A Very Merry Christmas: WITH "Do You Hear What I Hear" AND "Bah Humbug, Ba by Lori Foster, Janice Maynard, Gemma Bruce Read Free Book Online Page A

and gave it a squeeze. “Having Christmas without her just doesn’t feel right.”
    When he retreated again, she felt the loss, both physical and emotional, deep inside herself. “Maybe it’d be easier if you had someone around to…you know, maybe deflect the memories.” Marci knew she lacked subtlety, but she couldn’t bear the thought of him spending Christmas alone.
    Osbourne grunted. “Sharing holidays with women gives them the wrong idea. It puts too personal a slant to things. Women start thinking you’re committed to them, whether you are or not.”
    “Committed?”
    He worked his jaw a minute, then shrugged one heavy shoulder, as if deciding it didn’t matter what he shared. “I had one friggin’ holiday with a woman, and she thought we’d get married or something. I told her nothing had changed, that I liked her but I wasn’t in love with her.”
    “I take it she reacted badly?”
    His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I’d always known Ainsley was a little screwy, but after that, I realized she was certifiable. She did everything she could to harass me. She kept calling me at home and at work. She dropped in unannounced. She stalked me, hoping to catch me with another woman. When I told her to back off, she…”
    “What?”
    “Claimed she was pregnant.”
    “Oh.” Dread settled in Marci’s belly. “You’re a father?”
    “No.” After a deep breath, he said, “It’s a long story, and I won’t go into details, but for months, she put me through hell. She was pregnant, she wasn’t pregnant. She’d had an abortion, she hadn’t had an abortion. It was mine, it wasn’t mine. I had no idea what to think. When I considered being a father…I dunno. I took to the idea. And then she’d say she’d aborted the baby, just to see my reaction. And the next day she’d tell me she lied, that she was still pregnant, but not by me. She ranted and raved and drove me nuts.”
    “How did it finally get resolved?”
    “After a few months, when she would have started showing if she was in fact pregnant, she found some new schmuck to torment.” He shook his head. “She wanted to make sure I didn’t ruin things for her, so she confessed that she’d made it all up.”
    “Dear God.” Marci now understood, but she almost wished she didn’t.
    He thought she was another Ainsley.
    “Since then, I’ve kept things simple. Limited dating—with very rational women.”
    “And no holidays?”
    His frown eased away. “Most of the women I know aren’t the type to enjoy a quiet Christmas at home.”
    Forget subtlety. “I would enjoy it.”
    Mouth quirking in a half-smile, he said, “Yeah, you made that clear.”
    Still, he didn’t invite her to join him, and she slouched back in her seat, disgruntled. “But I’m a vindictive flake, right? Way too cruel to have hanging around.”
    His frown took the chill out of the air. “Don’t put words in my mouth.”
    “Why not? Kooky is kooky, right? You’ve seen one, you’ve seen ’em all.”
    “I didn’t—” Osbourne huffed, glanced in the rearview mirror, then at his directions. He switched lanes. “Look, let’s start this debacle over, okay?”
    Now he called their time together a debacle? Worse and worse. “Start over how?”
    “Forget the past. From this second on, we’ll just play it by ear. One thing at a time.”
    She supposed she could do that. “The donkey first?”
    “Right. Hopefully this is where he belongs and we can be heroes by returning him, then we’ll head home.”
    Marci wondered whose home he meant, but she decided not to push her luck. “Deal.”
    “Great.” From one minute to the next, the snow turned to frozen sleet, hammering the windshield and making travel more treacherous. Osbourne eased off the highway on the next exit. “Help me look for Riley Road.”
    The wipers could barely keep the ice off the windshield, even with the defroster going full blast. They’d slowed to a crawl with visibility