THE MAVERICK'S CHRISTMAS BABY Read online

  He told her and she couldn’t resist giving him a hard time. “Oh, I get it—oldies.”

  “Hey!” he countered as if he was insulted. But his grin gave him away.

  “To me, those were oldies,” she said with a smile.

  “I suppose they were,” he conceded. “You’re just a baby after all. A baby having a baby...”

  Some goading of his own.

  Nina laughed, enjoying herself. Enjoying him and this back-and-forth between them. “Well, at least the diapers I’ll be buying won’t be—”

  “If you say for an adult I just might come across this table and—”

  “Wave your cane at me?”

  That made him laugh again. “It’s a good thing I’m not sensitive. But be careful because I am a spry thirty-four and I could come over this table...”

  He made that sound far more intriguing than threatening and she liked that he could poke fun at himself. Plus, for some reason what sprang into her mind was just how spry he’d been when he’d carried her across that country road in the blizzard. And as much as she wished their age difference produced something unattractive about him, it didn’t. She couldn’t deny that he was a very, very fine specimen of a man.

  “So tell me what else you like besides controlling the television,” he said then. “What toppings do you like on your pizza?”

  “Is there a bad topping on a pizza?”

  “Good answer!” he declared. “Sometimes you want it loaded with meat, sometimes peppers and onions and mushrooms and olives do just fine.”

  “Or just plain cheese or even white pizza—how can you go wrong with pizza?” Nina agreed. Then she said, “Ice cream—favorite flavor?”

  “Again, no bad ice cream. I’m an ice cream guy....”

  “Okay, let’s narrow it down—chocolate or vanilla?”

  “Chocolate. You?”

  “Chocolate. The deepest, darkest, richest—”

  “Chocolate,” he finished for her with another grin. “Got it. How about movies? What’s your favorite movie?”

  They went on like that while they continued to work, and by the time all the packages were wrapped and the volunteers were beginning to leave, Nina had learned that she and Dallas Traub had a great deal in common. And that there still wasn’t anything about him that she didn’t like.

  In fact, spending that time with him only made her like him more. Much to her dismay...

  By ten-thirty the store had closed, Nate had left along with Nina’s parents, and Nina was walking out the last of the volunteers. Except Dallas. She wasn’t sure if she was misreading something, but it seemed as if he was hanging back, as if he wasn’t eager to leave.

  He was straightening up while she thanked her helpers. When she closed the stockroom’s back door after they’d left she turned and leaned against it, weary from her fifteen-hour workday, but even so, not anxious to see Dallas go.

  “Don’t worry about taking the tables down. My stockers will do it in the morning when they come in,” she said to Dallas as he finished folding one up.

  “I don’t mind,” he said.

  She shook her head. “No, you’ve done enough.” As much as she didn’t want this evening to end, she didn’t have the heart to ask more of him.

  Dallas checked the time on the wall clock above the time-stamp machine next to the door. “I suppose I should probably get going,” he conceded. “Tomorrow is a school day, so I have to have the kids up at dawn.”

  He disappeared back into the alcove of shelves where they’d worked and reappeared with his coat, putting it on as he came to the door.

  “It’s nice that you just have to go upstairs and you’re home,” he observed.

  “Really nice on days this long,” she agreed. But she was still leaning against the closed door, essentially blocking his exit.

  He didn’t seem in any hurry, though, because when he joined her he sat gingerly on the table below the time-stamp machine where she kept new time cards and bulletins for her employees.

  She also kept a bowl of buttermints there, just as a small treat for anyone who might want one coming or going. Dallas helped himself to a mint, squeezing it out of its packaging into his mouth.

  “Thanks for coming tonight and all you did,” Nina said as he ate it.

  “The flood made this year rough. I was glad to see the names on those gifts—it’s good to know that everyone, but especially the kids, won’t be missing out on Christmas morning because of it. And you’re doing food baskets, too?”

  “There was a sign-up sheet. Some people put their own names on it, knowing they couldn’t afford a real Christmas dinner this year. Some people put the names of friends or family or neighbors on it who they knew were too proud to do it themselves. I just hope everybody who needs it was brought to our attention one way or another. It’s Christmas, after all. I want everybody to be able to sit down to a nice Christmas dinner.”

  He studied her, smiling, a warmth in his eyes that heated her to the core. “That’s great...” he said softly, almost more to himself than to her. “And a lot of work,” he added. “You must be tired.”

  Nina merely shrugged. “It’s worth it.”

  “But you need some fun, too....” He hesitated, as if he wasn’t sure what her response might be to what he was about to say. Then he came out with it anyway.

  “Since you opened my eyes to my Scrooge-ness this year, I’m trying to be more conscious of making this a decent Christmas for the boys,” he joked, making Nina laugh. “Friday night the snow castle opens and I promised I would take them. You wouldn’t want to go with us, would you?”

  The Montana town usually had enough snow by this time to inspire townsfolk to start using it for entertainment—there had been years when there were snowmen and snowwomen on every street corner; sometimes there was a snow-sculpting contest. One year there had been an entire snow fort. This December they’d erected a snow castle complete with a snow maze that led up to a cupola where Santa was to make an appearance on Friday night.

  “I know the store is on Christmas hours, and maybe you have to work or something,” he added into the miniscule pause left when Nina didn’t answer immediately.

  But she hadn’t answered yet because her immediate desire was to say yes, and she’d forced herself not to jump in, to think about the complications and the reasons she should say no.

  Unfortunately, when it came down to it, those complications and reasons just didn’t carry enough weight against the drive to say yes.

  “I actually don’t have myself scheduled for the evening hours so I’m free...” she said, even though those complications and reasons didn’t make that exactly true.

  But everyone—including Nina—had been watching the castle being built in the past few days, and she wanted to go.

  And she especially wanted to go with Dallas now that the opportunity had arisen, so she couldn’t make herself turn him down.

  Despite everything else...

  “I’d love to go,” she finished.

  Dallas grinned at her answer. “Robbie is clinging to the last belief in Santa Claus, and this year, for some reason, he’s really determined to talk to him.”

  “I think as long as kids believe you should let them.”

  “Me, too. I’ve warned his brothers not to bust his bubble, and they’re being pretty good about it. Kids in his class have told him Santa isn’t real, but he’s just telling them they’re wrong.”

  “Yeah, this is probably his last year,” Nina said with a laugh. “But let him have it while he can.”

  “So you’ll go?”

  “I will,” Nina said without any hesitation this time. “Unless the boys might object...?”

  “Hey, after Sunday night they think you’re Santa Claus. I’ve been fielding questions since
then about when we’re going to see you again, so they’ll be thrilled.”

  “That’s nice,” Nina said, touched.

  “You put the spirit in Christmas this year when I dropped the ball,” he admitted. “And I have to say that it’s helped to have a little cheer in the house.... It’s helped me and the lousy mood I’ve been in for this last year—and I’m not even just keeping up appearances, I’m actually feeling it. So, what do you say? Maybe around seven Friday night? We’ll come by here and get you?”

  What harm could come of it? Nina asked herself. She was pregnant and couldn’t let anything romantic develop between them. And the three kids he already had would be there as chaperones.

  It was just something to do. Something she wanted to do and otherwise probably wouldn’t since she didn’t yet have a child to take to see Santa.

  “Seven works for me,” she confirmed.

  “Great!” he said with that slow, one-sided grin as he got up from the table.

  Nina knew she couldn’t go on holding him hostage by blocking the door, so she stepped away from it. But not so far away from it that she wasn’t still standing there, facing him, when he reached for the handle.

  “Thanks again for the help,” she repeated.

  “My pleasure,” he assured her, his blue eyes holding her gaze.

  And what flitted through her mind in that instant was the kiss he’d placed on her temple when they’d been stranded.

  It was something she’d thought of more often than she wanted to admit since it happened, but there it was again—just a vague recollection of what it had felt like.

  Accompanied by the inexplicable wish that he would kiss her again...

  Though not on the temple.

  On the lips.

  And that it wouldn’t be a kiss meant only to comfort her. It would be a real kiss....

  Then she caught herself.

  Thoughts—feelings—such as these weren’t so harmless. And she shouldn’t be having them.

  She took a step away from Dallas, knowing that in the shadow of those thoughts of kissing, the wish that he would, she should tell him she’d just remembered something else she had to do on Friday night, so she couldn’t go to the snow castle with him, after all.

  But then he smiled at her again—this time a small, thoughtful smile—just before he opened the stockroom’s back door and said, “Go on, get up to your place and relax. I’ll see you Friday night.”

  And the only thing she heard herself say was, “Friday night.”

  Then he left, and she was flooded with disappointment.

  Disappointment that he was gone.

  Disappointment that he hadn’t kissed her.

  Disappointment that she knew she had no business having.

  After a fifteen-hour workday at eight months pregnant—she was just tired, she told herself. That’s why she felt what she did.

  She hadn’t honestly wanted Dallas Traub to kiss her.

  But regardless of how she tried to believe it as she turned off the stockroom lights and went up to her apartment, she still took with her that disappointment.

  And an awful, niggling curiosity that other kiss just hadn’t satisfied.

  About what it might be like to have Dallas Traub kiss her full on the mouth, for real...

  Chapter Five

  “Our snow guys went all out with this, didn’t they?” Dallas marveled to Nina as they followed his three boys through the maze on Friday evening.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Nina agreed.

  Dallas enjoyed the sight of her peeking through a cutout in the maze’s wall to view one of many Christmas dioramas along the path of the maze.

  There were also decorative carvings in the walls themselves, glittering with life from the glow of the tiny white Christmas lights overhead.

  The castle at the end of the maze had been carved from a wall of snow, and after crossing the drawbridge into it, Santa came into view. He was sitting on a red-velvet throne positioned on an ornately sculpted wooden platform.

  “There he is!” Robbie exclaimed at first glimpse. “Are we in line?”

  “I think we are, buddy,” Dallas assured his son, since once they crossed the drawbridge there was a choice of going straight ahead to Santa or turning off and following what appeared to be portions of the maze that led back out.

  “Are you gonna sit on Santa’s lap?” Jake goaded him, nudging Ryder with an elbow.

  “Jake...” Dallas said in a warning tone.

  “Sure I am. That’s how you talk to Santa,” Robbie answered his brother, as if Jake were ignorant.

  “You already wrote him a letter,” Ryder said.

  “This is different,” Robbie insisted.

  “Well, don’t take too long. My nose is cold,” Ryder grumbled, ducking his stocking-capped head deeper into the collar of his coat. His gloved hands were in his pockets and his posture was sulky now that they were at a standstill.

  “Do this,” Nina said, demonstrating by cupping her hands over her own mouth and nose and blowing warm breath into them.

  Much to Dallas’s relief, Ryder complied rather than answering her with more of his sullenness.

  Dallas leaned over enough to say quietly into her ear, “I’m glad he spares you the preview of adolescence he gives me.”

  “You’ve taught him good manners,” she whispered back, making him wonder how she always managed to make him feel better.

  A moment later they reached Santa, just as the child on Santa’s lap finished.

  “Okay, Robbie, you’re up,” Dallas said. The smallest Traub marched purposefully to Santa and climbed onto his lap without hesitation. Nina and Dallas followed close behind, and the other boys stood off to the side.

  Needing to know exactly what his son would be expecting from Santa, Dallas listened intently.

  “I a’ready wrote down what I want on that letter I sent you,” Robbie informed Santa matter-of-factly as he took a small photograph from his pocket. “But I need to give you this.”

  Dallas had no idea what Robbie was up to and paid even closer attention.

  The little boy handed Santa the photograph. “It’s my school picture. I don’t know where my mom is but when you bring her presents this year, would you give her this, too? I think she might want it.”

  Boom! Dallas felt as if something had hit him. Hard. Just one more blow this year had to dish out to him when he least expected it....

  He didn’t know why, but he looked to Nina.

  Only, she had tears in her eyes, and seeing that put him too close to panic, so he looked back to Robbie.

  It just hadn’t occurred to him that his son might have been so determined to see Santa because he was desperate to connect with the mother who wasn’t around anymore, and for the life of him, Dallas wasn’t sure what to do.

  Should he break in and stop this? Should he let it go on?

  Santa was equally at a loss, and looked to Dallas for guidance, so Dallas knew he had to figure something out fast.

  Going on instinct, he went nearer and patted Robbie on the back. “I’m sure your mom will want it and be really glad you thought to get Santa to bring it to her.” Then he nodded at Santa to take the picture.

  “You think Santa knows where she is?” Ryder demanded bitterly.

  Dallas heard the pain that went with that bitterness and it was another punch that he could only absorb before he cast his other son a warning look. It was Robbie who answered Ryder. “Santa knows where everybody is. How do you think he gives ’em presents?”

  Ryder rolled his eyes, but Jake’s eight-year-old tough-guy image seemed to have been shaken, and he looked as though he might be wondering whether his younger brother had come up with something he should have gotten in on.
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  Then Robbie hopped down off of Santa’s lap and said, “Thank you, Santa. Tell my mom I’ve been a good boy this year, and I miss her.”

  “Merry Christmas!” Santa said, as he handed Robbie a candy cane—and two more for his brothers.

  “Was that okay?” Robbie asked his father as they headed through the exit portion of the maze.

  Dallas had to swallow a lump in his own throat before he could say, “Sure it was okay. It was nice. I’m proud of you for thinking of it.”

  Then he palmed Jake’s head in one hand, leaned over and said, “We can get your school picture and Ryder’s, too, to Santa for the same thing, if you guys want.”

  “She can’t have my picture,” Ryder said angrily.

  “Yeah, mine, either,” Jake chimed in, the tough guy back in place, but not securely, and clearly to disguise his own hurt feelings.

  Dallas glanced at Nina again, this time feeling the urge to rescue her, and apologized. “Sorry you had to get in on this....”

  “It’s okay. I know you all have to be struggling.”

  Her compassion and understanding caused him to like her even more, and he realized that somehow just having her there with him made this whole thing easier to bear.

  They exited the maze just in time for the puppet show being done not far away, so they watched that. It seemed to help everyone recover because by the end of it the boys were all laughing, and that let Dallas relax again.

  Then they moved on to watch a juggler being harassed by a mime before the boys all picked out Christmas ornaments to have their names engraved on and played various games that involved snowballs in one way or another.

  Just when everyone was getting too cold to be out much longer, they encountered Dallas’s brother Braden.

  “Mom said this is where you were tonight, so I came looking for you.” Braden greeted Dallas and gave a curious, confused glance at Nina, whom he obviously had not expected to find on the excursion.

  Much to Dallas’s further dismay, Braden ignored her and spoke only to him. “I want to get an early start in the morning, so I thought I’d take the boys to spend the night.”