A Baby In His Stocking (Harlequin Treasury 1990's) Page 4

  Jared took off his jacket, put it over her shoulders and pulled it close around her. “We should talk inside.”

  “I think I prefer it out here,” Shea said with a small, wry smile. “Mack would eavesdrop. If I can’t convince you to stay, I don’t want him telling me what I should have said to you that might have worked.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re cold.” Even as Jared said it, he realized he didn’t seem to feel it. Never had. Maybe he, like his father, was really made of ice. “Mack should be the one out here.”

  “I’m all right.” Clutching his jacket, wrapped in what had been the heat from his body, Shea shook her head. “Dad thinks I should handle this Grinch thing—and you.”

  “Gee, I wonder why,” Jared said wryly, a trace of a smile on his lips.

  She didn’t smile back. “Probably because he thinks we belong together—but I guess we proved him wrong, didn’t we?”

  “Yeah, we sure did.”

  So much for lightening the mood, Jared thought. Unless he missed his guess, Shea was on the verge of tears. He’d already made her cry too many times. He wanted to go, but somehow he just couldn’t say no to her again and walk away. Not when she wanted the help so much.

  “Congratulations on the promotion,” he said. “You always did enjoy the store and everything about it.”

  “I think loving and being committed to Denton’s is a requirement before you can bear the family name,” she said.

  “I’m surprised you ever agreed to leave Quiet Brook to come with me.”

  “I loved you more than the store and the town,” she admitted softly. “More than anything.”

  “And I messed that up, didn’t I?” His jaw moved as he surveyed her deep green eyes and high cheekbones and found her usually expressive face unreadable. “Give me a reason to stay, Shea,” he urged, his voice low. “One that I can understand.”

  He was trying, Shea realized, only she’d run out of reasons for him to stay. The one she wanted—for him to stay for her—wouldn’t work.

  “How about this?” she asked slowly, brainstorming. “If you stay and find the Grinch, you’d be saving Christmas for the needy in a small town in the heartland. A story like that hits the tabloids, and you’d be famous and get loads of publicity for your agency. What do you think?”

  “I think that sounds pretty close to being exploitative,” Jared said. “And cynical. You wouldn’t want me to take unfair advantage of the public’s gullibility, would you?”

  “Yes?”

  He shook his head, pretending sadness. “Being married to me has warped your precious small-town values a little. But I’m still unconvinced. Want to give up now so I can go?”

  “Okay, Jared,” she said, too calmly for his peace of mind, “I wasn’t going to do this, but you’ve driven me to it. I’ll beg. I’ll even throw something in it for you. If I agree to be very, very, nice—” she blinked the thick black lashes of her eyes and closed the distance between them “—will you please stay and help me make Christmas special for the needy kids in Quiet Brook?”

  The closer she got, the more Jared wanted to stay, and not just because he wanted her. It was everything about her that enticed him, including the fact that she cared enough about him to want to give him the family life he’d never had. She was the one woman who might have filled the hole in his life, he realized, but he couldn’t let her—for her own sake.

  He didn’t want to hurt her any further, so he backed away ever so slightly. “I can’t help you, Shea.”

  Her face fell. “Why did I possibly imagine mentioning little boys and girls in the store with no Santa in sight would faze you?” she asked, her voice sadder than he’d ever heard it.

  Her mention of small kids brought the image of that little sandy-haired girl in Denton’s back into his mind. Jared couldn’t move, thinking about how that child had been so damned worried about Shea—and so certain of herself. It was almost as if he’d been visited by... No, he wasn’t going to be sidetracked by the magic-of-Christmas bit. Stupid, fanciful thoughts would get him nowhere.

  She’d struck some chord inside him. Shea knew it, could see the second his eyes changed. Taking a deep breath, she forged on. “There’s something else.”

  He waited. The crisp air seemed to crackle with electricity between them. She crossed her fingers, both for luck and because of the little lie she was about to tell.

  “Mack’s condition is worse than I led you to believe.” Maybe it wasn’t such a lie. Her father’s condition would definitely take a turn for the worse if Mack ever heard about what she’d just said to his best friend.

  Jared hadn’t been expecting that, and the news took his breath away. “If this is a trick, I’m not sure what I’m going to do to you,” he warned. “But I guarantee that it won’t be anything with Christmas spirit in it.”

  “I wouldn’t tempt Fate lying about something like this,” she said, crossing her fingers again under the cover of his jacket.

  “You should have told me earlier.” But Jared couldn’t sustain his irritation, not when he was overridden with worry for his friend and the thought that if something happened to Mack, he would really be irretrievably alone—and so would Shea.

  His throat went dry. Mack was the one person who had never wanted anything from him, no matter what, seemingly from the second they’d met. And Mack’s loyalty was limitless. Even when Shea had left him, Mack had refused to take sides. He’d do anything for Mack—and Shea knew it.

  Yeah, Shea knew it. He gave her a suspicious look. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth about your father’s health before?”

  “I didn’t want you to stick around before. Then Mack did his blackmailing bit, and now I need you here.”

  Jared wasn’t at all worried about Mack doing anything to Shea that she didn’t probably deserve, but he had to ask. “What did Mack threaten you with?”

  She looked like she might not answer. As she hesitated, she moved her arms, and his jacket almost slipped off her shoulders. Without thinking, Jared stepped forward and drew it around her again. He could hear her breathing stop and then he backed away, cursing himself for losing his control. He shouldn’t touch her. He really shouldn’t touch her.

  “Mack basically told me if I wasn’t nice to you while you were here, he’d lay me off work until you left.”

  In the front porch light, Shea could see a slow grin cross Jared’s face, lighting up his eyes. A true smile of honest amusement. Caught by surprise, almost mesmerized, she finally released her breath, which she seemed to have been holding forever. Then the meaning of his smile penetrated.

  “Wait a minute. You think Mack’s blackmailing me is funny?”

  “Hell, yes. Ironic.” His chuckle resonated from deep within. “Shea Burroughs actually needed to be threatened to show Christmas spirit? You were always so full of Christmas spirit, I used to think you could convince Scrooge to change into Santa Claus.”

  “You did?” she asked, tilting her head upward to look into his eyes, her face deadly serious. “Then why couldn’t I so much as get you to like the Christmas holiday, let alone anything else?”

  His laughter faded away, and he shook his head. “Because Scrooge once believed in Christmas, Shea. I never had a chance to. I can’t start caring about something I never really knew. You didn’t have a chance.”

  “So give yourself a chance now to get to know what I love in my life here, Jared. Please, just one chance? Stay?”

  Jared’s eyes drank in her long braid, which rested over the top of his leather jacket, the small Santa earrings fastened to her earlobes, and the delicate arch of her lips that were tinted Christmas Berry Red, a color she wore all year long. She was Ms. Apple Pie and a pinup girl rolled into one, and it wasn’t taking much imagination to remember how she felt in his arms. He found himself badly wanting to kiss her. Just one last kiss to imprint upon his brain how good her mouth felt against his, how soft her hair was, and even how warm her sighs were as they touched each other.
>
  Just one kiss...

  “Jared.” His name sounded breathy on her lips, just as it did each time they’d made love. “Please stay.”

  Hell. Maybe he couldn’t feel the cold because his brain had frozen over, but there had been such hope in her voice, in her eyes... “Okay.”

  Those same evergreens lit up like Christmas trees. They flooded him with warmth, which made him want to jump in the lake up the road and become numb once more. Because as soon as anything started up with Shea again, he knew he was going to get hurt. It was inevitable. They were too different. They were just not meant to be.

  “I’ll stay for Mack’s sake,” he added. Or even for that blue-eyed little girl he’d seen in Denton’s. But definitely, Jared told himself with great conviction, he was not staying because he had any thoughts of trying to reconcile with Shea. “The minute I figure out who your practical joker is and stop him, I’m out of here.”

  “Okay,” Shea said, but with none of the selfassuredness her voice usually held. Not understanding what her uncertainty could mean, Jared frowned, but she had already turned away. “Let’s go inside, shall we? I’m sure Dad wants to discuss payment.”

  As if he would accept any money for this. He followed her up the steps. This was going to be the worst week of his life, trying to save a holiday that he didn’t care about for a town that he didn’t care about—for a man he did care about, but for a woman he would swear that he wanted nothing more to do with. All that, with a divorce thrown in for good measure.

  If he was smart, he would lay down some ground rules.

  And he was smart. Stepping to Shea’s side, he caught her hand under his on the doorknob. “We have one last thing to talk about before I commit myself fully by telling Mack I’ll do it.”

  She turned around with a gentle smile on her face. “Whatever you say, Jared.”

  “Remember you said you’d be very nice to me if I stayed and did this?”

  “Yes,” she said cautiously.

  “So how nice would that be?”

  “I was thinking along the lines of baking you an apple pie.” Her eyes blinked nervously. “Why? How nice are you thinking I should be?”

  “Oh, an apple pie would probably be fine.” He told himself he didn’t want her to throw herself at him. That was fine. But still... “I was just making sure you didn’t have anything else in mind.”

  “Oh, but I do,” Shea said, knowing exactly what he was suggesting, but also exactly what she was referring to. “I definitely do.”

  She would have teased him a bit more, but she sensed something on the lawn on the far side of the house at the same time that Jared indicated her father’s presence with the slightest movement of his eyes. She twisted enough to see her father canying a bag of trash over to the curb.

  “You two find any Christmas spirit yet?” Mack asked cheerfully as he walked back toward them.

  “We’re still looking, Dad,” Shea called out, flashing him a brilliant smile that seemed to please him. “But don’t worry.” Her mouth lifted into a smile for a second, and she said sweetly to them both, “Even if we don’t find it, I can absolutely promise you and Jared one thing, no matter what.”

  “What’s that?” Mack asked, joining them.

  “Nothing is going to keep me from making this a Christmas Jared will remember for the rest of his life.”

  Mack and Jared shared a long look. Jared knew he should be worried. She was wearing a knowing smile on her face that he’d never seen before. Well, no sense in letting her have all the fun.

  “It could even be that I might have something cooked up for you, too, Shea, something that you’ll never forget.”

  A swift frown shadowed her face and then left, leaving in its wake pure amusement “Oh, but it won’t be close to my surprise, or nearly as interesting.”

  “Probably not, but maybe it will be an eye-opener when it comes to my vision of the real world.”

  “I think I might like to understand your world a little better, Jared,” she said truthfully. It wouldn’t change anything, because she wasn’t going to compromise on her dreams for her life, but maybe it would help her explain to her child why its daddy was the way he was.

  “Well, I can’t claim to know what you two have in store for each other, but it certainly sounds like you’re getting along just fine,” Mack said heartily, grinning at her just the way he used to when he watched her in school pageants. Like he was proud of her. It was good to know, Shea thought, that she was doing something right. “Now, let’s go inside and get some of that chili I’ve made for dinner. How about that?”

  “Sounds great, Dad,” Shea said. Although with Jared around, she didn’t need chili to heat her up.

  “I already ate,” Jared reminded them. “But I’ll be happy to come in and have some coffee.”

  “Of course you are,” Mack said heartily. “You’re staying—” he cleared his throat at Shea’s wide-dyed look “—in the guest room.”

  Before she could voice her protest, her father’s attention was diverted by someone across the street.

  “Hello, Mr. Griswold!” he called to the elderly man picking up the evening paper from his driveway.

  “Yeah, same to you.” The man straightened. “Did you two catch the Grinch yet?”

  “Not yet.”

  Nodding gravely at them, the Dentons’ friend returned to his own business. Jared was puzzled. It was as though their neighbor also considered the practical joker a matter of extreme importance. Why didn’t he himself understand why this mattered so much to everyone?

  Mack opened the door. “You two coming in?”

  “Just give us one more minute, Mack,” Jared asked.

  She didn’t need another minute with Jared, Shea thought, reaching for the storm door, only to find Jared’s hand suddenly on her arm. Turning, she could almost feel his warm breath hitting her face. He was so close that she felt faint with wanting to kiss him—just once more for old times’ sake.

  “I want you to know, Shea, that you can’t really expect anything out of this, okay? I’m only staying to stop this Grinch for you and Mack—it doesn’t mean anything to me whether I do or not.”

  “I understand,” she said softly. “I won’t expect anything, but I’m still going to believe in Christmas miracles—even where you’re concerned.”

  Before he could reply, she slipped through the door and hurried toward the kitchen, seeking the warmth, familiarity and relative emotional safety of her father’s presence. But in the hallway, seeing that Jared hadn’t followed her directly inside, she took a moment to lean against the hall wall and recapture her breath. She’d wanted to kiss him just then. He’d almost kissed her minutes before. The two of them were playing with fire, and she would have to start being very, very careful.

  Outside, where Jared continued to stand, the breeze picked up and the stars were losing their shimmer. Or was that because Shea was no longer outside with him?

  He knew he should be following her in or Mack was not going to believe that he and Shea were getting along. But he stayed outside anyway, wishing deep down that Shea would want him just the way he was, the way he’d always been. But he knew she had her dreams, and they were too much in conflict with his own. He was resigned to getting the divorce and losing the only thing that had ever made him happy—Shea.

  If it wasn’t for Mack, he would leave right now. He swore he would. But even so, doubts crept into his mind. Something was holding him there, and it wasn’t his friend. He wasn’t even sure it was all Shea’s doing. This peculiar feeling that he was supposed to stay had started when he’d run into that little girl in Denton’s, and he hadn’t been able to shake it.

  “Damned Christmas spirit,” he muttered under his breath, opening the door and heading inside. He was letting it get to him and he knew better.

  He really did.

  Closing the front door behind him, he decided what he had to do. He would find that little kid and, somehow, figure out what the heck s
he was talking about when she claimed to know where the real Santa was. Then he would know for certain that some nut wasn’t filling her head with stories for some nefarious reason and that she was safe. After that, he’d put a stop to this practical joker, get out of Quiet Brook and return to his plan of work and exhaustion, which would have to suffice.

  No matter how much more he might want out of life.

  Chapter Four

  Shea’s heart started pitter-pattering like crazy as she searched the store for Jared early the next afternoon. During a long, restless night caused by knowing Jared was only a few yards away, she had come up with the first step in a concrete plan of action to turn Jared into a Santa Claus dad. Juggling it along with the demands of running the store wouldn’t be easy, but this was for her child. She would move mountains for this baby.

  That morning, after making sure Jared would be preoccupied with talking to store employees about the practical joker, she’d set everything up. Now she had only to find Jared and start his reformation.

  And that was exactly what had her palms sweating and her heart doing the jitterbug. Because when he began to resist—and he would resist—he might leave Quiet Brook.

  Finding him was the easy part. He was talking to one of the clerks at the customer service desk. As she hung back, the woman, Marcia, leaned across the counter, clutched Jared’s sleeve and gave him a sweet smile.

  Just as everyone in the store had been invited to her wedding by her proud father, everyone in the store also knew that she had been back in Quiet Brook without Jared for months now. Anyone with a smattering of common sense could figure out that Jared was or soon would be free for the taking. Much as she couldn’t exactly blame Marcia for trying to snare Jared’s attention, she didn’t particularly need to watch some other woman succeeding with Jared where she had failed, so she went right ahead and interrupted.

  It only took her a few seconds to get Jared away from Marcia and down a store aisle. She didn’t really feel guilty, either. What she had to do with him today was far more important than his getting a date. If he wanted Marcia in the future, he’d know where to find her. But somehow, she thought, suppressing a grim smile, she hoped he would be too involved in playing dad to their baby.