Kristine Rolofson - 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 Melanie’s 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 America’s 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! I’d 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 didn’t feel well, that I couldn’t 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 home—or the person cleaning it for those much-loved guests—I 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

HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION

842—A WIFE FOR OWEN CHASE

850—A BRIDE FOR CALDER BROWN

858—A MAN FOR MAGGIE MOORE

877—THE BABY AND THE BACHELOR

A Montana Christmas

Kristine Rolofson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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To Marje, George, Phyllis and Nancy, the Rolofson siblings who have always made me feel part of the family.

WHAT CHILD IS THIS? WHAT CHILD IS THIS?

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

EPILOGUE

Monday, December 16

Havre, Montana

TAKE GOOD CARE OF HER.

Those were Will’s words on the phone. Well, of course he would do as Will asked. That’s 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 she’s special. Jared wished he’d 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 wasn’t able to add much about his mysterious guest, but everyone at the ranch assumed that Will had finally found a woman. A special woman. He’d said so himself, hadn’t 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.

I’ll fill you in when I see you. Then Will’s 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 he’d 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 he’d never invited one lone woman—one designated for special treatment—home until now.

So the next afternoon, after trying three times to call his brother and getting only Will’s 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 “special.” He’d practically had to hogtie his mother to the kitchen table to keep her from making the trip, but he’d needed to take the truck and he didn’t think either woman would be comfortable riding for three hours in the back section of the king cab.

“I’ll have dinner ready then,” Jenna Stone declared, with a sideways glance at Aunt Bitty, who was busy plugging her radio into a receptacle above the counter. “I wouldn’t have minded getting out of the house for a while, though.”

“No,” he’d said, figuring the next suggestion would be for Jenn to meet the train by herself, and with the way the sky looked, they were in for snow. And a lot of it. They might need the four-wheel-drive truck, and his mother’s Explorer was in the shop getting new brakes and wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow.

Jared continued searching through the crowds and looking for a special-looking woman who might or might not be wearing a red coat. He should have brought one of those signs chauffeurs hold, and the thought made him smile.

He skirted the edge of the crowd and looked for someone who appeared to be waiting for a ride. A middle-aged woman with two small children sat on a bench, her suitcases piled around her. And a couple of college-age girls, expectant expressions on their pretty faces, stood on tiptoe and peered over the crowd. He caught a glimpse of a cherry-red coat and dark hair curling to a woman’s shoulders and hurried toward her. If she would only turn around, he thought, he could say something like, “Are you waiting for Jared Stone?”

She turned toward him, almost as if hearing his unspoken plea, and revealed pale skin, large eyes and a heart-shaped face that was nothing short of perfect. Her red coat, age and the expression on her face, as if she was waiting for help, made Jared feel as if he’d hit pay dirt.

She was lovely, a fragile-looking young woman who obviously needed rescuing. Her eyes widened when she spotted him a few feet away from her. Jared knew no one could deny the Stone family resemblance. He and Will both looked like their father, though Will was leaner. Jared smiled, but was stalled on his way to greet her as two elderly women shoved suitcases in his path and waved gloved hands toward the exit. Jared reached down to help them, earning the fluttering thanks of the Bailey sisters, old friends of his grandparents who had moved to Havre a few years back.