A Baby...Maybe? & How to Hunt a Husband by Bonnie Tucker

again. The look of a predator out to defend his woman. She liked that. “Are you engaged?” he asked.
    â€œNo, much to the horror of my mother. She’s trying her best to lure them in.”
    â€œAre you here to land yourself a husband?”
    Before she could answer, he went on, “Because if you are, as much as I think you’re cute as all get-out, don’t look to me to fulfill those dreams. It ain’t gonna happen.”
    â€œWhy would I want to get married?” She gestured with both hands, which made the sheet slip a bit, but she pulled it right back up.
    â€œAll women do,” he said with certainty.
    â€œThat is not true. All mothers want their daughters to get married, but not all women want to be in that institution.” And even if she did, she’d never let him know it now. He was nothing but a smooth-talking playboy out for a good time. Probably another reason Rosey and Kate had kept her name away from him.
    â€œI know how that goes. My parents are the same way. They keep throwing these women at me.”
    â€œMy mother has this bet with this other lady about whose daughter will get married first. She’s driving me nuts.” She spread her arms to better show himjust how crazy her mother was driving her, and that’s when the sheet did slip almost right past her breasts. Almost, but not quite. She grabbed on to it before any nipples showed. She gave him her back and retied the sheet, this time knotting it closed. When she turned back toward him, she mumbled, “Sorry.”
    â€œNo problem.”
    â€œI get too excited when I talk about my mother and that bet.”
    â€œIf you get that excited—” his glance slid down the length of her body, then slowly up again “—I’ll talk about your mother more often.”
    â€œI think you’re being patronizing.”
    â€œYou are wrong. I’m sympathizing. I’m trying to share your feelings.”
    â€œAre you for real?”
    â€œMy mother is desperate to get me married. She says I need to soften up a bit, try and understand the woman’s point of view.”
    â€œIs it working?”
    He gave her a cocky grin and shrugged one shoulder. “I’ll let you make up your own mind about that.”
    â€œOkay then.” She shimmed a little, making the sheet a bit tighter. “I’ll think about it.”
    He watched her with a look of hunger in his eyes, but he didn’t say another word, until he asked, “Any brothers or sisters?”
    He changed the subject and she was grateful. She shook her head.
    â€œMe neither. If I had a sister maybe I would have gotten better advice about girls. My mother’s advice isn’t going over too well.”
    Cara smiled at that. “You’re not too bad.” Actually he was pretty great, but she wouldn’t tell him that, because his male ego could get too big.
    â€œI always wanted a brother or sister,” he said.“Actually, I wanted three of them. Being an only child is not easy.”
    â€œBelieve me, I know. There’s no one around to defuse the attention you get from your parents.”
    â€œThere’s no one to play with growing up, especially if you’re like me and you’re a kid on a farm. I had a dog, I had a cow, cats were everywhere, but it would have been nice to have a brother to do stuff with.”
    â€œDo things? It’s impossible to do things if you’re an only child. Because there’s no older brother or sister who had been there before, to smooth the road. We’re charting the unpaved highways through life.”
    â€œThat’s right. No one has gone before us to make it easier to get away with things.”
    â€œIt would have been less strict,” Cara said. “Because in my house, everything had a ‘no’ answer. Even before the question was asked, the answer was no. Then I got to ask the question and the answer was still