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her surprise, Teddy looked as if he were feeling the same. “Then, maybe,” he said slowly, “it’s time you and I both revisited the promise we made to each other.”

      Amy backed up until her spine touched the back of her pickup. “I was twelve and you were fifteen!”

      Teddy propped a shoulder against the door, blocking her way into the driver side. “It doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good idea.”

      Amy stared at him, wishing she could say she was shocked by what he was proposing. The same crazy, irrational thought had been in the back of her mind for months now. She’d just been too romantic at heart to bring it up.

      She took a deep breath and repeated the vow they had made. “You want us to marry and have babies together—as friends? Not two people who are wildly in love with each other.”

      Teddy exuded McCabe determination. “We said then if we didn’t find anyone else to start a family with by the time we were thirty, that’s what we would do. And let’s face it,” he continued ruefully, “we passed that mark a while ago.”

      Amy’s heartbeat kicked up a notch and she put her hands on the metal door panel on either side of her, steadying herself.

      “It’s not like we haven’t been looking for a mate or been engaged,” Teddy argued. “We have. It didn’t work out for either of us.”

      Teddy’s march to the altar had been abruptly cut short two years ago. Amy hadn’t fared any better herself; her engagement had ended in a firestorm of embarrassment and humiliation, five years prior.

      Teddy took both her hands in his and looked down at her with a gentle expression. “I’m tired of waiting, Amy. Tired of wishing for that special someone to show up and change my life. Especially now that Rebecca and Trevor have had twins. And Susie and Tyler are expecting their first child.”

      Amy tightened her fingers in his. “It seems everyone we know is getting married, settling down.” Her two older sisters, his two triplet-brothers…their friends and former schoolmates…

      He held her gaze deliberately, his hazel eyes reflecting the disappointment he felt about the turn life had taken. “Except us.”

      Silence fell between them as a church bell began to ring in the distance.

      The Christmas spirit that had been absent in her soul took root again.

      “So what do you say?” Teddy took Amy’s chin in his hand and a coaxing smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “How about we make this a Christmas we will always remember?”

      “YOU DID WHAT?” LUKE CARRIGAN choked on his drink, later the same day.

      Teddy had been fairly certain the overprotective older man would not readily accept anything but a traditional romance for his youngest daughter. In fact, Luke had been ready to start matchmaking to speed things along—if that was what it took to get Amy the husband and kids she deserved….

      “Amy and I got married. This afternoon,” Teddy repeated. They had driven to a justice of the peace in a neighboring county and cemented their deal before either of them could change their minds.

      Teddy had no regrets.

      He was sure this was the right thing, for both him and Amy. He only wished their families shared the sentiment. It appeared, as all four parents stared at them in shocked silence, that they did not.

      Beside him, in a cranberry-red dress and heels that made the most of a slender frame and feminine curves, her pale-blond chin-length hair in tousled disarray, Amy looked even more beautiful than she had at the courthouse where the ceremony had taken place.

      “Is this a joke?” Amy’s mother, Meg Carrigan, finally managed to say.

      Her sable-brown eyes widening as if to say I told you this was going to be rough, Amy moved closer to Teddy.

      Sensing she needed a show of physical—as well as emotional—support, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders in a husbandly gesture that felt as new and unfamiliar to him as the vows they had just taken.

      Glad they had opted to break the news to their folks with a champagne toast in one of the private party rooms at the Wagon Wheel restaurant in Laramie, Teddy faced Amy’s parents.

      Luke was a family physician, Meg a registered nurse. They were used to dealing with highly emotional situations.

      His parents were no lightweights, either.

      Travis ran a cattle ranch, while his mother had founded the Annie’s Homemade Food business.

      Yet all four looked as if they could be blown over by the slightest wind.

      “Of course it’s not a joke, Mom,” Amy retorted stiffly, as she stepped forward and passed the canapés around.

      Annie McCabe struggled to understand. “You’re not…” Teddy’s mother paused and bit her lip as if not sure how to word it. She tried again, ever so gently this time. “Are you two expecting?”

      Teddy swore beneath his breath, immediately earning the glares of both fathers.

      “Sorry.” Teddy poured more champagne for everyone. “And, no, to answer your question,” he said tersely, feeling his patience waning, “of course we’re not getting married because we have to!” Their parents were behaving as if he and Amy were two reckless teens, instead of competent, responsible adults.

      “We don’t have that kind of relationship!” Amy insisted.

      “Then why did you get married?” Luke Carrigan countered, passing on the picadillo dip.

      “Because we want to have a family.” Teddy helped himself to the hearty nacho-style appetizer. “And we’ve decided to have one together.”

      This, at least, Teddy noted, was no surprise to either set of parents.

      He and Amy had told everyone about their “promise to each other” when they were kids, to the point it had been joked about between the two families ever since.

      Amy followed his lead, behaving as if she had absolutely no trepidation about confronting their families with their decision—when he knew darn well she had dreaded this contretemps as much as he had.

      Looking beautiful and relaxed, she put several chili-flavored shrimp on a small plate. “We’re just basing our marriage on friendship, instead of romantic love,” she continued casually.

      “Although we do love each other as friends,” Teddy interjected.

      Disappointment resonated all around.

      Amy sent their parents a guilt-inducing look as she sipped on more champagne. “We had hoped y’all would support us in this.”

      “I don’t see how we can,” Meg Carrigan replied, gentle and direct as ever.

      “Romantic love is the foundation of every successful marriage,” Annie McCabe pointed out.

      “And friendship,” Amy argued, taking her place next to Teddy once again.

      He slid an arm around her waist and brought her in close to his side. Unaccustomed to touching her this way, he was surprised at how warm and supple she felt.

      What stunned him even more was the prompt reaction of his pulse.

      Teddy breathed in slowly, trying to suppress his desire. Once he regained his equilibrium, he continued to regard their families with the take-charge attitude that was deeply ingrained in all the McCabes.

      “We wanted y’all to be the first to congratulate us,” Teddy said, unable to help but appreciate the soft lilac fragrance that clung to Amy’s hair and skin.

      Or in other words, he thought silently, letting his direct gaze speak the rest for him, we’re not here to ask your permission.

      To his relief, their parents seemed

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