Wanted--Texas Daddy

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Although it wasn’t clear from the implacable expression on Nick’s face that this was what he wanted.

  He led her down the gravel path to the pasture, where the ranch horses were grazing. “Those papers I just signed severed my relationship with Metro Equity Partners. I’m no longer a co-owner of, or the face of, Upscale Outfitters.”

  His news rocked her to the core. “That’s a pretty big decision.”

  “And the right one.” He rested his arms on the top of the wooden fence and gazed out at the land that had been in his family for generations. “I’ve known for some time it wasn’t a good fit, either business-wise or personally.” He flexed his broad shoulders resolutely. “I’m relieved to be out of it.”

  She could see that. And yet...there were other parts to his dreams. Ways he could be hurt. She moved closer still, inhaling the brisk masculine scent of his aftershave. “What about financially?”

  He turned a level look her way. “Since I never put any of my own money into the start-up, most of what I lost was my time and effort.” His sensual lips thinned ruefully. “But I can’t complain given all I learned about what I don’t want in a career path. I’m happy to be my own man again.”

  Sage could see that. She was happy for him, too. But scared that a change this huge in attitude and outlook could mean more in his personal life, too. Aware that the numbness she’d felt for the last several days was gone, the ache in her heart back full force, she forced herself to remain calm as she asked quietly, “Now what? Are you going to go back to just running Monroe’s?” Back to just being my friend, and lover, and nothing else...?

  Pivoting toward her, he rested an elbow on the top of the fence. He inclined his head, his emotional barriers still intact. “I still want more. But on my terms this time.”

  Unable to fault him for that, after all he’d been through, Sage hitched in a breath and told him sincerely, “I hope you get what you want.”

  “I’m sure I will in business.” He flashed his most impersonal smile. “It’s the rest of my life that’s up in the air.”

  Hers, too.

  His expression turned formidable. He looked her in the eye. “I don’t want to travel anymore, Sage. I don’t want to be away from you, and I don’t want to be away from Shane.”

  Sage’s pulse pounded. She felt on the verge of tears. “I don’t want that, either,” she admitted, aware it was now or never.

  She took his hands in hers. Holding them tightly, she gazed up at him and admitted, “I never have.”

  Expression gentling, he pressed his forehead against hers. “Why didn’t you say something?”

  She hitched in an enervating breath. “Because I didn’t want you to end up feeling robbed of anything, Nick. I didn’t want you to feel trapped.”

  Lifting his head, Nick’s gaze drifted over her, as if he were memorizing every detail. “The way you’ve been?”

  The lump in her throat was back. Another wave of anxiety slid through her. Ignoring the sudden wobbliness of her knees, she tried to figure out where this was all going.

  She knew if they ever had a prayer of making things work, she had to be completely honest with him. Tears blurred her vision. “I admit I regret marrying when and why we did.”

  The silence stretched between them, emphasizing all that was at stake. His jaw clenched. “So do I.”

  Calling on every ounce of courage she had, Sage pushed on. “I regret the way we started our family, too.” She studied their entwined hands, then looked deep into his eyes, admitting tremulously, “I wish we had done it out of love, not practicality.”

  He squinted.

  “Are you talking about your feelings now—or mine?” he demanded gruffly.

  Here was her chance. To open up her heart. Go for broke. “Yours. But it’s okay,” she rushed on, as he wrapped an arm about her waist, and would have drawn away, but held fast. She splayed her hands over his chest. “You don’t have to view our relationship romantically.”

  “I don’t?” he echoed in shock.

  “No,” she said. “Because I have enough in my heart for both of us.”

  “Except I do feel that way about you, Sage. I have from the very first. I just didn’t tell you how I really felt because I knew you weren’t in a place where you could take a risk like that.”

  “So you opted to be my friend instead.”

  “And then lover. And then father of our hoped-for child,” he recollected rustily, wiping away her tears with the tip of his fingertip. “The night we married was one of the happiest times of my life.”

  “Mine, too. At least,” Sage amended ruefully, “until we got to the hotel.”

  “And MR had a surprise waiting for us.”

  She paused in shock, asked warily, “You know about that?”

  He nodded curtly, his disillusionment and disappointment as sharp as her own. “I talked to The Mansion hotel manager the evening before the grand opening. He felt terrible about what had happened before, about the fact that the order was written up to specifically request shrimp, instead of exclude it. He assumed it was a data entry error from the room service department.”

  “But you knew better?”

  “I had been there when MR pulled a similar stunt with one of the suppliers, blamed it on one of their younger sales reps and then used the mix-up to leverage a lower margin on their goods. So I figured it was her.”

  “Did you confront her?” she asked.

  He nodded. “It was what we were talking about, in the office, when we got to the store that morning.”

  “Right before I interrupted.”

  “And then later, at the MEP office the next day. MR said she was only helping me out. Speeding the process of me discovering you were all wrong for me.” Anger simmered in his eyes. “The ironic thing is that I had already realized that I could not continue to be in partnership with someone that manipulative and deceitful.”

  He paused, grimacing, and her heart went out to him.

  Soberly, he continued, “I knew I had to go through with the grand opening, and make sure I did my part in publicly launching the new venture. I owed the other partners that. But I planned to tell you I was going to end things as soon as I could.”

  “Only I went into labor before any of that could happen...” Sage recollected.

  “And little Shane was born.” He paused, sharing the happy memory of their son’s tumultuous but ultimately victorious entrance into the world, via his daddy’s help.

  Sobering, Nick went back to the reasons behind his decision. “The worst thing is I had a sixth sense that MR was trying to undermine the two of us all along.”

  “Apparently, Everett thought so, too.” Sage went on to reveal the gist of her conversation with MR’s assistant the morning after the wedding. “Unfortunately, instead of trying to avoid that pitfall and talk to you about what he’d said to me, and the need for us to keep the lines of communication open and make our friendship—which is the foundation of our entire relationship—even stronger, I let the seeds of doubt grow. Jeopardizing our potential to stay close and happy, at every turn.”

  Nick reflected soberly, his gaze as sincere as it was tender. “Seems like we should have done a lot more talking.”

  Sage nodded. “About what was really in our hearts and on our minds.” She wreathed her arms about his neck and stood on tiptoe. Her heart brimmed with happiness. “Because I’m crazy in love with you, Nick. I want to be all in, all the time, from here on out.” She kissed him.

  He pulled her close and kissed her back, passionately and evocatively. Until her toes curled and her knees threatened to buckle. “I’m crazy in love with you, too,” he admitted thickly.

  Their gazes locked as readily as their smiles. At last, it seemed, they were as committed to their relationship and each other as she had al
ways wanted to be.

  “So,” she prodded softly, “what do you say we make ours a real marriage, in every way?”

  Nick grinned broadly. “Sweetheart, I’m all in. And one more thing...” He reached into his pocket and withdrew a velvet jeweler’s box. “I haven’t yet given you your push present.”

  Sage lifted the lid. Inside was a stunning diamond solitaire. “Oh, Nick...” she breathed.

  Hoarsely, he told her, “It can double as the engagement ring you never got but should have had.”

  She slid it on her finger, next to her wedding band, and watched as it sparkled in the sunlight. She sighed in delight. “It’s perfect.”

  He smiled down at her adoringly. “I’m glad you like it.”

  Her heart bursting with all the joy she felt, Sage laughed. “Like it? I love it!” She pressed her lips to his. “Love you. Our son. Our life...”

  Epilogue

  “It’s amazing, what a difference the right business plan can make,” Sage murmured two years later, as she and Nick took one last look around the satellite store, before calling it a night.

  The first Monroe’s Outpost was set to open the following morning. Located on Main Street, in the county seat of a rural county just west of Laramie, the brand-new mercantile bore the same distinctive Texas atmosphere as the original Monroe’s Western Wear.

  Although much smaller in scope, it was well-designed and well-outfitted with every necessary item a cowgirl or cowboy could need. The boots, jeans, shirts, chaps, jackets, hats and belts were both high-quality and reasonably priced.

  Nick looked around with a pride she and his family all shared. “I think Mom and Dad would be proud to know we were bringing a needed service to this community.”

  Sage nodded happily. “And the other rural community stores that will come in the next decade.”

  All without requiring any outside capital, or interference.

  The clatter of little cowboy boots sounded on the wood floor. Sage followed Shane as he raced curiously down the aisle. “Trust me,” she teased, over her shoulder, “if there is one thing every busy parent knows, the less time it takes to get any task accomplished, the better.”

  In her life, and many others, convenience was key.

  “And that’s only going to be truer five months from now,” she said, as Nick caught up with them.

  “I imagine that’s so,” Nick predicted, tenderly wrapping one arm around her shoulders. “Although—” he curved a hand lovingly over her blossoming tummy “—Shane doesn’t seem to mind going places now.”

  Sage leaned against her husband’s chest. She rested her head on his shoulder, as their little boy took his pint-sized hat off his head, let out a whoop worthy of a rodeo cowboy and tossed it in the air. He hooted again as it clattered to the floor. “Because we’re letting him run around and explore, unfettered. The minute we strap him into his car seat...”

  Nick chuckled. “He’ll let us know he would much rather be free.”

  Sage grinned as Shane caught sight of himself in the mirror, then resettled his hat and paused to reflect.

  She turned back to Nick, splaying her hands against the solid warmth of his chest. “Think he comes by his independent spirit naturally?”

  “Probably.” Nick kissed Sage’s temple and smoothed a hand through her hair. “But he also has a boundless ability to love.”

  They all did, Sage thought contentedly.

  Shane stopped just short of them. He lifted his hands, signaling his desire to be picked up.

  Nick obliged.

  Shane smiled happily, then leaned over and put his hand on Sage’s tummy, as he had seen his daddy do. “Baby. In there,” he declared.

  Nick and Sage smiled. “There sure is, little dude,” Nick said proudly.

  Shane’s smile broadened. “I like babies.”

  Her heart overflowing with gratitude and joy, Sage bussed the top of her little boy’s head. “We all do.”

  Shane grabbed a fistful of each of their shirtfronts and pulled them in for a group hug. “I love Mommy and Daddy, too,” he said adamantly.

  “We love you, too,” Nick and Sage said in unison.

  Shane squinted comically. They squinted mischievously back. Then they all began to laugh. Life, Sage thought, did not get any better than this.

  * * * * *

  Watch for the final story in Cathy Gillen Thacker’s

  TEXAS LEGACIES: THE LOCKHARTS miniseries,

  A TEXAS SOLDIER’S CHRISTMAS.

  Coming November 2017,

  only from Harlequin Western Romance!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from THE RANCHER’S SURPRISE BABY by Trish Milburn.

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  The Rancher’s Surprise Baby

  by Trish Milburn

  Chapter One

  Forget out of the frying pan and into the fire. Stepping out of the arctic air-conditioning of the Primrose Café into the suffocating heat of a Texas afternoon in August was like drilling a hole in the North Pole deep enough to fall straight into hell.

  Mandy Richardson hurried toward the edge of the parking lot, where she’d nabbed the last spot in front of Blue Falls’ oldest eating establishment and the hub of town gossip. In the time it took for her to pick up dinner for her mom and herself, she’d heard that Franny Stokes had gone on a blind date with a guy she met online through some dating site for senior citizens, Bernie Shumaker had launched his newest in a string of business attempts—wind chimes made from everything from silverware to driftwood this time—and Loren Whitman’s grandson had caught a fish so big that he fell out of their boat into the middle of the lake. To add insult to embarrassment, the fish got away.

  Honestly, a dunk in the middle of Blue Falls Lake would feel really good right about now. In addition to it being hot as blazes outside, her feet ached from being on them since early that morning. It’d been another busy day at A Good Yarn, the yarn and sewing shop her best friend, Devon, owned and where Mandy worked. The combination of the tail end of summer vacationing combined with it being the weekend of the local monthly rodeo had filled the downtown shops from the time they’d opened their doors at 8:00 a.m. Good for business but tiring. All she wanted was to eat her fried chicken, drink about a gallon of her mom’s homemade lemonade and prop up her poor feet. A foot massage would be fantastic,
preferably one given by an incredibly hunky guy, but she figured that, sadly, wasn’t in her immediate future.

  The sound of squealing tires, followed immediately by a bang and the screeching sound of metal on metal, caused her to startle so much she fumbled the food containers she held.

  “No, no, no,” she said as she tried to maintain her hold, but all she managed to do was flick the bottom container open as it fell. The top one followed its twin to the newly paved parking lot. She’d swear she heard the chicken sizzle as it sat there amid a sea of splattered mashed potatoes and green beans.

  As she lamented the loss of her dinner, she glanced up to figure out what had precipitated it. That was when she noticed half of that metal-on-metal sound had come from her car. The other half belonged to the pickup truck all up in her car’s grille.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” she said as she shook her head slowly in disbelief. “I know I’m a good person. Karma, you took a wrong turn.”

  She looked down at the mess of food at her feet. She needed to clean it up, but first things first. As she approached her car, the driver’s side door of the pickup opened and the first thing she saw was a cowboy boot and the bottom of a pair of jeans. When the man stepped out from behind the door, looking dazed, she immediately recognized him. She’d bet her meager savings that there wasn’t a woman alive in Blue Falls—young, old, single, married or even half-blind—who hadn’t at some point in time given tall, blond, blue-eyed Ben Hartley a second look. And a third. And...

  Oh, stop thinking about how dang handsome he is and ask him why he decided to have his truck give your car an unwanted smacker.

  As she drew closer, he shook his head as if trying to clear it. Was he drunk? DUI seemed to be more TJ Malpin’s thing, not one of the raised-right Hartley clan.

  He glanced at where his truck had hit the car then up at her. His forehead wrinkled for a moment, as if he was trying to figure out who she was, before it seemed to click. Maybe he was drunk. Or high. Though neither of those options rang true at all.