Not Quite Dating (21 page)

“I’ll never do it again.” He stepped
closer, until the heat of his skin met hers. “I love you, Jessie. The last couple days were sheer hell thinking I’d lost you.”

A smile breached her lips and a single tear fell from her eye. “You better not ever lie to me again.”

Jack scooped her into his arms before bringing his lips to hers. It was a brief kiss, one laced with excitement. “Never again.” He leaned in and kissed her again. This time he angled his head for a much more enjoyable meeting of lips. With insides that were jumping high one minute and low the next, it didn’t take long for Jessie to feel lightheaded. Then again, Jack’s arms were crushing the air out of her lungs.

A small laugh vibrated from her lips to his.

“What?” he asked when he pulled away.

“Can’t. Breathe,” she managed.

Jack loosened his grip. “Sorry.”

“I’m not.”

“I’m not either.”

Lost in his eyes, Jessie felt his love for her in ways she couldn’t describe. Perhaps his test to determine if she loved him would work out for the best in the end. So long as the testing was over.

“I love you,” he told her.

“I love you, too. You make me crazy, but I do love you.”

Jack pulled away suddenly and glanced around the room. Seeing what he wanted, he led her to a chair.

“What are you doing?”

He smiled. “What I should have done in the first place.”

Jack bent down on one knee.

Jessie’s heart leapt up into her neck.

Out of his pocket, Jack removed a small black velvety box.

New tears sprang out of both Jessie’s eyes, and Jack’s face started to blur in front of her.

“Jessica Mann,” he started. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” Jack’s eyes
didn’t waver. He stared hard and held his breath.

Her head started to bob before she could whisper the words. “Yes. I’ll marry you, Jack.”

Jack grasped the back of her head and sealed his proposal with a soul-shattering kiss. Lips, tongue, and a little bit of teeth, and both of them were laughing as they pulled away.

Jack fiddled with the box and lifted her left hand in his.

He slid a band around her ring finger and sat back staring at her.

Jessie dropped her gaze to her hand. “Shut. Up.”

“You like it?”

The air in Jessie’s lungs left and the dizzy feeling she had kissing Jack returned, only this time she literally saw stars. Itty-bitty gasps filled her lungs as she started to hyperventilate.

Knowing little about carats and color, Jessie couldn’t fathom what the rock on her hand had cost.

A stunning solitaire slightly smaller than her thumbnail sat in a round cluster of diamonds that tapered down both sides, circled her finger. It sat in what Jessie assumed was platinum. It was stunning. “It’s gorgeous,” she said with a hoarse whisper.

“There’s a band that goes with it,” he announced.

More? There’s more to it?

“I don’t know what to say.” She lifted her hand and felt the weight of the ring.

“Just say I do, and we’re good.”

Jessie placed her hand to the side of Jack’s face. The stubble on his jaw scratched her hand and she loved the feel of it. “I do. But…”

“But?” Jack grew serious.

A lifetime of teasing him, what could be better than that?

Someone pinch me.

“There is one more person you need to
ask.” She leaned back.

A bemused expression crossed Jack’s face. Then he smiled. “Danny.”

“Right.”

Jack stood and helped her to her feet. “I have the perfect plan for him.”

Bright lights and the sound of Christmas carols playing added to the overall joy in Jessie’s heart.

Jack sat on the floor next to Danny in front of the huge Christmas tree. The day had started in Jessie’s apartment, where they’d showered Danny with gifts. Now, in Jack’s penthouse suite at The Morrison, Jessie and Jack were about to explain some of the changes that were going to take place in Danny’s life.

“What’s in this box?” Danny lifted the gift-wrapped package and began the obligatory shaking of the box.

Smiling, Jack glanced between Jessie and Danny before saying, “Well, that’s a gift for you, your mom, and me.”

“You bought yourself a gift, Uncle Jack?”

“Kind of.”

“Open it, Danny,” Jessie said before moving to sit with the two of them on the floor.

Finding the edge of the paper, Danny ripped through the foil wrap without finesse. Inside a shirt box was a magazine with the title of
Texas
on the cover. Jessie peered closer to see what the publication was about.

“
Homes and Ranches
?” Jessie cocked her head to the side to glance into Jack’s eyes.

He winked at her but focused his attention on Danny.

“What is this for?” Danny handed the magazine to Jessie. The magazine featured homes and ranches for sale in the state of Texas.

“Oh, Jack?”

Jack circled his arm around her shoulders
and pulled her closer. “I love my father’s ranch. He’d be more than happy to share it with us, but I thought this would be better.”

“What would be better?” Danny still had no idea what Jack was getting at.

“Our own place,” Jack told him. “I want us to pick out our new home together.”

Danny’s jaw went slack. “You mean a real house with a yard?”

“With a yard big enough for a barn and horses.”

“And a puppy? Can I get a puppy?” Danny started to bounce on his behind, grinning ear to ear.

Jack ruffled Danny’s hair. “Any animal you can think of.”

“Whoohoo!” Danny jumped to his feet and climbed into Jack’s lap, nearly knocking him over. “Thanks, Uncle Jack.”

A house of our own.
Jessie had a hard time picturing it. In the space of one holiday season, her life had completely changed. Grown.

“Danny, about the
Uncle Jack
…”

Danny stopped hugging Jack long enough to look at him. “Yeah?”

“When your mom and I get married, I can’t be your uncle Jack anymore.”

Danny’s smile fell. A cold chill fell on all of them.

“That’s because Jack will be your dad,” Jessie said quickly.

“My dad?” His little lip started to shake. A confused set of eyes peered up at them.

“I’m new at being a dad, Danny. Do you think you can teach me the ropes?” Jessie grasped Jack’s hand as he spoke.

The uncertainty on Danny’s face worried her.

“My real dad didn’t want me,” he said with surprising fear in his voice. “He left us.”

Jessie’s heart shattered with her little
boy’s words.

Jack pulled her son close. “I’m never going to leave you, Danny. I love you and your mom more than anything in this whole world.”

“Really?”

“Really!”

“Jack wants to adopt you, and then both of us will have a new last name,” Jessie told her son. “Would you like that?”

Danny bobbed his head.

The three of them hugged and Jack wiped away Danny’s tears.

“Do I get to call you Daddy?”

Jack’s smile lit up the room. “I’d love it if you called me Daddy.”

“OK.” Danny sniffled a couple of times before bouncing out of Jack’s lap. He picked up the magazine and thumbed through its pages.

“I think that went well,” Jessie told Jack once Danny had moved away from them.

“He had me worried there for a minute,” Jack confessed. “He looked so scared when I told him I’d be his dad.”

Jessie agreed. “He seldom asked about his real dad. I didn’t realize how much it bothered him.”

“That’s all over with from today on.”

Jessie’s chest felt full again. “I love you, Jack.”

Jack folded her into his arms and kissed her soundly. It seemed he couldn’t keep from touching her. Outside of sleeping, Jack was either kissing her, holding her hand, or touching her knee. It was wonderful.

The sound of knocking pounded from the penthouse door.

“Do you want me to answer the door, Daddy?”

Unexpected tears sprang to Jessie’s eyes.

“That would be great, Danny.” Jessie noticed Jack’s eyes well up.

“Who’s here?” Jessie
asked Jack as he swiped one fallen tear from her cheek.

Jack pulled her to her feet with another cryptic smile. “It’s time you meet the members of your new family.”

Danny opened the door and ran his gaze up the length of Jack’s father’s frame. The man was even more massive than Jessie remembered him. Of course, he was sitting in a chair the last time they’d met. In Gaylord’s hand was a cowboy hat similar to the one he had on his head…only smaller.

“Well, hello there, little partner. You must be Danny.” Gaylord Morrison extended his free hand.

Glancing at it, Danny went ahead and put his tiny palm in the much bigger one.

“You must be my new grandpa?”

Gaylord’s jaw dropped. Then his eyes widened. Jessie knew then where Jack had inherited his dimples.

“I think you’re right.”

“Is that for me?” Danny pointed to the hat.

“Only if it fits.”

Danny stepped closer to the big man and ducked his head so Gaylord could secure the Stetson.

Once properly crowned, Danny rolled his eyes up, trying to see the hat. “Does it fit, Grandpa?”

“Now you look like a Morrison,” Gaylord boasted before he swept Danny into his arms and tossed him in the air.

Danny giggled as Gaylord sat him back down, then lifted his arms. “Again.”

They all laughed.

The elevator outside the suite chimed.

Jessie glanced beyond Gaylord’s shoulder to see who was talking in the hall.

Monica filed into the room with a beautiful
blonde at her side. The two of them had their heads together, and Monica was laughing about something. Jessie’s mom stood beside an older woman Jessie didn’t recognize.

Jack pulled her hand and led her to the party of people filing into the suite.

“Jessie, this is my father.”

Gaylord set Danny down and pulled Jessie into a bear hug. “You don’t know how happy it makes me to see you again.”

Overwhelmed by the man’s embrace, Jessie remembered her curt words to Jack’s father and felt remorseful. “I’m sorry for how we met,” Jessie apologized when Gaylord ended the hug and took a moment to stare at her.

“I’m not,” Gaylord said. “Jack needs a woman like you to keep him straight.”

Jack scowled at his father and continued his introductions. “This is Katie, my sister.”

Katie smiled in greeting. “You’re just like your sister described.”

“My sister? You guys know each other?” Jessie asked Monica.

“Kind of.” There was a story buried in Monica’s cryptic answer.

“What exactly do you mean,
kind of
?”

Monica sucked in her bottom lip. Bad sign. Jessie knew something was off.

“I called Monica after she searched out Jack here at the hotel,” Katie offered.

“You were looking for Jack?” Jessie asked her sister.

The sucking of Monica’s lip turned to chewing. “He disappeared. You were miserable.”

“I told the managers to call me if anyone came to the hotel asking for Jack Moore,” Katie chimed in.

“You did?” Jack glared at his sister with an expression that matched Jessie’s feelings.

“Geez, you two, don’t look so shocked. We were watching
out for both of you.” Katie draped her arm around Monica as she spoke. “If you can’t depend on your family interfering in your personal life, what can you depend on?”

Jack reached for Jessie’s hand and folded it in his. “You have your work cut out for you, darlin’.”

“What do you mean?” Jessie asked.

“Planning a wedding with these two is bound to be like a burr buried in a horse’s saddle.”

Jessie had no idea what a burr in a horse’s saddle was like, but it didn’t sound good.

“Are you trying to say I’m a pain in the ass?” Katie shoved Jack’s shoulder.

“If the shoe fits.” They were both laughing.

“You watch that language, young lady,” the older woman beside Jessie’s mother scolded. “There’s a child in the room.”

Danny’s head was buried in a game he’d set up beside Gaylord and couldn’t have heard a thing.

“Yes, ma’am.” Katie tugged on Monica’s arm. “Come on, sis; let’s talk about bridesmaids’ gowns and what we absolutely have to veto.”

“Turquoise and mauve,” Monica said as they walked away.

Jack let Jessie’s hand go and embraced the woman who’d given Katie the retort. “You look beautiful as ever, Aunt Bea.”

“You’re absolutely glowing.” The woman patted his face when they pulled away. “Seems as if a family is exactly what you needed.”

Jack nodded toward Jessie. “Jessie, this is my aunt Bea.”

“It’s lovely to meet you.”

“A pleasure,” Bea said with a warm smile. The sweet southern accent matched her friendly face.

Jessie remembered the pie conversation and Jack’s praise. “Jack tells me you make the best pecan pie ever.”

Aunt Bea
beamed. “It isn’t bad.”

Jack had met Jessie’s mom the day before when she’d returned with Danny. The two of them greeted each other with a friendly smile.

Jessie’s mom turned to Jack’s aunt. “I never was much of a cook,” Renee explained. “Jessie seems at home in the kitchen more than I ever was.”