Maverick Christmas Surprise

by Brenda Harlen

  So this apparent turnaround was a little too sudden and abrupt to be believable. No matter how much she wanted to believe. Which led her to another, more logical conclusion. “I can appreciate that you’re probably reeling from the DNA results,” she said. “And now you’re looking for someone to take care of your son, and I’m the obvious choice because—”

  Wilder shook his head, cutting her off. “You have some serious insecurities, don’t you?” he asked, seeming sincerely baffled by her speculation.

  She shrugged. “Leighton was the beautiful one, the fun one,” she said, though she doubted he needed the reminder. “I was always the other one.”

  “Leighton was beautiful and fun, and we had some good times together,” he acknowledged. “But I was never in love with your sister.”

  She blinked, not sure she understood what he was saying.

  “You, Lisbeth, are just as beautiful and just as much fun. You are also warm and kind, generous and loving, and I am head over heels in love with you.”

  For a long minute, she could only stare at him, stunned by his declaration. “You love me?”

  “I love you, Lisbeth Ames,” he confirmed.

  “I didn’t even think you liked me all that much.”

  He smiled. “I had some reservations at first, as I know you did about me, too.”

  She couldn’t deny that was true.

  “But over the past couple of weeks, everything changed. You changed everything for me,” he told her. “And I can’t imagine my life without you and Cody in it. Because, as it turns out, I’ve fallen head over heels for the little guy, too.”

  “I’m still waiting for you to confirm that you got the DNA results,” she told him.

  “I got them. And when I finally had the envelope in hand, I knew that whatever was written on the page didn’t matter as much as what was in my heart.” He looked at the baby in his arms. “And in my heart, Cody was already mine. The lab report only confirmed it.”

  She smiled then, her heart overflowing with happiness for her nephew and his daddy.

  “You know, now would be a good time to tell me that you love me, too...if you do,” Wilder said.

  She lifted her gaze to his, so he would see in her eyes the truth that filled her heart. “I do love you, Wilder Crawford.”

  He kissed her then, long and slow and sweet.

  And just when Beth had decided that she would be happy to go on kissing him forever, he eased his mouth from hers and said, “Now it’s time for Cody’s second first Christmas.”

  “Second first Christmas?” she asked, amused.

  “Well, I didn’t have any presents for him when you celebrated his first Christmas, so I brought these,” he said, dumping the contents of the bag onto the floor.

  She looked at the assortment of presents—small ones and big ones, hard ones and squishy ones—then at the man in the Santa suit. “Did you buy out The Toy Box?” she asked, referring to the local specialty store.

  He grinned. “Not entirely.”

  “And you said I went overboard.”

  He shrugged, unrepentant. “I think I’m entitled to go a little overboard for my son’s first Christmas.”

  “I think so, too,” she agreed.

  They both knelt on the floor to help Cody open his gifts. There were wooden puzzles and more books, a cuddly octopus learning toy, a ball that flashed colored lights, a miniature piano, a set of maracas, a drum, a xylophone and a tambourine.

  “Are you trying to turn him into a one-baby band?” Beth teased.

  “I read that there’s a strong correlation between music and brain development,” he explained.

  “Was that in the book?” she asked, echoing the same question he’d once asked her.

  “There isn’t one book that’s the authority on everything,” he said, echoing her response. “And every baby is different.”

  “But most parents would probably agree that they’re more interested in boxes and bows than presents at this age,” she said, noting how intently Cody was focused on the shiny green bow in his hand.

  “There’s one more,” Wilder said, setting the last small square box on the floor in front of her. “For you.”

  “For me?” Her heart pounded inside her chest as she tore off the paper to reveal a velvet jeweler’s box. With unsteady hands, she opened the lid to reveal a dazzling diamond solitaire.

  She lifted her stunned gaze from the ring to find Wilder watching her. His expression was intent, serious—and just a little bit uncertain.

  He cleared his throat. “Maybe it’s too soon,” he allowed. “But—”

  “No,” she quickly interjected, shaking her head.

  “No?” he echoed.

  His bleak tone and grim expression immediately alerted her to his misinterpretation of her response.

  “No, it’s not too soon,” she hastened to clarify. “But you can’t just hand a woman a ring—you have to ask the question.”

  “Oh.” He released an audible sigh of relief. “Okay, I can do that,” he said. “Beth Ames, will you—”

  “Yes,” she said, interjecting again.

  He chuckled softly and slid the ring on her finger. “A perfect fit—just like you and me and Cody.”

  Epilogue

  Five months later

  “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” The minister nodded to the groom. “You may kiss your bride.”

  Wilder didn’t need to be told twice. He lowered his head and touched his mouth to Beth’s, lingering for just a moment—sealing their vows, promising his heart.

  Then they turned to face their guests, and the bride lifted her skirt just enough to show off the cowboy boots she’d donned beneath her wedding gown. There were chuckles mixed in with the applause then, and the happy couple joined hands to exit along the aisle of their makeshift outdoor chapel—pausing first at the front row of chairs so the groom could take his now ten-month-old son from the boy’s grandfather.

  As Beth and Wilder mingled with their guests, she couldn’t help but reflect on how much had changed in her life in just six months. And although she still missed her sister every day, she took comfort in knowing that Leighton lived on in her little boy, who demonstrated more and more each day that he had his mother’s happy disposition and his father’s effortless charm.

  Those traits had been on full display as he enchanted the guests who’d come to the Ambling A for the wedding of his biological father to his maternal aunt. And there were a lot of guests. In addition to Wilder’s immediate family and all the distant Rust Creek Falls Crawford relatives, there were Daltons, Traubs, Stocktons, Joneses and O’Reillys. Beth had heard more names today than she could ever be expected to remember, but she was happy to be starting a life and raising Cody in this close-knit community—even if it meant a wedding reception far bigger than she’d ever anticipated.

  Thankfully the whole day had been planned with meticulous attention to detail by Vivienne Dalton, who continued to circulate to ensure that everything went according to plan. Her only failing was an inability to corral Hunter’s seven-year-old daughter. Wren kept returning to the chapel to practice walking down the aisle and tossing flower petals, in preparation for her very important role as flower girl when her daddy finally married Merry in only a few more weeks.

  After a delicious meal—interrupted by countless toasts to the happy couple—the bride and groom shared their first dance. As the song drew to a close, the rest of the guests were invited to join them, and Beth was pleased to see each of Wilder’s brothers on the floor with their partners. Even Finn and Avery were dancing, having enlisted Max to keep an eye on their beautiful three-month-old daughter, Mabel.

  Of course, the proud grandpa was happy to have his arms full of babies. And Wren, finally satisfied that she’d had sufficient practice being a flower girl, was helping mind
her younger cousins.

  When the bride and groom took a reprieve from dancing and returned to their table with Cody, Beth found an obviously old but beautiful jewel-encrusted book beside her bouquet.

  “What’s this?” she asked, as Cody reached out to touch the sparkly stones on the cover.

  “My brothers believe it’s Josiah Abernathy’s diary,” Wilder said, and proceeded to give her a brief history of the book and the writer’s forbidden love affair with a mysterious woman.

  “But why is it here?” she wondered.

  “They’ve been passing it around for months, claiming it carries a love spell or something like that. I guess they’ve decided it’s our turn to experience its powers.”

  “All true,” Merry confirmed, as she joined them. “But there’s more—a note hidden inside the cover confirmed the mystery writer as Josiah Abernathy and his girlfriend as Winona Cobbs.

  “Even more shocking,” she continued, as the rest of Wilder’s siblings and their spouses gathered around, “is that their baby girl wasn’t stillborn, as she believed. Beatrix was taken away and given to another family to raise.”

  A revelation that led to much speculation about whether it might be possible to find Beatrix after so much time had passed.

  “This is all very fascinating,” Wilder said, speaking quietly so that only his bride could hear him. “But what I really want to know is when we can steal away from this party.”

  “You’re not having a good time?” she asked, surprised.

  “The wedding was great,” he acknowledged. “But now, Mrs. Crawford, I’m more than ready to start the honeymoon.”

  She tipped her head back to smile at him. “I like the sound of that, Mr. Crawford.”

  As if on cue, their wedding planner stepped up beside them to ask, “What are you still doing here when the honeymoon suite at Maverick Manor is waiting for you?”

  “We’re on our way,” Wilder said. “We just wanted to thank you for giving us the perfect day.”

  “Well, I did have a little help from Mother Nature,” Vivienne said, gesturing to the sun setting against a cloudless sky. “But I’m happy to take credit for all the rest.”

  “If only you’d had as much success as a matchmaker,” Logan said to her.

  “I think I did pretty well helping you and your brothers find your perfect matches.”

  “What are you talking about?” Xander asked. “We found our own matches.”

  Vivienne smiled. “Did you?”

  The brothers exchanged puzzled glances.

  “I might not have introduced Logan and Sarah, but they met at my office,” she pointed out. “And Xander and Lily only got together because I’d set up a date between Knox and Lily, then Knox rushed to marry Genevieve because he didn’t want any part of Max’s scheme. I also knew Finn and Avery would be perfect together, even if I didn’t know they’d already found one another, and it was because they were getting married that Hunter decided to hire a nanny and fell in love with Merry.”

  Wilder nodded his agreement. “It looks like you did have a hand in five out of six matches,” he said to Vivienne.

  “I might have found someone for you, too,” she told him. “Except that you managed to find your perfect match without any help.”

  “Actually, I found him,” Beth said, making her husband smile.

  “Five out of six is an impressive stat,” Finn acknowledged. “But still short of Max’s target.”

  “And nothing less than one hundred percent is ever good enough for Maximilian Crawford,” Knox remarked.

  “I think I could make a case for six out of seven,” the wedding planner–slash–matchmaker said, nodding toward the dance floor where the groom’s father was slow dancing with the woman Wilder recognized from New Year’s Eve.

  “Who’s that?” Beth asked, because she hadn’t been at the party at Maverick Manor.

  “Estelle, my former boss,” Vivienne told them.

  “I thought she moved to Phoenix,” Lily remarked.

  “And then she came back. She said she enjoyed the more temperate climate, but planning funerals was as depressing as hell.”

  “Dad seems completely smitten with her,” Logan remarked, apparently baffled that such a tiny woman could have captivated the larger-than-life cattleman.

  “She’s got a personality equal to his own,” Vivienne assured him. “And Max is so happy with the way things worked out for everyone that he’s agreed to honor the terms of our original contract. As a result, we’ll be able to fix the roof at Sawmill Station and invest more money in the Thunder Canyon operation. Plus, with the way business is booming, I’m thinking of hiring extra help in Rust Creek Falls, too.”

  “What kind of experience is needed to work in the wedding planning business?” Beth wondered, her curiosity piqued.

  “Are you looking for a job?” Vivienne asked hopefully.

  “I am,” the bride confirmed. “And there are no teaching positions currently available at the local elementary school.”

  “Do you believe in happy endings?”

  Beth looked up at her new husband, and the love that filled her heart to overflowing shone through her eyes. “I do now.”

  Vivienne smiled. “That’s a good start.”

  Cody apparently thought so, too, because he clapped his hands together.

  Wilder’s chuckle drew the little boy’s attention to him. Then Cody reached his arms up toward his daddy and said his first word: “Da-da.”

  And Beth thought that was the perfect ending to a perfect day—and a very happy beginning for the start of their life together as a family.

  * * *

  Catch up with the rest of the

  Montana Mavericks: Six Brides for Six Brothers

  Look for:

  Her Favorite Maverick

  by New York Times bestselling author

  Christine Rimmer

  Rust Creek Falls Cinderella

  by Melissa Senate

  The Maverick’s Wedding Wager

  by Joanna Sims

  The Maverick’s Secret Baby

  by Teri Wilson

  Maverick Holiday Magic

  by Teresa Southwick

  Maverick Christmas Surprise

  by Brenda Harlen

  Available now wherever Harlequin books

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  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Rancher’s Best Gift by Stella Bagwell.

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  The Rancher’s Best Gift

  by Stella Bagwell

  Chapter One

  “Two weeks! Hell, Blake, that’s a long time for me to stay down at Red Bluff.”

  Saddle leather creaked as Matthew Waggoner twisted around to look at Blake Hollister, his boss and manager of Three Rivers Ranch.

  With a grunt of amusement, Blake leaned forward and fondly stroked the neck of the bay horse he was riding. “What’s the matter? Afraid this place will fall apart without you?”

  Matthew stared out at the herd of cattle grazing on tuffs of grass hidden among the thorny cacti and chaparral. The Arizona landscape was rough and rugged, especially in this area of the seventy-thousand-acre ranch.
And with each day taking them nearer the end of October, the grass was getting as scarce as hens’ teeth.

  “Three Rivers would never miss me.”

  A moment passed in silence, and in the distance a coyote let out a lonesome howl, signaling that twilight was falling on the jagged peaks and deep arroyos cut by centuries of flash floods.

  “No. After having you around for fourteen years, we’d never realize you were gone.” He muttered a curse. “Don’t give me that bull, Matthew. You know why I’m sending you to Red Bluff. I can’t trust anyone with the job but you.”

  The Hollisters’ second ranch was located in the southern part of the state, near the tiny town of Dragoon. Although at thirty-five-thousand acres, Red Bluff was only half the size of Three Rivers, it was blessed with sheltered green valleys where mama cows and calves could graze during the deepest part of winter. Each October, they shipped a large herd of cattle to Red Bluff, so this was nothing new for Matthew. Except that normally, he finished the job in two days. Not two weeks.

  Lifting his hat a few inches from his head, Matthew raked fingers through the blond curls flattened to his scalp. “Are you sending the same five men with me that went last year?” he asked.

  “Yes, plus one more. Scott is going along, too.”

  Matthew jammed the hat back down on his head and drew in a deep breath. “Guess that means we’d better take another cot for the bunk house. There’s hardly enough room for five beds, but we’ll jam another one in there somehow.”

  “Forget about an extra cot,” Blake said. “I’ve already told Camille that you’ll be staying in the big house with her.”

  Stunned, Matthew swung his head toward the other man. “You did what?”

  “You heard me. You’ll be staying in the ranch house. There’s plenty of room and my sister won’t bother you.”

  Bother him! Camille Hollister had bothered him ever since she’d grown into a woman more than ten years ago. But Blake hardly needed to know that bit of private information.

  “I’ve always stayed in the bunkhouse with the men,” Matthew reasoned. “I don’t want to set myself apart from them.”