Wanted: Texas Daddy

Reluctant, Nick scowled. “Sure you want to do that?” he asked, practical as ever. “Instead of going with the tried and true?”

The thought of promising to love him until death do them part seemed like tempting fate. Sage swallowed. “Given the fact that we’re not...” Her voice trailed off. She didn’t know how to finish without insulting him. Or the connection they shared, which she had to admit pretty much defied description.

He studied her, as determined to understand her as she was him. “In love?”

Sage caught his hand in hers, and pressed it against the center of her chest. “Maybe not in the traditional way, but I do love you, Nick. As a friend. A best friend.”

His expression was as veiled as hers was open. “I adore you, too,” he said softly.

She sensed there was more. Unsure, however, as to whether or not she wanted to hear it, she murmured, “Okay, then, that’s what we need to say.” She settled a pillow across her lap, to use as a desk. Opened up the leather computer tablet case, turned on the attached mini keyboard and logged on.

While she got comfortable, Nick folded his arms behind his head. He lounged against the pillows, his gaze drifting over her lazily. “There’s no way I can memorize anything this late in the game. I mean, I’m the kid who always flunked the English class assignments where we had to get up and recite a poem.”

Although she was wearing an old-fashioned button-front nightshirt that concealed her baby bump, he was clad only in his boxer briefs. Hence, with the sheet draped low across his abdomen, she had a very nice view of his broad, masculine chest.

Too nice, if she were to remain on task.

“Public speaking pressure?” she teased, turning her gaze away from the sinewy muscle and crisp dark hair that arrowed across his pecs, and narrowed, on the way to the goody trail...

“Procrastinating, and making up excuses, are we?” she taunted.

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Not going to cut it, cowboy,” she retorted sternly. “We have to get this done. Right now.”

His sensual lips compressed as he ran a hand through the tousled layers of his dark hair. “Maybe you should tell me yours.”

“I would. Except I haven’t written mine yet, either.”

His low laughter filled the bedroom. He rubbed a hand beneath the sexy-rough stubble on his jaw. “Aha.”

“But I will now.” Cuddled up in bed, beside him, sitting against the headboard.

He rested his chin on her shoulder. “This should be interesting.”

“I take thee, Nick, for my parent-in-arms?”

He shook his head. “Sounds like we’re forming a club.”

Sage used the mini keyboard to type in some more. “May the joy that brought us together hold us in good stead through the days ahead.”

Nick wrinkled his brow, sexy as ever. “That’s going to have people scratching their heads and saying huh.”

Sage opened a new document window on the screen. “Okay, Smarty-pants. You try.”

He thought a moment. “I don’t know what I did to get you to look my way,” he drawled finally, “but I’m sure grateful you did.”

Sage snickered. “Aren’t those song lyrics?”

He grinned back, allowing, “Maybe.”

Only able to imagine the grief she’d get from her brothers if they went that route, Sage decreed, “I think we should be a little more original.”

Nick’s brow rose in annoyance. “Then we should have started this weeks ago.”

“Okay,” Sage said hastily. “There’s no need to get testy. How about I say, ‘There are no words to describe how I feel about you. I just know this feels right, and I want to be with you,’ or something like that.”

Nick tilted his head. “Pretty good. Vague. But truthful.”

Sage grinned, glad an argument—which would have been their first—had been averted. “Now all we have to do is add to it. Refine it a little. And then come up with something equally reassuring for you to say, too.”

* * *

NICK WASN’T SURE who Sage was trying to pacify with this whole writing-their-own-vows stuff, but if it made her feel better, then he was all for it. The hectic nature of the last three days had been hard on her. She looked weary. And that couldn’t be good for her or the baby.

So when she declared them done, a short while later, hit the print command and then ran over to her printer to pull out two sheets of paper, one for her and one for him, he celebrated by kissing her again.

One thing led to another.

The next thing they knew she really was late, and so was he. They split up, heading their separate ways. He did not see her again until she walked down the aisle on her eldest brother Garrett’s arm.

As she glided toward him, looking like a princess out of some Disney movie, his heart caught in his chest. She was so damn gorgeous in that ball gown–style wedding dress. So sweet and innocent and glowing. He felt like the luckiest man in the world. And would have even if she hadn’t been carrying his child and on the verge of giving him the family of his own he had always wanted.

“Who giveth the bride away?” the JP asked.

Garrett lifted Sage’s veil, kissed her cheek and answered, “Her family and I do.”

Sage’s lower lip quivered.

In that second, Nick realized what a disservice he had done. This was hard enough without his deceased parents and her late father here to see this. But to secretly be doing it all for a business deal... He swore silently to himself as he took her hand, vowing he would make it up to her. Some way. Somehow.

The distinguished-looking sixtysomething justice of the peace welcomed everyone to their nuptials. He spoke briefly about the grave responsibility entailed in entering into a marriage.

A speech that only made Nick feel all the guiltier.

“And now we will turn it over to Nick and Sage, who have written their own vows. Sage, would you like to go first?”

She nodded, hands trembling as she unfolded the page. Looking down, she began reading nervously, “Nick. There are no watercress...”

A few smothered chuckles.

The justice of the peace gave everyone a sharp look.

Aware of the solemnity of the occasion, everyone fell silent once again.

Sage shook her head, her brow pleating worrisomely as she squinted. “Sorry. There are no words that would adequately describe how I feel about you, Nick.” She looked up with a smile, then read confidently from the paper in her hand, “So, I’m just going to say, I think yeast...”

Another undercurrent of nervous giggles.

Sage blushed.

Nick slid a hand beneath her forearm to steady her, aware she wouldn’t be the first bride to wilt from a combination of nerves, and in their case, guilt. Resolved to help her through this, he encouraged under his breath, “Just calm down. You got this.”

Sage nodded. Jerking in a deep breath, tried again. “I think you are the most wonderful mango...” She looked up, clearly mortified. “I mean, man I’ve ever known. And...” She swiftly scanned the page, looking even more distressed. “I think I’m going to just say I’m really happy to be marrying you today. And stop right there.”

Radiating embarrassment, she gestured at him. “On to you.”

Nick had never known Sage to fall apart like this. But given how quickly everything had happened, he figured she was entitled to suffer the same kind of public speaking phobia that had haunted him as a kid, and cut her speech short.

With a grin, he removed the paper from the inner pocket of his tuxedo jacket and unfolded it. Still holding her eyes, wordlessly promising that he would make this okay for both of them with the best recitation he had ever given in his life, he looked down at his vows. And began. “Sage. You are the most brioche...” He stopped and shook his head while trying to quickly remember what should have been there.

If this is what “his bride” had been dealing with, no wonder she’d panicked!

Ignoring the faint titters in their audience, he tried again. “The most um...most...beautiful woman I’ve ever met, inside and out.”

Whew! High five on that one!

“And if there is one thing today is going to show us,” he continued determinedly, glad to be back on track, “it’s that we will otters have each other.”

Otters?

What the hell?

And then, amid the muffled rumble of new laughter, he realized what had happened. There was no need to go on reading from the pages Sage had printed out for them. Not unless they wanted this to turn into even more of a comedy skit.

He turned to face their guests and held up the page for everyone to see. “So much for writing our vows on an electronic device with autocorrect,” he announced, grinning from ear to ear. “Seriously, folks—” getting into the spirit of the hilarity he crumpled it up dramatically, and tossed it to one of his sisters in the front row “—proofread!”

With a mischievous grin, Sage crumpled up her vows, and tossed ’em to family, too.

Taking both his bride’s hands in his he made an executive decision and decided, “We’re just going to have to do this on the fly.”

Ignoring her prior worry about the results of any extemporaneous speech, he paused and looked deep into her eyes, then said what had been on his mind since the day they’d decided to risk this.

“I used to think that life had to be lived in stages. If I was going to have a family, I needed to find someone compatible and get married right out of college.” He paused ruefully, to let his prior idiocy sink in. “A plan that did not work for so many reasons...”

He hadn’t been anywhere mature enough. Hadn’t known the first thing about love. Might still not...at least when it came to the traditional variety.

Aware the world had shrunk to just the two of them, he looked deep into her eyes and continued, “And then, and only then, would I focus on my career goals. Secure the future. And when that was all set, then I could have kids.”

Understanding lit her eyes. She’d had similar expectations. It was one of the things that had drawn them together.

“But despite my ambition, it didn’t work out that way. And I began to think that my work dreams and goals were all I was going to have.” His throat tightened unexpectedly. He forced himself to go on hoarsely. “Then I met you, Sage, and I realized things didn’t have to happen in any specific time frame or in any particular order. We could be friends. And then more than friends. And now parents-to-be of the no doubt most amazing child who will ever be born in Laramie County!”

Laughter rippled through the attendees as the world around them crowded in once again.

Happiness 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 and commitments as always. “How is that going to be perceived?”

Hard to say, since he had yet to meet most of the partners who would be voting on his proposal.

“You know what, forget I even said that.” Sage squared her slender shoulders, as if she were going into battle. “It’s never a good idea to look a gift horse in the mouth. Particularly when you have the biggest business deal of your life pending.”

Bless her generous heart. “You’re sure you want to do this?”

She nodded, then said with her newfound practicality, “What’s the alternative, anyway? Go back to our original plan, spend the night in my apartment and forego any celebration of our nuptials?” She rose on tiptoe and whispered seductively in his ear, “If we go to Dallas, at least we’ll have our privacy.”

Given the scrutiny they’d been under all evening, there was definitely something to be said for that.

* * *

“WAKE UP, SLEEPYHEAD,” Nick murmured in Sage’s ear, several hours later.

With effort, she opened her eyes. They were indeed at the luxury hotel. Apparently, she’d slept the entire journey. “What time is it?” she asked, blinking herself awake.

“Two thirty.”

He still looked good. More than good, actually, in that dark tuxedo.

She smothered a yawn and tore her eyes from the hard sinew of his chest beneath his snowy white shirt. “Sorry I was such bad company.”

He hugged her close, then kissed her temple and the top of her head. “I slept, too.”

She drew back slightly and tipped her head up to his. He was definitely wide-awake now. With plenty of energy. The kind that usually presaged incredible lovemaking.

She tingled all over, just thinking about it.

His sexy grin widening, he teased, “Ready for the best part of the entire festivity?”

She placed a hand flirtatiously across her heart. She did not have to pretend to feel swept away. “Oh my.”

His low masculine laugh filled the interior of the limo. “Oh my is right.” He brought her close for a long lingering kiss, ended only by the intrusion of their driver opening the door. Nick emerged first, then assisted her in getting out, not an easy thing, given the fact that they were still in their wedding finery and the silk chiffon skirt of her dress was poufed enough to disguise her pregnancy. The driver followed them with the bags they had hastily packed before leaving Laramie County. Nick at his ranch house, she at her apartment on her way out of town.

They swept through the lobby, getting grins from everyone who saw them. “Congratulations!” more than one person called out as they signed in.

The bellhop escorted them to their suite and set their suitcases in the bedroom. He returned with a flourish, announcing, “Metro Equity Partners thought you might be in need of a late-night supper. So...” Another uniformed attendant rolled a room service table into the living room.

Silver-domed dishes were placed on an elegantly made-up table for two, next to an ice bucket containing a bottle of exquisite champagne, sparkling water and ginger ale.

Which was good, Sage thought.

Because now that she was awake, she was feeling a little nauseated. She wondered if there were any crackers in the minibar. If not, the elegant dinner rolls in the basket would probably take the edge off.

She smiled appreciatively as Nick tipped the attendants. “Seems like the partners have thought of everything.”

“Let us know if we can do anything else.” The attendants disappeared.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m starved,” Nick said.

He took off the lids with a flourish.

The roasted filet mignon and butter poached lobster tail had her feeling a little iffy, but it was the garlic prawns with Cajun aioli that really sent Sage over the edge.

* * *

“SAGE, COME ON, open the door.”

She leaned over the toilet bowl, arms folded over the cool porcelain. “No.”

“I sent all the fish away.”

She closed her eyes against the husky rumble of his voice. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Ah, actually, Sage? I kind of think I did.”

How could he maintain his sense of humor when she had just ruined everything? She moaned again, in even more distress. “I’m sorry.”

The other door that opened up off the bedroom, the one she hadn’t time or foresight to lock, swung inward. Nick strolled in. “What do you have to be sorry about?” He knelt down beside her.

He cupped a hand beneath her chin, and regarded her tenderly. “You’re pregnant. I’m the one who should have thought to ask what was in there first, before lifting the room service domes and treating you to all those aromas.”

The memory of the sights and smells made her shudder with distaste.

“I’m guessing it was the shrimp.”

“Prawns,” she admitted with difficulty. “And yes.” My heavens, yes.

He stroked a hand through her hair—or tried—the elegantly upswept curls were still heavily lacquered into place. “I’ve seen people throw up before, you know.” He wet a washcloth with cool water, wrung it out and placed it on the back of her neck.

She wallowed in her misery. “You haven’t seen me.”

He gazed at her possessively. “If we’re living together, that is going to change.”

What was he talking about? Sage sat back on her haunches and stared at him. “Living together?” she repeated.

“Well—” he shrugged, pausing to get comfortable, too “—now that we’re married, I figured we’d spend the night together whenever I am in town, and then when the baby comes, and I don’t have to travel so much...”

As much as Sage wanted to lean on him then, the way she was now, she wasn’t sure it was a good idea. “You know this isn’t a real marriage.” More like a convenient arrangement. For business reasons.

“It can still be any kind of union we want it to be.”

Why did he have to look so sexy? Especially under these circumstances? He should be irritated. Repelled. Not ready to move in with her!

Proceeding cautiously, she asked, “What kind of union do you want it to be?”

Mischief twinkled in his deep blue eyes. “The kind where we have a lot of great sex.”

Sage rolled her eyes. “You would say that now.” When I’ve just finished throwing up and feel and look like death warmed over.

Chivalrously, Nick helped her to her feet. “And have long talks,” he said. “The kind that last all night.”