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The ladies went quiet. In front of the fireplace sat Jessie. At her feet were small gifts of welcome, ranging from knitted baby booties to decorated cloth baby diapers. There was even a stack of recipe cards.
Pansy came over to give him a hug. “We’re having a very tiny, most last-minute welcoming party. Holt’s been by as well.”
“I heard,” Zach said, not feeling too happy that he was left out of the fun.
“Well, it’s a wonderful day for hot tea and cookies,” Pansy said. “And who knows when we might get another chance to introduce Jessie to some of the girls? Thankfully your brother didn’t mind rounding everybody up in his truck and bringing them over. It couldn’t have been more fun if it was a sleighing party! Duke even wore a Santa hat.”
Jessie watched him, her eyes wide and somewhat worried. Since some of the “girls” were between sixty and eighty years of age, Zach realized his audience was one of romantic souls.
He decided to play to that audience. “Hi, Jessie.”
“Hi.” She barely glanced at him.
Whew. Frosty as the cold air outside. “Hope you’ll forgive me about the car,” he said. “I got carried away.”
A murmur went around the room.
“You certainly did,” Jessie said.
“Though I kept your car in excellent shape,” he said.
“Yes,” Liberty said. “You owe me for plastic—”
“I certainly do,” Zach said quickly, before the subject could move from his intentions to his sins. “Jessie, I know I asked you to marry me too quickly—”
The murmur went around the room again, this time with more excitement. Jessie watched him, her gaze suspicious.
“But I want you to know I’m willing to wait,” Zach continued, “a long time, if I have to, to get your ‘yes.’”
The ladies turned to look at Jessie, whose cheeks had gone strawberry-pink.
“Thank you,” Jessie replied, “but my answer must remain no. You lied to me, Zach Forrester, and I’d never be able to trust you. Plus, it was a silly scheme, if you ask me. I should send you a bill for all the travel inconvenience you’ve caused me.”
This wasn’t going to be easy. “I’d pay that bill and any other,” Zach said. “You could have come to get your car anytime. Why didn’t you?”
The audience turned to look at her again. Jessie shifted on her chair. “I didn’t want to see you again.”
The room went so silent a teacup could have cracked and no one would have noticed.
“By the time Thanksgiving passed, I realized I was expecting,” she said, lifting her chin. “I decided this was something I needed to do myself. Of course, at the time, I thought something was terribly wrong with my car and you were honestly trying to get it repaired. I had no idea you’d simply hijacked it.”
The ladies leveled frowns on him.
Miss Helen stood. “Well, I must say, perhaps this isn’t the time or place for this discussion,” she said gently. “But all the same, Jessie, I must speak on behalf of Zach.”
Zach blinked. Was one of the town’s most sturdy pillars going to put in a good word for him?
“Zach has ever been the more impulsive Forrester,” Helen said, with Pansy nodding in agreement. “And yet, he has a heart of gold so that one must love him in spite of his foibles.”
Jessie looked surprised to hear that, as was Zach himself. Go on. Now we’re getting somewhere, he thought gratefully. He wanted to be loved in spite of whatever that thing was she said he had.
“His brother spent a great deal of time trying to derail our best plans,” Helen said, “but Liberty’s tamed him now so there’s very little chance of that.”
The ladies laughed. Jessie shifted again, not meeting Zach’s eyes.
“Pepper is her own woman. Very independent, much more so than her brothers.”
“Hey,” Zach said, “can Duke and I vote on that?”
“It’s true and you know it,” Pansy said. “If you’d but admit it. She went off and got a medical degree. She is trying to grow the town with the clinic she wants to start.”
“Well,” Helen said, “Duke’s idea of growing the town is to just hope and pray the sky rains interested newcomers who want to settle a fair piece from city life.”
“He’s becoming more broad-minded,” Liberty said.
“Only because you have a shop in the city as well as here,” Helen said. “He’s learned to admit that there must be something that draws people to a place. We had no railroad and we’re no port city. Big industrial farms have changed the livelihoods for many of us. We missed some opportunities to show that our light could shine brightly,” Helen said. “But along comes Zach, and he disagrees with his brother, and has a big idea.”
Zach nodded, liking the way Helen was making him look smart and important, all very necessary to be the man he thought Jessie might want. She began packing the welcome gifts into a sack, looking at him askance.
“I’m starting to see a theme here.”
“What?” Zach asked.
“Good ideas, wrong follow-through,” she said.
“Possibly,” he said, “though I really believe my ideas are just bigger in scope than other people are willing to comprehend at the moment.”
She pursed her lips at him, a gesture he very much appreciated. Made him want to kiss those red cherry-puckers again—this time for hours. No more quickies for him! Next time he got his hands on Jessie—
“It’s better than Duke’s idea,” Helen told Jessie. “He just wants us to grow the town organically. Like every person here of child-bearing age could either adopt or become pregnant with the amount of children we’d need to grow this town. I’m so sick of the word organic I could scream.”
“What would you do differently?” Jessie asked, and Zach was amazed that she was so interested.
“We suggested matchmaking balls and dances and all kinds of things, but Duke was being selfish and didn’t want other men around Liberty,” Pansy said.
Liberty laughed. “I brought my business here, and that definitely brings customers to the saloon. Then we try to keep people by showing them the beautiful countryside and down-home warmth we offer.”
Jessie looked at Zach. “Twins will definitely help, but it’s no population explosion.”
Was she suggesting more children? “No, it’s not,” Zach said, his mind working rapidly. “I’m willing to work on a population explosion with you.”
The ladies giggled, but Jessie sent a frown his way. “You have all been very kind to me,” she said, and the ladies smiled. “I’m sure you appreciate why I will probably not live here full-time with my children—”
“What?” Zach exclaimed, and the ladies began a nervous rustling. That pronouncement had to be worse than anything Duke had ever heard from Liberty! Maybe Holt was right. Although legalities were certainly something to be avoided…He’d much rather romance Jessie into seeing matters his way.
Jessie ignored his excitement. “Maybe my family’s company could have the next convention here.”
The ladies looked at her, their faces wreathed in hopeful delight.
“No,” Zach said. “I don’t like makeup and cosmetics and face creams. Natural is the only way to go. But thank you for trying to help.” He sat down heavily. “Our problem isn’t women, we have plenty of those. There are few eligible bachelors, so the women have to look outside the town. Eventually, they move.” He looked at Jessie. “Bet you thought I’d say yes just to keep you here.”
She raised her chin. “I do not plan the conventions. I oversee them and give lectures.”
“You’re being hasty, Zach,” Helen said. “Remember, we’re all about commerce here, and commerce is commerce, even if it comes out of a bottle.”
Zach blinked. It would never work. “This town is about women,” he said slowly. “We need to showcase our women.”
Pansy and Helen smiled, and the other ladies looked at him with appreciation.
“We have more to offer here than anywhere.” He looked at Jessie. “You could do it. You could fix them up and make them beautiful, and we could be the most beautiful town in Texas, women-wise.”
“They are beautiful,” Jessie said. “Every woman here is unique and I’ve enjoyed meeting them.”
“But most men, unlike myself, like the package. They like the bows on the package, too, the red lips and the fancy hair.”
Jessie shook her head. “Zach, you don’t understand.”
“Tell me.”
She got up. “I’m awfully tired all of a sudden, ladies. Thank you so much for your lovely gifts.”
Somehow, he’d lost her attention. “I’ll help you carry them to Helen’s. The sidewalk is probably getting more slick, and I don’t want you to fall. Now for the rest of you,” he said, “is Duke coming back, or can I play taxi for you ladies?”
“You just take care of Jessie,” Pansy said. “I’ll call Duke to finish his driving duties. That means I get to watch the baby.” Grinning, she went to the phone.
“Good night,” Jessie said, hugging everyone in the room as she left. “Thank you so much for everything.” Beside her, Zach carried out the gifts that had so warmed her heart. He’d completely surprised her by showing up, and then by basically offering himself in front of the ladies. She’d learned a lot about him that she hadn’t known, too.
But they were too different, they had different goals, and he’d lied to her. That reminded her very much of her ex, and she’d made a vow to herself that, if a man lied to her once, there were no second chances. She couldn’t afford to make that mistake again.
She’d trusted Zach, and learned that he, too, told convenient fibs. She couldn’t cut him any slack just because he’d lied to keep her in Tulips. “I’ve proven that I’d stay here willingly if I could,” she said as they went through Helen’s front door.
“Sensible of you,” he said. “We’re good people here.”
She set her things down and took off her coat. “The jury is still out on you.”
“Are you mad?”
She gave him a quizzical look. “What would you be, if our circumstances were reversed?”
“Hey, you hit my prize longhorn, and I didn’t hold a grudge.”
“Because the longhorn was still standing,” Jessie said. “And we had sex.”
He frowned. “We didn’t have sex. We created children.”
“I don’t think you can be particularly sentimental about sex in the backseat of a car.”
His frown grew deeper. “I damn sure can. I am very sentimental about that car! I’ve had it in storage for more than twelve weeks, a monument to the best sex I ever had!”
She blinked. “Really?”
“Well, hell yeah,” Zach said. “Why? Didn’t you think so?”
She tied her long hair up into a ponytail and pulled off her shoes. “I never did that in a car before, so I have no frame of reference.”
“But you’d do it again? Wouldn’t you?”
She glanced up at him. “With you?”
“You’re sure as hell not ever making love to anyone else, Jessica T. Farnsworth,” he said, “so don’t waste your time considering your options.”
She straightened. “That did not sound like a marriage proposal. It sounded like an order.”
He nodded. “You didn’t accept the proposal, so I have to declare limitations some other way.”
“It’s not going to work.” Jessie moved into the kitchen, looking for Helen’s teapot. “Marriage would make both of us crazy.”
“We’d get to know each other better,” Zach said, “and that’s my whole goal.”
“That’s it?” She took down two teacups from the cabinet. “Shouldn’t Miss Helen be here by now? You should check on her. It’s very dangerous to be walking on the wet cement.”
“See,” he said, “you’re starting to care about us. You’re starting to take on Tulips’ ways.”
She shrugged. “I do care about Miss Helen and Miss Pansy. And some of the other ladies I’ve met.”
He cleared his throat.
“Liberty, for example,” she said. “And I’m pretty sure I’d like Pepper if I got to know her better.”
He helped her put out cookies. “So, about this get to know us better thing,” he said. “It probably works just as well for me as my sister.”
“Maybe,” she said, “but your sister isn’t trying to tie me down.”
Stubborn. But she had a point. “What if I didn’t try to tie you down? What if I merely tied myself to you?”
She looked at him suspiciously. “I know you didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
“I don’t have Duke’s handcuffs, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He sat in the chair she pointed to. “How about if I move into wherever it is that you live?”
She shook her head at him. “Your ranch is here. You would not enjoy my lifestyle. It’s all travel, and you’re a homebody.”
He sensed an angle and perhaps an advantage. “So you can’t take twins on the road with you.”
“I can.”
“Well, at first, maybe. But later on, they’ll need stability. They can’t get any better stability than here in Tulips.” He took a slow sip of the hot tea, thinking how much he liked sitting here with Jessie, just the two of them talking about their future and their goals.
He’d get her to see his way eventually.
