Wanted: Texas Daddy. Cathy Thacker Gillen

of Nick’s mouth was suddenly as tense as his shoulders. “Did you want to talk business this evening?” he asked brusquely.

      MR got the hint. “Briefly, I do. We’re very close to getting approval from the other partners for the deal you and I have been negotiating.”

      A long, slow back and forth of ideas that had been going on as long as Sage had known Nick. “That’s great news!” he said.

      MR scowled, suddenly seeming as reluctant and unhappy as Nick had a second ago. “It would be, if you weren’t in the midst of a situation.”

      Oh, dear. “Maybe I should leave,” Sage said.

      “No.” Nick clapped a possessive hand on her shoulder. He gave her a look that said they had nothing to hide. “You stay.”

      Okay, then.

      He turned back to MR. “What do you mean by situation?”

      MR huffed and looked at Sage as if she were a spoiler. “The plan is to make Nick the public face of the new Western-wear stores. Have him featured prominently in every ad, with personal appearances at every location. But we can’t do that if he’s a deadbeat dad.”

      Deadbeat dad? “Nick is not shirking his responsibility,” Sage said hotly.

      “I know my partners. They are old-school, family men. There is no way they’re going to go for the new company spokesperson—the brand representative, if you will—having a kid out of wedlock. It’s just not going to happen.” MR looked Nick in the eye. “So unless you want to be trapped here in this one-horse town, in this one-horse store, in perpetuity, the two of you need to get hitched. Pronto.”

      Sage turned to Nick in a panic. She didn’t want him to lose everything he had been working so hard to achieve, any more than she wanted to be backed into a corner herself. To her relief, he reached over and gave her hand an understanding squeeze.

      “What if we had the rest of my family—my three sisters and brother, and all my nephews and nieces—in the ads?” Nick proposed. “Maybe even use photos of the rest of the Monroe clan. We could go back as far as the store’s beginnings, which is four generations.”

      “No. You are the one they want to see in all the ads. And you can see why, right?” MR turned to Sage in full business mode. “He’s like a younger, hotter, tall-dark-and-handsome Ralph Lauren. Our vision and the success of the new venture hinges on Nick’s sex appeal, his image as an upstanding cowboy and devoted family man. And with you pregnant, Sage, regardless of how either of you feel about it, that means marriage. ASAP.”

      “We can’t make a decision like that on the fly,” Nick countered.

      “Understandable. You all need to talk about it. In the meantime, my assistant, Everett Keller, is checking into the Laramie Inn. We’d like to have dinner locally. So if you could recommend a place with fresh fish. Shrimp. Scallops. Salmon.” MR picked up on Sage’s distaste. “Something wrong?”

      Sage shook her head. Nope. Nothing to see here.

      But the ever-probing venture capitalist wouldn’t let it go, so Nick placed a comforting hand on Sage’s spine. “Sage got sick on shrimp early in her pregnancy. Just thinking about it makes her ill.”

      An understatement if there ever was one. She couldn’t even look at recipes. Never mind photos of the cooked food. And she was a chef! Hopefully, the malady would pass. But for now, a simple whiff made her toss her cookies. Pronto.

      “I see,” MR said.

      When clearly she didn’t.

      Eager to discuss something other than her continuing battle with morning—or in some cases, evening—sickness, Sage wrote down the name of a bed-and-breakfast located a short distance away. “They have an executive chef that’s on par with the best in Dallas, and the menu and wine list to go with. You’ll need reservations. But if you tell them you’re here to do business with Nick and he recommended it, I’m sure they’ll find a way to fit you in this evening.”

      “Thanks.” MR looked grateful.

      “No problem,” Sage said.

      She’d do whatever she could to help Nick.

      Short of ruining everything and marrying him, of course.

      * * *

      “MR IS RIGHT,” Hope Lockhart said, a short time later, when Sage and Nick went over to her brother and sister-in-law’s home. The four of them gathered in the kitchen of the Victorian, while one-year-old Max sat in his high chair and ate his dinner of green beans and diced meatballs.

      A crisis manager and public relations expert, Hope had guided the family through several calamities since first meeting them the previous summer. “While there are many customers who won’t care whether you or Nick ever tie the knot, there are others who will be up in arms over it,” Hope told them gently. “You don’t want to lose any potential business right out of the gate. Not if you want this venture to be a success.”

      “Think of the plus side,” Garrett added, from his place at the stove. Winking, he gave the boiling pasta and spaghetti sauce another stir. “Mom will be delighted.”

      It was all Sage could do not to groan. “Did you all tell her yet?”

      Garrett shook his head. “Like we said a while ago at the store, that news is yours to deliver, sis. I just wouldn’t wait too long.”

      “Want to do it now?” Nick asked, as he and Sage turned down an invitation to stay for dinner and left.

      The sun had set, leaving the quiet residential street bathed in the yellow glow of the streetlamps. Stars shone overhead.

      Feeling the need for some support, Sage tucked her hand in Nick’s and rested her chin on the solid warmth of his upper arm. “First, we need to talk about what we’re going to do.”

      He caught her other hand and turned her to face him. “I don’t expect you to marry me, Sage.”

      But clearly, she thought, it was what he wanted. A simple solution to a very thorny problem. “You heard what MR said. If we don’t, your deal with her firm is likely off.”

      Nick shrugged, a distant look coming into his eyes. Sage felt about a million miles away from him. She didn’t like it. In an effort to understand what was going on with him, she asked, “Did you ever tell MR you felt trapped here in Laramie?”

      His broad shoulders tensed. “Not in so many words.”

      “So she inferred it?”

      He nodded curtly.

      Which had to mean, she knew Nick pretty well. Pushing aside a surge of unexpected jealousy, Sage gently pushed for more information. “Why would she do that? What did you tell her?” That you haven’t told me?

      “When I first approached Metro Equity Partners we talked a lot about the fact that the store, the custom boot-making operation and the ranch have been in my family for four generations. The fact that the women have always run the mercantile operation, the men the ranch.”

      “But at some point all that changed.”

      “When my mom and dad died in the accident when I was ten, my oldest sister, Erin, took over everything. She sold off all the cattle, but she ran the store.”

      “She also raised you and your three older siblings, right?”

      Nick nodded gratefully. “Along with her own kids, yeah. But when she married Mac Wheeler and they added a set of twins and another baby to the three they were already raising, Erin needed to take a break from running Monroe’s for a while, and just concentrate on her family life and custom boot-making—which she really loves.” He released a breath. “So at my suggestion, she spun her custom boot-making operation off into a separate business entity, while I took over at Monroe’s. And when she and Mac moved to Amarillo for his work, I put aside my own plans to work for