirked his brow.
She shook her head sympathetically. “Tim Briscoe is on a date I set up for him tonight. It’s with one of the teachers at the preschool. I thought they’d really hit it off, but he says it’s going badly.”
Jack did a double take. “He’s on the date right now?”
“Yes.”
His irritation plain, he scoffed. “Well, no wonder it’s going badly if he’s texting you while he’s sitting there with another woman.”
Surprised the normally easygoing Jack was being so judgmental, Bess scowled and continued looking at her phone. “She went to the powder room.” She glanced back up at him. “He wants to know if I have any suggestions about how to liven things up.”
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “He could get a clue. Seriously, don’t you think you’re a little too involved with all this?”
Bess censured him with a narrow-eyed look. “No,” she said.
The clerk came back, all smiles. “You’re in luck!” she sang out. “We’ve got one more left. So when you’re done shopping and check out, I’ll bring both around to the front and help put them in your vehicle.”
“Thank you,” Jack said. “We appreciate your help.”
What he clearly did not appreciate was her friendship with Tim.
“What else do we need to get?” he asked impatiently.
Bess had had her eye on a comfy dog cushion to put in her living room, but she knew she could get that at the pet store in Laramie. Deciding she and Jack were getting a little too irritated with each other, she said, “This is it.”
Jack seemed to know he had stepped over a line. “Sure?”
She nodded as another text came in. This time she did not tell Jack it was Tim, this time asking if he should go ahead and end the date early to put them both out of their misery or keep trying. She typed in a suggestion that they walk over to the town square and admire the decorations in the park before calling a halt to the date. Then she switched the sound off and put her cell phone away.
They went to the registers and paid, their earlier lighthearted mood gone. “I’ll wait here with the cart while you get your SUV,” Bess said stiffly.
Jack nodded and headed off. By the time he had returned and put the rear seats flat, the clerk had come out with the dolly. The crates were bulky and heavy and were loaded in first. Everything else they’d purchased was situated on top.
“Anything else you want to do while we’re here?” Jack asked, his earlier pique with her clearly gone.
Unable to let her own annoyance with him go as easily, Bess shook her head. “I think we’re all set. I’d really like to go home.”
* * *
“How long are you going to stay ticked at me?” Jack asked, when they’d arrived at her house and finished unloading all their purchases.
“I’m not ticked off.”
He put his hands lightly on her shoulders, then bent down so he could see into her face. “Yeah. You are.”
She planted her hand on the center of his chest and pushed him away, then gave him a withering look. “Okay. If you really want to go there...”
It was apparent that she didn’t.
He let his gaze drift over her pouting lips and the fire of resentment in her eyes. “I really do.” Whether she liked it or not, they were going to get their feelings out in the open. He wasn’t about to let their relationship fall into the pattern of his former marriage—whenever he had displeased Gayle, he’d get the silent treatment for days on end.
Angling her chin up at him, she asked angrily, “Where do you get off telling me who I can and cannot advise on their love life?”
Knowing he wasn’t the one at fault here, he looked at her for a long moment. “Is that what you think you were doing tonight when you were texting with Tim?”
She moved past him with a glare, picked up the smaller packages they had just brought in and put them into a mostly empty supply closet. She whirled back to him and leaned up against the door, hands braced behind her. “Yes. I was helping out a friend.”
Sensing she needed her physical space, he leaned against the opposite wall and folded his arms in front of him. He clarified, “A friend who’d rather be on a date with you than the woman he was with tonight.”
“That’s not true.”
Jack wished he could just kiss her again, without driving her further away than she was at this very moment, and end this silly argument. Knowing, however, that nothing would be solved by pretending there wasn’t a problem, he noted the way her breasts were rising and falling with each breath. With effort, he returned his gaze to her face. “Trust me on this, Bess. If Tim didn’t still have a thing for you—” a fact Jack could easily comprehend, given how sexy and kind she was “—Tim wouldn’t have been texting you for advice.”
Stiffening, she pushed away from the wall, letting her hands fall to her sides. “Trust me on this. Tim is not still interested in me like that.”
Jack pushed away from the wall, too, unsure whether she was being naive or he was overreacting out of pure male jealousy. “Sure about that?”
“Positive.” Closing the distance between them, she pressed her index finger against the center of his chest. “What I am not so sure about is why you are acting as if you and I were on a date tonight and Tim interrupted it.”
“You really don’t know?” Jack deadpanned.
“No. I really don’t!”
Every territorial part of him went into overdrive. The truth was, he couldn’t stand the thought of her with another man. Because she belonged with him now.
“Well, maybe...” he growled, wrapping one arm around her waist and sifting the other through her hair. He tilted his head over hers, then slowly and deliberately lowered his mouth. “...this will show you.”
Bess had plenty of time to step away. Call a halt. But apparently she didn’t want to prevent this kiss. Any more than she wanted the evening to end without the two of them making hot, wild, passionate love again.
His mouth captured hers in a sweet and mesmerizing kiss that encouraged her to answer his kiss with her own. And she did. Rising on tiptoe, looping
her arms about his neck, she savored the warmth and solid strength of him. Their passion intensified as he brought her closer still, wrapping her tight in his arms. Sighing rapturously, her lips parted beneath the pressure of his as his tongue swept the inside of her mouth with long, deliberate strokes.
He backed her against the washer and parted her knees with his thigh. She trembled all the more, and still they kissed, taking a sensual tour of each other’s lips, revealing to each other everything it would have been so much safer to deny.
His hands eased beneath her ivory turtleneck. “We’ve both got on way too many clothes,” he murmured, making her laugh.
“Well.” She kissed his shoulder. “There is a solution for that.”
He grinned. “Glad you suggested that.”
* * *
The next thing she knew, he had lifted her onto the washing machine.
“Not the bedroom?” she teased, as he knelt before her, tugging off one fancy Western boot, then the other.
“Too far.”
She expected him to rise, but he stayed where he was. Handsome head nestled between her knees.
She’d never viewed herself as an impatient person. But that was changing. Fast. She stroked her fingers through his hair. “I need you up here,” she whimpered.
He stayed where he was, kissing his way up the insides of her knees and thighs.
Another lightning bolt of desire swept through her. She yanked off her turtleneck, let it flutter onto his shoulders. Her bra hit his head.
It was his turn to laugh. “Messaging me?” He rose, slowly, deliberately.
She wrinkled her nose. “Something like that.”
“Ah, well, then.” He reached for the zipper on her cords. “Let’s see if you match.”
She lifted slightly so he could ease the fabric down, past her hips, over her thighs and knees. He stepped back to view the satin bikini panties that matched her discarded bra. “Oh, yeah.” He waved the bra like a victory flag, then stepped in again, parting her thighs, pulling her to the edge of the washer. She quivered as his hands cupped her breasts, rubbing her already sensitive nipples into aching buds.
Lower still, moisture reigned.
She unbuttoned his shirt, spread the fabric wide. He unzipped and stepped out of his jeans. And still they kissed endlessly until what few boundaries yet between them dissolved. She wrapped her legs snugly around his waist as he dropped kisses at her temple, the delicate shell of her ear, the pulse in her throat.
Lowering his head, he flicked the tip of her breast with his tongue, while his other hand dipped lower, slipping beneath the waistband of her panties. An exultant cry escaped her as his fingers led the way and found a rhythm that left her shuddering. Needing. Pleading.
He penetrated her slowly, then moved deeper still. She hung on to him, rocked up against him, as he tilted her in a way that pleased them both. Seduced her. Encouraged her to take him even more tightly inside her.
Afterward, they clung together, still shuddering with pleasure. Bess rested her head on his shoulder, still trying to catch her breath.
Talk about amazing!
“I’ll never do laundry the same way again,” she whispered. Just the act of entering the door and stepping inside the utility room would bring back memories of this sizzling-hot encounter.
Jack let out a belly laugh every bit as sexy as he was. “Me neither...” He hooked her legs around his waist and slid her off the washer, so her lower body was pressed against him.
Once again, Bess found it difficult to resist him. Excitement roared through her. “What are you doing?”
Jack laughed again and playfully nuzzled her neck, before ravishing her lips. “Taking you to bed for round two...”
* * *
Hours later, Bess woke, her body still humming with satisfaction. The pillow beside her was empty except for a single piece of paper. She reached for the handwritten message as eagerly as she would have reached for him.
It said simply, Sleep tight... Jack.
Not exactly a love note.
But given the fact they were simply enjoying a temporary holiday fling...probably appropriate.
Shaking off a sudden burst of melancholy, she slid the note into the drawer in her bedside table for safekeeping. So he hadn’t signed it love, or even left any Xs and Os. So what? She couldn’t ask Jack to behave like a boyfriend, because they weren’t a regular couple. And they weren’t going to be, thanks to the very adult and pragmatic agreement they had made.
But—the corners of her lips curved up as she recalled just how thoroughly he had made love to her that evening—that didn’t mean she couldn’t milk the next few weeks for all they were worth.
Aware it was almost time to go to work anyway, Bess rose and hit the shower. Her phone rang just as she was getting out.
Despite her internal lecture about playing it cool, the name on the caller ID sent her heart into overdrive. She picked up. “Hey,” she said.
“Hey,” Jack said back, his voice sweet and tender. “I didn’t know if you had preset your alarm or not, but thought I’d call in case you hadn’t.”
So he had been thinking of her.
Just as she had been thinking of him.
“I’m up,” she told him softly, “but...thanks.” For calling. For caring, at least this much.
“Bess?”
“Hmm?”
“One more thing.”
“Yes?” she asked with bated breath.
His voice dropped another sexy notch. “Last night was spectacular.”
A shiver of pleasure sifting through her, Bess held the phone a little closer to her ear. “For me, too.”
Chapter Twelve
“You look happy,” Bridgett said at the conclusion of the surprise baby shower in her honor late that same day.
“And yet you’re the one who is on maternity leave, as of—” Bess glanced at her watch “—one hour ago.”
NICU colleagues had gathered in the staff break room both before and at the end of their shift to inundate Bess’s twin with gifts and wish her well on her maternity leave. Bess had left the rehab unit a little early, in order to join them.
Bridgett ran a hand over her swollen tummy. “Yeah, it’s going to be weird not coming to work with the preemies a couple of times a week for an entire year.”
Bess understood. Although they’d gone into different specialties, she and her sister both shared a love of nursing that went back to their time as teen volunteers. She sat down next to Bridgett on the sofa. “You know you can sub as needed, and Cullen and I will both help out with Robby and the twins when you do come in to the hospital. It’s all good, sis.”
Bridgett paused. “You really think I’m going to be able to handle all this?”
“I know so.” Bess hugged her very pregnant sister as best she could. She offered a reassuring smile. “How could you not with both the McCabe and the Monroe clans nearby, all standing ready to help you out?”
“True.” With a sigh, Bridgett levered herself up and off her chair. With all the guests gone, it was time to clean up. The cake, punch and assorted tea sandwiches were being left for the on-duty personnel, but the gifts had to be loaded onto a cart.
“But back to you.” Bridgett smiled. “Generally speaking, the closer we get to Christmas, the grouchier you are. This year, it seems the opposite.”
Bess put discarded wrapping paper into the trash. “I guess that’s what happens when you write two Christmas letters, one ridiculously happy and one ridiculously sad. You end up being forced to find middle ground.”
Bridgett put a breast pump onto the cart. “Except this isn’t middle ground. This is all-out happy.”
Because of Jack, Bess thought. And all the time she was spending with him and the girls. “It’s probably because I’m looking forward to my new puppy.”
<
br /> Bridgett scoffed. “Not even a new puppy could put a glow like that in your cheeks. Seriously. What is going on with you? Did you decide to give Tim another chance or something? I heard he was going on a date last night.”
“No. Tim’s date was with someone else. He and I are just friends.”
“Is it Jack?”
Bess tensed. She had a feeling her family would not approve of the bargain she had struck with the sexy surgeon. “What do you mean?” she asked as innocently as possible.
Bridgett stacked layette items. “Well, I can’t ever get ahold of you. Cullen and Chase and Matt and Dan can’t get ahold of Jack. It’s beginning to look to some of us, anyway, that the two things might be related.”
“Why would they all be calling Jack?” Unless they, too, wanted to pry.
Bridgett tidied up the buffet. “Well, they are all brothers.”
Which told her exactly nothing, Bess thought. She edged closer. “I’m serious, Bridgett.” Was something up? Had Jack’s brothers figured out she and Jack were now lovers, as well as friends? She was pretty sure he would not have told them anything about their fling. Like her, he liked to keep his private life very private. Then again, since the weekend in Dallas, Jack had been looking awfully cheerful, too. “Why are his brothers all suddenly trying to get ahold of Jack?”
Apparently realizing she’d inadvertently worried Bess, Bridgett sobered. “There’s a McCabe family get-together after the preschool holiday sing-along this week on Thursday evening, at Kelly and Dan’s house.”
Kelly was a teacher at the preschool and mother to four-year-old triplets. Resolutely single after a failed marriage, she had nevertheless fallen in love with and married Jack’s deputy sheriff brother, Dan, the year before.
“It won’t be long, it being a school night and all. We just want to provide pizza and ice cream for the kids. We all thought since you’ll probably be going to see your nieces and nephews, and Jack and the girls are definitely going to be there, you might want to come over afterward, too.”
A Tale of Two Christmas Letters Page 11
