Ann Evans - Temporary Rancher

He laid his mouth gently against the slight rise of an almost-healed blister. It felt so warm, and was ridiculously like some heady perfume. When he kissed it, he heard Riley drag in a deep breath of her own.

“Quintin…”

“I know,” he said in a slow, husky voice. He lifted his head to catch her gaze. Her mouth was parted, and she was frowning. “Insane, isn’t it?”

“I—” The word was a trembling sigh, barely more than a whisper. She wet her lips. When she tugged her hand away, he released it immediately. “I think I should get back to the men.”

He watched her walk away from the shadows and back into the soft light where the cowboys stood. Watched her, and thought how much he had liked what happened. How he had enjoyed it more than he had anything in a long, long time.

But what he’d done had made a difficult situation even more so, and he couldn’t help but realize how foolish he’d been.

Dear Reader,

By the time I finished writing That Last Night in Texas, I had developed quite a fondness for Ethan’s business partner and best friend, Quintin Avenaco. As the story evolved, I grew more and more interested in exploring his tragic past and what had brought him to this point in his life. So when my editor asked if I might like to write about Quintin, I was ready.

Unfortunately, that’s where my muse deserted me. I knew what Quintin’s goals for himself were. But for the life of me, I couldn’t imagine the kind of woman who could bring him out of his painful past and make him willing to face the world again. Weeks went by, and I began to wonder if I’d ever find her.

Then I came across a magazine article about a group of people who had lost their jobs as a result of the economy. They had been brought to the lowest point in their lives, but instead of giving up, they reevaluated the talents they had developed, the strengths they could tap into, the dreams they had left behind as too impractical. Instead of trying to find a new position in their chosen fields, they channeled their efforts into creating new careers for themselves. Some of them succeeded on a grand scale. Others had to adjust to earning a bit less money, but they were far happier than they’d ever been in their old jobs.

I thought a woman with that kind of brave, single-minded purpose might work well as my heroine and make an excellent match for a loner like Quintin. So that’s how Riley Palmer came to life—a divorced mother of twins who is desperately determined to make a good life for her children, even if she has to persuade a lonely, no-nonsense cowboy like Quintin that she will make an excellent ranch manager for him.

I hope you enjoy Quintin and Riley’s journey. Please don’t hesitate to contact me at eannbair@gmail.com or visit my Facebook page. I love to hear from readers.

All the best,

Ann Evans

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Ann Evans has been writing since she was a teenager, but it wasn’t until she joined Romance Writers of America that she actually sent anything to a publisher. Eventually, with the help of a very good critique group, she honed her skills and won a Golden Heart from Romance Writers of America for Best Short Contemporary Romance of 1989. Since then, she’s happy to have found a home writing for the Harlequin Superromance line. A native Floridian, Ann enjoys traveling, hot-fudge sundaes and collecting antique postcards.

Times are tough right now.

This book is dedicated to anyone who has hit

their own rough patch in life and found the

courage to climb to their feet and fight again.

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

THE COMPUTER SCREEN glowed in the darkened shadows of the living room. Riley Palmer stared at it, wondering why she couldn’t seem to hit the email send button.

“Do it, Riley,” she muttered softly. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Do it for Wendy and Roxanna and yourself. Do it for the National Organization for Women. Just do it!”

Her fingers hovered over the mouse as she tried to find courage.

Tonight her sister’s small apartment felt cozy, but foreign somehow. Both the girls were sound asleep in Jillian’s spare bedroom—as they should be this close to two in the morning. Her sister had gone to bed after the late news. The place was so quiet Riley thought she could hear her wristwatch ticking.

It was the perfect time to think about making life-changing decisions, the perfect time to work through her thoughts in peace and quiet, and she’d spent the past two hours doing just that. So why couldn’t she send this email?

She knew that some of her reluctance was because her email wasn’t completely honest. She hadn’t lied, exactly. Just embroidered a little. Considering the current job market, who didn’t do that when they applied for work these days?

Desperation made a powerful motivator. She’d been divorced from Brad for almost a year, but she was still sleeping on the couch in her sister’s apartment while the twins took the second bedroom. Jillian had been an angel about all of them sharing such tight quarters, but it wasn’t right.

Riley needed a job. She needed decent money coming in. Most of all, she needed a home for her eight-year-olds, Wendy and Roxanna. The decision to leave their father had been hard enough on the girls. They deserved stability. Security. Faith that their mother could provide for them. So if that meant adding a few embellishments to her résumé and omitting one big, stupid drawback that shouldn’t even be an issue… Well, so be it.

And really, would Charlie Bigelow ever steer her wrong intentionally? He’d been friends with her family for nearly forty years. He’d helped Riley and Jillian plan their parents’ funeral after the accident, guided them through probate, even walked Riley down the aisle. All those times when Brad had left her on the ranch to figure out things for herself, hadn’t Charlie been the one she’d turned to for advice?

If he thought this Quintin Avenaco guy would make a fair boss, and she’d be a great ranch manager for him, then who was she to disagree? Charlie didn’t just know livestock. He knew people.

Riley had always been a little impulsive, and in the past had made a few foolish decisions she’d been forced to live with. But this was a chance she had to take. She couldn’t stand the idea of spending another week searching for a job and coming up empty-handed. With that thought, she surrendered to impulse and clicked the send button before she could change her mind. The email zipped into cyberspace. “There you go, Quintin Avenaco of Beaumont, Texas. You’ve got mail, cowboy.”

Almost immediately she had second thoughts. She should have checked her résumé one more time, tried to find a way to honestly address the only problem she could see that might get her a big fat no right off the bat.

She placed her hands on either side of the screen. “I take it back! Give me a do over, darn it.”

“So now you’re talking to yourself?”

Riley nearly yelped out loud. She turned to find her sister at her shoulder, yawning. “Geez. You scared the life out of me.”