The Texas Rancher's Marriage. Cathy Thacker Gillen

have to sleep together as long as we have company. Otherwise people will speculate more than they already are.”

      “How do you know they’re speculating?” he asked in surprise.

      Seriously? Merri rolled her eyes in exasperation. A hot development like the marriage was probably all over the hospital and town grapevines. “Did you not see the looks we were getting in the cafeteria when your lady friends arrived?”

      “Uh…” Chase shrugged his broad shoulders, looking every bit the clueless male. “Not really…”

      “What about before that?” Merri pressed. “When we said hello and the kids were anything but happy to see their new dad?”

      A look of hurt flashed in Chase’s eyes, then disappeared. That he apparently did recall, all too acutely, and Merri’s heart went out to him. He had already missed so much. First steps, first words. All those Christmases and birthdays. The first day of preschool. Through no fault of his own.

      His expression sobered, becoming all the more sincere. “I think you’re being too sensitive,” he countered softly. “People understand we just got married and are in an adjustment period here.”

      She studied his big, scrub-clad frame, deciding he was way too sexy in whatever he wore. Way too masculine and capable and kind. Aware that she could fall hard for Chase if she wasn’t careful—and she intended to be careful, particularly with a bevy of female admirers suddenly in the picture. Merri folded her arms in front of her. “Maybe people also understand a lot more than we’d like them to—which is why everyone is so skeptical when they look at us.”

      What if they couldn’t fool his friends? Merri worried nervously.

      Or anyone else, for that matter. What would Judge Roy do if she concluded that Merri and Chase were just scamming the court, as a means to an end? Laramie County was a close-knit community. Sooner or later, everyone knew everyone else’s business. Or at least most of it.