Christmas Eve Delivery by Connie Cox

Author:Connie Cox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

AS THE NEXT few days turned into weeks, Deseré and Jordan fell into an easy working relationship.

So Deseré’s world was half-good. If only their personal relationship was as easy.

But personal experience had taught her that half-good was better than no good.

The gossip going around in town seemed to increase business instead of diminish it. Everyone was grateful to have medical facilities operating in Piney Woods so they only whispered behind her back. And some of the town’s people had even gone out of their way to be friendly. Deseré suspected she had Nancy with her strong community ties to thank for that. And maybe the town wasn’t as strongly against Jordan as they once had been, or as he’d thought they were.

She rubbed her belly, feeling the weight of baby James as she felt the weight on her mind. How hard was it to say, “Jordan, I’m pregnant.”?

How hard was it to talk about her sister? To say aloud how alone she felt? To give voice to all her uncertainties and fears?

No. Easier to swallow all that down.

Time would make the telling unavoidable. But until then she would continue to do her job, make herself indispensable and save as much as possible for a future too murky to plan for beyond the next few weeks or months at most.

Once Deseré had gotten used to the way the office ran, they had split up the workload.

Jordan worked Mondays and Fridays with half-days the rest of the week. Deseré wasn’t quite sure what he did with his time off. He seemed to spend quite a bit of it at his ranch. But whatever he did, the lines around his mouth and the dark circles under his eyes seemed to be fading a bit.

Deseré worked Tuesday through Saturday with Mondays off. On the days when Jordan wasn’t working Nancy would regale Deseré with stories of his youth. Wild was a description Nancy often used.

But to Deseré’s ears the stories had an edge to them, as if there was more behind Jordan’s reckless behavior than a wild nature. Or maybe that’s just what she wanted to hear.

She was all too aware that she had a bit of hero-worship for Jordan. What woman wouldn’t when the man she lived with cooked supper? And on many nights when he could tell she’d had a particularly trying day, he did the dishes, too.

While their arrangement sounded cozy, they were fraught with underlying tension. Tension that would often awaken Deseré from her sleep. Tension that would make her yearn to feel Jordan’s lips on her mouth. His hands on her thickening waist. His heart pounding beneath her ear as she laid her head on his chest. Dreams that would never come true.

Because that gentle, almost-there kiss had been a fluke. A moment out of time. And now, all these weeks later, he’d probably forgotten all about it.

Which was a good thing, right?

Not able to ignore the urge any longer, Deseré stumbled out of bed for the second time in so many hours, feeling as if her bladder was the size of an English pea.

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