His To Claim (The Westmoreland Legacy Book 4)

by Brenda Jackson

  The doorbell sounded and Bane wondered who the latecomer could be. With the arrival of Mac and Teri, he’d figured everyone on his and Crystal’s guest list had already shown up. Giving Crystal a sign that he would get it, he moved to the door and opened it to find an older couple, who appeared to be in their late sixties or early seventies, standing there with a baby in their arms.

  Bane was certain he did not know the couple. “Yes, may I help you?”

  The man spoke. “We hate to impose but we were told Peterson Higgins was here tonight. We are the Glosters, his deceased brother’s in-laws.”

  Bane nodded. “Yes, Pete is here. Please come in.”

  The man shook his head. “We prefer not to, but we would appreciate it if you could tell Peterson we’re here. We would like to speak with him. We will wait out here.”

  Bane nodded again. “Okay, just a minute.” He circled around the room before finally finding Pete in a group in the family room, discussing motorcycles with Bane’s cousins Thorn, Zane, Derringer and one of the Alaska Westmorelands—Maverick Outlaw.

  “Excuse me, guys, but I need to borrow Pete for a minute,” Bane said to those in the group. Once he got Pete aside, he told him about the older couple waiting outside. Pete placed his cup of punch aside and quickly moved toward the front door.

  Bane wasn’t sure how long Pete had been gone, but when he returned he was carrying a baby in one hand and a diaper bag in the other. Everyone’s attention was drawn to Pete when the baby released a huge wail.

  It seemed all the mothers in the room hurried toward Pete. “Whose baby?” Bane’s cousin Gemma was the first to ask, taking the baby from a flustered-looking Pete.

  “This is my nine-month-old niece, Ciara,” he said, noticing how quickly the baby girl quieted once Gemma held her. “As most of you know, my brother, Matthew, and his wife, Sherry, were killed in that car crash six months ago. This is their daughter. Sherry’s parents were given custody of Ciara when Matt and Sherry died. But they just gave me full custody of her, citing health issues that are preventing them from taking proper care of her. That means I’m now Ciara’s legal guardian.”

  Pete looked around the room at the group he considered family and asked the one question none of them could answer.

  “I’m a bachelor, for heaven’s sake! What on earth am I going to do with a baby?”

  * * *

  Keep reading for a sneak peek of Pete’s story!

  Coming May 2020 from New York Times

  bestselling author Brenda Jackson!

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

  Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards

  http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010003

  Note from the Author

  I want to take this opportunity to thank Kim James for sharing her experiences and challenges as a military wife with me in order to give greater depth to my heroine, Teri McRoy.

  And to all military wives everywhere, you are deeply appreciated for serving your country right along with your enlisted spouses. We honor you. Thank you so much!

  A sneak peek of Pete’s story

  by Brenda Jackson

  “I’m sorry I have to leave you like this, Pete, but my sister will need me.”

  Sheriff Peterson Higgins stared at the woman standing across the kitchen. He’d known something was wrong the minute he’d walked through the door and looked into Bonnie’s face.

  Well, he had news for her. He needed her, too.

  Pete suddenly felt like a class-A jerk for thinking such a thing after she’d just tearfully explained that her sister had been diagnosed with breast cancer and needed to start chemo treatments in a couple of weeks. Of course he understood her wanting to be with her only sister during this time. Even if leaving put him in a bind.

  Who on earth would he get to keep his fourteen-month-old niece while he worked?

  But the last thing he wanted was for Bonnie to feel guilty about having to leave. Bonnie had been his mother’s best friend and when Pete’s parents passed away, Bonnie and her husband had looked after his younger brother, Matt, while Pete was in college.

  He hadn’t gone far. He’d enrolled in the University of Denver, but it had been hard going to school full-time and then coming home and making sure the cattle ranch his father had loved remained productive. Luckily, his two best friends, Derringer and Riley Westmoreland, had cousins and brothers who’d pitched in. They’d also made sure Pete hired the best people to help run things while he took classes.

  He’d graduated with a degree in criminology after he realized ranching wasn’t in his blood. He had hoped ranching would be in Matt’s blood, but his brother had gone into the military immediately after high school. Even so, Pete refused to sell the ranch. Instead he leased part of his spread, hired a foreman and good ranch hands. The profits freed Pete up to follow his dreams and work for the sheriff’s office.

  Life had been good. He loved his career and the ranch was making plenty of money, which he’d split with Matt.

  Until a year ago.

  Pain settled around Pete’s heart when he recalled the phone call telling him that Matt and his wife had been killed in a car crash. Luckily, their daughter, Ciara, hadn’t been with them.

  She’d been living with her grandparents until they’d realized taking care of Ciara full-time was more than they could handle, as an older couple in their late sixties. They thought he would be the best guardian for his niece.

  So, five months ago, he’d become a fill-in father for a very energetic nine-month-old.

  Now, at fourteen months, Ciara Renee Higgins ruled the Higgins household and he was glad he’d had Bonnie as a full-time nanny. He honestly didn’t know what he would have done without her.

  He honestly didn’t know what he was going to do now that she was leaving.

  “May I make a suggestion, Pete?”

  He’d been so deep in thought he’d forgotten Bonnie was waiting for him to say something. “Yes.”

  “Hopefully, I won’t be gone any more than six weeks and I know of someone who could replace me during that time.”

  He doubted anyone would be able to replace Bonnie. “Who?”

  “A woman I met a few months ago. I knew immediately that she was different.”

  Pete raised a brow. “Different how?”

  “Different like Bella.”

  He nodded. Bella Westmoreland was married to his friend Jason. Everyone thought of her as a real Southern belle. From the time she’d arrived in Denver it had been obvious that she was a woman of refinement. It hadn’t taken long for word to spread that she was the daughter of a wealthy business tycoon in Savannah, Georgia. Although Bella had adjusted, at times she still looked out of place amid the roughnecks in these parts.

  “Where is she from?”

  “Charleston.”

  He nodded. “So, what’s another Southern Belle doing in Denver?”

  “Trying to deal with her grief. Her parents died last year while on a vacation in Morocco. The tour helicopter crashed.”

  “How awful,” he said, heading for the sink to wash his hands.

  “Yes, it was. Her family owns some huge corporation in Charleston, but she’s not in the family business. I believe she plans to apply for a teaching job here in the spring.”

  “Why Denver?” he asked, moving to the table to sit down and eat the light lunch Bonnie had made for him.

  “Someone she knows from college owns a house here and she’s leasing it out for a while,” Bonnie said, pouring iced tea into his glass.

  He looked up. “Thanks. And what makes you think she will be good with Ciara?”

  “Because she told me she worked as a nanny in England every summer while in college. She’s had Ciara and I over for tea several times and the two of them hit it off. Yo
u of all people know how Ciara can be at times.”

  Yes, he knew. If his niece liked you, then she liked you. If she didn’t, she didn’t. And she normally didn’t take well to strangers. “What makes you think your friend would be interested in keeping Ciara until you return?”

  “Because I asked her,” Bonnie said with excitement in her voice. “I didn’t want to leave you with just anyone.”

  He appreciated that. “When can I meet her, to see if she’ll be a good fit?” He figured she would be since she came with Bonnie’s recommendation.

  “I invited her to lunch.”

  Pete paused from biting into his sandwich. “Today?”

  Bonnie smiled. “Yes, today. The sooner you meet her the better. I’d worry sick the entire time I’m in Dallas if you and Ciara weren’t properly taken care of.”

  At that moment the doorbell sounded.

  “That’s probably her,” Bonnie said, smiling, as she swiftly left the kitchen.

  Pete began eating his sandwich, curious about the woman Bonnie was recommending. His niece wasn’t the only one leery of strangers. So was Bonnie. If she liked you, she liked you. If she didn’t, she didn’t. Evidently there was something about the woman that Bonnie and Ciara both liked.

  “Pete, I’d like you to meet Myra Hollister. Myra, this is Sheriff Peterson Higgins.”

  Placing his glass down on the table, Pete stood and turned to offer his hand to the woman...but then froze. Standing in the middle of his kitchen was the most beautiful woman he’d seen in a while. A long while. She was probably no more than twenty-six or twenty-seven at the most, with a petite figure.

  What he had a hard time doing was moving his gaze away from her. She had skin the color of rich mocha, and features so striking he felt the effect in every part of his body. Perfect hazel eyes stared back at him and a smile curved a pair of delectable lips. Fluffy dark brown bangs swept across her forehead and a mass of straight hair fell past her shoulders. When he finally moved his gaze from her face it was to check out the legs beneath her dress. They were as gorgeous as the rest of her.

  “It’s nice meeting you, Sheriff Higgins. I’ve heard a lot of wonderful things about you.”

  Pete’s gaze shifted back up to her face and he caught himself before he muttered a curse between his teeth. There was no way he could consider hiring her to be Ciara’s nanny, even on a temporary basis.

  It wasn’t that he doubted he could trust her.

  It was that he doubted he could trust himself.

  Copyright © 2019 by Brenda Streater Jackson

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Rancher in Her Bed by Joanne Rock.

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Desire story.

  You want to leave behind the everyday! Harlequin Desire stories feature sexy, romantic heroes who have it all: wealth, status, incredible good looks...everything but the right woman. Add some secrets, maybe a scandal, and start turning pages!

  Enjoy six new stories from Harlequin Desire every month!

  Connect with us on Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!

  Other ways to keep in touch:

  Harlequin.com/newsletters

  Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks

  Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks

  HarlequinBlog.com

  Join Harlequin My Rewards and reward the book lover in you!

  Earn points for every Harlequin print and ebook you buy, wherever and whenever you shop.

  Turn your points into FREE BOOKS of your choice

  OR

  EXCLUSIVE GIFTS from your favorite authors or series.

  Click here to join for FREE

  Or visit us online to register at

  www.HarlequinMyRewards.com

  Harlequin My Rewards is a free program (no fees) without any commitments or obligations.

  Rancher in Her Bed

  by Joanne Rock

  One

  Frankie Walsh understood that her generation had killed romance.

  Sure, some people said that dating apps were responsible. And it was true the swipe-left mentality definitely smothered every last hope of spontaneity and excitement. But whether the blame rested with millennials or apps or the parenting that had let a crop of kids grow up thinking they were the center of the universe, Frankie agreed with the consensus among her girlfriends that romance was a thing of the past.

  Which begged the question, why was she lingering outside the main house at Currin Ranch, heart fluttering wildly while she hoped for a sighting of her boss, Xander Currin?

  Because she was ten kinds of foolish, that’s why. She’d already accomplished her errand here—a two-second task of retrieving the keys to the barn where the haying equipment was stored. Xander had kindly left them outside the back entrance on a huge wooden patio table, right where the maintenance manager had told her they’d be. One of the other hands who’d helped with the haying equipment yesterday was out sick today, and he’d accidentally taken the other set.

  Frankie had volunteered for the errand so fast the other ranch hands had all looked at her sideways. If she wasn’t careful, her ill-advised crush on Xander would become a running joke all over Currin Ranch. She valued this job too much to make her workplace uncomfortable that way, and she’d strived for too long to prove she could hold her own with the physical demands of the job.

  With the fear of being laughed at spurring her boots, she jammed the keys into the back pocket of her jeans and turned away from the massive log mansion overlooking a creek bed. She kept to the stone path that wound past the pool house and through a low shrubbery hedge, returning to the edge of the lawn where she’d left the energetic young mare, Carmen, she’d ridden over. Her time spent with the animals was the best reward of the job and a necessary part of the requirements for veterinary school. If she could ever make enough money to pay for it.

  Yet another reason why this job was so crucial for her. Her other gigs were of the volunteer variety—shadowing a local vet on his calls during her off days and helping out at a local animal shelter. Currin Ranch was the only job she had that came with a paycheck.

  Stroking the mare’s flank, she was just about to mount up when she heard laughter and voices in the backyard. Male. And female.

  A warning prickled along the back of her neck, urging her to go. Or maybe calling her to stay? Because she recognized the deep tone of the man, a warm and sexy chuckle pitched low in a way that made Frankie’s skin heat. The object of her silly crush.

  But a fluffy feminine giggle smothered any wayward thoughts Frankie might have been entertaining about Xander. Frozen in place, she watched as the couple emerged from the shrubbery together. Xander escorted a strawberry blonde in a bright yellow sundress that accentuated considerable curves. The woman’s glossy waves bounced along with everything else as she tapped her way down the path in kitten heels. Reaching the driveway less than ten yards from where Frankie stood, the woman didn’t so much as glance her way as she lifted a hand to wave goodbye to Xander. She slid into an ice-blue convertible that looked like it cost more than veterinary school.

  Had she been an overnight guest?

  Jealousy flared. Feeling every inch the ranch hand she was, Frankie fought an urge to at least swipe a dusty streak off the front of her jeans. Instead, she hauled herself up on the mare’s back even as the horse startled sideways away from the convertible’s racing engine.

  It was all Frankie could do not to glare at the woman for punching the accelerator while the vehicle was still in Park. Blondie squealed the tires on her way out.

  Soothing the mare with a reassuring hold on the reins and a squeeze against her flanks, Frankie was about to turn tail and ride for the barn when she noticed Xander charging her way. Tall and muscular, he wore his jeans and fitted tee with the ease of any other ranch forema
n, but as the heir to the Currin family fortune, there was something commanding about his presence. Right now, with his blue eyes fixed on the horse and his stubble-shadowed dark jaw flexing, he had an air of restrained danger. The allure of a man who could hold his own with a surly beast without breaking a sweat.

  “Whoa. Easy, Carmen,” he called to the anxious palomino, his stance the same one the ranch trainer used when breaking a new mount, positioned just outside the reach of her dancing forefeet. “Easy.”

  “She’s okay,” Frankie assured him, leaning back slightly in the saddle to cue the mare. “I’ve got her.”

  Her heart sped faster, more from her boss’s sudden appearance at her side than the mild scare with Carmen. Frankie wouldn’t have taken her if she’d felt the least bit uneasy with the spirited youngster. Besides, keeping her seat on Carmen was a cakewalk compared to bronc riding, the rodeo event Frankie had recently taken up. She’d tried it on a dare from one of the other ranch hands and discovered she wasn’t too bad at it. And considering how badly she could use the extra money, she couldn’t deny the appeal of the cash prizes.

  Xander peered up at her with narrowed eyes.

  “I didn’t think the trainer had cleared this one for work.” Shifting closer, his gaze darted from the horse to her and back again. “Carmen hasn’t been with us long.”

  Her boss reached to stroke the palomino’s muzzle, his dark hair a stark contrast to the horse’s golden coat and white mane. She was used to seeing him in his black Stetson around the ranch in his work as the foreman.

  Much to his father’s frustration.

  Everyone involved with Currin Ranch knew that Ryder Currin wanted his only son in the family’s oil business and not overseeing the ranching operation. But for the eleven months that Frankie had been on staff, Xander had been personally involved with everything from the herd to the haying, making sure the collective efforts ran smoothly. He was good at his job, but even she knew the foreman’s role wasn’t where the heir apparent belonged.