A Christmas Blessing

started calling them bytheir first names?”
She seemed startled by the observation. “I suppose that’strue. Like I said, I started thinking about them differently then.” She gave himan imploring look. “Please, believe me when I say that no one could have had morewonderful parents. I loved them with all my heart. I grieved when they died. Butsomething changed that night. I didn’t want it to, but it did.”
“Not because they were your adoptive parents, but becausethey’d lied.”
She nodded. “The very thing they’d always told me was one ofthe worst sins a person could commit.”
Luke felt a shudder roll through him and wondered if his own devious planwould fall into the category of lying and whether she would forgive him when shediscovered what he was up to.
“But you gave up the idea of looking for your birth parents,didn’t you?”
“At first I was so angry that I didn’t care what they wanted,but then, after a few days, I realized how deeply hurt they would be. I told myself thatthey were my real parents in every way that mattered, so, yes, I dropped theidea.”
“Where would you have looked?” he asked.
“Dallas, I suppose. It was the closest big city.” Sheshrugged. “I was sixteen. This hit me out of the blue. I had no idea how tostart.”
“And they never told you anything more, just that you had been bornin Texas?”
“Nothing.” She sighed and broke the chip she was holding intwo and put it aside.
When she glanced up again, Luke saw that her eyes were shimmering withunshed tears. His resolve stiffened. He would find her biological parents for her. Shewould have her family. She would have an identity that belonged to her, something herealized with sudden intuition was probably just as important to her as family.
No longer would she be Grace and Dancy Garnett’s adopted daughter.Or Erik Adams’s widow. Or even Angela Adams’s mother. She would know herroots, her heritage. That, above all, was something Luke could understand. It wassomething no one in his family ever lost sight of. He’d been raised on tales ofhis ancestors and their struggles and accomplishments. They’d been held up as rolemodels, tough in body and indomitable in spirit. Luke and his brothers had been expectedto surpass their examples. The pressure had been unceasing.
It was odd, he thought. Jessie had so little family history. He sometimesthought he and his brothers had had too much. The legacy had shaped them into the menthey were. He had wanted to shape his own legacy. Cody had fought to claim the one theyshared. Jordan was, quite possibly, the most fiercely independent of all of them.
He reached across the table and claimed Jessie’s hand. It was coldas ice. Clearly startled by his touch, she met his gaze.
“Just wanted to bring you back to the present, darlin’,”he said softly.
Color rose in her cheeks. “Oh, Luke, I’m sorry. I never talkabout the past like that. I can’t imagine what got into me. You’ve probablybeen bored to tears.”
“Anything but,” he assured her, resisting the urge to runstraight to the pay phone and call Jim Hill with the few bits of new information he had.He needed one last thing, though, the only thing he could think of that might help andthat Jessie was sure to know, despite her doubts about so much else. He needed to findout her exact birthday. He knew how old she was—twenty-seven. And he recalled thather birthday was sometime in summer.
In fact he would never forget the celebration they’d thrown at WhitePines her first year there. Erik had insisted on a real, old-fashioned Texas barbecuewith neighbors coming from miles around and a live band for square dancing. Heremembered every minute of it. That, in fact, was the night he’d realized that hewas falling for his brother’s wife, that what he’d dismissed as attractionwent far deeper.
Jessie had been his partner for a spinning, whirling, breath-stealingsquare dance. Her cheeks had been flushed. Her bare shoulders had shimmered with a dampsheen of perspiration. Her lush lips had been parted, inviting a kiss. He had obligedbefore he’d realized he was going to do it. The quick, impulsive kiss had beenbriefer than a heartbeat, but it had shaken him to his core. Jessie had looked as ifshe’d been poleaxed.
The band had shifted gears just then and played a slow dance. Jessie haddrifted into his arms, innocently relaxing against him, oblivious he was certain to thefact that his body was pulsing with sudden, urgent need. Desperate to keep her fromdiscovering just how badly he wanted her, he had spotted Erik across the dance floor andmaneuvered them into his brother’s path. Erik had been only too eager to claim hiswife.
If there had been regret in Jessie’s eyes, Luke had blinded himselfto it. He’d taken off right after that dance and from that day on he’dsteered as far away from Jessie as he possibly could without drawing notice.
Glancing at her, he wondered if she recalled that night as vividly as hedid. Bringing up the memory was one way to learn the last piece of information hefigured he could get for the detective—or so he told himself.
“Hey, darlin’, do you recall that shindig we threw for yourbirthday your first year at White Pines?”
Her blue eyes sparkled at once. “Goodness, yes. I’d never hadsuch a lavish birthday party. Your parents actually had a dance floor installed underthe stars, remember?”
“Oh, I remember,” he said, his voice dropping a seductivenotch.
“I’d never square danced before.”
“You sure took to it.”
“It was exhilarating,” she said softly, and her eyes met his,her expression nostalgic.
If she was saying more than the obvious, Luke couldn’t be sure. Hedecided for his own sanity it would be best to steer away from the minefield of any moreintimate memories.
“Was that July or August? All I remember was how hot it was.”Of course, he conceded to himself, his memory of the temperature might have had nothingto do with the weather. Jessie could have had his blood steaming with a look back then.She still could, he admitted. Air-conditioning hadn’t been manufactured that couldcool him off in her presence.
“August second,” she