Harlequin Heartwarming December 2020 Box Set

by Cari Lynn Webb, Linda Warren, Mary Anne Wilson

  “Black’s fine,” he said as he cupped the mug in both hands.

  She motioned to the pancakes. “I need to be honest and tell you that I’m a terrible cook. But I can do two things quite well. I can brew coffee and make pancakes. At Christmas I make green pancakes. The red ones looked awful, so I stopped doing them.”

  He knew he should make polite small talk to prove he wasn’t some ogre, maybe even make a joke about red and green pancakes to lighten the tension between them, but he didn’t know what to say. Instead, he helped himself to a couple of the pancakes before he got up and headed to the pantry. He came back with an unopened jar of peanut butter and sat back down. After he removed the lid, he took his time spreading the chunky mixture on the pancakes.

  When Liberty reached over to tap his hand, it surprised him, and he dropped his knife in the process. He looked up to see her say, “I’m sorry.” He was getting fed up with himself. There she was cooking for him and apologizing to him because he obviously hadn’t responded to something she’d said. He didn’t deserve her apology.

  “No, I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m not very good at dealing with people sometimes.”

  She frowned. “You’re ‘dealing’ with me?”

  “No, I meant, I was rude last night, and you cooked breakfast for me this morning. You’re a saint.”

  She laughed at that. “I’m no saint.”

  It hit him how much he missed hearing laughter. “I beg to disagree. I know I’m not the easiest person in the world to deal with.”

  She was still smiling. “Now I’m dealing with you?”

  “Yes, you are, and I apologize for you having to do that.”

  She reached for the syrup bottle. “Apology accepted,” she said, then drowned her stack of pancakes in the liquid.

  It was that easy to appease her. “Thank you.”

  She put the bottle down. “I need to explain something about me to you. I know some people don’t like to be touched. I was a non-toucher before, but…” She hesitated for a fleeting moment, then finished with a shrug, “I’m a toucher now. Still, I’ll be careful about it while you’re here, unless it’s necessary.”

  She’d nailed him on that. He’d never been a toucher and actually wondered how a person went from disliking it to allowing it. “Okay.”

  “I have to say, the reason I touched you was, I started to say something to you, and I needed to get your attention first.”

  There it was, the elephant in the room, and she wasn’t afraid to put a spotlight on it. He tried to ease the glare. “Sorry, spreading peanut butter on pancakes is a sacred ritual to me.”

  “Okay, but I have to just throw this out there. No offense intended, which I always thought was stupid to say, because that usually means what’s going to be said will be offensive.”

  Jake braced himself for the worst. “Just say it.”

  Liberty exhaled. “Either your taste buds are dead, or you have serious problems with food.” She motioned to his plate and grimaced. “That’s the worst concoction I have ever seen.”

  He was relieved she was offended by his peanut butter and pancakes. That didn’t matter at all to him, and he smiled at her. “It would look a heck of a lot worse if you’d made these pancakes green or red,” he said.

  She laughed. “You’re right.”

  “How about putting peanut butter and cottage cheese on pancakes?”

  She looked disgusted. “That’s sick.”

  He didn’t blame her for being put off by the idea. “Ben had me taste pancakes after he’d filled them with cottage cheese and topped them with peanut butter.”

  Her eyes widened. “Oh, my gosh, did you throw up?”

  “I actually ate a bit after I smothered it all in syrup. I think Ben had it at one of his foster homes before he came here. He also put warm water on his cereal. Figure that out.”

  “I guess we all have our quirks and do weird things because of our pasts.” She offered him the syrup bottle. “This might help those.”

  He took it, but just set it down on the table between them. “So, do you have quirks? Are you weird?”

  “Pretty much,” she said after chewing and swallowing a bite of her food. “I don’t like palm trees, those big date palms. I don’t know why, but I would walk a mile out of my way just to avoid getting close to one. Crazy, but true.”

  “No, that’s understandable. It’s all those killer monkeys hiding in them,” he teased.

  She gave him an exaggerated eye roll. “Oh, Dr. Bishop has solved my weirdness. How much do I owe you?”

  He chuckled at that, and he felt a very foreign sense of normalcy in that moment. “I’ll send you a bill,” he promised, then got to work on the food.

  Last night he’d been tied up in knots by Liberty and worrying about what she’d think or do today. He’d been rude to her, too. Now they were eating and laughing together. He knew this wouldn’t last, but he’d take it for now. Besides, the pancakes were actually good, and before he knew it, his plate was empty.

  When he looked up, Liberty was watching him. She had half a pancake left, but she’d obviously finished eating. “So, how did I do?” she asked.

  “The best I’ve had in a long time. But I haven’t actually had pancakes in years.”

  “Very honest of you,” she said with a nod, and reached for her mug. “No polite pretending. I like that.”

  “I’m not good at that. So I try to do as little of it as possible,” he said, and reached for his mug to drain the last of the now tepid coffee. Over the rim, he saw Liberty’s eyes were fixed on him. “What?” he asked as he set his cup down by his plate.

  “Honesty is good,” she said, then caught him off guard. “So I need to explain something else to you. The truth is, I have a hard time giving up on things or letting them go if I’m curious or worried. I think that’s how I’m weird, but I’ll try not to let that happen too often.”

  “Okay,” he said as he stood up. He wondered if he should tell her he’d already figured that out about her, but he kept silent as he gathered his dishes along with hers. He took them into the kitchen and the sink in the island that overlooked the great room. He rinsed them and put them in the old dishwasher. It gave him time as he struggled with the feeling that he needed to explain just a bit more to Liberty so she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable around him because of his hearing. That was a foreign idea to him, trying to appease someone who worried about him.

  Liberty brushed past. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught her disappearing into the pantry and coming back out almost immediately. He concentrated on closing the dishwasher and inhaled that light sweetness of flowers right before he felt her touch on his shoulder. He couldn’t help tensing, but he made himself not jerk away. After all these years since he’d been in the foster care system, he still couldn’t bear touching unless he saw it coming and wanted it. A terrible by-product of a past he tried to ignore.

  Slowly, he turned to her as she drew her hand back. “Sorry,” she said as she took half a step back to put more space between them. “You aren’t leaving today, are you?”

  Jake was sensing the elephant getting bigger and the room shrinking. “Can we sit down for a minute?” he asked her.

  “Sure,” she said and didn’t hesitate following him over to the couch. He pushed away his rumpled blankets, then sat, and he wasn’t surprised when she came to sit beside him again. So much for distance.

  As Liberty clasped her hands in her lap, he spoke before she could. “I should have explained things a bit more to you last night.”

  “No, I was being pushy,” she said.

  He waved off that piece of truth with a vague motion of his hand. “I’ll say this simply. I was exposed to noises a few months ago that were way off the decibel safety scale. It hurt my ears.”

  “Like a heavy-metal rock star?” he saw her ask.

/>   “What?”

  “You know, you hear about heavy-metal rockers being nearly deaf by the time they’re forty because of the loud music they surround themselves with.”

  “No, well, maybe it’s the same type of thing. I just know that it hurt my ears and the healing is slow.”

  “That’s it?”

  He looked away and out the glass door to the right of the hearth. Grayness was permeating everything outside as heavy clouds gathered above. He’d given her a simple explanation and hoped it would satisfy her curiosity. “That’s all there is,” he said, dancing on a thin ledge around the truth. He wasn’t about to tell her about the explosion that had nothing to do with being a Rockstar. “The vertigo happened at first, but I’ve been fine until last night.” He looked back at her.

  “Seth doesn’t know about this, does he?” he saw her ask.

  She really was way too smart. “No, and I don’t want Ben or Sarge to know, either. They have a lot on them, and the last thing they need is more of a burden.”

  “I won’t say anything,” she said without hesitation.

  That had been easier than he’d expected. She didn’t attack with more questions, so he shifted to look more directly at her as he rested his arm along the back of the couch. “I appreciate that.”

  She shrugged. “It’s your call,” she said. “Whatever you want.”

  None of this was what he wanted, and he was done sharing more with a relative stranger than anyone else he knew, besides Cal. “Okay.” He held her eyes with his. “That’s it.”

  Then the hesitation came before she finally nodded. He saw the look of sympathy in her eyes, maybe concern, and he hated that he’d shared anything with her at all. His sharing days were over. She pitied him and he didn’t want that from anyone, especially Liberty Connor.

  * * *

  LATER THAT MORNING, Libby explored the west wing while Jake headed out to start the furnace. He’d made it very clear that he didn’t want her tagging along, despite her wanting to see how the furnace worked. He’d insisted she stay inside to keep warm and do her work. The idea of fighting him on it came and went. She had a feeling he just plain wanted to be alone, so she’d backed off and decided to check out the rooms Seth wanted to be used for Sarge’s suite when he returned.

  The spaces she entered were all icy cold and had obviously been closed up for some time. When the wind started rattling the windows, she went back to the great room. Libby stood in front of the fire and held her hands out to its warmth, thinking back on the morning. She wasn’t at all good about keeping Jake’s hearing problem from Seth, but she’d do it. That’s what Jake wanted. He’d said loud noises caused it. Maybe from the jets he flew or something like that. She wouldn’t ask him for specifics. She’d found out the hard way that the man wouldn’t be pushed for answers. He just gave them when he felt like it, and she figured that explaining anything was a rare occurrence for him.

  She heard the front door open and close with a slam. Turning to look toward the entry, she waited, heard boots drop on the floor, then Jake was in the archway. His jacket was off, but he was still wearing the red beanie she’d lent him with his gray thermal shirt and jeans. “It’s done,” he said. “Now I’ll go and set the thermostat to get the house warmed up.” He tugged the beanie off and flipped it over onto the couch. “Thanks for the loan.” Then he was gone.

  She rubbed her hands together but stopped and looked down at her left hand. Her ring finger was bare. Frantically she looked around at the floor and the hearth, trying to remember the last time she’d noticed the ring on her finger. “Jake!” she yelled instinctively, then caught herself and ran after him. She found him in the east wing adjusting a small box on the wall in the hallway.

  She touched his shoulder, and he jerked around. “Hold on. I’m trying to—”

  She cut him off as she held up her left hand, which was shaking. “My…my ring,” she said, “It’s gone. I lost it. I must’ve dropped it or something.”

  She didn’t expect him to take her by her shoulders the way he did, nor did she expect the softness in his voice when he spoke. “Hey, calm down. It’s okay. It has to be here. Try to think about where you remember seeing it last.”

  “I don’t know.” She closed her eyes tightly. “I think it was on my finger after getting the things out of the Jeep and maybe when I went up to bed.” She opened her eyes to find Jake was watching her intently while still holding her shoulders. “I don’t know, maybe I didn’t have it then, but I think I did.”

  “You had it upstairs. I saw it when you touched the window in the master bedroom last night.” He let go of her. “Retrace your steps and go everywhere you did since going upstairs last night. I’ll check around down here.”

  “Okay,” she said, and ducked past him to hurry out of the hallway and up the stairs to the bedroom.

  She couldn’t believe she’d lost it like that. She should have never worn it after the fiasco when it had flown off her finger, almost hitting Jake. Now it was gone. How could she explain that to Roger, no, worse yet, to Roger’s mother. A family heirloom, and she hadn’t even felt it leave her finger the way she had last night. Frantically, she tore the bed apart, looked under it, then headed into the bathroom. Nothing. She went back downstairs a lot more slowly than she’d gone up. When she stepped down into the great room, Jake was coming toward her.

  “You didn’t find it?” Jake asked when they met in the middle of the room.

  She shook her head.

  “Where else were you?”

  She took a breath. “The west wing, I was looking around in there. I redid the fire here, and I was in the kitchen and the pantry making breakfast earlier.” She shivered. “I don’t know what else to do.”

  “You did the fire?”

  “Oh, yes, but I…” She remembered something. “I had to straighten it on my finger after I put the poker back.”

  “Great, that narrows it down a lot.”

  “I’ll recheck the pantry,” she said. “Could you look around in the kitchen?”

  Minutes later, they were face-to-face by the kitchen island. She shook her head as Jake kept insisting, “It has to be here.”

  Do not cry, Libby told herself over and over again.

  “It’s insured, isn’t it?”

  That was a logical question, but it made her even more upset. “Yes, but that’s not it. It’s tradition, family and history. I can’t call Roger and tell him I lost it. He was so proud to give it to me. This is horrible.” It was beyond that, but she stopped talking before she really did embarrass herself. If she couldn’t find it, her chance of ever being good enough in the eyes of the Montgomery family was in jeopardy. He came closer. “Sorry, that was a stupid question.”

  No, he was being rational. “I just need to think and remember. How could it have come off without me feeling it.”

  “It was loose,” he pointed out.

  “I know, but I’d see it if it flew off again.”

  Jake glanced past her, then said, “Wait a minute.” He moved around her to go to the counter by the stove. She was right with him and watched him pick up one of the oven mitts laying there and push his hand into it. He tugged it off and turned toward her with the ring lying on his open palm.

  “Jake, oh…” she gasped, grabbing it, but shook as she put it back on her finger and looked up at him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said, and before she knew it, she was hugging him tightly.

  She felt her heart settle as she inhaled the scent of soap and felt body heat around her. The rumble of his voice was against her cheek when he said, “You’re very welcome.” Then she realized he was standing motionless. He wasn’t hugging her back.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  LIBBY LET JAKE go and moved away. “I’m so sorry for that. I really am. No touching, I know that, but I’m so grateful to you. I never would have looked i
n the mitt.”

  She couldn’t tell if he was mad or not, but he didn’t acknowledge her apology. “It was caught on the lining. You need to put it away.”

  “I know. I’m always afraid that I’ll hurt it some way.”

  “Or hit someone with it,” he said with the shadow of a smile.

  “Sorry.” She clasped her hands together, so the ring was hidden. “I hate to think what would happen if I’d lost it. It was Roger’s great-grandmother’s on his father’s side. I should have had it resized right away.” It hit her that she’d never been comfortable wearing it. “I mean, I didn’t wear it to work or anything.” She shrugged. “I’m so thankful you found it.”

  Jake waved that away. “Roger’s wealthy, I take it?”

  “He’s the only heir to the Montgomery-Thomas money, not that Roger wants it. I mean, he only wants it to help others. He heads his family foundation that gets safe water to as many people as possible in third-world countries.”

  “Impressive.”

  She wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or not. “He’s really good at what he does for the foundation.”

  “Paperwork and fundraising in a tuxedo?”

  It wasn’t sarcasm, but she felt as if Jake was being judgmental about what Roger did. That bothered her. He’d never even met Roger. “Some,” she said. “But he’s also there with the workers on every site for the setup and the testing. He’s been on three continents in the past two years.”

  He seemed to let the subject go and changed direction completely. “I need to find out where Sarge is. Last I heard, he was in Casper, but was going to be transferred to Cody for rehab soon, which is pretty close to here.”

  “I’d tell you to call Seth and find out, but my cell is totally without service out here. Is there a landline?”

  “There used to be,” he said, and headed across the great room past a pool table protected by a dust sheet. He opened a door on the far wall, and Libby followed him into a space lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on two walls and filing cabinets stacked to the left of the door she’d just stepped through. A large window at the back gave a northern view from a massive wooden desk that held an old-fashioned rotary phone.