Brenda Harlen - A Maverick under the Mistletoe

Award-winning author Brenda Harlen returns to Rust Creek Falls for a holiday homecoming to remember in the newest installment of Montana Mavericks: Rust Creek Cowboys!

RUST CREEK RAMBLINGS

Readers, can you believe it? Sutter Traub is back in town! It’s been five years since that handsome wrangler took off for Seattle, but no one ’round here has forgotten. Especially not Paige Dalton, the devoted schoolteacher everyone thought he was going to marry….

Rumors abound. No one is quite sure what has brought Sutter home after all this time—or whether he is deserving of a second chance. But we are betting there’s a certain brown-eyed beauty with a special request on her Christmas list. Maybe the power of her forgiveness will bring the mighty maverick home for the holidays—and for good!

On the other hand, he knew it had been inevitable, that they had been moving inexorably toward this moment since he’d walked her home from the town hall debate earlier in the week.

One kiss—just to prove to himself that she didn’t have the same hold on him that she used to. Except that one kiss had proven him wrong. She tasted just like he remembered—right down to the cherry lip balm she’d favored when she was sixteen. Just one kiss, and he knew that he wanted her as much now as he’d always wanted her.

Maybe even more…

MONTANA MAVERICKS: RUST CREEK COWBOYS: Better saddle up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride!

Dear Reader,

I love reunion stories and I’ve loved the Montana Mavericks series since the beginning, so I was thrilled by the invitation to be part of this latest expansion of the continuity—Rust Creek Cowboys.

I grew up in a small town, where a five-minute trip to the corner store inevitably led to crossing paths with a friend or family member or acquaintance and resulted in a thirty-minute conversation. Rust Creek Falls is that kind of town, where everyone knows everyone else—and everyone knows at least something of the history between Sutter Traub and Paige Dalton.

But it is history—or so Paige has tried to convince herself. After all, Sutter left town five years earlier and she’s moved on with her life without him. But when he comes back to Rust Creek Falls, there is no denying the sparks that fly between the stable owner and the schoolteacher. Add in some holiday season ambience and Paige starts to wonder what might happen if she manages to get this Maverick under the Mistletoe!

I hope you enjoy their story.

Happy Reading!

Brenda Harlen

A Maverick under the Mistletoe

Brenda Harlen

www.millsandboon.co.uk

BRENDA HARLENis a former family law attorney turned work-at-home mum and national bestselling author who has written more than twenty books for Mills & Boon. Her work has been validated by industry awards (including an RWA Golden Heart ®Award and the RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award) and by the fact that her kids think it’s cool that she’s “a real author.”

Brenda lives in southern Ontario with her husband and two sons. When she isn’t at the computer working on her next book, she can probably be found at the arena, watching a hockey game. Keep up-to-date with Brenda on Facebook or send her an email at brendaharlen@yahoo.com.

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To Chris R., Christyne, Leanne, Karen and Vikki—

brainstormers, researchers and community planners

extraordinaire. Thanks for making the writing of this

book not just easier but a lot more fun.

To Susan Litman—for keeping us on track while still

letting us color outside of the lines. (And yes, I know

that’s a mixed metaphor :) )

With thanks also to my good friend Anna Perrin,

who always has the solutions to my last-minute plot

problems (even if I can’t always use them).

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

Epilogue

Chapter One

In Sutter Traub’s opinion, Rust Creek Falls was as irresistible—and fickle—as a woman. Once upon a time his heart had belonged to this town and he couldn’t have imagined ever living anywhere else. Then she’d turned him out and turned her back on him.

Just like the only woman he’d ever loved.

Of course, he’d come back when she’d needed him—the town, that was, not the woman. Because Paige Dalton had never needed him, and she wouldn’t ever ask for his help if she did, and thinking about her now was only going to stir up memories and feelings he didn’t want stirred up.

So he focused his attention on the reason that he was standing in the back corner of town hall now: the imminent election. When his brother Collin had recently announced his intention to run for mayor of Rust Creek Falls, Sutter had impulsively volunteered to be his campaign manager. Which had resulted in him spending a lot more time in town over the past few months than he’d ever intended when news of the floods had first brought him home, which meant that he wasn’t going back to Seattle before the last ballot was counted.

But for now he just wanted this debate to be over.

It was the last public face-off between the two mayoral candidates—Collin Traub and Nathan Crawford—before the citizens of Rust Creek Falls went to the polls on Thursday, and though it had just gotten underway, Sutter wished it was already done.

He couldn’t have said why, but he had an uneasy feeling about the event. It might have had something to do with Nate’s smug expression when they’d been setting up. It was as if he had something up his sleeve and, knowing the Crawfords, Sutter didn’t doubt it for a minute.

As the debate progressed, he gradually began to relax. Collin was comfortable in front of the crowd, answering questions easily and confidently. He had a clearly defined plan to return Rust Creek Falls to its former glory and he made sure the residents knew it. Nate focused more on the history of the town than its future, and more on why he was the better candidate to fix the problems than how he was going to do so. But both candidates were—at least to all outward appearances—respectful of one another, and the spectators seemed to be listening to each side.

But when Thelma McGee—the former mayor’s mother and moderator of the event—stood up to announce that the debate was finished, a member of the audience loudly pushed back his chair and rose to his feet.

A Crawford supporter, Sutter immediately suspected, and the gleam in Nate’s eyes made him think that there was nothing spontaneous about the man’s actions.

He was a military man in a dress uniform with his medals proudly displayed on his chest, and Sutter’s heart immediately began to pound. One sleeve of the man’s uniform hung loose because he had no arm to put through it. Not just a decorated veteran but a wounded war hero.