Blizzard of Love E-Book

Erin Wright

• Herausgeber: Erin Wright
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Enjoy this cowboy series by USA Today Bestselling small-town romance author Erin Wright…
A country boy who hates Christmas for a reason, dammit…
When cowboy Luke Nash runs into Stetson Miller down at the feed store, he never expects his friend to strong-arm him into spending Christmas at the Miller farm. Luke has no patience for Christmas cheer or Yuletide song.
And the rugged cowboy  definitely has no desire to kiss a girl under the mistletoe…no matter how infuriatingly pretty she might be.
A city girl who loves Christmas…
Bonnie Patterson adores Christmas, so when her best friend Jennifer invites her to spend Christmas at the Miller farm, she jumps at the chance. When she sets out for the snowy small town, she has visions dancing in her head of cozy nights by a crackling fire, not of a hot cowboy with an ice-cold heart.
The Storm of the Century…
Instead of a peaceful holiday in the country, Bonnie gets stranded at the Miller farm by a blizzard. Even worse, she’s snowed-in with Luke, an arrogant, impossible, but damn sexy cowboy.
When the sparks fly, will two people who are oh-so-different find their own Christmas miracle?
Blizzard of Love is the second book in the Cowboys of Long Valley Romance series, although all books in the Long Valley world can be read as standalones. A sweeter romance with minimal sex and mild language, a happily ever after is guaranteed. Enjoy!

Leseprobe

Blizzard of Love

A Christmas Holiday Western Romance

Cowboys of Long Valley Romance

Book Two

Erin Wright

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Arrested by Love - Ch 1

The Other Half of My Life

A FREE Story For You…

Stampede of Love Blurb

Stampede of Love Preview

The story doesn’t end…

Also by Erin Wright

About Erin Wright

Copyright © 2016 by Erin Wright

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be constructed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Richard B. Smith & Felix Bernard © 1934 – Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Bing Crosby © 1943 – I’ll Be Home for Christmas

Cover Designed by Sunset Rose Books

To my own cowboy:

Thanks for not making me move to Arizona. You know I’d rather be cold than hot any day of the week.

Chapter 1

Luke

Quick Note: If you enjoy Blizzard of Love, be sure to check out my offer of a FREE Long Valley novella at the end.

With that, enjoy!

* * *

December, 2016

Luke Nash wandered down the aisle of Frank’s Feed & Fuel, looking for a new halter for his mare. He didn’t need a new halter, of course – he had a half dozen for her already – but dammit all, he was tired of being holed up at home. Usually, he could go weeks at a time out on his farm, ignoring the outside world, but lately, he’d started getting antsy.

It was probably because Christmas was coming, the most hated time of the year. The music, the bells, the lights, and worst of all, the fake cheerfulness that just meant that someone was trying to sell something to him. It was a sham, a marketing scheme.

And yet, how did he escape it? Shopping, with his dog no less, two days before Christmas.

It was like a cruel joke played on him by the universe.

With a sigh, he dismissed the halter choices and wandered over into the hardware department to eyeball new cupboard handles. Maybe he should remodel his kitchen this winter. That would give him something to do. Countertops and cupboard handles would make a world of difference to how his kitchen looked. He could⁠—

“Hey, Luke!”

The greeting broke into his thoughts, startling him, and he whirled around to see his best friend, Stetson Miller.

“Did I give you a heart attack?” Stetson said, grinning.

“Oh hell, if Carmelita doesn’t stop feeding you cinnamon rolls every morning, she’s going to be the one giving you a heart attack,” Luke volleyed back. Carmelita was Stetson’s housekeeper/cook extraordinaire, a surrogate mother after Stetson’s mom died when they were in junior high.

And based on the roundness of Stetson’s stomach, it looked like she was trying to fatten him up like a Christmas goose.

“Damn, you should see Jennifer,” Stetson said. “She’s fattening up real nice.”

Luke bit back his grin. He was pretty sure Stetson’s pregnant wife would not be happy if she heard her husband say that.

“So, what are you and ol’ Willie doing for Christmas?” Stets asked.

Luke just stared blankly at him for a moment. Doing for Christmas? That made it sound like he was going to go out caroling or something. And with ol’ Willie to boot. The idea of his crusty, old farmhand singing Christmas songs was ridiculous, and Stetson knew it.

“What if you headed over to my house for the weekend?” Stetson continued when Luke didn’t – couldn’t – say anything. “Might as well take advantage of the fact that Christmas is on a Sunday this year. Carmelita would love to have someone else to hover over and cook for.”

Luke contemplated a whole weekend of Carmelita’s cooking – hams and gingerbread cookies and mashed potatoes and oh God, pies – against the idea of actually having to celebrate Christmas this year, instead of just treating it like any other day of the year.

His stomach rumbled, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten anything but a piece of toast with peanut butter on it all day. Well, toast and lots and lots of coffee.

Stetson heard the rumble and laughed. “I’m going to take that as a yes. Come over as soon as you can. I’ll tell Carma to set another plate at the table.” Without waiting for a reply, he turned and headed for the cash register, a roll of copper wire in his hands.

Luke stared at his retreating back for just a moment, sighing in an odd combination of frustration and humor, and then snapped his fingers. Sticks, his black lab, headed back towards him from where he’d been alternatively sniffing and then licking the dog food bags. “Come on, boy, let’s go get our stuff. You get to guard the Miller farm this weekend.” Sticks wagged his tail with delight and trotted along behind Luke, his toenails clicking on the floor as they went.

Luke was only a little bit surprised that he’d somehow been shanghaied into spending Christmas with Stetson, without ever giving his consent to the idea. Stetson was a force of nature, and worse yet, he knew that Luke had nothing to go home to, no one to please. He knew the truth about Luke’s pathetic life, and so Luke couldn’t even offer socially acceptable white lies about being too busy to come over.

Dammit, sometimes it was a pain in the ass to have a best friend who knew him so well. Sticks jumped into the bed of the truck and Luke gave him a quick pat on the head before sliding into the cab.

It was time to go pack some clothes and then go eat Stetson out of house and home. At least he could exact his revenge on Stets for his high-handedness that way. Served him right.

Chapter 2

Bonnie

Bonnie Patterson walked into the house, her arms full of purchases. Without her family in town for Christmas, she’d had shockingly few people to go Christmas shopping for this year, so she’d ended up shopping for herself instead. She now had a new lamp for her nightstand, a shower curtain for the bathroom, and an adorable red peacoat, all curtesy of the thrift store. She couldn’t afford shopping elsewhere, and anyway, she liked the hunt – the thrill of finding something great in amongst all of the junk.

Her phone began vibrating in her pocket and, after pulling it out and checking caller ID, she swiped to the right and shoved it between her shoulder and cheek.

“Hey, Jennifer!” she said enthusiastically as she began unloading her bags. “It’s been so long since we’ve talked – I was just thinking about how much I missed you. How’s it going up in Sawyer?”

Jennifer, her closest friend in the world, had married some cowboy just a couple of months earlier and had moved to Long Valley of all places, some tiny podunk corner of the world where people still honest-to-God canned their own food every fall and intentionally listened to country music. It was a world that Bonnie couldn’t help catching a glimpse of occasionally, living in Boise, Idaho as she did, but still, Sawyer just seemed so…quaint.

The kind of thing you saw on a postcard but didn’t think still really existed.

Well, not in real life.

“Awww…” Jennifer said, a smile in her voice. “I’ve missed you, too. Things have been awesome up here. Things are starting to settle down now that harvest is done. You can’t grow anything in a foot of snow!”

“A foot?” Bonnie repeated, stunned. Surely she was kidding. There was only a skiff of snow on the ground outside Bonnie’s apartment, and Sawyer and Boise were only 90 minutes apart. How was it possible that so much snow had fallen up there?

“Yeah, I think it’s snowed more up here in the last month than it did all last winter in Boise. I really like it right now; you’ll have to ask me in February if I still feel that way or if I’m starting to go a little snow-crazy.” She laughed and Bonnie couldn’t help smiling in return. It was amazing how much better the world seemed with Jennifer in it. “How’s work going?”

“Ugh,” Bonnie groaned, and then laughed. “About that good. I can’t believe you and I worked so hard to get our degrees in accounting so we could be this miserable at work. Well, so I could be so miserable. How’re you doing with the handsome hubby?”

“Good!” The love and cheerfulness in Jennifer’s voice rang through and Bonnie knew Jenn meant it. Of course, she was married to a drop-dead gorgeous cowboy and no longer had to put up with a boss from hell, so Bonnie supposed that she was genuinely just that happy.

Lucky.

“Anyway, are you doing anything fun with your family for Christmas?”

Bonnie grimaced, glad her friend couldn’t see her expression. “No,” she said, struggling to keep her voice light and airy, while lying for all she was worth. “Mom and Dad – well, Mom, and then Dad went along with it because he wanted to make her happy – decided to take everyone and go to Hawaii for Christmas. Palm trees and walks along the beach just doesn’t sound Christmassy to me, so I opted out of the trip.”

Bonnie was pretty sure lightning was going to strike her apartment for such a blatant lie, but was surprised when nothing happened. Maybe God wasn’t paying attention to her just then, which was probably just as well. She wasn’t sure if she had lightning strikes for lies in her rental insurance coverage.

“Oh Bonnie, I’m so sorry to hear that. Listen, why don’t you come up here? Sawyer has plenty of pine trees and craggy mountains, so I’m pretty sure it passes your ‘Must look Christmassy’ test. It’s been a week since the last snowstorm, so the roads are all cleared now and anyway, I’m sure Stetson and Carmelita would love having someone else here for Christmas.”

“Really? I wouldn’t be an imposition?”

“Of course not! Wyatt can’t come for Christmas, of course, and Declan is mad at Stetson for not being more forgiving, so it was just going to be Stetson, me, and Carmelita for Christmas. The little one isn’t due until April, so we can’t count on that quite yet.” She laughed. “You should come up tonight and spend the weekend here. Take advantage of the fact that Christmas is on a Sunday. Do you have Monday off too?”

“I do – even Boss McScrooge agreed that there was no client on the planet who would be demanding numbers on December 26th.”

Jennifer’s joyful laughter spilled out of the phone’s speaker. “Well, maybe you should upgrade him to Boss McScrooge Lite just for that.”

“Let’s not get crazy,” Bonnie grumbled as she tried to fight back her own laughter. Jenn could always make her grin. Ever since they met in the Survey of Federal Income Taxation class, which sounded as awful as it really was, they’d been drawn together – a perfect match of fun and laughter. Jennifer had moved in soon afterwards, living on Bonnie’s couch for two years while they worked their way through Boise State University to get their degrees.

It was how Jennifer had managed to escape from Paul, her ex and a man so vile, Bonnie never could understand Jenn’s attraction to him.

Not everyone has the benefit of hindsight. And hey, she doesn’t make fun of you for Ryan, so…