Tina Leonard - The Renegade Cowboy Returns

“If You’re Selling Something, I’m Not Buying, Cowboy.”

They weren’t the warmest words of welcome for Gage Phillips, who’s just been named overseer of Dark Diablo ranch. On top of that, the Texas rover recently found out he’s a father. The last thing he needs is a woman ordering him around, not to mention driving him crazy with desire…especially now that he’s thinking about mending his footloose ways.

Ireland seems a long way from Chelsea’s new life on the Callahans’ New Mexico spread—which now includes a teenage girl and her father: a raffish Texas cowboy with a slow, easy grin who’s throwing temptation squarely in Chelsea’s path!

But a proposal? Gage surprises even himself with that one. It’s strictly business—so Chelsea can get her citizenship. Or maybe not. Because as far as Gage is concerned she’s already hooked one ready and willing renegade!

“I’m really happy you’re willing to marry me, Chelsea.”

Slowly she reached out to take the box. “What are we doing, Gage?”

He looked into her eyes. “Being expedient, I guess.”

“You need me, I need you.”

He nodded. “I hope you need me. I sure as hell need you.”

“Because of Cat.”

Not replying, he leaned to slip the ring on her finger where it sparkled and shone, catching the hot Texas sunlight spilling in from the window. Three round ovals glittered at her, more beautiful than anything she’d ever owned.

“Cat says there are three diamonds, one for each of us, all on the same band forever,” Gage said.

“She’s so sweet,” Chelsea whispered, touched.

“Are you marrying me because of my child?” Gage asked.

“Yes,” Chelsea said, and he laughed.

“Good. For a while there, I thought you might be marrying me for me,” Gage teased.

“Cowboy, you think too much of yourself.”

Dear Reader,

The thing about writing a series is that sometimes it’s hard to let a particular place or family go. And so it is with the Callahan Cowboys, six brothers who lured me in with their sense of adventure and die-hard commitment to stay single. I thought it would be fun to see what happened to Irish Chelsea Myers, who had once upon a time been engaged to the eldest Callahan brother, Jonas. Now Chelsea is house-sitting at Dark Diablo, where she can write her mysteries in peace. However, a cowboy shows up on her porch one day with his teenage daughter, a child he has just discovered is his. Peace and quiet is not to be the rule of the land, as Chelsea is about to find out! Not to mention that the cowboy is kind of stubborn, incredibly hot and definitely determined to be the best father he can be. A pretty irresistible combination for a woman who always secretly wanted a man who’s larger than life, even if she thought she was content to live her adventures on the pages of her own books.

I so hope you enjoy The Renegade Cowboy Returns. I fell in love with the town of Tempest, and the wonderfully patchwork-quilted family that the little farmhouse in Dark Diablo, New Mexico, shelters from life’s storms. It’s my greatest wish that you, too, will enjoy this “bonus” book—along with one other—as just-can’t-say-goodbye stories to the Callahan Cowboys series!

Happy summer and the best of beach reading to you!

Tina

www.tinaleonard.com www.facebook.com/tinaleonardbookswww.twitter.com/tina_leonard

The Renegade Cowboy Returns

Tina Leonard

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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 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.

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The Renegade

Cowboy Returns

Many thanks to Roberta Brown of the Roberta Brown Agency, who has been such a wonderful guide for the past year and a half—I can’t thank you enough. I wish I knew all the names of the wonderful, magical people at Harlequin who shape the final product that becomes a Tina Leonard book, but they are numerous and work in the unspecified and sometimes unthanked shadows—heartfelt appreciation for your unstinting care. Kathleen Scheibling gently keeps me focused, and Laura Barth is kind enough to always have a cheery word. Much love to my family, who are simply my rock, and also to the awesome readers who have my sincere thanks for supporting my work with such amazing generosity and enthusiasm. I am quite blessed.

I would also like to thank someone who will never read this dedication, as he cannot, since he is a dog. Bailey, my angel, as I write this note on the eve of Christmas Eve, I would like to say thank you for all the wonderful times you kindly lay in the room with me as I wrote, and then gave me a gentle nudge to go out and take a walk with you. You raised my children and me and even my husband with joyous kindness. The past six years have been such a blessing, and I will always be grateful to the Golden Retriever rescue society for granting us your golden goodness. I know you won’t be here when this book is published, and so, in your honor, I’d like to tell everyone that the best friend they could ever have is an angel from the rescue of their choice. Alternatively, a wonderful gift that keeps on giving is a donation to a rescue society. I love you, and we miss you terribly already.

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

Chapter Nineteen

Epilogue

Chapter One

“What’s past is prologue”

–The Tempest by William Shakespeare

The secret to Gage Phillips’s happy existence was ridiculously simple: stay far away from women, specifically those who had marriage on their mind.

He put his duffel on the porch of the New Mexico farmhouse and looked around. The rebuilding project he’d taken on for Jonas Callahan was perfectly suited for a man who gloried in solitude. Gage knew his formula for a drama-free, productive lifestyle seemed oversimplified to some people, especially ladies who wanted to show him how much better life could be in a permanent relationship with a good woman. Yet he was thirty-five and a die-hard, footloose cowboy—testament to remaining single being the best choice a man could ever make on this earth, besides finding the right career and spending hard-earned cash on a dependable truck.

He hadn’t always been die-hard and footloose. Fourteen years ago he’d been at the altar, and fourteen years ago he’d learned a valuable lesson: marriage was not for him.