The Doctor's Texas Baby

by Deb Kastner

  All the crepe paper and banners were in various colors of green, since spring was Gran’s favorite season. Accents were in sparkling silver and gold. The room really did look amazingly transformed. Carolina had spent hours making sure everything was just right.

  They had invited most of the staff from the boys ranch, and many of the residents of the nursing home were milling around. Most of the elderly population had no idea it was Gran’s one hundredth birthday, or even who Gran was, but they were up for a party.

  And so, thankfully, was Gran. She was using a wheelchair today, but that didn’t matter, since she was the center of attention. Matty, sporting a navy blue suit and a red bow tie, was entranced by the wheelchair and toddling around with Gran. She, in turn, was delighted by the boy.

  “Are you ready to blow out the candles on your cake?” Carolina asked, wheeling Gran toward the table with a tiered cake. “Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, just as you like it. We’ve even got chocolate ice cream.”

  Wyatt hushed the crowd and then led off a round of “Happy Birthday.” Carolina chuckled at his off-key rendition and he laughed with her. He loved to see her happy.

  He loved her.

  Enough to let her go, if that was what she truly wanted. Once he’d calmed down from learning of Carolina’s plans to go back to school, he’d realized she was a different person than the one who’d left him before. He didn’t know anything for certain in this crazy world his life had turned into, but he trusted Carolina. She would let him be a part of Matty’s life.

  But he wanted so much more than that, and there was no time like the present to tell her so. He had an engagement ring—the one he’d purchased for her three years ago—burning a hole in his pocket.

  Sink or swim was an understatement.

  He found his moment and pulled Carolina aside.

  “When are you planning on leaving?” he asked in a ragged whisper.

  She straightened her shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. “I’m not.”

  “You should.”

  “I should?” Her eyes widened and color rushed to her face. “Why? I mean, it’s kind of pointless, isn’t it?”

  Wyatt felt like he’d lost track of the conversation. “I don’t understand.”

  She shrugged. “All that matters is that I’m staying. So you can be with Matty.” She didn’t sound enthused about it.

  He framed her face in his hands. “That’s not all that matters, Carolina. If you need to go back to school to make yourself happy, then I want you to know I support you in that.”

  “You do?”

  “Well, of course, if that’s what you want. We’ve made a real success of coparenting that way.”

  She cringed when he mentioned coparenting.

  “I had already decided to stay in town, even before you approached me just now.”

  Relief flooded through him, but he couldn’t get past the niggling notion that something else was wrong.

  “I found a business school where I can take all my classes online.”

  “You want to go into business?”

  “I want to keep working for you.”

  “You do?” Now he was the one asking.

  “That was always the plan. I was going to go back to school to become a certified medical office assistant. But I didn’t speak to you about it first. How presumptuous of me. And I couldn’t leave knowing I would disrupt your relationship with Matty.”

  Wyatt couldn’t hold back his grin. She wasn’t going to leave. It was almost the best news she could have given him.

  So why didn’t she look happy about it?

  Maybe...just maybe...

  His nerves were crackling and his heart was beating double time.

  “The party is great. My gran is really happy.”

  She looked startled at the sudden change of topic, but after a moment she went with it. “I’m glad for her.”

  Wyatt caught Johnny’s attention. The teenager was playing with Matty, and Wyatt motioned them both to join him, laughing and scooping Matty up into his arms.

  “I’ve got to say, it looks like you’ve thought of just about everything where this party is concerned,” he murmured close to Carolina’s ear.

  “Just about everything? What did I miss?” She cast her gaze around the room before her eyes returned to Wyatt.

  Wyatt shoved his hand into his pocket and withdrew the diamond solitaire.

  “This.” His throat closed around the word.

  Carolina’s beautiful golden-brown eyes widened and her hand went to her neck. Matty grabbed for the shiny ring, but Wyatt laughed and held it out of his reach.

  “This one is for your mama, big guy.”

  “I—you—”

  “You’re stuttering w-worse than m-me,” Johnny teased.

  “That’s okay,” Wyatt said, chuckling. Hoping. Praying. “All you have to say is yes.”

  “Yes,” she whispered and held out her left hand so he could slide the ring on her finger. “But I thought—I thought—”

  He laughed. “I can see that.”

  “You said we weren’t a couple.”

  “No. You said we weren’t a couple. And I’m fixing that little oversight right now. I realized after I had time to think about it that even if you were leaving town to return to school, you’d never leave me again. Not the way you did the first time. I trust you, Carolina. And I love you. It’s not enough for us to coparent Matty. I want us to be a real family.”

  “I won’t be on the outside looking in.”

  “No, sweetheart, you won’t be,” he assured her, his voice husky.

  “C-can I call you Mom?” Johnny asked, his face turning a healthy shade of red.

  Carolina kissed the teenager’s cheek. “You’d better.”

  “Mama. Mama.” Matty evidently felt he needed to add to the conversation.

  “Your mama,” Wyatt agreed enthusiastically. “My beloved wife.”

  Wow, that sounded good.

  Her smile as big as the sun, Carolina wrapped one arm around Wyatt’s waist and the other around Johnny’s shoulder, forming a perfect circle.

  A family unit.

  Wyatt bent his head and softly kissed Carolina’s lips, realizing his every dream had just come true.

  * * *

  Carolina’s head was spinning. She couldn’t help but flash the diamond solitaire, appreciating the glinting of the light off the cut of the stone.

  This morning she had been alone, a coparent who would watch the love of her life move on with his, while she spent her heart-wrenching life alone.

  Now she had Wyatt—and she had a family.

  Thank You, God. Thank You, God.

  She whispered the words over and over.

  Katie approached and Carolina dropped her arm, but not before Katie had seen the ring. She squealed and reached for Carolina’s hand.

  “When did this happen? I’m so sure you didn’t tell me.”

  Carolina laughed. “I only just learned about it a moment ago, myself.”

  “Wyatt just proposed?”

  She nodded and put a finger over her lips. “Yes, but I don’t want to make a big deal out of it. This is Gran’s day. I don’t want to steal her limelight.”

  “I’m sure she doesn’t mind sharing,” said Wyatt, coming up behind Carolina and wrapping his arm around her shoulders, drawing her close to him and kissing her on the cheek.

  “Good thing, too. Because I see Bea headed our direction. Wyatt and Carolina are engaged,” Katie spouted excitedly as Bea approached.

  “I thought there might be something like that in the works,” Bea said with a knowing grin. Carolina couldn’t see how. She hadn’t known anything was in the works until Wyatt had pulled that ring
out of his pocket.

  “Before I make a formal announcement,” Bea continued, “I have another question for you, Carolina.”

  Carolina couldn’t imagine how the day could get any better.

  “I know you’re working at Wyatt’s office, but would you consider being a part-time nurse for the boys ranch? We can’t pay as much as I imagine you were used to getting, and it’s mostly going to be just scraped knees and bumped heads, but if you’re willing, we’d love to have you.”

  Carolina couldn’t speak. How could one day have gone from absolute misery to absolute bliss?

  She nodded, and Wyatt gave her a reassuring squeeze.

  “When God blesses, He really blesses,” Wyatt murmured.

  She turned toward him and lifted her face for a kiss. She was so wrapped up in Wyatt—the feel of his lips, the familiar scent of leather, animals and man that was distinctly Wyatt, his deep groan that sounded like a wildcat’s purr—that she almost missed Bea’s announcement.

  Bea took her glass and tapped it with a spoon. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce the future Dr. and Mrs. Wyatt Harrow.”

  “Carolina Harrow,” Wyatt murmured next to her ear. “That has a nice ring to it.”

  She turned into his embrace.

  “I agree,” she said between kisses that stole the breath from her. “And the sooner, the better.”

  * * * * *

  If you liked this LONE STAR COWBOY LEAGUE: BOYS RANCH novel, watch for the final book,

  THE RANCHER’S TEXAS TWINS,

  by Allie Pleiter, available March 2017.

  And don’t miss a single story in the

  LONE STAR COWBOY LEAGUE: BOYS RANCH miniseries:

  Book #1: THE RANCHER’S TEXAS MATCH

  by Brenda Minton

  Book #2: THE RANGER’S TEXAS PROPOSAL

  by Jessica Keller

  Book #3: THE NANNY’S TEXAS CHRISTMAS

  by Lee Tobin McClain

  Book #4: THE COWBOY’S TEXAS FAMILY

  by Margaret Daley

  Book #5: THE DOCTOR’S TEXAS BABY

  by Deb Kastner

  Book #6: THE RANCHER’S TEXAS TWINS

  by Allie Pleiter

  Can’t get enough

  LONE STAR COWBOY LEAGUE?

  Check out the original

  LONE STAR COWBOY LEAGUE miniseries

  from Love Inspired, starting with

  A REUNION FOR THE RANCHER

  by Brenda Minton.

  And travel back in time with

  LONE STAR COWBOY LEAGUE:

  THE FOUNDING YEARS,

  a Love Inspired Historical miniseries,

  starting with STAND-IN RANCHER DADDY

  by Renee Ryan.

  Both titles and full miniseries available now!

  Find more great reads at www.LoveInspired.com

  Keep reading for an excerpt from A LOVE FOR LEAH by Emma Miller.

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  http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010003

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to Haven, Texas, and the Lone Star Cowboy League’s boys ranch! I’m so excited to have once again been asked to participate in a Love Inspired six-book continuity miniseries. I have enjoyed working with the other talented authors in this miniseries. It’s been a great joy to add my characters to the workings of the boys ranch, the community of Haven, Texas, and a continuation of the Lone Star Cowboy League. If you’re a new reader to Love Inspired continuity series, I hope you’ll enjoy finding new-to-you authors who may become new favorites!

  While the Lone Star Cowboy League and others connected to the boys ranch labor under the pressure of finding all the original members of the boys ranch before the seventieth-anniversary party as per Cyrus Culpepper’s will, Wyatt Harrow and Carolina Mason are struggling with their own issues. Wyatt is shocked when Carolina returns to Haven after three years with a surprise he never expected—his two-year-old son, Matty. Trust and forgiveness are tenuous at best. Wyatt and Carolina have a long way to go to discover if, with God’s help, they can learn to be a forever family.

  I hope you enjoyed The Doctor’s Texas Baby and the other books in this continuity series. I love to connect with you, my readers, in a personal way. You can look me up on my website at www.debkastnerbooks.com. Come join me on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/debkastnerbooks, or you can catch me on Twitter @debkastner.

  Please know that you are daily in my prayers.

  Love Courageously,

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  A Love for Leah

  by Emma Miller

  Chapter One

  Kent County, Delaware

  Spring

  “What do you mean you won’t marry me?” Thomas’s eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the young woman beside him. “Don’t we go together like ham and cabbage? Bacon and eggs? Hasn’t everyone been waiting for us to announce the wedding date?”

  Ellie grimaced. “I’m sorry, Thomas. Truly I am.” She sounded contrite.

  He set her books onto the trunk of a fallen apple tree and they tumbled onto the grass. “You should be sorry,” he said. “It’s not easy for a fellow to propose to a girl. And when I do, you turn me down? It’s humiliating.”

  It was late afternoon and the dirt path that ran from the Seven Poplars schoolhouse where Ellie taught, to Sara Yoder’s place, where she lived, was deserted except for the two of them. The path crossed several Amish farms and this section wound through an apple orchard. The trees were bursting with new leaves and just beginning to bud from the branches on either side of the rutted lane. The only sounds, other than the thud of Thomas’s accelerated heartbeat, were the buzzing of bees and the scolding song of a wren.

  He scowled down at Ellie. “Why don’t you want to marry me?”

  “I should have never let it get this far.” She looked up at him, her hands clasped together. “I knew we weren’t meant to wed. But I like you and you’re so much fun.”

  “I think you are, too. Isn’t that enough? That we genuinely like each other and always have a good laugh?”

  She shook her head sadly. “Ne, Thomas, it isn’t enough for me.”

  In frustration, he yanked off his broad-brimmed hat and threw it on top of the scattered books. “I don’t understand. I thought you wanted to be my wife.”

  “I never said that, Thomas.”

  He scowled.

  She picked up his hat, brushed the leaves off it and handed it back to him. “I care for you, Thomas, but I don’t want to have your babies
, and I can’t see us growing old together. We talked about this months ago. Remember?” Her blue eyes clouded with emotion.

  “Ya, but I thought...” What did he think? She’d told him last fall that he needed to start walking out with other girls, but he hadn’t, and the next thing he knew he and Ellie were running around together again.

  “We’re not a good match, Thomas. And if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll agree. I think what we have is...” Her brow furrowed as she seemed to search for the right word. “A convenient friendship.”

  “Convenient?” Needing to look her in the eye, he caught her around the waist and lifted her so that her small feet, clad in black leather lace-up sneakers, balanced on the fallen tree trunk. Ellie was a little person, and when she stood beside him, the top of her snowy-white prayer kapp barely reached the middle of his chest. After their first meeting he’d never thought of her as small, or different than any of the other girls he had walked out with. Ellie cast a big shadow.

  Ellie’s eyes registered a sharp warning. Putting his hands on her in such a familiar way was inappropriate, and they both knew it. At the moment, he was too upset to care.

  A knot tightened in his throat. “Ellie, I don’t understand,” he said. “A convenient relationship? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  His face must have shown how hurt he was because her features softened. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said convenient,” she answered. “But you know exactly what I’m talking about. You and I run around together because it’s easy. It’s comfortable. But we’re not in love with each other and you know it.” With a sigh, she fixed him with a penetrating look. “Now stop feeling sorry for yourself and hear what I’m saying. It’s for the best for both of us.” She waited a moment, then added, “You know I’m right.”

  He glanced away, not ready to concede, no matter how right she was. He looked back at her and she offered a faint smile.

  “Who told you to propose to me?” she asked him.