The Cowboy from Christmas Past
Dillinger Kent is getting ready for a lonely Christmas on his Texas ranch. All that changes the night the widowed gunslinger hears an infant's wails…and is swept into a time and town definitely not his own. After ditching her fiancé at the altar, Auburn McGinnis is on the run, trying to figure out how to hold on to her family's perfume company.The rough-and-tumble stranger who just showed up with a baby girl in tow could be the hired gun–and protector–she needs. At first, all Dillinger wanted was to get back to his ranch. But with the resourceful, enchanting Auburn in his life, the twenty-first century is looking better and better.Have they both found what they're looking for? A love that transcends time?
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He was a delicious specimen
Dark hair flowed to the nape of his neck; black brows scowled over denim-blue eyes that seemed confused yet missed nothing.
He was a good six foot four to her five-four, yet he moved gracefully, even holding a baby. She could only hope he looked as good when he took off his costume.
What was it about her and bad boys, the rougher/tougher, the better? She’d snatched him before any other “lady” in the show could—never let it be said that Auburn McGinnis ran from all men. Just the last man. And she planned to keep running, with this baby and her handsome daddy, if her lucky stars were out tonight.
Dear Reader,
I do love writing Christmas stories, and this one is my favorite yet. What fun to write about a man and a woman who find each other through impossible odds and different centuries!
I’ve often wondered what it would be like to experience a different time and place, so getting to put myself into the lives of a hero and heroine in nineteenth-century Texas was a thrilling adventure. I’m a big believer in angels, ghosts and blessings that get passed down through time, so living in Christmas River with Dillinger and Auburn—and Rose and Polly—gave me a special sense of hope and affirmation that the ones we love are always very much with us.
I hope you enjoy The Cowboy from Christmas Past, and spending the holiday season in Christmas River. Blessings to you all at this wonderful, miraculous time of year!
Always much love,
Tina Leonard
The Cowboy from Christmas Past
Tina Leonard
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tina Leonard is a bestselling author of more than forty projects, including a popular thirteen-book miniseries for Harlequin American Romance. Her books have made the Waldenbooks, Ingram’s and Nielsen BookScan bestseller lists. Tina feels she has been blessed with a fertile imagination and quick typing skills, excellent editors and a family who loves her career. Born on a military base, she lived in many states before eventually marrying the boy who did her crayon printing for her in the first grade. Tina believes happy endings are a wonderful part of a good life. You can visit her at www.tinaleonard.com.
Special thanks to Anne Stuart—
brainstorming this idea with you was so much fun! Many thanks to the members of the Tina Leonard’s Nightstand newsletter for being so enthusiastic about this story, and also to Georgia Haynes for editing. Much, much gratitude goes to the very loyal readers who graciously and faithfully support my career. And as always, Lisa, Dean and Tim— you are the love behind my writing.
Contents
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
Epilogue
Chapter One
Somewhere in the Texas Panhandle, Christmas
season of 1892
For Dillinger Kent, retired gunslinger, life was quiet on his thousand-acre spread on the outskirts of the Texas Panhandle town of Christmas River. Winter with its promise of bitter cold and occasional snow, unlike the rest of the state, made his solitary lifestyle even more remote. Springtime brought fullness to his ranch, with trees and grasses dressing the stark landscape in glorious greens; summer and fall brought their own lustrous hues to warm the countryside.
But the Christmas season was a harbinger of the icy cocoon soon to envelop him for the next three months. It was the middle of December, and deep winter crept closer.
He’d chosen a life of loneliness when he’d lost his wife, Polly Hartskill Kent. They’d made plans for a family out here, a big home to raise them in. Christmas on the ranch, Polly said, would be so much fun with lots of little feet running around. Polly had a beautiful soul and Dillinger had loved her as he would never love anyone again. But his darling wife had taken ill with pneumonia during the last Christmas season, and having a beautiful soul hadn’t saved her.
He picked up a self-portrait Polly had drawn for him, which he’d put in a wooden frame. She was luminous, even in charcoal. Her kindness and grace of spirit was captured in the lines of her likeness. He set the picture down and picked up a pair of small, dangling earrings with tiny golden bells. They were delicate, like Polly. He’d given them to her two Christmases ago, a wedding gift he’d picked up on his last trip to California. She’d been thrilled with them, giggling when they lightly tinkled at her ears. The earrings felt like a tiny memory between his rough fingers. He would never give them to another woman, would never part with them.
Dillinger forced his mind away from Polly. He wondered if he might go crazy one day in this isolated countryside. But he knew it was just the date on the calendar he’d bought at Gin’s Feed Store that was making him maudlin. He’d make it to springtime—he swore that he would. He curled his fingers around the earrings, then set them back on the desk, barely able to turn them loose.
