He clasped his hand over hers, the last bite of chocolate hanging between them.
âTake it,â she urged.
Her voice was too sexy to ignore. He grabbed her hand and drew it to his mouth. Cade enveloped the chocolate with his mouth and swallowed it down. The motion was both carnivorous and sexual.
Abbyâs brown eyes widened in surprise.
âWhat did you expect?â he asked.
âI donât know,â she said. âSomething moreâ¦â
âPolite?â he asked.
Her eyes darkened. âMaybe. If so, Iâm glad I was wrong.â
His gut tightened. âYou need to be careful. Youâre asking for trouble.â
âJust from you,â she said.
His heart hammered against his rib cage. âThis is a bad idea.â
âThere are worse ideas,â she countered.
He felt himself begin to sweat. How could Lailaâs little sister affect him this way? It wasnât possible.
Dear Reader,
Have you ever felt invisible? Like you could jump up and down and scream and the person youâre trying to reach still wouldnât see you? I have, and itâs a terrible feeling. It could almost make you feel like you need to do something desperate to get that personâs attention. Thatâs part of whatâs happening to my heroine, Abby Cates. She has wanted to get the attention of the man of her dreams for what feels like forever. Now it looks as if she may finally get her chance.
In A Maverick for Christmas, we sled into the holiday season in Thunder Canyon with another couple ripe for romance. When Abby, âthe invisible woman,â does everything in her power to turn Cade Pritchettâs head, he doesnât know what hit him, but he sure does like it. Can a lifelong crush really lead to true love?
Curl up and enjoy the ride! All the Thunder Canyon Mavericks and I are wishing you the warmest, most loving and joyous holiday season ever!
xo,
Leanne Banks
LEANNE BANKS is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author who is surprised every time she realizes how many books she has written. Leanne loves chocolate, the beach and new adventures. To name a few, Leanne has ridden on an elephant, stood on an ostrich egg (no, it didnât break), gone parasailing and indoor skydiving. Leanne loves writing romance because she believes in the power and magic of love. She lives in Virginia with her family and four-and-a-half-pound Pomeranian named Bijou. Visit her website, www.leannebanks.com
This book is dedicated to Susan Litman.
You know why.
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Epilogue
Abby Cates remembered the moment she fell for Cade Pritchett. She had been nine years old at the time, and heâd been giving swimming lessons at Silver Stallion Lake. At seventeen, Cade had been tall, strong and blond. He was nice to all the kids, but demanded they learn their strokes. Abby was pretty sure he didnât remember scooping her out of some too-deep water when sheâd choked and panicked. In her little-girl mind, Cade was a god.
Despite her best efforts, Abby had never found any man who could top Cade in her mind, not even now that she was twenty-two. And that was a terrible shame, especially since heâd never noticed her and, on top of that, wedding fever was running through Thunder Canyon like a bad flu.
Now that her older sister Laila was engaged to Jackson Traub, the discussions of weddings were nonstop. Her mother was usually so eager for Christmas that she began decorating plans in early November, but this year she was clearly distracted. If her mother didnât take a little break from wedding talk, then Abby was going to explode through the roof of her familyâs home. She tried not to listen to her motherâs phone conversation as she finished cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.
âA double wedding for Marlon and Matt,â her mother cooed. âLove is definitely in the air. And soon enough, there will be babies,â she continued, her tone giddy with delight. Abby glowered. Love is in the air. Yeah, for everyone except her. Her mother began to dig for more details on the double wedding of her cousins, and Abby turned the water on high as she washed the last pot. She wished she could wash out her brain as easily as she could clean the dishes.
Why in the world had she fallen for a man who couldnât seem to even notice her? Talk about unrequited love. Then it had gone from bad to worse when heâd dated her beautiful oldest sister, Laila, the town beauty queen. Then it went from worse to tragic when heâd proposed to Laila. At least her sister had turned him down, but sheâd hated the idea that Cade would suffer from Lailaâs rejection.
The past couple of years it had been so hard to see Cade with Laila. Abby had felt as if sheâd walked around with a permanent knot in her stomach. In love with her sisterâs on-again, off-again boyfriend? It was like a bad soap opera. Although she loved Laila, Abby had been torn between guilt and resentment. Sheâd successfully kept it hidden, but she didnât know how much longer she could manage it, especially since it felt as if everyone around her was finding love and getting married. And as far as Cade Pritchett was concerned, she might as well be invisible.