Her Baby's First Christmas. SUSAN MEIER
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frowned. He had driven it in five days. If he were to drive Elise, that would cut her trip nearly in half and get her out of the bus filled with passengers who didn’t want her. On top of that, those five days of driving would delay his arrival. He wouldn’t have to spend three weeks in a city that only reminded him of what he lost. He’d have a delay in seeing, hearing, smelling things in New York that would remind him of better days. Perfect days. The perfect life that slipped through his fingers. And then he could cut another five days off because he’d have to drive back to L.A.
He shook his head in bemusement. As good as that sounded, it was a bad idea. Not only was Elise going to North Carolina, hundreds of miles south of New York City, but how would he explain it to his parents? Out of the blue he’d decided to drive a neighbor the whole way to North Carolina for the holidays? Then for sure they’d think he was insane.
He watched Elise step out of the line, holding her ticket and for a second he envied her. Relief showed on her face, but of course, that mood wouldn’t last. Once the busload of passengers got fed up with her and her baby, she’d be miserable.
But he couldn’t simply offer her a ride. Even if they agreed to find a bus station for her in whatever city their paths separated, he still had to have a reason for driving instead of flying—one that didn’t sound like an obvious stall tactic to his parents.
Elise walked up to him and opened her arms for her baby. “What happened?”
“She cried.”
“Ah, she bullied you into picking her up.”
“That’s exactly what it felt like.”
“Well, your time of duty is up.” She smiled at him. “I’m sorry if I was a bit brusque before. I’m nervous about this trip.”
He glanced at his feet. “It’s all right.” He raised his gaze to meet hers. “I’m nervous about my trip, too.”
“So we have a little in common after all.”
“Yeah. That and Michael Feeney.”
“Michael’s been a good friend to me.”
Jared nodded. “Me, too.” He smiled at her, glad to have assuaged her worry over her missing the taxi by driving her to the bus station. “Have a nice trip.”
“And you have a safe flight.”
Jared nodded and turned to go at the same time that the loudspeaker crackled to life. “Ladies and gentlemen, we regret to inform you that trip number—”
The loudspeaker squeaked and crackled and Jared didn’t hear the number, but it didn’t matter. He headed for the wide, double-door entrance.
“—Final destination Raleigh, North Carolina, has been postponed due to mechanical difficulties and has been rescheduled for tomorrow at ten.”
Elise glanced down at her ticket, then squeezed her eyes shut. For heaven’s sake! Inheriting her grandmother’s house was supposed to be her lucky break. Yet everything that could go wrong with this trip was going wrong. What was she supposed to do for twenty-four hours in a bus station with a baby? Maybe she could get a ticket for the next bus?
She had the idea at the same time as everybody else in the bus station. Package-laden passengers jammed the ticket window.
She stared at them in dismay, until someone grabbed her arm and turned her around.
Jared.
He let go of her arm and rammed his fingers through his thick black hair. His gray eyes circled the complex as if the last thing he wanted to do was look at her. But eventually his gaze swung around, caught hers and held it.
“Is that your bus?”
“Yes, but don’t worry about it. I’ll call a cab and go to a hotel. Michael’s home. So I can’t go back to his condo. But Molly and I will be fine.”
“Not really.” He turned her to face the line of passengers mobbing the ticket window. “When your baby cried, those three women over there gave me dirty looks.” He turned her slightly to the right. “See that guy in the gray topcoat who looks like he has vodka for breakfast? When Molly fussed, he slammed his newspaper on the bench. They don’t want to be riding with a kid who is most likely going to cry at least part of the way.”
As Jared spoke, the noise and bustle of the bus terminal pressed in on Elise. She expected the trip to be long and boring. She even anticipated that people would get restless, maybe even edgy, but she hadn’t factored in their reactions to a fussy baby. She was about to spend eight days on a bus with a six-month-old who would probably cry most of the way. Forget about her own misery. It would be eight days in hell for everybody who rode with them.
She faced Jared again. “Why do you care?”
“I was thinking that maybe we should ride together.”
“You’re flying.”
“I was flying. Looking at the schedule over there, I decided that I want to drive instead.”
“Right. You want the trip to take a week instead of a few hours.”
“Actually I do.” He combed his fingers through his hair again. “Look, I’ll take you as far as I can until you have to head south, then I’ll help you find a bus station.”
The deal sounded like a good one, but it had also sounded perfectly logical when Patrick told her he was going upstate to look for work after she told him she was pregnant. Michael was the only person she’d dared to trust in months, and that trust had been hard won. She might have made the mistake of trusting Patrick too easily, but she wouldn’t do it again.
“No, thanks. I’m fine.”
He drew an annoyed breath. “Look, I don’t want to spend four weeks in New York with my parents badgering me about my life. Reading that schedule I figured out that I could shave ten days off my trip if I drove.”
She sighed. “Either your life is more pathetic than mine, or that’s a lame excuse to hide the fact that you feel sorry for me.”
He laughed. “Honey, if you think I feel sorry for you, then you don’t know me very well. I only do good deeds as penance. And right now I don’t have anything to make up to you. I did my good deeds for the time I yelled.”
Elise thought about that for a second, and then she smiled. “Your life is more pathetic than mine.” She shook her head. “You want to drive home, but you can’t just decide to drive. You need an excuse for your parents.”
He gave her a blank look. “Didn’t I just say that?”
“Sort of, but not really.” She laughed. “Molly and I are your excuse. You’re going to tell your parents that you’re driving a new mom and her baby home because their bus was canceled and they’re not going to question that.”
Again, he said nothing. But he didn’t have to. His bland expression confirmed her suspicion.
Elise glanced around the noisy bus station. Facing a day’s wait and not wanting to spend money on a hotel room, Elise was more than tempted to accept his offer.
She turned to him again. “How do I know I can trust you?”
“Trust me?”
“Yeah, how do I know you’re not going to leave me along the side of the road or something?”
“Why would I do that when you already figured out that I need you?”
She sighed in exasperation. “Because my mother warned me about getting into cars with strangers.”
“I’m not a stranger. We’ve seen each other at least once a week waiting for the elevator.”
“Yeah, and we’ve never spoken.”
“Fine. If you’re concerned, call Michael. He’ll