The Rancher's Christmas Baby. Cathy Thacker Gillen

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      Looking beautiful and relaxed, she put several chili-flavored shrimp on a small plate. “We’re just basing our marriage on friendship, instead of romantic love,” she continued casually.

      “Although we do love each other as friends,” Teddy interjected.

      Disappointment resonated all around.

      Amy sent their parents a guilt-inducing look as she sipped on more champagne. “We had hoped y’all would support us in this.”

      “I don’t see how we can,” Meg Carrigan replied, gentle and direct as ever.

      “Romantic love is the foundation of every successful marriage,” Annie McCabe pointed out.

      “And friendship,” Amy argued, taking her place next to Teddy once again.

      He slid an arm around her waist and brought her in close to his side. Unaccustomed to touching her this way, he was surprised at how warm and supple she felt.

      What stunned him even more was the prompt reaction of his pulse.

      Teddy breathed in slowly, trying to suppress his desire. Once he regained his equilibrium, he continued to regard their families with the take-charge attitude that was deeply ingrained in all the McCabes.

      “We wanted y’all to be the first to congratulate us,” Teddy said, unable to help but appreciate the soft lilac fragrance that clung to Amy’s hair and skin.

      Or in other words, he thought silently, letting his direct gaze speak the rest for him, we’re not here to ask your permission.

      To his relief, their parents seemed to get what he had not said out loud, for politeness’ sake.

      “And we wanted to prepare you for the likelihood of becoming grandparents very soon,” Amy said.

      Annie McCabe began to warm to the notion, despite herself.

      Teddy smiled—he had known they would come around. Although, he had expected it would take a lot more time than this!

      “Are you going to adopt?” his mother asked, hope shining in her soft eyes.

      Teddy stiffened. This was the part about his arrangement with Amy he liked least. Although he understood why Amy had stipulated they do it this way, his healthy male ego couldn’t help but be a bit bruised by this unconventional arrangement.

      “No. We’re having our children the new-fashioned way,” Amy declared, her cheeks turning a delectable shade of pink.

      “Via artificial insemination,” Teddy finished for her.

      Travis McCabe’s brow furrowed. He stared at Amy as if unable to believe what he had just heard.

      Teddy understood that, too. His parents had a deeply loving and passionate relationship that seemed to transcend all others. It was no wonder that they were thrown for a loop by this shocking news.

      They were—like Amy’s parents and his and Amy’s newly married siblings—the lucky ones. Couples who seemed to have found it all.

      Sadly, for him and Amy, that hadn’t happened.

      So although Teddy and Amy both still lamented the lack of perfection in their personal lives, they had decided that they’d rather not go through the rest of their lives alone.

      Even if it meant making a few hard sacrifices.

      “And that’s okay with you?” Travis asked Teddy. “Having a baby through a medical procedure?”

      Teddy shrugged.

      “It works for the horses I’ve been breeding. They all seem happy enough. And as long as Amy and I get what we want in the end—kids—who really cares?”

      Amy flashed Teddy a grateful smile.

      Unfortunately, she was the only other person beside himself, Teddy noted, who looked accepting of the situation.

      “Not to put too blunt a point on it,” Dr. Carrigan refuted, his expression as grim and disapproving as Teddy’s own father, “but what about your own sex drives?”

      Amy’s fair skin flushed an even deeper pink.

      Teddy’s heart went out to her. Embarrassing as this was for him, it had to be harder for a diehard romantic like Amy. He knew she had dreamed of finding her Prince Charming and having that fairy-tale wedding in the community chapel since she was a little girl.

      Unfortunately, just when she thought her fantasies were finally coming true and she’d given her heart and soul to Ken Donoho, Amy had been forced to abruptly end her engagement.

      Her reasons were never revealed to anyone outside her family and she had never wanted to talk about it since.

      Teddy hadn’t pushed her.

      Friends did not do that to each other.

      He had regretted, however, the damage the failed relationship had done to Amy’s outlook on life.

      She no longer trusted romance. No longer yearned for the kind of physical passion that would last a lifetime. She was looking for Security Man now.

      And he understood that, better than anyone. After all, his own engagement had also ended abruptly—and painfully. The experience had left him equally mistrusting of the initial “infatuation” stage of a relationship.

      Since he had been interested in the long haul—and a woman who was as entrenched in “reality” as he—Teddy hoped he and Amy had at last found what they had been looking for all along. The kind of deep abiding friendship and lifelong commitment that they could use as the foundation for the family they both wanted so badly.

      To his disappointment, it looked to Teddy like all their parents could focus on was the lack of intimacy in his and Amy’s union.

      “So are the two of you ever planning to consummate your marriage?” Travis McCabe asked warily.

      Eventually, Teddy thought. When the time was right.

      To his surprise, Amy had other ideas. “We don’t know…um…if that will ever happen.” Amy looked as if she wanted to sink through the floor as she threw her hands up in dismay. “I mean, I know the rest of our lives seems like a long time. But we’ve promised each other no pressure in that regard, and we’re both okay with it either way.”

      Teddy’s parents shook their heads, as if they had both somehow landed in a warped fairy tale.

      “What about in the meantime? Are you two even going to be living together?” Dr. Carrigan asked, looking at them both as if they had completely lost their minds. An emotion the other three parents also seemed to feel.

      “Yes. Of course,” Amy huffed.

      “Absolutely,” Teddy concurred.

      “Where?” СКАЧАТЬ