by Sara Orwig
“I would think not, when I didn’t hear any words of love from you.”
“Well, darlin’, all that’s about to change. Now that I realize what love is, I’ll be telling you every day of my life.”
“Oh, I’m so glad. I love you, my old-fashioned alpha male who stopped being one long enough to win my heart and find love.”
He shrugged. “I don’t have an alpha male bone left in my body. Well, maybe one.”
She giggled and hugged him. “You’ve made me so happy. If Thane couldn’t come home, this is what he would have wanted.”
“I think you’re right, Vivian. He was looking out for you, that ranch and maybe me. We have to name the first boy Thane.”
“I agree,” she said, holding Mike tightly while she kissed him and felt showered with love and blessings and fulfillment.
* * * * *
If you loved this Texas-set romance from USA TODAY bestselling author Sara Orwig, pick up these other titles!
THE TEXAN’S CONTRACT MARRIAGE
ONE TEXAS NIGHT...
HER TEXAN TO TAME
THE TEXAN’S FORBIDDEN FIANCÉE
EXPECTING THE RANCHER’S CHILD
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Can a former bad boy and the woman he never forgot find true love during one unforgettable Christmas?
Find out in CHRISTMASTIME COWBOY, the sizzling new COPPER RIDGE novel from New York Times bestselling author Maisey Yates. Read on for your sneak peek...
Christmastime Cowboy
by Maisey Yates
LIAM DONNELLY WAS nobody’s favorite.
Though being a favorite in their household growing up would never have meant much, Liam was confident that as much as both of his parents disdained their younger son, Alex, they hated Liam more.
And as much as his brothers loved him—or whatever you wanted to call their brand of affection—Liam knew he wasn’t the one they’d carry out if there was a house fire. That was fine too.
It wasn’t self-pity. It was just a fact.
But while he wasn’t anyone’s particular favorite, he knew he was at least one person’s least favorite.
Sabrina Leighton hated him with every ounce of her beautiful, petite being. Not that he blamed her. But, considering they were having a business meeting today, he did hope that she could keep some of the hatred bottled up.
Liam got out of his truck and put his cowboy hat on, surveying his surroundings. The winery spread was beautiful, with a large, picturesque house overlooking the grounds. The winery and the road leading up to it were carved into an Oregon mountainside. Trees and forest surrounded the facility on three sides, creating a secluded feeling. Like the winery was part of another world. In front of the first renovated barn was a sprawling lawn and a path that led down to the river. There was a seating area there and Liam knew that during the warmer months it was a nice place to hang out. Right now, it was too damned cold, and the damp air that blew up from the rushing water sent a chill straight through him.
He shoved his hands in his pockets and kept on walking. There were three rustic barns on the property that they used for weddings and dinners, and one that had been fully remodeled into a dining and tasting room.
He had seen the new additions online. He hadn’t actually been to Grassroots Winery in the past thirteen years. That was part of the deal. The deal that had been struck back when Jamison Leighton was still owner of the place.
Back when Liam had been nothing more than a good-for-nothing, low-class troublemaker with a couple of misdemeanors to his credit.
Times changed.
Liam might still be all those things at heart, but he was also a successful businessman. And Jamison Leighton no longer owned Grassroots.
Some things, however, hadn’t changed. The presence of Sabrina Leighton being one of them.
It had been thirteen years. But he couldn’t pretend he thought everything was all right and forgiven. Not considering the way she had reacted when she had seen him at Ace’s bar the past few months.
Small towns. Like everybody was at the same party and could only avoid each other for so long.
If it wasn’t at the bar, they would most certainly end up at a four-way stop at the same time, or in the same aisle at the grocery store.
But today’s meeting would not be accidental. Today’s meeting was planned. He wondered if something would get thrown at him. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time.
He walked across the gravel lot and into the dining room. It was empty, since the facility—a rustic barn with a wooden chandelier hanging in the center—had yet to open for the day. There was a bar with stools positioned at the front, and tables set up around the room. Back when he had worked here, there had been one basic tasting room, and nowhere for anyone to sit. Most of the wine had been sent out to retail stores for sale, rather than making the winery itself some kind of destination.
He wondered when all of that had changed. He imagined it had something to do with Lindy, the new owner and ex-wife of Jamison Leighton’s son, Damien. As far as Liam knew, and he knew enough—considering he didn’t get involved with business ventures without figuring out what he was getting into—Damien had drafted the world’s dumbest prenuptial agreement. At least, it was dumb for a man who clearly had problems keeping his dick in his pants.
Though why Sabrina was still working at the winery when her sister-in-law had current ownership, and her brother had been deposed, and her parents were—from what he had read in public records—apoplectic about the loss of their family legacy, he didn’t know. But he assumed he would find out. At about the same time he found out whether or not something was going to get thrown at his head.
The door from the back opened, and he gritted his teeth. Because, no matter how prepared he felt philosophically to see Sabrina, he knew that there would be impact. There always was. A damned funny thing, that one woman could live in the back of his mind the way she had for so long. That no matter how many years or how many women he put between them, she still burned bright and hot in his memory.
That no matter that he had steeled himself to run
into her—because he knew how small towns worked—the impact was like a brick to the side of his head every single time.
She appeared a moment after the door opened, looking severe. Overly so. Her blond hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, and she was wearing a black sheath dress that went down past her knees but conformed to curves that were more generous than they’d been thirteen years ago.
In a good way.
“Hello, Liam,” she said, her tone impersonal. Had she not used his first name, it might have been easy to pretend that she didn’t know who he was.
“Sabrina.”
“Lindy told me that you wanted to talk about a potential joint venture. And since that falls under my jurisdiction as manager of the tasting room, she thought we might want to work together.”
Now she was smiling.
The smile was so brittle it looked like it might crack her face.
“Yes, I’m familiar with the details. Particularly since this venture was my idea.” He let a small silence hang there for a beat before continuing. “I’m looking at an empty building on the end of Main Street. It would be more than just a tasting room. It would be a small café with some retail space.”
“How would it differ from Lane Donnelly’s store? She already offers specialty foods.”
“Well, we would focus on Grassroots wine and Laughing Irish cheese. Also, I would happily purchase products from Lane’s to give the menu a local focus. The café would be nothing big. Just a small lunch place with wine. Very limited selection. Very specialty. But I feel like in a tourist location, that’s what you want.”
“Great,” she said, her smile remaining completely immobile.
He took that moment to examine her more closely. The changes in her face over the years. She was more beautiful now than she had been at seventeen. Her slightly round, soft face had refined in the ensuing years, her cheekbones now more prominent, the angle of her chin sharper.
Her eyebrows looked different too. When she’d been a teenager, they’d been thinner, rounder. Now they were a bit stronger, more angular.
“Great,” he returned. “I guess we can go down and have a look at the space sometime this week. Gage West is the owner of the property, and he hasn’t listed it yet. Handily, my sister-in-law is good friends with his wife. Both of my sisters-in-law, actually. So I got the inside track on that.”
Her expression turned bland. “How impressive.”
She sounded absolutely unimpressed. “It wasn’t intended to be impressive. Just useful.”
She sighed slowly. “Did you have a day of the week in mind to go view the property? Because I really am very busy.”
“Are you?”
“Yes,” she responded, that smile spreading over her face again. “This is a very demanding job, plus I do have a life.”
She stopped short of saying exactly what that life entailed.
“Too busy to do this, which is part of your actual job?” he asked.
On the surface she looked calm, but he could sense a dark energy beneath that spoke of a need to savage him. “I had my schedule sorted out for the next couple of weeks. This is coming together more quickly than expected.”
“I’ll work something out with Gage and give Lindy a call, how about that?”
“You don’t have to call Lindy. I’ll give you my phone number. You can call or text me directly.”
She reached over to the counter and took a card from the rustic surface, extending her hand toward him. He reached out and took the card, their fingertips brushing as they made the handoff.
And he felt it. Straight down to his groin, where he had always felt things for her, even though it was impossible. Even though he was all wrong for her. And even though now they were doing a business deal together, and she looked like she would cheerfully chew through his flesh if given half the chance.
She might be smiling, but he didn’t trust that smile. He was still waiting. Waiting for her to shout recriminations at him now that they were alone. Every other time he had encountered her over the past four months it had been in public. Twice in Ace’s bar, and once walking down the street, where she had made a very quick sharp left to avoid walking past him.
It had not been subtle, and it had certainly not spoken of somebody who was over the past.
So his assumption had been that if the two of them were ever alone she was going to let him have it. But she didn’t. Instead, she gave him that card and then began to look...bored.
“Did you need anything else?” she asked.
“Not really. Though I have some spreadsheet information that you might want to look over. Ideas that I have for the layout, the menu. It is getting a little ahead of ourselves, in case we end up not liking the venue.”
“You’ve been to look at the venue already, haven’t you?” It was vaguely accusatory.
“I have been there, yes. But again, I believe in preparedness. I was hardly going to get very deep into this if I didn’t think it was viable. Personally, I’m interested in making sure that we have diverse interests. The economy doesn’t typically favor farms, Sabrina. And that is essentially what my brothers and I have. I expect an uphill fight to make that place successful.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Like you said, you do your research.”
Her friendliness was beginning to slip. And he waited. For something else. For something to get thrown at him. It didn’t happen.
“That I do. Take these,” he said, handing her the folder that he was holding on to. He made sure their fingers didn’t touch this time. “And we’ll talk next week.”
Then he turned and walked away from her, and he resisted the strong impulse to turn back and get one more glance at her. It wasn’t the first time he had resisted that.
He had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last.
* * *
AS SOON AS Liam walked out of the tasting room, Sabrina let out a breath that had been killing her to keep in. A breath that contained about a thousand insults and recriminations. And more than a few very colorful swear word combinations. A breath that nearly burned her throat, because it was full of so many sharp and terrible things.
She lifted her hands to her face and realized they were shaking. It had been thirteen years. Why did he still affect her like this? Maybe, just maybe, if she had ever found a man who made her feel even half of what Liam did, she wouldn’t have such a hard time dealing with him. The feelings wouldn’t be so strong.
But she hadn’t. So that supposition was basically moot.
The worst part was the tattoos. He’d had about three when he’d been nineteen. Now they covered both of his arms, and she had the strongest urge to make them as familiar to her as the original tattoos had been. To memorize each and every detail about them.
The tree was the one that really caught her attention. The Celtic knots, she knew, were likely a nod to his Irish heritage, but the tree—whose branches she could see stretching down from his shoulder—she was curious about what that meant.
“And you are spending too much time thinking about him,” she admonished herself.
She shouldn’t be thinking about him at all. She should just focus on congratulating herself for saying nothing stupid. At least she hadn’t cried and demanded answers for the night he had completely laid waste to her every feeling.
“How did it go?”
Sabrina turned and saw her sister-in-law, Lindy, come in. People would be forgiven for thinking that she and Lindy were actually biological sisters. In fact, they looked much more alike than Sabrina and her younger sister Beatrix did.
Like Sabrina, Lindy had long, straight blond hair. Bea, on the other hand, had freckles all over her face and a wild riot of reddish-brown curls that resisted taming almost as strongly as the youngest Leighton sibling herself did.
That was another thing Sabrina and Lindy had in common. They were predominantly tame. At least, they kept things as together as they possibly could on the surface.
“Fine.”
“You didn’t savage him with a cheese knife?”
“Lindy,” Sabrina said, “please. This is dry-clean only.” She waved her hand up and down, indicating her dress.
“I don’t know what your whole issue is with him...”
Because no one spoke of it. Lindy had married Sabrina’s brother after the unpleasantness. It was no secret that Sabrina and her father were estranged—even if it was a brittle, quiet estrangement. But unless Damien had told Lindy the details—and Sabrina doubted he knew all of them—her sister-in-law wouldn’t know the whole story.
“I don’t have an issue with him,” Sabrina said. “I knew him thirteen years ago. That has nothing to do with now. It has nothing to do with this new venture for the winery. Which I am on board with one hundred percent.” It was true. She was.
“Well,” Lindy said, “that’s good to hear.”
She could tell that Lindy didn’t believe her. “It’s going to be fine. I’m looking forward to this.” That was also true. Mostly. She was looking forward to expanding Grassroots. Looking forward to helping build the winery, and making it into something that was truly theirs. So that her parents could no longer shout recriminations about Lindy stealing something from the Leighton family.
Eventually, they would make the winery so much more successful that most of it would be theirs.
And if her own issues with her parents were tangled up in all of this, then...that was just how it was.
Sabrina wanted it all to work, and work well. If for no other reason than to prove to Liam Donnelly that she was no longer the seventeen-year-old girl whose world he’d wrecked all those years ago.
In some ways, Sabrina envied the tangible ways in which Lindy had been able to exact revenge on Damien. Of course, Sabrina’s relationship with Liam wasn’t anything like a ten-year marriage ended by infidelity. She gritted her teeth. She did her best not to think about Liam. About the past. Because it hurt. Every damn time it hurt. It didn’t matter if it should or not.