The Texas Rancher's Return

The Cowboy’s Second Chance

Black-sheep cowboy Gunner Buckton is home for one reason—to keep Blue Thorn Ranch in his family where it’s been for generations. No one—not even Brooke Calder—will take it from him. The cute, down-home widow may not look like a slick developer, but she works for one. Along with her adorable daughter, she’s a threat to his homestead—and to his wounded heart. Brooke needs this job. Gunner may be as ornery as a bull, but it’s her task to win him over. The battle lines are drawn. Only problem is, around the handsome Texan, she doesn’t know which side she’s on.

He was one hundred percent cowboy…

…and he was shaking his head. “If you like your men principled like your late husband, I’m not going to look so good. I’m sorry I brought him up.”

“I’m glad you did. It’s silly to pretend he’s not here.”

“Is he?”

She knew what he meant. She’d thought the land development was the wedge between them; she hadn’t realized her late husband might be the true obstacle. “I don’t know.”

“When two male bison want the same female, they fight it out.”

“You’re ready to lock horns over me?”

“I know better than to lock horns with a memory. You said it—no one wins a standoff.”

Attraction warred with caution, making her heart pound and twist. “So now what?”

“We go back to the way things were. Bring on your persuasion campaign. But know this, darlin’—I won’t sell my land. Not now, not ever.”

She dragged her gaze away, looking at the awe-inspiring Texas pastures. She knew how he felt about his land. How did she feel about the cowboy?

ALLIE PLEITER, an award-winning author and RITA® Award finalist, writes both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion for knitting shows up in many of her books and all over her life. Entirely too fond of French macarons and lemon meringue pie, Allie spends her days writing books and avoiding housework. Allie grew up in Connecticut, holds a BS in speech from Northwestern University and lives near Chicago, Illinois.

The Texas Rancher’s Return

Return Allie Pleiter

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

—Ephesians 4:1

To Charlene

For so many breakfasts,

in the hopes of so many more

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Beverly Brown

and Donnis Baggett, the owners of the Lucky B Bison Ranch in Bryan, Texas. Their hospitality, enthusiasm, generosity in sharing information and tolerance of my endless questions have been some of the great blessings in writing this book.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

Acknowledgments

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

Dear Reader

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

“Could you please move your buffalo?”

Brooke Calder looked out her car windshield to squint suspiciously at the hairy brown beast currently staring down her hatchback. Buffalo didn’t charge, did they? Stampede, maybe, but she wasn’t about to get a set of horns impaled in her front grill, was she? She leaned out the driver’s-side window and smiled at the cowboy who had just ridden up beside her car.

The tall man tipped his hat with an amused grin and moved his horse closer to the car. “Daisy is a bison, ma’am. And she don’t always cooperate, so I hope you’re not in a hurry.”

She was. These days Brooke was always in a hurry.

She applied her sweetest community-relations voice. “As a matter of fact, I am. So if it’s not too much trouble, can you please get her off the road?” The bison’s human companion looked a bit scruffy around the edges—handsome, but definitely too young and rough-hewn to be one of the shiny-suited ranchers she often had to deal with as a community-relations specialist for DelTex Real Estate Developments. A ranch hand? Foreman, more likely. He sat his horse with a commanding air of power.

He leaned toward her, widening the grin. “I’d like to oblige, but Daisy may not be interested in playing nice today.”

Brooke couldn’t imagine what days bison chose to play nice. “Is she a wanderer?”

“No, just pregnant. Very. Mamas don’t usually stray away from the herd unless they’re looking for a quiet place to give birth.”

Daisy shifted her weight and gave a low, rumbling moan. Brooke didn’t know too many people who’d consider the middle of the road a dandy place for child—calf-birth. Buffalo—bison, Brooke corrected her thoughts, were supposed to be intelligent animals. She’d never win a strength battle of brute animal vs. compact car, so perhaps diplomacy was the way to go here. She leaned out the window to speak in a direct, friendly address. “Congratulations, Daisy. If you’d be so kind as to move, I want to get home to my little girl, too. I’m sure you understand, so could you give me a couple of feet to ease on by?” The ground on either side of the road was muddy, and Brooke didn’t want to chance getting stuck by going off-road in a car definitely not designed for off-roading.