The Maverick's Midnight Proposal Read online

  Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?

  Rust Creek Ramblings

  Sighting confirmed! That handsome, brooding cowboy about town is Luke Stockton—Rust Creek Falls’s long-lost son. It’s been over a decade since his parents’ tragic deaths...and Luke’s sudden departure. Our guess is he’s here to reconnect with his estranged siblings. Why, then, is Luke spending so much time at Daisy’s Donut Shop? The coffee’s great but...

  Perhaps beautiful baker Eva Armstrong has him in her thrall! Careful, Eva, you’ve had enough heartbreak. Despite the sizzling kisses, Luke isn’t the marrying kind. Still, we encourage a little mistletoe mischief...after all, Christmas is the season of love. Perhaps Luke and Eva will “ring” in the New Year together. Get it? All we want for Christmas is a happily-ever-after!

  She shrugged. “When someone returns to town after a dozen years, people are bound to talk.”

  “No doubt,” Luke admitted, his tone grim.

  “All good stuff,” she told him.

  He lifted his mug, swallowed a mouthful of coffee. “It seems that you have me at a disadvantage.”

  “How so?”

  “You obviously know my name—and apparently a lot more—but I don’t know yours.”

  She touched a hand to the bib of her apron. “Oh. I forgot my name tag today,” she realized. “Eva Rose Armstrong.”

  He set down his mug and proffered his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Eva Rose Armstrong.”

  She felt a tingle through her veins as her palm slid against his. His hand was wide and strong, with calluses that attested to a familiarity with manual labor. It was a man’s hand, and every womanly part of her responded to the contact.

  “Eva,” she said. “My friends call me Eva.”

  “Are we going to be friends, Eva?”

  “I think so,” she said, not daring to admit that she already hoped “friends” was only the beginning of what they would be to one another.

  “I could probably use a friend,” he admitted, releasing her hand to pick up his fork again. “I don’t think I have any left in this town.”

  MONTANA MAVERICKS: THE GREAT FAMILY ROUNDUP—Real cowboys and real love in Rust Creek Falls!

  Dear Reader,

  It’s always fun to visit Rust Creek Falls—especially during the festive season!

  Not that ranch hand Luke Stockton planned to go home for the holidays. In fact, for the past dozen years, he hasn’t been home at all. But this year, an invitation from his sister has him making an early-December journey from Wyoming to Montana.

  Local baker Eva Armstrong doesn’t have the greatest track record with men. And maybe having her heart stomped on time and again should have taught her to be wary, but there isn’t anything she wants more than to fall in love, get married, fill her home with babies and her kitchen with the sweet scents of baking.

  When Luke sees Eva behind the counter at Daisy’s Donut Shop, the attraction is both immediate and mutual. But Luke isn’t planning to stay in Rust Creek Falls past the holidays, and he won’t let anyone persuade him to change those plans—not even a woman whose kisses are sweeter than buttercream frosting.

  But Christmas is a season of miracles, and Eva has faith that Luke will decide to stay in Rust Creek Falls—and with her—not just through the holidays, but forever.

  I hope you enjoy Luke and Eva’s story and have a wonderful holiday season!

  Brenda Harlen

  The Maverick’s Midnight Proposal

  Brenda Harlen

  Brenda Harlen is a former attorney who once had the privilege of appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada. The practice of law taught her a lot about the world and reinforced her determination to become a writer—because in fiction, she could promise a happy ending! Now she is an award-winning, national bestselling author of more than thirty titles for Harlequin. You can keep up-to-date with Brenda on Facebook and Twitter or through her website, brendaharlen.com.

  Books by Brenda Harlen

  Harlequin Special Edition

  Those Engaging Garretts!

  The Last Single Garrett

  Baby Talk & Wedding Bells

  Building the Perfect Daddy

  Two Doctors & a Baby

  The Bachelor Takes a Bride

  A Forever Kind of Family

  The Daddy Wish

  A Wife for One Year

  The Single Dad’s Second Chance

  A Very Special Delivery

  His Long-Lost Family

  From Neighbors...to Newlyweds?

  Montana Mavericks: The Baby Bonanza

  The More Mavericks, The Merrier!

  Montana Mavericks: What Happened at the Wedding?

  Merry Christmas, Baby Maverick!

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

  Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards

  http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010002

  For my parents,

  who exemplify the joys and blessings of home—not just at the holidays but always.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Yuletide Baby Bargain by Allison Leigh

  Prologue

  Lee Stanton paused as he entered the room, his gaze caught by the blinking light on his phone indicating that he had a message. He picked it up to check the call history. The same number had shown up on his display more than a dozen times in the past four days, though the caller, who’d identified himself as David Bradford, had only left two messages previously. This would be the third.

  He pressed the button to connect to voice mail, then punched in his access code.

  “This is David Bradford again, the private investigator from Tulsa, hired by Hudson Jones to track down Luke Stockton from Rust Creek Falls, Montana. Please call me back at 539-555-6234.”

  Lee hit the erase button.

  The investigator was nothing if not persistent, and the client—Hudson Jones—was obviously getting his money’s worth. Unfortunately, his perseverance wasn’t going to pay off this time, because it wasn’t possible to find someone who didn’t exist, and Luke Stockton had disappeared twelve years earlier on his way to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

  Lee tried to put the call out of his mind as he rummaged through the refrigerator, looking for something—anything—to throw together for dinner. After seven hours on horseback feeding cattle and checking perimeter fence, he was cold and tired and hungry. And apparently long overdue for a trip to the grocery store.

  He pulled a bottle of beer out of the fridge and twisted off the cap. He tipped the bottle to his lips as he picked up the phone again, dialing from memory the number for Peppe’s Pizza.

  While he waited for his dinner to be delivered, he turned on the television and flipped through the twelve channels that were included with basic cable as part of hi
s rent. But nothing on the screen held his attention for long.

  For the past dozen years, he’d walked the right side of the law, working from sunup to sundown, falling into bed exhausted at the end of the day. But no matter how fatigued his body was, he couldn’t escape the memories that continued to haunt his dreams. Memories of a past he’d wanted only to leave behind. Now he couldn’t help but wonder if that past had caught up with him.

  ...hired by Hudson Jones to track down Luke Stockton...

  He opened the laptop he’d picked up secondhand and kept plugged in because the battery didn’t hold much of a charge. He opened a browser, then started a search for Hudson Jones.

  The results were numerous and instantaneous, and a quick skim of the headlines revealed that Hudson Jones was a millionaire cowboy originally from Oklahoma. Since he knew that Luke Stockton had never been to Oklahoma and hadn’t rubbed elbows with any millionaires in his past, he figured the PI had taken a wrong turn somewhere. He was about to close the browser when a headline announcing Hudson Jones’s marriage caught his eye. The name of the man’s wife: Bella Stockton.

  Bella? Married?

  Stunned, he clicked on the link and found himself looking at a photo of the millionaire cowboy and his beautiful bride. The caption indicated that the couple had exchanged vows early in June—almost six months earlier.

  Lee’s heart hammered against his ribs as he leaned toward the screen for a closer look. The stunning young woman in the white gown didn’t bear much resemblance to the awkward teen he remembered. Except for the eyes. Even in an online photograph, even after so much time had passed, there was no mistaking those big brown eyes.

  He blinked away the moisture that blurred his vision and finally acknowledged the truth that was staring back at him: Hudson Jones’s bride was indeed Luke’s little sister.

  And if her new husband had hired a PI to find Luke, then Bella must have told him about losing touch with her siblings. Maybe she’d even asked Hudson to help her find them.

  Lee shook his head and tipped the bottle to his mouth again. He was only speculating about her thoughts and motives. He had no way of knowing if Bella wanted to find Luke, but the possibility tugged at him.

  Half an hour later, after he’d finished another beer and half of his pizza, he finally picked up the phone and dialed the PI’s number.

  Chapter One

  Anticipation and trepidation wore on Luke with every mile on his tires throughout the drive to Rust Creek Falls. The scenery outside his window was a blur as memories of his first twenty-one years played through his mind like an old movie—and not one with a happy ending.

  He’d traveled from Cheyenne to Butte the day before and crashed in a cheap motel. Though his body had craved sleep, his mind wouldn’t let him rest and he’d stared at the ceiling for a long time, questioning the impulse that had brought him on this journey.

  When he woke in the morning, his first thought had been to turn around and go back to Wyoming.

  Because he was a coward.

  But apparently the fierceness with which he missed his family was stronger than his cowardice, because instead of turning back, he pushed forward.

  After fueling himself with an extra large coffee, he’d started back on the road to Rust Creek Falls. Three and a half hours later, he was almost there.

  His gaze searched for the familiar sign that welcomed visitors to town. Twelve years earlier the sign had been old and worn, so it was possible that the marker was no longer standing or—if it was—it might be faded so much that the paint was impossible to read. It didn’t matter. Luke didn’t need a marker to let him know he’d arrived. Even if he hadn’t recognized the terrain, he would have known it in his gut.

  But twelve years was a long time, and people changed more quickly than the towns they lived in. Bella hadn’t even been a teenager when he left; now she was a woman—and a wife.

  Mrs. Bella Jones.

  He shook his head, still unable to believe that his little sister was all grown up, still struggling to come to terms with the time he’d lost with his family. And the staggering weight of guilt, because he knew it was his fault.

  Of course, Bella didn’t know that. Because if she did, she would never have made the effort to find him. More likely, she would have been grateful that he’d left town, and happy he’d stayed away. But she deserved to know the truth—all of his brothers and sisters deserved the truth. A truth that Luke had been too ashamed to tell them, and the grief and remorse weighed on him still.

  Although a dozen years had passed since he left Montana, in all that time, he’d never forgotten—or stopped missing—the family he used to have. Since he left Rust Creek Falls, not a single day passed without him thinking about the family he’d walked away from. Bailey and Daniel had gone with him, and the three oldest brothers had stuck close together—at least for a while.

  Over the years, he’d lost count of the number of times he’d thought about going home—only to remember all the reasons he’d left. For Luke, “you can’t go home again” was more than a catchphrase—it was the reality of his life.

  So why was he trying to change that reality now?

  Because Bella wanted to see him.

  He’d finally called her from the motel the night before to tell her that he was on his way. Partly because he was desperate to hear her voice and partly because he knew that if she was expecting him, he’d be less inclined to turn around and head back to Wyoming.

  He’d let her down once, but he wouldn’t do it again.

  Now he was finally going home—a prospect that filled him with anticipation and more than a little bit of trepidation. As a result of one foolish, youthful error in judgment, he’d lost them all: his parents—Rob and Lauren, and his six siblings—Bailey, Danny, Jamie, Bella, Dana and Liza.

  His error.

  He tried to push the painful memories aside, because he knew that there was no way to go back in time and do things differently. But sometimes, late at night and deep in dreams, he allowed himself to make a different choice. A smarter choice. And in those dreams, he woke up in the same house he’d lived in for the first twenty-one years of his life, his mother making breakfast in the kitchen while he crawled out of bed, grumbling about the early hour as he dressed in the dark and headed out to the barn to help his father and brothers with the chores.

  And every time he dreamed about them, he awakened with such a huge, heavy weight on his chest, he wondered how it was possible that his broken heart was still beating. Then he’d grab a granola bar or pour himself a bowl of cereal and head out to the barn at whatever ranch he was currently working and throw himself into the physical labor, as if successfully wrestling bales of hay would somehow help him overcome the grief and guilt.

  His foot eased off the accelerator as he approached the town limits, doubts again battering at him from all directions. Was he really going to do this? Was he, finally, after so many years, going to see his sisters and brothers again?

  He’d programmed his GPS to take him to Just Us Kids—the day care facility owned by Hudson Jones’s family and where Bella was employed as a manager. The day care hadn’t existed twelve years ago, which made him wonder how many other businesses had come and gone in that period of time. Was Crawford’s General Store still the only place in town to buy a quart of milk? Did the Ace in the Hole still have the flickering neon sign that beckoned local cowboys with the promise of cold beer and pretty girls? Was the coffee at Daisy’s Donut Shop still always hot and fresh?

  He could use some of that coffee now. Especially when he glanced at the display on his GPS and saw that his ETA was less than fifteen minutes.

  Less than fifteen minutes after more than twelve years.

  His fingers tightened on the steering wheel as he drove down Cedar Street, the winter finery on display reminding him that Chris
tmas was less than three weeks away. Garlands and twinkling lights festooned all the storefronts, and a dusting of fresh snow on the sidewalks added to the holiday atmosphere.

  Even in Wyoming, he’d heard about the flood that had devastated Rust Creek Falls a few years back, but the community had obviously come together to rebuild. He’d expected—maybe even hoped—that the town had changed, but everything looked very much the same.

  He impulsively turned the corner toward Daisy’s Donut Shop, desperate not just for a quick cup of coffee but also a few extra minutes to regain control of his emotions before facing his sister.

  He pushed the door open and joined the line at the counter. An elderly man, headed to a table with a mug of steaming coffee in his hand, nodded in his direction.

  Just a friendly resident greeting a stranger in town—or so Luke believed until the man said, “Nice to see you, Luke.”

  The gruff voice was as familiar as Old Gene’s face. “Good morning, Mr. Strickland.”

  “You home for the holidays?” the old man asked.

  Home.

  The word tugged at something inside him.

  Was this his home? He’d been wandering for so long, never setting down roots in any one place, that the word was almost unfamiliar to him.

  Unfamiliar and yet oh-so-inviting.

  “Just here to visit my sister,” he said.

  Gene nodded. “She’ll be glad to see you.”

  Luke hoped he was right.

  The old man carried his coffee to a booth, where a group of his contemporaries was already seated and waiting for him.

  A middle-aged man with graying hair and a much younger blonde woman stepped up to the counter next to place their order. Luke recognized the man as Ben Dalton—the only attorney in town. Ben spotted Luke when he turned to speak to his companion and his eyes widened in obvious surprise. After shaking Luke’s hand, Ben introduced his female companion.

  “This is my law partner, Maggie Crawford.” Ben winked. “I stole her away from a big firm in Los Angeles.”