Taming A Texas Heartbreaker (Bad Boy Ranch Book 4) Read online

  Reba had always been the sturdy girl who teachers asked to help move tables or carry heavy boxes. The girl who was recruited for cheerleading, but only because the coach needed someone who could toss the fragile, dainty girls in the air and catch them without throwing out her back or pulling a muscle. The girl who boys never tried to pick up to prove their strength. Or catch to keep from falling.

  But Valentine had caught her.

  He had caught her, and he hadn’t acted the least bit put out by her weight. When his steely arms wrapped around her waist and he effortlessly pulled her against his hard body, she had felt as light and dainty as a fragile violet. Then he’d kissed her. Not a peck, but a deep, tongue-thrusting kiss that had her body melting like grease in a sizzling hot skillet. No one had ever kissed her like Valentine Sterling had kissed her.

  Even now, her body tingled all over at the memory of his scorching lips and lusty tongue that had made her feel like he couldn’t get enough of her taste. And his strong hands that had slid into her hair and made her feel like he never wanted to let go. And his hard erection that had pressed against the crux of her legs and made her feel like he desired her above all other women.

  But a lot of men desired her. Unfortunately, they only desired her for a fast tumble in bed. They didn’t want her as a girlfriend they proudly paraded around town on their arm. They wanted skinny women like Penny Cassidy and Evie McCord for that. The two Gardener sisters had had more than their fair share of boys chasing after them and were now happily married to two of the hottest men in Simple.

  Valentine Sterling was just as hot as his Double Diamond friends. Maybe more so with his deep brown hair, topaz eyes, and muscled body that filled out a pair of boxer briefs so—

  “Reba?”

  Sadie’s voice pulled Reba back to the book club meeting. Sadie Truly had been the housekeeper for the Gardener Ranch for years and had been like a second mother to Evie and her sister Penny after their own mother passed away.

  “I’m sorry,” Reba said. “I was woolgathering. What did you say?”

  “I asked you how you liked the ending.”

  Reba hadn’t finished the book. She hadn’t read more than a few pages. She had chosen Valentine Sterling’s latest novel for the book club when he first arrived at the boardinghouse in the hope that she could talk a real-life author into joining in on the meeting and answering questions. But that was before she knew him. Once she found out what a conceited, arrogant jerk he was, she’d refused to pick up the book again. Which left her in an awkward position now.

  “Umm . . . well, I think it ended like it should’ve ended,” she said. Everyone’s confused expressions told her that was the wrong answer.

  “You think he should’ve gotten away with murder and ended up in San Francisco stalking that sweet little bank teller?” Penny asked.

  “See!” Raynelle said. “Even Reba was rooting for him.”

  Luanne shook her head. “I shiver to think of what kind of lunatic men you two are going to end up with.” She rubbed her hands together. “Now that we’ve talked about the book, let’s talk about the upcoming vote to change the town’s name. Did you hear what Sassy Peterson wants Simple to be called?”

  Since Reba had no desire to hear another zany name one of the townsfolk had chosen for the town, she quickly got up. “I’ll just go get dessert.”

  Evie must’ve felt the same way because she jumped up and followed Reba into the kitchen. “I swear if the town votes to change the name from Simple to something Sassy Peterson chooses, I’m moving. She named her dog Chandelier, for God’s sakes.”

  Reba laughed. “She does call it Chandy, which isn’t so bad.”

  Evie sent her a sly look. “You didn’t finish the book, did you? Just like you didn’t finish the book last month. And I’m sure you didn’t finish the book the month before either.”

  “Sorry, but I’ve been a little too busy to read.”

  “You work way too much, Reba.”

  “When you run your own business, you have to. You should know that. You’ve been running yourself ragged trying to keep the ranch going.”

  The Gardener Ranch had been one of the biggest and most prosperous ranches in the county. But a few months earlier, Evie’s father had suffered a stroke, and while doing some accounting, Evie had discovered that the ranch was close to bankruptcy. She and Penny and their new husbands, Cru and Logan, had been working their tails off to set things right. Which is why Reba couldn’t ask Evie to help her out at the boardinghouse. She already had enough on her plate with the ranch, a new husband, a wild teenage son . . . and a baby on the way.

  “How are you feeling?” Reba asked as she peeled off the plastic wrap covering the plate of chocolate chip cookies. “I hope you’re slowing down a little now that you’re expecting.”

  “That’s what Logan keeps fussing at me about, but like you, I have one speed—high.” Evie glanced down at the cookies and her brow knotted. “What happened?”

  “I forgot the baking soda.” Reba’s neck muscles tightened at just the thought of Valentine pointing out her mistake. The man thought he knew everything about everything. And what was really annoying was he’d been right.

  Evie lifted a cookie and studied it. “They are a little flat, but nothing that can’t be fixed. I have an idea.” Evie always had ideas. And some of those ideas had gotten her and Reba in plenty of trouble when they were growing up. But they’d always been fun. “We’ll need vanilla ice cream and some of those mini chocolate chips.” She headed to the freezer while Reba went to the pantry.

  They worked together as a team. Reba scooped ice cream on a cookie and Evie placed another cookie on top and then rolled the edges in a paper plate of mini chocolate chips. When they were finished, they had picture-perfect ice cream sandwiches. Evie must’ve thought so too because she pulled out her cellphone and snapped some shots.

  “People who follow my blog are going to love this idea.”

  Evie had gotten pregnant at seventeen and raised her son alone until she’d married Logan. Now she had taken all the housekeeping and cooking shortcuts she’d discovered as a single, working mother and was writing a blog. Just one more thing in her already busy life. But while Reba struggled to juggle all her responsibilities, Evie didn’t seem to have any problem keeping up. She would never put her shirt on backwards or forget baking soda. If Reba didn’t love Evie so much, she might hate her.

  Reba carried the plate of ice cream sandwiches to the freezer so the chips could set up in the ice cream. “From all the comments you’re getting, I’d say that your blog is doing great.”

  “I have a lot of new followers. And with Daddy feeling better and Logan and I getting all the ranch accounting untangled, I have more time to write daily posts.”

  “So the ranch is doing okay?”

  Evie handed her the container of ice cream. “It’ll be years before it’s back to what it was, but I have every confidence that we’re going to get there. Penny and Cru have done a great job of cutting corners, and Logan has helped me sort out the books and consolidate the loans—even though he has his own auto repair business to run. I wouldn’t wish the bad luck we’ve had on anyone, but it’s certainly brought us together as a family.”

  Reba closed the freezer door. “You’re lucky to have family you can lean on when the going gets tough. All I have is Aunt Gertie who does nothing but complain.”

  Evie gave her a big hug when she turned around. “You have other family here too, Reba. We’re been friends since first grade. That qualifies as family. Now what’s going on? You aren’t yourself tonight. And don’t tell me it’s just because you didn’t read the book.”

  “You have enough to worry about without hearing my troubles.”

  Evie hoisted herself up on the counter. “Shut up and talk.”

  Reba laughed. “Fine, Miss Bossy.” Not wanting to test the granite’s weight limit, she leaned against the counter. “Aunt Gertie and Mama are worried that the boardinghouse is
too much for me to handle on my own and now Aunt Gertie is working on a scheme to get me help. I wouldn’t be too worried about it if she didn’t own half the business.”

  “Certainly you don’t think she would give it away to just anyone?”

  “No. She loves this house too much. But she could offer a piece of it to one of my deadbeat cousins. Like my cousin Theo, who didn’t lift a finger to help me the entire summer he spent here. All I need is to have to babysit one of them and take care of the boardinghouse and Aunt Gertie too. Which is why I need to come up with some gimmick to bring in more guests so I can keep my aunt from doing something we’ll both regret.”

  Evie picked up the ice cream scoop and, thoughtfully, licked it. “What about if you made the boardinghouse a honeymoon destination?”

  Reba snorted. “I’m sure a lot of couples would love to come to Simple, Texas, for their honeymoon.”

  “No, but maybe they’d want to come for a Texas-style wedding at a beautiful home with history. You could give a package deal to all the wedding guests.”

  “It would have to be a small wedding. I only have ten rooms.”

  “More and more people are opting for small weddings with just a few family members and friends so it’s certainly worth a try. Devlin loved having her wedding in the garden and her parents and family loved staying at the boardinghouse.”

  Evie did have a good point. That was the one time in the last two years the boardinghouse had been completely full. “You might be on to something. I’ll pull together a package deal and put it up on the website and see how it does. Why didn’t Devlin come tonight?”

  “When I called her, she was still at the warehouse she rents in town. From what I could understand, she was busy with some experiment.” Devlin was a geoscientist who had given up her job of searching for oil and instead was searching for alternate energy sources. She was not only brainy, but also one of the sweetest women Reba knew. Which was probably why Holden Lancaster, another Double Diamond boy, had married her so quickly.

  Luanne walked into the kitchen. “So are we having dessert or not? Because if we’re not, I gotta get home and fill some orders for my Ten Commandment bracelets. Say, Reba, you haven’t bought one yet.”

  Reba had no money to buy the new pair of boots she needed. She certainly didn’t have any to spend on a bracelet with beads that spelled out God’s commandments. So she ignored Luanne’s question and quickly headed to the freezer. “I’ll just get those ice cream sandwiches.”

  Everyone raved about dessert. While they were eating, each person rated Valentine Sterling’s novel. Most of the women gave it the highest ranking of five stars. Reba had to wonder if it had to do with the quality of the writing or the author being a Double Diamond boy. When Chester and Lucas had opened up their ranch to troubled teens, the entire town had been against it. But now that three of those boys had settled down in Simple, the Double Diamond boys were viewed as residents. And the town stuck by their own.

  The only one who gave the book less than a five was Jolene Applegate, who gave it a four. “I’ve read all of his books and this one isn’t nearly as gripping as his other ones. Of course, I didn’t think it was as bad as the literary critics made it out to be.”

  Reba instantly perked up. “The critics didn’t like this book?”

  Jolene nodded. “They soundly trashed it. Which is why a lot of authors don’t read reviews. They don’t want the negativity getting in their heads and causing—”

  “Writer’s block,” Reba finished for her.

  “Exactly.”

  “I doubt Val has writer’s block,” Penny said. “He told Cru that he’s halfway through his new novel.”

  He might not have writer’s block, but if the word Reba had seen typed over and over again was any indication, Valentine Sterling was not happy with the book he’d written so far. She would bet money that he’d read the reviews of his last book and was now terrified of proving those critics right.

  Reba felt a twinge of sympathy for him. Maybe because she knew what it felt like to work your butt off trying to prove yourself only to fall far short. She’d had such grand plans for making the boardinghouse successful, but so far she had failed miserably.

  “Well, all I can say is that it gives me chills of excitement just thinking about it,” Raynelle said.

  Luanne snorted. “If you bring up how much you liked that psycho stalker one more time, Ray. I’m going to make you an appointment with Doc Roberts to get your head examined.”

  “I’m not talkin’ about the character in the book. I’m talking about Valentine Sterling being right here in Simple, Texas. Did you know he dated Taylor Swift? I googled him and he has gone out with all kinds of celebrities, including a couple Victoria’s Secret models. I guess he’s a real heartbreaker.”

  Reba rolled her eyes. Right after Valentine showed up in Simple, she had googled him too and seen all the pictures of him with models and actresses who were so skinny they would disappear if they turned sideways. It had been his first strike.

  Raynelle didn’t agree.

  She fanned herself with a hand. “That hot piece of man can break my heart anytime. I take my book to work every day in hopes that he’ll come into the Simple Market so I can ask for his autograph. As soon as he leaves, I plan on renting the garden room so I can post my picture in the same room Valentine Sterling wrote his next bestselling novel in.”

  Everyone in the room laughed.

  Everyone but Reba.

  Raynelle’s words had hit her over the head like a cast iron frying pan. She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of it before. This was the gimmick she had been looking for—the draw that would bring people to the boardinghouse. If one bad tweet from Valentine could keep people away, one good tweet could bring them. Especially if his followers found out they could stay in a room where he’d written one of his books. This could be the solution to all her problems.

  Except Valentine wasn’t writing the book at the boardinghouse anymore. Reba had made sure of that. She cringed as she thought about hitting him with a broom. Why hadn’t she put two and two together sooner? Why hadn’t she realized what a gift she’d been given?

  Maybe because Valentine hadn’t acted like a gift. He’d acted like a big ol’ arrogant jerk. But putting up with a big ol’ arrogant jerk for a few more weeks until he finished his book was better than putting up with cousin Theo for the rest of her life.

  Now all she had to do was figure out how to get His-Royal-Pain-in-Her-Butt back.

  Chapter Four

  “Whose idea was it to steal the big screw from the top of the Simple Hardware store, anyway?” Logan tossed another piece of wood on the campfire, sending a shower of cinders up into the night sky.

  “It was Sawyer’s, of course. He was the one who always came up with crazy ideas.” Cru sat next to Logan on one of the stumps that had been placed around the fire, sipping a long-necked bottle of beer.

  Holden laughed as he scratched his hound dog puppy’s belly. Boomer had made the rounds with all the men, either wanting a good scratching or his duck toy tossed so he could search for it in the dark. “Of course, you thought it was crazy. You didn’t want to steal a screw from a hardware store as much as from one of the girls in Simple.”

  “Let’s not go there,” Logan said dryly. Probably because his wife had been one of the girls Cru had had been after that summer. But Cru wasn’t the type to let anything go.

  “Stop being such a jealous ass. I might’ve chased after Evie, but you were the one who caught her.”

  Logan’s smile flashed in the firelight. “I did, didn’t I?”

  “Looks like we’ve all caught ourselves a Simple girl.” Holden tossed the duck for Boomer before he glanced at Val. “Except Val here.”

  Val held up his hands. “And I’m not looking for a Simple girl.”

  But he was certainly thinking about one. Reba refused to get out of his brain. If he wasn’t thinking about how her body had felt in his arms, he was
thinking about how her hair had felt in his hands, or her lips had felt on his mouth. Or how exciting she had looked with fire in her eyes as she came toward him with the broom. And if that wasn’t bad enough, his creative mind had gone completely off-track and decided to write its own ending that included him taking away the broom, stripping off all her clothes, and sinking deep into her soft, naked body.

  “You sound like me a few months ago.” Holden pulled Val back to the present. “I wasn’t looking to get married either. I thought I was quite happy being single and working myself to death. Then Devlin stumbled into my life and changed all that.”

  Devlin had been working for her family’s energy company and was convinced there was oil on Holden’s land. Holden hadn’t wanted anyone digging on his land and had refused to let her run a test drill. Somewhere amid the dispute, they fell in love. Val couldn’t be happier for his friend. Holden had had a lot of sorrow in his life. He deserved some joy.

  “Okay, enough talk about our amazing wives.” Cru accepted the duck Boomer brought to him and scratched the dog’s floppy ears. “I’m sure Val’s about to throw up like he did when he smoked one of Logan’s cigarettes. I didn’t think people could actually turn green, but he proved me wrong.”

  Everyone laughed, including Val. “I was hoping to prove how cool I was and instead proved what a geek I was.”

  “You were a pretty big geek.” Holden slapped him on the back. “And now look at you. Who would’ve thought from all those stories you told around the campfire that you’d end up a bestselling author?”

  Val sobered. “Yeah, who would’ve thought?”

  “I did,” Cru said. “Your ghost stories scared the crap out of me.”

  Logan took a turn scratching Boomer. “So that’s why you kept wanting to sleep with the light on.”

  “Hell, yeah. I didn’t want some worm-eaten confederate soldier coming back from the dead to avenge the South and choking me with his rotten-flesh hands or the deranged ranch hand who was just a good-old cowboy by day, but at night turned into a cannibal who liked to barbecue teenage boys’ hearts and eat them.”