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The Cowboy's Twins
Tara Taylor Quinn
It looked so good on camera…If it weren’t for the money, Spencer Longfellow would happily drive Natasha Stevens and her TV crew right off his ranch. But his land, and his kids, mean the world to him—and he’ll do anything to secure their future. Even cohost Natasha’s cooking show, Family Secrets, in his barn. Even play the token hunky cowboy to her sophisticated city slicker and flirt with her on national television… It could never amount to anything real anyway. After all, he was fooled and left in the dust by a city girl once. And he will never let that happen to him—or his kids—again.
It looked so good on camera...
If it weren’t for the money, Spencer Longfellow would happily drive Natasha Stevens and her TV crew right off his ranch. But his land, and his kids, mean the world to him—and he’ll do anything to secure their future. Even cohost Natasha’s cooking show, Family Secrets, in his barn. Even play the token hunky cowboy to her sophisticated city slicker and flirt with her on national television... It could never amount to anything real anyway. After all, he was fooled and left in the dust by a city girl once. And he will never let that happen to him—or his kids—again.
“You don’t like me, do you?”
Spencer had just spent the evening with Natasha. Was it wrong to need a little time to himself?
“I don’t know you.” Yet he recognized the way her eyes glistened in the firelight. They’d had that same glint the night before, under the light in Ellie’s stall, just after she’d witnessed her first calf birth.
He could have sworn, that night, that the sheen was due to tears she was refusing to shed.
But tonight?
“You say that like you don’t want to get to know me.”
Apparently he was easy to read. But hey, he lived a simple life—a cowboy on a ranch. He didn’t need subterfuge. Or societal graces.
It wasn’t as if his cattle were going to get an edge on him because they could tell what he was thinking.
“I could pretend otherwise. With our business arrangement, and you here on my ranch, I probably should pretend. But no, I don’t.”
Dear Reader (#ulink_1942ac53-ef6c-5ba5-9108-e3c36a426aaa),
Welcome to the Family Secrets cooking show, and the episode where you’re going to see everything that goes on behind the scenes, straight from the show’s creator, producer and director herself, heroine Natasha Stevens.
Natasha’s a strong woman. There are a lot of us making our way through this world. Some of us were just born that way. Most of us grew strong through the challenges life has imposed upon us, and the challenges we brought upon ourselves. Natasha’s strength comes from a mother who would accept nothing less. It was formed in the womb. She knows no other way.
And then she meets two children—and a man—who expose the lie about everything she’s always believed about herself. And Spencer is a cowboy to die for. To drool over. And yet...he’s got a lie in his life, too. A big one. These are fictional people, but they’re facing real-life situations. Problems that, when we face them, might make us give up hope.
But please don’t give up on us. Because there is always hope. In my books, in Harlequin books, but in real life, too. In the real world in which we live. I know this for a fact. Because I, too, have felt hopeless, and have learned that if we don’t give up, if we keep trying, and if we’re willing to do the toughest job of all—listening to our true hearts—hope will be right there waiting for us.
I love to hear from my readers. Please find me at Facebook.com/tarataylorquinn (http://Facebook.com/tarataylorquinn) and on Twitter, @tarataylorquinn (https://twitter.com/tarataylorquinn). Or join my open Friendship board on Pinterest, Pinterest.com/tarataylorquinn/friendship (http://Pinterest.com/tarataylorquinn/friendship)!
All the best,
Tara
www.TaraTaylorQuinn.com (http://www.TaraTaylorQuinn.com)
The Cowboy’s Twins
Tara Taylor Quinn
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Having written over seventy-five novels, TARA TAYLOR QUINN is a USA TODAY bestselling author with more than seven million copies sold. She is known for delivering emotional and psychologically astute novels of suspense and romance. Tara is a past president of Romance Writers of America. She has won a Readers’ Choice Award and is a five-time finalist for an RWA RITA® Award, a finalist for a Reviewers’ Choice Award and a Booksellers’ Best Award. She has also appeared on TV across the country, including CBS Sunday Morning. She supports the National Domestic Violence Hotline. If you or someone you know might be a victim of domestic violence in the United States, please contact 1-800-799-7233.
To my mother, Agnes Mary (Penny) Gumser, who spent my formative years putting me first, teaching me about the type of person I wanted to be. And who still, all these years later, is showing me, through every stage of life, how to listen with an open mind, to welcome with an open heart and to love with an open soul. I know joy exists because she first introduced me to it. And later, after a tragic death in our family, she showed me how to find it again.
Contents
Cover (#u4ca55419-2cbe-5514-b3ce-3724734f22df)
Back Cover Text (#u9f1dd35a-4306-5c14-b281-db58ea8aecce)
Introduction (#u214ac0f2-5e98-561e-a78a-687455ce2366)
Dear Reader (#ulink_9bb5d3d4-cf49-5e5c-b8a9-5c50a389810a)
Title Page (#u0e68c171-b154-51f9-8ee1-7318d7fc9877)
About the Author (#u2ebf31a4-6190-5a97-8806-e1807348065d)
Dedication (#ub021ddd6-9be7-56b7-97a4-6954105879f7)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_61fafb1b-a194-5e1d-8080-9c85b587acda)
CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_d2a061c2-48f1-55df-8da7-005dcb3db8d4)
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_44ab3385-de2c-5892-a3b6-2b6ffa39fd90)
CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_f91f61fb-87c2-50ed-91b1-97cbaf95172e)
CHAPTER FIVE (#ulink_3aac872a-820b-53fc-9558-f37484e93b53)
CHAPTER SIX (#ulink_56e7ae14-de3b-5795-9b30-2392900f57bb)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#ulink_73fd499e-dde1-520a-8376-f5f6b53a2b44)
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)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_07c0e906-d173-5cc2-bf6b-0cb11557098a)
THE THINGS YOU do for love...
Monitor receiver in hand, Spencer Longfellow took one last look at his sleeping seven-year-olds, slipped into his boots and quietly let himself out the back door, the line from an old song playing in his head.
The things you do for love...
Every single thing he did was for love. Love for his children. And love for his ranch.
He didn’t much love the idea of waking up the glamorous city woman at two in the morning. But a deal was a deal.
And he needed the money she was paying him.
With a nod at Betsy, the wife of one of his most trusted full-time cowboys, he continued across the yard. Blanket and pillow in hand, Betsy was on her way to his couch, where she’d sleep until Spencer and Bryant, her husband, were back from the barn.
If they didn’t make it back in time for breakfast, she’d get the kids up, feed them and put them on the bus for him.
It was routine. One he’d grown up with on that very ranch.
Hating the extra five minutes it was taking him for the detour to the cabin he’d given Natasha Stevens to use during her visits to the ranch over the coming weeks, Spencer reminded himself, once again, of the money.
If you’d have asked him two years ago if he’d ever allow a TV crew access to any part of his two-thousand-acre ranch, he’d have issued an unequivocal absolutely not. But a lack of rain had all but wiped out his hay crop—right at the time the cattle business he was building, while hinting at a success that could climb even higher than his hopes, was still in the fledgling stage.
He was on the brink of turning the land of his ancestors into a lucrative venture that would ensure the financial security of not only the twins but also their children and grandchildren. All while remaining true to those members of the family who had come before. Using heritage to build on the legacy.
He just needed an influx of cash...
Passing a few dark cabins, he stepped quietly.
Most of the guys who stayed on the ranch were single—and lived in the bunkhouse on the other side of the barns. A few, like Bryant, lived with their wives in cabins. Spencer was heading toward one of the larger ones—one outfitted with modern amenities including wired high-speed internet for those times when the wireless connection was in a mood.
A figure moved just outside the front door. Tall. Slender. She was in shadow, but there was no doubt in Spencer’s mind, the second he saw movement down the steps, that the body belonged to Natasha Stevens.
“I’ve heard of cowboys sleeping in their clothes, to be ready to ride on a second’s notice, but not a famous television producer,” he said, meeting her a few yards from the cabin.
“You called five minutes ago,” she said. He could tell she was grinning by the show of even, white teeth. “And I was prepared before I went to bed. It takes less than one minute to pull on jeans and a sweatshirt. Give me another one to pull on the boots...”
Her words trailed off as she kept pace beside him. He’d sped up to get to Ellie. And to keep his thoughts from lagging behind with visions of the city woman climbing out of bed and into jeans.
Natasha broke the silence in the crisp night air, her voice night-soft in spite of the miles of vast land around them. “You said she was going to calf tonight. You were spot-on.”
When it came to his precious cattle, he usually was. Came from breathing ranch air every day of your life. The whole heritage thing.
The closer they got to the big barn housing his dry cows, the faster he moved. As though he could outrun the fact that he was allowing a television crew to be a part of a live birth as part of footage that would be used on a cooking competition reality show.
He was a serious rancher who took pride in his work, not a drama monger looking for ratings. Not that he knew Natasha Stevens well enough to know if there was any drama, or monger, in her. It wasn’t her fault that her presence there—and the fact that he’d succumbed to it for the money—made him feel cheap.
“How much do you know about cattle?” he asked her as lights came into view. Bryant was the only member of his staff who’d be with them that night.
“Assume I know nothing,” she told him. He heard the click as she turned on her recording device—a compromise since he preferred not to be formally interviewed on camera. Reading from a teleprompter, as he’d be doing for his small portion of the filmed segments, was one thing. Answering questions without a script was another. He’d told her so, quite clearly, before he’d signed her contract.
To appease his conscience more than anything else, he gave her a brief rundown of America’s top cattle breeds. If he was going to do this, he might as well make the best of it—get the promotion out of it she’d promised him.
“Ellie’s classified as Purebred Wagyu,” he told her. “You’ve heard of Kobe beef?”
“Of course. It’s the best of the best...”
“Kobe’s a type of Wagyu.” He simplified it. “It’s tender with abundant marbling. Historically the cows have been fed beer to amp up their appetite, which allows for premium maturity standards.”
“Do you feed your cattle beer?”
He’d been experimenting with the process. Part of his new venture. If he could get a full herd of Purebred Wagyu grazing his lands, the twins would be set for life. At a cow per acre, that would be close to two thousand head at any given time. Being able to bring the Wagyu to production in less than a year per head...
But...he was way ahead of himself. Mostly he was raising Angus. Which were also premium steak producers.
“You’re asking for my secrets,” he told the show’s host, producer and founder. “Did you know that one of the reasons Wagyu are historically so tender is that they were massaged as they grew?”
