Christmas Kisses with My Cowboy - Diana Palmer Page 0,47
first giggle.
They drew apart, a little flushed, and stared down into a child’s dancing eyes.
“Are you going to be my daddy now, Parker?” Teddie asked him.
He bent and opened his arms.
She ran into them and hugged him and kissed him and hugged him some more. “You’ll be the best daddy in the whole world, next to the daddy I lost,” she said against his shoulder.
“And you’ll be my little girl as long as you live, even when you’re married with kids of your own,” he said huskily. “You won’t mind, if your mom and I get married?”
“Oh, no,” Teddie agreed at once. She glanced at her flushed, happy mother with teasing eyes. “It’s nice to see her smile again. I thought she’d forgotten how!”
Parker only grinned.
* * *
And so, they were married. Teddie stayed with the Dentons while Parker and Mrs. Parker drove to Denver for a weekend honeymoon in a nice but not expensive hotel. Not that they saw much of it.
“Oh, my,” Katy gasped as they moved together in the huge bed.
He laughed softly. “I like it very slow. Is that all right?”
She was shuddering. “I’ll die.”
“Not just yet,” he whispered as he moved over her.
He was tender, and patient, and he knew a lot more about women than she knew about men, even after several years of marriage to her first husband. By the time she started winding up the spiral that led to an explosive, passionate culmination, she was sobbing with ecstasy she’d never experienced in her life.
He went with her the whole way, his voice deep and throbbing at her ear as his powerful body buffeted hers in the last few feverish seconds before the explosions began.
Afterward, as they lay in a sweating, exhausted tangle, she rolled over and pillowed her cheek on his broad chest. “And I thought I knew something about men.”
He laughed. “You knew more than enough. We’re very good together.”
“Oh, yes. Very, very good.” She smoothed her hand over his chest, deep in thought. “You know, we never spoke about birth control.”
“We never did.”
“Should we?”
“If you want to wait to start a family, we probably should.”
“I’ll be thirty soon.”
He rolled over toward her. “Does that mean something?”
“I’d like to be young enough to enjoy our children,” she whispered with a weary smile. “And Teddie will love not being an only child.”
“In that case,” he murmured, rolling her over again, “perhaps we should be more . . . energetic . . . about assuring that.”
She laughed. “Perhaps we should!”
* * *
Predictably, a few weeks later, Katy started losing her breakfast. Parker was dancing around the room like a wild man, hugging Teddie and swinging her around.
“Parker, Mom’s sick. Why are we celebrating?” she asked worriedly.
“She’s not sick, honey, she’s pregnant!” he burst out.
“Oh, goodness, really?!”
“Really!”
“I won’t be an only child! I’ll have brothers and sisters!”
“Well, maybe brothers,” he said hesitantly. He put her down. “There aren’t any girls in my family. Not any girl children. Except you,” he teased, grinning.
“Except me,” she agreed smugly.
“Could you stop celebrating and bring me a wet washcloth, please?” came a plaintive wail from the bedroom.
“Gosh, I’m sorry, sweetheart!” he said, rushing into the bathroom to wet a cloth.
Teddie sat by her mother on the bed. “I’m sorry and happy that you’re sick, Mom!”
Katy managed to laugh as Parker put the wet cloth on her forehead. “Thanks, sweetheart. I’m sorry and happy myself. Goodness, how will I teach while I’m throwing up?”
“I’ll get you a bucket to carry to work. Not to worry,” Parker teased.
“Parker, don’t you have a first name?” Teddie asked suddenly. “I mean, I call you Dad, and she calls you honey, but don’t you have a real first name? Is it Crow?”
“Not really. My father didn’t like my mother’s family, so he insisted on naming me after a man he idolized.”
“Really?” Teddie asked. “Who?”
Parker and Katy exchanged an amused look.
“Albert,” Teddie guessed suddenly. “For Albert Einstein.”
Parker whistled. “Sweetheart, you are a deep thinker. That’s it, exactly.”
Teddie grinned.
Katy laughed. “Albert.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t suit you. Parker does.”
“It does,” Teddie agreed. “But I’m still calling you Dad.”
She hugged him. He hugged her back.
Katy looked up at both of them and almost glowed with joy. “What a Christmas we’re going to have this year,” she exclaimed.
“The first of many,” Parker agreed. “I can’t wait to kiss you under the mistletoe!”
* * *
And it was a joyous one. The tree sat beside an open fireplace with logs blazing in it. The lights on the