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

As his strength began to return, Nate lifted her to the center of the bed, then lay down beside her. Gathering her into his arms, he reached down to pull the navy blue satin sheet over them as their bodies cooled.

Kissing the top of her head, he asked, “Are you all right, darlin’?”

“I’m wonderful,” she said, snuggling into him.

“And incredible,” he added. “And amazing. And—”

“I get the idea,” she interrupted, laughing. “I feel the same way about you.”

They were silent for a few minutes before Nate thought to ask, “Have you decided what you’re going to name the baby?”

Jessie shook her head. “I thought we could do that together. Do you have a name that you’re particularly fond of?”

“Not really,” he admitted. He’d noticed that several of the websites he’d visited had lists of names for babies, but he hadn’t even considered that she would let him help her choose a name for their daughter. “I’ll start thinking about it and let you know if I come up with one I like.”

“When we decide what to name her, I’d like to keep it a secret until she’s born,” Jessie said, hiding a yawn behind her delicate hand. “Besides not wanting people to try to talk us out of the name we choose, I want to introduce her to everyone by name.”

“That works for me,” he agreed. Chuckling, he asked, “I don’t guess we can keep my brothers in the dark about her being a girl until then, can we?” He knew they couldn’t, but if Jaron’s reaction was any indication, the rest of his brothers were going to be merciless in their good-natured ribbing.

Jessie smiled tiredly and shook her head. “I promised to let your sisters-in-law know what we’re having so they can choose appropriate decorations for the shower.” Yawning again, her eyes drifted shut. “I’ll call Bria after I get up from...our nap.”

Her last couple of words were slurred and Nate knew without looking that Jessie was sound asleep. Smiling, he kissed the top of her head, arranged a pillow to support her back and eased out of bed. After a quick shower, he got dressed and, folding her discarded clothes, placed them on the bench at the end of the bed.

Heading downstairs, he walked into his office to turn on his computer. He had more research to do—this time to find names he liked for the baby.

Nate couldn’t help but grin. For someone who could care less about technology, he sure had spent a lot of his time lately searching for things on the computer.

But as he read through list after list of baby names, he found his mind wandering to the woman upstairs in his bed. How had he gotten so lucky that Jessie wanted to be with him—loved him? And there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that she did. He had seen it in her eyes and felt it in her soft touch. And he’d lost count of the number of times she had said she loved something that he’d said or that it meant so much to her.

He took a deep breath and admitted to himself what he had suspected had been behind breaking up with her so many times—he had been falling for her. Every time he felt himself starting to care for Jessie more than he was comfortable with, he had cut and run in a lame attempt to avoid what he now knew had been the inevitable. He was in love with Jessie and probably had been from the moment they met.

His heart stalled and his stomach clenched almost painfully. What did he know about love?

He loved his family, but that was different. His brothers and sisters-in-law loved him and accepted him unconditionally. They weren’t going to condemn him for past mistakes and the run-ins he’d had with the law when he was younger. Would Jessie be able to overlook his shortcomings and love him anyway?

Then there was his fear of reverting to the earliest example he’d had of what a husband and father was supposed to be. His biggest fear had always been that he would turn out to be like his shiftless biological father. To his knowledge Joe Rafferty had never held a job longer than it took him to show up and quit. He’d been content to spend his days sitting in front of the television with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and cigar in the other while Nate and Sam’s mother worked herself to death to support all of them. After her death, Joe had abandoned his two adolescent sons to fend for themselves and went in search of another meal ticket elsewhere. They hadn’t seen or heard from him again. And that was just fine with his sons. Even when the bastard was around all he had ever done was criticize and demean them.

Nate knew he wasn’t anything like his old man in most ways. Unlike his father, Nate wasn’t afraid to work for the things he wanted. He had put in the time and effort to get a college education, wisely invested the money that he’d earned from rodeo and amassed a sizable fortune. He had a huge ranch, a house that some might consider a mansion and enough money in the bank that he never had to work another day in his life if he didn’t want to. But those were all material things. What about meeting the emotional needs of a wife and child? Could he be everything Jessie and his little girl needed him to be?