by Maisey Yates
Praise for New York Times bestselling author Maisey Yates
“Yates’ new Gold Valley series begins with a sassy, romantic and sexy story about two characters whose chemistry is off the charts.”
—RT Book Reviews on Smooth-Talking Cowboy (Top Pick)
“Fans of Robyn Carr and RaeAnne Thayne will enjoy [Yates’s] small-town romance.”
—Booklist on Part Time Cowboy
“Passionate, energetic and jam-packed with personality.”
—USATODAY.com’s Happy Ever After blog on Part Time Cowboy
“[A] story with emotional depth, intense heartache and love that is hard fought for and eventually won.... This is a book readers will be telling their friends about.”
—RT Book Reviews on Brokedown Cowboy
“Yates’s thrilling seventh Copper Ridge contemporary proves that friendship can evolve into scintillating romance.... This is a surefire winner not to be missed.”
—Publishers Weekly on Slow Burn Cowboy (starred review)
“This fast-paced, sensual novel will leave readers believing in the healing power of love.”
—Publishers Weekly on Down Home Cowboy
Christmastime in Gold Valley, Oregon, means hot chocolate, snowy nights and one very sexy cowboy holiday surprise...
There’s only one thing Chloe Nolan wants for Christmas this year—and he wears a cowboy hat and is completely off-limits. When her mom married into the Reid family, Chloe found her calling, working with horses on the ranch. How could she risk that newfound stability by revealing her crush on her stepbrother, Tanner? But when Chloe and Tanner get snowed in on their way to a family gathering, it’s just the chance to extinguish the flame that’s been burning for too long. One night. One wish. One bed...
She’s the woman Tanner’s always wanted—and vowed he’d never touch. Yet when Chloe reveals her secret wish, all those years of pent-up longing erupt with life-changing force. Now it’s Tanner’s turn to take a risk, and turn one magical Christmas night into the beginning of forever...
Welcome to Gold Valley, Oregon, where the cowboys are tough to tame, until they meet the women who can lasso their heart.
Cowboy Christmas Blues (ebook novella)
Smooth-Talking Cowboy
Mail Order Cowboy (ebook novella)
Untamed Cowboy
Hard Riding Cowboy (ebook novella)
Good Time Cowboy
In Copper Ridge, Oregon, lasting love with a cowboy is only a happily-ever-after away. Don’t miss any of Maisey Yates’s Copper Ridge tales, available now!
From HQN Books
Shoulda Been a Cowboy (prequel novella)
Part Time Cowboy
Brokedown Cowboy
Bad News Cowboy
A Copper Ridge Christmas (ebook novella)
The Cowboy Way
Hometown Heartbreaker (ebook novella)
One Night Charmer
Tough Luck Hero
Last Chance Rebel
Slow Burn Cowboy
Down Home Cowboy
Wild Ride Cowboy
Christmastime Cowboy
From Harlequin Desire
Take Me, Cowboy
Hold Me, Cowboy
Seduce Me, Cowboy
Claim Me, Cowboy
Look for more Gold Valley books coming soon!
For more books by Maisey Yates, visit www.maiseyyates.com.
Snowed in with the Cowboy
Maisey Yates
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
EPILOGUE
EXCERPT FROM A TALL, DARK COWBOY CHRISTMAS BY MAISEY YATES
CHAPTER ONE
“WHAT DO YOU want for Christmas, Chloe?”
Chloe Nolan looked over at her stepbrother’s wife, who was busily loading food into the back of their SUV, and mentally scrolled through any number of possible—yet impossible—responses.
She was not going to say: for Tanner to realize that I am a woman and not a child, and for him to realize that I am his stepsister, and not his biological sister, and it actually wouldn’t be weird at all if the two of us were to maybe get together even if only for some physical action.
Also off the table was: to lose my virginity.
Probably equally as inappropriate as: a night of hot sex.
Something. Anything to deal with her Tanner feelings once and for all.
“I like candles,” she said finally.
Candles were innocuous. They were a great thing to ask for when you had everything you wanted in the whole world—a place to live on a beautiful ranch, a thriving business as a riding instructor—except the stepbrother you found unreasonably hot.
A scented candle could never a bad thing, she supposed.
“That’s impersonal,” Savannah said, closing the back of the SUV and looking down at her phone, obviously checking items off of a to-do list. “I don’t want to get you something impersonal. If I wanted to do that I would’ve gotten you shower gel and a loofah.”
“That’s a very practical gift,” Chloe pointed out.
“I don’t want practical!” Savannah said. “Practical is what you get yourself when you go into town. Gifts are not meant to be practical.”
Chloe didn’t tell her step-sister-in-law that gifts were also not meant to be mental chores for the people who were supposed to be receiving them. Savannah was far too nice for Chloe to say that. “Well, I don’t really know what I want.”
And what she wanted was off-limits anyway.
“All right, then I’ll have to surprise you. We are going to do a little shopping before we head up to the cabin. Are you going to ride with us?”
Chloe knew that us meant Jackson, Savannah and their toddler, Lily.
And as much as Chloe loved her niece, she was going to have to pass on sharing a car with the noisy creature.
“I’m going to head up later. Plus, I want to have my own car.”
“That’s probably a good idea. But I did hear that the weather is going to take a little bit of a turn.”
“They always say that,” Chloe said, waving a hand. “Endless forecasts of snowpocalypse this and that and the other, and you know it never happens. Much to the chagrin of people who would like to be skiing right about now. At best we’ll get some anemic frost. Maybe some hail.”
Savanna laughed. “True. In Colorado, when they promise snow, we listen. But I can see why you’re a little more lackadaisical about it here. Having spent a whole winter here last year I was disappointed bitterly in what you considered a white Christmas.”
“The grass was white,” Chloe pointed out.
“The song does not go, ‘Please have frost and mistletoe.’”
“Fair enough. But I bet there will be some snow up at the cabin we’re staying at. It’s at a higher elevation.”
“Here’s hoping. I’m sure Ava and Grace will be hoping for snow,” Savannah said, talking about their brand-new nieces. The youngest Reid brother, Calder, had recently married a single mom, and her two daughters—both teenagers—and their mom were the center of his world. “Though I so hope it stays contained to the mountain and not the roads.”
“It will be fine,” Chloe said.
> Their part of Oregon was so rarely buried underneath snow that Chloe wasn’t worried about it at all. It was a little bit of a drive from Gold Valley up to Granite Pass, but she figured that it would be fine. She might have to chain up when she got to the mountain road that she knew would carry them to the cabin that they’d rented for their big family Christmas, but that was no big deal.
The cabin rental was a plan thrown together by Jackson, Calder and their wives to do something special. Particularly for Calder, his new wife and stepchildren. It was their first Christmas as a family, and he really wanted to do something extra for the girls. Chloe wasn’t opposed. Especially since her mother was coming in from out of state for a visit. It would all be very nice.
A very nice Christmas of watching her stepbrothers happy and paired off. And watching the one that she’d had inappropriate feelings for since she was a child be resolutely single, and resolutely off-limits.
Which, in fairness, was nothing new. It honestly shouldn’t upset her. She should be used to it. She literally lived in the house with Tanner. They were in each other’s pockets all the time. Changing a venue shouldn’t bother her. And she shouldn’t be ruminating like she was.
She and Tanner didn’t spend all their time together or anything. They didn’t act like a family living together. They only ate dinners at the dining room table when the rest of the Reids came over. Otherwise, Chloe usually ate in her room before Tanner came in from working the ranch. He would microwave something for himself and eat in front of the TV.
Then she would often come out to graze for a while, and they’d exchange some words about the day, standing with the kitchen island between them.
They watched one TV show together, because they both liked it. Chloe always sat on the chair. Tanner always took the couch.
There were unspoken barriers between them, and both of them seemed to easily keep those in place. There wasn’t any tension between them. Not really.
But there were fences.
It was Christmas. That was the problem. It made everything feel just a little bit bittersweet.
The sparkle of magic felt just out of her reach.
Like it was always for someone else, and never for her.
Christmas had always felt like that to her growing up. At least, until they had come to live on the ranch, when her mother had married Tanner’s father. Here, she had actually found a sense of magic. Something that went beyond the vague disappointments her meager childhood had provided.
But then, that was part of the problem.
Her crush on Tanner was all about security, at the end of the day. Security and wanting what you couldn’t have.
They had moved on to the ranch, she had met him—the oldest, tallest and most handsome of all of her stepfather’s sons—and it had been love at first sight.
He had also been utterly and completely out of bounds when she had been twelve. Just like he was now.
She had never pined after anyone else. Not ever.
She imagined that much like making outlandish Christmas gifts when she was a little girl, before her mother had married Jim Reid, knowing she wouldn’t even receive one small thing, it was a way of protecting herself.
If you went bold, and you went crazy, and laughable, then you knew that you were never going to get your way at all.
She’d heard it said that you should shoot for the moon, so that even if you missed you landed among the stars.
As far as Chloe was concerned, it was better to fantasize about the moon, knowing there was no way in the world you could jump that high, than try to jump over a small fence and land on your face. Or something. It was maybe a clumsy metaphor. But it made enough sense to her.
“I just need to make sure the horses are squared away. I know that Jacob Dalton is going to do a decent job taking care of them, but I want everything in order.
“They’re horses,” Savannah said, laughing. “Not children.”
“Well, they’re all I have,” she pointed out.
Savannah cringed. “I didn’t mean to say it like that or make it seem like I thought they didn’t matter.”
“I didn’t think you were,” Chloe said, gently.
Savannah was so sweet, and such a wonderful addition to Jackson’s life. When he had unexpectedly found out he was a father, and had ended up raising his infant daughter on his own, he’d hired Savannah as a live-in nanny, and the two of them had fallen in love. As far as Chloe was concerned it was something out of a fairy tale. The kind she would have said didn’t exist if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes.
“Well, we’ll see you up there then. Calder, Lauren and the girls are already on the road. He didn’t have any confidence in their ability to get there quickly. Apparently there will be a lot of stopping. Shopping, views and bathrooms.”
Chloe laughed. “I’ll see you there.”
Jackson came out of the house then, cradling his daughter, Lily, in his arms. He shifted the little girl and waved. Lily copied him, waving a chubby hand until he set her in the car and began to buckle her into her car seat.
Chloe stood and watched as they drove off of the ranch property and headed down the highway.
She took a deep breath, trying to do something to ease the strange heaviness that she felt in her chest. She didn’t know why her more melancholy Christmas feelings were surfacing. Well, she wasn’t sure why particularly this year more than any other year. Unless she was really so small and petty that it was about everyone being paired off in a way that she wasn’t.
She hoped she wasn’t that small and petty. She really did.
She took a fortifying breath and turned, heading toward the barn, where the horses were. The horses were her pride and joy, the ultimate gift that her stepfather had given to her. A love of horses, and a knowledge of how to handle them. Something she never would have had if Jim Reid had never come into her life.
He had been imperfect, and she knew that. He was gruff, and it was difficult for him to show emotion. But she had always felt like he showed it with what he had. By giving out responsibility on the ranch that he loved, and entrusting his children, his sons and his stepdaughter, with the care of it.
She’d found her purpose on this ranch. Her calling.
Sure, it wasn’t the most lucrative career, giving riding lessons—mostly to children—but it was rewarding, and the ranch was set up in such a way that it was possible for all of the siblings to live there if they wanted to.
Of course, Calder had moved into his wife’s house, their brood of children too large for the cabin he once lived in.
And really, Chloe was supposed to be moving into his old place on the property so that she didn’t have to be in the main house with Tanner, who had that place simply because he was the oldest. But she just... Hadn’t. She had stayed, because while coexisting with Tanner wasn’t comfortable per se it was also...
She just liked to be near him. And as pathetic as that was, it was also undeniable.
She went over the detailed list of instructions that she was leaving behind for Jacob. She had already walked him around the place and given him a good look at the facility, but she had also made sure to leave as much direction behind as possible.
He would be taking care of the horses, but also the cattle that lived on the ranch. It was a rare and strange thing for the entire family to leave the property. In fact, they had never done it. Not in all the time that Chloe had lived there. It was a big thing. A marker of the changes that had occurred recently. And she wondered if perhaps that was partly why she was feeling a little bit strange.
Like things were moving faster than usual. Like it was all getting away from her, with everyone moving forward, and her standing still.
Tanner hasn’t changed...
Maybe not.
She sighed heavily. She needed some time to clear her head. She ignored the gat
hering clouds in the sky and decided to get her horse out of her stall. All of these strange emotions were nothing that a ride through the countryside wouldn’t fix.
She would do that and then she would head up and be as festive as anyone could possibly ask her to be.
And hopefully no one would realize that she was grappling with any kind of weird emotion.
Least of all the stepbrother who was causing them.
* * *
WHEN TANNER SAW that Chloe’s car was still parked in front of the ranch house he swore. He was hoping that Chloe would have already taken off. Hours ago, preferably, because if his much younger stepsister had, then none of this would be his problem. But he had just gotten a call from his brother Calder, who was already at the cabin a couple of hours away, and he’d informed him that the roads were ice covered. There was no way that Chloe was going to get up there in her little car.
And that meant that she had to ride with Tanner.
Of course, he lived with her, it wasn’t like he wasn’t exposed to her all the time. But that didn’t seem to help with the inappropriate attraction to her he’d been dealing with since she was about eighteen, and way too young for him to be looking at her that way.
He didn’t know when it had started, not exactly. It wasn’t as if he’d been struck with lightning one moment, but somehow she had gone from being something not quite a sister, but certainly not eligible, to being...a woman.
No. A lightning strike would have been easier.
He’d have been able to go back to the scene of that crime and do something about it. He’d have been able to get to the damn root of it all and tear it out, if it had been that simple.
It hadn’t been a moment. It had been a subtle build. Something about the way the light would catch her short, curly dark hair sometimes. Or a mischievous grin she would give him.
The way that her laugh rolled through his body and landed with that kind of exhilarating feel that he got when he rode horses and a strong breeze came through and took his breath away.
He’d done his best to ignore it. He really had. And then, one day she had bent over and he had looked. He had seen the way that her jeans cupped her perfectly rounded ass, and he hadn’t ever been able to lie to himself again about what those breathless moments between them were.
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