Texas Country Legacy--The Baby Connection by Cathy Gillen Thacker

Author:Cathy Gillen Thacker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-04-17T15:59:22+00:00

* * *

Ginger was back at the cottage, trying to figure out what her next step was going to be, when a knock sounded at the door.

Rand stood on the other side of the screen door.

He looked resolute. Handsome. Serious.

Her heart turned over in her chest at the sight of him standing there, clad in one of the button-down Oxford-cloth shirts she had once enjoyed wearing so much.

“Hey,” she said softly before she could stop herself or think of a better opening to what she wanted and needed to say.

He smiled at her and, lips set stubbornly, opened the door and strode inside the honeymoon cottage where they’d begun their married life. Languorously, he crossed to her side. “How did your appointment with Michelle go?”

It was a simple question. Packed with emotion, beneath the masculine reserve.

She let her glance caress the long muscular legs, encased in soft faded denim, his equally worn boots. Remembering how much she loved every part of his strong, tall body, she returned her gaze upward, over the hard musculature of his chest and neck, to his face.

She took a bolstering breath. “I wanted to talk to you about that.” Wanted to do a lot of things, in fact.

Another flicker of indiscernible emotion appeared in his midnight-blue eyes. He came closer, wrapped an arm around her waist, then put a silencing finger to her lips and said gruffly, “First, I need to say a few things.”

Ginger splayed her hands across his chest. “Okay.”

He looked at her with sincerity and regret. “I haven’t been honest with you. So in a way, you’re right. I have disrespected you this whole time by not leveling with you.”

It helped to have him admit that, even as the knowledge filled her with fear. Ignoring the sudden wobbliness of her knees, Ginger urged, “Go on.”

“I know what I said about it being only a temporary, heat-of-the-moment kind of thing the first time we landed in bed together.”

She had pretended the same.

“But the truth is,” Rand confided hoarsely, gazing into her eyes, “I never wanted a no-strings, easygoing affair with you. I was just humoring you, and telling you what I thought you wanted to hear.”

Her heart clenched. “As a means to an end.”

“Maybe.” He paused, reflecting. A mixture of mischief and irony turned up the corners of his lips. “Because I did want to see you again and I figured downplaying what had happened between us was the only way that was going to happen.”

His deadpan humor was infectious. “You’re probably right about that,” Ginger returned dryly. She’d been shaken to the core by the intensity of the passion they’d felt. Still was.

Rand tenderly cupped her face in his large hands. “But mostly it was because I let my pride and my fear of failing at another relationship get in the way.”

Ginger tipped her head up to his. “I’ve been apprehensive about putting myself out there again, too. Which is,” she explained, “the only reason I ever considered a continuous string of one-night stands with you.

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