All I Want for Christmas Is a Cowboy

Book 1: The Wyoming Cowboys Series

by Jessica Clare

Genres: Holiday Romance; Romantic Comedy; Western Romance

Synopsis

Christmas may be coming, but it's just another day at the ranch as far as Eli Pickett is concerned. Someone has to take care of the herd and that means no holiday vacation for him. But that's just the way he likes it — it's not like he has a woman to spend time with anyways. Most women don't want the ranch life, or the surly, silent cowboy that comes with it. Fine with him. He'd rather have the quiet of a roaring fire and the company of his dogs.

Cassandra Horn is trying to make it to her parents' winter cabin in Wyoming before the blizzard hits. She desperately needs a vacation from the chaos of Manhattan...and her boss' boyfriend, who is making her life miserable. But Cass never makes it to the cabin.

A raging snowstorm causes her car to crash, where she's found unconscious by Eli. When Cass wakes, she has no memories of who she is. Eli takes one look at Cass's big blue eyes and dark curls, and like a Christmas miracle, falls head over heels in love. But while the attraction is mutual, can she give her heart to this cowboy if she's not sure it's hers to give?

Contains mature themes.

Release date: November 6, 2018

Publisher: Berkley

Print pages: 304

Sample

***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected copy proof***

Copyright © 2018 Jessica Clare

 

Chapter One

Eli Pickett wasn’t a big fan of holidays.

It wasn’t that he had something against Christmas in particular. As holidays went, it was a perfectly nice one. The songs were catchy. The decorations were festive, if gaudy. The food was all right. What he liked least about holidays was that no one worked.

Having grown up in foster care and now making a living as a rancher, he found the concept foreign to him. Cattle didn’t care about holidays or spending time with family. They wanted to be fed. They wanted their hay freshened. They wanted to go out to pasture even when it was deep with snow outside. Holidays didn’t account for ranch animals.

As he sat down in the main room of the lodge, oiling his boots, he watched the others get ready to leave, rushing back and forth to pack last-minute items. Maria, the housekeeper and cook, had three entire suitcases full of presents for her grandbabies and fussed over how to get a box of cookies into her purse.

Eli watched with amusement as she packed and repacked things. “You know you’re only going for two weeks, right?”

“No lip from you, mijo,” she told him, pulling things out of her oversized purse and trying to squeeze the box into it. “I feel bad enough that you’re going to be staying here by yourself over Christmas.”

He shrugged. Things had been different around the ranch since the new owners bought it. The cattle herds had been downsized from thousands to four hundred. The Texas oil tycoon who’d bought the land had plans to build a ski lodge on some of the rolling hills. The ranch itself was used for a tax break, thus the downsizing. Eli had kept his job, but the ranch itself had gone from a dozen employees to five. It was just him, Maria, Old Clyde, Jordy, and Dustin. Once upon a time, he’d have spent the holidays here with a few other ranch hands who opted to care for the animals over Christmas instead of going home.

Now it was just him. But he had a job, and he loved this ranch, and that was all that was important. “It’ll be fine. I don’t mind being on my own.”

She clucked at him, shaking her head before pulling out even more stuff from her purse and trying to push the cookie box in there. “I don’t like it. Young man like you should go home for Christmas. Spend the holidays with family. You could come with me. My older daughter Alma makes a lovely spread and you know she’s single now.” Maria gave him a knowing glance. “She’s very pretty. I showed you pictures, remember?”

Yikes. He remembered. Maria’s daughter was pretty, but he was also sure that she wasn’t right for him. For one, she lived in Los Angeles, which might as well be hell as far as he was concerned. And for two, he doubted she’d want to come live on the ranch in Wyoming with him, and he had no intention of leaving. “’Preciate the thought,” he told Maria. “But someone’s got to feed the animals, remember?”

She rolled her eyes. “Old Clyde should stay. He’s not a young man who needs to think about family. He can do it.”

“I heard that,” Old Clyde bellowed from the next room over.

Eli just shook his head and paid attention to his boot. Maria’d been trying to get Old Clyde to trade places with Eli for the last month now, but Clyde was visiting his daughter in Tucson. Eli didn’t have anyone to visit. Truth was, he was ready for the others to go. It’d give him a few weeks of quiet to settle his head, not have to worry over people prying about family that he didn’t have. They’d return in January, ready to work again, and then things would get back to normal.

By the fire, Frannie whined and thumped her tail, looking over at him hopefully.

“This boot ain’t for you,” he told her, grinning. The dog responded to his tone, getting more excited by the moment. She got up and waddled over to him, her pregnant sides sticking out from the white fluff of her thick coat. Eli put the boot aside and rubbed Frannie’s face. Two weeks of just him and the dogs, which were the best company a man could ask for. No, he didn’t need more than that.

“She better not have her puppies before I get back,” Maria told Eli. “I want to be here.”

“I’ll tell her to keep ’em in until you return,” he vowed, grinning. Like that would happen. Already Frannie looked ready to burst, and she wasn’t a small dog. Great Pyrenees were devoted herders and perfect on a ranch, but they were also destructive chewers when they were bored. And since Frannie was being kept close to the ranch house due to how pregnant she was, a lot of boots were getting destroyed.

He knew how she felt. Well, not the pregnant part. The stir-crazy part. If he had to leave this place for two weeks, he’d probably start chewing on boots, too.

Maria just shook her head at him. “You and those dogs.” She turned her head and yelled over her shoulder. “Jordy! Dustin! We’ve got to go! Ándele!” She turned back to Eli and gave him another motherly look. “Are you sure you don’t want one of us to stay with you over the holiday? That big storm’s rolling in—”

“No,” he told her for the hundredth time already. “Ain’t calving season for another two months. No one’s going to be dropping. We drove in all the cows and moved ’em to the pastures close to the barn so I can cake ’em easy—load them up on protein and extra food—when it’s cold. The storm will be fine. Me and the dogs will handle it like we always do.”

She just shook her head at Eli, exasperated. He was pretty sure she was more disappointed that he wasn’t into Christmas and family like she was, but that just wasn’t his thing. “I’ll bring you back some fruitcake,” she compromised.

“You sure don’t have to do that,” he joked.

A moment later, Dustin, Jordy, and Old Clyde came stomping down the stairs of the farmhouse. At their heels were the other ranch dogs, Jim and Bandit. All herding dogs, they worked twice as hard as most of the ranch hands did. Definitely harder than Jordy, Eli thought with amusement. Jordy was still new and tended to hinder more than help, but in time he’d be a good cowboy.

“Let’s go,” Maria told them, slinging her bag over her shoulder, gray ponytail bouncing. “If they shut down the airport and I have to spend the holiday with you idiotas, I’m not going to be happy.” She moved to Eli’s side and gave him a motherly kiss on the cheek, then patted his face. “You call if you get too lonely, mijo. Mama Maria’s always a phone call away.”

“Will do,” he promised her, though he was thirty-two and didn’t much need a mama. Maria just cared. Weren’t no harm in that.

“Try to have yourself a good holiday,” she told Eli.

He nodded, though. Maria was never going to realize that some people just didn’t care about Christmas. It was just another day to him. Another day of ranch work and cattle tending, except without the extra hands around to make working in the upcoming winter storm easier.

It’d be quiet. Peaceful.

He’d enjoy the next two weeks for what they were and not worry about the rest.

 

 

Chapter Two

Cassandra Horn sang along—loudly and badly—to Bing Crosby in her rental car. The more enthusiastic the Christmas song, she hoped, the more holiday-ish she’d feel. So far it wasn’t working, but she wasn’t going to give up hope. It was early yet, after all. She had a week before Christmas to get herself into the holiday spirit. Surely between now and then she could muster some sort of enthusiasm.

Theoretically.

The wind whistled against the windows and threatened to push her car off the icy roads. Biting back a nervous scream, Cass clenched the steering wheel tighter and turned down the music. She needed to concentrate. Driving in Wyoming in the mountains was a heck of a lot different than driving in the city. Oh, who was she kidding? She lived in Manhattan. She didn’t drive. She took a taxi or an Uber anywhere she wanted to go.

But there weren’t a ton of Uber drivers heading into the mountains in this part of the country, so she’d rented a car and headed out on her own. She’d driven herself everywhere back in her college days, after all. This was just like one of those road trips, just a solo one. No big deal.

Of course, she didn’t quite remember having blizzard conditions back in college, either, but she was pretty sure she could handle it. Reasonably sure. It was either that or turn around and go back to the airport, since she didn’t have the money for a hotel.

So yeah, blizzard it was, because she was not going home for the full two weeks she had off. No way, no how.

She needed a break from work. No, she amended. She needed a break from her boss, not the work itself. Cass loved what she did. Or she used to. Being a personal assistant to a successful fashion model had been exciting and fun. She got to hang out with a famous friend all day. Well, sort of friend. They’d been chatty since college, but after Cass took the job, Rose made it clear that they were employee and employer. Cass didn’t mind, most of the time, and she understood that Rose was under a lot of pressure. Rose Gramercy’s career had skyrocketed in the last couple of years and so Cass did everything from grocery shopping to Starbucks runs to handling Rose’s calendar to even lunching with Rose’s people when Rose was too busy to meet anyone. She worked weird hours and that was all right. It wasn’t as if she had a boyfriend or family to go home to. She had a small, pretty apartment in Rose’s building so she could be nearby, but a lot of the time, she just slept over at Rose’s place in case Rose needed her.

That was BKW, though. Before Ken Wallis, when everything became miserable.

To think that once upon a time, Cass had been excited to meet Ken Wallis. He’d starred in some of her favorite movies—the remake of Titanic; the romantic and lush Nutcracker Prince; and her personal go-to when she was feeling lonely, The Eyes of the Queen. When she’d found out that Rose was dating him, she was beyond ecstatic. And at first, Ken was nice. He was friendly, he was charming, and he was approachable. Cass had happily grabbed coffees for him when she got them for Rose. She’d pick up his dry cleaning when his assistant was unavailable, and she truly didn’t mind that he tended to sleep over at Rose’s place a lot, even if it meant Cass would have to head home to her own quiet place.

It was great for a while. Then things started to get weird.

Rose went to Milan for a friend’s wedding without Cass. Ken was still in Manhattan on a shoot. He’d asked Cass to pick up a few items for him at a local bodega, and since she’d been doing that sort of thing for him for a while, she didn’t think anything of it. She showed up at his apartment with the cigarettes and beer only to find that he answered the door naked.

It was clear that he’d expected her to come in. And it was clear that he had more than assisting on his mind.

She’d managed to stammer out an excuse that day and had turned and run. Ever since then, working for Rose had become less about working and more about avoiding the boyfriend. Ken was everywhere. He showed up when Rose was on set and made sure to harass Cass. He showed up when Rose was out of town. He texted her. God, did he text her. Every day, her phone was blowing up with messages from him that she was always careful to answer neutrally and in a way that would never make it look like she was betraying Rose. Even just responding was stressful.

She’d tried talking to Rose about it, but it was clear that Rose didn’t think Cass was pretty enough to get Ken’s attention. He’s just being friendly, Rose would say with a laugh. Don’t worry. You’re not his type.

It seemed that his type was “unavailable,” though, because the more Cass told him no, the more Ken hit on her. It got so bad that she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her interesting job had turned into an absolute nightmare, and she couldn’t even say anything to Rose. Ken was too good of an actor and Rose was in love.

Cass was just the employee.

She shuddered and clutched the steering wheel harder.

That was one reason why when Rose said she was going to the Riviera for the holidays, Cass decided that she was going to go on a trip as well. She was not about to stay in NYC alone, because she didn’t trust Ken not to show up at her apartment. It was to the point that she wanted to go to the police. But who’d believe her? Yes, I’m the average-looking assistant to Rose Gramercy, and her movie-star boyfriend is hitting on me. She’d hinted about it to a few people, but they just laughed in her face. In photos, Ken was utterly devoted to Rose, and their romance was one that sold tabloids like crazy. No one believed Cass, and so she stopped mentioning it.

So . . . a cabin by herself for Christmas, it was. She was originally going to stay with her family, but her parents were overseas having a second honeymoon somewhere in Europe, and her sister was staying with her husband’s family in Idaho and there was no room for one more last-minute straggler. She’d decided to rent a car and head up to the family’s old cabin in the mountains in Wyoming. Of course, she hadn’t been here in ten years, but it’d be a nice place to hang out for a while, unwind, and figure out what the heck she was going to do. The trunk of her car was full of paperback books and snacks, her email was cleaned out, and her voicemail was changed to an out of office.

She was ready for a vacation.

Cass hadn’t counted on the weather, though. She should have guessed that Wyoming in December would be cold and snowy. She hadn’t exactly considered that “cold and snowy” could quickly turn to whiteout conditions in the space of an hour, which was how long ago she’d left the airport. And as she let the car gently crawl around one icy curve of road after another, she worried that she was being stupid. Maybe she should turn around. Fly back to New York—because two weeks of hotel fees would break her meager wallet—and just pretend not to be home. Maybe that’d be smarter than trying to get this automatic sedan up a snowy mountain road.

Her phone buzzed with an incoming text.

One hand tight on the steering wheel, she picked up her phone and glanced at the screen.

Ken.

The car swerved slightly and she dropped the phone onto the passenger seat, holding tight to the steering wheel. Her heart pounded with alarm and she looked for a place to pull over. When she couldn’t find one, she slowed the car to a halt and put on her blinkers. It was stupid, of course, but the road was empty thanks to the weather, and she was only going to stop for a moment.

Cass quickly checked the phone, terrified of what she’d read. It was like a train wreck—she knew she shouldn’t look, but she couldn’t help it.

KEN: You abandoned me for the holidays? Naughty Cass! Where are you?

Cass bit her lip, trying to figure out the best way to respond. She couldn’t be rude to him. Rose would get upset with her and Ken would just spin it to make her seem unreasonable. She thought for a moment, anxiety spiking, and then quickly texted an answer.

CASS: Cabin in the mountains for Xmas. Have a good holiday!!!

The response came back immediately.

KEN: The set shut down for the week. Got room for one more up there?

He attached a smiley face, as if that would make everything seem sweet, innocent. In reality, her skin crawled. He wasn’t going to visit Rose for the holidays? He was going to try to hook up with Cass? Ugh. She didn’t know what to do.

CASS: No, sorry. Family event! Go see your family!

And she stuck a smiley face on there, too.

KEN: Your family’s back from Europe?

Crap. How did he know about that?

KEN: I’m thinking someone’s playing hard to get. Tell me where you’re at and I’ll get a flight out there. You shouldn’t be alone for Christmas . . . and we need to talk.

No smiley face that time. Cass’s stomach clenched miserably. Talk about what? Talk about “them” even though there was no “them”? Talk about how he’d been discreetly harassing her? Talk about Rose? She knew it was bait to get her to continue the conversation—Ken was great at that sort of thing—but she forced herself to ignore it. She couldn’t keep her car idling in the middle of a mountain pass, no matter that no one else was coming up the road. The wind and the snow were getting worse with every moment, and she’d be stupid to stay here longer than necessary.

CASS: Gotta go! TTYL.

She tossed the phone back in the passenger seat and turned off her blinkers, then started the car again. The tires spun on the ice, and for a heart-pounding moment, she worried she was going to be stuck out here in the middle of nowhere. The mountains rose high around her, and she didn’t remember much about this area, just that the roads sometimes closed in the winter due to bad storms . . . and crap! Why hadn’t she thought of that sooner? She’d been too rattled, too distracted by the enticing thought of getting away from Ken and his sleaziness.

Cass thought about turning around. Play it safe, go back down to town and forget all about her Christmas vacation. But she was close to the cabin. Had to be. Even driving as slowly and ultra-carefully as she was, it couldn’t be more than another fifteen, twenty minutes away. Town was at least an hour out, and it seemed silly to turn back when she was so close. She leaned forward over the steering wheel and gazed out at the skies, the wipers working furiously against the windshield. Snow was still flurrying down and showed no sign of stopping. Well, she had plenty of food and an entire case of ramen noodles in the trunk. She would be perfectly fine snowed in for a couple weeks.

And if her return home got delayed, it wouldn’t be the worst thing. In fact, it might not be a bad idea at all. With that thought running through her head, Cass put the car into drive and headed up the road a bit farther. Visibility was no more than a few feet before everything turned into a whiteout blur, but no one else was coming or going, and she could go slow. No problem at all.

She even turned the Christmas music on again.

Just as she rounded another snowy curve, her phone rang again.

“Shoot,” she whispered under her breath and turned off the radio once more. She didn’t answer, though. She stared ahead at the blizzard and glared out the windshield as her ringtone sang happily out in the car. When it stopped, she let out a breath and waited for her voicemail chime to come on. She could answer voicemail later. Much later.

Instead, her phone just rang again.

And again.

And again.

As the car crawled forward and the snow poured down, Cass gritted her teeth and endured refrain after refrain of Beethoven’s Fifth as someone desperately tried to call her. She leaned over and grabbed the phone, sliding it into her lap. The storm was too fierce for her to look at the screen right now, and up ahead, the road would fork, one route leading to her family cabin, the other to the big ranch that extended all through the mountains and into the valley. She couldn’t miss that turn, because she was pretty sure that there was no way to turn around her car at this point, thanks to all the snow. Plus, going downhill in this seemed like a scary proposition. She had to pay attention.

But the car kept going, her phone kept ringing, and that fork in the road was nowhere to be seen. Her nerves fraying by the moment, Cass’s imagination started to get the better of her. What if it was her parents, calling because something was wrong? Someone calling to warn her about the weather? What if it was Rose and there was a problem in the Riviera and she was needed? It was her job to remain on call at all times, no matter the hour. Rose wouldn’t call her while she was on vacation, because she’d promised to give Cass real time off. Every time the phone rang, though, she worried a little more.

Then, it happened. One ring, then a hang up. Two rings, then a hang up.

If it rang again, that was the SOS. When she’d first started working with Rose, they’d established a code to let the other know that there was something super urgent that had to be discussed. Out of habit, she grabbed the phone and fumbled it up to her ear, gaze glued to the disappearing road. Was the storm getting even worse? How did people even see in this sort of weather?

“Hello?”

“You are an expert at playing hard to get.” Ken’s silky voice rolled across her ear.

Horrified, Cass dropped the phone.

There was no emergency. It was just Ken, not taking “no” for an answer.

The phone slid between her feet and landed against her shoe, resting lightly on the gas. She tried to kick it aside, but it got wedged against the gas, and then she spent a moment trying to nudge it away from the pedal. Oh please. She didn’t need this right now. Come on, come on, she silently pleaded with the phone, jammed against the side of the gas. Frustrated, she kicked it—

And accidentally floored the gas pedal. The car surged ahead, just in time to smash into the big tree that split the road in two. She heard the awful crunch of metal before her head banged against the steering wheel.

The world faded.

 

 

Chapter Three

He was missing a cow. Damn it all.

Eli rode his horse through the clustered herd again. His mount didn’t like the blizzard weather but knew better than to balk at him. Nearby, flouncing through the snow, Bandit and Jim raced back and forth at the edges of the herd, and Eli pressed a clicker, counting cattle head. They couldn’t go far, because this pasture wasn’t more than ten acres or so, and he’d put out feed and hay for ’em to keep them comfortable through the worst of the blizzard. When the other ranch hands got back, they’d drive the cattle back out further, but for now, he should have all four hundred right here near the barn.

But he kept getting three hundred ninety-nine.

If it was calving season, he’d assume a cow had split off to drop her calf somewhere. But that was two months away, so there was no reason for a cow to wander away from the herd unless something was wrong. Heck, this was just what he needed. He’d been thinking all day about what he was going to do to fill his time now that the others were gone. Not that it would be a problem—the opposite, in fact. There was so much to do around the ranch that he was having to mentally prioritize what items to tackle first. It was a good thing, because then he wouldn’t notice just how quiet it was late at night, knowing he was the only one on the entire mountain.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Doc Parsons was probably up at the Swinging C Ranch on the other side of the mountain, but that was a little too far for visiting.

Eli whistled at the dogs and then began to ride his prancing horse around the edges of the fence, looking for answers. There was one particular cow that liked to run off, and he looked for the familiar white blaze on her nose in the herd of black cattle. When he didn’t see it, he circled back and looked again, and then cursed. Just as he suspected.

Houdini. Damned cow.

There was one in every herd that didn’t play nice with others. One that always tried to go her own way or was more trouble than she was generally worth. That was Houdini. If there was a fence, she’d escape it. If there was a blizzard, she’d find a way to make them chase her down. The cow had a wandering soul, and he’d threatened to sell her off many times, but fact was, she always gave birth to fat, healthy calves, and that counted for a lot. So they kept her around.

On days like today, though, he regretted it. Now he’d have to go out into the blizzard and hunt her down. With a bit-back curse, Eli led his horse closer to the fences. Sure enough, one had been leaned on until it was knocked over. Most of the herd was smart enough to stay near the hay. Not Houdini. Either she was the dumbest cow they had, or the cleverest. Either way, she was gone and he was gonna have to go after her.

Eli repaired the fence, cursing the entire time, and then got back on his horse. “Jim, Bandit, come on. Let’s go find ourselves a cow.”

To think he’d been looking forward to a quiet night by the fire. So much for that.

The good thing about tracking a cow in the snow was that it left a nice, easy trail to follow. Houdini had left a set of footprints that was plain to see, though he was lucky he’d found it when he did. Much longer and the falling snow would have covered it up. He gigged the horse forward, noticing that they were heading out toward the mountain road. That was all right. No one would be coming up the pass during this storm. Likely the roads themselves would be closed off at the base of the mountain if things got bad enough. That was a good thing, considering no one’d be able to see a runaway cow in this blinding white.

Nearby, the dogs began to bark. First Bandit, then Jim. They raced ahead of the horse, disappearing into the storm. Good. That meant they’d found the cow. Thank goodness, because he was about done with this, mentally and physically. It was getting colder by the moment, and while he was used to terrible weather, that didn’t mean he enjoyed it. It was hard on the dogs, hard on the horses, hard on him.

Maybe it was sappy of him, but he also wanted to get back and check on Frannie, see if she’d had her pups yet. All of the ranch dogs were hard workers and well trained, but he had a special bond with that one in particular.

The dogs’ barking grew louder, and he heard the angry low of a cow. Finally. With his gloves, he grabbed his rope lasso and began to give it length even as he drove the horse forward with his knees. As he got closer, he saw that the pregnant cow had stopped in the shelter of a nearby tree and was cornered by Jim and Bandit. She’d be easy to rope, now that she was done with running. He managed to loop her and tie her back to the saddle within minutes, all the fight gone out of her. “That’s right, Houdini,” he encouraged her. “You and me both’ll go back to the barn and we’ll have a nice dinner and forget all about adventurin’ for a few days.”

The cow just bleated a protest and jerked against the rope, but when the dogs nipped at her heels, she turned obediently toward the ranch.

Eli pulled his hat down and scanned the area. Sure enough, the cow had gone to the main road. There wasn’t much of one up the mountain, and what was there was more of a winding, twisting gravel path that tourists ripped around a lot faster than was sane during the summer, and no one came up during the winter.

Which, he supposed, was why he looked twice when he thought he saw a hint of beige amid the whiteout conditions. Wasn’t a lot that was beige out here in December. Things were either white, white snow, yellow snow, brown mud, and the occasional black cow. Beige didn’t happen. He peered harder but the wind picked up, whipping an icy blast against his face. He tipped his hat low and closed his eyes, waiting for the frost to melt away from his lashes, and when he looked up again, that beige was still there. There was just a hint of it between gusts of snow, but it was still there.

Well, now he had to check it out.

He dismounted, tied his horse to the tree, checked the rope on the cow, and then began to wade through the foot-deep snow toward that spot of color. The dogs began to bark again, dashing off in that direction, and his skin prickled with alarm. This was not good.

A few steps more, and he saw a bumper.

Definitely not good.

“Jim! Bandit! Over here,” he called as the dogs’ barks grew more shrill with excitement. He put a glove on his hat as the wind picked up, threatening to rip it from his head, and leaned into the gusting breeze as he approached the car. It was half buried in the snow, which meant that it had been here for a while. At