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Baby’s First Christmas
The Christmas Twins
By
Tina Leonard
Santa Baby
By
Laura Marie Altom
The Christmas Twins
By
Tina Leonard
Dear Reader,
I love Christmas stories! They are one of my favourite things to write because, for me, the underlying themes of the season are family, friends and tradition. And a Christmas story is a chance to relive all of those wonderful emotions!
I hope you’ll enjoy the story of Zach Forrester and Jessica Tomball Farnsworth, two very different personalities from opposite walks of life. I believe that Christmas works its magic on the most stubborn people, and magic in even the most challenging of circumstances can bring love to the most impossible situation. May your holiday season be lit by this very special spirit of love, charity and fulfilment.
Best wishes and much love,
Tina Leonard
About the Author
TINA LEONARD loves to laugh, which is one of the reasons she enjoys writing. In another lifetime, Tina thought she would be single and an East Coast fashion buyer forever. The unexpected happened when Tina met Tim again after many years—she hadn’t seen him since they attended school together. They married and now Tina keeps a close eye on her school-aged children’s friends! Lisa and Dean keep their mother busy with soccer, gymnastics and horseback riding. They are proud of their mum’s “kissy books” and eagerly help her any way they can.
Tina hopes that readers will enjoy the love of family she writes about in her books. A reviewer once wrote, “Leonard has a wonderful sense of the ridiculous”, which Tina loved so much she wants it for her epitaph. Right now, however, she’s focusing on her wonderful life and writing a lot more romance! You can visit her at www.tinaleonard.com.
“I’ve tried to be perfect. I’ve lived in a world. Imperfect is a lot more fun.”
—Jessica Tomball Farnsworth.
“I’ve tried to be perfect. I’ve lived in a world that wants perfect. Imperfect is a lot more fun.”
—Jessica Tomball Farnsworth
Chapter One
Zach Forrester freely admitted that boredom was his worst enemy.
He didn’t mind living in Tulips, Texas, on the Triple F ranch, but he wanted to do more in his life than just take care of a family property. He had plans to build a new elementary school in the small town, a challenge he would enjoy.
But now it was time for a different challenge. Maybe the late September moon was getting to him, but excitement seemed to be a hard-to-find commodity.
One thing was for certain, he wasn’t giving up his life the way Duke had, to diapers and a wife and a round-cheeked baby. He loved his little nephew, but a baby put a certain stop to one’s life. Nor would he ever let a woman lead him around by the nose as Liberty had Duke. She had left the altar with Duke standing at it, then made a surprise return with his baby, finally marrying Duke in a wonderfully romantic ceremony.
Of course, Duke was insanely happy with his new wife and child, but it had been hell on Duke getting there. Zach had to admit it had been fun watching his older brother struggle mightily to get his woman. Everything always seems to come easy for my brother and sister and harder for me.
He was enjoying his pity party as he drove, until he saw the hot pink convertible T-bird and the madwoman standing next to his favorite bull, which she’d clearly hit. She was talking on her cell phone as if it was just any old piece of meat she’d struck. But Brahma Bud was his best and finest!
Hopping out of his truck, Zach stared at the imperious woman with whiskey-colored hair. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
She snapped her cell phone shut. “I am trying to get this beast to move, Cowboy. He seems to think he has the right of way.”
“He does!” Zach stared at his poor bull, which gazed back in return, not bothered in the least by the annoying woman who had hit him.
“Well, he’s been having his way for an hour,” she replied, her voice so haughty it belonged in New York. “Do you think you could move his plump hide?”
Perhaps Brahma Bud had only been lightly tapped, because the bull didn’t seem any worse for wear. He did, however, seem quite mesmerized by the pink T-bird, and as Zach forced himself to calm down, he had to admit the car—and the woman—were definitely worth second looks. “What’s the rush, City?”
“I have a life,” she told him. “I just can’t stand here and watch the grass grow.”
Well, hell, Zach thought, wasn’t she special. Of course, she certainly looked special in her tight dress. When she spoke, she emphasized her words so that all of her bounced in the right places. “He might move tomorrow,” Zach said. “Once he gets to a spot he likes, he tends to stay there.”
“You have got to be kidding me!” she exclaimed, enunciating and bouncing, to Zach’s delight.
Ah, city folk. So much fun. He leaned against her T-bird and gave her his best leer. “When I get to a spot I like, I tend to stay there, too.”
“Cowboy, I know all about guys like you, and believe me, the words are bigger than the deed. Just take your cow and go home, okay? And I won’t charge you for the dent in my fender. Not to mention I think he used his antler to lift my skirt when I tried to make certain he was all right.”
“Yeah, that would be the easy way out,” Zach said slowly, suddenly realizing what he wanted more than anything was to shake things up, and this gal was a smoking-hot challenge even if she didn’t know horns from antlers. “I’ll do two things for you—one, I’ll ask my prize longhorn here to move, if you’re nice. Two, I won’t ask why you’re trespassing on my private drive, if you’re nice. I won’t even be mad that you hit my livelihood, here,” he said, dropping a casual hand to Bud’s horn. “However, I do insist upon a kiss.”
She gasped. “I consider kissing to be sex. Why would I have sex with a stranger?”
He laughed out loud. “Make it a brotherly peck, then.”
“No. You’re weird. It might be catching.”
“I think you’re the weird one.” Crossing his arms, he decided this exceptional woman was his next challenge. “So, I noticed you didn’t protest that you had a boyfriend or were married or something.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I just broke up with my boyfriend. He was too possessive.”
Zach raised his brows. “Possessive?”
“He thought he owned me.”
“Boyfriends will act like that sometimes.” He wondered if he’d feel the same way if she was his girlfriend. Nah. He’d never felt that way about any woman. Safe!
Her back stiffened. “Being possessive is bad and being bossy is worse. But if you’d like to boss someone around, why don’t you tell that cow to move so I can get back on the road?”
He shook his head. “You’re not going anywhere.”
She put her hands on her hips, prepared to give him a nor’easter full of cold sass. “Why not?”
“It’s not just the fender you damaged. It’s hanging off.” He pointed to the front of her car. “And you have a flat tire. I notice you didn’t respond to my offer of a kiss, by the way.”
Jessica Tomball Farnsworth looked at the cowboy. He was hunky, to be sure, but so was her ex-fiancé. She’d learned that a man that hot was usually firing more than one pistol at a time—just as her possessive ex-boyfriend had. He’d found a more available set of female arms while she’d been away on business, traveling with her cosmetics company.
That thought led her to consider dropping straight into this willing man’s arms and slathering his face with kisses since he wanted kissing so badly. After all, revenge was sweet.
But she felt a stronger desire to get as far away from men as possible. She wasn’t bitter; she was simply willing to acknowledge that either she was a poor judge of character or all men were louses.
Until she had that figured out, she wasn’t kissing this cowboy, or any male. She narrowed her eyes at him. Make that hot cowboy. “Smooth come-ons like yours put me off.” Taking a deep breath for bravery, she gave the large animal a push on his rump to encourage him to move.
He swished his tail in response.
“We could be here all day,” the cowboy said.
This seemed, unfortunately, to be true. She had places she needed to be. With her heart beating too fast, she rose on tiptoe and kissed the cowboy full on the mouth, more than ready to get the hell out of wherever she was.
He looked at her when she sank back to ground level.
“You call that a kiss?”
“Yes, I do,” she said tartly. “Do you keep your promises or not?” A delicious zing of wonder had struck her when she’d brushed his lips, along with a wayward desire for more, more, more.
He took a peppermint from his pocket and let the giant bull smell it before tossing it into the winter-touched yellow meadow. The bull casually strolled after the candy treat while the man inspected the broken fence, which had allowed his beast to escape and wander the roadside. Never in her life had she seen an animal that big up close. But then its kind, curious eyes had stared over the hood at her, and she’d been grateful it didn’t appear to be hurt.
“Why do you keep animals like that?” she asked. “He deserves to be wild and free.”
The cowboy laughed. “He is wild and free, City. This is my best friend. He lives in the lap of luxury.”
He was clearly amused by her lack of knowledge of his world. Jessica sniffed, not liking his attitude at all. “I suppose you think it’s cute to give him candy. What happens when he gets a cavity?”
He sent a slow, amused grin her way. Shaking his head, he went to inspect her car.
Jessica ignored him, keeping her gaze on the bull, which appeared to be just as happy inside the meadow as out.
“What’s your name?”
“Jessica,” she said, unwilling to share more.
“Mine’s Zach,” he replied, though she hadn’t asked. “I can help you get on your way, Jessie.”
She turned, staring at him.
“Or you could kiss me again,” he said conver-sationally. “I know you liked it as much as I did.”
She gasped. “No. I didn’t.”
He smiled, the expression in his dark eyes registering disbelief. It made Jessica mad that he knew better, and madder to know she was so easy to read.
“So,” he said, drawing near to her, “was it good sex?”
Not as good as it could be. “I’ll thank you to not make fun of my sense of decency,” Jessica said. “Thank you for stopping and moving your cow out of the way. Now please tell me where I can get this tire fixed.”
“You certainly have issues, lady,” Zach said, catching her hand in his, “but I’m not afraid of issues. In fact, I look forward to helping you solve yours, Jessie.” He ran a thumb over her bottom lip. “Tell me your full name.”
“Jessica Tomball Farnsworth,” she whispered, wondering why she bothered to answer. “I don’t have as many issues as you do, by the way.” She backed away, knowing full well he was messing with her senses.
“Sure I do, City,” he said, moving closer. “Where I come from, a man’s not a man unless he’s got a full plate of issues. Sins.” He gave her a wink and slid a hand around her waist. “We’re born with issues, and we use them to lure women ‘cause they think they can save us from ourselves. Then we die with our issues, knowing we’ve enjoyed them every step of the way.”
“You’re crazy,” she whispered, unable to make her escape because of the way he was pressing her against the car.
“And you like it,” he said against her neck, shifting his hands under her Versace skirt.
“I think I do,” Jessica said, closing her eyes. What the hell. I was never cut out for boredom.
And Jessie T., boyfriend-dumper and responsibility-escaper dragged the bad boy into the back seat of her hot pink T-bird, embracing sins and issues and everything else that came with the sinfully hot package.
Chapter Two
Two hours later, Zach stared up at the sun in the Texas sky from the back seat of the T-bird, glad his ranch was off the beaten path and that he’d had enough privacy to enjoy this wonderful surprise gift from the city.
Who said you couldn’t find a city girl worth wasting country on, anyway?
He examined the blanket he’d found in the back seat. The label read Saks Fifth Avenue. “So I’m guessing you’re on the pill,” he said idly, wondering if he could talk the beautiful stranger into staying at his ranch for about another day. Only his sister, Pepper, was ever around the ranch anymore, and she pretty much kept to herself. “Ow!”
He rubbed the spot on his cheek where City had slapped him. It had actually been a light tap, but it was enough to get his attention.
She stared at him, angry again, reminding him that her spirit was one of the many things he liked about her. “So are you?” he asked, thinking with some trepidation about Liberty and Duke and their unplanned pregnancy.
“You are not a gentleman!” Jessie exclaimed. He nodded, and said, “We already established that. Let’s get to the answer.”
Her cheeks pinked. “I use a method of control.”
He glared. “Don’t they discuss birth control where you’re from?” He glanced at the blanket label again. “Saks Fifth Avenue?”
She ignored him.
Okay. She obviously didn’t want to talk about it. A faint trickle of unease slithered through him.
“I have to go,” she said abruptly. “Please get the hell out of my car.”
He frowned. “Not until you tell me about your ‘method.’”
“You should have asked before,” she said. “No matter what my method is, if it’s not any good, it’s too late.”
He digested that, realizing she was right. Had he lost his mind? His gaze ran over her tight, smooth skin. The luscious curves had bewitched him, and all of her attitude set off raging emotions inside him.
Duke must have felt just this way about Liberty.
He had never wanted to be like Duke, despite the fact that, to him, his sheriff brother was pretty much a hero in all ways. If not a hero, then a major example of what a good man should be.
But he’d never wanted to be out-of-his-mind wild over a woman, and he sure as hell had never wanted to get one pregnant out of wedlock.
That would spell commitment for certain, and he hated everything about the sound of that particular word.
“I’ve been seeing twins,” he murmured, going for jackass and making it pretty well, he thought. That should run her off quicker than wildfire, which he needed her to do if he was going to escape this growing dilemma and the future his brain was imagining.
“I don’t care,” she said, laughing, “if you’re dating triplets. Or quadruplets.”
He scratched his chin, noticing she wasn’t leaping out of the back seat. In fact, they felt rather companionable together, their legs stretched out along the soft leather. She fit him very well. “Got a sister?” he asked, trying to save himself.
She gave him a thorough eyeing. “Really working those issues, aren’t you?”
She wasn’t falling for it. Women always fell for his routine! Jessie got out of the car, fixed her skirt and hair and pulled a huge carpetbag-sized purse from the front seat. She rummaged around in it, fishing out a pair of red panties. “Close your eyes.”
“I can’t,” he said. “Watching you is the most fun I’ve had lately.”
She shrugged, reaching under her skirt to shimmy her lacy panties into place. He felt himself wanting her again. She had impossibly long legs and nothing he didn’t want to see. She was an intriguing beauty, tempting his eyes. Silently, he handed her the panties he’d previously removed and tossed to the floor. She snatched them from him, stuffing them into the carpetbag.
The panties went into the carpetbag. He realized with a pang and a worrisome erection that she was used to traveling or undressing because most women didn’t carry a change of underwear in their purse. “Don’t suppose you’re going to change your bra, too?”
She shook her head at his hopeful tone. “Hand me the one you took off.”
It was soft and silky, like her. He wanted her where he could enjoy her for hours, without the top and skirt, which had been left on out of necessity. He’d been lucky to discard her bra and panties, actually, because he’d discovered she had a cute shy side despite her projected carefree attitude. “You’re beautiful,” he said, knowing she was that way without trying to be.
“It’s my business,” she said. “It’s all a mirage.”
There, he thought, that’s an answer to scare the hell out of even the baddest, bootwearing hardass around.
Jessie was thinking through the birth control issue, more concerned than she was letting on. The truth was, she’d been fitted with a vaginal ring when she and her boyfriend had gotten serious enough to discuss marriage. But they hadn’t had sex in the past couple of months, as he’d claimed to be working late—an excuse she was to learn was code for: Your chief business rival and I aren’t just discussing the latest spring palette after-hours. So she hadn’t been wearing the ring when she’d left the city and the man behind.
Babies had been the first thing on her agenda, following a wedding. But there was no reason to tell that to Zach. He seemed like the worrying type. Any other man would have simply let her drive off into the sunset. Then again, he had issues, as he’d calmly and proudly admitted. She decided to keep her desire for a baby a secret. “I’ve got to go, cowboy,” she said.
“My name is Zach,” he said, sounding a bit cross about it.
She nodded. “I know.”
“No, you didn’t,” he said. “Jessie T., you’re not a good liar. You forgot my name.”
She looked at him.
“You’re not even on birth control, are you?”
He was going to be difficult. “Are you?” she asked, stalling for time. “Maybe you were wearing a condom and I didn’t notice.” She would have noticed, definitely, because it had been skin-on-skin passion, nothing between her and him in the most wonderful connection a man and woman could share.
His jaw set. “Great. This is my worst nightmare.”
She didn’t usually have a temper but irritation crept into her. More like raging than creeping. “It’s none of your affair.”
“Well, now,” he said, his voice a stony drawl, “that’s where you’re wrong, Miss Jessica. One thing about us Forresters is that we make everything our business. After you’ve been in Tulips for a while, you’ll know this to be true.” He snagged her car keys from the ignition. “Come on, city girl. No doubt you’re going to make me crazy for the next month, but there’s always a little hell to pay for a little pleasure.”
She grabbed for the keys but he held them above her head. “You can’t keep me here.”
“I’m not keeping you,” he said, scooping her up to deposit her into his truck bed. “Your car is out of commission.”
“No, it’s not,” Jessie protested. She’d bitten off more than she could handle with him. Zach was nothing like her ex, a man easily led by his groin and whichever way the wind was blowing at the time: Blonde, brunette, redhead. “Look, you were a great fantasy, but—”
He stopped her in the act of crawling out of the truck bed. “If you’re going to be easy about this, you can ride in the front seat. If you’re going to be difficult, you ride in the back and I’ve got some throwing rope to make sure of it. But you leaving is not an option. It’s one of my issues, you see.”
He grinned at her. Jessie pressed her lips together. “I have a business convention I have to attend. It’s really important. We’re presenting holiday looks for the upcoming season. This being September, I’ve got to get the wares on the road.”
“I sympathize.” He nodded. “But you can clearly see that your car is leaking something.”
Jessie stared at the ground in horror. Something was leaking from her precious T-bird!
“I can’t have you running off around the world to Saks Fifth Avenue and the like if you’re carrying my child.”
“I’m not!”
He leaned against the truck, crossing his arms. “Let me share with you the problem. My brother fell in love with a woman, and they were supposed to get married. They were in the middle of getting married, in fact, but she got cold feet at the altar, and before we knew what was happening, Liberty went running off faster than a greased piglet in a pig race.”
“That has nothing to do with me,” Jessie said, trying to sound like she didn’t care. However, she could see where Zach would empathize with his brother.
“Well, it turned out Liberty was pregnant,” Zach continued, ignoring her, “though she didn’t tell Duke. She was afraid to, and then the little old ladies in our town, and the men, too—you’ll meet them all soon enough—well, the Tulips Saloon Gang got involved—”
“Gang?” Jessie whispered.
“Gang.” Zach nodded. “You don’t know anything about issues until you meet the Gang.”
She blinked, not wanting to get drawn into this sexy man’s loony life. “I’ll call you if I’m pregnant.”
“You wouldn’t,” Zach said. “And then I’d be like Duke almost was, with a son of mine wandering around out there, never knowing that his daddy was a caring man who wanted to play football with him and teach him to hunt and shoot beer cans. Budweiser beer cans only, which is how my great-horned beast out there got his name, Brahma Bud. I keep my life simple, as you’ll learn.”
“Oh, no,” Jessie murmured, the impact of her flyaway good sense dawning on her. “Where is the rewind button on my life?”
IT WASN’T HEROIC of him to do what he was doing to the flitty woman who’d blown into town, but it wouldn’t be fair if he had a son that never knew its father. Zach was quite satisfied that he’d made the best possible decision considering the circumstances.
His sister, Pepper, would tell him he should have kept his pants zipped, and he should have, but he didn’t regret making love to that little firecracker out there staring sadly at her car, which had been towed to the drive of the Triple F Ranch. He watched Jessie through the window, smiling when the family dog—who was supposed to be Duke’s dog but couldn’t be trained to one person—greeted Jessie with a big doggie smile and a wave of a golden plumed tail. Her name was Molly, or Jimbo if other members of the town of Tulips were asked.
Zach grinned. Jessie knew nothing about issues until she met the citizens of Tulips. It was time to introduce her, even though he’d be painted as the black villain of the piece—a part which he’d relish, much as Duke had.
Actually, his older brother had suffered under the good-hearted critiquing of the town’s elders. But Zach was prepared for it. He knew what he’d done—and he was prepared to pay the price.
He would take his critiquing in stride, because every time the elders tried to point out the error of his ways, he’d just think about Jessie’s partially nude body and smile like Molly-Jimbo with a new bone.
“OH, MY,” Pansy Trifle said when Zach walked through the heavy glass-and-wood doors of the Tulips Saloon.
Helen Granger stood, her hands on her hips. “This is Ladies Only Day, Zach.”
“I know,” he said, with a most regretful tone, to the room at large, “so I’ve brought you a lady.” He tipped his hat to all of them, and gave Jessie a gentle push. “Take good care of my friend from Saks Fifth Avenue.”
He left, a broad grin on his face. Very soon he would be in big trouble with the elders of the town, and he was going to enjoy being the cause of all the uproar.
In the meantime, he had a T-bird to “hide,” just in case Ms. Saks decided to take a fast hike, à la Duke’s wife, the cagey Ms. Liberty Wentworth.
History would not be repeating itself.
