The Rancher and the Baby

by Marie Ferrarella

  “Just for that,” Cassidy said, looking at her brother as she came forward to greet his family, “you don’t get to eat anything.”

  “I’ll have to reserve judgment on whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing,” Cody told her, then ducked as Cassidy took a swing at his arm.

  “Don’t listen to him,” Devon told her sister-in-law. “When’s dinner? We’re starved.”

  “We can start as soon as everyone’s here,” Connor told her.

  “Well, I’m here,” Cole declared, overhearing his older brother as he came down the stairs.

  Cody looked at Connor. “That’s everybody, right?”

  “Not quite,” Connor told him.

  “I thought you said this was strictly a family dinner,” Cody reminded his brother, looking toward Cassidy for an answer. “Who else is coming?”

  There was a knock on the door just then. “I think that’s your answer,” Connor told him. He was about to go open the door, but Cassidy managed to get ahead of him. With a smile, Connor dropped back.

  Cole and Cody exchanged glances, but neither had an answer for the other. Connor caught the look. “You’ll see,” he promised his brothers, a rather satisfied smile playing on his lips.

  The next moment he saw that both of his brothers appeared completely stunned when Will walked in across the threshold. They grew more so when they saw Will kiss their sister.

  Granted it was a quick kiss, but they both expected Cassidy to read their friend the riot act just before she punched him in the gut—but none of that happened.

  “What’s wrong with Cassidy?” Cole asked. The question was echoed by Cody.

  “Not a thing, boys,” Connor answered. “Not a thing.” He beckoned his family into the living room.

  “Why’s your camera set up?” Cody asked. The old-fashioned camera—a gift from Miss Joan—had recorded all their milestones over the years. Connor saw to that. But they hadn’t seen the camera out and mounted on its tripod since Cody and Devon’s wedding.

  “I thought it might be nice to get a family picture of all of us together,” Connor answered.

  Cody slanted a glance toward his sister, expecting some sort of a tirade, or at the very least a dismissal of Connor’s suggestion. While he and his brothers all thought of Will as family, Cassidy had made it clear that she thought of Will as the lowest form of lowlife.

  “Aren’t you going to say anything?” Cody asked his sister, mystified.

  “Yes,” she replied.

  “Finally,” Cody whispered to his wife.

  “I think that we should take the picture before we have dinner. That way, nobody has to worry about hiding a gravy stain or some other food that’s on your clothes—that’s not to say that I don’t appreciate you eating with gusto, because I do.”

  “Okay,” Cole cried. “What’s going on here? I feel like I’ve just fallen into some alternate universe or whatever they called it in those science-fiction movies Dad used to like to fall asleep to on late-night TV.”

  “Well,” Will began, “I was going to wait until everyone started opening their gifts, but maybe I should do this now.”

  “Do what now?” Cole asked impatiently.

  “You know what’s going on?” he asked Cody only to have Cody shake his head.

  “Do you?” Cole turned toward Connor.

  To his surprise, Connor nodded.

  Before Cole could quiz his older brother for an explanation, he heard Will say, “This was my grandmother’s, and she left it to me, saying that if I ever found that one special woman who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, I should give it to her.” He opened his hand then and held it up to Cassidy.

  A small, square-cut diamond ring was in the center of his palm, sparkling as it caught some of the lights coming from the Christmas tree.

  “So I’m giving it to you, Cassidy—if you’ll have it—and me.”

  Cassidy could barely suppress the grin that was fighting to take over her entire face. “Well, since you twisted my arm, I guess I can’t say no and embarrass you in front of your friends.”

  “Never stopped you before,” Cole quipped, still rather confused.

  “Shut up, Cole,” Cody chided, finally seeing the light. “You’re spoiling the moment.”

  “You’re wrong,” Cassidy told him as she held out her hand toward Will and he slipped the ring on the third finger of her left hand. “Nothing can spoil this moment.”

  Especially, she thought, since the ring fit.

  Several moments later, her eyes shining, she took her place beside Will who was holding their soon-to-be-adopted son. Her brothers, sister-in-law and niece flanked them on either side.

  Connor quickly set the timer on the camera, then darted back into place, instructing them to all say “Happiness!”

  It was a good word, Cassidy thought, leaning into Will, because she couldn’t remember ever feeling happier than she did right at this moment.

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss Marie Ferrarella’s next book,

  TWICE A HERO, ALWAYS HER MAN,

  coming in January 2017 from

  Harlequin Special Edition.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from A MONTANA CHRISTMAS REUNION by Roz Denny Fox.

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  A Montana Christmas Reunion

  by Roz Denny Fox

  Chapter One

  Jewell Hyatt considered herself fearless. But as she emerged from the airplane at Reagan National, for the first time ever setting foot east of the Missouri River, she was overwhelmed by the crush of people. She reminded herself she’d come to Washington, DC, to convince members of the Natural Resources Committee to authorize a refuge for snowy owls. Focusing, she merged with a stream of travelers rushing to the baggage area.

  Her good friend Tawana Whitefeather was supposed to come, too, but she had ended up needing emergency gallbladder surgery. Because it’d taken months to secure the meeting, Jewell had to come alone. She was the owls’ biggest advocate—starting at age ten when she’d found a chick with a broken leg who’d blown off course and she’d nursed it back to health.

  Oh, boy! If she thought traffic inside the airport was chaotic, driving her rental car in a virtual rabbit warren of whizzing vehicles gave her heartburn.

  It was with profound relief that she arrived in one piece at the hotel’s parking garage—thanks to her GPS.

  After collecting her bag, Jewell checked in.

  In her room at last, she toed off her shoes and flopped down
on the bed, grateful she had a whole night to unwind before the meeting. While it was the most important part of her trip, the meeting wasn’t her only mission. A client had asked her to make a side trip to Maryland to check a stallion and possibly ship sperm home. And fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on her wavering point of view, her closest neighbor had also begged her to hand-deliver a letter to his nephew, who was headlining a nearby country-western concert.

  Leland Conrad’s request had come as a shock. Given how long he and his nephew had been estranged, Jewell wouldn’t have thought he had any idea of Saxon’s performance schedule. Saxon had lost both of his parents in a car accident at age twelve. He’d been sent to live with his bachelor uncle, for whom he’d always seemed a burden. And he’d been Jewell’s first love.

  As memories crowded in, she surged to her feet to go hang a few items in the closet. If only Leland had let her women’s group buy his forest to use as an owl refuge, this entire trip would’ve been unnecessary.

  She sank down again, rubbing her temples. Knowing she was a scant few miles from where Saxon Conrad was due to perform made her head ache. But those counting on her to secure a refuge would expect her to be at the top of her game tomorrow instead of mooning over a lost love.

  Not lost. She had broken up with Saxon. It shouldn’t still affect her. But it did. Maybe seeing him onstage in all his trappings would let her purge him from her soul.

  * * *

  IN THE MORNING Jewell collected her notes and checked to be sure she had the credentials the committee had sent her to gain entry into the government building. Her contact recommended taking a cab, so she did.

  Once she gave the driver the address, Jewell brought up the weather. “It’s awfully cloudy. Is it supposed to rain?”

  The cabbie glanced at her. “Are you not tracking Althea’s progress?”

  “Who?”

  He laughed. “Our first named Atlantic storm of the season. It’s anybody’s guess where she’ll come ashore, or if she’ll be a hurricane. June’s early, but lately our weather’s been screwy.”

  “A hurricane?” Feeling like a parrot, Jewell ducked down for a better look at the murky sky. “I was planning to drive to Maryland this afternoon. Should I worry?”

  “Listen to advisories.” He pulled up to a guarded gate, indicating this was where she should get out.

  Rattled by the storm news, Jewell was almost too discombobulated to dig out her phone to take a photo of the Capitol to show her friends in Montana.

  A guard checked her pass and handed her off to an intern, who set Jewell at ease as they traversed corridors. Once inside the meeting room, she was surprised that instead of everyone being seated around one table, she sat alone facing three men and three women. They were elevated, making her feel a bit on trial. But one woman smiled and, following introductions, invited Jewell to state her case.

  “As I explained in emails, our ranch community was renamed for the snowy owls that migrated to our area. Everyone loves them. Local Native Americans adopted them as a talisman. The man who owns the timber I told you about has his property listed to sell. We worry a buyer may log off the trees, leaving our snowies homeless.”

  “We expected a tribal representative,” said a bespectacled man.

  Jewell quickly explained Tawana’s absence.

  “Sorry,” one of the men said. “But you seem to be the owl caretaker.”

  “Yes, I band chicks and keep a tally. Our owl numbers aren’t huge, and of course, the tundra is their normal habitat. I worry about decline.”

  Members discussed possible reasons, such as mining, logging, changing weather and food depletion, all of which Jewell knew. Then a representative who kept glancing at his watch said, “There’s a waterfowl preserve near you. Just relocate the owls.”

  “They settled of their own accord in abandoned eagles’ nests or atop boulders. The lake isn’t close. Like I said, the owner of the land where they live wants to sell. If you’d purchase that portion as a refuge, my friends and I will gladly maintain it.”

  The members glanced awkwardly at one another. The chairwoman closed her notebook. “I’m sorry, Dr. Hyatt. We thought your group had land. We post privately owned parcels or work with wildlife defenders who buy areas that we then make federal reserves.”

  “We have some funds. Far from enough to buy Conrad’s ranch. And he’s not inclined to divide his property for us. We hoped your leverage...” She didn’t finish as all the members shook their heads.

  “It’s too bad he won’t work with you,” a man said. Others rose and began leaving. The chairwoman waited. “I’ll have one of our wildlife biologists inspect your nesting site when he’s out west. We’re aware snowies are migrating and adapting. In fact, we’re following a group in Michigan. I’ll email you a list of birder groups to contact.” With that she opened the door and called the intern to escort Jewell out.

  Numb with disappointment, Jewell trudged out. Why hadn’t the person she’d emailed with told her this? It would’ve saved money and time spent on this useless trip.

  Out on the street she caught a cab. Frankly, she was so disheartened she wanted to catch the next flight home. But she’d promised Mark Watson she’d check the stallion. And while more than ever she’d prefer to skip Saxon’s concert, it was probably not the time to let Leland down.

  Not until after she changed into clothes suitable to visit the horse farm did Jewell remember her first cab driver’s warning about the weather. It was one o’clock. The sky looked the same. She took a moment to phone Tawana to share the bad news and see how her friend was doing.

  “I hope I’ll be released from the hospital tomorrow. Gosh, Jewell, I can hear how upset you are. When you return, let’s call the Artsy Ladies together and figure out a next step. Hey, I saw on TV that DC may get socked by a hurricane. Are you in danger?”

  “It’s not certain where or when the storm will land. Don’t worry.”

  “Okay, be careful.”

  Jewell said goodbye and turned on the TV as she donned her boots. A local station showed three places the storm might make landfall. But they said Althea had slowed and it’d probably be midnight before she came ashore.

  Jewell snagged her jean jacket, then hurried to the parking garage to reclaim her rental. She hadn’t driven far before she fervently wished for the wide-open spaces of home. However, once she reached Maryland, the countryside became awash with fields of lush grass and white rail fences, and she relaxed.

  But even with a GPS, she somehow got off on a wrong freeway and ended up in West Virginia. She had to stop and phone the owner of the horse farm. Thankfully, he provided her better directions.

  As it turned out, the owner and his wife were delightful. They had beautiful horses. Jewell had completed ordering the sperm sent to Mark when the owner mentioned the hurricane.

  “Montana gets a lot of wind and snow, but I’ve never been close to a hurricane.”

  The owner’s wife checked the weather on her cell phone and told Jewell the storm was spinning offshore. The couple assured her she’d have ample time to drive back to DC.

  Jewell didn’t volunteer that she was making a side trip about an hour away. Perhaps the storm warnings were telling her she should skip Saxon’s concert. But Leland had paid for her ticket.

  Stopped at a crossroad, Jewell studied the blustery sky. She didn’t know how much of the pewter color was due to the late hour and how much to an impending storm. She snapped on the radio. A woman said the hurricane had stalled. A man interrupted to say it had gathered strength. Nothing in their banter sounded so dire to Jewell that it would hurt her to swing by the town hosting the concert. If reports worsened, she could run in and give Leland’s letter to someone associated with Saxon and hurry back to her hotel.

  After meandering for another hour through horse country, Jewell spott
ed the rustic theater advertising Saxon’s concert on its marquee.

  Not detecting any change in the weather, she paid to park in a lot a block away but didn’t immediately get out. Her stomach churned at the prospect of seeing Saxon. Probably it was good that she’d skipped lunch.

  Even now she had trouble understanding how she and Saxon had gone from best friends to lovers to virtual strangers. She’d followed his career for a while, until she began to see him paired with a pretty blonde singer. Only then did she date. She had even briefly been engaged to the son of a local rancher. But there was no spark, so she’d returned his ring.

  Gripping the steering wheel, she hung on tight. From the time Saxon arrived in Snowy Owl Crossing, they’d been inseparable. She was his shoulder to lean on. He and his uncle constantly clashed. She always took Saxon’s side. And he had spent every minute he could at her home. It was where he developed a love of music. Her dad had owned a guitar. Saxon spotted it and spent hours teaching himself to play, often missing chores his uncle gave him.

  Jewell had always had a crush on Saxon. She’d been the one to first convince him to play and sing for friends. Later she found him gigs at county fairs and rodeos—anything to keep him in her sphere and give him a break from Leland’s nagging him to knuckle down on the ranch.

  Looking back with more clarity than she’d had when they’d split, Jewell realized it shouldn’t have shocked her to learn near college graduation that nothing on earth could entice Saxon to return to his uncle’s. Not even her.

  Maybe if she hadn’t been so single-minded, so deep in her own studies and plans for the future, she’d have anticipated how it’d end when he left agriculture and switched to a music track.

  The awful truth didn’t register until he announced that he was going to Nashville. He assumed she’d go along to support him. He even said once he signed with a label, she could enroll in vet school in Tennessee. But Nashville wasn’t Snowy Owl Crossing, and Tennessee wasn’t Montana. Looking back, she saw it was obvious their love hadn’t been strong enough.