Amelia lifted her head drowsily, her eyes still half-shut. “What’s going on? Are we having a party?”
“Not yet,” Sherilee King told her granddaughter. “But we’re going to when your mom and Connor get married.”
“Mom!” all five King siblings in the room yelled at once.
“They barely told each other I love you,” Finn chastised her mother. “Why don’t you give them a little time to get used to the feeling before you have them walking down the aisle. Especially before you say something in front of you-know-who.”
Dahlia’s twin gave a not-so-subtle pointed look at Amelia, who just shrugged. “I already know they’re gonna get married.”
Connor brushed the child’s hair out of her face. “How’d you know that?”
“Grandma Millie told me.”
“You mean the scary old lady in the painting above our fireplace?” MJ asked, the look of disbelief on his face matching everyone else’s in the room. “She told you this?”
“Yeah. She talks to me all the time. I’m named after her, you know.”
Dahlia’s eyebrows slammed together. “Peanut, Grandma Millie passed away a long time ago. Before I was even born.”
“I know. Uncle Rider says she talks to him, too. He heard her tell me to find a good one for my Mommy. So I did.”
Connor had never believed in the supernatural, but his very first conversation with Rider King came floating back to his mind and sent a shiver down his back.
“Did she say anything else?” MJ asked. “Like if the judge was going to find me guilty?”
Amelia scrunched her nose and forehead. “I don’t think so. But she did say Uncle Marcus was too sad all the time and that Uncle Duke needed to be more trusting.”
Duke’s head jerked up. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.” Amelia shrugged. “Ask Uncle Rider. Oh, I almost forgot. She also said Aunt Finn was being way too mean to Daddy.”
“Ha!” Micah shouted triumphantly.
“I am not mean to your father,” Finn argued just as loudly.
“She didn’t even mention me?” Sherilee King asked. “I’m the one who’s had to live with her up on my fireplace for over thirty years, staring down her judgy nose at me.”
Then Tessa asked Duke who he didn’t trust, and as several arguments broke out around them, Dahlia put her head on Connor’s shoulder. “Remember when you said my family wasn’t messy?”
“I think I admitted they were a little bit messy.”
“Was that before or after you found out my daughter talks to my dead ancestors and tells fortunes?”
“You know, the first time I ever met your uncle Rider, he said that Amelia would tell you when you found the right one. I thought he was crazy at the time, and I’m still not convinced he isn’t. But maybe Amelia’s onto something.”
“Did I find you or did you find me?” she asked, a smile playing at the corners of her lips.
Connor kissed her tenderly, then said, “I’m pretty sure we found each other.”
Amelia snuggled in between them and nodded to the duffel bag under Micah’s feet, which the man kept shushing every time a scruffy white head popped out. “And me and Goatee found two daddies.”
* * *
Look for Marcus King’s story, the next installment in Christy Jeffries’s new miniseries,
Twin Kings Ranch
On sale July 2020
Wherever Harlequin Books and ebooks are sold.
And don’t miss Tessa’s story,
What Happens at the Ranch
Available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from She Dreamed of a Cowboy by Joanna Sims.
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She Dreamed of a Cowboy
by Joanna Sims
Prologue
“Do you realize that I am on the verge of answering a very important question that has plagued womankind for centuries?” Customer-service representative Skyler Sinclair tugged on the golden blond wig she had donned. The hair was thick and straight and cascaded down to the middle of her back.
Skyler spun around to face her father, her heavy mane of blond hair swinging around her shoulders in the most satisfying way. “Do blondes really have more fun?”
Chester Sinclair was standing just inside the front door of her garage apartment, his arms crossed in front of his chest and his brooding dark eyes a match for the frown on his face.
“Why the wig?” her father asked. “You’ve never been ashamed of your hair or your scars.”
“I’m not ashamed.” Skyler turned back to her reflection to adjust the wig a bit more. “I’m just not about to show up in Bozeman, Montana, looking like Skyler the Cancer Patient.”
“You are a cancer patient,” her father reminded her.
“Correction. I was a cancer patient. Now I’m a cancer victor!” She punched the air like she was a boxer training for a fight. “I’m a cancer-crushing badass, that’s what I am!”
In the middle of her tiny living room, Skyler planted her feet on the ground, hands on her hips, and lifted her chin like she was a superhero. After a second of holding the pose, she suddenly felt weak and dizzy, like her legs were going to buckle right out from underneath her. With a self-effacing laugh, Skyler folded herself into a nearby chair with a deep sigh. “Well, maybe not back to superhero status just yet.”
As he had been from the second she was first diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer, Chester was at her side.
“You are a cancer-crushing badass.” Chester kneeled on one knee by the chair. “But you’ve got to be careful, Skyler. Don’t overdo it. You’re still so weak. Wait awhile, let all this virus stuff blow over and then go. It’s not the right time.”
“Time,” Skyler said in a wistful voice as she tugged off the blond wig to expose her own patchy strawberry blond locks. “Time is a funny thing, Dad. I used to think I had all the time in the world. Now I know that I don’t.” She met her father’s eyes. “None of us do. I always had an excuse why I didn’t have time to do this or to do that. I was forever putting things off because—” she shrugged “—let’s face it, I was too afraid to try.” She patted his hand to reassure him. “I’m not afraid anymore, Dad. Cancer taught me the most valuable life lesson. All we have is right now. The time is now. Not tomorrow, not next week or next year. Now. I can’t wait. I won’t wait. I can’t waste this second chance I’ve been given by beating this thing.”
“Montana is too damn far away.” Chester sat back on his heels with a grumble.
When the light-headedness subsided, Skyler pushed herself upright. “That was always one of my excuses for not going. Too far away, not enough money, not enough time. But you know that I’ve always dreamed of Montana.” Skyler heard an emotional catch in her own voice. “Always. I’ve dreamed of the horses and the mountains and the wide-open spaces. Fresh air. I’ve dreamed of what it must be like to camp out under the stars with a herd of cattle grazing nearby...” Her voice trailed off a bit. “The smell of a campfire. I’ve dreamed of that life ever since I was a little girl. Don’t you see? Montana isn’t going to be just being some unfulfilled wish on my bucket list. It’s going to be my dream come true.”
Chapter One
“I’m here now, so let me go,” Hunter Brand said to his father as he strode into the lobby of the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport.
“Represent the family well, son,” Jock Brand reiterated for what seemed like the one hundredth time. “Remember that, like it or not, you represent Sugar Creek Ranch.”
Hunter hung up the phone,
slipped it into his back pocket and then pulled the black bandanna he had tied around his neck up over his nose and mouth. How in the world had he managed to pull this summer detail? Babysitting a spoiled city girl who’d convinced her father to let her play cowgirl for a summer? Sugar Creek wasn’t a vacation spot for bored socialites; it was a multimillion-dollar cattle operation. They did real work on the ranch and Hunter couldn’t fathom why Jock had decided, seemingly out of the blue, to open the ranch to a tourist for the summer.
“Excuse me.” Hunter smiled with his eyes at the pretty young woman at the information booth. “Did a private charter arrive from New York City?”
Hunter thought that he detected a hint of sympathy in the young woman’s eyes when she pointed toward a baggage carousel where a slight woman with long blond hair was standing. The woman had a collection of suitcases, which looked like they were covered in vintage floral wallpaper, balanced precariously on a luggage cart. Her back to him, his tourist was staring up at a T. rex skull mounted at the center of the carousel.
“Thank you.” Hunter tipped his hat to the young woman.
While he walked toward his summer ward, Hunter took in the expensive cowgirl hat, boots and dark denim designer jeans that hadn’t seen a speck of dirt or work since their purchase. As he drew closer, the more irritated he became. The tourist looked like she could be snapped in half by a strong gust of wind. And then a thought popped into his brain. Maybe his summer wasn’t ruined after all; this woman wouldn’t be able to handle ranch work. Especially if he threw some of the tougher, dirtier, smellier jobs her way right off the bat—she wouldn’t last one week, much less an entire summer. He’d have her racing back to her posh life in the city before the end of the week. Who could blame him if he gave her the experience she said that she wanted?
It was with that thought in his mind that Hunter greeted the tourist.
“Are you Skyler Sinclair?”
The woman gave a little start and then spun around with a laugh. It was a sweet, tinkling, joyous laugh that he immediately liked in spite of his intention to dislike everything about her.
“Yes.” Skyler looked up at him, the corners of her eyes crinkling with a smile. “I am.”
For a split second that seemed like slow motion, their eyes met and held. Skyler was wearing a mask, which drew his attention wholly to her large violet-blue eyes. Lovely, wide, expectant eyes that appeared to be completely without artifice. Then those eyes widened with a flash of recognition.
“Hunter Brand.” Skyler said his name with a breathiness that stroked his ego in just the right way.
Hunter cringed inwardly. He had never met Skyler, but she seemed to know him. When he was a teenager, he had participated in a reality TV show, Cowboy Up!, and he’d never managed to live that down. After all these years, there were still fan clubs dedicated to him. God help him, he hoped Skyler wasn’t a stalker.
Skyler must have read the question in his eyes because, filling in the silence between them, she explained, “I saw your picture on the Sugar Creek Ranch website.”
Hunter wasn’t sure if he believed that was the whole story, but it was good enough for now.
“This is amazing.” Skyler pointed to the T. rex skull. “The nice woman at the information booth over there said that the Museum of the Rockies is open. Do you think I’ll have time to go there?”
“I don’t know,” he hedged. “There’s an awful lot of work that needs to get done at the ranch. You ready to head out?”
“Absolutely,” Skyler said enthusiastically, and he was kind of surprised that her apparent disappointment about the museum had dissipated so quickly. “I can’t wait to see the ranch.”
Skyler had to work to keep up with Hunter; some called her stature petite, but she was just short and her legs always had to work double time to match the stride of a taller person like Hunter. As she walked beside the cowboy, Skyler’s mind was whirling with giddy teenage-girl, fantasy-come-to-life thinking.
Hunter Brand!
Even with the bandanna covering the lower part of his face, she had recognized him instantly. Those eyes were unmistakable. She couldn’t believe that the Hunter Brand, her absolute favorite cowboy on Cowboy Up!, was the one to come get her from the airport. She had an entire wall of her bedroom dedicated to Hunter Brand and now he was pushing her luggage cart through the airport? How could her Montana adventure have started any more perfectly? It couldn’t have.
She couldn’t wait to video-chat with her best friend, Molly; Molly had also had a teenage fantasy about marrying Hunter. She was going to lose her mind.
Once outside, Hunter lowered the bandanna and Skyler was able to see his entire handsome face. Yes, he had aged from his time on the show and that age had done him good. The man had a beautifully chiseled jawline, a slight dimple in his chin, prominent cheekbones and a perfectly straight, strong nose. Golden skin, jet-black hair peeking out from beneath his well-worn cowboy hat and just the deepest sapphire-blue eyes. There wasn’t any other word that she could think of to describe the grown-up Hunter Brand other than hunk.
Hunter dropped the tailgate of his blue Chevy truck and began to toss her baggage into the bed.
“You brought a lot of stuff,” her companion said as he hoisted the largest bag into the back of his truck.
“I wasn’t sure what to bring,” she said, feeling a bit self-conscious over the sheer number of bags she had brought. It did seem excessive now that she was actually here.
Hunter paused and looked at her dead in the face. “For ranch work? Jeans, boots, hat, T-shirts, underwear and plenty of socks.”
“Check and check.” She made little check marks in the air with a self-effacing laugh.
“I’m not sure you quite understand what you’ve signed up for here,” Hunter said.
It didn’t take a genius to read the subtext: Hunter thought she was soft—a real pushover. She could almost hear an unsaid “little lady” hanging in the air between them.
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about me for one second,” Skyler said as she picked up one of her medium-size bags. “I can pull my own weight.”
Skyler grunted as she attempted to pick up the heavy bag high enough to get it into the truck bed. Unable to get the bag into the truck, and well aware of Hunter’s eyes on her, she pushed the bag against the tailgate and squatted down so she could get some leverage. But, even with the extra leverage, she just couldn’t get the darn bag into the stupid truck.
“Need a hand?”
Smug.
“Sure. If you want.,” she said quickly, trying to cover up how breathless she felt from this simple, mundane task.
With one hand, Hunter easily pushed the bag into the back of the truck. Hunter closed the tailgate with a smirk on his lips.
“Pull your own weight,” he said with a deadpan expression. “I can see that.”
“I didn’t say I could lift my own weight, now did I?” Skyler quickly clarified. “No. I don’t think I did say that.”
Once inside the truck, Hunter rolled all of the windows down to let the fresh air into the cab on the way to Sugar Creek.
“I get tired of wearing this mask,” she said. “I tested negative. How about you?”
It felt odd to say it, but she felt like it had to be said nonetheless.
“I tested negative a couple of weeks back and other than picking you up today, I haven’t seen a soul.”
“That must be why you drew the short straw and had to come to the airport to pick me up, huh?”
“I have marching orders to keep you safe while you’re at Sugar Creek Ranch. It’s a job like any other.”
“Do you mind if I take off my mask?” she asked.
“No.”
Gratefully, Skyler took off her mask and breathed in the fresh Montana air, unimpeded, for the first time in her life. She glanced over at Hunter
; he had slipped the bandanna down from his face. And then she sighed. It was a long, happy sigh. She didn’t know if she was sighing because of the beauty of Montana, the freshness of the air or the handsomeness of Hunter’s profile.
Skyler held on to her hat so it wouldn’t get blown off and leaned her head out of the window with her eyes closed. She breathed in deeply as the wind rushed over her face, loving the smell of the Montana air.
With another sigh, she sat upright in the seat. “I don’t think I’ve seen a more beautiful view.”
Hunter nodded silently.
“And to think you wake up to all of this every day of your life.” After several attempts to have a conversation with Hunter, Skyler took the hint and focused on communicating with people who actually wanted to talk to her. She called her dad and then Molly. She texted tons of pictures of the Montana landscape and posted them to her social-media pages.
“That’s my brother Gabe’s spread right there.” Hunter startled her by speaking for the first time in thirty minutes. “Little Sugar Creek.”
“It’s lovely.”
Hunter slowed the truck down and turned onto a gravel drive. “And this here is Sugar Creek Ranch.”
Skyler could only internally describe the feeling she was having driving onto Sugar Creek property for the first time as similar to waking up on Christmas morning. There was all of the same eagerness and anticipation, and the excitement of knowing that something wonderful was about to be unwrapped.
The rolling pastures were filled with tall grass bending slightly from a balmy late afternoon breeze, and the breathtaking mountains looked like a living postcard. It was heavenly. It was...
“Holy cow!” Skyler was jerked to the side a bit, her hat falling askew on her head when Hunter hit a huge pothole.
“The rain has just torn this road all to pieces,” Hunter explained, swerving to avoid another pothole. “We’ve got an order of crush and run coming in the next couple of weeks.”
Making Room for the Rancher Page 20