The Cowboy's Pride and Joy Read online

  A cowboy gets a baby surprise from USA TODAY bestselling author Maureen Child

  All former marine Jake Hunter wants is peace and quiet. But when his business-minded mother sends her assistant Cassidy Moore from Boston to see him about a long-standing family dispute, chaos ensues. Their attraction rages out of control as a snowstorm strands them on his Montana ranch.

  Flash-forward fourteen months: Cassie can’t bring herself to tell Jake she’s had his child. But when his mother interferes again, Cassie rushes back to Jake…just in time for another blizzard—and for the Christmas spirit to open one reclusive cowboy’s heart.

  Cassie was back.

  Her cheeks were pink from the cold, and as Jake adjusted to the shock of finding her on his front steps, he finally noticed what she was holding.

  A baby.

  Wrapped toe to neck in some kind of zip-up covering, all Jake could see of the child were big blue eyes—just like his own.

  A jolt of emotions shot through him so hard he gripped the doorknob tight to keep from falling over in shock.

  “What the hell?”

  “Jake,” Cassie said, “meet your son. Luke.”

  “My son?” Silently, Jake congratulated himself on the control keeping his voice from raging with the fury erupting inside him.

  He couldn’t believe this. For a year and a half, this woman had haunted him, waking and sleeping. Hell, he’d hardly known her and shouldn’t have given her another thought once she was gone. But he had.

  He’d even fantasized a couple times about seeing her here again.

  He just had never imagined her carrying his child along with her.

  His child. He had a son.

  * * *

  The Cowboy’s Pride and Joy is part of the #1 bestselling miniseries from Harlequin Desire—Billionaires & Babies: Powerful men…wrapped around their babies’ little fingers.

  * * *

  If you’re on Twitter, tell us what you think of Harlequin Desire!

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  Dear Reader,

  I love to read—and write—books set at Christmas. There’s something so inherently joyful about that time of year that it doesn’t seem to matter what holiday we happen to be celebrating. It’s about family. And love. And taking the time to be with the ones important to us—and a little time for ourselves.

  In The Cowboy’s Pride and Joy, you’ll meet Jake Hunter and Cassidy Moore. Jake hasn’t celebrated Christmas in years. He’s cut himself off from his family, as well. So when Cassidy starts dragging him back to the land of the living, he fights her every step of the way. I really enjoyed writing this book, and I hope you’ll love it, too!

  And, whatever holiday you’re celebrating, I wish you joy and laughter and really good books! Come and see me on Facebook, and check out my website at www.maureenchild.com.

  Maureen

  THE COWBOY’S PRIDE AND JOY

  Maureen Child

  Books by Maureen Child

  Harlequin Desire

  *King’s Million-Dollar Secret #2083

  One Night, Two Heirs #2096

  *Ready for King’s Seduction #2113

  *The Temporary Mrs. King #2125

  *To Kiss a King #2137

  Gilded Secrets #2168

  Up Close and Personal #2179

  An Outrageous Proposal #2191

  *The King Next Door #2209

  Rumor Has It #2240

  The Lone Star Cinderella #2258

  *Her Return to King’s Bed #2269

  *Double the Trouble #2289

  The Black Sheep’s Inheritance #2294

  The Fiancée Caper #2317

  The Cowboy’s Pride and Joy #2335

  Silhouette Desire

  ^Scorned by the Boss #1816

  ^Seduced by the Rich Man #1820

  ^Captured by the Billionaire #1826

  *Bargaining for King’s Baby #1857

  *Marrying for King’s Millions #1862

  *Falling for King’s Fortune #1868

  High-Society Secret Pregnancy #1879

  Baby Bonanza #1893

  An Officer and a Millionaire #1915

  Seduced Into a Paper Marriage #1946

  *Conquering King’s Heart #1965

  *Claiming King’s Baby #1971

  *Wedding at King’s Convenience #1978

  *The Last Lone Wolf #2011

  Claiming Her Billion-Dollar Birthright #2024

  *Cinderella & the CEO #2043

  Under the Millionaire’s Mistletoe #2056 “The Wrong Brother”

  Have Baby, Need Billionaire #2059

  ^Reasons for Revenge

  *Kings of California

  Other titles by this author available in ebook format.

  MAUREEN CHILD

  writes for the Harlequin Desire line and can’t imagine a better job. Being able to indulge your love for romance, as well as being able to spin stories just the way you want them told, is—in a word—perfect.

  A seven-time finalist for the prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA® Award, Maureen is the author of more than one hundred romance novels. Her books regularly appear on the bestseller lists and have won several awards, including a Prism, a National Readers’ Choice Award, a Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence and a Golden Quill.

  One of her books, The Soul Collector, was made into a CBS TV movie starring Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Greenwood and Ossie Davis. If you look closely, in the last five minutes of the movie, you’ll spot Maureen, who was an extra in the last scene.

  Maureen believes that laughter goes hand in hand with love, so her stories are always filled with humor. The many letters she receives assure her that her readers love to laugh as much as she does.

  Maureen Child is a native Californian, but has recently moved to the mountains of Utah. She loves a new adventure, though the thought of having to deal with snow for the first time is a little intimidating.

  This book is dedicated to my grand-dog, Bristow. Funny, sweet, loyal, Bristow loves with his whole heart and we’re so glad to have him in our family.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  Excerpt

  One

  “When Boston comes to Montana, it’s never a good thing.” Jake Hunter frowned into the distance.

  “You always were too hard on your mother.”

  Jake turned his head to look at the older man standing beside him. At seventy-five years old, Ben Hawkins didn’t stand as straight and tall as he once had. But he still had a full head of snow-white hair, piercing blue eyes, and a face weathered and tanned from years of working in the sun.

  “And you were always too soft on her.”

  Ben shrugged that away with a half smile. “She’s my daughter.”

  “There is that.” Jake nodded. “Anyway, if it all goes as promised, this will be the last time Boston comes calling for anything but a family visit.”

  “I’ve got to ask. Are you sure about this?” Ben pulled the collar of his coat up higher around his neck against the cold autumn wind. “I mean, what you’re planning can’t be changed. You’re signing away your rights to the business your family built.”

  “Oh,” Jake assured him, “I�
�m sure. This has been a long time coming, Pop.” Jake shook his head. “Hunter Media has nothing I want. Never has.”

  And he knew how much that fact irritated his mother. She had always planned on Jake taking over the day-to-day running of the company built by her husband’s family. The fact that Jake had never been interested really hadn’t bothered her any. Elise Hawkins Hunter was nothing if not determined.

  Ben snorted a laugh. “You always were more stubborn than anything else.”

  “Not stubborn.” Jake took a deep breath, relishing the sharp, cold sting that hit his lungs. “I just know what I want. Always have.”

  Now he glanced around at the ranch he loved. The place that had been his solace and comfort when he’d come here during the summer as a kid—and when he’d returned here after leaving the military.

  October in the mountains of Montana was spectacular. As though God was putting on a show just before the winter cold settled in. The trees were turning brilliant shades of gold, orange and red. Dark clouds scudded across a sky so wide and blue it almost hurt your eyes to look at it. From the corral and barn came the sounds of horses and the men working with them. And spilling out in front of and below the huge ranch house he’d built was Whitefish Lake, sapphire water surrounded by tall pines that dipped and swayed with the wind.

  The view soothed the dark places inside him, just as it had from the first time he’d seen it as a kid. Jake had known even then that this was his place. Not Boston, where he was born and where his family created and ruled a dynasty. But here on the mountain where his grandfather had carved out a way of life that spoke to Jake’s soul in a way that nothing else ever had.

  “No,” he murmured, gaze still locked on the lake below. “Boston has nothing to offer me that can compete with this place.”

  “Have to say I agree,” Ben mused. “Though your mother never did feel the bone-deep connection to the land that you and I do.”

  That simple statement made Jake smile. Maybe a love of the land skipped generations, he thought. This ranch had been in Ben’s family for more than a hundred years, always falling to the oldest child to maintain the legacy the Hawkinses had built since the first settler stumbled into Montana and staked a claim to the land. Until, Jake thought, his mother.

  Elise Hawkins Hunter hadn’t felt the pull of the ranch. His mother had been born and raised here, and she had escaped as soon as she was able. Going to college in Boston, she’d met and married Jake’s father there and settled into the kind of life she’d dreamed of. No early mornings to take care of animals. No quiet stillness. No solitude when the ranch was snowed in.

  She’d made plenty of trips to the ranch to visit her parents and sent Jake and his sister out here for a few weeks every summer, but Boston was her home as the ranch had never been.

  Elise was still puzzled by her son’s decision to walk away from moneyed sophistication in favor of hard work and empty spaces. But Jake had his own money—a fortune he’d built through good investments and well-chosen risks. He didn’t need to enslave himself to a desk to get his share of Hunter Media.

  His mother might not ever understand his decision, but she had at least, finally, accepted it.

  “So when’s your mother’s assistant due to arrive?”

  Jake glanced at his grandfather. “Sometime today, and with any luck, by tomorrow she’ll be on her way back to Boston.”

  “Shame she had to fly all the way here to have you sign papers you could have faxed in.”

  “You know Mom. A stickler for details.” Jake shook his head and hopped off the fence, his battered brown boots sinking into the soft dirt of the corral. “She wants the papers notarized and the assistant’s a notary.”

  “Handy,” Ben said. “But then, your mom’s always been a thorough one.”

  Thorough. And stubborn. There was a part of Jake that still didn’t believe his mother had given up on luring him back to Boston. But whether she had or not didn’t really matter, did it? He wasn’t going anywhere. Montana was his home. His sanctuary. Damned if he’d give it up.

  * * *

  Cassidy Moore’s hands hurt after an hour of gripping the steering wheel tightly enough to make her knuckles white. Driving up a mountain was more harrowing than she would have thought. Maybe if the narrow road had been straight rather than curved with the occasional sharp right-angle turn, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But those curves were there and so was the steep drop off the left side.

  If she had known the kind of drive she was letting herself in for, she would have tried to rent a tank at the airport in Kalispell rather than the four-wheel-drive sedan she was currently driving.

  “But then,” she told herself, “a tank never would have fit on this road.”

  Seriously. The people who built the darn road couldn’t have made it a little wider? Every time another car came toward her, she winced in anticipation of a horrific crash. The only good thing about this drive was that it wasn’t the dead of winter. “Imagine dealing with this road in snow!”

  Just the thought of that gave her cold chills. Ordinarily, she probably would have enjoyed this drive through the mountains, with the bright splashes of fall color on either side of her. But the threat of imminent death sort of took the fun out of it.

  Cassidy was out of her element and she knew it. Born and raised in Boston, she had never been west of the Massachusetts border. She was used to busy highways, crowded streets and stoplights every block. In her world, tall buildings created shadowy canyons in the city and the sound of honking horns ensured there was never any quiet to be found. Still, she’d be fine. She was only here for the night, and tomorrow she’d be flying back to Boston with the signed paperwork her boss needed.

  She pulled off the narrow road and followed a graveled drive up a sharp incline. When she came out from beneath the arch of trees, she simply stopped the car, turned off the engine and stared.

  My son refuses to leave his little ranch, her boss had said. So you’ll have to go to him and get these papers signed.

  Little ranch.

  Shaking her head, Cassidy got out of the car, her heels shifting precariously on the gravel beneath her feet. She did a slow turn in place, letting her gaze sweep across her surroundings before finally coming back to land on the “little ranch.” There was nothing little about it. Granted, the only experience Cassidy had with ranches was what she’d seen on late-night movies. But this was no ordinary place. Jake Hunter’s home was a mountain palace.

  Two stories tall, the main house was wood and glass, with floor-to-ceiling windows on each story that would provide a wide view of the lake below. Pine trees huddled close to the house, so that it looked as though it was actually a part of the landscape rather than an intrusion. There were other, smaller houses scattered across the property, no doubt for the employees who worked here. Lucky them, Cassidy thought, since she couldn’t imagine driving up and down that mountain every day for her commute. “Hello, young lady.”

  Surprised at the deep voice coming from directly behind her, Cassidy spun around so quickly, one of her heels caught on the gravel and her balance went wobbly. The older man snapped one hand out to take her arm to steady her.

  “Didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, giving her a slow smile.

  He was in his seventies, but his eyes were sharp and clear and his skin was like old leather from years spent in the sun. His smile was warm and the chuckle beneath his words was kind.

  “Sorry,” she said, holding one hand out. “I didn’t hear you come up. I’m Cassidy Moore.”

  He took her hand in his and gave it a firm shake. “You’re Elise’s new assistant.” Nodding, he added, “I’m her father, Ben Hawkins.”

  “She has your eyes.”

  His smile got wider. “My eyes, but thankfully she got everything else from her mother, God rest her.” He took a step b
ack and said, “You’re here to see my grandson.”

  “Yes,” she said, grateful for the quick change of subject. “I’ve got some papers for him to look over and sign...”

  “My daughter’s a fiend for paperwork,” he said, then waved one hand. “Come along with me, I’ll take you to Jake.”

  She glanced at her car, thinking about her purse lying on the front seat, but then she realized that this wasn’t Boston and a purse snatcher wasn’t going to reach in and grab anything. So she followed Ben Hawkins, taking careful steps that didn’t come close to matching his long, even strides.

  Cassidy had dressed to impress and now that it was too late, she was rethinking that. She wore black slacks, a white dress shirt and a cardinal-red waist-length jacket. Her black heels added an extra three inches to her measly five-foot-four frame, and in the city that gave her extra confidence. Here, walking on gravel, she could only wish for the sneakers tucked into the bottom of her bag.

  But first impressions counted, and she’d wanted to come across as sleek and professional to her boss’s son. So she’d find a way to maneuver over tricky ground and make it look good while she was doing it.

  “It’s a beautiful place,” she said.

  “It is that,” the older man agreed, slowing his steps a bit. “I lived my whole life here, but in the few years Jake’s been in charge he’s made so many changes sometimes I look around and can’t believe what he’s done in so short a time.”

  She looked at him. “You sound pleased by that.”

  “Oh, I am.” He winked at her. “I know most old men don’t care much for change. But far as I’m concerned, if you’re not changing, you’re dead. So when Jake came to Montana for good, I turned over the ranch to him and said, ‘Do what you want.’” Chuckling again, he added, “He took me up on it.”

  Smiling, she decided she liked Ben Hawkins.

  “He started right out building the new ranch house,” Ben said, waving one hand at the spectacular building on their left. “Designed it himself and even did a lot of the construction on his own, too.”