by Liz Isaacson
The moment she finished speaking, the chilling, distinct wail of the tornado siren filled the air.
She ran after Callie, who handed her a grease pen and a handful of fly masks. “Put our phone number on their sides. Put on the fly mask, and we’ll set them in the pasture.”
They didn’t have the hurricane clips or reinforced beams needed to tether the horses securely in the barn, and their horses were used to roaming in pastures.
“Maybe it’ll go north,” Callie said, her voice panicked. “Like that last one.”
The last tornado had been over two years ago, and it had indeed turned north before inflicting too much damage on Three Rivers. She handed Simone the same items she had Evelyn, and the sisters got to work.
“We have to go next door, too,” Callie said. “We’ll put our number on the animals at Fox Hill for the new owner.”
“Who is it?” Evelyn asked, glancing east though she couldn’t see more than five feet in either direction. Even Callie’s voice coming through the swirling dirt and dust felt eerie and otherworldly.
“Some guy,” Callie said vaguely, which meant she didn’t know either. “Last name’s Walker, I think. Mason texted a couple of days ago and said he’d be here this week, and that we could turn the keys over to him then.”
Mason Martin had lived and cultivated Fox Hill Ranch next door for years and years before deciding to up and move to Hawaii, of all places. He’d put the ranch up for sale, and contracted with the sisters to take care of the few animals he’d left behind. He had a staff of four still on the premises too, and Evelyn wondered why they couldn’t take care of their own horses.
“What about Orion?” she asked. “Can’t he turn the horses out to pasture over there?” It was at least a half-mile to Fox Hill, though their properties touched one another along a fence line on the east side of the ranch. Evelyn did not want to get caught out in the storm.
“They went into town this morning,” Callie said, finishing with her last horse, smacking it on the flank and saying, “Go on. Stay safe.”
With their own livestock numbered and protected as much as possible, the three sisters piled into Callie’s pickup truck and rumbled down the road. If anything, the wind blew stronger at Fox Hill, but Evelyn kept her head down and her fingers moving as she marked the eight horses Mason had left behind.
He also had two pigs, six goats, and a whole herd of chickens. The tornado would likely pick them up and carry them off, and she certainly didn’t know how to hold one long enough to write a phone number on feathers.
With all the animals marked that could be, Callie shouted, “We have to go inside!”
Exactly what Evelyn didn’t want to do. But one look at the sky, and she knew she didn’t have a choice. Panic filled her, though she’d lived through tornadoes before. They weren’t super common in this area of Texas, but she’d had enough experience with them to know what to do in the case of an emergency.
“Where’s Daddy?” Simone asked.
“He’s with Granny,” Callie yelled, holding her hat on her head as she ran for the back door of Mason’s homestead.
It felt strangely quiet inside, with the three of them panting as they sucked at air that finally wasn’t filled with debris.
“Come on,” Callie said. “He’ll have a tornado shelter.”
Evelyn had been to Mason’s house several times, and she knew right where it was. As Callie turned to go down a hallway, she said, “It’s over here, guys. He showed it to me once.” She hated that she wasn’t in her own home, protecting it and herself.
But just inside the living room off the front door, she swept aside the rug and pointed to the hatch door there. “Goes down into a cement foundation.”
“Get in,” Callie said as glass broke somewhere in the house. The tornado might not strike Three Rivers directly, but this wind was definitely wicked and causing some real damage.
Evelyn went first and turned on the flashlight on her phone. Callie followed and did the same, with Simone bringing up the rear. No sooner had Simone closed the door above them and come down the steps did it open again.
Callie shone her flashlight on the man sliding down the steps, pure fear in every line on his face. “Who are you?” she asked as Evelyn swung her light onto him too.
He bore a strong jaw and dark eyes—exactly the kind of man Evelyn would be interested in. You know, if she wasn’t already dating someone.
The stranger drew in a deep breath and spoke in an even deeper voice. “I’m Rhett Walker. This is my ranch.” He dusted himself off with a pair of big hands and added, “You must be the Foster sisters from next door.”
“Guilty,” Callie said, lowering her light so it wasn’t shining right in Rhett’s face. But Evelyn couldn’t do the same. His good looks and bass voice seemed to have frozen her to the spot, and all she could do was stare while her heart pounded wildly in her chest.
“Can you stop shining that in my face?” he asked, his voice a touch colder than before, and Callie put her hand on Evelyn’s arm to make her put the phone down.
“So,” he said with only the soft glow on his features now. He was somehow sexier and more beautiful than in the harsh light, and Evelyn wondered where in the world all these thoughts and feelings were coming from. “I guess the tornado is welcoming me to the Texas Panhandle.” He laughed, and Simone and Callie joined him.
Evelyn simply reveled in the sound of his laughter, thinking that if she weren’t with Patrick, she’d definitely be setting herself up with one cowboy Rhett Walker.
Callie started to detail what they’d done for his animals and why they’d come in his house instead of theirs, and Evelyn shied behind her sister so she could continue to simply stare at her new next-door neighbor.
Ooh, a new cowboy next door, a tornado, and a huge crush… I can’t wait to see what will happen in this brand new series, set in one of my most beloved worlds - Three Rivers, Texas!
RHETT’S MAKE-BELIEVE MARRIAGE is coming soon! Preorder it now!
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Read More by Liz Isaacson
Want another cowboy billionaire in Coral Canyon? Of course you do! Stay tuned for Book 8 in the Christmas in Coral Canyon Romance series. Preorder HER COWBOY BILLIONAIRE BEST MAN today!
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Or CHARMING THE COWBOY, Book 2 in the Grape Seed Falls Romance series.
Want to find out more about Coral Canyon? Read about Sam and Bonnie’s romance in HER FAITHFUL COWBOY.
Read all the books in the Steeple Ridge Romance series.
Love small town western romance at Christmastime? Who doesn’t, right? Try CHEERING THE COWBOY, and travel to Texas Hill Country for Christmas!
About Liz
Liz Isaacson is a USA Today bestselling author and a Kindle All-Star Author. She is the author of the #1 bestselling Three Rivers Ranch Romance series, the #1 bestselling Horseshoe Home Ranch Romance series, the Brush Creek Brides series, the USA Today bestselling Steeple Ridge Romance series (Buttars Brothers novels), the Grape Seed Falls Romance series, the Christmas in Coral Canyon Romance series (Whittaker Brothers and Everett Sisters novels), the Quinn Valley Ranch Romance series, and the Last Chance Ranch Romance series.
She writes inspirational romance, usually set in Texas and Montana, or anywhere else horses and cowboys exist. She lives in Utah, where she teaches elementary school, taxis her daughter to dance several times a week, and eats a lot of Ferrero Rocher while writing.
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HER COWBOY BILLIONAIRE BEST MAN
Book Eight in the Christmas in Coral Canyon Romance series
by Liz Isaacson
Copyright © 2019 by Elana Johnson, writing as Liz Isaacson
Published by AEJ Creative Works
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Cover by Captiva Publishing
Interior Design by AEJ Creative Works
