Megan tilted her head. “How do you know we just got here?”
“I...may have been subconsciously watching for you.” If Sierra hadn’t pointed out the Rivers family, he would have spotted them soon enough. Several times throughout the night, while casually scanning the crowd, he’d felt a leap of anticipation when his gaze landed on a brunette. He could no longer pretend he hadn’t been watching specifically for Megan.
“You were?” Her voice was soft and breathy, completely unlike the tone she’d used when she chided him over his car alarm.
“Of course. I needed to find you and thank you for last night.”
“You already thanked me.”
“That diaper you helped me with—well, really more of a natural disaster than diaper—deserves a million thanks. So be warned, you still have hundreds of thousands coming.”
When Megan laughed, Iris craned her head, looking between her mother and Will. “What’s funny?”
He shook his head at the girl. “I was just being silly. Are you still excited about seeing Santa, Iris?”
While Iris nodded enthusiastically, Megan regarded him with surprise. “You can tell the girls apart? Most people can’t.”
“They may be identical, but there are telltale differences if you pay attention. For instance, Daisy is the most talkative.” Even as he made the observation, he realized Daisy hadn’t said a word since he walked up to them.
Megan glanced down, a frown creasing her forehead as if she was noticing the same thing. “Oh boy,” she said under her breath. “I learned early with this one that it’s never a good sign when she’s quiet.” She knelt to set Iris down, then turned to Daisy. “Is everything okay?”
“Uh-huh.” But her voice was weak, hardly convincing.
Megan cupped the little girl’s cheeks, peering at her face. “Oh my gosh, you’re burning up, baby.”
Daisy didn’t respond, as if she’d barely heard her mother’s announcement. Studying her more closely, Will saw that her expression looked glazed. “Is she okay?” It felt disturbingly wrong for the spirited, bossy preschooler to be so subdued.
Megan straightened. “She should be fine, but she’s definitely got a fever. I guess it was wishful thinking that nobody else would get sick after Iris’s stomach bug the other night.”
Hearing her name, Iris stopped whispering with Lily on the sidewalk and turned back toward her mother, just in time to hear Megan say, “I need to get her home right away.”
“No home!” Iris wailed. “Want to see Santa!” She threw herself onto the sidewalk while Lily watched, her own bottom lip trembling.
Last night, Megan had saved his ass. The least he could do was try to return the favor. He leaned close, close enough to register the warmth of her body and the faintly vanilla scent of her, and offered in a discreet whisper, “If you and Daisy need to leave, I could bring the other girls home after they see the Big Guy.”
Megan’s eyes rounded, and for a second she seemed too surprised to speak. “That is so kind of you. But I really can’t reward Iris’s behavior,” she said, wincing at her daughter’s escalating tantrum. “And Lily wouldn’t want to stay with you. No offense.”
“None taken.” He grinned. “I recently learned that some females are actually immune to my charm. Go figure.”
She returned his smile, but only for a moment before casting another worried glance at Daisy. “Anyway, if her sisters stayed without her, Daisy would be upset tomorrow about missing out. The timing’s unfortunate, but we’ll have other opportunities this month to meet Mr. Claus. And this way,” she added under her breath, “I have a chance to talk them into less extravagant gifts first.”
“Then can I help you get the girls to your van?”
There was no parking in the square itself, which meant she had to be at least a street or two away. She had picked up Daisy, who was looking paler by the moment, except for her flushed cheeks. There was no way Megan could also carry Iris, who was now in full meltdown.
“If you start walking,” he said, “Lily will follow, right?”
She nodded. “But Iris—”
“I’ve got it under control,” he said, hoping he was right. He was well-known in town, and the spectacle of carrying a screaming child through the crowd would raise questions. But he’d helped defuse one or two of Jace’s tantrums when they were kids, not to mention his more recent experience with Alyssa and Mandy. “I’ve got nieces.”
Looking skeptical, Megan took a few steps forward, shooting frequent glances over her shoulder at Will and Iris.
He dropped to his knees next to the unhappy little girl. “Did you bring Santa the picture you drew of him?”
Seeming surprised that Will had addressed her, Iris stilled for a moment, sniffling. “N-no.”
“Because I heard that he likes artwork to hang up at the North Pole. Maybe you can see him on another night and bring him a picture.” He lowered his voice to a confidential tone. “If he saw you right now, crying and arguing with your mommy, he might accidentally think you belong on the naughty list.”
Iris sucked in a breath.
While he had her attention, he followed up with, “What kind of animal is it that pulls Santa’s sleigh? Unicorns? Flying cows?” When Iris giggled, a rush of triumph went through him.
“Reindeer.”
“Maybe we can pretend that you’re Santa and I’m one of your reindeer, helping you fly to the parking lot. Want to ride on my shoulders?”
She nodded eagerly. Will stood, then lifted her into place while she cheered with delight. The five of them headed farther away from the square. As they walked, Will made Iris laugh by suggesting potential reindeer names.
“There’s already a Dasher, Dancer and Prancer. Who could I be? What about...Pizzapants?”
“That’s silly!”
“Well, I like silly. I can be Will-Silly the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Even Lily tittered at that, and Will smiled down at her. “Do you want a turn on my shoulders, too?”
Shaking her head adamantly, she scooted closer to her mom. Moments later, they reached Megan’s van while the church choir sang the “Hallelujah Chorus” in the distance.
“That’s how I feel about having them all buckled in,” Megan said once everyone was in the appropriate car seat and she’d slid the van door shut. “Hallelujah. Thank you.”
“Hey, what are neighbors for?” Neighborly. Yeah, that was how he felt toward her. He wasn’t staring at her grateful smile with an errant urge to trace his thumb over her bottom lip. And he certainly hadn’t stolen any admiring glances at how well her dark jeans fit while he was walking behind her.
She climbed into the van, and he turned back toward the square. By the time he rejoined his family, he’d missed the tree lighting.
Cole handed him the baby, his expression shrewd. “You took an awful long time to tell someone hi.”
“One of her girls is coming down with something, so I helped Megan get everyone back to the van.”
“Megan the florist from the wedding?” Gayle asked. “Sweet girl. And single. We were just discussing that at the flower shop this week.”
Cole laughed. “Uh-oh, Will. Mom has that gleam in her eye.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Will told his mother. “If you’re antsy to fix up one of your sons, go harass Jace about his love life. I’m not looking to get seriously involved with anyone, much less the mother of triplets.”
“Oh, I know,” Gayle said reasonably. “Then again, Kate and Cole weren’t looking for romantic involvement, either, and, two weeks from today, they’ll be newlyweds. Life is full of surprises.”
Will nodded toward Tommy. “I have all the surprise I can handle right now, thanks.”
“Understood. I’ll have to come up with some other young men who might be right for Megan.”
Imagining Megan smiling up at some guy at the end of a date the way she’d smiled at Will by her van, he scowled.
“Problem?” his mom asked cheerfully.
Other than a diabolical mother, not yet having child care lined up for Tommy tomorrow and a sudden inconvenient preoccupation with his shapely next-door neighbor? “Not at all.”
Chapter Seven
Normally, Will entered the station house through the apparatus bay where the emergency response vehicles were parked. But that hallway would’ve taken him directly past the captain’s office. So instead, he and Tommy used the public entrance in front, by the classrooms. He nearly collided with EMT Kim Jordan as she exited the workout room, her dark skin glistening with sweat and a bottle of water in her hand.
She regarded the car seat he carried with surprise. “I didn’t realize it was bring-your-baby-to-work day.” She bent forward for a closer look at Tommy. “Well, obviously not your baby. He’s too cute to be related to you.”
“Ha-ha.” He was accustomed to Kim’s lighthearted heckling. She was known for being calmly efficient at even the toughest accident sites and for keeping the guys’ egos in check around the station house. “I’m babysitting for a friend.”
“And you thought the fire station was a good place to babysit? Good luck convincing the captain of that. If you were going to get a mascot, maybe you should have gone with the more traditional dalmatian.”
“I know the baby can’t stay here.” Firefighters didn’t go out on dangerous calls every day, but the nature of their job was that they had to be prepared to drop everything and respond—especially during rare cold snaps when people who didn’t bother with regular chimney maintenance decided to use the fireplace. “Marie Davenport is coming to pick him up.” Marie was a retired 9-1-1 dispatcher and his friend Brody’s aunt. She’d known Will all his life and said she’d be happy to help, except that she couldn’t come to get Tommy until after her cardiologist appointment first thing this morning. She also wasn’t going to work as a long-term solution, since she was leaving on Wednesday for Louisiana, where her youngest daughter was due to give birth any day.
Given how much Kate had enjoyed snuggling the baby, Will had hoped his future sister-in-law might be able to help while he was on duty. But her day was packed with wedding plans and piano lessons, getting her students prepared for the holiday recital. Gayle had clearly said she was unavailable, and neither of the two women Will had canceled upcoming dates with seemed particularly motivated to do him a favor. This morning, he’d tried to make day-care arrangements, only to be told Tommy could be put on a waiting list, but there were no available openings.
Kim glanced up and down the hallway, her expression furtive. “Can I hold him?”
“Sure.” He lowered his voice to match hers. “But what’s with the guilty whispering?” He knew why he didn’t want to draw attention to himself—so that Captain Hooper didn’t put him on bathroom cleaning duty for the next six months.
Kim opened the door to one of the empty classrooms and motioned for him to follow. “Not guilty, just... I turned thirty-three last month and it’s embarrassing how loudly my biological clock has started to tick.”
He unbuckled Tommy from the car seat, holding him while Kim babbled cheerful greetings and played peekaboo with her hands over her eyes. When the baby smiled back at her, Will passed him over.
She continued to make comical faces for Tommy’s benefit, cooing in a higher-pitched voice, “You are just the sweetest, aren’t you? Yes, you are!” Without altering her tone, she said to Will, “Tell anyone about this, and I’ll kick your ass. Yes, I will!”
“Nobody will hear it from me,” he promised. Kim taught self-defense classes at the community rec center. It was possible she could kick his ass.
She sighed. “I hate to give him back, but I need to hit the shower.”
Apparently, Tommy shared her reluctance to part ways, because when she moved toward the door, he let out a squawk of protest. Will’s heart thudded. So much for keeping a low profile. “None of that, now, little man. We—”
“What in tarnation was that?” came the captain’s voice from the hall. “Did I just hear a baby?”
Kim shot a glance over her shoulder, silently mouthed Good luck and slipped away.
Seconds later, Captain Hooper poked his bald head into the doorway. “Trent? Explain yourself.” The man’s forehead furrowed, his eyes nearly disappearing under bushy silver eyebrows.
“Do you remember Amy Reynolds? That apartment fire last summer?” he prompted.
The captain grunted. “You cut a hole in the roof for vertical ventilation. The Reynolds girl baked chocolate chip brownies for the crew the next week. Sweet kid.”
“Right. This is her son. Amy had a personal emergency and asked me to watch him.”
“Now, see here, Trent—”
“He’s not staying. The babysitter will be here to pick him up any minute.” At least, he desperately hoped so.
“All right. But, Trent? This better be the one and only time you bring him into my station.”
* * *
TUESDAY EVENING FOUND Megan on her living room floor, untangling a string of Christmas lights and fighting the urge to swear as her daughters looked on with eager faces. They’d been begging her to put up a Christmas tree, but since Megan hadn’t had a chance to buy one yet, she’d hoped to appease them with some decorations from the garage. Massive fail so far. The outdoor lights were snarled in impossible coils, the inflatable lawn snowman had a leak in it and one of the resin caroler figurines she’d unpacked was somehow headless. Worst of all, the LED wall art that was supposed to spell out NOEL in shimmery lights had a short in it and just kept blinking NO when she plugged it in.
Nights like this are why people put rum in their eggnog.
When someone knocked at the front door, she harbored a moment of fleeting, irrational hope that it was a rum delivery service. It was probably Raquel Abernathy, who hadn’t been able to make it by the shop before closing to pick up a custom gift basket; Megan had told her she could come to the house as long as she didn’t ring the doorbell after the girls’ bedtime.
“Just a minute,” she called as she boosted herself into a standing position. She cast the lights a final withering glance, attempting to shame them into cooperation.
To her surprise, the person on the other side of the door wasn’t Mrs. Abernathy. Instead, Will Trent stood smiling down at her, Tommy nestled in the crook of his arm.
What a difference a few days could make. On Saturday, when she’d opened her door to Will, she’d felt only confusion and disdain. Now, heady warmth coursed through her and she found herself grinning for no apparent reason. The man was like a walking shot of rum.
She leaned against the door frame. “Hey, neighbor. Long time, no see.”
“Have I stayed away long enough for you to miss me yet?” His eyes flashed with humor. “Don’t answer that, I’m terrible with rejection.”
“Probably because you don’t have any practice with it.” Women told him yes all the time—and she was starting to understand why.
His laugh had an edge to it. “Shows what you know about my life. Haven’t you heard? I was rejected by my own bride-to-be the night before our wedding.”
Megan blinked, at a loss for words. Will Trent had been engaged? The most socially active bachelor in Cupid’s Bow had been willing to settle down? “I, uh... Come on in.” She waved him into the house, trying to regain her composure. Finally, she said, “Sorry about your fiancée. That must’ve been...” Shocking? Devastating? Soul-crushing? “Difficult.”
“She broke my heart.”
There were moments in Megan’s life when she felt as if her understanding of the world had just been knocked sideways—the day when an OB had told her that not only was she finally pre
gnant, she was carrying triplets, the day she’d learned that Spencer had cheated on her. This was less extreme but still a challenge to wrap her mind around. She’d always assumed that Will did the heart-breaking, not the other way around.
“It was for the best in the long run,” he said. “I fell for her when I was a kid and never got to have the normal dating experiences. We might have resented each other when we were older. But I didn’t come over here to whine about my past. How are the girls? Is Daisy feeling better?”
From behind the baby gate that separated the living room from the foyer, Daisy called, “Hi, Mr. Will! Come see our Christmas.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Are you guys celebrating early?”
“I’m trying to decorate, but I’m afraid I’m going to lose the sun before I get the lights up outside. And the girls are bummed we don’t have a tree yet. On the bright side, Daisy is back to her usual energetic self. Lily ran a low fever yesterday and didn’t have much of an appetite, but everyone seems fine now. Fingers crossed.”
“Good. So now for my other, more selfish reason for coming over. It has been pointed out to me that, no matter how cute Tommy would be in a miniature firefighter outfit, he can’t hang out at the station while I work.” He held up his free hand as if trying to ward off any argument before she made it. “I know you have a busy work schedule, too, but you’re usually home by early afternoon, right?”
“Well, yes. But—”
“Because Kate and her grandmother can help me out most mornings. It’s the afternoons that get trickier with Kate teaching piano lessons. And I thought, with Christmas right around the corner, you might be able to use the extra income from watching Tommy.”
He had her there. The problem with three children dictating letters to Santa was that there was no sane way to explain why a man gifted with magical elves and flying reindeer would be limited by something so mundane as a budget.
She bit her lip, weighing the extra cash against the extra work. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t have to answer yet.” He tried to look innocent. “Why don’t you think about it while I hang up these lights for you?”
The Christmas Triplets Page 6
