A Christmas Blessing

the kitchen mending one of his shirts. As an inexplicable rage tore through him, he yanked the shirt out of her hands.
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.
Jessie didn’t even blink at his behavior. “There was a whole basket of mending sitting in the laundry room waiting to be done,” she said calmly as if that were explanation enough to offer a man who’d clearly lost his mind.
“Consuela’s the housekeeper around here, not you.”
“Is there some reason I shouldn’t help her out?”
“It’s her job,” he insisted stubbornly.
Jessie merely shook her head, gave him that exasperating look that was filled with pity, and reached for another shirt. “It’s my way of thanking her for all the meals she fixed before she left.”
“She fixed them for me,” Luke said, clinging to his stance despite the fact that even he could see he was being unreasonable. There was a quick and obvious remedy for what ailed him but he refused to pull Jessie into his arms, which was clearly where his body wanted her, where his long-denied hormones craved her to be.
One delicate eyebrow arched quizzically at his possessive claim on the meals Consuela had fixed. “Does that mean I’m no longer allowed to eat them?” Jessie inquired. “You planning to starve me into leaving?”
“Of course not,” he snapped in frustration. “Just forget it. I’m going to my office.”
“On Christmas?”
“If you can sew on Christmas, I can work.”
“I’m not sure I see the connection,” she commented mildly. She shrugged. “Whatever works for you.”
Luke clenched his fists so tightly, his knuckles turned white. Why had he never noticed that Jessie was the most exasperating, the most infuriating woman on the face of the earth? She was so damned calm and…reasonable. He didn’t miss the irony that he considered two such usually positive traits to be irritating.
To emphasize his displeasure, he plunked the cellular phone on the table in front of her. “Call my parents,” he ordered tightly, then stalked away.
With any luck at all, Jessie would be tired by now of his attitude, he thought with only a faint hint of regret. After all, how long could a woman maintain this charade of complacency in the face of such galling behavior? She’d be packed and gone by the time he emerged from his office. His life could return to normal.
He glanced over his shoulder just as he headed through the doorway. She was humming to herself and, if he wasn’t mistaken, there was a full-fledged smile on her face. He had the sinking realization that she wasn’t going anywhere.
* * *
Jessie wasn’t entirely sure why she was being so stubborn. One devastating, spine-tingling kiss hardly constituted a declaration of love.
Still, with every single bit of intuition she possessed, she believed that Luke was in love with her. That kiss was a symptom of stronger emotions. She was certain of it. She simply had to wait him out. Sooner or later, he would see that she wasn’t afraid of the consequences if she stayed. He would see, in fact, that she welcomed them. Eventually he would realize that together they could even conquer all of the opposition they were likely to arouse.
The unexpected ringing of the cellular phone startled her so badly, she pricked her finger with the needle she’d been using to stitch buttons back onto Luke’s shirts. Should she answer it? Or take it to Luke in his office? Of course, by the time she carried it through the house, whoever was calling would probably give up thanks to her indecisiveness.
It was guilt over her own failure to call Harlan and Mary that finally convinced her to answer on the fifth ring.
“Hello,” she said tentatively.
“Who the hell is this?” Harlan Adams’s unmistakable voice boomed over the line.
An odd mix of pleasure and dismay spread through her. “It’s Jessie, Harlan. Merry Christmas!”
“Jessie?” he repeated incredulously. “You’re okay. What the devil are you doing over at Lucas’s? Why haven’t you called? My God, woman, Mary’s been out of her mind with worry.”
Jessie decided that rather than responding to the questions and the barely disguised accusations Harlan had thrown out at her, she’d better go on the offensive immediately.
“I went into labor on the way to your house,” she explained. “I was scared to death I’d deliver the baby in a snow drift. Luke’s ranch was the only place nearby. You have a beautiful granddaughter, Harlan. I’ve named her Angela.”
As she’d expected, the announcement took the wind out of his sails. “You’ve had the baby? A girl?”
“That’s right.”
“Mary,” he called. “Mary! Get on the other line. Jessie’s at Luke’s and she’s had the baby!”
Jessie heard the echoing sound of footsteps on White Pines’s hardwood floors, then the clatter of a juggled, then dropped, phone. Finally, Mary’s breathless voice came over the line. “You had the baby?”
“A girl,” Jessie confirmed. “Angela. She is so beautiful, Mary. I can’t wait for you to see her.”
“But why are you at Luke’s? Why not a hospital?”
“Angela was too impatient to get here. With the blizzard and everything, I figured this was my best bet.”
“But the doctor did get there in time?” Mary asked worriedly.
Jessie hauled in a deep breath before blurting, “Actually, Luke delivered her. He was incredible. Calm as could be. You would have been so proud of him. I don’t know what I would have done without him.”
The explanation drew no response. Jessie could hear Mary crying. Eventually, Harlan spoke up.
“I don’t get it, girl. That was three days ago. Why haven’t you called before now?”
“The phone lines are down and Luke had misplaced the cellular phone. He hunted all over for it. It finally turned up this morning, buried under some papers.” It was a stretch of the truth, but Jessie had no intention of filling them in on her own battle with Luke over this very phone.
“No wonder we couldn’t reach him,” Harlan grumbled. “That boy would lose his head if it weren’t tacked onto his neck.”
Jessie sighed. She’d never noticed that Luke was particularly