Wanted: Texas Daddy. Cathy Thacker Gillen

roaring through him with the force of a white-water river, he squeezed her hands and said, “In the seven months we’ve known each other, you’ve brought so much happiness to my life, I can imagine just how fantastic the rest of our time together will be. And darlin’, I can’t wait to experience it all with you,” he finished soberly, a lump rising in his throat.

      * * *

      BECAUSE SHE COULD see Nick meant every single word he said, Sage’s eyes misted over, too.

      Grinning, she continued to hold on to him as fiercely as he was holding on to her. “Okay, cowboy.” She heaved a sigh of relief. “If you get a do over with our vows, so do I! So here goes...” Taking comfort in the encouragement his steady regard offered, she jerked in a bolstering breath. “I never thought after everything that happened to me leading up to this point that I would want to be involved again.” Or risk a relationship that could stomp my soul to pieces.

      “But then I met you, and everything changed for me, too. I wanted friendship.” Deep, abiding, tell-each-other-almost-everything friendship that was eventually supplemented by deliciously sensual, mind-blowing passion. “And then, a baby, and now here we are getting married,” she exclaimed excitedly.

      Her nerves calmed as she went on. “We’ve laid the right groundwork.”

      The corners of his lips quirked up in a way that let her know he could not have agreed more with her assessment.

      Their eyes still locked, Sage pushed on, promising Nick, “We’re going to have a happy life together. And when our baby gets here at some point close to Father’s Day—” an astonishing present in and of itself “—you’re right, we’re going to be even happier than either of us ever dreamed.”

      Nick leaned in as if to kiss her.

      Her heart fluttered.

      The JP clamped a restraining hand on Nick’s shoulder. “Whoa, there, pardner. We’re not done yet. We’ve still got the rings and the official pronouncement to go.”

      Nick grunted, his lips hovering just above hers, then reluctantly drew back.

      “You’re right,” he said finally to one and all, as everyone smiled and laughed yet again. “We’ve definitely got to get this done right.”

      No kidding, Sage thought.

      This was beginning to feel like a whole lot more than the extension of their previous arrangement that they had privately agreed it would be.

      Following their purposefully abbreviated next steps, Nick slid the wedding ring on Sage’s finger. “Sage, I take thee to be my lawful wedded wife.”

      Sage followed suit and put a simple gold band on Nick’s left hand. “Nick, I take thee to be my lawful wedded husband,” she said.

      “Then by the power vested in me,” the JP said finally, “I pronounce you husband and wife.”

      Nick gathered her in his arms.

      As he kissed her, a roar of approval went up, matched only by the relief and joy whisking through Sage.

      * * *

      SEVERAL HOURS LATER, Sage stared in the master suite bathroom mirror. “You really think my tiara is crooked?”

      Lucille shook her head, tears abruptly misting her eyes. “No. I just wanted a moment alone with you before the evening ended.”

      “Oh, Mom.” Sage turned and gave her mother a hug. This was a big day for both of them. All of it happening a little too fast for comfort.

      On the other hand, had they had more time to consider, Sage wasn’t sure she would’ve been able to go through with it. Because, no matter how fond she and Nick were of each other, at the end of the day, it all felt a little dishonest.

      Lucille perched on the edge of Nick’s bed and patted the place next to her.

      Carefully arranging the poofy skirt of her wedding gown, Sage settled beside her mother. “What is it?” she asked softly.

      “I just wanted to tell you how happy I am for you tonight.”

      “You mean that?”

      Lucille nodded. “I confess, I had my doubts when you told me you and Nick were going to get married. I thought it all might have been related to his business somehow. Especially when the venture capitalist he’s been working with—”

      “MR Rhodes.”

      “—and her assistant, Everett Keller, became so involved in the execution of the wedding plans.”

      Sage tamped down her guilt. It was bad enough she and Nick were being disingenuous. They did not need to bring anyone else into it who wasn’t already. “We kind of needed everyone to pitch in to make this happen, Mom.”

      “I know, and MR and Everett have both been wonderful, as has everyone.”

      “But...?”

      Lucille worried the diamond necklace around her neck. The one Sage’s father had given her mother for their fortieth wedding anniversary. “I’m just concerned you and Nick were going into this the same way you did having a baby together. Hastily and without forethought.”

      Her mother’s elegant brow furrowed. “And that feeling was confirmed when the two of you started your wedding vows. But—” she paused, shaking her head “—then you started speaking what was in your hearts. The way you looked at each other—with such tenderness, faith and affection—I knew those feelings the two of you have worked so hard to keep private are genuine.”

      Lucille took Sage’s hands in hers. “Bottom line...your dad would have been so proud of you tonight.”

      But would he really have?

      Sage was still worrying about that throughout her and Nick’s final dance of the evening.

      Still wondering if she and Nick had done the right thing after all, when he pressed a kiss in her hair and then drew back to look down at her tenderly.

      “Ready for one last surprise?” he asked huskily.

       Chapter Four

      Sage looked at Nick in much the same way he imagined he had looked, half an hour earlier, when he had received the news.

      “A honeymoon?” she repeated as if she couldn’t possibly have heard him right.

      He continued slow dancing with her. She felt so good in his arms, and he lamented the fact that their just-best-friends-slash-lovers rules had made this romantic activity off-limits, until now. “Three nights at The Mansion, in Dallas.”

      Sage drew in a shuddering breath. “One of the most romantic hotels in the city.”

      So he’d been informed. “It’s a gift from Metro Equity Partners. MR told me about it a few minutes ago. The limo is out in the drive. Your brothers are decorating it with the Just Married stuff now.”

      Sage winced. “Not tin cans.”

      “And the obligatory sign designating us as newlyweds,” he told her with barely checked amusement.

      As the last song stopped, so did they. She covered her face with her hand, then peered at him through spread fingers. “We’re supposed to go tonight?” she asked, aghast.

      There was no debating it. She looked dead on her feet.

      Belatedly, he realized what a long few days it had been for her, in her pregnant state. They’d both been going since well before dawn. To expect her to endure another two-and-a-half-hour drive was probably way out of line. “We can wait until tomorrow,” he soothed. “Drive there ourselves. Check in then.”

      Sage looked tempted, but remained careful of his feelings