His Texas Christmas Bride (Celebrations, Inc 9)

by Nancy Robards Thompson

  It was him. All tall six-foot-something of him. Slightly longish brown hair. The lab coat and green scrubs didn’t hide the mile-wide shoulders, but they covered up the tattoos on his biceps.

  God, those tattoos. One of them, a single word—Latin, she thought, but she wasn’t sure. The other was an ornate Celtic cross, which she found fascinating—especially now, because based on his last name, Ciotti, Nick Ciotti—his background might be Italian.

  She’d memorized those tattoos. Just as she’d memorized the feel of the long, lean muscled planes of that body. Despite her weakened state, recalling these details had her feeling the same brand of hot and bothered she’d felt that night, the night they’d first met.

  And now he was standing in front of her. As if she’d conjured him.

  Becca blinked. What was he doing here? When she’d tried to find him, the people in the human resources department had sworn there was not a doctor with the first name of Nick employed at Celebration Memorial.

  Maybe he was some dark angel who’d been sentenced to serve purgatory in emergency rooms... Okay, she wasn’t so out of it that she didn’t realize how delusional that sounded. Or that she probably had never looked worse. Maybe he wouldn’t recognize her.

  And that would be preferable?

  Maybe.

  “I’ve just come on duty after a shift change, and I wanted to look in on you before signing your release papers.”

  Had she conjured him? Or maybe she was hallucinating?

  “How are you feeling?” he asked as he keyed something into the tablet, still not looking up. “I understand you’re pregnant. Are you feeling strong enough to go home?”

  She didn’t quite know what to say. Especially since her entire body had gone numb at the sight of him.

  When he finally looked up, their gazes met. His upright professionalism gave way to recognition. Recognition morphed into something that resembled utter shock. But it took only a couple of beats for him to compose himself. Becca could see the virtual wall go up around him.

  “Hello,” he said. “It’s, uh—it’s nice to see you again.”

  His words were clipped and matter-of-fact. There was no trace of the sex god who had zapped her of all common sense and discretion that night.

  “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” She tried to keep her voice light. It wasn’t an easy task, lying there on a gurney in a hospital gown, with parched lips and a dry mouth. How many times had she imagined running into him at a park or in a restaurant—in her imagination he was always dining solo, of course, waiting for her and overjoyed by the reunion. But the one scenario she’d never imagined was running into him as a patient in the emergency room, looking as she felt right now.

  God, just kill me now.

  She instantly regretted the figurative words. Her hand automatically moved to her belly in a protective stance.

  She took a deep breath and reframed. This wasn’t the time for vanity. So what if her hair was a mess and her makeup had washed away hours ago? No matter what she looked like right now, she had important matters to discuss with him.

  “How long has it been?” he asked. His shock and surprise had settled into a professional half smile that put miles of space between them. The expression established that they were acquaintances. That he was the doctor and she was the patient, and doctors didn’t sleep with their patients.

  But until now, she hadn’t been his patient. He had only helped her out by answering questions about her nephew’s condition. Medical terms she hadn’t understood and he’d explained to her.

  “It’s been three months,” Becca offered. “Twelve weeks, almost exactly to the date.”

  Dr. Nick Ciotti glanced down again at the tablet in his hands. He scrolled with his fingertip. “Yes. So, it’s been...three months.”

  She could see him doing the math in his head.

  Nick turned to the nurse, whom Becca had just noticed, and Kate. “Would you give me a moment with Ms. Flannigan, please?”

  Ms. Flannigan? What?

  As if she didn’t feel unattractive enough, now he was making her feel like the mean woman who ran the orphanage in Annie. Wait, no, that was Miss Hannigan. Still, no one called her Ms. Flannigan. Especially not the hot guy who’d gotten her pregnant.

  The nurse cast him a look.

  “It will be fine, Sally. Becca and I are old friends. We need to catch up.”

  Old friends? She forced herself to not look at Kate. If she looked at Kate, she was sure Sally would be able to see everything in the glance they’d exchange.

  Nick met Becca’s eyes again. “I’m sure your friend won’t mind giving us a moment, will she?”

  Becca opened her mouth to answer. However, suddenly, she didn’t want Kate to leave.

  But she and Nick needed to talk. The thought of being alone with him knocked the wind out of her.

  “Becca?” Kate asked. “Is that okay?”

  What was she supposed to say? No? Don’t leave me?

  God, she was so unprepared for this. Then again, it seemed as if she’d been unprepared for everything these past three months.

  Just another day in her life. Only this one included the father of her child. The thought sent her free-falling.

  She nodded. “It’s fine.”

  Sally looked dubious, but she motioned for Kate to follow her. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Kate asked.

  “I’m fine,” Becca repeated.

  “We shouldn’t be long,” Nick said, his gaze trained on the tablet in his hands.

  Kate cast an uncertain glance at Nick, but she followed Sally out into the emergency room. Once they’d cleared the curtain, an awkward silence stretched between Nick and Becca.

  Nick lowered his voice. “It’s good to see you again.”

  “Quite a surprise,” she said. “I didn’t realize you’d taken the job.”

  “I didn’t at first,” he said. “But we finally came to a meeting of the minds. So, is there something we need to talk about?”

  * * *

  “Yes, we have quite a bit to talk about,” Becca said. As Nick watched her lips move, he tried to process what was happening.

  Becca Flannigan looked like the girl next door with her silky brown hair and piercing blue eyes with golden flecks and a navy circle around the iris. They were the kind of eyes that tempted a guy to stare a little too long. That’s what had happened the night he’d met her, when her sister had been screaming at her, telling her to leave the hospital, blaming Becca for her son’s accident, even though the kid had admitted he’d been drag racing. As he was on his way out after interviewing for the ER job, he’d witnessed Becca trying to ask a question about her nephew’s condition, and then he’d watched the boy’s mother tear into her. He probably shouldn’t have—he should’ve left well enough alone and gone back to his hotel—but as Becca had been walking away, he’d called her back and answered her question.

  She’d looked so fragile that night, some protective instinct had sprung to life. He’d wanted to help her, set her mind at ease.

  Even now she stirred that same visceral reaction that had previously attracted Nick. And when he’d walked into Bentleys across from the hospital to get some dinner before going back to his hotel and saw her sitting there, she’d been a ray of sunshine on his gray horizon of plans.

  And he realized Becca had been talking, but he hadn’t heard a single word she’d said—except for pregnant and yes, we absolutely need to talk.

  In the span of five minutes his entire world had upended. He couldn’t be a father. Well, yeah, he could be, but they’d used a condom. How had this happened?

  He raked a hand through his hair as unsavory words galloped through his mind. What if this wasn’t his baby? What proof did he have other than one night with her around the time of conceptio
n? How well did he know this woman? He didn’t, beyond the fact that he’d been mesmerized by her that lone night three months ago.

  He set his jaw to ensure his thoughts didn’t become words and escape into the ether.

  Instead, he said, “Would you like to tell me how this happened?”

  Becca frowned at him as if he was an idiot, and he realized how that must’ve sounded. Idiotic.

  “Never mind,” he amended. “I’m—”

  Something clattered on the other side of the curtains—a dropped supply tray, maybe, or something else metallic and noisy. Somewhere in the distance, a child cried, “I want my mommy.” He could hear one of the nurses in the adjacent area conversing with a patient as if she were standing next to him talking in his ear.

  Suddenly, everything seemed amplified. They couldn’t talk about this here. Nick trained his eyes on the patient chart tablet for a long moment, trying to gather his thoughts—looking for something, anything, that might right this rapidly sinking ship. Her emergency contact was her friend Kate, or at least he assumed it was Kate. Kate Thayer, the chart read, friend. No husband or boyfriend or significant other. Becca had named her parents as next of kin. Which completely eliminated the possibility that she’d gotten married since the last time—the only time—he’d seen her. But wait—he scrolled back up to the top of her chart to check. Yes, marital status was listed as single.

  He looked back at Becca.

  She was the last person he’d dreamed he’d run into today.

  He’d wanted to see her again. In fact, he’d thought about her often since that night. When he’d finally accepted the job, he’d planned on trying to look her up. How many Beccas could there be in Celebration, Texas? But he hadn’t had much spare time lately. Between wrapping up his job in San Antonio and moving to Celebration, he’d been slammed. He’d been in town only five days. His possessions were still in boxes stacked inside his apartment because he’d hit the ground running since moving.

  And here they were. Reunited.

  And she was three months pregnant. He didn’t need a calculator to do that math.

  “When did you get back into town?” she asked.

  Her question answered something that had been lurking in the back of his mind. Had she come here looking for him?

  Of course she hadn’t. It said right on her chart that food poisoning had brought her into the emergency room.

  Then another question elbowed its way into the forefront of his mind: When had she planned on telling him? Was it even part of her plan? If he hadn’t changed his mind and accepted the job, would he have even known about the pregnancy?

  “I’ve been here less than a week.”

  “I see.” He glimpsed a note of sadness in her eyes. Or maybe she was simply mirroring his own confusion back at him.

  She looked small and fragile lying there. Despite everything—the bombshell, the uncertainty—he still had the damnedest urge to gather her in his arms and protect her.

  Wasn’t that how they’d gotten into this situation in the first place?

  With that thought firmly in mind, he reminded himself that he was at work. In this moment he was her attending physician. Thoughts like that were off-limits. She was off-limits.

  “Sally will be here in a moment to check your vitals. When everything checks out, you can go home. You’ll want to follow up with your obstetrician, and, of course, if you start feeling ill, call your doctor. Or come back to the emergency room. If it’s an emergency.”

  She was quiet while he updated her chart.

  When he’d finished, essentially signing off as her doctor, he said, “When are you available?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “We need to talk.”

  She shrugged, then lowered her voice. “Listen, I’m not going to try to force you into anything you don’t want to do.”

  “Let’s not talk about this here.”

  Even though he hadn’t meant to offend her, and he wasn’t putting her off—he was on the clock, and they needed privacy—she looked offended.

  “When are you available?” he repeated.

  “I don’t know. I guess, whenever I feel stronger.”

  Really, there was no sense in delaying.

  “How about tomorrow?” he said.

  Chapter Two

  Thirty minutes later, Becca was in Kate’s car on her way home. It was cold outside on this mid-November evening and she felt the chill down to her bones. It amplified how weak and vulnerable she felt.

  Despite how she’d wanted to reconnect with Nick, how she’d tried to find him right after she’d found out that she was pregnant, she hadn’t been prepared for the reunion to happen this way.

  Even though he deserved to know the truth, she’d wanted the disclosure to be on her terms. The vulnerable side of her wished she was still safe in her cocoon, the only one who knew about the baby. No one to please. No one to convince that this child was wanted and dear and loved—even if he or she was a surprise. She had just come to terms with the situation herself. Now things had suddenly gotten complicated again.

  Becca stared out the passenger-side window into the inky sky. The trees were beginning to shed their leaves and stood stark and bare in the chill night.

  How symbolic, she thought. Exposed. Stripped down to the naked branches with nothing to hide what lay beneath. Somewhere from deep inside, a voice reminded her that some of these trees had lined Celebration’s Main Street for centuries. They’d endured winters and storms and climate changes to see another season.

  This was simply a new season of her life.

  Nick was coming over tomorrow to talk. While she understood that he needed time to digest the news—just as she had—he hadn’t seemed very happy about it. And she wasn’t sure she was ready to deal with that right now. But if not now, when?

  When they stopped at a red light, Becca felt Kate’s gaze on her. Kate was such a good friend. This was all fresh news to her—huge news that her best friend was pregnant and going it alone. Well, not exactly alone. Not anymore. So, it was actually a double bit of juiciness, and not once since they’d left the hospital had Kate pushed her to give up the goods.

  Becca knew she didn’t owe anyone an explanation, but Kate did deserve to know what was going on.

  “So, I’m pregnant,” Becca offered. “And Nick is the father.”

  Kate’s eyes were wide, but all she did was nod.

  “I probably should’ve told you sooner so that you didn’t find out like this, but I wasn’t ready to tell anyone. Still, I hope you know how much I appreciate all you’ve done today. You’re such a good friend, Kate.”

  “I’m glad I was here for you today,” she said. “For the record, you don’t have to tell anyone anything until you’re ready.”

  The two sat in silence and Becca let the solidarity wash over her.

  “But he is a good-looking guy,” Kate added. “I can see the temptation.”

  A hiccup of a laugh escaped Becca, and for a moment the tension lifted. “I know, right?”

  Kate’s curiosity was almost palpable.

  “Liam’s never mentioned Dr. Ciotti.”

  The statement was a question. Kate was testing the water to see how Becca would warm to telling her more. The light turned green, and Kate accelerated at a gentle pace.

  “He hasn’t even been at the hospital a week,” Becca said. “Since they’re in different departments, I’m not surprised he hasn’t mentioned him. They may not have met yet.”

  That was a long shot. The hospital wasn’t large. Most of the staff knew each other at least by sight.

  “How did you two meet?” Kate ventured. “You don’t have to answer that if you’re not ready to talk about it.”

  The cat was already out of the bag. She couldn’t bl
ame Kate for being curious. If the situation were reversed, she’d want to know. Then again, Kate was married to a fabulous man. It was a relationship made in heaven, though it hadn’t started out that way. Her husband, Liam, had been a widower when Kate had first met him. He came with adorable twin teenage girls and the expected amount of baggage that a man who had lost his first love much too young would bring to a new relationship. But Liam and Kate were soul mates. Despite fate’s cruel curveball, they’d been given a chance at happiness, and they’d taken it.

  Becca tried to keep her mind from wandering to the possibility that she and Nick might be soul mates.

  She really shouldn’t go there. For her own peace of mind.

  The best way to make sure she didn’t was to tell Kate the story of the night she met Nick.

  “No, it’s okay. I don’t mind. Remember the night that Victor got in the drag racing accident?”

  “Yes.”

  “That night at the hospital Rosanna was so mad at me.”

  Kate slanted her a glance. “Why was she mad at you? You weren’t driving.”

  “I wasn’t, but I was the one who taught Victor how to drive a standard transmission.”

  They came to a stop sign, and Kate shot her a glance that conveyed she clearly didn’t understand Rosanna’s anger.

  Really, who did understand her sister? It seemed as if she was angry most of the time.

  “She said if I hadn’t taught him, he wouldn’t have been tempted.” Becca shrugged. “That’s Rosanna logic for you. But I know she was just upset. Victor was banged up pretty badly. Anyhow, when the doctor came to give us the prognosis, I asked him to clarify something, and Rosanna tore into me. She told me I didn’t get to ask questions. She told me to leave.

  “I wanted to give her some space, so I walked away. I went over to the nurses’ station to get a cup of coffee. I just wanted to give her a chance to calm down. When I was pouring the coffee, this guy—this drop-dead-gorgeous guy—was standing there, and he told me he didn’t mean to butt in, but he couldn’t help but overhear the exchange with my sister. Everybody had heard her, I’m sure. He told me he was a doctor, and he explained what Victor’s doctor had said.”