Cowboy 12 Pack

by Cynthia D’Alba, Paige Tyler, Elle James, Donna Michaels, Shoshanna Evers, Randi Alexander, Cora Seton, Beth Williamson, Sabrina York, Sable Hunter, Lexi Post, Becky McGraw

  At least she’d come to know Claire and Ethan during that trip—the children Aria had never allowed her to meet during her lifetime. They’d known nothing about her, of course, or of her father, Edward. They’d been angry at first, but soon absolved her of their mother’s sins and welcomed her to the family.

  Her last few days in Montana had been some of the happiest she’d known—shot through with grief over Aria’s death. Ethan and his wife, Autumn, and Claire and her intended, Jamie Lassiter, lived on the Cruz ranch and were working together to build a guest ranch business. She’d also met Cab Johnson, county sheriff, and Rose Bellingham and Tracey Richards, who helped Autumn out with the inside chores.

  Most importantly, she’d met Rob Matheson, the handsomest cowboy in all Montana. The man who took her breath away. He’d grown up on the ranch next door to the Cruzes, and was fast friends with Ethan, Cab and Jamie.

  She wanted to go back to Chance Creek. She wanted a life like Ethan and Autumn’s—or Claire and Jamie’s. She wanted a husband, children on the way. She wanted her own business, too—a winery she controlled from top to bottom.

  Everyone else was getting exactly what they wanted.

  Why couldn’t she?

  “ROB, SHE’S HERE—she’ll be landing at the airport in a couple of minutes!” Claire Cruz called out of the window of her Honda Civic.

  She’d driven the long lane up to the Matheson house so fast she’d raised a trail of dust that must be visible for miles, Rob thought, startled out of his nap in the shade of the verandah. Unlike his brothers who’d leapt up from their father’s bizarre challenge raring to get to the next block of ranch chores, he’d decided to put his feet up for a while and think things through. The nap just kind of snuck up on him.

  Now he sat up straight, as alert as an eagle looking for prey. “Who’s here? What are you talking about?” Claire lived on the ranch next door and they’d grown up side-by-side like brother and sister. He’d never seen her this excited about anything. Her sleek, dark bob swung against her jaw as she leaned out the window and beckoned to him.

  “Morgan! She just arrived. She came early to surprise everyone. Hop in, you can ride with me!”

  Rob was off the porch in a flash. He hadn’t seen Morgan Tate in weeks, not since she’d flown back to Canada.

  “Why the hell didn’t she call me?” he demanded as he climbed into Claire’s teeny-tiny car, already wishing for the leg room of his Chevy truck. You’d think now that Claire was settling down with Jamie on the Cruz ranch she’d get herself a decent set of wheels.

  “Like I said, it’s supposed to be a surprise. I didn’t know how to lure you out to the airport without telling you, though. Hurry up. She’s waiting!”

  Excitement and desire tightened Rob’s gut. Morgan. Here in Chance Creek. More than two whole weeks early for Claire and Jamie’s wedding.

  “Last time I talked to her, she told me there was no way she could take any time off work. She said she could only come here for the weekend of the wedding,” he said, gazing out the window as Claire made a tight u-turn and headed back out the lane. Luckily it was only fifteen minutes to the airport. Ten, the way Claire was driving.

  “I think she was leading you on so she could surprise you better,” Claire said. She seemed thrilled at the prospect of seeing her half-sister. Which made sense. After Claire got over her initial shock and anger at finding her mother had a daughter she’d never told anyone about, Claire had embraced her sister, only to have her leave again. He wondered if the happiness on her face was mirrored on his own.

  “She’s going to help me with all the last minute details about the wedding,” she added.

  “You don’t get to hog her the whole time, though,” Rob said, comfortably. Two years older than him, Claire used to boss him around as much as she did Ethan when they were kids. Once he got bigger than her, however, he’d had his revenge through multiple practical jokes over the years. He never got tired of giving her a hard time.

  Still, he was happy for her and Jamie, and looked forward to their wedding, not the least because it meant that Morgan would be in town again.

  Except she was already here.

  Rob ran a hand through his hair and looked down at the jeans and t-shirt he wore. He’d worked all morning and he suddenly became aware how ripe he was. Hell, if he’d known Morgan was coming he’d have spiffed up a bit. Put on a fresh shirt at least.

  “She won’t mind your stink,” Claire said.

  “She won’t notice my stink under your stink,” Rob said, elbowing her. The car’s path wobbled.

  “Hey, watch it.” Claire got the Civic back under control and soon they were pulling into the airport parking lot. The Chance Creek Regional Airport had been refurbished a few years back and it sported a modern glass and granite façade.

  Inside, though, it still was the same pokey little terminal it had always been. She tugged him down the single long corridor to the point beyond which airport security blocked their way.

  “That’s her flight,” Claire called out, pointing to a line of people spilling into the building from an airplane boarding ramp. “We made it just in time.”

  Rob realized he hadn’t told anyone back at the ranch he was leaving. His father had asked him to sort out the equipment stored in the south stable this afternoon. Luckily it wasn’t an important job. If Holt was in some kind of all-fired hurry, he would have to find someone else to do it. With three brothers, there was always someone to fill in for him.

  He craned his neck as each passenger came through the entrance. Each time he was disappointed. Morgan must be sitting near the rear of the plane.

  The number of passengers slowed to a trickle and then stopped.

  “Where is she?” Rob demanded, turning on Claire. He caught her wide smile and his stomach sank.

  Damn it.

  “Got you! You should have seen your face when I said she was here,” Claire crowed. “Ooooh, Rob’s in love!”

  “Stow it,” Rob said, jamming his fists in his pockets and trying to restrain himself from picking Claire up, shoving her into a suitcase and sending her to Timbuktu.

  “Come on—you play jokes on other people all the time. What’s wrong? You can dish it out, but you can’t take it?” Claire danced around him, enjoying her triumph all too much.

  “If you don’t shut your trap, I’m going to dish something out,” Rob said, turning on his heel back the way they’d come. Claire’s laughter followed him. She was right, though; he had put many people in the same spot he was now. He was sure some day this would seem funny to him, too.

  But not now. He was aching for Morgan, and she was a thousand miles away.

  He stopped in his tracks when Ethan, Autumn, Claire, Jamie, Cab—hell, even Ned, Jake and Luke—appeared before him, all laughing fit to burst.

  What the hell?

  “Got it all on camera!” Ethan hollered, holding up the cell phone Rob knew Claire had bought him a couple of months back. Someone must have finally showed Ethan how to use it.

  “Very funny.” Okay, he could see why Ethan would want to film his humiliation—he’d made a movie of Ethan’s drunken rant about the qualities necessary for a ranch wife last spring, and posted it on the Internet as a wife-wanted ad. The movie had gone viral, and Autumn had been one of the women to answer the ad. She’d been all set to write a scathing article for the magazine she worked for about cowboys and their arrogance when she arrived in Montana. Instead, she and Ethan fell in love.

  He’d expected gratitude. Not retaliation.

  “Should we send it to Morgan? Show her how much you looooove her?” Jamie asked, knocking back his cowboy hat, the better see Rob. His dark hair was falling into his eyes as usual. A bit shorter than Rob and Ethan, Jamie’s model-good looks still caught the eye of every woman who walked by.

  Rob supposed he deserved that, too. After all, he had screwed up Jamie’s proposal to Claire with a well-timed practical joke, as well.

  “No—don’t get
her hopes up,” Claire chimed in. “Morgan deserves a real man. One who isn’t afraid of commitment.”

  “You mean a guy who can date a woman more than two weeks running?” Rose said, laughing like she knew all about it. Well, she did, didn’t she?

  Everyone did.

  “Has he ever dated anyone for two weeks running?” Cab said. The sheriff had way too much time on his hands if he could show up at the airport for this. Usually the large man held his peace, but this time he seemed all too happy to throw his lot in with the rest of these jokers.

  Everyone else laughed.

  Ethan looked the sheriff up and down. “Hey, I’ve got an idea, Cab. Why don’t you date Morgan? Get her to move to Montana for good. If Rob here keeps going after her, she’ll end up running away to Alaska or something.”

  Rob stiffened. Cab? Dating Morgan? “Hey!”

  They all ignored him. “Cab’s perfect,” Claire said, turning an appraising eye on the big man. “You’d be part of the family, then. You know, after the two of you got married.”

  Married? Cab and Morgan? Rob fought to keep his hands from clenching into fists.

  Cab appeared to consider this. “She’s awfully pretty,” he agreed. “Got a good head on her shoulders, too.”

  “Lay off!” Rob couldn’t keep his voice from rising.

  “Why—you getting serious about her?” Cab goaded him.

  “Serious? Rob?” Claire said. “That’ll be the day.”

  Feeling like an unbroken horse caught in a corral, Rob glared at all of them. “I can be serious.”

  Everybody laughed like he’d uttered a terrific joke. Damn it, wasn’t anyone going to back him up?

  He saw Autumn lingering behind Ethan. Despite her months on the Cruz ranch, she still stood out from the rest. Her long, brown hair and elfin face always made her look a little other-worldly. He knew from experience she didn’t like practical jokes—didn’t like it when people got laughed at—and now he understood why. It sucked being on the receiving end, didn’t it? Why had he ever become such a prankster?

  Well, he knew exactly why, didn’t he? To keep three older brothers off of his back. To keep everyone else from teasing him. He’d been different, once—too sensitive, too much of a dreamer—but that was a long time ago—a hell of a long time ago. No one messed with him now.

  Not usually.

  “I’m out of here,” he said, and stalked off down the hall toward the exit. He realized he didn’t even have his own truck to ride home in. Well, he’d be damned if he took a ride from one of his so-called friends. He hoped there’d be a cab out front when he reached the door.

  There was, thank God, and he climbed in and told the driver to take him to the Dancing Boot before anyone else reached the pavement.

  To hell with all of them. He could be serious. He could date a woman for more than two weeks.

  He just hadn’t tried it yet.

  MORGAN CLICKED THROUGH her text messages to find the one she’d received from the caterer that morning. Jillian Hodgeson was probably sick of her by now, but she was determined that the event scheduled for her vintage’s debut would go off without a hitch. Check and recheck every detail—that was her motto when she ran these affairs. So far it had paid off. Taking on this extra role at the winery was one of the things which brought her to the owner’s attention. Elliot Cassidy was a crusty old man whom she didn’t particularly like, but respected because of his position. His son, Duncan, was another matter. He was an ass.

  She paused when she spotted the text Claire had sent her earlier in the day. Asking her again what she knew about the way their mother had spent her money. Morgan pressed her lips together. She knew what Claire was after. Aria had blown through large amounts of the Cruz ranch’s profits, and when she and Alex died in a car accident the preceding August, Ethan and Claire had been left with a business seriously in debt. Only by taking on Jamie as a partner and turning the spread into a guest ranch had Ethan been able to refinance it and buy out Claire’s share. Claire was rich now, but she couldn’t let the mystery go: how had Aria spent all that money? Claire seemed sure her mother had blown it on Morgan.

  Morgan had already told her a hundred times that while Aria had taken her to restaurants and bought her clothes now and then when she came to visit, she had not underwritten her day-to-day upkeep—as a child or an adult.

  It must be galling to her siblings that Aria had siphoned so much money from the ranch, but it hurt her that Claire still blamed her for the loss of the cash—even if her texts were worded carefully, with plenty of assurances that she was just curious.

  The part where Claire asked for the dates of Aria’s visits really bothered her. She was afraid the dates she gave her wouldn’t add up. She had realized something in the weeks since she met her half-brother and sister. When Ethan and Claire talked about their mother’s yearly absences, they always talked about months.

  Aria never stayed in Victoria more than a month, however.

  Morgan could imagine how Ethan and Claire had felt when they learned their mother’s shopping sprees in Europe were really visits to a daughter in Canada they didn’t know she had. They must have felt betrayed—stabbed in the heart. It was a miracle they accepted her at all, let alone made friends with her, but their friendship meant more to her than she could ever express.

  What if there were more secrets to find out about Aria Cruz? What if those secrets tore her new, precious family apart? Claire seemed bent on doing that herself.

  What had Aria done with the rest of her time away from home? Had she actually gone to Europe and done some shopping?

  Maybe.

  Maybe not.

  It was the maybe not that left her cold. Morgan hugged her arms across her chest. Could she possibly have another half-brother or sister out there? Could one Montana girl leave a trail of children across a continent or two?

  In her darkest moments, that’s exactly what Morgan pictured. But no—that would require lengths of time away from home that Aria simply hadn’t spent. Claire said her year away during college was the only time Aria had been gone from Montana for so many months.

  So no other children. Probably.

  Morgan dropped a hand to her own flat stomach. No children for her, either. Claire had mentioned she and Jamie were thinking of trying for a child as soon as they got married. With Autumn already pregnant, Claire said she wanted to be sure their kids were of similar ages.

  “That makes it so much more fun, don’t you think?” she’d commented the last time they talked on the phone.

  Yes. She did think that would make it more fun. Too bad she was stuck a thousand miles away, with no husband in sight, let alone a child.

  Maybe she should say yes the next time Duncan hinted around about marriage.

  Shivering with disgust at the thought of marrying her boss’s son, she pulled her thoughts back to Chance Creek, the Cruz ranch, and Rob Matheson. Now there was someone she’d like to have a baby with. Tall, broad-shouldered, muscled in all the right places, with hands that set her skin on fire…

  She stifled a laugh. As if that would ever happen. Everyone she met in Chance Creek took her aside at one time or another to tell her Rob was bad news. A lady’s man with no desire to ever settle down. She’d told them all she could handle him, and she had. They’d made out a lot, but done nothing else. Every time he tried to take things further, she stopped him cold.

  No way she’d lose her heart to someone so entirely off limits.

  Except she kind of already had.

  She glanced back down at Claire’s text again, and resolutely clicked past it. Caterer. Party. Vintage.

  She had far too much work to do to think about anyone back in Chance Creek.

  “BUY ME A drink, cowboy?”

  Rob slid his gaze over to the curvy brunette who’d taken the stool next to his at the long, wooden bar in the Dancing Boot. He squinted a little. Georgette Harris, from the next town over. Where’d she work? The feed store, that was it.r />
  “I’m outta cash,” he lied. Truth was, he had a little money left in his pocket, but only enough to keep himself drunk tonight.

  “I’ll buy my own drink, then. Hope you don’t mind the company.” She smiled at him and leaned closer, all the better to flash him some cleavage.

  Pretty impressive cleavage.

  “Free country,” he mumbled. He’d already consumed a hefty amount of alcohol, but the sting of the afternoon’s confrontation at the airport was still sharp. Some friends. Not one of them had defended him. No respect at all.

  She laid a hand on his arm. “I’ve got the night off.”

  He frowned, trying to work that one out. The feed store wasn’t open past six. “Night off from what?”

  “From my boyfriend, silly. From Jessie—you know Jessie Henry.”

  Sure. Maybe. But he couldn’t bring the man’s face to mind.

  She leaned even closer, her breast brushing his arm as she whispered into his ear, “Thought I’d have a little fun while he’s out of town. You know what I mean?” She dropped a hand to his thigh.

  Yeah. He knew exactly what she meant. Rob straightened a little and eyed her speculatively. “Why pick me?” he asked, surprising himself. Why even bother asking? Why not take the gift he’d been handed and show the lady a heck of a good time like he usually would?

  “You won’t be no problem tomorrow,” Georgette said cheerfully. “Nor tonight. Some guys get squeamish about fooling around with another man’s girl. Not you. And I know I won’t get any phone calls next week wondering where I am. You’ll be too busy chasing after some other guy’s woman.”

  Wow. That was harsh. Suddenly he felt all too sober.

  “Guys like you are handy,” she said, as if sharing a confidence. “A girl can yank your chain, have her way with you, and kick you back into the closet when she’s done. You’re like a pair of high heels. Great now and then when you want a party, but useless for the day-to-day.”