Cowboy Brave Read online

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Carolyn Brown

  Preview of Cowboy Rebel copyright © 2019 by Carolyn Brown

  Second Chance Cowboy copyright © 2018 by A.J. Pine

  Cover design by Elizabeth Stokes

  Cover copyright © 2019 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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  Forever

  Hachette Book Group

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  First Edition: January 2019

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  ISBNs: 978-1-5387-4493-2 (mass market), 978-1-5387-4491-8 (ebook)

  E3-20181012-DA-NF

  Contents

  Cover

  Cowboy Brave Copyright

  Dedication

  Letter to Readers

  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

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Discover More Carolyn Brown

  About the Author

  Also by Carolyn Brown

  High Praise for Carolyn Brown

  Second Chance Cowboy Acknowledgments

  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

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  About the Author

  Look for more in the Crossroads Ranch series

  Looking for more cowboys? Forever brings the heat with these sexy studs.

  This one is dedicated to my cousin

  Jan Edwards Barker—for all the love and support you shower upon me!

  Dear Readers,

  As I’ve said before, I tend to drag my heels when it comes to finishing a series. This one was no different. I spent several months with these cowboys and their sassy ladies. I got to know them so well that it was difficult to let them go. Then my fantastic editor Leah suggested that we add a few more books to the series, and my heart skipped a few beats. That’s when Tag and Hud Baker showed up with their friends, Maverick and Paxton Callahan—their hats in their hands and asking me to tell their stories, too. So keep your reading glasses right handy and don’t put your cowboy boots in the closet. This is not the last of the Longhorn Canyon series.

  I have a sign in my living room that says There’s always, always, always something to be thankful for. I look at it every day, and today I’m sending bushels of thanks to my editor Leah Hultenschmidt for continuing to support me and make this process of taking a book from an idea to a polished product such a delight. And thank you to my whole team at Forever—y’all are the best! Hugs to my agent, Erin Niumata: We’ve been together twenty years. That’s longer than most Hollywood marriages, folks. Also I have to thank Mr. B, my husband, for his love through my career. Romance isn’t always flowers and candy; sometimes it’s washing dishes, doing laundry, or going to the burger shop for supper so I can write one more chapter.

  I love to hear from my readers, so let me know what you think of Justin and Emily’s story.

  Until next time,

  Carolyn Brown

  Chapter One

  Emily Baker rarely dressed up for anything. But this was an important occasion, and she wanted to make a good first impression. Judging by the applause from the Fab Five, as the quintet of residents called themselves, she’d succeeded. Of course, they usually only saw her in scrubs, so perhaps the bar hadn’t been set that high.

  “Go get ’em, and don’t take no for an answer,” Otis encouraged.

  “Tell ’em we’ll take up a collection and pay the big bucks.” The two long gray braids that wrapped around Bess’s head were the only thing that distinguished her from her redheaded twin sister, Patsy. Bess waved a lace hanky at her as Emily stepped out into the brisk Texas air.

  “Two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar. All for Emily, stand up and holler.” Patsy did a few snap movements like a cheerleader, and all five of them shouted like they were at a football pep rally.

  Then Sarah, tall and thin with chin-length gray hair, put a key chain with a rabbit’s foot in Emily’s hand. “For good luck.”

  “Okay,” Larry said. “We got to let her go. Let’s go to my place, get out the dominoes to pass the time while we wait for her to come back with the good news.” Every bit as tall as Sarah, he herded the bunch of them away from the door and down the hall.

  When the Fab Five had come up with the idea for a “field trip,” she’d tried to talk them out of it, but ever since they’d read in the newspaper last summer about underprivileged kids going to the Longhorn Canyon ranch, they’d been begging to spend a week there too.

  After a twenty-minute drive, Emily found the ranch with no problem. She parked her red Mustang in front of the house and checked her reflection in the rearview mirror. She fluffed up her long, dark brown hair, and reapplied her bright red lipstick.

  She took a deep breath and wished that she’d figured out a better plan than just flying by the seat of her pants. Trying to figure out what to say first, she wasn’t watching where she was going, and her heel sunk into a gopher hole. She regained her footing just in time to avoid falling face-first, but in doing so, she stepped in a pile of fresh cow manure.

  “Shit!” she muttered.

  Amen, her grandmother’s voice popped into her head.

  And if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, just then a tall cowboy with steel-blue eyes opened the door and stepped out on th
e porch. Lord, have mercy.

  “Can I help you?” he asked.

  She opened the gate into the yard and said, “I’m Emily Baker. We visited on the phone last evening.” She looked up into blue eyes.

  “My brother, Cade, is the one that you talked to. He forgot that he had another meeting this morning in Wichita Falls. I’m Justin Maguire. Please come right in.” He stood to one side and motioned her inside.

  She couldn’t track cow crap inside the house, so she kicked off her high-heeled shoes, leaving them on the porch. She glanced down at her chipped toenail polish and wished that she’d taken time to redo them. But not even ugly toenails would keep her from her mission—not after that send-off at the center.

  “Should’ve been a little more careful about where I was steppin’,” she said.

  Justin grinned. “That’s part of ranch life, darlin’. Evidently you haven’t lived on one.”

  Oh, honey, you are so wrong about that, she thought.

  As they crossed the foyer and entered a huge living room, she studied him from the corner of her eye. Scruff covered his square jaw, but she could see a very slight cleft in his chin. He walked with the cowboy swagger and confidence that would have women falling all over him. And he’d called her darlin’—did he flirt with everyone?

  “We can talk in here, Emily. Have a seat anywhere. Sorry about the mess.”

  “Thanks. I work at the Oakview Retirement Center in Bowie. Cade and I were going to talk about renting your bunkhouses for a week. Did he let you know if y’all have made a decision?” She spit it all out at once without taking a breath as she sat on the edge of the sofa, legs crossed at the ankle and back straight.

  “He only told me that someone from the retirement center was coming by to visit about something as he was walking out the door fifteen minutes ago, but this is the first I’m hearing about it.” His forearms bulged beneath the rolled-up sleeves of his black, pearl snap shirt, and his hands were huge.

  She had to look at him to talk to him, but when she did she noticed that the top two snaps of his shirt were undone, giving her a peek at light brown chest hair. She couldn’t get her thoughts together looking right at him. She’d expected the Maguire brothers to be her dad’s age. “There are five elderly folks at the center. They have some problems, but basically they’re pretty spry to be in their seventies.” She glanced down at the coffee table, where papers were strewn about. “You’re building a house? Are you an architect? I thought the Maguires were ranchers.”

  “We are, but I’m trying my hand at drawing up the plans for our foreman and his new wife,” he answered.

  Emily leaned forward. “Doesn’t look like it’s going to be very big.”

  “Not here at first, but the design will make it easy to add on later.” He chose a chair close to the coffee table where the plans were laid out. “So tell me more about this idea you’ve got, Miz Barker.”

  “Baker, not Barker,” she corrected him.

  “Sorry about that. I’m better with faces than names. Might not be real good with names, but I never forget a pretty face.” He raked his fingers through light brown hair that had definitely had a cowboy hat settled on it not long ago.

  Don’t flirt with me, cowboy, she thought.

  “I’m the senior activities director at the Oakview Retirement Center and we try to have an outing for our patients a couple of times a year. One elderly gentleman asked that we visit a ranch for a week this spring. He had a big spread up near the Red River when he was younger. I can tell he gets homesick for all this.” She motioned with a flip of her hand.

  “For the smell of fresh cow manure?” Justin chuckled as he glanced down at her feet.

  A slow burn crept from her neck to her face. “And hay and baby calves and all that goes with ranchin’. Like I said, there are five of them who are interested, and they’re all in their seventies. They’ve got some arthritis problems, but none of them need wheelchair facilities. Otis was the rancher and his buddy, Larry, owned a construction business. Then there’s Sarah, Patsy, and Bess, who want to get away for a while. Sarah was a schoolteacher but grew up on a farm. Patsy and Bess are twins who were raised on a ranch back in the 1940s and 1950s.”

  “Will there be medical professional folks to stay with them? And if this could happen, we’d have to have some paperwork showing we weren’t responsible for accidents,” Justin asked.

  “I’ll stay in the ladies’ bunkhouse and will give their meds each day, and I’ll be in direct contact with the on-call nurse at the center. And we’ll be glad to sign a disclosure freeing you from all responsibility,” she answered. “Would it be possible for me to see the bunkhouses?”

  “Sure, but I’ll have to talk to the rest of the family before I can give you an answer. You got a coat? It’s not far from here to the bunkhouses, but that north wind is pretty cold.”

  “Just this jacket.” She looked down at the lightweight sweater that matched her dress.

  “You can borrow one of ours. Be right back.” He whistled as he left the room.

  Most of the time she was comfortable in her size-eighteen skin, but suddenly she was self-conscious. It would be so embarrassing if he brought back a jacket that wouldn’t even close over her more-than-ample breasts. But one look at the canvas work coat he held out to her when he returned had her wondering if there was a giant on the ranch.

  “Excuse the stains. The coat belongs to my brother, Cade, but he won’t mind you using it,” Justin said.

  She slipped her arms into it. The smells of ranch life lingered and made her a little homesick, but she brushed the feeling aside and headed for the door.

  “Thought you might need these.” He handed her a box of tissues. “Or if you’ve got some boots or other shoes in your car…” He paused.

  “I have work shoes out there, and I’ll change into them,” she said, quickly.

  “Great. Can I get them for you?” he asked.

  “I’ll take care of it.” She slipped her feet back into the shoes waiting on the porch. Thank goodness she’d left her oldest pair of Nikes in the trunk. She sure made a picture wearing a cute little dress, a work jacket, and her sneakers, but how she looked didn’t matter—what mattered was convincing the flirty cowboy to rent the bunkhouses. She couldn’t bear to go back to the center and tell the Fab Five that she’d failed.

  He met her at the bottom of the porch steps and walked beside her to a bunkhouse and swung the door open. Years ago both bunkhouses were filled with hired hands, but these days most of the help on the ranch lived in town and commuted to work. Even though it was used only once a year now—when the ranch opened up to a few inner city, underprivileged kids—it was well kept and warm inside. And absolutely perfect for her ladies.

  “Four small bedrooms.” He pointed across the living/kitchen area and then swung his hand around to the other side. “And one big one for the supervisor. Look around if you want.”

  “It’s perfect.” The small rooms had individual vanities with sinks.

  “Take a peek in the bathroom of this one.” He led the way through the bigger bedroom.

  “Oh. My. Gosh!” She clamped a hand over her mouth when she saw the enormous tub. Had it been built for Cade? He’d need something that big if he filled out the coat she wore.

  “Back when the bunkhouses were built, we had this six-and-a-half-foot, big burly foreman. I shouldn’t say we, it was long before my time. All he asked for was a tub big enough to soak his tired bones in at night, so my grandparents had this special made for him,” Justin explained. “Before we go on to the boys’ bunkhouse, let me ask a few questions.”

  She couldn’t take her eyes from that tub. “Sure. Ask anything.”

  “What kind of activities will the ranch need to provide for these senior citizens?”

  “I don’t think you’ll be expected to entertain them. They just want to be on a ranch, maybe be allowed to take walks and feel the freedom of being in the country.” She brushed past him on the wa
y back to the living room. “Does the boys’ place look like this?”

  “Exactly, only it doesn’t have the big bathtub. Just a nice-size walk-in shower,” he answered.

  “I won’t actually need to see it then, but a walk-in shower is great. Larry has a bad hip, and Otis has a bum knee, so that’ll make things easier for them. Do you have a price in mind for the week?”

  Justin shook his head. “Can’t even begin to think about that until I talk to the family. There’s all kinds of things we’ll have to consider.”

  “I understand. When do you think you might have an answer?” she pressured.

  “What week did you want to book the bunkhouses?” He led the way outside. “And you did say that you would personally oversee most of their stay here, right?”

  “Next Monday would be great. Then they’d be back at the center for the Valentine’s Day celebration. But if that’s too soon, then maybe the week after Valentine’s?”

  “I’ll talk to the family about both times and let you know,” Justin said. “So you’ve been working at Oakview for five years.”

  “Yes, as the activities director. I plan things to keep the residents busy. We do Bingo Mondays. Craft Tuesdays. That kind of thing. And then there are outings, but this is a big thing. I’ve never had a week-long trip with any of them. It’s mainly just day things like a trip to the Dallas Zoo or maybe to the mall over in Wichita Falls around Christmastime. We did go down to McKinney for their light festival last year,” she answered. “And I’m talking too much. I just get so excited about my job. Helping the elderly is so rewarding.”

  When they reached the car she pulled a card from the pocket of her dress and handed it to him. “Thank you, Mr. Maguire. I’ll be lookin’ forward to hearing from you. Here’s my card. I’ve written my cell phone number on the back.”

  “I’ll definitely let you know by morning and possibly tonight.” Justin tucked the card into his pocket.

  Growing up, Emily had never been a petite little slip of a girl. She topped out at five feet eight inches, and with the high heels that she loved but seldom got a chance to wear except for church on Sunday, she was up close to six feet tall. She glanced over at Justin and wondered if he flirted with all women.