A delicious warmth spread throughout Jessie’s body when he deepened the kiss.

“I think we’d better … stop this before I do something that’s sure to … get me into big trouble,” Nate said, sounding as short of breath as she felt. “Right now, I want you more than I want my next breath, and as bad as I hate to say this, it might be best for you to sleep across the hall tonight.”

The warmth inside her increased and her pulse raced. “Is that what you want me to do?”

“Hell, no!” He laughed as he shook his head. “What I’d like to do is to take you upstairs right now, remove every stitch of your clothes and spend the entire night making love to every inch of your delightful body.”

Her heart skipped a beat and she had to remind herself to breathe. “Then why don’t you?” she asked before she could stop herself.

A deep groan rumbled up from his chest. “Jessie, I’m not in any shape right now to be a gentleman. If you don’t mean what you just said, then it would be a real good idea to put some distance between us right about now.”

Reaching up, she cupped his lean cheeks with her hands. “I don’t want to move away from you, Nate.”

* * *

Pregnant with the Rancher’s Baby is part of The Good, the Bad and the Texan series—Running with these billionaires will be one wild ride!

Pregnant with the Rancher’s Baby

Kathie DeNosky

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Table of Contents

Cover

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Epilogue

Copyright

KATHIE DENOSKY lives in her native southern Illinois on the land her family settled in 1839. She writes highly sensual stories with a generous amount of humor. Her books have appeared on the USA TODAY bestseller list and received numerous awards, including two National Readers’ Choice Awards. Kathie enjoys going to rodeos, traveling to research settings for her books and listening to country music. Readers may contact her by emailing kathie@kathiedenosky.com. They can also visit her website, www.kathiedenosky.com, or find her on Facebook.

This book is dedicated to my beautiful daughter, Angela DeNosky Blumenstock.

Thank you for the research help and for being the sweetest daughter a mother could ever ask for.

One

Nate Rafferty couldn’t help but smile as he looked around the big, open area in one of his newly constructed barns. From the minute he’d mentioned having a party to celebrate his buying and renovating the Twin Oaks Ranch, his brothers’ wives had decided it needed to be a theme party. He’d been fine with that and told his sisters-in-law they were in charge of making it happen.

He’d even left the decision up to the women on what the theme would be, and they had outdone themselves, turning what was going to be his hay barn into a kid-friendly haunted house and full-on Halloween party. The monsters, scarecrows and ghosts were cute rather than scary, and his niece and nephews were going to love all the pumpkins, happy jack-o’-lanterns and garlands of colorful fall leaves that had been hung around the dance floor and bandstand.

Trying to decide if he wanted to go as the Lone Ranger or John Wayne, Nate walked out of the barn and started across the ranch yard toward the house. He’d gone only a few feet when he stopped dead in his tracks. A petite blond-haired woman was just getting out of the gray compact SUV she’d parked close to the garage.

How in the name of Sam Hill had she found him? And why?

He’d purposely avoided mentioning anything about buying the Twin Oaks Ranch to Jessica Farrell. He’d planned to wait until he finished renovating it, so he could surprise her and invite her to spend a weekend with him. Of course, the last time he’d seen her had been about four and a half months back—when she had still been speaking to him.

Not that he’d been all that worried about it. He had never had a problem charming his way back into her good graces and he had no reason to believe he couldn’t do so again, even though she’d been pretty determined that their on-again, off-again relationship was permanently off.

It had been that way between them for the past couple of years and whenever it seemed like things were getting a little too serious, he always found a reason to break things off between them. But the last time she’d told him not to bother calling her again and to forget where she lived.

Of course, it wasn’t the first time she’d told him to lose her phone number. They went through something similar about every three or four months. He’d give her time to simmer down, call and sweet-talk her into seeing him again. Then, after spending several weeks of being real cozy with her, he could feel himself start to get in a little deeper than he intended. That’s when he’d cut and run.

He knew it wasn’t fair to Jessie. She was a wonderful woman and deserved better than the likes of him. But where she was concerned, he didn’t seem to have a choice. He simply couldn’t stay away from her.

But this was the first time she’d sought him out and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why, especially not after the way they’d ended things the last time. When they’d parted several months ago, it had been different than before. He’d told her that he thought they should take a break and stop seeing each other for a while. That’s when he had seen a finality in her violet eyes that hadn’t been there before. But she was here now, so it must not have been all that final.

“Jessie, it’s good to see you again,” he said, walking toward her. Dressed in jeans and an oversized pink sweatshirt, she somehow managed to make the baggy fleece look sexy. Real sexy. “It’s been a while, darlin’. How have you been?”

When she turned to face him, she didn’t look all that happy to see him. “Do you have a few minutes?” she asked, her tone serious. “I need to talk to you.”

“Sure.” He couldn’t imagine what she wanted to talk about, but at the moment, he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to tell her, but the truth was, he had missed her—missed the sound of her soft voice and her sweet smile. “Why don’t we go inside and catch up?”

Her long ponytail swayed back and forth as she shook her head. “I won’t be here that long.”

Placing his arm around her slender shoulders, he turned her toward the house. “You didn’t drive all the way from Waco just to turn around and go back,” he said as he ushered her across the patio to the French doors. “I’ll tell my housekeeper you’ll be staying for supper.”

When they entered the family room, she surprised him when she ducked from beneath his arm and turned to face him. “Don’t bother, Nate. I worked the late shift last night and as soon as we talk, I need to get back home and get some sleep.” She was a registered professional nurse he’d met when she had taken care of his brother a couple of years ago after Sam had been injured in a rodeo accident.

“You can always sleep here,” he said, grinning.

If looks could kill, he would have been a dead man in two seconds flat. “You have a housekeeper?” she asked. When he nodded, she frowned as she looked around. “Is there somewhere a little more private where we can talk?”

Nate stared at her. He’d never seen her as determined as she appeared to be at that moment. “Let’s go into my office,” he finally said, motioning toward the arched doorway leading out into the foyer. “We can talk privately in there.”

Guiding her along, he waited until they were seated in his office with the door closed. “What was it you needed to talk to me about?” he asked, looking across the desk at her sitting in the leather armchair in front of him.

She nibbled on her lower lip as she stared down at her tightly clasped hands resting in her lap. “I want you to know that it’s taken me over four months to come to the decision to tell you.” When she looked directly at him, her pretty violet eyes were filled with resignation. “My first inclination was not to bother. But I didn’t think that would be fair to you.”

Nate sat up straight in his desk chair as his scalp started to tingle. He wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but his gut was telling him that whatever she had to say would be life changing. Had she met someone else? Was she telling him that she had committed herself to another man and it wasn’t fair not to tell him? Or was she talking about something else?

“Why don’t you stop beating around the bush and just tell me what you think I need to hear?” he asked.

She took a deep breath and met his questioning gaze head on. “I’m almost five months pregnant.”

“You’re pregnant,” he repeated. His gaze flew to her stomach as her words began to sink in and it felt like the air had suddenly been sucked out of the room. His heart raced and his knees threatened to buckle as he stood up and came around the desk to stand in front of her. “You’re going to have a baby?”

“That’s what pregnant means.”

“How did that happen?” he asked before he could stop himself.

The look she gave him stated louder than words that she had some serious doubts about the level of his intelligence. “If you don’t know about the birds and bees by now, Nate, you never will.”

Taking a deep breath, he shook his head in an effort to clear the ringing in his ears. “You know what I mean.” He rubbed the sudden tension building at the base of his neck. “We were always careful about protection.”

“There could have been a microscopic tear in one of the condoms or some other kind of defect.” She shrugged one slender shoulder. “Whatever happened, I’m pregnant and you’re the daddy. But I don’t want anything from you,” she added hurriedly. “I make more than enough to support myself and the baby, and I’m perfectly capable of raising a child on my own. I just thought it was only fair to let you know about the baby and find out if you want to be part of his or her life. If not, I want you to sign all of your rights over to me and we’ll both be out of your life for good.”

“Like hell,” he said emphatically. “If I have a kid, I’m going to be involved in every aspect of its life.”

She gave him a short nod, then stood up. “That’s all I wanted to know. I’ll have my attorney get in touch with yours. They can work out a fair custody agreement and a suitable visitation schedule.”

“Where are you going?” he asked, reaching out to place his hands on her shoulders to stop her. “You can’t just waltz in here, tell me that you’re having my baby and then leave.”

“Yes, I can,” she said. There was a defiance in her voice that warned him not to argue with her. “If I didn’t have a conscience, I wouldn’t even be here. But I happen to believe that a man has a right to know when he’s fathered a child, even if he’s not dependable. For now, that’s really all you need to know.”

A strong sense of guilt settled across his shoulders. Given their past and the way he’d treated her and their relationship, he should probably be grateful that she had bothered telling him at all. But he couldn’t let her leave without discussing things further. There were things he wanted—needed—to know.

“Jessie, I’m sorry for the way things have been between us in the past,” he said, meaning it. “I take full responsibility for that and if I could go back and change it, I would. Unfortunately, I can’t do that. But from here on out it’s important that we work together.”

She backed away from him. “I told you I won’t keep you from seeing the baby. The lawyers will—”

“Yeah, I got that,” he interrupted. He took a deep breath. “Look, I realize that I’m not exactly your favorite person right now and I can’t say I blame you. But there are things I want to discuss with you and a whole hell of a lot more that we need to decide.”

She stared at him for a moment before she spoke again. “I’m sure this came as a shock. Believe me, I wasn’t expecting it either. But it doesn’t have to be complicated. We can let the lawyers take care of sorting all of this out.”

“Darlin’, I don’t see how this can be anything but complicated,” he said, noticing for the first time how tired she looked. A sudden idea began to take shape as he stared into her pretty violet eyes. “You’re exhausted. Why don’t we table this for the time being?”

“Don’t worry about me,” she said, shrugging. “I’ll be fine as soon as I go home and get some sleep.”

“I don’t like the idea of you driving all the way back to Waco as tired as you are,” he said. “It isn’t safe.”

“I’ll be okay.” She frowned. “Besides, my welfare isn’t any of your concern.”

“Yes, it is,” he insisted. “Do you have to work tonight?”

She shook her head. “I have the weekend off. Why?”

“My family is having a Halloween party here tomorrow night and I’d really like for you to join us. I’ve got five guest bedrooms upstairs and you can have your pick of any of them.” He used his index finger to brush a strand of blond hair that had escaped her ponytail from her smooth cheek as an excuse to touch her. His finger tingled from the contact and he was heartened by the slight widening of her pretty eyes, indicating that she felt it, too. “It will also give us time to talk and make a few decisions after you’ve had time to rest.”

He’d wisely avoided mentioning that she could share the master suite with him. He might not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but he wasn’t fool enough to think she would be receptive to picking up their relationship where they left it almost five months ago.

She tried to hide a yawn behind her small, delicate hand. “I told you the law—”

“I know. But don’t you think it would save a lot of time and be easier for all concerned if we had everything worked out in advance?” he asked.

“Nate, I’m really too tired to discuss this right now,” she said, yawning. “All I want is to get home and go to bed.”

“At least take a nap before you start back to Waco,” he stalled. If he could get her to stay for a while, it would give him time to come to grips with the unbelievable fact that he was going to be a daddy. At the moment he was completely numb. But he needed to pull it together so he could think. He had to come up with a better argument for her staying, at least for the party. Now that he knew she was carrying his baby, it was even more important that they work things out. And damned quick.

“Maybe just a short power nap would help,” she conceded.

Without hesitation, he put his arm around her shoulders to guide her out into the foyer and up the stairs. He wasn’t going to give her time to change her mind.

When he walked her down the upstairs hall, Nate opened the door to the bedroom across from his. “Will this room be all right?”

“I’m leaving as soon as I wake up,” she warned.

“Just get some sleep now,” he said, leading her over to the bed. Pulling back the colorful quilt, he waited until she kicked off her tennis shoes and got into bed before he bent down to kiss her forehead. “If you need anything, I’ll be in my office.”

She had already fallen asleep.

Standing beside the bed, he stared down at the only woman he hadn’t been able to stay away from. Jessie was smart, funny and as sweet as she was pretty. So why hadn’t he been able to commit to her?

Nate knew his foster brother Lane Donaldson would probably have a field day using his master’s degree in psychology to analyze Nate’s motives. But Nate didn’t want to delve too deeply into his reasons for avoiding commitments. It all tied into his past and it wasn’t something he could change, nor was he eager to think about that dark time in his life.

The only thing he could do now was what his foster father Hank Calvert would expect of any of the boys he finished raising. Hank had preached to them over and over that when a man makes the decision to sleep with a woman, he’d better be ready to accept his responsibilities if he made her pregnant. And that was just what Nate intended to do.

His aversion to commitment was about to undergo a dramatic change. Jessie had shown up to tell him he was going to be a daddy and he fully intended to do right by her and his kid. Sometime within the next week, he was going to kiss his blissful bachelorhood goodbye and make her his wife.

* * *

When Jessie woke up, bright sunlight peeked through a part in the yellow calico curtains and it took a moment for her to realize where she was.

After working all night in the traumatic brain injury ICU, she had called Nate’s brother Sam to ask where she could find Nate. She hated having to involve Sam in her quest to get hold of Nate, but Nate had moved recently. The last time he had broken things off between them, she had deleted his number from her cell. Sam had been very nice and given her directions to the Twin Oaks Ranch. She supposed she could have asked for Nate’s number and called, but news like hers was something that needed to be delivered in person.

After going to her prenatal checkup, she had driven directly to the ranch to tell Nate he was the father of her baby. In hindsight, she probably should have gotten some sleep before she confronted him with the news. But if she had put it off any longer, she couldn’t be certain she wouldn’t have talked herself out of telling him at all.

For the past few months, she’d been torn over what to do and she still wasn’t certain she had made the right choice in telling him about the baby. For one thing, she was beyond tired of being Nate’s puppet. In the past, he would give her a call and talk her into rekindling their relationship, then when everything seemed to be going great between them, he’d find a reason they should stop seeing each other for a while. And for another, she wasn’t sure he deserved to have equal custody of the baby. How good of a father would he be, given his inclination for coming and going the way he’d done in the past?

The last time he decided to pull his vanishing act, she’d told him not to bother getting in touch with her again. It had broken her heart, but she refused to allow him to control the course of their relationship any longer. Shortly after that she had discovered she was pregnant. And even though she felt it was only right to let a man know he had fathered a child, her main concern was whether or not Nate would always be there for the baby. It was one thing to disappoint her. It was something else entirely if he disappointed their child.

Unsettled by the thought, she threw back the covers to sit up on the side of the bed. That’s when she realized just how exhausted she’d been. She had not only slept the rest of yesterday and last night, she was still fully dressed.

Jessie quickly made the bed and headed downstairs. She had the next two nights off and she needed to get home. There were several things she needed to get done this weekend and she still had an hour’s drive just to get back to Waco.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she sighed heavily when Nate came out of the office. So much for avoiding him on her way out.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” he said cheerfully.

Why did the man have to look so darned good to her? She didn’t want to notice how his straight light brown hair stylishly brushed the collar of his chambray shirt or the way his blue eyes twinkled when he smiled at her. She was still angry with him and resented the way he thought he could come and go in her life without a second thought to the effect it had on her—how much it hurt her emotionally.

“You should have awakened me,” she said, noticing the grandfather clock in the foyer indicated it was already midmorning.

“You were tired.” His smile turned to a grin. “Besides, I thought you’d probably want to be fully rested for the party tonight.”

“I’m not attending your party,” she said, stepping down onto the cream-colored marble tile floor of the foyer. “I told you that yesterday.”

He shook his head as he walked over to her. “No, you didn’t.”

“It was implied and you know it,” she stated. “When you insisted that I had to get some sleep before I drove home, I told you I intended to leave as soon as I woke up from a nap. That was a strong indication that I had no intention of attending your family gathering.”

He reached out to lightly run his finger along her jaw, causing her skin to tingle where he touched her. “Now that you’ve had some rest, would you like a cup of coffee or something to eat?” he asked, ignoring her argument against staying for his party. “I don’t know all that much about pregnancy, but when they were expecting, all of my sisters-in-law ate like ranch hands once they got past being sick.”

“I cut out caffeine when I discovered I was pregnant, but a muffin or bagel and a glass of milk would be appreciated,” she answered, knowing just what the women had gone through.

In the early weeks of her pregnancy, just the thought of food was enough to make her sick. But now that the morning sickness had cleared up, it seemed she was hungry all of the time.

“Why don’t you have a seat in my office and I’ll go tell my housekeeper to fix a tray for you,” he said, placing his hand to her back to guide her toward the doorway.

“Why don’t I eat in the kitchen and then just go out the back door to my car when I’m done?” she countered, starting to turn in the opposite direction of the office.

“We have to talk,” he insisted, bringing his arm up to wrap around her shoulders and steer her back toward his office.

“Nate, it would be better to let the lawyers—”

“Do you really want strangers calling the shots on how we go about raising our kid?” he interrupted.

Jessie stared at him as she tried to decide what to do. He had a point about attorneys sitting across a conference table making the important decisions about their child. It really did seem impersonal and detached from the situation. But she had wanted to avoid spending any more time with him than she had to. For the past two and a half years Nate Rafferty had been her biggest weakness and she needed to stay strong in order to resist his charming appeal.

“I only have two nights off and I have things I want to accomplish,” she hedged. She had intended to start cleaning out the second bedroom in her apartment to turn it into a nursery.

“This is the future of our baby, Jessie.” The earnest expression on his handsome face made her feel guilty and she found herself nodding in agreement in spite of her need to put distance between them.

Fifteen minutes later, Jessie stared at the small bowl of fresh fruit, a honey-wheat bagel with cream cheese, scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, a glass of orange juice and a tall glass of milk sitting on a tray on the edge of Nate’s desk. “Whose army were you intending to feed?” she asked. “I can’t eat all of this.”

“Rosemary said you needed the protein and fruit as well as the calcium in the milk and vitamin C from the orange juice,” he said, shrugging as he lowered himself into the armchair beside her. “She said it would be good for both you and the baby.”

Jessie’s eyes widened. “You told your housekeeper I’m pregnant?”

He nodded. “She has six kids and fifteen grandkids. They’re all healthy and I figured if anyone would know what your nutritional needs are now that you’re pregnant, she would.”

While she appreciated his thoughtfulness, Jessie wasn’t entirely certain she was comfortable with him telling others about the baby until they had worked out an agreement they could both live with. But she wasn’t going to argue with him about it now. They had bigger issues to settle.

“You said you wanted to work out custody and visitation?” she asked, picking up the fork on the tray to take a bite of the fluffy scrambled eggs.

He shook his head, then took a deep breath as if what he was about to say was extremely difficult for him. “None of that will be necessary once we’re married.”

She stopped with the fork halfway to her mouth. “Excuse me?”

“We’ll do the right thing and get married,” he repeated as if it was the answer to all of their problems.

Her appetite deserting her, Jessie slowly placed the fork full of eggs back on the plate and shook her head. “No, we won’t.”

“Sure we will,” he said, reaching to take her hand in his. “I’ve already qualified for the National Finals. I’ll skip the rodeo this coming weekend and we can have the wedding here. Or if you prefer, we can fly to Vegas and have a reception for family and friends at a later date.”

Jerking her hand from his, she stood up to pace the length of the room. “Have you lost your ever-loving mind? I’m not going to marry you.”

He rose to his feet and, walking over to her, placed his hands on her shoulders to stare down at her from his much taller height. “I didn’t mean to upset you, darlin’. I’m pretty sure it’s not good for you or the baby.”

“How would you know?” she demanded, glaring up into his incredible blue eyes. “How many times have you been pregnant?”

He gave her a sheepish grin. “This is a first for both of us.”

“Never mind. It doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t get the point, even if I explained it to you.” She shook her head. “I didn’t come here to tell you that I’m having a baby because I wanted you to marry me. I simply thought you should know that you’d fathered a child. Period. If you want to be part of the baby’s life, I won’t try to stop you. But I’m not part of the deal, Nate. We can work something out so that we’re both involved with raising this baby, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be involved with each other.”

He took a deep breath. “I realize that’s what we could do, Jessie. But making you my wife is what I want.”

“No, it’s not, Nate.” She had hoped to hear him say those words for over two years, but she knew better than to believe he really wanted to get married. He’d broken up with her too many times for her to believe any such thing. “You might think that now. But we both know you’ll lose interest within a few weeks and then you’d not only resent me and the baby for trapping you into doing something you didn’t want to do, we’d be facing the heartbreak of a divorce.”

“That’s not going to happen, Jessie. When I make that commitment, it’s for life.” He ran his hand through his thick, straight hair. “I know I’ve let you down before, but—”

“Stop right there,” she said, holding up her hand. “That’s something else we need to get straight right here and now. I’m a big girl and I have no one else to blame but myself for allowing you to come and go in my life the way you’ve done. But the stakes are higher now, Nate. Disappointing me is one thing, but I refuse to allow you to upset our son or daughter. This is our child—my child—we’re discussing and I swear I’ll fight you with everything that’s in me if you don’t grow up and be there when he or she needs you. Being a parent isn’t a game or something you run from whenever you get tired of playing the devoted daddy. It means you’re there twenty-four/seven, no matter how tough it gets. If you can’t handle that, then I’d rather you don’t even bother.”

“Jessie, I give you my word that from now on, you and the baby are my top priority,” he said, sounding sincere. He slid his hands from her shoulders down her arms to catch her hands in his. “I want us to get married and be a family. And I swear I will never cause you another minute of heartache.”

“Then why did you make it sound as if you were going to be accepting responsibility for a crime instead of asking me to marry you?” she asked bluntly. “Did you even listen to yourself?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, looking bewildered.

“No woman wants to enter into a marriage with a man knowing that she was ‘the right thing’ for him to do,” she said, shaking her head. “Besides, you had to take a deep breath before you could even get out that you want to make me your wife.”

He stared at her for several long seconds before he finally spoke again. “Just give us a chance—give me a chance—darlin’. This is all new to me.”

“Nate, I’ve already given you more chances than you deserve,” she said, refusing to believe that this time would be any different than the others. He was only offering marriage because of the baby, not because he loved her and wanted them to build a life together.

“Do you have some vacation time you can take?” he asked suddenly.

“Yes, but I’m saving it for after the baby is born so that I can extend my maternity leave,” she explained, wondering why he wanted to know.

“When is your next doctor’s appointment?” he continued to question her.

“I have an ultrasound scheduled in two weeks,” she answered. “Why are you asking about all of this?”

“I’d like for you to be here for the party tonight, then stay with me for the next couple of weeks,” he said. He paused for a moment as if catching his breath. “Let me prove to you that getting married is what I want.”

“I don’t see how that’s going to work,” she pointed out. “You normally take a few more weeks than that to lose interest. Besides, you had to take a deep breath before you could tell me you wanted to prove how much you want us to get married. That doesn’t instill a lot of confidence for the case you’re trying to make. And all I’m hearing is what you want. Have you even considered what I want?”

He gave her a short nod before he asked, “What do you want, Jessie?”

“I want you to be a good father and love our child,” she said slowly. “That’s more important to me than anything else.”

“I already love the baby and I give you my word that I’ll be the best daddy I can possibly be.”

She noticed that he failed to include her with his declaration. If she hadn’t known before that the only reason he was offering marriage was because of the baby, she certainly did now.

“That’s all I want from you,” she said, when he continued to look at her expectantly.

“All I’m asking is to let me prove to you that being a good dad isn’t the only thing I want. Stay with me until after Thanksgiving,” he countered.

“Nate, I don’t see how my staying here for a month or even two weeks will prove anything,” she said, shaking her head. He didn’t love her and that was that. There was no sense wasting her vacation time on something that, in the end, wouldn’t change that fact.

“What do you have to lose?” he asked.

“The vacation I intended to take after the baby is born,” she answered. As well as what’s left of my heart after you broke it the last time.

“If I can’t convince you that I’m completely sincere about our being a family, then we’ll call the lawyers and let them work out an agreement,” he said, oblivious to her inner turmoil.

“I can’t go to the party,” she stalled. “I don’t have anything to wear.”

If she went along with his request and stayed for any length of time, she was afraid she would be tempted to fall back into their old pattern of him charming her into his bed. That was the last thing she wanted to happen. There was simply too much at stake now. The baby was counting on her to stay strong and resist the temptation Nate posed.

“I’ve already taken care of something for you to wear to the party,” he said, looking quite pleased with himself. “I called Sam’s wife, Bria. She and her sister, Mariah, were going to pick up their outfits at the costume shop up in Fort Worth. I asked her to pick out something for you and stop by one of the women’s shops to get you a full change of clothes for tomorrow.”

“Please tell me you didn’t let her know about my pregnancy,” she said, reaching up to rub at the sudden pounding in her temples.

“No, I thought we could tell everyone together tonight at the party,” he said. “I just told Bria that you’re about the size of our other sister-in-law Summer and that you liked your clothes nice and loose.” He glanced down at her stomach. “I figured you might need a little extra room for the baby.”

“I haven’t said I would go to the party,” she reminded him.

“You haven’t said you wouldn’t.” His sexy grin told her he knew he was wearing her down.

She supposed that if she did stay, it would be as good a time as any to tell his family about the baby. And if she was present she would have a little more control over what he told them. As persistent as he was about convincing her to marry him, he’d probably tell his family that they were planning a trip down the aisle as well as about her pregnancy.

Being there to stop him from misleading his family would be the wisest choice. She wasn’t going to marry him and set herself and the baby up for the heartbreak of watching him leave when he got bored.

“If I stay for the party, that doesn’t mean I would be here for an extended period of time,” she reminded him.

He stared at her for several long seconds before he cupped her face with his hands. “Jessie, you’ve experienced all of this from the moment you learned you were pregnant. But I’ve missed out on a lot these last four and a half months and I really don’t want to miss any more. I promise that if you’ll stay with me for the next month, I won’t push for anything more than you’re willing to give. This time will not only give us the opportunity to explore every option and be sure we’re making the right decisions, it will give me the chance to feel like I’m really a part of this and get used to the idea of being a dad.”

The sincerity in his voice and the heartfelt look on his face produced the results she was certain he had been going for. Now if she didn’t stay, she’d feel so guilty about it she’d probably never be able to sleep again.

She’d had almost five months to get used to the idea of becoming a mother. Nate had had less than twenty-four hours to come to terms with being a father and she was sure it was still pretty unreal for him. And he did have a point about making decisions concerning how they raised their child. Their baby deserved to have its parents making the choices instead of stuffy lawyers spouting out legalese. She was going to have to figure out how to deal with Nate for the next eighteen or so years anyway. She might as well start now.

“I would have to go back home to get some clothes,” she warned. Between now and the trip back to her apartment, she would hopefully be able to harden her resolve and shore up her defenses against his charismatic charm. In the past, she’d had about as much backbone as a jellyfish when it came to resisting Nate, and spending a month with him would be a true test of her willpower. But she could understand his wanting to take an active role in the pregnancy. It would be a good start to his bonding with the baby and that was something she wanted for her child.

“We can go to your place tomorrow and get whatever you need.” His expression turned serious. “I really want this opportunity for us, Jessie. Please say you’ll stay.”

She might have had a chance if he had been demanding or insistent. But the sincere tone of his voice and the hopeful look in his eyes were impossible to resist. Maybe she needed this test to prove to herself that they could raise their child together without her falling into bed with him again.

“All right, I’ll arrange to take the time off and stay until the weekend after Thanksgiving,” she heard herself say. “But only on one condition.”

“What’s that, darlin’?” he asked, lowering his head to brush her lips with his.

“I don’t want any pressure from you about getting married,” she stated flatly as she backed away from him.

“I promise.”

“I’m only here for you to prove to me that you’re sincere about wanting this baby as much as I do and to work out custody and visitation.” As an afterthought, she added, “And just for the record, at night I’ll be staying in one room and you’ll be staying in another.”

Two

Standing with his brothers at the makeshift bar his hired men had constructed for the party, Nate was only half listening to the conversation about his brother’s rodeo stock company and the bucking bulls he owned that had been selected for the National Finals Rodeo. He was too busy watching Jessie. She was as cute as a button in the girl garden-gnome costume that Bria had picked up for her to wear to the party. She’d had to leave the vest off because it was too formfitting, but the white apron over her full red skirt hid her rounded stomach just fine.

Seated on a bale of hay, Jessie was listening attentively to his two nephews Seth and little Hank jabber about their new ponies. He could tell by the way she smiled at the little boys going on about riding their “horsies” that she loved kids. When his niece Katie toddled over to her, Jessie picked up the baby girl to sit on her lap without a moment’s hesitation. She was going to be a great mom, and he could only hope to be half as good of a dad.

His heart stuttered and he had to take a deep breath to chase away the fear tightening his chest. Just the thought of being a daddy scared the living spit out of him. What if he couldn’t live up to the responsibility? He was a fantastic uncle to his niece and nephews. But that role didn’t carry nearly as much responsibility as being a father. What kind of dad would he be?

His biggest fear had always been that he would turn out to be as negligent and undependable as his and Sam’s father had been. That’s why he’d never really thought about having kids. Hell, he hadn’t even thought about having a wife because of it. But it was all he’d been able to think about for the past twenty-four hours. Could he live up to his responsibilities?

Of the six men he called his brothers, Sam was his only biological sibling and had turned out to be as solid as a rock. He was the exact opposite of their old man, and it gave Nate hope that he would be just as reliable as Sam. But how would he know for sure?

“So what’s up with you, Nate?” T. J. Malloy asked, interrupting Nate’s disturbing thoughts.

“Yeah, this is the first time you’ve asked the little blond to join one of our family get-togethers,” Ryder McClain added, grinning from ear to ear.

“Maybe now that he owns the Twin Oaks Ranch, Nate is finally ready to settle down,” Lane Donaldson speculated as he cradled his infant son in the crook of his arm.

“I’ve got a hundred bucks that says he and Jessie are married by spring,” Sam said, glancing from Nate to Jessie and back. “Yesterday when she called to ask me where she could find you, she sounded pretty determined.”

“Jessie called you and you didn’t tell me?” Nate demanded, glaring at his older brother.

Sam shrugged. “She asked me not to and I told her I wouldn’t. And you know as well as the rest of us about Hank’s number-one rule.”

“Yeah,” Nate said, his irritation fading at the mention of their foster father and the personal code of ethics he had taught the boys in his care. “Break a bone if you have to before you break your word.”

His brothers all nodded in agreement.

Jaron Lambert pulled his wallet from the hip pocket of his jeans, got out a hundred-dollar bill and plunked it down on the top of the bar. “I say Nate and Jessie will be hitched by the middle of this coming summer.”

“I’ve got Christmas,” T.J. said, adding his money to the pool.

“I’ll take Valentine’s Day,” Lane spoke up, putting his hundred with the rest.

Ryder pulled his wallet from the hip pocket of his jeans, then looked him up and down before he slapped Nate on the shoulder. “I’m betting they’ll be married by Thanksgiving.”

Nate shook his head as he listened to his brothers bet on when he and Jessie took a trip down the aisle. It had always been this way with the brothers. From the time they were all placed into the care of their foster father, Hank Calvert on the Last Chance Ranch, the six of them had a betting pool going on just about everything. Of course back then they had all been dirt poor and had nothing better to do than speculate on the next time it rained or which one of them would be the first to win a buckle at one of the junior rodeos they all competed in.

Now that they were all self-made millionaires, instead of betting fifty cents or a dollar, the stakes were a lot higher. These days it was nothing for them to bet a hundred dollars or more on who would be the next one to tie the knot or add to the family with the birth of a baby. But up until yesterday, he hadn’t even considered the possibility that he would be the next one they speculated on or that they would all be right in doing so.

Every time one of them mentioned him getting hitched he felt a twitch at the corner of his left eye. He still couldn’t believe that he was finally willing to take the plunge and get married. It scared the living hell out of him that he might let Jessie and their baby down. But he had a responsibility to both of them and he was going to do everything in his power to live up to what a good husband and father should be.

Focusing on the pile of money on the bar to keep himself from dwelling on all of the what-ifs, Nate shook his head. “While you all waste your time and money, I’m going to ask Jessie to dance.” The kids had abandoned her in favor of playing with a cardboard box someone had left over by the refreshment table, and he decided now might be a good time to find out when she wanted to tell his family about the baby.

He threw his empty beer bottle in the recycling bin at the end of the bar and walked away. He was in enough trouble with her. He didn’t want to add more by telling the guys about her pregnancy before she was ready. And if he stuck around much longer, there was a real possibility of him accidently tipping them off that something was up. If that happened, they would needle him until hell froze over trying to get him to tell them what was going on.

Hiding things from the people who knew you best wasn’t all that easy. That was the only downside he could see about being so close and knowing each other so well. But he wouldn’t have it any other way. He knew he could count on his brothers being there for him no matter what, just as he would be there for them.

“Are you having a good time, darlin’?” he asked, walking up to where Jessie still sat on the bale of straw.

With her attention on the kids, she smiled. “I’m having a wonderful time. But I’m apparently not nearly as interesting as a cardboard box.”

Nate took her hands in his to pull her to her feet. “Just wait until you see the kids at Christmas. They get all kinds of excited and can’t wait for us to remove the toys from the boxes. Then they toss the toy aside and sit down to play with the box.”

Her light laughter made his insides vibrate with a tension he knew all too well. He wanted her. Hell, even during the times when he’d broken things off with her and gone his own way, he’d still wanted her. Maybe that was the reason he hadn’t been able to stay away from her. He had a feeling the reasons went much deeper, but he wasn’t going to think about that now. He wanted to hold her in his arms without having her remind him that she wasn’t there to rekindle their romance.

“Would you like to dance, darlin’?” She loved kicking up her heels on the dance floor and he wanted her to enjoy herself. If she had a good time, it might remind her of what they had shared in the past.

“I think I would, sheriff,” she said, referring to the tin badge he had pinned to his shirt.

He nodded to the frontman in the band he’d hired and, right on cue, they ended the song they had been playing and immediately launched into a popular slow country song. When the group had first arrived, he’d told the man the title of the song he wanted them to play and to be watching for his signal. It was the song he and Jessie had danced to the first time he’d taken her out for a night on the town.

“You had that planned,” she accused.

Grinning, he took her into his arms and swept her out onto the dance floor. “Yup.” He leaned close to whisper in her ear. “You didn’t tell me I wasn’t allowed to remind you of the first date we went on or how good we are together.” He wisely refrained from mentioning that was true for other things besides dancing.

He felt her tremble against him a moment before she put a little space between them. “Nate, the first thing we’re going to do after this party is to set down some ground rules. Otherwise, I’ll be going home tomorrow and I won’t be back.”

“Sure thing, darlin’,” he said agreeably as they swayed in time with the music.

She could lay down all the rules she wanted, but that little shiver was all the indication he needed to know that she wasn’t impervious to him. And he had every intention of reminding her of that fact every chance he got.

He waited until the song ended before he asked, “When do you want to make the announcement about the baby?”

She sighed. “I suppose now is as good of a time as any. But don’t you dare mislead your family into believing that we’re getting married because we’re not.”

“I give you my word,” he said, nodding. He wasn’t about to do anything that would send her running back to Waco before the end of the month they had agreed on. And that was exactly what would happen if he so much as hinted to his family that marriage was a possibility. Besides, he had until just after Thanksgiving to figure out how he was going to accomplish that goal. He was determined not to fail. He wanted her to agree to be his wife and for them to be married before the baby was born.

Putting his arm around her shoulders to guide her, they walked over to Bria and her sister, Mariah, chatting with some of their friends by the refreshment table. “Bria, could you get the family together and meet Jessie and I outside for a few minutes? We have something we’d like to tell everyone.”

“Of course, Nate.” Smiling, his sister-in-law turned to Mariah. “Go tell the men to meet us outside while I find Summer, Taylor and Heather.”

Within a few minutes Nate and Jessie stood just outside of the big barn doors, surrounded by his family. He knew his sisters-in-law would be excited by their news and would start making plans for baby showers and whatever else women did to welcome a new baby into the family. But his brothers were going to give him hell when they learned that marriage wasn’t a sure thing.

Their foster father had raised them with a clear sense of what was right and wrong. From the time they had been old enough to start dating, Hank Calvert had told them it was their responsibility to protect a woman. And in the case of an accidental pregnancy, a man had a moral obligation to do what was right and give the woman and child his name.

Nate knew that in this day and time, that way of thinking might be considered antiquated, but there was no man he respected more than his late foster father. Hank’s teachings had served him and his brothers well over the years and turned them from rebellious young hell-raisers into honest, upstanding adults. As far as he was concerned, that kind of guidance shouldn’t be ignored. Besides, the thought of having Jessie at his side every day and in his bed every night was a very appealing aspect of marriage, even if it did scare the hell out of him.

“So what’s up, bro?” Jaron asked with one of his rare smiles. The quiet, brooding one of his brothers, Jaron was the only one that Nate knew for certain hadn’t completely rid himself of the ghosts of his past. They all had had a few residual hang-ups from their lives before being sent to the Last Chance Ranch. But Jaron’s ran deeper than the rest of them.

“Yeah, spill the beans, hotshot,” T.J. chimed in.

Nate glanced at Jessie as he reached for her hand. “We just wanted to let you know that we’ll be adding another member to the family in a few months. We’re going to have a baby.”

There was a stunned silence that followed his announcement and one look at the expression on Sam’s face let Nate know his failure to mention a wedding had not gone unnoticed. With a slight shake of his head, he let his brothers know not to ask about it until later. He knew they would respect his wishes and remain silent—for now. But as soon as the opportunity presented itself, he was going to have some explaining to do.

“That’s wonderful,” Bria said, breaking the silence as she stepped forward to hug him and Jessie. God bless her, Bria could read a situation faster than anyone he knew and always seemed to know exactly what to say to ease the tension.

“I’m so excited for you,” Summer McClain added happily, shifting her daughter to her hip in order to reach out and hug Jessie.

“We’ve got another baby shower to plan,” Lane’s wife, Taylor, spoke up enthusiastically. “I’ve got some new appetizers in mind that will be perfect for the refreshments.” A personal chef, Taylor was always looking for reasons to try new recipes on the family.

“When is the baby due?” T.J.’s wife, Heather, asked.

“In late March or early April,” Jessie answered. Nate could tell by the tone in her voice she was relieved that no one had asked about a wedding.

“Do you know if you’re having a boy or a girl?” Mariah asked, giving Jaron a pointed look. Every time one of the sisters-in-law became pregnant, Mariah and Jaron argued about what gender they thought the baby would be. It appeared this time was going to be no different.

Jessie smiled as she shook her head. “I’m having an ultrasound in a couple of weeks to find out.”

“Congratulations,” Sam finally said, stepping forward to give Jessie a brotherly hug. He stared hard at Nate. “I think this calls for a beer, don’t you?”

“Great news,” Ryder said, wrapping Jessie in a bear hug. When he put his hand on Nate’s shoulder, Nate could tell by Ryder’s iron grip that he was about to be escorted to the bar for his brothers’ interrogation.

“Jessie, if you don’t mind, we’d like to take this bonehead back to the bar to toast your good news,” Lane explained, handing his baby son over to his wife, Taylor.

“I don’t mind,” she said, smiling. “It will give me a chance to ask your wives what I can expect with a newborn and what baby products they’ve found to be the most useful.”

As his brothers walked him back into the barn, Nate heard the excited voices of the women as they offered their suggestions on what they thought Jessie might need to get ready for the baby. He wasn’t the least bit surprised. Whether she realized it or not, she and the baby were already considered members of his family and everyone would do whatever they could to help her and make her feel welcome.

“Okay, what’s the story, bro?” Sam demanded when they reached the bar.

“And why didn’t we hear that the two of you are making plans to get hitched?” T.J. asked as he motioned for the bartender to get them all a bottle of beer.

“You all know about as much as I do,” Nate admitted as they walked over to a more private area away from a group of their friends. “Jessie showed up yesterday to tell me she’s about four and a half months pregnant, I’m the daddy and when I told her we’d get married as soon as possible, she flat-out refused.”

“You told her you’d marry her instead of asking her to be your wife?” Lane asked, his expression incredulous.

“Way to sweet-talk a woman, bro,” Jaron said, shaking his head. “Even I know better than to do that.”

“For a ladies’ man, you sure screwed that up,” Ryder stated disgustedly.

“And you tried to give me advice on how to talk to a woman when Heather and I first started seeing each other.” T.J. took a swig of beer from the bottle in his hand. “I’m glad I had the good sense not to listen to you.”

Sam folded his arms across his chest and glared at him. “How do you intend to straighten this out with her, Nate?”

“I’ve already come up with a plan,” he answered, watching the women and kids reenter the barn. They all looked as if they were having a lot better time than he was at the moment.

“You want to run this scheme of yours past us and get our input before you try to execute it?” Lane asked.

“Yeah, the way you messed up that proposal, it sounds to me like you need all the help you can get,” Jaron added.

As much as he had riding on the outcome, Nate figured he could use some advice from his brothers and especially from Lane. Having the opinion of a licensed psychologist definitely couldn’t hurt and might just give him the edge he needed to convince Jessie of his sincerity.

“I got her to agree to stay with me until after Thanksgiving so we can work out joint custody and how we’re going to raise the baby,” Nate answered. He stared across the dance floor at Jessie and the rest of the women. “And while I’m at it, I’m going to pull out all the stops and show her that I really do want to get married.”

“The way things have gone down with you two in the past, you’ve got your work cut out for you.” T.J. stated what Nate was certain all of his brothers were thinking.

“It for damned sure isn’t going to be easy,” Ryder added.

“And there’s no margin for error,” Lane warned. “If you don’t get it right this time, they’ll be passing out ice water in hell before you get a second chance.”

Nate nodded. No matter how scary it was to commit himself to one woman, especially knowing that he’d have to reveal everything about his past, he had too much to lose not to do everything in his power to make things right between them. “I’m going to get Jessie to agree to marry me or die trying.”

* * *

As Jessie listened to Nate’s sisters-in-law discuss possible themes for the baby shower they were planning for her and the refreshments they might serve, she couldn’t help but feel envious of the strong family bond the women and their husbands shared. Over the past couple of years, Nate had told her a little about his blended family, and how he and Sam met the other four men they called brothers when they were placed in the foster care system.

Sent to the Last Chance Ranch as teenagers, the six boys had found their salvation as well as each other, thanks to a kindhearted man named Hank Calvert and his unique set of rules to live by. The boys he fostered had stayed tight throughout the ensuing years and from what she could see, the women they married had become just as close.

“When you find out the baby’s gender do you intend to tell everyone or let it be a surprise?” Heather asked.

“I thought I’d let everyone know the gender, but keep the name secret until the baby is born,” Jessie said, resting her hand on her stomach. “I know it sounds strange, but I’d like to introduce him or her to everyone by name.”

“If you don’t mind, could you let us know what you’re having as soon as you have the ultrasound, Jessie?” Summer asked, smiling. “That way we’ll know what colors to use for decorations.”

“And if you’ve chosen the colors for the nursery, that might be useful as well,” Heather added as her little boy, Seth, ran up to hand her a bouquet of dried weeds he’d obviously picked out of a hay bale. After she thanked him and gave him a kiss, he rejoined the other two toddlers. “T.J. gave me a bouquet of flowers the other day and Seth tries to mimic everything his daddy does.”

“That’s so sweet.” Jessie found the little boy’s gesture very touching and she knew for certain she would be just as happy having a boy as she would having a girl.

“It would also be helpful if you register at one of the baby boutiques in Waco as soon as you can so we can put that on the invitations,” Bria suggested, bringing the conversation back to the shower they were planning.

“They’re using some of the most unusual combinations of colors these days,” Taylor commented as she shifted her baby son to her shoulder for a burp after he finished the bottle she had been giving him. “I hadn’t even considered the colors I used until I saw them in one of the baby boutiques.”

“I hope you get to decorate with a lot of pink and purple for a little princess,” Mariah stated as she got up from the bale of straw she was sitting on to walk over to the three toddlers playing with the box again.

“That’s only because she wants another excuse to argue with Jaron,” Taylor confided. She got up and picked up a diaper bag. “Time to get this little man changed and settled down for the night.”

As Taylor walked out of the barn toward the house to get her son ready for bed, Bria explained the ongoing disagreement between Mariah and Jaron. “Whenever one of us announces that a new baby will be joining the family, Mariah insists it will be a girl and Jaron is just as determined it will be a boy.” Shaking her head, she sighed. “It’s their way of dancing around the real issue between them.”

Jessie nodded. “Nate mentioned that Jaron and your sister have been attracted to each other for years, but he thinks he’s too old for her.”

“When she was eighteen, a nine-year gap in their ages did make a difference in maturity and experience,” Bria said. “But now that she’s twenty-five and he’s thirty-four, Jaron is the only one who thinks it still matters.”

“I’m twenty-six and Nate’s thirty-three. Neither of us have given the seven-year age difference a second thought. I wonder why he’s so insistent that it’s a problem?” Jessie asked, frowning.

“If you can answer that, you will have solved one of the mysteries of the universe,” Summer stated as she hurried over to keep her daughter from trying to stand on a pumpkin.

An hour later as she helped the women clear the refreshment table, Jessie was more envious than ever of the love and devotion they all shared. They might be a blended family, but they were closer than some people she’d seen who were related by blood.

She sighed heavily as she thought about her own family. For whatever reason, her parents had never seemed to care if she and her older brother had a close relationship. Of course, her brother had been a junior in high school when she was born and as with most teenage boys, he thought he had better things to do than to pay attention to his baby sister.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t really all that close to her parents either. Her mother and father were real estate brokers and when they weren’t busy selling mansions to the überrich residents of Houston, they were attending a social function at the country club to make more contacts for their agency. About the only time she could remember them paying all that much attention to her was when she told them she was going to become a registered nurse instead of earning a business degree in college. They had both been extremely disappointed with her decision and couldn’t understand why she didn’t want to follow in their footsteps like her brother had done.

That hadn’t changed since she graduated and started her career. Sadly, she didn’t hold out a lot of hope they would react any differently when she finally told them about the baby either. They were simply too caught up in brokering real estate deals to be bothered with family. And the only reason they had more to do with her brother was because he was just as driven by the almighty dollar as they were and had joined the family business.

“Do you have plans for Thanksgiving, Jessie?” Bria asked, bringing her back to the present. “If not, we’d love to have you spend the day with us.”

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