The Chestnut Ranch Cowboy Billionaire Boxed Set: Three Sweet Cowboy Billionaire Novels (Chestnut Ranch Boxed Sets Book 1)

by Emmy Eugene

  Momma was right; she didn’t have much money. But she had a credit card, and she could get a few things for the week she’d be here.

  “Might be longer,” she said to herself, because she remembered Rex being the kind of man that fought for what he wanted. He’d called her for six straight months after she’d vanished from his life. He’d gone to her parents’ house. He’d called her friends. Gone to talk to her boss.

  And when he found out where she’d been, maybe he’d understand.

  Maybe.

  Hopefully.

  “Please,” she prayed, because she was ready to move forward, and she couldn’t if Rex didn’t come with her.

  Oh, dear, I sure hope Rex and Holly can figure things out! Find out if they can in A COWBOY AND HIS DAUGHTER.

  A Cowboy and his Christmas Crush

  Chapter One

  Russ Johnson stood outside, the faint music from the wedding dance behind him. He couldn’t go back inside, not with his chest as deflated as it was. He was thrilled for Seth and Jenna, who’d been friends for a very long time. And he owed his last two months of dating the beautiful Janelle Stokes to Seth, who’d encouraged him to get out there and meet someone.

  And he had. He and Janelle may not have seen each other every day for the past two months. Some people would call their relationship slow.

  Russ didn’t mind either of those things. When something awesome happened, he wanted to tell Janelle. When she had something to celebrate, he wanted to be the one who showed up with a cake.

  And he’d thought they’d been getting along really well since the speed dating event in October. Slow and steady wins the race, he’d told himself.

  Except he was losing. Big time.

  Janelle had called him on Tuesday, and Russ had known from the moment she said his name that he wouldn’t like what she was about to say.

  And he hadn’t. Because she’d broken up with him, citing her daughters as the reason why. He’d wanted to meet them. She’d freaked out.

  It’s fine, he’d texted her after she’d told him she didn’t want to see him anymore. I don’t have to meet them until you’re ready.

  He hadn’t heard from her since.

  He took a big breath and looked up into the starry sky. Behind him, the music stopped, and the door opened. People began piling outside, and Russ wanted to disappear again. But he joined the crowd instead, stepping over to Griffin and Rex while he scanned the crowd for Travis. He didn’t see his brother, and Rex stepped out to help their parents get out of the fray.

  The photographer came out and raised both of his hands. “Okay, everyone,” he yelled. “Sparklers for everyone. Don’t light them until I say, and you’re going to hold them up like this.” He held the sparkler right up above his head. “And wave them in short bursts. We only get one shot at this.”

  He started passing out sparklers, as did his assistant. Russ had no way to light the sparklers, but the photographer and his assistant started handing out matches too. He backed up to the doors and opened them a couple of inches. “Are the bride and groom ready?”

  He must’ve gotten the go-ahead, because he turned back to the crowd outside. “All right, light ‘em up.”

  The buzzing and fizzing of sparklers started, and the photographer called for Seth to bring Jenna outside. He did, and Russ could feel his brother’s joy all the way at the back of the crowd. A cheer went up, and everyone lifted their sparklers and started waving them as taught.

  The camera went click, click, click as the photographer walked backward, capturing the sparkler sendoff. He turned and took several pictures of the car, which Rex and Griffin had decorated. The décor was barely appropriate, but Seth and Jenna laughed at the cookies stuck to their car and ducked inside.

  With them gone, the event concluded, and the vibrant atmosphere fizzled along with the sparklers. Russ watched his burn all the way down, and then he put it in the pile with all the other burnt-out fireworks. He and his brothers still had an hour of clean-up to do, and he still didn’t know where Travis had gotten to. Probably with Millie, Russ told himself, as he’d been the one to tell his brother to go ask her to dance.

  Russ found him inside, alone, folding up chairs. “You didn’t come out for the sparkler thing?”

  Travis shook his head, looking a bit dazed. Russ didn’t have time to wonder what that was about, because they had to be out of the posh castle where Seth and Jenna had gotten married in exactly one hour.

  He started helping with the chairs too, while others pulled down decorations, picked up centerpieces, and loaded everything into boxes to be taken outside. When everything was finally done, he got in the truck with Travis and started back to Chestnut Ranch.

  Neither of them spoke, and Russ was grateful Travis wasn’t the kind of brother who needed to know every detail of everything the moment it happened. He alone knew that Janelle had broken up with Russ—well, until that disastrous dinner conversation. Now everyone knew, and Russ was actually surprised his mother hadn’t cornered him during the dancing to find out what had happened and then offered advice for how to fix it.

  His momma meant well, he knew that. But she didn’t understand that Janelle was as stubborn as the day was long.

  She was smart too, and beautiful, with a wit that spoke right to Russ’s sense of humor. She outclassed him in every way, and he told himself he should be grateful he’d had two months with her. But he couldn’t help wanting more time. Wanting forever.

  “How was the dance with Millie?” he asked when he went through the gate and onto the ranch.

  “Good,” Travis said.

  “You gonna call her?”

  His brother sighed and looked over at Russ. “Yeah. How do I do that?”

  Russ grinned at Travis, who was a couple of years younger than him. “You just put in the numbers, and when she answers, you ask her to dinner. Easy.”

  “Easy,” Travis said, scoffing afterward. He got out of the truck when Russ parked, but Russ stayed in the cab for another moment. Could he just tap a few times to pull up Janelle’s contact info, call, and ask her to dinner?

  “Yeah,” he said to himself darkly. “If you want another slash on your heart.” And he didn’t. It was already hanging in shreds as it was, and Russ rather needed it to keep breathing.

  Russ survived Saturday and Sunday, because Travis was there. They did minimal chores on the ranch on the weekends, and he and his brother could get the animals fed and watered in a couple of hours. He’d napped, and he’d stared at his phone, almost willing it to ring and have Janelle on the other end of the line.

  Monday morning, Travis loaded up with the ranch hands that lived in the cabins along the entrance road, and they left to go move the cattle closer to the epicenter of the ranch.

  Russ was glad he hadn’t drawn that chore this time, but his loneliness reached a new high in a matter of hours. Griffin and Rex worked somewhere on the ranch, but Russ wasn’t as close with them as he was Seth and Travis. He certainly didn’t want to talk about Janelle with Rex, who thought it was fun to go out with one woman on Friday night and a different one the next evening.

  Dusk found Russ standing on the back edge of the lawn, looking out over the wilder pastures of the ranch. In the distance, dogs barked and barked and barked. Russ normally loved dogs, but the increase of them on the ranch over the course of the last month had been too much.

  With Seth gone for the next couple of weeks, Russ didn’t even find the puppies cute anymore. Winner barked, as if she was the mother hen and was telling the other dogs to settle down. They didn’t, and she ran along the grass line, barking every few feet.

  “Enough,” Russ told her. Eventually, he turned back to the house. He ate dinner, showered, slept. Then the next morning, he got up and did everything all over again. Travis returned that afternoon, and Rex ran to town for pizza and their mother’s homemade root beer.

  “To a successful relocation,” Rex said, his voice so loud that it echoed through the kitchen
.

  Travis just grinned at him and took a bite of his supreme pizza. Russ was just glad there were more people in the homestead that night. It was a giant house, and he didn’t like being in it alone.

  “I’m goin’ to shower,” Travis said, and Russ picked up another piece of pizza. Griffin started telling a story about something Darren had said, and Russ was content to listen and laugh. A few minutes later, Travis came thundering down the stairs, his cowboy boots loud on the wood.

  Rex was practically standing in the doorway already, and he ducked out to see what Travis was doing. He whistled and said, “Hoo boy, where are you off to?”

  Russ exchanged a glance with Griffin, and said, “He’s so loud.”

  “Try living with him,” Griffin muttered, and they both moved into the living room, where Travis was putting on one of his nicest dress hats. He turned toward everyone and said, “I’m goin’ out with Millie.”

  A smile crossed Russ’s face. So he’d called her.

  “Good for you, bro,” Rex said.

  “You look like you’re going to throw up,” Griffin said.

  “Go,” Russ said, stepping in front of the younger brothers. “Don’t listen to them. Have fun.” He smiled at Travis and nodded, because his brother needed to go out, and he needed the encouragement.

  “What if—?”

  “Nope,” Russ said. “Now where are your keys?”

  Travis patted his pockets, panic filling his face. “Shoot. I must’ve left them upstairs.” He bolted back that way, and Russ shook his head.

  “Don’t give him grief over this,” he said to the other two brothers. Rex held up both hands as if surrendering, and Griffin wandered back into the kitchen. Travis came back downstairs, his keys in his hand, and Russ said, “Have fun.”

  Travis said nothing as he left, and Russ chuckled and turned around. “I hope he calms down and has fun.”

  “He will,” Rex said. “Travis gets along great with Millie. They’ll be fine.”

  Russ nodded, wishing he was the one going out tonight. He didn’t realize Rex had left until he brought him a piece of pizza from the kitchen. How much time did he lose thinking about Janelle?

  “What about you and Janelle?” Rex asked, lifting his new piece of pizza to his lips. His eyes were sparkling, like he wanted all the dirt on the painful break-up. His half-smile said he’d definitely tease Russ, who wasn’t in the mood.

  “There’s nothing about me and Janelle,” Russ said.

  “You like her though, right?”

  “Of course I like her,” Russ said, his voice growing as loud as Rex’s. “I like her a whole lot. But what am I supposed to do? Drive over to her house and beg her to go out with me? She won’t talk to me, Rex. She doesn’t want me in her life. So liking her is irrelevant, isn’t it?”

  Rex lowered the pizza and stared. “I’m sorry, bro,” he said, really quiet.

  All the fight left Russ, and his shoulders slumped as the air whooshed out of his lungs. “Me too. Sorry, none of that was fair.”

  “I get it,” Rex said. “No explanation needed.” He fell back a step. “But if you like her as much as you say you do, she probably likes you too.”

  “Knock, knock?” a woman said, and Russ spun toward the front door. It started to open, which meant it hadn’t been latched all the way.

  How much had Janelle heard?

  Humiliation filled Russ, and he turned back to Rex, but he was gone. At least his brother had done one thing right that night. He’d brought dinner too, so Russ would give him two points.

  “Janelle,” he said, her name scratching in his throat. “What are you doing here?”

  Chapter Two

  Janelle couldn’t believe she had the courage to be standing on Russ’s front porch. She also couldn’t believe she’d heard his entire conversation with his brother.

  “Janelle?” Russ said again, and she blinked.

  “Yeah—yes,” she said, clearing her throat. Her heart had been pounding for a solid hour, and she just wanted to calm down.

  He came closer, and it was so unfair that he was so tall, with such broad shoulders, and that caring glint in his dark eyes. Janelle had always loved his eyes, from the very first moment she’d sat down across from him at the speed dating event during Chestnut Springs’ Octoberfest.

  “You have another dog with you,” he said, looking down at the mutt panting at her feet.

  “Yeah, uh…” She’d maybe used the dog to get herself out to the ranch. Somehow, she could deal with cheating husbands and angry wives as they became exes. She could argue for the rights of one of those parents in court until she got what she wanted. She owned and ran the biggest family law practice in the country.

  And Russ Johnson made her heart flutter and her nerves fray. He could also make her laugh faster than anyone else, and the man kissed her like she was worth something, and Janelle had been miserable for almost a week now.

  “Look,” she said, brushing her loose hair out of her eyes. “Someone brought the dog over, and they brought him to me, because they thought we were together.”

  Russ started nodding, the pain etched right on his face. He ducked his head, that dark gray cowboy hat hiding his eyes. She hadn’t meant to hurt him, and she wanted to tell him she was miserable too. “And I brought him over here, because I want us to be together.”

  I like her a whole lot.

  Janelle knew Russ liked her. When she’d called him to say she wanted to take a break, he’d gone silent. He accepted what she said, and she liked that he didn’t argue back. Her ex would’ve argued back. In fact, she’d taken Henry back three times because of his excellent argumentative skills.

  She never should’ve married another lawyer.

  “You want us to be together,” Russ said, lifting his eyes to hers. “You know what you’re saying, right?”

  “Yes,” Janelle said. “And I told you last week, I just wanted a break. It wasn’t a full break-up.”

  “No, what you said was that you didn’t want me to meet your daughters.” He held up one hand. “Which I’m fine with, sweetheart. Honest.”

  “It’s not fair for you to call me sweetheart,” she said, teasing him now. And he knew it.

  “It’s just me,” he said, saying what he’d always said. “And when you meet my momma—”

  “I know, I know,” Janelle said, smiling. “She’ll call me baby and sugar and sweetheart too.”

  Russ bent down and picked up the leash Janelle had put around the dog’s neck. “I’ll take him out to the enclosure, but I don’t know where we’re going to put him. We’ve got at least eight more dogs than we can house.”

  Janelle saw another opportunity zooming toward her, and she snatched at it. “I could take some,” she said.

  Russ’s eyebrows went up, and she desperately wanted to swipe that cowboy hat from his head and kiss him. She licked her lips instead, her fantasies going down a path she couldn’t follow. At least right now.

  “You could take some?” Russ repeated. “Where are you going to put them?” He leaned in the doorway, easily the sexiest man alive in that moment.

  “I have an old stable in my backyard,” she said. “Maybe you could come help me fix it up, and I could probably put six or seven dogs back there.”

  Russ considered her, the corners of his mouth twitching up.

  “What?” she asked, smiling at him.

  “Do you know what to feed a dog?” he asked. “Or how often they need to go out? Or any of that?”

  “No,” she said. “That’s why my awesome, handsome cowboy boyfriend will come help me…and the girls.”

  Russ’s eyebrows went all the way up, and he folded his arms. She loved that he stayed silent during key moments, because the mystery of what he was thinking was hot.

  “I get to meet the girls?” he asked.

  “That’s what you want, isn’t it?” Janelle wanted that too. She was just overprotective of Kelly and Kadence.

  “No, Janelle,”
he said, oh so soft and oh so sexy. “I don’t know what you did or didn’t hear. But I’m pretty sure it’s obvious that what I want…is you.”

  The air left Janelle’s lungs, because Russ Johnson always knew what to say and how to say it. Her fingers twitched toward his cowboy hat, and Russ chuckled.

  “I saw that.” His eyes twinkled like stars, and he took off his own cowboy hat this time. Janelle slipped one hand along the waistband of his jeans, his body heat so welcome. He enveloped her in an embrace, pressing his cowboy hat to her back.

  “Russ,” she whispered. “I like you a whole lot too.”

  “So you heard everything.”

  “I need to go slow,” she said, closing her eyes and tipping her head back, an open invitation for him to kiss her.

  “I know that, baby,” he said, sliding his fingers around the back of her neck and into her hair. His lips touched hers in the next moment, and kissing Russ was like coming home. He took his time like he’d really missed her, and Janelle knew that he had. She hoped he could feel that she’d missed him too, and that she was sorry she’d freaked out about him meeting her kids.

  The following afternoon, she picked the girls up from school and said, “Okay, we have a new project.”

  “Another one?” Kelly asked, adjusting her backpack between her feet. “Mama, we’re still making the brownies tonight, right?”

  “Yes, yes,” Janelle said, smiling at her oldest. “Chocolate and caramel swirl.”

  Kelly smiled. “So what’s the new project?”

  “It has to do with that dog someone brought over last night.” Janelle made the left turn out of the school pick-up lane.

  “You took it over to the ranch,” Kelly said. “And then brought it back.”

  “They don’t have room over there, and I told Russ we could put a few dogs in our stable. So we need to get it cleaned up for them.” Janelle knew seven was more than “a few,” but she didn’t want to think too long about it. Otherwise, she’d wonder how she was going to keep them all happy and fed.