run the mercantile operation, the men the ranch.”
“But at some point all that changed.”
“When my mom and dad died in the accident when I was ten, my oldest sister, Erin, took over everything. She sold off all the cattle, but she ran the store.”
“She also raised you and your three older siblings, right?”
Nick nodded gratefully. “Along with her own kids, yeah. But when she married Mac Wheeler and they added a set of twins and another baby to the three they were already raising, Erin needed to take a break from running Monroe’s for a while, and just concentrate on her family life and custom boot-making—which she really loves.” He released a breath. “So at my suggestion, she spun her custom boot-making operation off into a separate business entity, while I took over at Monroe’s. And when she and Mac moved to Amarillo for his work, I put aside my own plans to work for a big corporation in Dallas or Houston, and stepped in permanently to run things here.”
“No one else could do it?”
“It wouldn’t have made sense. I was the business major in the family. My brother, Gavin, studied medicine. My twin sisters, Bess and Bridgett, are both nurses. Plus, the three of them all needed to be closer to the hospital and their patients, so while they got places in town, I moved back to the ranch to take care of the horses, too.”
This was something he rarely talked about. “Doesn’t sound like you had a lot of choice,” Sage said.
He shrugged. “I’m the youngest. It’s my turn. And the way I figure it, a business is a business. And since my goal is to build Monroe’s Western Wear into what it could be—not just what it is—I’m okay with it.”
She understood concessions, because she had made more than a few of her own. Often unhappily. Knowing the kind of resentment that could fester, long-term, she asked, “Would you be okay with losing this venture capital deal because of conditions I put on our arrangement?”
His expression inscrutable, he worked his jaw back and forth. “I’ll find other investors.”
It wasn’t that easy. If it had been, she sensed he would have done this five years ago, when he first took over the family business.
She ignored the quiver, low in her belly, her need to comfort him in a very elemental way. “How long did it take you to interest Metro Equity Partners?”
“Eighteen months or so.”
Which, Sage knew, could feel like a lifetime when you weren’t getting what you wanted. She couldn’t bear to see him disappointed. Not when she was getting everything she wanted—primarily, his baby. “It’s unacceptable for you to have to go back to square one,” she told him firmly.
“It’s just the way it is.” Shouldering the burden stoically, he exhaled. “After all, we’re not talking pennies here.”
She recalled what he had shared with her of the proposal, thus far. “We’re talking six additional stores, opened two months apart, over the course of a year. We’re talking about the many years of work you’ve already put in on this business plan, which is...”
“Four, give or take.”
“Four years.” Sage shook her head in silent remonstration, more determined than ever to make him as happy as he’d made her. “You’re not giving that up. And you’re especially not giving that up on account of me. Got it?”
She tapped his sternum with her index finger.
Vowing softly, “They want you married? We’ll get married. ASAP. And it doesn’t have to change a thing.”
* * *
BUT, OF COURSE, Sage quickly learned, matrimony changed everything, in the blink of an eye. Not only was her mother—who’d been frankly disapproving about Sage’s initial plans to have a baby on her own via artificial insemination—delighted to hear that Sage was carrying Nick’s child, she was even happier when she learned that her daughter was planning to marry him right away.
“That’s wonderful news!” Lucille said, tears shimmering in her eyes as she hugged them both. “But, pregnant or not, you need to do this right—”
Meaning have a big fancy wedding, Sage thought in consternation.
“—and make this a special day reflective of your enduring love for each other,” Lucille finished firmly.
Except, she thought with a wince, that would make the nuptials feel real, and she and Nick knew they weren’t.
At least not the way her mother was assuming, since she hadn’t told Lucille why they were suddenly heading to the altar. And she had made Hope and Garrett promise they wouldn’t, either.
“If you want me to call my event planner,” Lucille continued, already reaching for her phone, “I’ll get right on it.”
Sage gently touched Lucille’s forearm. “Actually, Mom, I think Nick and I want to make all the decisions ourselves.”
“All right,” her mother conceded, smiling at Sage’s rounded tummy. “But if you, or Nick, or the baby need me—”
“We know where to find you,” she promised.
“Well, that went okay,” Nick said, when they left the Circle H Ranch.
Sage savored the intimacy of being alone with Nick. She loved the steadfast way he always backed her up. “Mom’s always up for more grandchildren.” There were four now, and with two of her four siblings married, another engaged, hints of more to soon be on the way.
Looking as if he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, Nick drove the country roads with the same masculine ease he did everything else. “This is going to work out,” he told her reassuringly, then took her hand and kissed the back of it.
Tingling all over for no reason she could figure, Sage looked over at him. “Are you sure you don’t feel trapped?”
He dropped his hold on her hand. “No.” Steering the car over to the berm, he put it in Park and turned to look at her. His glance sifted slowly over her face, lingering on the flush in her cheeks and her bare lips, before returning slowly to her eyes. Sage caught her breath. As their gazes locked, he rubbed a strand of her hair between his fingers. The corners of his lips curved upward. “Do you?”
Insides quivering, Sage took a moment to consider. At times like this, all she wanted to do was make love with him. Maybe because that was the one place where they felt the closest.
“Yes. No. I don’t know?” she said honestly at last, meeting his playful smile with one of her own. Taking off her seat belt, she moved to wrap her arms around his broad shoulders and kiss him. “But if this will help you make all your business dreams come true,” she promised tenderly, wanting to give him as much as he had given her, “I’m all for it...”
“Good to know,” Nick replied, a sexy rumble emanating from his broad chest. Taking her all the way into his arms, he covered her mouth with his own. And though she had promised herself she would keep their relationship in the friends-with-benefits category, it was darn near impossible to hold back the rush of feelings inside her as she melted into his embrace. He kissed her like there was no tomorrow. Only today. Like the future would always belong to them if only she had the courage to see where the relationship between them led.
And for the moment that was enough.
More than enough, she thought wistfully. Their plans to keep their nuptials simple, and under their control, quickly went out the window, however, when they met with MR late the next morning.
“You need a big, splashy, over-the-top romantic wedding. With plenty of photos we can release to the press later, if need be. And we need to get it done in three days,” the venture capital exec said.
To help with that, MR had summoned her assistant, Everett Keller, a nerdy-looking young man who was clad in spit-shined wing