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Bring Me A Maverick For Christmas!
Brenda Harlen
LASSOING SANTA!Rust Creek RamblingsWith Christmas right around the corner, grumpy cowboy Bailey Stockton is getting grumpier by the minute, even though he’s wearing a Santa suit. We here at the Gazette think adorable veterinary technician Serena Langley could be the one to rescue Bailey from his holiday funk. Trouble is, they’ve each got more baggage than Kris Kringle lugs on his sleigh. So deck the halls, dear readers, and see if Santa can deliver a happy ending!
LASSOING SANTA!
Rust Creek Ramblings
With Christmas right around the corner, grumpy cowboy Bailey Stockton is getting grumpier by the minute, even though he’s wearing a Santa suit. We here at the Gazette think adorable veterinary technician Serena Langley could be the one to rescue Bailey from his holiday funk. Trouble is, they’ve each got more baggage than Kris Kringle lugs on his sleigh. So deck the halls, dear readers, and see if Santa can deliver a happy ending!
BRENDA HARLEN is a former attorney who once had the privilege of appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada. The practice of law taught her a lot about the world and reinforced her determination to become a writer—because in fiction, she could promise a happy ending! Now she is an award-winning, RITA® Award–nominated national bestselling author of more than thirty titles for Mills & Boon. You can keep up-to-date with Brenda on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/brenda.harlen) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/BrendaHarlen) or through her website, brendaharlen.com (http://www.brendaharlen.com).
Also by Brenda Harlen (#u31fff2a1-3e53-5077-9653-c9aaa3edca57)
Six Weeks to Catch a Cowboy HerSeven-Day FiancéThe Sheriff’s Nine-Month Surprise
The Last Single GarrettBaby Talk & Wedding BellsBuilding the Perfect DaddyTwo Doctors & a BabyThe Bachelor Takes a BrideA Forever Kind of Family
The Maverick’s Midnight Proposal
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Bring Me a Maverick for Christmas!
Brenda Harlen
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-07843-6
BRING ME A MAVERICK FOR CHRISTMAS!
© 2018 Harlequin Books S.A.
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
This book is dedicated to Ryan. I know you stopped
writing letters to Santa a lot of years ago, but
as you finish up your first term at university,
I’m making three wishes for you this season:
1. that you eternally believe in the magic of Christmas;
2. that you always know how proud I am of you; and
3. that you forever remember how much I love you. XO
Contents
Cover (#u40d55311-4b6f-5a64-be97-5a28ea3d67a4)
Back Cover Text (#u9f19d8a2-e383-5e90-94b6-095089f32d0a)
About the Author (#ue1d7304f-7d92-50d7-a272-f7c811bcabb7)
Booklist (#u8e361270-a3c2-5f6b-bf25-a311acb9efcb)
Title Page (#u8c1ed7d1-57e6-5164-8ab3-b557b6839ee6)
Copyright (#u9d413232-84a7-5b86-b11c-b743beaca698)
Dedication (#u225d7fca-211c-5920-80c3-ce3f1fa0cfc9)
Chapter One (#u87ec1cb9-d4a5-5d4c-a7a3-e0dd8f0a5699)
Chapter Two (#u0a43594d-3f57-5f1f-bb79-a2314dda23bd)
Chapter Three (#u1f19e4a9-f4c3-5a12-93dd-90e8037d7d2d)
Chapter Four (#u68aec122-73a2-5a0a-9b97-a7cf6bc4c4dc)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#u31fff2a1-3e53-5077-9653-c9aaa3edca57)
“No way in ho-ho-hell,” Bailey Stockton said, his response to his brother’s request firm and definitive.
“Hear me out,” Dan urged.
“No,” he said again. He’d been conscripted to help with far too much Christmas stuff already. Such as helping Luke decorate Sunshine Farm for the holidays and sampling a new Christmas cookie recipe that Eva was trying out (okay, that one hadn’t been much of a hardship—the cookies, like everything she made, were delicious). His youngest brother, Jamie, had even asked him to babysit—yes, babysit!—so that he could take his wife into Kalispell to do some shopping for their triplets and enjoy a holiday show.
In fact, Bailey had been enlisted for so many tasks, he’d begun to suspect that his siblings had collectively made it their personal mission to revive his holiday spirit. Because he couldn’t seem to make them understand that his holiday spirit was too far gone to be resurrected. They’d have better luck planning the burial and just letting him pretend the holidays didn’t exist.
“But it’s for Janie’s scout troop,” Dan implored.
Janie was Dan and Annie’s daughter—the child his brother had only found out about when he returned to Rust Creek Falls not quite eighteen months earlier. Since then, his brother had been doing everything he could to make up for lost time. Which Bailey absolutely understood and respected; he just didn’t want to be conscripted toward the effort.
“Then you do it,” he said.
“I was planning to do it,” Dan told him. “And I was looking forward to it, but I’m in bed now with some kind of bug.”
“Is that a pet name for Annie?”
“Ha ha,” his brother said, not sounding amused.
“Well, you don’t sound very sick to me,” Bailey noted.
“That’s because you haven’t heard me puking.”
“And I don’t mind missing out on that,” he assured his brother.
“I need your help,” Dan said again.
“I’m sorry you’re not up to putting on the red suit, but there’s got to be someone else who can do it.”
“You don’t think I tried to find someone else?” Dan asked. “I mean, no offense, big brother, but when I think of Christmas spirit, yours is not the first name that springs to mind.”
Bailey took no offense to his brother speaking the truth. But he was curious: “Who else did you ask?”
“Luke, Jamie, Dallas Traub, Russ Campbell, Anderson Dalton, even Old Gene. No one else is available. You’re my last resort, Bailey, and if you don’t come through—”
“Don’t worry,” Annie interrupted, obviously having taken the phone from her husband. “He’ll come through. Won’t you, Bailey?”
He hated to let them down, but what they were asking was beyond his abilities. And way outside his comfort zone. “I wish I could, but—”
That was as far as he got in formulating a response before his sister-in-law interjected again.
“You can,” she said. “You just need to stop being such a Grooge.”
“A what?”
“A Grooge,” she said again. “Since you have even less Christmas spirit than either the Grinch or Scrooge, I’ve decided you’re a Grooge.”
“Definitely not Santa Claus material,” he felt compelled to point out.
“Under normal circumstances, I’d agree,” Annie said. “But these aren’t normal circumstances and your brother needs you to step up and help out, because that’s what families do. And that’s why I know you’re going to do this.”
Chastened by his sister-in-law’s brief but pointed lecture, how could he do anything else?
But he had no intention of giving in graciously. “Bah, humbug.”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Annie said.
Bailey could only sigh. “What time and where?”
“I’ll meet you at the Grace Traub Community Center in an hour.”
And so, an hour later, Bailey found himself at the community center, in one of the small activity rooms that had been repurposed as a dressing room for the event. Annie bustled around, helping him dress.
“Is this really necessary?” he asked, as she secured the padded belly.
“Of course, it’s necessary. Santa’s not a lean mean rancher—he’s a toy maker with a milk-and-cookies belly.”
He slid his arms into the big red coat and fastened the wide belt around his expanded middle.
“Now sit so that I can put on your beard and wig and fix your face,” Annie said.
He sat. Then scowled. “What do you mean—fix my face?”
“Relax and let me do my thing.”
“‘Do my thing’ are not words that inspire me to relax,” he told her.
But he clenched his jaw and didn’t say anything else as she unzipped a pouch and pulled out a tube that looked suspiciously like makeup. She brushed whatever it was onto his eyebrows, then took out a pot and another brush that she used on his cheeks.
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” he grumbled.
“I know this isn’t your idea of fun, but it means a lot to Dan that you stepped up.”
“I didn’t step,” he reminded her. “I was pushed.”
