LITMIR.BIZ

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Bug commented. “Mrs. Carmine would like to take a spin in that.”

      “Looks like a sin-mobile to me,” Hiram said. “In my day, girls that drove something like that would have been the ones you wouldn’t take home to Mother.”

      “Yeah.” Bug placed the cover carefully over it again. “Now that we’ve found it, we have to make a decision. Either we tell the ladies it’s here and they bust Zach, or we say we didn’t find it, and let matters really get hot in Tulips.”

      “Can’t put ‘Here Lives A Car Thief’ on a town billboard.” Hiram shook his head. “Still, I like the idea of putting one over on the TSG. What crime has Zach committed anyway? It’s good that he likes a girl enough to steal her car.”

      Bug sniffed. “In my day, we sent flowers as a token of our affection.”

      “These are different times,” Hiram said, “as you should know from what the Tulips Saloon Gang regularly put us through.”

      “There is that,” Bug agreed. “We can’t tell on Zach. Bringing the TSG down on his head—well, I couldn’t stand to see that happen to him.”

      “Yeah, they’re still mad at him for his idea to bulldoze the saloon and make an elementary school out of it.” They walked out of the barn and closed the door. “As far as I’m concerned, I never saw a thing,” Hiram said.

      “Nor me.” Bug shook his friend’s hand.

      “My conscience is clear,” Hiram said with satisfaction as they walked away. “I do love keeping secrets from the gals, and tonight, I’ll sleep like a baby with my conscience for a blanket.”

      TO ZACH’S SURPRISE, days passed without any word from Jessie. When the weeks slipped into December and he still hadn’t heard a word from her about her beloved car, he knew he had a big problem on his hands.

      A tulip-pink convertible land yacht wasn’t easy to hide. It was only a matter of time before Duke or Pepper went into that outlying barn for something. Duke was busy with Liberty and the new baby, and Pepper was busy doing whatever she was doing, but time wouldn’t be on Zach’s side forever.

      He couldn’t believe Jessie hadn’t returned for her car. He’d thought he was being so smart, so in control of the situation.

      Of course, he should have known better when Jessie asked the convention security to have him blocked from the site under the guise of it being for women only, a trick she had eerily in common with Pansy and Helen and the other TSG members. He’d hung around until the convention was over but he’d never caught another glimpse of Jessie. The people at the checkout desk had been supremely unhelpful, but he’d finally bribed a young clerk into telling him that the entire mascara-and-lipstick crowd was long gone. The president, the clerk had told him in a whisper, had left by helicopter.

      No wonder he hadn’t seen Jessie escape. He’d only been patrolling the glass-and-brass hotel doors, not the rooftop.

      Maybe she’d never return and he’d have a lifetime souvenir of the one golden afternoon they’d shared. He’d forever remember how he’d worried that she’d give him a child, and she’d given him a vehicle instead. Not to mention that it was a completely inappropriate ride for him to be seen driving, so she’d cornered him in a lose-lose situation that would do nothing except color his reputation pink or get him in deep brown with Duke.

      “Okay, you win,” he muttered under his breath. “Just come get your damn car before Duke finds it.”

      JESSIE LOVED spending the weeks leading up to the holidays on the road. Her job was glamorous and fun. She loved to travel. Meeting people and helping women to look their best was her favorite part of the job, especially at this time of the year. This was her moment to help ladies shine, like ornaments that stayed in storage all year and came out radiant for the holiday season.

      Hopefully, what she taught them stayed with them the rest of the year, too. That hope of helping women was what she’d built her position on at her company, and was the driving factor behind its success today.

      Hot pink was the color of her life.

      Her parents had known that when they’d chosen her car, her promotion gift. No mere heiress’s job, her father had said that her vision held the direction the company needed.

      She looked at her best friend as they sat in the living room of her suite at the world-class hotel her parents owned. Fran Carter was also her secretary and together the two of them had cooked up this year’s special holiday look. It had almost been glittering and fabulous enough to keep her mind off a certain cowboy, but Jessie hadn’t forgotten him despite the miles she’d put between them.

      It would be impossible to forget Zach.

      “So, Jessie T.,” Fran said, curling up on a coffee-colored suede sofa, “we know all about how to cry so your mascara won’t run and your fakies won’t fall off, and how to make things look a helluva lot prettier than they really are. But I don’t know a makeup trick for what you need.”

      Jessie shook her head. “The thing is,” Jessie said slowly, “I think I would have fallen for Zach no matter what. He was pretty smooth for a man who grew up far away from sophisticated surroundings.”

      Fran nodded. “You could call him.”

      “I really can’t,” Jessie said. “If I do, he’ll think I’m just looking for my car.”

      “It was a helluva calling card you left him,” Fran said. “Eventually, he’d understand that your call wasn’t completely about your vehicle.”

      “I’d never met anyone as stubborn as Zach. I’m afraid I didn’t exercise good judgment in leaving him behind. My feet seemed to take flight of their own accord.” No man had ever made her feel that nervous before, and escape had seemed the logical and only action.

      “You’ve always put your job first,” Fran said. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. So you had a fling. It’s completely understandable.” She giggled. “Although out of character, I’ll admit.”

      Jessie looked out the window at the skyline of the city. It was beautiful in Dallas, and she loved living here. But…“This is not where I want to raise a child,” she said quietly.

      “I know,” Fran said. “Which is the real reason he’ll know you calling is not about the car.”

      “His worst nightmare,” Jessie murmured. “He told me so more than once.”

      Fran nodded. “We all have nightmares eventually.”

      Jessie touched her stomach. His nightmare was actually her dream come true.

      At least part of her dream.

      Chapter Six

      It was a cold December this year, with gray twilight skies leading into dark nights. Zach hung candy canes on the Christmas tree in the Forrester living room rather morosely, thinking that Duke’s child was too young to appreciate the decorations, and nobody but him seemed to carry on the holiday spirit.

      Only this year, his holiday spirit had been flagging. Even a visit from the ghost of Christmases past would have livened things up a bit for him.

      The ghost he’d least expected to appear got out of a yellow taxi and turned toward the house, catching him gawking out the window at her. His breath completely left him as Jessie waved hello.

      She’s come to get her car, Zach thought, squashing the relief rushing through him that Jessie had returned to Tulips. The doorbell rang. Zach dashed a hand through his hair, wished he was clean-shaven and decided he didn’t care what had brought her back. He just thanked his lucky Christmas stars he was going to get to lay eyes on her one more time.

      She’d scared him by leaving his pink ransommobile so long without even a call to check up on it.

      He jerked open the door.

      She

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