The Rancher's Christmas Baby

And some old-fashioned pursuing…

The kind he would have taken up had they ever actually dated.

Knowing he had to slow down or face the consequences, Teddy reluctantly broke off the kiss.

Amy looked at him with soft, misty eyes. He noted she made no move to pull away. “What was that for?” she whispered, seeming every bit as stunned as he was by the free-flowing passion between them.

Teddy tightened his arms around her. “I’m not sure.” He loved the way she felt, snuggled against him. Savoring the way her heart pounded in cadence to his, wanting to make sure this passion they were feeling was real, he cupped her face between his hands. “We better try it again.”

Her breath caught in her throat as his lips touched hers. “Teddy…”

He caught her lower lip gently between his teeth. “One more time, Amy.” Gathering her close once again, he gave in to the feelings stirring inside him. He kissed her long and slow, soft and deep, until she was as caught up in the all-consuming passion as he. Not about to take her for the first time in the cab of a truck, he drew back once again.

She splayed her hands across his chest, looking as if she wanted to continue making out every bit as much as he did, even while she held him deliberately at bay.

Her breath hitched in her chest. “Seriously, now…”

He grinned and stroked both his hands through the mussed strands of her hair. “Seriously,” he echoed, mimicking her low tone, not about to let her confusion derail them. “There’s no pretending you and I don’t have physical chemistry, because it’s clear we’ve got it in spades.” And that changed everything.

Amy slumped back against the seat and covered her face with her hands. “Which maybe makes things worse than before,” she lamented out loud.

Would he never understand women and what drove them? He’d felt her trembling. Knew she had been kissing him back. “I don’t get it.”

Her delicate brows knit together. In a low, troubled voice, she informed him, “That kind of chemistry usually goes hand in hand with romantic feelings, which—we have both agreed—we don’t have for each other.”

Didn’t have, Teddy corrected mentally. He wasn’t so certain what the situation was now. But not about to push Amy any more than he already had this evening, or go back on the word he had given her—which was that he would be satisfied with a friends-only arrangement and would never push her for anything more—he shrugged. “So maybe the only thing missing from our marriage will be romantic love,” he said casually.

He’d meant to reassure Amy.

She looked more dismayed than ever. “Oh, Teddy. What happens if—instead of being okay with that—we just end up feeling worse? What then?”

Chapter Five

“Heard you had a bit of trouble yesterday,” Teddy’s grandfather, John McCabe, said Wednesday, when Teddy arrived to help him and his grandmother put up the outdoor decorations. Married for sixty years, the seasoned couple set the gold standard for marital happiness in the area.

“That must have been very frightening, getting stuck in that terrible weather.” Lilah gently extracted the wreath from the packaging that kept it safe year-round.

“It wasn’t too bad.” Teddy sat on their wide front porch, untangling the string of lights that would be placed along the front-porch roof. It had been surprisingly enjoyable, sleeping in the truck, with wool blankets drawn over them and Amy cuddled up next to him for warmth. The sound of the sleet and the rain thrumming on the truck had lulled them to sleep. “The temperature rose during the night, so by dawn, it was no longer icy, just muddy. A couple of truckers came by and helped us pull Amy’s truck out of the mud, and we were on our way.”

“How is married life?” Lilah asked.

A glib remark was on the tip of his tongue. “Actually, I was hoping to talk to you about that,” Teddy said after a moment.

“Be glad to help in any way we can,” John said kindly, untangling the last of the lights.

“You two had an arranged marriage, didn’t you?” Teddy knelt to plug in all the cords and make sure every strand worked. To his relief, they did.

John watched as Teddy set up the ladder at the far end of the porch roof. “It was a different time.”

“We fell in love during our engagement.” Lilah hung the wreath on the front door. “If we hadn’t, I’m not sure I would have been able to walk down the aisle.”

Teddy turned to his grandfather. “How did you feel?”

John held the lights while Teddy fastened them on the hooks. “I wanted to marry Lilah. But when we met, I wasn’t nearly as romantic an individual as she was. I thought marrying a pretty woman who was kind and gentle and understanding, who wanted a family every bit as much as I did, would be enough. But then I fell in love with Lilah and I understood what she had been hoping for all along.” John stepped back as Teddy climbed back down the ladder and moved it several feet to the left.

“Do you think you and Amy have made a mistake?” Lilah asked.

“No,” Teddy replied, sure about this much. “I think it’ll work. Amy’s the one who already seems to be having second thoughts.”

Lilah and John exchanged a worried look that spoke volumes.

“I want us to be a family,” Teddy continued. “And I need it to happen soon.” Before Amy changes her mind and wants an annulment. “I was hoping you might have an idea how I could make that happen.”

“The first step is to act like a husband and wife.” Lilah arranged a small potted pine on either side of the front door. “Become a team.”

“And you can do that,” John added, “by working toward a common goal.”

AMY SPENT THE REST OF Wednesday working in the greenhouse, trying to forget about the way she and Teddy had kissed each other. She was still there at eight that evening, when her husband strode in.

“If I didn’t know better I’d think you were avoiding me,” he drawled.

As it happened, that was exactly what she was doing. Not about to admit that to him, however, she retorted, “I’m catching up on everything that would have been done this week if Sheryl hadn’t been put on bed rest.”

“How’s she doing?”

“Better. Her mom flew in today—earlier than Sheryl expected.”

“So Ed’ll be back soon, won’t he?”

“Yes.”

“So this could probably be done then.”

Amy shrugged. “I need to get the seeds in the planting mix if I want to have starter plants to sell to the nurseries, come February.”

Teddy nodded his understanding and ambled closer.

Trying not to think how handsome he looked in the suede jacket, the rim of his hat drawn low across his brow, she asked, “Did you have something you wanted to talk to me about?” Or were you just hoping to snag a few morekisses and see where they led?

Teddy settled on the edge of one of the heavy wooden planting tables. He stretched his long legs out in front of him and braced a hand on either side of him. “It occurred to me today when I was over helping my grandparents put the lights up on the outside of their house that you and I haven’t done anything to decorate our two places for the holiday.” Mischief glimmered in his eyes. “With less than three weeks to go until Christmas, that’s shameful.”

Yes, Amy thought, it was. Generally, she had a ton more Christmas spirit than she had this year.

Refusing to let him steer her into anything, however, she replied, “I usually just plug in this little pre-lit tabletop tree and stick a wreath on the door.”

His lips curved in understanding. “Well, you’re ahead of me because I’ve never even done that much.” He reached over to trace his fingertips from her elbow to the top of the glove on her hand. “I want it to be different this year.” He waited until she looked him square in the eye. “I want a tree and wreaths on the door in both places.”

As much as she was loath to admit it, his was not an unreasonable request. “Okay. We’ll work that in.”