Christmas in Texas by Rebecca Winters, Tina Leonard Page B

and the fact that
she still hadn’t read Seagal the riot act about poking around her shop for signs
of trafficking. “I’m not happy with you,” she said.
    “Daisy means nothing to me,” Seagal said, reaching out to rest
an arm around her shoulder. “Trust me, she didn’t the day you asked me out.”
    Capri stared into her husband’s eyes. His expression was so
sincere, and it was true that Daisy threw herself at every man.
    Capri had thrown herself at Seagal, too. And she’d never
regretted that, not even when they’d decided their marriage wasn’t going to work
out.
    “This isn’t as exciting as you think it is,” she said. “It just
involves a pump.”
    He grinned. “Sounding kinkier all the time, babe.”
    * * *
    “T HE THING YOU HAVE to understand,” Seagal told
Capri an hour later as he stretched out on the rollaway the nurse had brought in
for him, “is that even if I could leave you on your own, I wouldn’t.”
    The babies had been taken back to the nursery. They weren’t
allowed to be out of preemie care for very long, just long enough to let Capri
express some breast milk while they were in the room. Then the nurses used her
milk in the feeding tubes. Capri longed for the time when she could actually
hold the babies to her breast.
    “What do you mean?” she asked Seagal, distracted by the sight
of her husband stretched out on the bed, distracted by thinking about her
babies, and distracted in general.
    “I’m with you for two reasons. One, a man needs his children.
Two, I’m protecting you. Even if you were fully ambulatory and capable, there
are outstanding reasons you need me.”
    Capri thought about bursting her husband’s bubble but decided
against it. “I know you were snooping around in my shop, Seagal. It’s hard to
trust you when I know you either don’t trust me, or don’t think I would know if
someone was using my shop as a front for some kind of nefarious operation. I
really don’t appreciate it.” She looked over the bed rail at him, annoyed. “So,
did you find anything?”
    He shook his head. “There’s nothing there. I think the floral
arrangements were a random placement opportunity. I mean, the operation was
planned to a T, but it was small-time and hardly professional, where something
more sinister would be. I think we have a case of inside activity rearing its
ugly head in Bridesmaids Creek.”
    “You think local people are involved and that it wasn’t an
outside thing?”
    “Right. At first I was afraid we might have a cartel situation
going on, or a developing gang. Because of the timing, I’m beginning to suspect
that it was opportunistic because of the holidays. Only locals would know our
traditions here.” He looked thoughtful. “As you know, not everybody in
Bridesmaids Creek has the town’s best interests at heart. There are people here
who don’t love the BC legend like most of us do.”
    “You left Bridesmaids Creek. I don’t remember you claiming to
love it before.”
    “I always loved the town and its people. I wanted to move up,
and that meant working in other departments in other places.” He looked
thoughtful. “Opportunities to get promoted don’t come along all the time. I had
to take advantage of what came my way.”
    It was true. She didn’t blame him for that. But there were
moments and words she remembered that were painful.
    “I know you think I left you alone so much because I didn’t
care about you, Capri. That was never the case.”
    “I wanted to believe it wasn’t,” she said softly.
    “Believe it,” Seagal said, his words clipped. “Maybe the timing
wasn’t good.”
    “Probably not.” Capri sighed. The nights had been long. She’d
been busy trying to take over her grandmother’s shop. “We didn’t talk a
lot.”
    He didn’t say anything for a moment. “We might have gotten
married too soon.”
    After he and Daisy had broken up, were the unspoken words. Capri turned her head on her pillow, and put a hand