Dear Reader,

Life is one crazy, amazing ride, full of change and challenge, surprise and love, and the reckoning and personal growth that follows every event, big or small… Adulting accentuates all of that.

Lavender farmer Sadie McCabe feels like she hasn’t had nearly enough excitement in her life, at least in the romantic arena. Which is why she really appreciates her longtime best friend, Special Forces soldier Will Strickland. He champions her feisty, independent nature, and believes in her the way her overprotective family does not. He also supports her desire to have a husband and family of her own.

Marriage and kids aren’t for Will, though. Orphaned at 17, he is always restless, always looking for the next challenge. The military is his home, his fellow soldiers his family. His service to his country provides him with honor and purpose. Sadie—and the rest of her family—give him a soft place to fall. Neither Sadie nor Will ever expected that to change. Until Will is suddenly named legal guardian for adorable three-month-old twins. Recently orphaned, Finn and Fiona need a mom and a dad. Sadie is up for the task. Will, not so much. Until the challenge of caring for the babies shows him things about what he wants out of life that he never knew or imagined. Sadie learns things, too. Maybe she doesn’t need a perfect man to love. Maybe she just needs to love.

I hope you enjoy this fourth story in the series, Marrying A McCabe. I had a lot of fun writing it!

Best wishes,
Cathy Gillen Thacker

Read an EXCERPT of THE TEXAS SOLDIER'S TWINS and check out the other books in the MARRYING A MCCABE series.

For more information on my other books, please visit the Series Guide and Book List.

Dear Reader,

I have often wondered what makes people happy at Christmas. For a young woman, it might be a proposal and a diamond ring. For a young man, a fancy new vehicle. For a newly married couple, the news that their first baby is on the way. But for parents of young kids, I think it is simply that their children have a merry Christmas holiday, full of love, and free from strife.

This is exactly what Alex McCabe has planned for his quadruplet kindergarten-age sons. They want a Shetland pony for their ranch? He has his eye on one. They love bugs? He knows about a fancy new insect catcher that will allow them to observe to their hearts’ content, and then set the insect free. The one thing they really need, however, is a mom to love and care for them. That is a little harder to arrange.

Until… Kate Taylor, shows up on his ranch. They haven’t seen each other since they worked together at a shelter during Hurricane Inga, eight years before. The fast friendship and fierce attraction they felt then went nowhere because both were pledged to others, and did not even learn each other’s last names. Now, she magically appears for a chef gig on his ranch. They quickly find out their chemistry is stronger than ever. His boys adore her, too and want her to be their bonus mom.

Can she marry without romantic love? Kate hadn’t thought so. Now that she is happier than ever, she wonders. Are hope and faith, love and giving enough to build a marriage—and happy family--on? Only time will tell.

I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I loved writing it! Have a wonderful holiday season!

Merry Christmas to all!
Cathy Gillen Thacker

Read an EXCERPT of A COWBOY'S CHRISTMAS GIFT and check out the other books in the MARRYING A MCCABE series.

For more information on my other books, please visit the Series Guide and Book List.

Dear Reader,

When my husband and I met for the first time we felt an instant connection. Right away, there was an ability to make each other laugh, an inability to stop looking into each other’s eyes, and an immediate, innate understanding of each other. And of course, lots and lots of chemistry… ?

Cardiologist Claire Lowell thought she had all that with her ex. Until the day he left. Now, a single mom of adorable triplets, her life revolves around work and family, and that is it.

Pediatrician Zach McCabe always thought he would have it all, an enviable career, a woman to love, and kids. Until he lost his fiancé in a tragic accident. These days, he focuses on work, and helping others. Marriage and kids are no longer in his plans.

And that is why for the first year that Claire and Zach work at the same hospital, they steer clear of each other as much as possible. It’s not that they don’t like each other. Or want to get to know each other. But because they sense that doing so would bring complications to their lives neither want.

Until a five-year-old patient with a mysterious heart malady brings them together. As they unite to diagnose the little girl’s ailment, Claire and Zach are stunned to find themselves in personal crisis as well. Suddenly the two of them are helping each other out, at home, as well as work. Claire’s kids adore Zach, and he them, and for the first time, Claire and Zach see what it would be like to be in love, and share a family they love, too. The question is, can either of them trust their relationship to last?

I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Best wishes,
Cathy Gillen Thacker

Read an EXCERPT of STAND-IN TEXAS DAD and check out the other books in the MARRYING A MCCABE series.

For more information on my other books, please visit the Series Guide and Book List.