A Town Called Christmas

Plink. The penny dropped.

Click. Pieces came together.

He stepped back, needing to see what he’d somehow, incredibly, managed to miss up until now.

“Meredith.”

She looked straight at him, nodding a little.

“You’re pregnant.”

Her hands went to the bulge beneath her sweater. It was a small one, not so difficult for a distracted man to miss. Still, he felt like a half-blind Mr. Magoo, groping for soda-bottle glasses.

“Yes,” she said in such a smooth yet sharp-edged voice that his vision snapped back into crystal clarity. “I am pregnant. Expecting, as they say.” Her mouth flattened. “In a delicate condition.”

She might have warned him. Her, or Nicky, or—

Oh, hell. Mike stopped the excuses. He had only himself to blame for falling for her in the span of a single evening.

She had pulled her coat closed again and was standing rigid beneath the neon glow of the Christmas lights, her head held at an awkward angle as she studied him for a reaction.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” He summoned up a reckless grin to deflect his sense of shock and, yes, disappointment. “Fool me twice.”

CHAPTER FOUR

MERRY THRUST HER HANDS into her pockets and strode along the driveway, kicking up clumps of downy snow. Cold air lodged in her lungs, and she huffed, hurrying faster and faster. Puffs of vapor floated from her mouth.

She heard Mike behind her. “Wait for me.”

“I’m fine.” She raised her fists and pumped her arms. Any other time, she’d have given him more of a run for his money. Well, perhaps not any other time. A few months from now, she’d be waddling.

He caught up and took her arm. “It’s really dark out here.”

“That’s how it is in the country.” There were no lampposts or streetlights, even at the main road. The lights from the farm house had been reduced to winks and blinks among the trees.

Mike slowed, his head tilted back. “But, man, take a look at those stars.”

She resisted his friendliness. “I’ve seen them.”

He kept hold of her. “Indulge me. I’m a city boy.”

“Don’t give me that.” She stopped anyway, trying not to breathe too hard. “You’ve seen stars before, and closer than most of us get.” She thought of him at the controls of a strike fighter, zooming toward a midnight heaven, and felt a thrum on her heartstrings.

“Sure, but they look different here.”

“How so?” She tipped her head back, taking a deep breath as she gazed at the black sky dotted by a zillion diamond-chip stars. The Milky Way was especially sharp and vivid.

Merry’s defensiveness abated. Mike’s easy way, even when she’d been snippy, was a comfort.