Cathy Thacker - Wanted - Texas Daddy

Not, he thought, the kind of looks they’d been giving him. He cleared his throat, regarded her severely, tried again. “Sage...”

She started to dart past him, then stopped, spying a Bullhaven Ranch pickup truck parking in one of the slanted spaces in front of the store. Her pretty mouth dropped into an O of surprise.

“Oh, heck!” she swore, darting off in the opposite direction toward the back of the store. “There’s Chance!” She ducked through the curtain that led to the storeroom, calling over her shoulder. “If he asks, I’m not here!”

Well, this ought to be fun, Nick thought wryly, as a second, then third pickup pulled up next to the first. Three tall men emerged from the driver’s seats. Headed toward the front of the store.

Chance Lockhart peered around the closed sign. Gestured. He wanted in. So did his two brothers.

Figuring they may as well get this over with, Nick obliged. Garrett, Wyatt and Chance Lockhart stalked in. Not surprisingly, all three of Sage’s older brothers looked loaded for bear. The only sibling not there was her Special Forces brother, Zane, who was as usual off on assignment. Garrett nodded perfunctorily at Nick. “Monroe.”

This was not looking good. “What can I do for you?” Nick asked.

Wyatt jumped in with a suspicious glare. “For starters, tell us what in blazes is going on between you and Sage.”

“Not sure what you mean.”

Chance squinted. “Are the two of you a couple? Or what?”

It took everything Nick had to suppress a groan. “I imagine Sage would classify us in the ‘or what’ category.”

Garrett’s frown deepened. “Not funny, Monroe.”

“Mom is worried sick,” Chance added.

Lucille Lockhart was a wonderful woman. Kind and generous to a fault. Nick did not want to cause her grief.

“She needn’t be.” He would care for and protect Lucille’s only female child with every fiber of his being.

“Really?” Wyatt demanded, slamming his hands on his waist. “Because from where we’re standing, it looks as if Sage has some pretty big news to share.”

So they did suspect, just as Nick had figured. Pushing aside his irritation that Sage had let it come to this, he said, “Then maybe you should be asking her.”

The brothers’ expressions turned even grimmer. “We have,” Wyatt groused. “She won’t tell us anything.”

Sounded familiar.

Suddenly, he felt sympathy for her family, even as he remained boxed in by his first obligation, which was to Sage. “What do you want me to do?” he demanded impatiently. It wasn’t like he could control Sage. No one could.

“Cowboy up,” Chance said.

Garrett nodded. “Show some responsibility.”

The intimation that he hadn’t stung.

Nick thought about all the times he’d held Sage while she cried—uncharacteristically—over the silliest things. How he’d taken it in stride when she’d fallen asleep, mid-just-about-anything, and/or asked him not to touch her breasts because her nipples were just too sensitive. Surpassed what he really wanted—like sizzling fajitas or a big juicy rare steak—and instead dined on what she was having, even if it was ginger ale and crackers.

Resentment knotted his gut. “How do you know I haven’t been?”

A skeptical silence fell.

Finally, Garrett said, “Have you asked her to marry you?”

Without warning, the curtain behind them was ripped aside. Sage stormed out, temper flaring.

This, too, was par for the course. Since conceiving, her emotions had frequently skyrocketed out of control.

“Whoa, Nellie!” Hormones raging, she marched toward her brothers, shooing them away with both arms. “You guys need to back the heck off!”

Her brothers remained where they were.

And suddenly, Nick knew what had to be done. Whether Sage liked it or not.

“They’re right.” He pivoted back toward her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “The time for pretending there’s nothing going on with us has passed, darlin’.”

Giving her no chance to protest, he swung back to her three brothers. “Sage is pregnant.” He paused to let the words sink in. Aware in that moment he had never been prouder, or happier. “And the baby is mine.”

* * *

“WELL, THAT WENT BADLY,” Nick admitted, the moment Sage’s brothers had left, more than a little disappointed to find out the two of them had no plans to marry.

“You think?” Sage paced back and forth between the aisles. She’d thought Nick was on her side in this! Fuming, she gave him a sharp look. “Now it’s only a matter of time before they tell Mom I’m pregnant with your child.”

His eyes lit up the way they always did when he knew he’d gotten under her skin. “First of all—” Nick shrugged, as if not sure what the big deal was “—you are pregnant. And your brothers are right—you can’t hide it much longer. So unless you cowgirl up and have that talk with your mother—and soon—they’ll be forced to spill.”

As always, his ultramasculine presence, the sun-warmed leather scent of him, made her feel protected and intensely aware. In an attempt to keep her equilibrium, she kept her distance from him. “That’s not really a comfort to me, Nick.”

He rubbed his hand across his closely shaven jaw, then lazily dropped it again, his eyes never leaving hers. “Hey, I call it like I see it. And for the record, Sage? I’d like to tell my family you’re carrying my baby, too!”

The bell above the door dinged.

Sage moaned, thinking it was probably her brothers, back for Round Two of Convince Sage To Do The Traditional Thing. Instead, the interloper was a gorgeous, elegantly dressed young woman Sage had never seen before.

Nick looked surprised but pleased as he moved to shake the lady’s hand. “MR! What are you doing here? I thought our meeting wasn’t until tomorrow.”

This was the lauded MR? Sage thought in shock. From the way Nick had talked about the venture capital executive, she had imagined someone older and stodgier. Not some auburn-haired beauty sporting stylish black eyeglasses who could double as a Hollywood starlet.

Not that Nick had indicated he had noticed MR’s stunning good looks.

He turned back to Sage, backtracking long enough to make introductions. “Sage, this is MR Rhodes, from Metro Equity Partners. She’s the venture capital exec I’ve been working with. MR, this is—”

“Your fiancée?” the exec guessed tartly.

So she was stodgy after all, considering her disapproving tone as her gaze moved knowingly to Sage’s tummy.

“Ah—” For the first time since the other woman had entered the store, Nick looked flummoxed.

“Baby mama?” MR guessed again, with a candid smile that did not reach her eyes.

The set 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.”