Rodeo Daddy - Softcover

Lane, Soraya

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0373177682 ISBN 13: 9780373177684

Publisher: Harlequin Romance, 2011

Synopsis

Rodeo champion Lark Anderson lived for the sound of crowds chanting his name. Now all he hears is a small voice saying, "daddy." A fall ended both his rodeo career and his marriage—leaving him a single dad.

The town is suspicious of its new "celebrity" resident, and town darling Sophie Baxter has been nominated to keep an eye on the hot-tempered cowboy.

But the sight of his strong arms hugging his daughter and tucking her in at night makes Sophie's heart ache with longing. Could this little family ever find a place in their hearts for her?

About this title

About the Author:

Writing romance for Harlequin Mills & Boon is truly a dream come true for Soraya. An avid book reader and writer since her childhood, Soraya describes becoming a published author as “the best job in the world”. Soraya lives with her own real life hero and son on a small farm in New Zealand, surrounded by animals and with an office overlooking a field where their horses graze. Visit Soraya at www.sorayalane.com 

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Sophie Baxter tapped her fingers against the steering wheel as she drove carefully down the gravel road. It was almost dark and the road was slippery, the ground turned dangerous and sludgy beneath the tires.

She had forgotten what it was like to drive in the country, especially in bad weather. She'd spent too long cruising along perfect city streets.

Sophie's eyes strained as she peered hard through the windscreen. The snow had given way to a sleet-rain mixture that was making it hard to see.

What on earth—?

She slammed on her brakes as a man's silhouette appeared in front of her, arms waving above his head, urging her to stop.

Her car slid as she swerved to avoid him.

Sophie shut her eyes. No, please no! She gripped the steering wheel, forced her eyes to open again and watched as her car traveled sideways in slow motion, before finally grinding to a halt.

Her heart was pounding hard, beating in her ears, in her throat, everywhere. Then, as her eyes started to focus again, she saw a flash of something dark darting in front of the car.

Could it have been...?

A horse. A horse was loose on the road.

She fumbled for her handbag and pulled out her phone, hand shaking as she dialed the emergency number.

"What is the nature of your emergency? Fire, ambulance or police?"

Sophie caught her breath long enough to listen to the calm tone on the other end of the line. "Police," she said.

There was a moment's silence, before the line clicked again. "Police, how can we assist?"

Sophie let her head loll back on the headrest, trying to calm her still-racing heart. Jeez, she'd almost hit a man, then just about taken out a horse!

"I need to report a horse loose on the road," she told the person on the other end, voice shaking. "There's poor visibility. I almost collided with it and the man attempting to catch it."

She finished giving the operator her location and almost leaped out of her skin at a tap on the window.

Damn it! Her heart was racing all over again. She recognized the figure she'd almost run over.

And he looked mad.

Wet and mad.

She wound down her window, about to apologize, but he didn't give her the chance.

"You going to sit there all day, or are you going to help?"

Sophie recoiled at the sharpness of his words. Even his deep American drawl wasn't enough to distract her. How dare he!

"I could have killed you," she told him, angry now. "What were you doing standing in the middle of the road?"

He scowled at her, hands planted on his hips. "I was trying to stop you from plowing into a horse, actually."

If Sophie hadn't been so annoyed with his tone she would have laughed. Seriously, who exactly did he think he was?

The guy was tall, well over six foot, and he was handsome, even if she was loathe to admit it. She could tell that, in spite of the dark, even though she could only just make out his features. His dark hair was plastered to his head, he was soaked through, and he was mad. Hands on hips, brooding kind of mad.

But still, rude was rude. Being handsome was not an excuse.

Sophie watched as he sighed, clearly realizing that she was far from impressed at being told off. He pushed a hand through his hair to stop it from trailing onto his forehead. His shoulders fell.

"I'm sorry, that was rude."

Yep, sure was, but she appreciated the apology.

"What I meant to say was that I'd appreciate your help, if you don't mind getting wet." He gestured at his own body. "Before you came along I almost had her. Now she's loose again."

Sophie sighed. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. She'd probably given him a hell of a shock almost bowling him over, and a horse on the loose would be stressful for anyone.

"It's okay. I'll help." She rummaged in the back for her waterproof jacket and hauled it on before getting out of the car. "I'm with the local animal shelter, so it's no problem."

The guy looked relieved, a tight smile visible on his face. "Thank you." It made him look less guilty and more of a good guy.

She pulled up the hood on her jacket, braced against the cold. "I've already phoned it in to the police. We'll have help soon."

He groaned. Face-falling-into-his-hands kind of groan.

"This is not my night," he muttered.

She raised an eyebrow in question, before realizing he couldn't see. Why wouldn't he want the police involved? "Is there a problem?"

He shook his head, striding ahead toward the horse. "Let's just try to catch these horses and load them onto my truck, okay?"

At least he was being marginally politer now. Sophie followed. "How many are we talking about?" The guy pointed. "Three in that field by the fence there, and the one that's loose."

She looked at the horses. "Why don't we catch the group first, bring them over and start loading them. She might follow."

He stopped. Looked back at her, then started to nod. "Why didn't I think of that?"

Lark Anderson looked over the woman who'd almost run him over and who was now his unlikely savior. He shouldn't have been so rude to her, but she'd sure scared the life from him.

He glanced at her as they walked side by side toward the group of nervous horses, but her features were almost impossible to make out. She was tall, for a woman, and slender. Her outline in the near dark showed a slim woman with long hair in a ponytail, but beyond that it was too hard to see.

"So do you make a habit of working with your horses in the dark?"

She said it with a laugh but it made Lark's skin prickle. Even so, he wasn't going to bite.

"Not usually, no," he said through gritted teeth. "But then it's not every day a fence is left mangled for a horse to get caught in, either."

She almost came to a stop, looked across at him, then resumed her pace. "Sorry."

He shrugged and tucked his chin against his chest as another icy gust of wind slapped against his cheeks.

"You're not from around here, are you?"

"What gave it away?" he asked. "My weird accent?"

This time she did stop. "Are you always this rude?"

Lark shut his eyes for a heartbeat and sighed, pleased she couldn't see his face properly. "I'm sorry. It's been a long night."

She didn't say anything.

"Let's just say that adjusting to woolen socks and numb toes is harder than you'd think."

She laughed. He was pleased that she was laughing at him rather than walking away, and he couldn't have blamed her for getting back in her car, blasting on the heat and driving away. "As opposed to?"

This time Lark laughed. "Would you believe it if I told you a cowboy hat in California?"

He stopped a few feet from one of the horses and held his hand up slightly to tell her to do the same. Lark slowly reached for the horse, slipping a rope around her neck before she could dance sideways away from him. "Whoa, girl, you're okay. It's all right."

"So I take it you're the rodeo rider," she said in a soft voice.

Lark nodded, before realizing she couldn't see him. "Yeah, that's me."

"You have your one secure?" she asked.

He looked over at her, pleased that she'd managed to clip a rope onto the other horse's halter. "Yup, let's get them over to the truck."

Lark whispered to the horse, reaching for the third one as it came closer. He now led two of them, and he wanted to get them out of harm's way as soon as he could. He hated leaving the loose horse out on the road where she could get hurt.

"Back to whether you do this kind of thing in the dark often."

He laughed this time, shaking off the grump he'd been in since he'd found the horses in such awful conditions.

"Let's just say that I'm not good at tucking up in my own bed at night during a storm, without knowing the animals around me have the same comforts."

"Well, when you put it like that," she said thoughtfully.

Flashing lights interrupted them.

Bloody hell.

He'd hoped to resolve the situation before the police arrived. Hoped to have fled the scene. The last thing he needed was to get in trouble with the law.

Lark continued walking as though he hadn't even noticed the approaching vehicle, taking the frightened horses over to his truck.

Thankfully they loaded easily enough. Someone must have trained them before they'd been left to their own devices. Just as they'd hoped, the other mare wandered close.

"I'll take her," he told the woman, reaching for the horse and running a hand down the mare's neck to soothe her. "Maybe you could go and stall the police for a moment?"

"Sure thing," she said, almost invisible in the dark now. "You finish up here and I'll let them know what's happening."

Lark stifled another groan. How the hell was he going to talk his way out of this one?

In his younger days, he might have jumped in the truck cab and taken off in hopes of outrunning trouble.

But he was no longer that boy who didn't want to face any consequences. He was a man with responsibilities now.

He managed to secure the other horse, now waiting to join her friends, before loading her and pushing the button to close the ramp at the back of the truck.

"Sir?"

Just in time.

Lark forced his shoulders to relax and turned. Slowly. Feet moving in a half circle to confront the male voice he didn't recognize.

"Sophie here tells me the situation is now under control."

Sophie, huh? He looked at the woman standing beside the officer. He wished he hadn't snapped at her earlier. But being beyond cold, almost getting run over and dealing with the rogue horses had been too much to handle. Especially after the year he'd already had.

What he hadn...

About this edition

• Publisher: Harlequin Romance
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0373177682
• ISBN 13: 9780373177684
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192