Harlequin American Romance October 2013 Bundle: Twins Under the Christmas TreeBig Sky ChristmasHer Wyoming HeroA Rancher's Christmas

by Marin Thomas

  “I love it!” she announced once they were inside. “Yellow and white are my favorite colors. This place is charming, Mr. Livingston. We’re going to be so happy here, aren’t we, Andy?”

  Ross didn’t expect him to answer, and the boy didn’t disappoint him.

  “There are two bedrooms.” They followed him past the front room to the hallway. “The bathroom is behind that door. Which room would you like, Andy?” One room had a queen-size bed, the other contained twin beds.

  “I guess that one.” He meant the one on the right with the two beds.

  “Good.” Ross set down the case.

  His mother joined them and lowered her case to the floor. “This cozy room will be perfect for both of us. We’ll figure everything out later. Let’s go check out the snacks.”

  Andy put the other suitcase down and gave his mother a startled glance before they all moved to the other room. “We’re going to sleep in the same room?”

  “Why not? We don’t ever get to do it at home. I think it will be fun. We’ll read stories to each other.” She walked over to the table near the minifridge. “What’s in these little pouches?”

  “Pine nuts gathered on the ranch.”

  She smiled at Ross before putting a couple in her mouth. “Umm...nummy. Here, honey. Try some. Put out your hand.” When Andy did her bidding, she poured a few in his palm, then she turned to Ross. “What about you?”

  How could he say no? He didn’t like admitting it, but she had a disarming way about her. “Thank you.” He tossed back a few. “Just so you know, the maids come in daily to do housekeeping. If you need wash done, put it in the laundry bag hanging on the bathroom door and they’ll return your clothes before evening.”

  “Talk about being pampered,” she murmured. Just as he was thinking what a statement for her to make when you considered her background, her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket to check the caller ID. It wiped the smile from her face.

  “Excuse me. I need to answer this.” She clicked on and said hello. After a minute she said, “I planned to call you, but we just walked in our cabin with Mr. Livingston.”

  Another pause, then, “Yes. He’s right here.” She called to Andy, who was looking in the minifridge. “Your grandfather wants to talk to you.”

  “Do I have to?” he grumbled.

  “I think you better.”

  Andy didn’t look happy about it, but he walked over and reached for the phone. “Hello?” There was more silence before he said, “It’s a nice ranch. I guess we’ll be going riding. Mr. Livingston’s going to take us.” Whether that explanation was meant to satisfy his grandfather on some level or whether the idea of it actually sounded interesting to Andy, Ross didn’t know yet.

  “I’ll be careful, but I’ve got to go now.” Another pause. “I will.” He hung up and whispered something to his mom.

  Mother and son needed to be alone. Ross eyed them. “If you’ll forgive me, I have an errand to run before dinner.” Because of the smoke in the air he needed to take his medicine. “The dining room will be open in an hour. Shall I come by for you in the Jeep, or would you like to walk and meet me there? We’ll discuss an itinerary for you while we eat.”

  “Oh, walk! Definitely.” She escorted him to the door where he stepped out on the porch. “Thank you for everything, Mr. Livingston.”

  He detected a catch in her voice. His little talk to Andy would have affected her, too. She’d lost her husband, yet was trying to remain upbeat for her son. Ross admired that. Somehow her emotion had gotten under his skin. Facing her he said, “You’re welcome, Mrs. Wentworth. Call me Ross.”

  “I’m Kit.”

  His brows lifted. “Is that your given name?”

  “No. I was named Kathryn, but the grandmother who raised me after my parents died called me Kit and it stuck.”

  Ross liked it. She was the antithesis of the woman he’d been expecting once he’d known her background. Despite his initial misgivings, there were a dozen questions he wanted to ask, but this wasn’t the time.

  “I’m sorry about Andy,” she said in a quiet voice.

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s been going through a bad time and knows better than to whisper in front of company. My father-in-law wants me to call him before I go to bed, that’s all.”

  She hadn’t owed him an explanation. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll see you later then.” He climbed in the Jeep and took off without looking back.

  After parking at the rear of the main ranch house, he entered the back door and strode swiftly down the hall to the stairs. He kept his medicine in his bathroom on the second floor.

  “Hey, Ross?” At the sound of Willy’s voice he swung around. “I saw you drive up when I was outside. You had a phone call that sounded important, if you know what I mean.” He handed him a piece of paper with a phone number on it with a wink.

  Ross was afraid he did. “Thanks.” He took the stairs two at a time. When he reached the bedroom, he medicated himself and then lay down on the bed to find out who’d called him. It was Cindy. He needed to put an end to her hopes. She answered on the second ring.

  “Hey, cowboy. Am I going to see you tonight?”

  Cindy Lawrence had been a lot of fun, but the hungry kiss she’d given Ross last night had offered too much. He should have enjoyed it. The beautiful moonlit night, unusually warm, should have worked its magic. But if Ross hadn’t known on the bar’s dance floor that it would be the one and only hour he spent with her, he knew it now.

  He’d made the mistake of asking the flirtatious waitress to do some line dancing with him because he hadn’t wanted to go back to the ranch house last night until he was ready to crash. The upstairs of the house was too empty.

  “Much as I’d like to drop in tonight, I won’t be able to,” he said, trying to let her down gently. “A new family of a fallen marine just arrived in Jackson this afternoon. They’re our guests on the dude ranch for a while and I’m in charge. Thanks for the dancing. It was fun.”

  The eagerness faded from her voice. “In other words you’re not coming back anytime soon.”

  No. The attraction simply wasn’t there. He’d been with a lot of women since coming to Wyoming, but so far all his relationships had been fleeting. “You never know. It’s a busy time on the ranch. See you around, Cindy.”

  Without wasting any more time, Ross phoned the oil company he’d been researching and arranged for a meeting on Monday out at the site. Then he hung up and set his watch alarm. The medicine was working on him, making him drowsy. He closed his eyes, realizing that when he was awakened in an hour, he’d be seeing Kit Wentworth again. The thought shouldn’t matter to him, but somehow it did.

  * * *

  KIT WATCHED HER son go through the DVDs in the entertainment center. “Have you seen a movie you’d like to watch?” She got up from the kitchen table with a granola bar in her hand to look through the stack with him. The luxury of them being free like this had already gone to her head.

  “How about Up? I know you haven’t seen that one.” The grandparents had his life so regimented, he rarely found time to watch TV or films.

  “No. That’s a dumb kid’s movie.”

  “Dumb” had made up most of his vocabulary since he’d found out they were coming to the ranch. Kit had hoped a new adventure might put him in a little happier mood. But it was possible the few friends his grandparents allowed him to play with had said something negative about going to a dude ranch and he was only echoing their comments.

  Kit’s eyes took in the attractive surroundings. All the comforts of home were included in this small rectangular log cabin: a table and minifridge, a couch and upholstered chairs in front of the fireplace. After living in the Wentworth mausoleum, she loved its rustic simplicity and the lightness of the decor.
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  Everything a person needed was right here, reminding her of the tiny home she’d once lived in with her grandmother in Point Judith, Rhode Island, where she’d been happy. It was there she’d met Winn.

  The Blue Attic Book Shop where she’d worked had an outdoor display of discounted books. She’d been busy taking them all inside when Winn had walked by and begun chatting her up. He’d taken out one of the family yachts from Bar Harbor and had sailed down the coast with his friends. They’d pulled in at Point Judith to eat dinner. But he hadn’t told her that information at the time and had only explained he and some buddies had been out sailing.

  Kit had fallen hard for him and they’d married soon after. He’d taken his nineteen-year-old bride home to meet his family in Maine. They’d ended up living there in a controlling world of wealth and privilege she grew to detest.

  It devastated her that the twenty-two-year-old man with the sun-kissed blond hair, smiling eyes and dark tan she’d fallen in love with had changed so much after they’d exchanged vows. Once under his parents’ thumb, nothing she’d done had been right. The way she’d looked and behaved hadn’t satisfied him.

  In an effort to please him, she’d transformed herself into the woman he’d seemed to want, a style maven like his mother Florence, or his two older married sisters, Corinne and Sybil, who considered themselves the original aristocrats of Bar Harbor. Still, Kit had never fit in.

  After Andy had been born, Winn hadn’t shown as much interest in her except when they’d gone to the family’s various exclusive clubs where they’d been seen in public. Then it had all been show. They’d grown so far apart, she’d begged for them to get a home of their own. His sisters and their husbands had their own homes. But Winn had told her there was no reason for them to move when they were living in the mansion and offered every luxury.

  The years had gone by—empty years for her. Winn’s long deployments in the military had driven them further apart. When she’d found the courage to tell him she wanted a divorce, he’d told her the Wentworths didn’t divorce. If she filed, she’d lose Andy because he wouldn’t let her take him anywhere.

  As a member of the family now, she had the responsibility of carrying on as his wife and widow. The man she’d married had disappeared, never to return. The best part of him, the part she preferred to remember, lived in Andy.

  But her son’s life had been strung out with long periods of waiting for his father to come home on leave. Even when he came, they hadn’t spent enough quality time together because his parents had had other plans for him. For the long months in between visits, Andy had been expected to mind his grandparents who ruled his life.

  She’d cried herself to sleep at night for years worrying about her darling son. Though he would be good-looking like Winn when he was grown, it wouldn’t be long before he turned into a clone of his rigid grandfather.

  Kit had kept her demons hidden from Andy the best she could, but now that they were here, she would have the conversation with him she’d been waiting for since Winn’s death. Maybe tomorrow or the next day when he’d had a good sleep and was more relaxed.

  She went in the bedroom to open one of the suitcases. After gathering up some items, she put them on the bedside table in their room. Besides a pocket radio, there was a photograph of Winn and another of her grandmother. She carried some treasured books to the living room. Kit planned to read aloud to Andy if he’d let her.

  Once that was done, she went to the bathroom to brush her hair. When she came out she said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Let’s walk to the ranch house.” He mumbled something and went out the door. She followed with the cabin card key Mr. Livingston had left on the table and made sure the place was locked before starting off.

  The magnificent Tetons were right there in her vision, stunning her with their beauty. They headed for the fabulous ranch house in the distance. She was reminded of one like it on the cover of one of her favorite Louis L’Amour Western novels. That was among the books she’d packed for this trip.

  Kit had loved books in her early teens and had grown into a voracious reader. Her grandmother had gotten her hooked on all kinds of fiction, especially Westerns. One of the rooms in the house she’d rented had been turned into a virtual library.

  After her grandmother died, Kit had kept a few favorites and donated the rest to the bookshop where she’d worked. The owner had allowed her to establish a lending library with the understanding that Kit would take the collection back when she had her own place. Winn didn’t want them at the mansion. It almost killed her when last year she’d found out the shop had been sold and turned into a restaurant. All those precious books were gone....

  Just seeing the ranch house with the pines clustered around the side brought back fond memories for the girl who’d grown up on the cape of Point Judith with her sweet grandmother and her books. But besides horses, this Western scene included the Jeep and all sorts of modern vehicles that must have belonged to the staff.

  They followed some other guests inside and entered a large foyer. The mid-twenties guy behind the front desk flashed her a friendly smile loaded with a lot of male interest, the flattering kind. “Hi! Can I help you?”

  “Yes. I’m Kit Wentworth, and this is my son, Andy. Mr. Livingston told us to meet him here for dinner.”

  His eyes widened. “You’re our special guests from Maine?”

  She smiled. “That’s right.”

  “Welcome to the ranch. Here’s another card key so you can both have access to your cabin.”

  “Thank you.” She handed it to Andy, who looked surprised before putting it in the pocket of his shorts. “We’re very grateful to have been invited.”

  “I guess you haven’t had the grand tour.”

  “Not yet.”

  “The dining room’s right through the great room across the foyer. There’s a games room at the other end, and beyond the doors you’ll come to a swimming pool with a lifeguard on duty. Go ahead and look around. I’m sure he’ll be along shortly.”

  “Thanks so much.”

  They walked through the next room past the massive fireplace and into the dining room filled with the regular dude ranch guests, many in Western gear. One of the first things on her list was to buy them some fun cowboy stuff so they’d fit in around here.

  Andy looked up. “They’ve got wagon wheels for lights!”

  Her gaze went to the vaulted ceiling. “These are the kind of chandeliers I prefer any day. Pretty cool, don’t you think?” Red-and-white checkered cloths covered the tables. She liked the yellow-and-white daisy centerpieces that reminded her of their cabin’s colors.

  “I guess.” Though he played it down, the fact that he’d noticed gave her hope he was starting to thaw a little at having to be here.

  She found them an empty table over on one side of the room. They each took a menu and studied it. “What do you think you want, honey?”

  “A hamburger?” Hamburgers weren’t on the menu at the Wentworth mansion. She had come to dread their five-course meals where the inevitable question-and-answer period lasted at least an hour. She knew Andy hated the length of time they had to stay at the table.

  “That sounds good to me, too, with lots of French fries. Shall we splurge and get chocolate malts for dessert?”

  “Can we?”

  Why not? This was a night of celebration. “We can have anything we want here.” She eyed him with concern. “This dude ranch isn’t turning out to be such a bad place. Right?”

  He looked away without answering, but when the friendly waitress came over, he gave her his order instead of just sitting there silently. This was the Andy she needed to see come back.

  “How are you feeling by now? I know that medicine made you feel kind of strange.”

  “I hate the way it makes me so sleepy.”

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nbsp; “I know, but at least it kept you from throwing up.”

  Before long the waitress returned with their food. He swallowed his in no time. It was surprising to her, considering he hadn’t shown much appetite on the cruise. She was only halfway through her meal but could tell he was already restless. Who wouldn’t be after their long flights?

  “While I finish eating, why don’t you go have a look around? The man at the desk mentioned a games room and swimming pool.”

  “You mean you’ll let me?”

  His grandparents had kept him on a short leash. “Sure.”

  He eyed her in surprise. “Thanks.” Kit hadn’t heard that word from her son in a long, long time.

  Kit watched him dart away with more energy than she’d noticed in ages. Relieved to see him behave like a normal boy for a few minutes, she ate some more French fries and kept an eye out for her host. Just when she decided something must have detained him, she saw him walk through the door from the kitchen.

  His dark brown gaze panned the room. The male charisma oozing from him took her breath. Judging by the female guests in the room, they had the same reaction. Though there were quite a few men seated around, none of them affected her like Ross Livingston. Marine or cowboy, he seemed a breed apart.

  He still hadn’t seen her and started walking through the tables. As he drew closer, she called to him. His head turned in her direction. The second their eyes met, it grew into one of those moments when the world stood still for her. It was happening again. That awareness...

  Ross moved toward her. Without his cowboy hat, his head of wavy black hair and arresting male features pretty well dazed her. She wondered who the lucky woman was who’d captured this attractive man’s attention. There had to a woman, maybe a wife, even if he didn’t wear a ring, and she would be exceptional.

  “I’m sorry I was too late to eat with you. Business detained me.” He sounded disappointed.

  “Please don’t apologize for anything.” The pulse in her throat was throbbing so hard, she couldn’t finish the last bites of her meal.