Jeannie Watt - All For A Cowboy

A bigger challenge than she expected!

Shae McArthur once had it all. Perfect job, perfect fiancé. And when she lost everything, it was her own fault. Now she’s starting from scratch with one last project—turning the Bryan Ranch around. If she succeeds, maybe she can pick up the pieces of her former life.

The only problem is the ranch’s stubborn—and captivating—owner, Jordan Bryan. He’s fighting Shae on every change. What gives? True, his scars prove Shae’s not the only one starting over. Still, shouldn’t he, of all people, be able to see beyond the surface? Because she thinks maybe they could be each other’s perfect new beginning….

Jordan stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of her

No. Way.

The rodeo queen? Something else he’d held in his brain without realizing it. The memory of high and mighty Shae McArthur’s face—living proof that beauty was only skin deep. There’d never been one thing about her that he’d liked during the years they’d been on the rodeo team together…except for maybe that time she’d come on to him. He’d enjoyed her utterly shocked expression when he turned her down cold. She’d needed to be knocked off her high horse and he’d been glad to do the job. Literally, in fact.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded.

Shae blinked as he spoke, letting her hands drop a few inches. He could see when recognition kicked in, followed almost immediately by a look of horror. Of course. Beauty and the Beast. Face-to-face. As he recalled, Shae wasn’t too fond of the imperfect. Nothing but the best for her.

“Good to see you, too, Jordan,” she said huskily.

Dear Reader,

In the first installment of The Montana Way series, Once a Champion (Mills & Boon Superromance, June 2013), I created a monster—a Bridezilla, to be exact. In that book, Shae McArthur was an overachiever who’d been spoiled by her widowed father and stepmother. She was utterly self-absorbed and clueless as to the effect her actions had on other people.

I must be honest—it’s a lot of fun writing clueless and self-absorbed people, and I had a ball creating Shae. The only problem was that Bridezilla Shae was to be the heroine of the third book in the series—this book—so I had to figure out a way to redeem her. The best course of action seemed to be to destroy her world as she knows it (sorry, Shae, but it’s for your own good) and to force her to take a long, hard look at herself. So in a blink of an eye, Shae no longer has a fiancé or a job. She’s struggling to pay wedding bills and fighting to convince her boss to hire her back. Things are no longer coming easily to Shae, and it’s an eye opener.

Enter the hero. Jordan Bryan just wants to be left alone to heal. The survivor of a bombing while serving in the military, he’s dealing with physical and emotional scars. He retreats to the Montana ranch he inherited during his convalescence, only to discover perfection-loving Shae McArthur working there. Well, he’s not so perfect anymore, but neither is Shae, and he starts to feel a connection with the woman he’d written off as beautiful but superficial years ago…and he’s not certain what to do about that.

I like writing characters with issues, and Shae and Jordan gave me a lot to work with. These two have ended up being some of my favorite characters ever. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them. For more information about me and my books, or to contact me, please visit my website at www.jeanniewatt.com.

Take care and happy reading,

Jeannie Watt

All for a Cowboy

Jeannie Watt

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeannie Watt lives in rural Nevada with her husband, horses and ponies, and she teaches high school in a small combined school close to the Nevada-Oregon border. When she’s not teaching or writing, Jeannie enjoys sewing retro fashions and reports on her new projects regularly in her blog, Retro Sewing Romance Writer. She also makes mosaic mirrors, ignores housework as much as possible and is thrilled to be married to a man who cooks.

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To my editor, Piya Campana.

I liked The Montana Way stories when I turned them in. I loved them after you shared your insights and helped me tweak, edit and overhaul. Thank you so very much!

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

EPILOGUE

Extract

CHAPTER ONE

WAS THERE ANY way she could wear sunglasses all day?

Shae McArthur tipped the dark glasses down and tilted the rearview mirror so she could see her eyes. Dreadful. As if she’d been crying all night. More like crying for a week, to the point that even if she wanted to cry again, she’d have no tears left. The last registry had been canceled, the last deposit surrendered, all the many details involved in calling off a wedding dealt with—to a degree. There was still the matter of informing friends and extended family.

And the embarrassment. No, make that the flat-out humiliation.

Shae lowered her head to the steering wheel, summoning strength. She wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and shut out the world for...oh...ever, but she had a huge presentation that day, which she would give with swollen eyes. In an effort to distract, she’d slicked her long dark hair into a barrette at the back of her neck and worn a bright red dress and chunky jewelry, hoping to draw the eye away from her puffy face.

Shae pushed the sunglasses back into place and opened the Audi door. At least she could wear them until she got to her cubicle. Forcing her lips into a semismile, she crossed the parking lot and pushed through the front door of Cedar Creek Enterprises: Guest Ranch Division—not to be confused with Cedar Creek Enterprises: Real Estate Division one door over.

“Way to take surprise vacation days,” Gerald Bruffett muttered as he crossed in front of her carrying a presentation board.

“It couldn’t be helped,” Shae replied.

“Floral emergency?” he called back to her as he disappeared into the conference room. Shae ignored him and walked on. Her part of the presentation had been completed before she’d left for her sister’s wedding—and the worst day of her life—exactly one week ago. She was prepared. Sort of. The fine-tuning she’d hoped to do the past week hadn’t been done, but if there was one thing Shae was good at, it was winging it. Heaven knew she’d done it enough over the past year.

“What happened to you?” Melinda Brody asked as soon as Shae walked around the cubicle wall. So much for red dresses and chunky jewelry—or sunglasses, for that matter—distracting anyone.

“Allergies.”

“Since when have you had allergies?”

“Last Sunday,” Shae said darkly as she shoved her purse into the bottom drawer of her desk. Mel had known her for far too long to be fooled by a lame excuse. She’d also been her only friend to decline the invitation to become a bridesmaid, because she spent every moment of her free time studying for a law degree. Shae sat and pulled off the sunglasses, surprised at how shaky she was—she who breezed through situations ordinary people hung back from.