His Christmas Cinderella

by Christy Jeffries

  “You guys still haven’t talked, huh?” he asked his sister, whose smile didn’t quite meet her eyes.

  “Nope. But don’t worry about it. Tonight is all about you guys. I’m so happy my big brother is finally settling down with a woman who will keep him in check.” There was a hint of sadness in her eyes before her gaze shifted to the snow flurries coming from the sky. Daphne shivered. “Anyway, you guys are very lucky to have found each other. Not everyone gets that.”

  “Don’t worry, sis. I’m sure you’ll meet someone special soon.”

  “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Jordan, but most of the ranchers around here aren’t going to fall for the vegetarian of the notorious Taylor family. It doesn’t matter, though.” Daphne shrugged, her tone practically resigned. “I’ve got my animals and they’ve got me. Speaking of which, I have to go home for the evening feedings. Congratulations, guys.”

  They both gave Daphne a hug. After she left, Jordan was about to ask Camilla if she thought his sister seemed a little off, but he didn’t get the chance because they were next in line.

  “Have you told him the big secret?” Mac asked Camilla before handing Jordan a hot cocoa with all the toppings. Apparently, there were now two women in this world who knew what he wanted before he even asked.

  “What big secret?” he asked cautiously. “And why are you working at the DJ’s Deluxe booth, Mac?”

  “I wanted to get some experience in the food industry before our grand opening,” his assistant said.

  Jordan took too big of a gulp and scalded his tongue. He hissed as his mouth drew in a few pants of cold air. “What grand opening?”

  Camilla squeezed his hand. “Mac is my silent partner.”

  “What?” Jordan looked between the two women, unsure if he could handle any more surprises today. “When did this happen?”

  “When I ran into Camilla over at the U of Montana. One of my players is being scouted by a club team over there and we got to talking about the college campus. You know,” Mac said as she leaned against the table, ignoring the line of people behind them, “if U of M woulda had a softball team back in my day, I’d have gone to a real school instead of Miss Grossmont’s Academy of Secretarial Arts in Missoula.”

  Jordan scratched his head. “I’m still waiting for the part where you tell me how you became Camilla’s silent partner.”

  Mac straightened to her full height of five feet. “I may have started out as a secretary with a pretty face, sport, but I’ve learned a little bit about how businesses work while I’ve been with Taylor Beef. Got a bonus every year, including those years during the recession when Cornelius the Second had to make massive cuts. He gave me stock in the company and it turns out I’m pretty good at knowing a great investment when I see it.”

  “Well, Camilla is certainly the best investment around.” Jordan smiled at his new fiancée. Man, he wouldn’t get tired of calling her that. Actually, he couldn’t wait to start calling her his wife.

  “My assistant dean asked me to come speak in one of her intro classes the week after you and I were there. When Mac saw me on campus with my Integrated Project proposal, she seemed really interested. I told her how I’d gone to the Denim and Diamonds gala hoping to meet a few potential investors. She suggested that was a waste of my time.”

  “Not a complete waste, I hope.” Jordan smirked. “After all, that’s where you met me.”

  Mac chuckled. “I believe my exact words were, why go after prince charming when everyone knows it’s the fairy godmothers who get things done?”

  Jordan leaned over the counter to wrap the older woman in a tight hug. “Mac, I should’ve known. I couldn’t imagine a better fairy godmother than you.”

  The older woman wiped something from below her eye before she straightened her ball cap. “Speaking of getting things done, sport, you need to move along and let me go back to work before this hot cocoa line gets out of control.”

  Jordan grabbed his drink off the table, winked at a clearly flustered Mac, then threw his arm across Camilla’s shoulders as they walked along the park.

  “So, you don’t mind that Mac and I will be working together?” Camilla asked as she looked up at him, her knit cap causing her brown hair to burst out in a riot of curls around her face.

  “Are you kidding? Mac is barely in the office as it is. It’ll be good for her to have a whole other reason to sneak out of work for something that isn’t baseball related.”

  “Well, she’ll still be getting her sports fix. One of her conditions was that I agree to have big-screen TVs in the bar area.”

  Jordan slapped his hand to his forehead right as Camilla leaned into him, throwing them both off balance. He recovered quickly, but not before he bumped into a man staring down at his smart phone.

  “Sorry about that,” he told the man, but the guy seemed to be lost in whatever he was reading on his screen.

  As they continued through the park, more people offered their congratulations. Every time Camilla smiled or waved at someone, Jordan’s heart stretched and his chest filled with pride. When she paused in front of the giant Christmas tree to stare at the bright star on top, he stood behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing her against him. She sighed and leaned the back of her head against his shoulder.

  He kissed her temple. “It’s only the beginning of December, and so far this Christmas is promising to be the best one yet.”

  She turned in his arms. “But I haven’t even given you your gift yet.”

  “You said yes,” he told her. “That’s the only gift I need.”

  Epilogue

  Desperately Seeking Daisy

  Desperately seeking a woman named Daisy who was born in 1945 to teenage parents and placed for adoption somewhere in Montana. Your birth family would like to meet you! Please contact the Abernathy family at the Ambling A Ranch, Bronco Heights, Montana. Time is of the essence!

  The man’s eyes widened as he read the social media notice on his phone.

  He looked around, as if to make sure no one had seen his reaction to the post. The couple who’d bumped into him a few seconds ago only had eyes for each other. Most of the other revelers were either in lines for food or still gathered around the newly lit Christmas tree in front of Bronco City Hall. Between all the noise from the carolers singing up on the stage and the kids racing by to take their sleds to the plowed slope behind his vendor booth, the man was surrounded by yuletide overload.

  Bah humbug! he thought. There was no way he would’ve attended the small town’s annual event if his local business didn’t require it.

  He certainly wouldn’t have been scrolling through his phone if he wasn’t completely bored by all the festivities. Which meant he never would have seen the online notice. It probably was just a coincidence.

  There was no reason for him to worry. No sense in stirring up trouble.

  * * *

  Look for A Cowboy’s Christmas Carol by Brenda Harlen, the next book in the new Harlequin Special Edition continuity Montana Mavericks: What Happened to Beatrix?

  On sale December 2020, wherever Harlequin books and ebooks are sold.

  And catch up with the previous Montana Mavericks titles:

  In Search of the Long-Lost Maverick

  by New York Times bestselling author Christine Rimmer

  The Cowboy’s Comeback

  by Melissa Senate

  The Maverick’s Baby Arrangement

  by Kathy Douglass

  The Cowboy’s Promise

  by Teresa Southwick

  His Christmas Cinderella

  by Christy Jeffries

  Available now!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Something About the Season by Allison Leigh.

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  Something About the Season

  by Allison Leigh

  Chapter One

  “What fresh hell is this?”

  Gage Stanton ignored his brother’s question as they rolled to a stop in front of the entrance to Angel River Ranch. It had taken hours to reach what was just a tiny map dot near the Wyoming/Montana border.

  Noah sat forward in his seat, raking his fingers through his hair as he surveyed the landscape beyond the windows of Gage’s BMW. “This blows,” he muttered, not for the first time since they’d left the courthouse in Denver that morning.

  “Would you rather be sitting in jail for the next few months?”

  Noah’s lips thinned. He was twenty-two years old. Spoiled. Selfish.

  Rich, except that Gage had managed to secure the bulk of Noah’s inheritance so he couldn’t squander it. Still, he consistently blew through his extremely generous allowance.

  “I wouldn’t be in jail,” he muttered after Gage had rounded another curve. “Archer would have gotten me off.”

  “Kid, the only reason you’re not in jail is because I convinced the judge that working for me would put you back on the straight and narrow.” Not that Noah had ever walked the straight and narrow path. Before she’d died, it had been one of their mother’s greatest regrets. “And Archer Templeton is my attorney. Not yours.” He wouldn’t admit how many times his lawyer had already intervened on his brother’s behalf. But even Archer was fed up.

  Noah drew himself up tight. “Don’t call me kid.”

  “Then stop acting like one,” Gage snapped. He turned onto the dirt road and drove through the guest ranch entrance marked by a forged iron sign.

  He should have taken time to get an SUV. Something more suited to driving in this backwater than his M8.

  Considering the rates Angel River commanded, he was surprised by the primitive road. He made a mental note to check about the roads getting in and out of the Rambling Rad Ranch.

  He still wasn’t sure what had prompted him to become the majority partner in the guest ranch development in the first place. He built luxury resorts. Master planned communities. Industrial complexes. Not places where people went to pretend they were cowboys. And he didn’t work with partners—even when they happened to be former employees that he trusted.

  It wasn’t that it was a bad plan. The Rad was located—literally—right on the edge of Rambling Mountain. The Wyoming mountain had, until earlier that year, been privately owned by an old man who’d never shared an acre of his property with anyone. Now, Otis Lambert was gone and Gage had won an expensive bidding war to purchase the decrepit cattle ranch. Because of Gage’s new partnership with April Dalloway and her husband, Jed, the stakes to turn it into something successful were even higher. It wasn’t only Gage’s investment on the line. Aside from the expensive—but relatively simple—purchase of the ranch itself, use of the remainder of the mountain remained uncertain.

  In his will, Otis Lambert had stipulated that the mountain beyond the ranch borders be for public use—ideally a state park—but so far nothing was set. As the matter languished on the vine because of politics and budget constraints, Archer had been bugging Gage to get involved at the local level—namely the town of Weaver, located closest to the mountain. Because if the land didn’t become a state park, it would fall under Weaver control. But Gage preferred keeping his distance from Weaver for reasons that had nothing to do with getting into the guest ranch business or who ended up in control of the pristine mountain wilderness that surrounded it.

  Gage had always believed that good business trumped personal business. It’s what had gotten him this far in life. But in this case, Weaver was way too close to personal.

  “Doesn’t look like much.” Noah’s morose voice brought Gage’s thoughts back to the present.

  He had to agree. The curving road bisected one side of nothing and the other side of nothing. There were no trees to speak of. There wasn’t anything particularly green. The fields had bypassed gold and headed straight into brown.

  He couldn’t blame that on anything other than the time of year, though. It was the end of October. Back home in Denver, it had already snowed once that month before temperatures soared back up again. When he’d spoken with Sean McAdams, the owner at Angel River, Sean had told him they probably wouldn’t see snow until after Thanksgiving. But Gage should pack for it. Just in case.

  Since he hadn’t really planned to make this jaunt to Nowhere, Wyoming, in the first place, he hadn’t put a lot of advance thought into what he’d thrown into his suitcase. He traveled a lot. He’d grabbed the usual stuff and pitched it in.

  His lawyer had told him about the Angel River property a few months ago. It had plenty of travel and leisure awards to its credit and was one of the most well-regarded guest ranches in the Western United States. Based on Archer’s research, Gage had arranged to send Wade Jenkins from his office to find out what did and didn’t work for Angel River. Gage had been ready to pay the price for that research, too. Not just the cost of lodging Wade for a couple weeks, but compensation to Angel River for behind-the-scenes information that would be used by the Rad, which—in time—would be their competitor. Sean had agreed to the plan.

  Then the situation with Noah had reared its ugly head.

  Gage damn sure hadn’t planned on coming here himself, much less with his spoiled half brother in tow. But during court that morning he’d felt forced to act.

  Because before she died, Gage had made an impossible promise to his mother that he’d always watch out for him.

  Noah’s latest stunt to land him in front of a judge again had been crashing his car through the plate-glass window of a Denver high-rise. A high-rise that Gage owned.

  Thankfully, Noah hadn’t hurt anyone. Not even himself.

  Of course, he’d been drunk, despite just spending weeks in a rehab facility.

  He’d also been pissed at Gage for finally telling him his allowance was being cut off. For telling him that he needed to find a job. Go to work and be a productive member of society.

  Needless to say, Noah hadn’t been happy. He was the only heir of a pharmaceutical magnate. He didn’t “do” work.

  Gage’s choice that morning had been to either let his brother see serious jail time for this latest escapade or personally guarantee that Noah would stay sober and productive.

  He’d called the owner of Angel River yet again with a change in plans. Squirreling Noah away at the ranch for a month and a half would either be Gage’s best idea ever or one of his very worst.

  He squelched a sigh and continued following the dirt road until it took a sharp turn. Suddenly they were overlooking a verdant strip of land. Autumn-hued trees clung to the banks of a glittering river that flowed past a large lodge situated on a hill. Several other smaller buildings were scattered on both sides of the river.

  Horses grazed in a pen some distance away from the lodge, and even farther beyond that, Gage could see cattle milling around and a few figures on horseback. It looked as picture-perfect as it did on the ranch’s slick website.

  “What am I supposed to be doing here, anyway?” Noah’s sulky tone raked on Gage’s patience.

  He pulled up to a glorified shack bearing a stop-here sign. “It’s a ranch,” he said flatly. “I’m pretty sure there’ll be plenty of things to keep you busy.”

  Noah started muttering what he thought about that, but he broke off and rolled down his window when the young woman who’d stepped out of the shack approached his side of the car.

  She leaned down to look through the window, wearing a smile that spread all the way to her sparkling eyes. “Welcome to Angel River. You must be Mr. Stanton.”

  “He i
s,” Noah said with a jerk of his head.

  Despite Noah’s sullen tone, her smile didn’t waver. “I’m Marni. If you’ll pull up to the main lodge, they’ve been expecting you.” She gestured toward the log building situated on the knoll, her bright gaze skipping from Gage’s face to Noah’s and then back again. “You’ll have a chance to settle in, but don’t take too long. Everyone’s already gathering at the barn for the afternoon activity. Here’s a map of the property.” She thrust a black-and-white brochure through the window at Noah then stepped back from the car. “Enjoy your stay!”

  Gage watched her practically skip back toward the shed, her spiky pink hair bouncing. “Cute.”

  Noah just made a grunting sound. If he appreciated the girl’s cheerful friendliness or gamine prettiness, he obviously wasn’t going to say.

  Gage was damned if he knew what qualities actually interested Noah. He’d never seemed to date a girl more than a few times.

  But then, the same thing could be said about himself. He’d been married once. Briefly and a long time ago. As exes, he and Jane were a lot happier with each other than they’d ever been when they’d been married. Now she was married to a decent guy who gave her the sort of time a man should give his wife. Should want to give his wife. They even had kids.

  But Gage had learned his lesson. He liked playing to his strengths. Relationships weren’t one of them.

  He continued on to the lodge while Noah looked at the map.

  The closer they got, the more rutted the road became. By the time Gage parked between a couple of muddy vehicles, he’d decided that all the access roads to the Rad would be paved. Just because the place wouldn’t be one of his typical luxury resorts, guests still shouldn’t have to worry about taking out an axel before they even reached their destination.

  As Noah just sat there, Gage climbed out of the car with relief and pulled out his cell phone. There was barely any signal. Regardless of the reasons that had brought him here, Gage still had a business to run. He hoped the ranch at least had decent Wi-Fi.