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  And he wouldn’t have, if her sister hadn’t gone off to get baby Caitlin into her white organza wedding-day dress.

  Looking resplendent in a dove-gray morning coat and tails, Rafferty held a bit of greenery above her head. “The bride is not supposed to be standing beneath the mistletoe, either.”

  Jacey flirted back shamelessly. “Especially in June. It’s wedding season, Rafferty.”

  “I know.” He regarded her with mock seriousness, even as he wrapped his free arm around her waist and drew her against him. “That’s why we’re getting married.” He chuckled as the petticoats beneath her full skirt swished. “’Tis the season to be jolly and all that….”

  Jacey let out a tremulous sigh. “You’re incorrigible.”

  He misbehaved even more. “Your fault.”

  Feeling like a kid, too, Jacey regarded him with exaggerated reproof. “And how is that, Mr. Evans?”

  He kissed her lips gently. “You’ve given me the Christmas spirit to carry around in my heart all year round, Mrs. Soon-To-Be-Evans.”

  Thinking to heck with tradition, Jacey wreathed her arms about his neck and kissed him back just as tenderly. “Who would have known…”

  “Certainly not me.” Rafferty sighed his contentment. They were about to kiss again, when voices sounded on the other side of the bedroom door. They were followed by a knock. His arm still around her waist, Rafferty opened the door. Eli and Mindy stood there, not surprised at all to discover where the groom had happened to end up.

  “Honestly,” Mindy said as she shifted her niece to her other hip. “Must you two look so deliriously happy all the time?”

  “Your sister might start to think you and your daughter belong here,” Eli teased.

  They all laughed.

  Once Mindy had understood how right this was for Jacey, she had been as supportive and happy for her sister as everyone else.

  “In any case, we thought you might be sneaking a little wedding cheer,” Eli said dryly.

  Every bit as poker-faced as his father, Rafferty held the greenery aloft and claimed, “We’re testing the mistletoe.”

  “Then we’ll let you have at it,” Eli returned, a glint of approval in his faded blue eyes.

  Mindy smiled at them fondly, too. “Just not too long. The wedding guests are waiting.”

  Jacey and Rafferty kissed again. Held each other tight. Finally, they drew apart, knowing it was time. “Ready to go out and make this official?” Rafferty asked.

  Never more sure of anything in her life, Jacey nodded.

  Hand in hand, they walked out to the lawn, where a sea of white chairs had been set up. With Mindy and Caitlin on one side of them, bearing witness, Eli on the other, Jacey and Rafferty committed to a lifetime of love and bliss. When the minister blessed their union, a cheer went up that echoed through the ranch. In that blissful moment, Jacey knew she and Rafferty had received the best gift of all—they had come home to each other, to love, at long last.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-2565-1

  A BABY IN THE BUNKHOUSE

  Copyright © 2008 by Cathy Gillen Thacker.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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