the two giant blue teddy bears occupying the only two chairs in the room, and sat down.
And so it begins, he thought.
* * *
Can’t get enough of Linda Lael Miller’s
Painted Pony Creek series?
Check out this sneak peek at Country Born.
J.P. McCall’s charity work training service dogs is incredibly rewarding and he’s grateful for it. But he’s secretly envious of his friends, Cord and Eli, because they’re both happily married. He’s dated many, many women but he can’t seem to find the right one. Imagine his surprise when he realizes she’s been there the entire time...
Single mom Sara Worth has her hands full. Between her two children and her successful—and secret—writing career, love is the last thing on her mind. But when she realizes that her bestselling hero, Elliott Starr, bears a striking resemblance to J.P., her brother’s best friend, she can’t deny her growing feelings for J.P. any longer.
But when someone from Sara’s past appears in Painted Pony Creek, turning her life upside down, it threatens everything between J.P. and Sara...
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Keep reading for an excerpt from Cowboy in Disguise by Allison Leigh.
Cowboy in Disguise
by Allison Leigh
Chapter One
January
“I thought you didn’t eat bread anymore.”
Arabella Fortune jumped guiltily and used the corner of her napkin to cover the roll she’d dropped in her lap, where it sat next to two others just like it. She looked from the empty bread basket to meet her brother’s laughing eyes.
“More bread?”
At the question, she swiftly looked from Brady to the handsome owner of the deep voice. His name badge said Jay Cross and he’d been attending to their table throughout the birthday party for her nephew. She picked up the basket, smiling into his deep green eyes.
“Yes, please.” She sounded breathless and didn’t really care. “If it’s not too much trouble.” Jay was gorgeous. And every time their fingers brushed—when he’d given her a fresh napkin after she’d dropped hers, when he’d refilled her water glass, when she handed him the bread basket for the third time—there was an undeniable zing.
And she knew he’d felt it, too. Right from the start. The way his gaze had zipped to hers...and clung...had made her certain of it.
He had long fingers. She didn’t know if they were smooth or calloused, though he had a raised scar over one knuckle, long and whitish against his tanned skin, that made her think he didn’t spend all of his time on a catering crew.
His smile widened and his gaze was as warm as a caress when he took the basket from her. “No trouble at all.” His fingers grazed her hand and she felt butterflies take flight inside her. That brush of his fingers had to be deliberate. “I’ll be right back.” He walked away with the basket in hand.
“Why are you staring at that wader?”
Arabella heard her brother’s grunt of laughter and she pulled her attention away from Jay to focus on Tyler’s four-year-old face. Since Brady had been left guardian of his best friend’s twins the year before, she’d become adept at telling the two boys apart. “Was I staring?” she asked innocently.
Tyler nodded earnestly. “At his butt.” His young voice was piping clear. “The wader’s butt.”
“It’s waiter. Not wader,” Brady corrected almost absently. He was busy trying to keep Toby—the more rambunctious of the two children—from unbuttoning his shirt because he was too hot. It wasn’t really too warm inside the hotel restaurant where the party was being held. It was January. Back home in Buffalo, they’d be under a few feet of snow, but here in Rambling Rose, the balcony doors were thrown open and the occasional breeze that flowed in was beautifully balmy. The other two occupants of their table—her brothers Kane and Joshua—obviously felt the same. As soon as they’d finished their entrées, they’d taken refuge from Toby’s and Tyler’s unrelenting chatter at the bar set up near the balcony and they both had their shirtsleeves rolled up.
“Not another button,” Brady warned Toby before looking back at Tyler. “And don’t say butt,” he directed.
“At his bottom,” Tyler revised obediently. But he still had a glint in his eyes. He might be the more sensitive of the two, but like Toby, his genetic makeup seemed to be half mischief.
As the only girl among five protective older brothers, handling the four-year-old variety of male was almost a breeze. She leaned closer to Tyler. “D’you want to go outside for a few minutes?”
He nodded so hard he