Read Online Christmas in Texas by Rebecca Winters, Tina Leonard - Free Book Online Page A

her bedroom before
she’d spied that the door to the nursery was closed.
    “Why is that door shut?” Capri demanded.
    “To keep the warm air out here in the hall,” Seagal said,
knowing very well his quick-thinking wife wasn’t going to buy that lame
excuse.
    She went to the nursery, pushing open the door. “Oh, my
goodness!”
    It was a baby wonderland, if he did say so himself. He waited
for Capri’s reaction to the amazing nursery that had bloomed in her absence.
    “Did you do all this?” she asked, moving into the room, gently
running her hands over the two new white cribs.
    “The nursery I cannot take credit for. I wouldn’t know the
first thing to buy babies.”
    “Footballs,” she said, smiling, moving to touch the soft
blankets in each crib and the mobiles hanging overhead.
    “Okay, I wouldn’t know the first practical thing to buy babies. Mrs. Penny and your mother had a
little baby shower in here. I guess that’s what you’d call it. The folks from
the Boo in the Night Society, the Honeymoon Hotel, the Wedding Diner, Mosey
Montgomery’s Etiquette and Cotillion, the Wed & Bed B&B, and even the
sheriff’s Murder, He Votes club came by. It was a houseful.” He smiled. “The
Murder, He Votes guys put together the cribs and hung the curtains, fixed
mobiles and baby swings. The heavy lifting.”
    He watched his wife continue to walk around the room, examining
each bit of baby paraphernalia with a smile. It was good to see Capri happy.
Ever since he’d come back to town and figured out a way to move into the house
with her, it seemed she hadn’t smiled much. Of course, she hadn’t felt much like
smiling, maybe—she’d once said she felt as if she’d swallowed a Christmas
turkey—and she’d been anxious about the babies once the doctor put her on bed
rest.
    It was good to see her smile.
    “The ladies weren’t sure what colors you wanted. They left
receipts for everything, in case you wanted to swap any of the—”
    “It’s perfect.” She turned to him, her eyes shining. “Nothing
will need to be swapped. I’m so grateful for all of our friends.”
    He started when she said our. He
couldn’t remember Capri speaking of them as an “our” in the past couple of
weeks. It felt good.
    But he didn’t want to spook her, so he merely said, “If I don’t
get you in bed, I’m going to get in trouble with Doc.”
    She looked around the nursery one last time. “Thank you,
Seagal. Even though you’re not admitting that you did any of this, I’m pretty
sure you had a hand in it.”
    He warmed under her appreciation. “Well, I did take a lot of
pictures. Your mother is going to start a baby photo album for you.”
    Capri smiled. “Thank you. For everything.”
    He nodded. “You’re welcome.”
    She didn’t say anything else as she walked past him down the
hall. He glanced around the nursery one last time, taking in all the amazing and
beautiful things their friends had bought for the babies.
    He so badly wanted to be here every night of the babies’ lives,
watching over them, taking care of them.
    He turned off the light and closed the door.

Chapter Seven
    When the babies finally came home two days before
Christmas, Seagal was amazed by how much different the house felt. The house
literally changed.
    “You can’t believe the difference,” he told Jack. “It’s like
the house is magical now or something. It’s beautiful. I thought it would be
panic and craziness—and it is—but mostly, it just feels so awesome.”
    Jack raised a beer to him in the Wedding Diner. “Makes you
think, doesn’t it?”
    Seagal wasn’t sure he’d been doing much thinking. Right now he
was more into feeling. With the babies and Capri,
everything was open and new and exciting. “The divorce will be final the day
after Christmas. Yes, the court does have office hours that day, despite the
holiday season. I’m going to have to face a Grinch in a black robe and sign off
from my marriage.”
    Jack