Undercover Christmas

“Remember that fender bender I had last June in Boze-man? It was his truck I ran into.” El smiled at the memory. “He bought me dinner because I was upset. He was so sweet and thoughtful.”

Marni just bet he was.

“He was in town for a few days so we spent them together.”

“In town?”

“He travels a lot, just like me.”

Marni just bet he did. “How few days?”

“Four. And don’t tell me someone can’t fall in love in four days.”

Heaven forbid Marni would even suggest such a thing. Elise could fall in love in four seconds. “He knows about the baby?”

Elise nodded. “He’d been out of town for a while and I was worried about him. When he called in August—” she sniffed “—he said he couldn’t see me anymore. He couldn’t explain. It was complicated, had to do with his father and his family and the way he was raised.”

“So you told him about the baby,” Marni interjected.

Elise shook her head. The waterworks started again and through the crying Marni pieced together the story as best she could. In August, El, heartbroken and feeling heroic, had decided to have the baby on her own and had taken off to London to live the tragic life of a romantic heroine. But her bravado started to fail when her belly started to grow, the play closed and her job ended. Now she was having complications and had flown back to the States where her doctor had prescribed bed rest until the baby was born.

“So when did you tell him about the baby?”

“Yesterday, when I got back. I called his family’s ranch in the Horseshoe Hills. When he came to the phone, he sounded…strange.” Elise chewed her lower lip for a moment. “He acted like he didn’t know me and didn’t know what I was talking about.”

“So,” Marni said, trying to figure out exactly what her sister wanted her to do about all this. “You want me to find you a place to live and someone to come in and stay with you until the baby is born?”

Elise shook her head.

“You want to move in with me?”

Elise shook her head.

Marni let out a silent sigh of relief. As much as she loved her twin, she couldn’t imagine the two of them living under the same roof for more than a short visit. They were too…different.

“You want to go live with Mom?”

“Good heavens, no!” Elise cried.

“Maybe you’d better tell me what it is you want me to do.”

“Take me to see him.”

“Who?” she asked, wishing she didn’t know.

“Chase.”

“Did your doctor say you could go?’” Marni asked and saw from El’s expression that he’d said just the opposite.

“I have to talk to Chase,” Elise cried. “He loves me. I know he does. He said he’s always wanted a baby. Something is wrong or he wouldn’t be acting like this now that he knows I’m pregnant. He’s avoiding me because of his family. His father, Jabe Calloway.”

Marni reminded herself of all the times since grade school her twin had involved her in “sticky situations,” but at the same time she and Elise both knew that Marni McCumber was a registered, card-carrying sucker for anyone in trouble. And her twin was in classic trouble.

“Chase said his father rules the family like a dictator,” Elise cried. “Chase wouldn’t deny his own baby unless he was being forced to. I know if I could just talk to him—”

Marni looked at the lump on El’s lap. All the other times, it had just been Elise in some dilemma. Now there was a baby. Marni’s niece or nephew.

“I’ll call this Chase Calloway and talk to him,” she relented. What could that hurt?

Elise hugged her and provided the phone number at the Calloway Ranch. Marni reached for the phone on the night table and punched in the number.

A woman answered on the third ring. Marni asked for Chase.

“May I tell him what this is in regard to?” she inquired.

“Just tell him it’s urgent that I speak with him. My name is Elise McCumber.”

She could hear a man’s voice in the background. “I’m sorry, Chase Calloway isn’t taking calls,” she said and hung up.

“Well?” Elise asked, eyes wide and hopeful.

“He isn’t taking calls.”

“See, I told you.” Elise started tearing up again. “He’s in terrible trouble. I have to go to him.”

”You’re not going anywhere,” Marni reminded her. “You have to do what’s best for the baby and the doctor said bed rest, right?”

“What am I going to do? I’m trapped here, and who knows what’s happening to Chase.”

Marni tried to assure her Chase was fine, but El wouldn’t hear of it. “Surely this can wait until after Christmas.” Maybe she could talk Elise out of pursuing this man by then. Or maybe Chase would have a change of heart over the holidays. Sure.

“Chase is in trouble,” El cried, her hand going to her stomach. “I feel it.”

Marni seriously doubted Chase was in any kind of trouble. The baby, however, was another matter. She knew her sister, she’d never been good at waiting for anything, especially a man. Elise couldn’t sit still for a few days, let alone two months until the baby was born, before she knew what was going on with this Chase character.

“I’ll go talk to him,” Marni heard herself say. The thought of telling Chase Calloway what a lowdown louse he was definitely had its appeal. Maybe the boutique could survive for one afternoon without her being there. “Where’s his ranch?”

El quit crying. “I’m sure you can find it, but you can’t go there like you are.”

“What?” Marni knew she wasn’t going to like this.

“You have to pretend you’re me, like we used to.”

“What? Do I have to remind you how much trouble we got into, pretending to be each other?”

“But this time it’s different,” El cried. “You have to pretend you’re pregnant or Jabe Calloway will take one look at you, think you’re me and that I lied about being pregnant, and not even let you in the door.”

The last thing Marni wanted to be was pregnant, pretend or otherwise. No thanks. “All I have to do is explain that I’m your twin sister,” Marni said reasonably. “You did tell Chase you have an identical twin, right?”