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 Follow these two sisters as they make their
winter wishes...
Snowbound Cowboy by Patricia Thayer
Lone wolf Boone Gifford has spent years
standing on the outside. Now he's looking at Christmas -
through the window of beautiful Amelia's home. The snow
falls hard - the stranded family needs help. It's time for
the cowboy to step inside.
A Bride for Rocking H Ranch by Donna Alward
Kelley is rancher, housekeeper, doting sister
to Amelia, granddaughter and aunt - and the stress of preparing
the perfect Christmas at Rocking H ranch is getting to her.
But distraction soon arrives in the form of delectable chef Mack
Dennison...
Excerpt
“Dammit!”
Kelley dropped the pan on
to the stove top, fanning away smoke as she sucked on her burnt
finger.
The puffs were ruined,
completely ruined. She took off the oven mitt and went to the
window, pushing it open a crack and letting the cold air in and
the acrid smell out. She’d picked up the rest of the
ingredients on Mack’s list and taken them back to the motel
thinking a trial run would help her put in some time while the
storm blew outside.
Only there’d been a flaw in her
plan. The one aluminum baking sheet in the kitchenette cupboard
now appeared charred beyond repair. The tops of the phyllo
puffs were burnt. And several of the pastry sheets lay shredded
on the small countertop amid a mess of prosciutto, parmesan,
asparagus and Mack’s dill seasoning. The mess was held together
by bits of greasy melted butter that hadn’t behaved…perhaps
because she hadn’t had something the recipe called a pastry
brush. She’d tried using the curved end of a fork, but it had
made nothing but a mess.
She was in deep, deep
trouble. She pushed back a few strands of hair that had escaped
her braid. The recipe had sounded simple. If she couldn’t even
make a simple hors d’oeuvre, how could she expect to pull off a
whole dinner without burning down the house?
A knock sounded on the
motel door as she dumped the whole lot of ruined food in the
garbage. “Hello? Everyone okay in there?”
And the pan froze in her
hand.
Okay, so she was thinking
about Mack, and the way he’d held her hand longer than necessary
today. That was the only reason it sounded like his voice
outside.
She went to the door and
looked out the peep hole.
“Oh no,” she breathed, pressing
her hands to her cheeks and attempting to smooth her wild hair.
She looked a fright. It was Mack. His dark eyes were
flashing, his jaw taut as he lifted his hand to bang on the door
again. She jumped at the harsh contact of fist to wood, her
heart taking up a frantic hammering.
“Are you okay? I smelled
smoke!” She heard the urgent tone of his voice and had the
desperate thought he’d do something stupid like call 911 if she
didn’t answer.
“Hello? Answer me!”
Oh, hell!
What if he broke down
the door?
“Just a minute,” she
called, spinning in a frantic circle.
She opened the door, stood
firmly in the breach. Snow swirled around Mack’s head as his
shoulders hunched against the storm.
“Kelley?”
Busted. “What in the
world are you doing here?” she demanded, attempting to look
defiant though her pulse was still pounding.
“I smelled smoke and was afraid
of a fire.” Without a how do you do, he pushed by her and into
the room. “Is everything okay?”
“Perfectly fine.”
She hated how the words came
out with a quaver at the end, or how his bursting past her sent
a spiral of fear from her head to the tip of her toes. Alone,
in a motel room, with a man she didn’t exactly know. Memories
rushed back, sharp as knives and she beat them aside angrily.
She was sick to death of them having the power.
“Is that awful smell asparagus
puffs?”
Humiliation made her want to
sink through the floor, and she had the thought that at least it
would provide an escape route. She instinctively shuffled
sideways so that she had the door directly behind her. “It
was. Definitely past tense.”
He coughed. “What did you cook
them with, a blow torch? At least I know you’re all right and
not setting the entire motel on fire.”
His obvious concern alleviated
a bit of panic she’d inevitably felt at his bursting in. “What
in the world are you doing here!”
He shook his head, sending
snowflakes sprinkling off his hair. “I’m staying next door.
Until my house is finished.”
“Your house?” What was he
talking about? He was living here? And building a house?
“You didn’t know?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“I thought the people in Rebel
Ridge kept the grapevine going better. Mabel Reese must be
slacking. I’m building a house out on the bluff.”
She refused to be charmed by
his reference to the town gossip who kept everyone in the know
whether they wanted to be or not. “And you’re here…” She went
to close the window and left the idea hanging, still aware that
if it came to it, she could reach the doorway first.
He smiled, popping the one
dimple most unfairly. “You mentioned a motel in the shop
today. I had no idea it was this one. Small world, huh?”
Too small to her mind.
Reviews
"...leave you with a very good feeling in your heart."
Pink Heart Society Reviews
"Alward's
tale has solid characterization and conflicts..."
Romantic Times Book Reviews
"If you only read one Christmas book this
year I would recommend this one." Reader
"...packed with emotion, tender romances,
alpha
heroes, believable
heroines, and touching story lines." Still Moments
Magazine
"It's absolutely charming...a truly fun
holiday read." Luann Morgan, Reading Frenzy
"Another beautiful story for the
Christmas season with lots of cold snowy blizzards and sweet
loving romance." Bitten By Paranormal Romance
From A Bride for Rocking H Ranch by Donna Alward
Harlequin Romance, November 2009
Copyright 2009 by Donna Alward
Cover art used with permission
This edition published by arrangement with
Harlequin Books S.A.
For more Romance information, surf to
http://www.eharlequin.com |
