A Montana Christmas
Melanie Briggs and her baby daughter create quite a stir when they suddenly arrive to stay at the Stone Ranch. She'd make the perfect wife in Jared Stone's opinion. Not that he has any intention to marry or become an instant dad. He fights every urge to take sweet Melanie to bed. But some things are meant to be….En route to Montana for the holiday, Will Stone gets stuck in a blizzard with Melanie's wild cousin, Ms. Dylan Briggs. As far as Will is concerned, the snow can't stop soon enough. Then again, sharing a bed with sexy, sassy Dylan might be the perfect way to wait out a storm!
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A Montana Christmas
2 Stories in 1!
The Stone brothers are about to celebrate Christmas in two very surprising ways!
Rancher Jared Stone has taken in gorgeous single mom Melanie Briggs and her baby. Meanwhile, Will Stone is stranded out of town in a blizzard with Melanieâs sassy, stylish cousin, Ms. Dylan Briggs.
Two sexy bachelors.
Two feisty women.
One very special Temptation volume.
Enjoy!
USA TODAY bestselling author Kristine Rolofson is one of North Americaâs best-loved writers
Dear Reader,
Do you remember your first Christmas away from home? I was a nineteen-year-old bride of three months, celebrating the holidays in a farmhouse in Nebraska with my in-laws. It was a long way from the East Coast! Iâd always wanted to be part of a large family and there I was, surrounded by Rolofsons. There were so many of them that they hired a hall in order to have a potluck Christmas dinner.
When I told my new husband that I didnât feel well, that I couldnât eat, I wanted to cry and my stomach felt tied up in knots, he told me I was homesick. Homesick? It was a new and awful feeling, eased by the kindness of my new family, but never completely gone until I boarded the plane to go home. Home. What a wonderful word!
A Montana Christmas is all about spending the holidays with someone you love. Whether you are the one going homeâor the person cleaning it for those much-loved guestsâI hope you spend your Christmas enjoying every moment with the people who mean the most to you. And give that new daughter-in-law an extra hug from me.
Merry Christmas!
Kristine Rolofson
Books by Kristine Rolofson
HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION
842âA WIFE FOR OWEN CHASE
850âA BRIDE FOR CALDER BROWN
858âA MAN FOR MAGGIE MOORE
877âTHE BABY AND THE BACHELOR
To Marje, George, Phyllis and Nancy, the Rolofson siblings who have always made me feel part of the family.
CONTENTS
1
Monday, December 16
Havre, Montana
TAKE GOOD CARE OF HER.
Those were Willâs words on the phone. Well, of course he would do as Will asked. Thatâs what a brother did, and Jared Stone took his family duties seriously. Maybe a little too seriously, some would say. But there was nothing wrong with that, Jared figured, working his way through the crowd in a train station filled with holiday travelers and the people who waited to greet them. A man took care of his own.
Jared saw a lot of people with shopping bags filled with gifts, tired mothers holding on to toddlers, grandmothers kissing squalling babies and a few businessmen trying to avoid walking into groups of families huddled together to say hello or goodbye.
There were skiers, too. There were always skiers heading somewhere in Montana. Jared took a second to admire a long-legged blonde carrying skis and wearing tight black leggings and a sheepskin jacket, but he kept moving through the crowd as he headed toward the board that would list the arrival times of the trains. Sure enough, the train named the Empire Builder from Chicago had just arrived.
Her name is Melanie Briggs. And sheâs special. Jared wished heâd asked Will for more details, but Aunt Bitty picked up the phone and started talking about cookies and presents and how much Fluffy liked spending Christmas on the ranch. Will wasnât able to add much about his mysterious guest, but everyone at the ranch assumed that Will had finally found a woman. A special woman. Heâd said so himself, hadnât he?
The 318 on Monday. As Jared looked around the lobby he wished his younger brother had provided a better description of his guest. There had been something about a red jacket, but then Mom had taken the receiver from Bitty and asked Will if he preferred sage green or sea foam on the guest-room walls. Then Uncle Joe got on the kitchen extension and asked if the future houseguest played bridge.
Iâll fill you in when I see you. Then Willâs cell phone broke up and the connection was lost seconds later. Jared would have asked why the woman was making a three-day train trip instead of flying to Great Falls, which was what Will would do tomorrow to get home for Christmas.
He also would have asked how Will met her. And why heâd invited her to spend Christmas at the ranch, but Will was famous for inviting people to visit Graystone. His brother, always the adventurer, collected friends wherever he traveled. But heâd never invited one lone womanâone designated for special treatmentâhome until now.
So the next afternoon, after trying three times to call his brother and getting only Willâs voice mail, Jared drove the hundred and sixty miles north to Havre, a good-size town just south of the Canadian border, to meet a stranger. A stranger his younger brother called âspecial.â Heâd practically had to hogtie his mother to the kitchen table to keep her from making the trip, but heâd needed to take the truck and he didnât think either woman would be comfortable riding for three hours in the back section of the king cab.
