Pregnant with the Rancher's Baby: Reclaimed by the Rancher

An hour later as she helped the women clear the refreshment table, Jessie was more envious than ever of the love and devotion they all shared. They might be a blended family, but they were closer than some people she’d seen who were related by blood.

She sighed heavily as she thought about her own family. For whatever reason, her parents had never seemed to care if she and her older brother had a close relationship. Of course, her brother had been a junior in high school when she was born and as with most teenage boys, he thought he had better things to do than to pay attention to his baby sister.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t really all that close to her parents either. Her mother and father were real estate brokers and when they weren’t busy selling mansions to the überrich residents of Houston, they were attending a social function at the country club to make more contacts for their agency. About the only time she could remember them paying all that much attention to her was when she told them she was going to become a registered nurse instead of earning a business degree in college. They had both been extremely disappointed with her decision and couldn’t understand why she didn’t want to follow in their footsteps like her brother had done.

That hadn’t changed since she graduated and started her career. Sadly, she didn’t hold out a lot of hope they would react any differently when she finally told them about the baby either. They were simply too caught up in brokering real estate deals to be bothered with family. And the only reason they had more to do with her brother was because he was just as driven by the almighty dollar as they were and had joined the family business.

“Do you have plans for Thanksgiving, Jessie?” Bria asked, bringing her back to the present. “If not, we’d love to have you spend the day with us.”

“I usually work most of the holidays,” Jessie answered, omitting the fact that she volunteered for those days. Spending time at the hospital was preferable to the periods of awkward silence that always seemed to develop whenever she visited her parents. “Could I let you know a bit later?”

“Of course,” Bria said. Her voice barely above a whisper, she added, “I’m sure you and Nate have a lot of things you need to work out. But I want you to know that whatever happens, you and the baby are always welcome anytime we have a get-together.”

Touched by the gesture, Jessie blinked away tears. “Thank you. That means a lot.”

Several minutes later, Nate’s brothers and their wives hugged Jessie and told her how happy they were that she’d joined them for the evening and how thrilled they were about the baby. As she watched them depart, she had to fight the wistfulness building inside her. She had always longed to be part of a family like Nate’s—to have that kind of unconditional support and acceptance.

But as tempting as it was, she couldn’t allow the lure of a close, loving family to influence her decision when it came to Nate’s offer of marriage. When she made that commitment, she refused to settle for anything less than love from her husband. However, it gave her immeasurable comfort knowing her baby was already anticipated and welcomed into such a wonderful family.

“Did you have a good time, darlin’?” Nate asked as they started walking toward the house.

Jessie nodded. “It was good to see your brothers and Bria again. I hadn’t seen them since Sam was in the hospital a few years ago. And I’m glad I got to meet your other sisters-in-law and Mariah. They’re all very nice.”

“My brothers can be real pains in the ass sometimes,” he said, giving her a grin that never failed to take her breath away. “But I wouldn’t trade them for anything. They have my back and I have theirs. And their wives are real sweethearts. They all go out of their way to make sure the family stays close by having dinners and throwing parties like we had tonight.”

As they entered the house, she did her best to ignore Nate’s charming expression and focus on the fact that he hadn’t invited her to any of his family gatherings in the past. She had a feeling she knew why. It had been his attempt to keep their relationship casual and to discourage her from thinking that what they had between them was more serious. But as much as that fact bothered her, she couldn’t really hold his reluctance for her to be around his family against him.

She had avoided introducing him to her family as well. While he’d been determined to keep things light, she had been trying to spare him a cold reception and an uncomfortable interrogation about the size of his net worth. But he hadn’t seemed to notice that she hadn’t introduced him to her parents and she wasn’t going to call attention to it.