One Christmas Knight Read Free Page B

was used to seeing Emma with a leather briefcase and in professional attire, not jacket’n’pants pjs, face make-up free. No starch. No barriers.
    While she rummaged inside the bag, he felt the baby’s temp again. “If she’s still warm when she wakes up, we’ll try another bottle. She needs to stay hydrated. Then a luke-warm bath to help cool her down.”
    Crouching beside that bag, diapers and rattles and whatever else littered around her, Emma looked up and searched his eyes. “So, nothing bad. You’re certain.”
    “A temperature is nature’s way of defending against an infection. It’s best to let it run its course as long as it doesn’t reach past a certain point.”
    “I imagined sitting in Emergency, nurses rushing around… I’ve heard so many times, if you’re not sure…”
    “Being a parent sometimes isn’t easy.” He knelt down and found a tube of ointment himself. “But I hear it’s extremely rewarding.”
    Emma stared at him. “I’m not her mother, Damon. I’m her aunt.”
    He’d figured something like that. Which brought him back to…
    “Does this have something to do with that Christmas card you got yesterday?”
    Her laugh was entirely humourless. “That was just the beginning.”
     
    “I have a younger sister―Krystal,” Emma said as they moved into the living room, which was sparsely decorated and super neat, as well. No Christmas tree. No ornaments. Not even a framed photograph on the mantle.
    “We had a major falling out three years ago. My long-time boyfriend dumped me. A month later, he and Krystal were dating.”
    His grin was wry. “Well, hey. No point rushing things.”
    “I understand emotion,” she said. “I get how powerful attraction can feel.” She flicked him a cagey look and got back on track. “But, hard as I try, I can’t understand how she could’ve done that. Krystal was the one I confided in. I trusted her.”
    “The guy sounds like a real prince, too.”
    “I know, I know. I’m better off without him. And, I suppose, so was my sister. He and Krystal had a bust up not long after that.”
    “What goes around comes around.”
    “I want to say I forgive her, and I do. There’s no point hanging onto that kind of pain. But I couldn’t be around her. I didn’t want to be around anyone. Too much time went by. Then, out of the blue, that card arrived. She was supposed to get here Christmas Eve. Instead she showed up late yesterday wanting a favour.”
    There was a man who needed to know he was this baby’s daddy, and Emma’s sister wanted to break the news gently. After three years of radio silence, ‘betrayed big sister’ was asked to look after the package.
    Damon thought of his own family, his three sisters. He’d pogo hop naked down Main Street if any of them would even consider doing such a thing. Immaturity, the powers of romantic love…there was no excuse.
    Emma glanced toward the bedroom and visibly shivered. “I can’t believe I panicked like that,” she murmured.
    “Better to be safe.” When she nodded slowly, still uncertain, he added, “Hey, you’re human.”
    Her lips twitched. “That’s a compliment coming from you.”
    Tempting, but this wasn’t the time for a dig. “What about the realty office?”
    “I’d imagined taking her with me, watching her from my desk and getting on with business. Not so much now.”
    When she cringed, he asked, “Sure you’re okay?”
    “Yes.” She cringed again, harder. “ No .” She took in a steadying breath and held his gaze like she’d come to a mammoth realization. “It’s silly to go on the way we have been. We need to talk about that day. The day you kissed me.”
    “And you kissed me back.”
    She groaned. “Make this easy for me, huh?”
    He cleared his throat. “Sorry. You were saying.”
    “I’ve been avoiding you…being hard-headed…because, frankly, it frightened me.” Her chin lifted. “I’m not looking for a relationship.”
    “You’re still not over