she said, “are you in shock?”
“Yes.”
She sighed. “I thought so. I’ve been a bundle of nerves because I knew how mad you’d be.”
“Well, I am mad,” he said, “but I’m not going to be upset in front of the children.”
“The children?”
“Yes.” He put a protective hand on her stomach. “They need to know from day one that they’re loved, anticipated and cherished. Our family is very close, in our own oddly special way.”
She looked at him. “So the reason you’re acting so nonchalant is that you’re faking it for the children?”
“Faking it doesn’t sound right.” He touched her carefully constructed eyelashes. “From now on, I don’t want you wearing any more of this goo around me.”
“I make my living with this goo,” she said, and he nodded.
“I make my living with bulls and things, but I’m not going to make you look at them all the time. I prefer natural skin on my woman.”
“Zach, I am not your woman. I will never be your woman,” Jessie said. “I don’t even know you.”
“That’s going to be a problem,” Zach said, “since I am your prince charming. Your knight in shining armor.”
“I don’t need the platitudes of fairy tales,” she said hotly, making Zach laugh.
“Okay, we’re stuck with each other for life,” he said. “How’s that for relationship lingo? When we’re at the boys’ soccer matches, we’ll introduce each other as ‘this is the person I’m stuck with forever.’ People won’t talk, I’m sure. Not in Tulips.”
He wasn’t going to make her life easy. Racing ahead into the future, thoughts of Zach made her brain whirl. Ever since the thin blue line had shown up on her pregnancy test, and the super-shocking news of a double pregnancy had been confirmed by her doctor, Jessie had been holding her breath. Trying to think how to tell a man she barely knew that he was going to be a father. She hadn’t thought of baby names, nor soccer games, nor what the two of them would be to each other. She’d dreaded having to tell him, but since she knew his worst fear—that he’d be a father and his children would never know him—she wanted him to know as fast as she could tell him. Dealing with all the other consequences she’d put on the back burner.
He had the pot on the front burner, turned to full boil. Strangely, he didn’t seem to mind the heat. “I thought you’d be scary about this.”
“I’m going to be scary in a little while,” Zach said easily. “When I have to tell Pansy and Helen, I’ll probably be at my worst. They’re going to be so pleased.” He gave her a wry glance. “My brother the sheriff says he wants the town to grow organically, which is not quite what the Gang wants. They’re going to love the fact that they’re getting two little organic sprouts out of one Forrester. They’ll say it serves me right, and then smile into their fragile little teacups.”
“I don’t understand.”
He shook his head. “Just be prepared for the Gang to give you a very large baby shower.”
“I don’t want that,” Jessie said quickly. “Can’t we come to an agreement about this?”
A frown crossed his face. He stared down at her, his brows knit tightly together. “Agreement?”
She swallowed. “Um, a custody agreement?”
“No,” he said, his gaze like dark glass, “and never talk like that in front of the children again. Ever.”
ZACH WAS MORE SURPRISED than he let on to Jessie about his impending fatherhood. But he wasn’t surprised this was happening. The moment he’d seen her, he’d known she would change his life—and she had.
They didn’t even know each other, and what he did know about her signaled a bumpy road ahead. She was flighty. He was methodical. She was spoiled. He was hardworking.
Those differences were just the beginning. He looked at her, imagining her with a big, round belly, and wanted to rub his hands with glee. Twins! It was a Christmas miracle as far as he was concerned, and he wanted this new phase in their relationship to start well. He wasn’t saying one thing to upset her. “Were you planning on telling Helen and Pansy? Is that why you really wanted to go into town?”
“I…don’t know.” She put her keys into her purse and sat back down. “I know I was planning on telling you. That’s all I knew.”
“So you’re moving out here with me,” he said, leaning against a wall, quickly trying to devise a plan. “Or I’m moving somewhere with you.”
“No,” Jessie said. “We’re not moving anywhere, at least not together.”
He frowned at her. “Look. We’re not throwing away what we did as just an afternoon of freebie sex. We need to become closer.”
She appeared to shrink into her coat. “I don’t understand you. I know that this is your worst fear come true.”
“Yeah.” He scratched under his hat. “Funny how it doesn’t seem that bad now that it’s happened. If that was my life’s biggest fear, maybe I never had anything to be really afraid of.”
She smiled. “You’re not going to say that I tried to trap you?”
“Did you?”
“No!”
He laughed. “Oh, come on. Leave a guy with a little ego.”
She stood. “I’m not interested in your ego. I would never cling to a man, or trap him, or—”
“Jessie,” he said softly, reaching for her hand to calm her down, “when I met you, you were hot-footing it away from a boyfriend or ex-fiancé or husband or something. You’re clearly not the kind of woman who lets men influence her life. I know you’re a big shot in your company and that you’re more likely to wear pants than panty hose. I get it, okay? Don’t keep worrying that I think you’re some thimble-brained woman who can’t take care of herself.”
“Thimble-brained?”
“Those things Pansy and Helen are always using to sew with and stuff.”
She nodded. “Nice analogy.”
He gave her a wry look. “I know you’re not ready to walk down the aisle with me. You can relax. The electric fence you’ve got up around you is shooting sparks at me.”
She sighed. “I don’t mean to be so uneasy.”
“Well, don’t get too comfortable, either,” Zach said, grinning. “I don’t want to be taken for granted now that you’ve gotten what you wanted from me.”
“Zach!”
He crossed his boots and stared at her. “You did say you had planned to get pregnant as soon as possible
