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Duke looked bemused. “I don’t think I should do that, Zach. I believe she came to see you.”
Zach nodded. “That’s true. So I’ll just head off now and do that looking around for you. I’ll call you if I find any of the plastic. In the meantime, grab some soup off the stove and try to warm up.”
Duke looked at him. “Hell, Zach, you wouldn’t have even known I was at the ranch if I hadn’t walked in. Just pretend like you don’t know I’m on the property and go on doing what you were doing.” Duke turned to leave. “You’re acting nuttier than a Christmas fruitcake, which, by the way, the ladies whipped up for us. Full of pecans and things. Be sure to stop by my office and have a bite, Jessie. The Gang can cook for certain, and this is the time of year when they really get their aprons on. Our neighboring-town baker, Valentine, has challenged them to a poppyseed cake bake-off, and that’s a holiday snack I look forward to.”
Zach slid out the door while his brother was completing his polite goodbye to her. Jessie looked at Zach’s retreating back, surprised. “He definitely doesn’t want you to get chilled,” she told Duke.
“He is one strange apple that fell off our family tree. If I didn’t know better, I’d think there was something in one of the barns he didn’t want me to see.”
“Oh,” Jessie said. “I thought strange was his normal behavior.”
“I can see why you’d think that.” Duke sighed. “Come on. I can’t leave you here alone, though my brother has no manners. You can sit in my nice warm truck while we search. Who would want to get married the first week in December, anyway?” he grumbled, holding Jessie’s elbow as she walked so she wouldn’t slip.
Jessie shook her head. “Liberty’s brave to handle gowns and wedding details. I’d be too worried to have brides as my clientele.”
They got in Duke’s truck. “Zach says you do makeup for conventions of women. That sounds just as challenging as brides. Women in search of beauty would terrify me.”
Jessie smiled. “Female dreams aren’t scary. Really, they’re not. Females want what males want.”
“I’ve only been married a couple of months and haven’t figured that out yet,” Duke said with a chuckle. “What the hell?” Stopping the truck, he shone the brights into the barn, which Zach had obviously reached at a breakneck speed.
Jessie squinted into the darkness. “Looks like a whole lot of plastic wrap covering something big.” She got out of the truck and followed Duke.
Zach was busily tucking the plastic onto a large roll, while diligently keeping his back to whatever object he was removing the plastic from.
“What the hell?” Duke asked. “You didn’t use Liberty’s wedding aisle-covering stuff, did you, Zach?”
“Quite by accident,” Zach said. “You two go on back to the house and get warm. I’ll be done in a jif and bring this plastic with me.”
“Yeah, but what the hell you used it for is what I want to know,” Duke said, approaching Zach. But Jessie already knew.
“My car!” she said. “You jerk, you never got it repaired.” Anger flooded her. “Which means it was never broken in the first place.”
“Well,” Zach said, and he would have said more, but Jessie turned away so she wouldn’t slap the excuse right out of his mouth before he could tell her any more lies.
She got into Duke’s truck without saying a word. Duke also got in, leaving the plastic wrap behind, and silently started the engine. Unable to stop herself, Jessie peeked at Zach. He stood forlornly in front of her car, which was still half-covered with wrap. Sleet began pelting the roof of the truck and bounced off the barn roof.
“Storm’s coming in,” Duke said gently. “I’m sure not making excuses for my brother, but you don’t want to drive that pretty car in this weather, anyway. It’s not good for a convertible.”
She was too mad—and too hurt—to speak.
Duke sighed. “I’ll drive you into Pansy’s. One of the old gals would just love to put you up for the night. Or longer. They’ll pamper you thoroughly.”
She nodded. He turned the truck around, leaving Zach.
“I’d like to say something good about my kid brother—”
“You should arrest that car thief, Sheriff.” The words came out a whole lot more bitter than she wanted them to sound.
“I never considered that,” Duke said. “You have a point. But you don’t really want him locked up, do you?”
She sighed. “He’d just get on your nerves while you tried to work.”
“Are you sure you don’t know my brother very well?”
Well enough to be having children with him. “Better than I’d like to, at this point.”
“When the weather clears and it’s safe for you to drive out from the ranch, I’ll make certain Zach gets your car to you, in complete working order.”
“Thank you.”
“I have to be honest, I’m a bit surprised by my brother’s behavior. Though I’m trying not to rush to judgment, I’d like to apologize on behalf of the Forrester family for my brother’s prank. I really am surprised by him.”
Duke would be more surprised if he knew he was going to be an uncle.
He pulled into a driveway. “But these three houses are friendly territory. Miss Pansy’s, Miss Helen’s and then Liberty’s house, which she’s also converted into a wedding shop. We still stay here when we need to be closer to town, though. When bad weather comes in, I like being near my office. I can walk from here.”
The houses were small and quaint, certainly not like anything Jessie had ever lived in. “Are you sure I won’t be putting anyone out?”
“The ladies will be delighted to have company. I promise.” He waved to them as they came out on their respective porches, and Jessie smiled, delighted to see the ladies again. Duke came around to her door just as Zach’s truck pulled up behind them in the driveway. He got out, slamming his door.
“I can take over from here, Duke,” Zach said.
“I don’t think so,” Duke said with a scowl. “You have a lot of explaining to do, and I don’t know that you’re operating honestly where this woman is concerned.”
“I’m trying to marry her,” Zach said.
“That might have nothing to do with honesty on your part,” Duke snapped, but Jessie’s eyes widened. Pansy clasped her hands together, and Helen’s mouth puckered.
“That’s no proposal,” Helen said, coming forward to shoo Jessie toward her house. “Pansy, be careful coming down those steps. Come on over and I’ll make us some tea. It’s so good to see you again, Jessie. We wondered when you’d return.”
“Yes,” Pansy said, giving her a hug. “When is the baby due?”
Duke stared at her, surreptitiously shooting a glance at her midsection, which was concealed by her red wool coat. “Baby?”
“How did you know?” Jessie asked Pansy.
“You glow, my dear. You simply glow. And you’ve put on a teensy bit of very flattering weight.”
Duke put his hands on his hips. “Is that why you stole her car?”
Helen gasped. “Stole her car?”
“Yes. It’s hidden in one of our barns.”
Pansy gave Zach’s arm a light slap. “Shame on you, Zach. Your parents would be so disappointed.”
Zach sighed. “You people are not helping.”
“I bet those rascals found the car and never told us,” Helen said to Pansy. “I’m going to give them what-for when I see them.”
Pansy nodded. “Jessie, we sent out a search team to check on your vehicle. But they failed us.” She gave a haughty sniff at Zach. “You can’t hijack a lady when you want to get to know her better, even if she’s having your child.”
“Children,” Zach said.
“Children?” Duke repeated, glowering at his brother.
“We’re having twins,” Jessie said.
Duke grinned. “Way to go, Bro! Nice shooting!”
The women groaned. “Come on, Pansy,” Helen said. “We’ve had enough excitement for the night, and Jessie needs her rest.”
Pansy wiped the delighted grin from her face so she could level a stern look at Zach. “And no climbing through windows or any other shenanigans to talk to Jessie. She’ll talk to you when we’re good and ready. You just go cool your heels, Zach.”
Jessie was fine with that. She was stunned to find that Zach had lied to her. “Thank you for the ride, Duke,” she said, allowing Pansy and Helen to lead her away.
“Hey! How about my marriage proposal?” Zach asked.
“We never heard one,” Helen called over her shoulder as they walked away. “We heard a stubborn man trying to get his way with little effort, though.”
“Thank you,” Jessie said as the door closed behind them. It was nice to be out of the cold, and even better to be inside the welcoming doors of Helen’s cozy house. “The only bright spot in this is that when Liberty finds out Zach used her precious wedding floor covering to protect my car, she’s going to be annoyed. I don’t know that it can be used now for the purposes for which it was intended.”
“It’ll be good for Zach to have a bunch of females peeved with him,” Pansy said, taking Jessie’s coat. “Hopefully, it’ll smarten him up.”
“That’s for certain.” Helen set the kettle on the stove. “He’s been quite spoiled since we have so few males in town. So few reasonably intelligent males.”
Pansy giggled. “So much for our spies. They’re either terrible at their job, or conspiring against us.”
Jessie looked at the women. “Why would your friends not tell you if they knew my car was perfectly fine?”
“To be on the boys’ side,” Helen said simply. “This town has always been about the battle of the sexes. And we girls always win.”
Pansy giggled as the three of them sat at the table together. A pretty lamp with a cut-out shade sent warm light around the kitchen. Jessie relaxed, feeling like she was home for the very first time in her life.
Chapter Eight
Zach cooled his heels for as long as he could stand it—approximately ten hours—and despite the bad weather, drove over to Helen’s. He just had to see Jessie. Okay, she’d shocked the hell out of him. He hadn’t reacted appropriately—heaven only knew he hadn’t done anything appropriately.
But there was a lot of history in his life that forced him to seek appropriate action where Jessie and his kids were concerned. He’d had a major Christmas present tossed at him, and he was determined to learn how to keep it.
Fortunately for him, he was a Forrester, and so far, the Forrester family was one-for-one on figuring out when to keep their hands on their pregnant significant other.
Pepper would be too smart to let herself get ahead of the romance, he thought sourly. Younger sisters shouldn’t be so calm, cool and collected about everything—only the men in the family seemed to have a hard time with relationships.
“It should be the other way around,” he muttered, thinking about last night’s impromptu proposal which had brought him no credit whatsoever with Jessie, Duke or the Gang, either, for that matter. As much as they adored hearing about proposals, they’d barely paid his any attention.
They hadn’t taken him seriously—which seemed to be a theme in his life. He stared at Helen’s house, wondering how to approach the puzzle his world had become. Should he try romance?
“Little late for that.” Jessie wouldn’t take him seriously on the romance issue. He had to be very careful with his pursuit because she possessed a natural-born wanderer’s foot. She could take off any time, in any method of transportation, and it might be months before he laid eyes on her again.
Perhaps help was required in this matter. He pulled out his phone and dialed Holt, investor and civic-minded counterpart to the Gang. Holt sided with the ladies, but he also sided with the men sometimes, and was guaranteed to give a rational and unbiased opinion.
“Holt,” he said when he heard a brisk hello on the other end of the line.
“Yes, Zach,” Holt said. “I already know why you’re calling. I heard your little lady is back in town wanting her car, and that you told her I was supposedly fixing it. I don’t like being in the middle if I don’t know what’s going on.”
Great. Life wasn’t good when the only hairdresser in town was in a tizzy with him. “Sorry about that. It seemed like a good excuse at the time.”
“It didn’t work, though, did it?”
“No,” Zach said, sighing.
“So now she’s returned, and she wants her car, and you want some visitation. That’s what I hear through the grapevine,” Holt said.
“Grapevine’s right,” 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.
