Why had they both held back?
It wasn’t as if Dante had plied her with words of love and reassurance, any more than Jess had unleashed her true feelings for him.
Straightening up, she eased her aching back. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t talked, but neither of them was comfortable talking about feelings. They’d both built grief-driven barricades. Was that what those they’d lost would want for them?
Please, please, please! Don’t let it end like this, she begged the fates and anyone else who was listening. Please let me have one last chance to tell Dante how I feel. I promise I won’t shy away from it.
There was no way of predicting, of course, how Dante might respond to that, but as he was hardly likely to be the driver of the vehicle that hardly mattered.
But there was no one in the SUV, and fresh snow had covered any footprints around it. Planting her shovel, Jess flopped down in the snow. Exhausted and dispirited she might be, but she couldn’t spare the time to catch her breath. Getting up again, she resolved to solve the mystery of the abandoned SUV because whoever had been driving was still in danger.
She’d search the whole damn moor if she had to, Jess determined as she stumbled on. Thank goodness she knew the terrain.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘JESS?’
‘Dante!’
Out of the blizzard came a shape: a man—the only man—a powerful, healthy, vigorous life force in a world grown so bleak and frightening even Jess had begun to doubt that it would ever be summer again.
She went rigid at first and then started laughing and crying at the same time, before launching herself at Dante. ‘I can’t believe you’re here! I’m so glad you’re safe!’ Pulling back, she searched his eyes with relief.
‘Believe,’ he said dryly, gently disentangling himself.
‘Were you in the SUV?’ she demanded, swinging around to look over her shoulder.
‘I had that pleasure.’
‘Of landing in a ditch?’ she suggested, laughing with happiness now.
‘That was somewhat unexpected,’ he conceded.
‘So why are you here?’ She was breathless with excitement.
‘I keep asking myself that same question.’
Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. ‘No one arrives on top of the Yorkshire moors in a blizzard without a very good reason. And it’s Christmas Eve,’ she pointed out, ‘so it must have been something big to bring you here.’
Something small, he thought, measuring her fragility against the frozen landscape, but if you added spirit into the mix Jess was a match for any and all conditions.
‘Are you saying I’ve got no excuse to be here?’
‘Not unless you’re hiding the reindeer.’
His lips tugged with the urge to laugh. Suddenly the trip was more than worthwhile. But there was something he had to know. ‘Good surprise, or bad?’
‘Lucky for you that you’re in time to eat with us,’ Jess exclaimed happily without attempting to answer his question.
‘I wouldn’t dream of putting you to that trouble.’
‘No trouble,’ she said, cocking her head to one side to bait him with a grin. ‘We’ve got enough food for an army, so I could do with another mouth.’
‘Dios, no!’ he murmured dryly. ‘I can’t imagine you with another mouth. One is enough to contend with.’
She smiled and relaxed at this. ‘But you will come and join us?’ she pressed.
‘I’d be delighted to join you. Solely in the interest of helping you out on the food front, of course.’
‘Of course,’ she teased back. ‘Great!’ Biting down on her bottom lip, Jess shook her head as she smiled up at him, as if she couldn’t believe the evidence of her own eyes.
The force of Dante’s personality alone was like a blaze of fire in a frozen monochrome landscape. Jess’s feelings were in danger of overflowing. It was as if her world had exploded into a blizzard of happiness. Beyond relieved to have solved the mystery of the missing driver in the stranded SUV, she knew now that nothing could be better than discovering the driver was Dante.
‘You’re safe,’ she marvelled as they walked along.
‘That I am,’ Dante confirmed while she imprinted every rugged detail of his face on her mind.
Of course he was safe. Dante Acosta would never set out on a mission without proper planning first. Hence the backpack and the storm-proof clothing and the tough workmanlike boots. The question was: what was his mission this time? Jess wondered.
* * *
Meeting up with her father and his friends a little way closer to the farm was such a happy reunion. ‘So you found her!’ Jess’s father enthused, slapping Dante on the back as if he’d known him all his life.
‘Have you two met already today?’ Jess asked, cocking her head to one side to study both men.
‘We met in the field where your father was rescuing sheep,’ Dante revealed.
‘And you joined in,’ Jess guessed. Her father confirmed this with his customary grunt that reminded her so much of Dante.
Dipping his head, Dante whispered in her ear, ‘We have to stop meeting like this.’
You have to stop sending shivers spinning down my spine when my father is watching, Jess thought. ‘Suits me,’ she said coolly.
Meaningful glances exchanged between Dante and her father made Jess instantly suspicious. ‘What’s going on?’ she prompted. ‘What aren’t you telling me?’
‘This is no place to linger for a chat,’ her father scolded gruffly.
There was nothing underhand about Jess’s father. If he knew something he spat it out. This behaviour wasn’t like him. She frowned. Her father wasn’t frowning. A smile had spread across his face as he walked along with Dante. It was almost as if he had expected their visitor—if not today, then at some point soon. What weren’t they sharing? Why had Dante come to Yorkshire?
‘We’ll take these sheep back to the barn,’ her father was telling Dante. ‘And then I hope you’ll join us for our first Christmas feast.’
‘I’d love to,’ Dante confirmed.
‘Excellent,’ her father exclaimed, slapping his hands together to keep them warm. ‘With Jess’s cooking I can confidently guarantee you a very happy Christmas!’
‘Happy Christmas to you too,’ Dante echoed with an unreadable glance at Jess. ‘And the best of everything in the New Year.’
‘The New Year’s going to be so much better for us,’ her father enthused. ‘You made sure of it,’ he told Dante.
How had Dante made sure of it? The sale of the ponies would only take them so far. Jess didn’t have chance to think it over as the group of men with her father chorused in a shout, ‘Happy Christmas!’
* * *
Having seen the sheep safely gathered in, they ended up at the packed pub where, as Jess might have expected, her father invited everyone back to the farm. Steam rose from their clothes as the roaring log fire did its work. While the general air of celebration and good-humoured complaints about the weather rang out around her, Jess’s focus was all on Dante. He bought a round of drinks for everyone and was soon swapping stories with the best. Not once did he let on that his life was extraordinary, and though the locals might have known he was a polo-playing billionaire, as far as they were concerned he’d helped them save the sheep, and that made him one of them.
It was wonderful to have Dante here in the place she loved best. And at Christmas, Jess’s favourite time of year. Most important of all, he was safe. Why he’d come to the village didn’t matter. All she cared about was that they were together. Dante was the best Christmas gift of all.
* * *
The farmhouse kitchen was almost as crowded as the pub and definitely as noisy, and in all the right ways. He was instantly struck by the warm and homely atmosphere Jess had created. She was special. This was special. With
enough delicious food to feed an army and an assortment of chairs and stools gathered from who knew where, she soon had her visitors munching happily.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said as she squeezed past with yet another oven dish brimming with crunchy golden roast potatoes. ‘This can’t be what you’re used to.’
She was gone before he had chance to tell her that this was so much better than anything he had, and that he envied everything about it. No Michelin starred restaurant could better the happy family atmosphere Jess had created here.
He’d never eaten food like it, and he prided himself on his chefs. If the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach Jess had the route map down. They didn’t have chance to speak as Jess was so busy, but he pounced on the cue when a rather attractive widow from a neighbouring farm invited her father over. ‘I’ve got a room at the pub,’ he told Jess, ‘if you’d care to join me for a nightcap?’
‘Why, Señor Acosta,’ Jess challenged with a smile, turning her bright eyes up to his, ‘are you propositioning me?’