A Christmas Blessing

that she wasn’t letting go of the momentary craziness that had gripped the two of them in the pickup. “Celebrating what?”
She cast an innocent look in his direction. “Christmas, of course,” she said sweetly.
“Oh.”
She grinned. “Disappointed, Lucas?”
“Of course not.” He glanced around a little desperately. “Where’s Angela?”
“Sleeping.”
“Are you sure? Maybe I should go check on her. She doesn’t usually sleep this late.”
Jessie actually laughed at that. “Surely a grown man doesn’t have to rely on a three-day-old baby to protect him from me, does he?”
Luke felt color climb up the back of his neck and settle in his cheeks. “I just thought she ought to be here,” he muttered. “It is her first Christmas morning.”
“She’ll be awake soon enough. Sit down. The biscuits are almost ready.”
He stared at her incredulously as she bent over to open the oven door. The view that gave him of her fanny made him weak.
“When did you have time to bake biscuits?” he inquired, his voice all too husky.
“You were in that barn a long time,” she said. She glanced over her shoulder. “Cooling off?”
Luke stared at her. What had happened to the sweet, virtuous woman who’d arrived here only a few days earlier? What did she know about her ability to drive him to distraction? Get real, Lucas, he told himself sternly. She was as responsible for the heat of that kiss as you were.
“Jessie,” he warned, his voice low.
“Yes, Lucas?”
She sounded sweetly compliant. He didn’t trust that tone for a second. “Don’t get into a game, unless you understand the rules,” he advised her.
“Who made up these rules? Some man, I suspect.”
“Oh, I think they pretty much go back to Adam and Eve,” he countered. He fixed his gaze on her until her cheeks turned pink. “I figure that gives ’em some credibility. People have been living by ’em for centuries now.”
Jessie shook her head. Judging from her expression, she seemed to be feeling sorry for him.
“You are pitiful, Lucas,” she said, confirming his guess.
He stared at her, a knot forming in his stomach. “Pitiful?”
“You don’t know what to do about how you feel, so you start out hiding behind an itsy-bitsy baby and now you want to put God and the Bible between us.”
“Right’s right,” he insisted stubbornly.
“And what was meant to be was meant to be,” she countered, looking perfectly confident in making the claim.
Obviously she wasn’t worried about the two of them being stricken dead by a bolt of lightning. Luke couldn’t understand it. How could she be so calm, so sure of herself, when he’d never felt more off balance, more uncertain in all of his life?
“Whatever that means,” he grumbled.
“It means, Lucas, that you might as well stop fighting so hard and accept the inevitable.”
He studied her worriedly. “Which is?”
“Angela and I are in your life to stay.”
He swallowed hard. “Well, of course you are,” he said too heartily. “You’re my sister-in-law. Angela’s my niece.”
Ignoring his comment, Jessie dished up scrambled eggs, bacon and golden biscuits. Only after she’d seated herself across from him did she meet his gaze.
“Give it up, Lucas. It’s a battle you can’t win.”
Determination swept through him. “Try me,” he said tightly.
To his annoyance, Jessie actually laughed at that. “Oh, Lucas, I intend to.”

Chapter Nine
With Jessie’s challenge ringing in his ears, Luke retreated to the barn. He figured it was the only safe place for him to be and still be within shouting distance of the house in case of a crisis. Inside, even in his office with the door shut, he couldn’t escape Jessie’s unrealistic expectations for their future. As brief as her presence had been, she had pervaded every room, leaving him with no place to hide from her or his unrelenting thoughts about her.
What she wanted from him, though, was impossible. How could they possibly have a relationship without bringing the wrath of the entire family she admired so much down on them? Couldn’t she see that they were as doomed in their way as Romeo and Juliet had been? Or had she considered and then dismissed the problems? Could he possibly be that important to her?
He hunkered down on a bale of hay and distractedly tossed apple sections to Chester. The goat seemed to accept the unexpected largesse as his due. When Luke grew distracted and forgot to offer another chunk of apple, Chester butted him gently until he remembered. He scratched the goat behind his ears and wished that all relationships were this uncomplicated.
Dealing with goats and horses and cattle was a hell of a lot less troubling than dealing with a woman, Luke concluded when Chester finally tired of the game and wandered off. Food, attention, a little exercise, a few animal or human companions and their lives were happy. Women, to the contrary, sooner or later always developed expectations.
To avoid dealing with Jessie’s fantasies, he considered saddling up one of the horses and riding off to check on the cattle. He manufactured a dozen excuses why such a trip was vital to the ranch’s operations, even though he had a perfectly capable foreman in charge, a man who could probably account for every single head of longhorn cattle on the ranch without Luke’s help.
Unfortunately, he could see through every excuse. He had no doubts at all that Jessie would be even quicker to see them for what they were: cowardly reasons to bolt from all the emotions he couldn’t bear to face. While being someplace else—anyplace else—held a great deal of appeal at the moment, Luke wasn’t a coward. Which meant, like it or not, staying and seeing this through.
Finally, tired of having only Chester and the horses for company when the most beautiful, if unavailable, woman in the world was inside, Luke heaved himself up and headed back to the house. Maybe Jessie had come to her senses while he was gone. Maybe his body had become resigned to celibacy.
And maybe pigs could fly, he thought despondently.
He found her sitting in front of the fireplace in