Texas Lover

By Katherine Garbera

Barrel rider Reba Duvall has been crushing on Nick Blue since the moment they met, but she kicked him to the friend zone to keep her heart from being bruised and battered by the charmer… until they turn to each other for comfort when their best friend dies. Reba knows it’s for one night only, but still, it hurts to wake up alone. But it turns out a memory is not all Nick left her with…

Nick Blue never guessed his father was one of the richest men in Texas. Or that he’d have to live in Whiskey River with two unknown brothers for a year to inherit his share of the family property. But hey, stranger things have happened, such as bumping into his friend and one time lover in that same town… the one he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about all this time. But running into Nick is not an accident. Reba has a plan. She wants baby Martina to know her father.

Reba may not know what she wants from Nick, but it sure isn’t a half-assed marriage proposal and sharing a luxurious bedroom at Kelly Ranch. She plans to keep things platonic. Can Nick convince her she needs more than one night with the playboy?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tule Publishing
• Release date: Sep 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781943963119

Katherine Garbera

Katherine Garbera is the USA Today Bestselling author of 127 novels. Brought up in a loving home where creativity was encouraged, she never considered writing as a career though she loved making up stories for her sisters and swim teammates. She married young and started her family and only when it was time for her to return to a career, she didn’t love did she start to think about writing as a way to stay home with her daughter. She began writing and submitting her manuscripts to publishers in 1993 and in 1996 made her first sale to Harlequin Books. The Bachelor Next Door was deeply emotional and sensual and led to Katherine being named as a Woman to Watch by Harlequin Books and later selected by Cosmo magazine as a Woman Who Does Everything. The book was translated into over 33 languages. To date, Katherine has published more than 100 novels including The Pirate, a Cosmopolitan Magazine selection as a Red Hot Read, His Royal Prize, a USA Today Bestseller and her Christmas novel Once Upon A Texas Christmas was chosen as a Christmas Must Read from Barnes&Noble. Library Journal said of her release Red Hot Texan: VERDICT Garbera’s new series launch, a delectable spin-off of her “Dangerous Delaneys” stories, hits all the right notes: a cozy, hometown setting, a sweet romance with genuine yet flawed characters, and a mildly sensuous atmosphere. A solid choice for Jodi Thomas fans. Reviewed by Kara Kohn, Sep 01, 2020. Her books deal with relationships in a realistic manner, dealing with problems that we all face including body image, self-doubt and falling for the wrong person. All of her books are passionate, emotional reads. Katherine is a Florida girl at heart and loves the sunshine and pedicures. She makes her home in Kent in the UK with her husband and is visited frequently by her snarky adult children. Her hobbies include art journaling, bookbinding, cooking, walking and shopping.

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Chapter One

It had been a little over a year since Marty Powell had gone three seconds on a bull named Loco, took a tumble off, snapped his neck and died. That could be why Nicholas Blue had woken up in a sweat. He knew that was the reason. He got dressed, got in his pickup truck and drove away from the Kelly Ranch into Whiskey River.

At two a.m. the town looked sleepy and quaint. But he hardly noticed any of it. He parked just off the main square and walked toward the statue that stood there. Booze Kelly. Town founder and his ancestor. Some days he still found it hard to believe he knew who his father was.

But he did.

Illegitimate son of a famous man. Somehow when he’d thought of a father when he’d been growing up it had never entered his mind that his dad might be someone important. But that’s life, right? Always throwing curve balls.

Nicholas?

He thought he heard Reba Duvall calling his name. That sweet barrel rider who’d been his friend for years and his lover for one night. That horrible night. But she’d been everything he needed. He’d let his guard down with her and, of course, since he never did that, had turned tail and run the next morning.

No man wanted to admit that a woman got the better of him.

Nicholas!

He glanced over his shoulder and saw her on the balcony of the Hell’s Half Acre Bed and Breakfast. What was Reba doing in Whiskey River? The building she was in was a renovated B&B that had once been the town’s most high-class bordello back in the 1890s.

Reba?

Yes. I thought I must have conjured you up, she said.

He noticed she wore a short nightie that ended at the top of her thighs. She looked good. Too good. His rule with women was to keep it light and simple. And nothing with Reba had ever been light or simple.

What are you doing here?

I came to find you, she admitted.

You did? he asked. Then shook his head. Life has been complicated lately.

It’s not done yet, she said. Want to come up? We need to talk.

If I come up we might not get to talking, he said.

He liked her. They’d slept together, and he had to admit this close to the anniversary of Marty’s death there was no one he wanted to be with more than Reba.

We’ll see, she said. She disappeared back into her room and then reappeared a moment later wearing a bathrobe. Here’s the key for the front door. Let yourself in and I’m in the Viola Room at the top of the stairs. I’ll wait in the hall. I don’t want you to disturb any of the other guests.

He nodded. He was good at sneaking in and out of bedrooms. She tossed him the key and he caught it. He looked up at her with just the moonlight shining down on her hair. It was thick and red and fell in long waves to her shoulders. When she rode, her hair sometimes fanned out behind her, and in the afternoon sun at times, it looked like flames.

Reba, I’m sorry.

Let’s talk when you get up here, she said.

The town square was old fashioned with a wooden sidewalk that linked all the buildings. The B&B door was easy to open with the key, and he carefully locked it behind him before walking up the stairs. She waited at the end of the hallway. The light from her room cast a glow around her, and he almost turned around and left.

The reasons were too numerous to name and too complicated, but he wanted to be with Reba in a way that was anything but simple. He knew it and didn’t want to admit it.

She disappeared back into her room, and he followed her inside, closing the door behind him.

As soon as he did he glanced around the room. It was dominated by a huge four-poster bed. An image of her writhing under him in Colorado flashed into his mind and his body reacted. Blood flowed heavily in his veins as he started to harden. He continued glancing around the room saw her open suitcase and then a crib.

Crib?

Um...what’s that?

That is why I asked you up here, she said. That’s your daughter.

Daughter? He asked. Even though he wasn’t a genius like Xander, his twin, he’d never felt stupid until this moment. He had a daughter? How? Hell, he knew how. But Marty’s death had shaken him, and the night he and Reba had been together had been raw.

Okay, talk to me.

Well, I realized after you left I was pregnant, and I kept waiting for you to show up on the rodeo circuit. Once I realized you weren’t, I went home to Oklahoma and had Martina.

You named her after Marty?

I figured you’d want that and he was my friend, too, Reba said.

Marty and Reba had grown up in the same town and in the early days the three of them had travelled together sometimes. A crazy version of the three musketeers.

Riding together in Marty’s beat-up Chevy pickup, towing Reba’s horse, Valiant, behind them. Sometimes the a/c would conk out and they’d have the windows down, all that hot, dusty air blowing through the cab, stirring Reba’s hair so that it would brush against his neck. Singing along to Chris LeDoux and just enjoying life. God he felt old tonight.

Now they had a daughter.

Martina.

He felt weak and glanced around for a chair. He tried to be nonchalant but doubted Reba bought it.

He had a daughter.

Martina.

He didn’t need to sit down; he needed to see his child. He’d always been careful with protection. Hadn’t wanted to leave a fatherless child in his wake the way his own dad had. But as he glanced down at Martina he realized that he wouldn’t change her for the world.

Reba tried her best to play it cool. But Nicholas Blue was in her bedroom. It was complicated the feelings he stirred in her. Her mom and grandma thought she should be pissed at Nicholas, but they’d always seen him as trouble. She sort of wished Marty were here to talk to. He got it.

He’d been the only one who hadn’t tried to talk her out of her crazy crush on Nicholas. He’d understood that since they’d spent so much time together, her emotions weren’t just lust like a lot of the rodeo bimbos, who took one look at those faded, tight jeans Nicholas wore and the way he strode around the rodeo venue, and thought he was sex on a stick.

Hell, he was sex on a stick.

That was part of it, but her feelings for him had always been more complicated than that.

Martina, he said softly as he leaned over the crib. There was a look of awe on his face.

The four-month-old baby was sleeping, finally. Reba had just fed her before she’d stepped out on the balcony and caught sight of Nicholas.

Nicholas reached down into the crib but then drew his hand back.

I have a cowboy’s hands. Rough and ugly. Our daughter—she’s beautiful, Reba. I...I don’t know what to say, Nicholas said. He stood up and looked over at her.

She has your eyes, Reba said. According to my ma, she has my temper, but I think it could just as easily be yours.

She has a temper?

You should see her when she wants to be fed. She can throw a fit like you’ve never seen.

What else?

She’s drooling a lot and gurgles sometimes. I talk to her like I understand what she’s saying. Ma thinks that will make the baby talk sooner.

I bet it will, Nicholas said. So what’s next?

I don’t know. I just...I know you never knew your dad, Reba said. Mine was my hero and I wanted Martina to know you. I am not entirely sure what you want since you disappeared.

Hey, that had a lot to do with me being well, a jackass, and then I found out about my father. Xander and I have to live on the Kelly Ranch for a year with our other brothers, Wyatt and Trey Kelly. I couldn’t have come back to the rodeo if I wanted to.

Were you planning to? she asked. She knew about the will. That had been how she’d found him.

Reba watched him carefully. It was the answer she wanted the most. She was so afraid he’d say no. That the night they’d spent together was for him the last time they’d see each other. The last year had changed him in subtle ways. He still moved easily, hell that was never going to change. He seemed to know the best way to walk to make every woman in his radius notice. But there was something in his eyes. A seriousness that had never been a part of Nicholas before.

I don’t know, he said. You’re the only one besides Xander I’d say that to. But after Marty died, I just couldn’t stomach the thought of another rodeo. And then this thing with Boots Kelly’s will and getting to know my family came up, and it seemed like fate showing me the next phase of my life, he said.

Where did she fit in?

She didn’t. She knew that. She was here for Martina. She’d been trying really hard to get over Nicholas. Told herself that she didn’t love him anymore. That her crush had been well and truly squashed when she’d woke up in the motel room bed by herself.

But seeing him now, she knew that was a lie.

God, she was pitiful. She needed a freaking twelve-step program that could cure her of this. Cure her of Nicholas.

But she doubted there was one that would work.

So you’re here in Whiskey River until when? she asked.

"Um...March. But after that I’m going to inherit one fourth of the Kelly