by Tina Leonard
Harlequin American Romance November 2014 Box Set
The SEAL’s Holiday Babies
The Texan’s Christmas
Cowboy for Hire
The Cowboy’s Christmas Gift
Tina Leonard
Tanya Michaels
Marie Ferrarella
Donna Alward
Harlequin American Romance brings you four new all-American romances for one great price, available now! This Harlequin American Romance bundle includes The SEAL’s Holiday Babies by USA TODAY bestselling author Tina Leonard, The Texan’s Christmas by NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Tanya Michaels, Cowboy for Hire by USA TODAY bestselling author Marie Ferrarella and The Cowboy’s Christmas Gift by NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Donna Alward.
If you love small towns and cowboys, watch out for 4 new Harlequin American Romance titles every month! Romance the all-American way!
Table of Contents
The SEAL’s Holiday Babies
By Tina Leonard
The Texan’s Christmas
By Tanya Michaels
Cowboy for Hire
By Marie Ferrarella
The Cowboy’s Christmas Gift
By Donna Alward
A HERO’S SURPRISE
Bridesmaids Creek, Texas, loves weddings. So favorite son Ty Spurlock hatches a plan to bring his single cowboy friends to town to woo the local ladies…as long as they stay away from Jade Harper. Ty secretly wants the gorgeous redhead for himself…even though he’s about to leave town to join the Navy SEALs.
Jade refuses to stand in the way of Ty’s dream of being a SEAL…but she also can’t hide her precious surprise—two precious surprises!—when her hero comes home for Christmas. The whole town is in on a secret that’s about to rock Ty’s world. Head over heels for his twin girls, he’s ready to do the honorable thing. But how can Jade say yes to a man who was never meant to be tied down?
“I want a baby.”
Ty stepped back a pace, stunned. “What does that have to do with me?”
“I want you to give me a child.”
Ty blinked, took in Jade’s very serious expression. “That’s a pretty good tactic, beautiful. You nearly gave me heart failure. But I’m not falling for it, so move your sweet little buns away from that door. My brothers need me.”
She shook her head. “I want a baby, and you’re the man who can help me.”
He smiled, staggered by her charming ploy to keep him in the bunkhouse. “Well, of course I can help you. But as we both know, I’m leaving. I don’t have time for romance and nonsense, and I’m not getting married so—”
“I didn’t say I wanted to marry you,” Jade said. “You’re never coming back to Bridesmaids Creek, so you’re the perfect man for what I need.”
Dear Reader,
Ty Spurlock talks a big game when it comes to getting his buddies to the altar. But a wrench is thrown into his matchmaking scheme when sassy redhead Jade Harper becomes the target of one of his buddy’s honorable intentions. Secretly, Ty has always had a crush on Jade. He’s leaving soon to join the Navy SEALs, so has no time to court her. When she tells him she really wants to have a baby, and he’s just the man to make her dreams come true, Ty faces a decision that no man would envy!
Jade has always had eyes for the footloose Ty. He has many edges and secrets—and she knows Ty follows something called the Plan that is practically engraved on his heart. She’s not interested in trying to get him to the altar—she just wants to get him into bed. Jade wants a baby before time runs out on her—and according to her own Plan, the hunky SEAL candidate is the man to father the child she desperately hopes for.
I hope you’ll enjoy this second installment of the four-book Bridesmaids Creek miniseries. Bridesmaids Creek is a man-friendly town—and they need men to survive! Join me as we find out if the town can ever survive the many dark forces working against the good-hearted people of this small town with a big Texas heart.
All my best,
Tina Leonard
www.TinaLeonard.com
www.Facebook.com/AuthorTinaLeonard
www.Twitter.com/Tina_Leonard
THE SEAL’S
HOLIDAY BABIES
Tina Leonard
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tina Leonard is a USA TODAY bestselling and award-winning author of more than fifty projects, including several popular miniseries for the Harlequin American Romance line. Known for bad-boy heroes and smart, adventurous heroines, her books have made the USA TODAY, Waldenbooks, Ingram and Nielsen BookScan bestseller lists. Born on a military base, Tina lived in many states before eventually marrying the boy who did her crayon printing for her in the first grade. You can visit her at www.tinaleonard.com, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
Books by Tina Leonard
HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE
1241—THE TEXAS RANGER’S TWINS‡
1246—THE SECRET AGENT’S SURPRISES‡
1250—THE TRIPLETS’ RODEO MAN‡
1263—THE TEXAS TWINS
1282—THE COWBOY FROM CHRISTMAS PAST
1354—THE COWBOY’S TRIPLETS¤
1362—THE COWBOY’S BONUS BABY¤
1370—THE BULL RIDER’S TWINS¤
1378—HOLIDAY IN A STETSON
“A Rancho Diablo Christmas”
1385—HIS VALENTINE TRIPLETS¤
1393—COWBOY SAM’S QUADRUPLETS¤
1401—A CALLAHAN WEDDING@
1411—THE RENEGADE COWBOY RETURNS¤
1418—THE COWBOY SOLDIER’S SONS¤
1427—CHRISTMAS IN TEXAS
“Christmas Baby Blessings”
1433—A CALLAHAN OUTLAW’S TWINS¤
1445—HIS CALLAHAN BRIDE’S BABY¤
1457—BRANDED BY A CALLAHAN¤
1465—CALLAHAN COWBOY TRIPLETS¤
1473—A CALLAHAN CHRISTMAS MIRACLE¤
1481—HER CALLAHAN FAMILY MAN¤
1493—SWEET CALLAHAN HOMECOMING¤
1505—THE REBEL COWBOY’S QUADRUPLETS+
‡The Morgan Men
¤Callahan Cowboys
+Bridesmaids Creek
Many thanks to the wonderful readers who embrace my work so loyally—I can never thank you enough.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Excerpt
Chapter One
“Hang on a sec,” Ty Spurlock said to Sheriff Dennis McAdams, stunned as he watched a tall redhead wearing seriously tight blue jeans that complemented her seriously sexy figure walk into The Wedding Diner on the arm of Sam Barr, a bachelor recruit whom Ty had brought to town for the express purpose of matchmaking.
It appeared that a match might indeed be in the making. The p
roblem was, the redhead wasn’t one of Ty’s intended bachelorettes.
Because he secretly had his eye on her for himself.
“What was that?” Ty demanded.
“What was what?”
“Jade Harper going into The Wedding Diner with Sam.”
Dennis grinned at him. “Free country, isn’t it?”
“Sure it is.” Ty sank onto the hood of the sheriff’s cruiser and pondered why the idea of Jade and Sam together bothered him, like a real bad toss from a bull. He’d had those, many of those. They were never any fun.
Neither was this. “Is there something going on there I don’t know about?”
Dennis’s eyes twinkled. “Do you think there’s something you should you know about? Are you taking over from Madame Matchmaker, our resident maker of matches? That’ll put Cosette’s pink-frosted hair in a twist for sure, if she thinks you’re butting in on her area of expertise.”
Ty felt strongly that Sheriff Dennis might be keeping something from him, which only made Ty resolve to get to the bottom of the matter. Jade had no business going out with Sam Barr, as prime for matchmaking as Sam might be. “Is there something going on between Sam and Jade?”
Dennis shook his head. “You’ll have to ask Jade. Or Sam.”
The sheriff was being deliberately obtuse, prickling him because he could. Nobody understood him the way Dennis did. The man had been elected sheriff after Ty’s adoptive father, Terence, had given up the sheriff’s job—fifteen years of being a great sheriff undone by one rumor. A rumor that had never gone away. But Sheriff Dennis had always supported Terence Spurlock, and Ty appreciated that more than he could say. Maybe only another sheriff could understand how loose lips and bad information could strike down a career and a man. “Or I could just ask you, since nothing goes on in Bridesmaids Creek that gets past you.”
Dennis chuckled. “True enough.”
“So? Is there?” Ty asked impatiently.
Dennis crossed his arms and smiled. “Didn’t you bring those four cowboys here to find them brides? Sam Barr, Squint Mathison, Justin Morant and Francisco Rodriguez Olivier Grant, otherwise known as Frog?”
“What does that have to do with Jade?”
Dennis laughed. “Ty, you can’t blame her for dating someone. Jade thinks you don’t know she’s alive, except for her occasionally scooping you some ice cream in her mother’s shop. You haven’t exactly pursued her.”
Ty grunted, glancing around the main square of the town he called home, even as an adopted son, and the town to which he owed so much. Owed them everything because they’d helped raise him, and because he’d had a great childhood because of them.
He owed them everything but his bachelorhood.
“Is there a problem?” Dennis asked.
“No.” There was, but he knew Dennis wouldn’t needle him about it further. Except he did.
“You could always try talking to her,” he said, surprising Ty. Dennis prodded him in a gentle, fatherly way that made him miss his own dad.
“I’m good at talking,” Ty said, “but I’m a couple weeks away from trying to make it into the SEALs. I have nothing to offer Jade.” He’d be gone for six long months of training, and then a little longer, if he made it.
No. When I make it.
Mentally, he reviewed The Plan, which was so far working like a charm.
Bring home eligible, trustworthy, elementally studly bachelors with the intent of pressing some of the ladies—not Jade—into marriage. This would start a rollerball of reactions: namely, babies and families, new blood in Bridesmaids Creek.
Which was very important in a town that was one step away from dying off completely.
He wasn’t about to let that happen. No, everything was working smoothly, with Mackenzie Hawthorne and her four darling little girls now married to rodeo rider Justin Morant. That was the beauty of goals and plans—they worked like charms because they were road signs pointing the way to the future. One needed merely to stick to a plan and not deviate; that was the key.
Victims number two, three and four—those being Sam, Frog and Squint—were certainly catnip to the many ladies in town. So there was no reason under the clear blue sky of Bridesmaids Creek, Texas, that Sam should settle on Jade Harper.
“Eat your heart out much?” Sheriff Dennis asked, jarring him back to the present.
“I’m fine.”
“I think Jade would understand the whole BUD/S training thing, Ty. She’s an independent girl. She works hard. Don’t you think it might be better to speak than to hold your tongue to the point that you lose her forever?”
Lose her forever? Ty chewed on that a moment. He wasn’t going to lose Jade, because he’d never had Jade. What he had was The Plan. Nothing could disrupt it, because you didn’t get into the SEALs by being an indecisive doorknob. You accomplished that by having determination and focus, and by serving one master. And the only way to clear his father’s name, to rebuild the Spurlock brand, was to return home a man of his word. The people of BC—Bridesmaids Creek—had ceased believing that Terence Spurlock was a man of his word when a stranger to BC had been allegedly murdered at the local haunted house, the Hanging H, Mackenzie Hawthorne’s place. Folks said Terence had been bought off by the town’s evil shyster in big boots, Robert Donovan, who owned significant chunks of town and was determined to own more, carving it up into retail parcels that enriched his considerable wealth. If he could get the Hawthornes to sell, along with the owners of the ranches surrounding Jade’s place, Donovan would have the kingdom he desired. But because the people had mostly grouped together against him, refusing to sell, Donovan currently held smaller, disconnected and farther-flung chunks of land not suitable for his grand visions.
Ty’s father would never have been bought off by anyone. It burned Ty’s gut that some folks—not everyone, but enough—had put such a rumor out there. More than anything, he hated that Bridesmaids Creek was held hostage by Robert Donovan and his coterie of greedy swindlers.
“I understand the mission,” Dennis said softly. “I’m just saying you don’t have to pay for what happened to your father by losing something you love dearly.”
Ty moved away from the voice of temptation, which was intended to be the voice of reason. Sheriff Dennis was a good man. He wanted to help. When Ty’s father had died of a broken heart from losing the town’s trust—and Ty was sure as the setting sun that that’s what had driven his father to his grave—Dennis had been there to remind him of what a very good man his father had been.
Ty clapped Dennis on the back and walked in the opposite direction from The Wedding Diner—and Jade.
* * *
“IT’S A DUMB IDEA,” Ty said a half hour later, relenting on entering The Wedding Diner, because his curiosity was killing him. He inserted himself at the table in The Wedding Diner with his buddies Squint and Frog so he had an excellent visual on Jade and Sam, but whether he was torturing himself on purpose he couldn’t say. “In fact, that idea is so dumb it makes me wonder if you’ve poured something strong in your coffee.”
Squint shrugged. “You don’t want a family. We do.”
Frog nodded. “You brought us to BC to find women. We want what Justin got when he married Mackenzie. He got a family.”
Ty swallowed, not about to admit that the idea was very appealing. “You wouldn’t know what to do with Justin’s four babies.”
“I don’t care how many babies are involved,” Squint said, sipping his coffee thoughtfully. “I just care that babies are eventually involved.”
“So let me get this straight. You’re going to propose pregnancy to a couple of ladies. Not marriage, just pregnancy.”
“That about sums it up.” Frog eyed with pleasure the plate of steaming eggs, toast and bacon a waitress set down in front of him. “Women aren’t looking for a rin
g anymore, Ty. They want to know that the man they choose can give them a family. And personally, I want to know that I have children in my future. So it’s a win-win.”
“We’re not saying we couldn’t love a woman who didn’t want children,” Squint said. “But we think Justin’s got a pretty good setup, and it inspires us. Plus we’re pretty good father candidates.”
Ty grunted. “Have you chosen your victims?” This ought to be rich. He couldn’t wait to hear more details from men whom he’d specifically brought here for the very purpose of finding brides and making families to grow BC.
Just not in the manner in which they were planning to go about it.
“Well, Sam’s picked Jade,” Squint said, nodding his head in the redhead’s direction. “That’s as far as we’ve gotten.”
Ty winced. If Sam thought he could just propose pregnancy to an independent woman like Jade Harper, it might be worth hanging around to see him get handed his head. Ty almost laughed at Sam’s plan.
Then again, maybe it wasn’t that funny. What if Jade said yes? She was twenty-seven, and a beauty like her shouldn’t still be on the market, except she claimed she wasn’t ready to settle down.
That might be changing now that her best friend, Mackenzie, was happily married.
Ty shrugged off the vague sense of uneasiness the thought gave him. “Picking a lady and having her fall for you are two different things.” He glanced Jade’s way, commanded himself to quit staring.
“We thought you’d support our plan,” Squint said, his tone surprised. “When you lured us to BC, you said there were plenty of ladies looking to settle down. When you’ve been in the military as long as we were, the thought of ladies looking to settle down is pretty inviting.”
“Yeah, why are you beefing about this?” Frog glared at him. “Dude, if you have a better idea, speak up. If not, say nothing. You’re leaving soon enough, and you won’t be doing much communicating once you’re trying to get through BUD/S. So our story won’t be of much interest to you.”