Page 28 of Planes, Trains, and Candy Canes

“We have to drop the keys anyway, or we're going to get in legal trouble.” Reese sealed the envelope with a flick of her tongue. She loved the way Derrick blushed watching her.

She bit her bottom lip and trotted to the rental agency’s door to slip the envelope with the keys into the secured lockbox. Thanks to a short traffic delay where the on-ramp to their Baltimore exit was down to one lane, she had proven just how“adventurous” she could be while the car was parked and the tinted windows offered a semblance of privacy.

“We’ve got everything. We just have to get a ticket—or a later train and another hotel room,” Derrick urged, his breath billowing out like a cloud of fog as he shivered in the underground lot.

They hurried up the stairs and into the surprisingly beautiful station with its grey columns and ornate

ceiling with circles within circles of intricate windows. “This would be a nice place to come sometime when we’re not rushing like escaped convicts with the police hot on our trail,” Derrick panted, following her and dragging her suitcase behind him.

“I know, right?”

“We could make it a weekend away? See the aquarium?” Derrick suggested.

“Yes. When it’s warmer. Too many years in California have turned me into a thin-blooded bundle of hypothermia. Especially since I have to take this off.” Reese paused at the entrance to the station to pull off her Santa Gator sweatshirt. “My jacket is God knows where. Probably circling the baggage carousel in Gainesville,” she sighed, rolling the shirt into a compact bundle.

“What are you doing?” Derrick watched her with wide eyes, jaw hanging open.

Reese knew he’d figured it out already, but she kind of enjoyed the gobsmacked look on his face when she tucked the sweatshirt down the front of her leggings and pulled her t-shirt over it. “Hmm. Kinda see-through. I need your jacket.”

Without a word, Derrick handed it to her.

She zipped it up, smoothed it down, and smiled serenely. “What do you think?” She cradled the watermelon-sized lump on her middle lovingly.

“You look like you’re going to pop any minute.”

“Good. Now get me a water bottle. I’m going to go get us tickets.”

“God... Okay. If you get us arrested for impersonating parents-to-be, I’m not taking you out to the movies. I’ll take you to a boring lecture on how to be a better bookkeeper or something.”

“I don’t think impersonating a pregnant lady is a crime,” Reese shrugged, but when Derrick raced to the nearby vending machine to retrieve a bottle of water, she let out a shaky breath. “At least, I hope it isn’t,” she muttered under her breath.

DERRICK STOOD BEHINDReese, licking his lips. Not just because he was staring at her bottom and thinking about how he’d gripped her petite cheeks as she was riding his face, grinding her sweet, hungry tunnel against his tongue.

No, his mouth was suddenly as dry as his Aunt Ethel's fruitcake as he watched Reese loosen the cap on the water bottle and slide it down deep into the pocket of his jacket.

“Hi, we need two tickets on the A-29, Baltimore to Manhattan,” Reese said, panting and waddling the last few steps to the ticket window, her belly pushed forward.

The man at the window looked puzzled and tapped his keyboard, then his headset. Derrick supposed most people got their tickets online, or even at the automated machines scattered on the wall of the train station.

What if you can’t even buy tickets in person anymore, he thought, swallowing another mouthful of Sahara.

“Uhhh. Miss, that train leaves in ten minutes, and it’s full. Now, there’s a train leaving at four for Philly, and you can make a stop at the 30th Street Station—”

“Ugh!” Reese gave a sudden loud groan and clutched her belly. “Honey, I think the baby—really wants to meet Grandma and Grandpa tonight,” she laughed nervously.

Behind the counter, the clerk’s eyes began to dart. “Uhhh. There’s a car rental place just next door, connected to the station, actually.”

“They’re closed on Christmas day. We don’t have a car. We urgently need to get on that train. Our obstetrician is at a hospital that’s just a few stops up the line,” Reese smiled, still panting and grimacing.

Derrick took her hand and put a protective hand on the bundle of sweatshirt that was supposed to be a baby.

My baby. My baby with Reese.

Suddenly, it didn’t even feel like acting. “Sweetheart, let me get the tickets. You’re due any day, and you need to sit down. Get off your feet.”

“No, honey, I’ll be fine until we can—ooo!—get on the train,” she said with another brave grimace.

“Like I said, there’s a certain number of tickets we’re allowed to sell to ensure that we don’t go over maximum occupancy—”

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