Harlequin Desire December 2023--Box Set 1 of 2 by Niobia Bryant

Author:Niobia Bryant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

Gritty-eyed after another sleepless night, Clayton stepped out the back door of the house allotted for Kingsland’s ranch manager and breathed in the cold morning air. Before Clay’s arrival in Montana, the place where he was now staying had been mostly vacant over the past year. His brothers had hired occasional help, but mostly they’d been taking turns filling the role left open after Duke Kingsley’s demanding ways had sent the previous manager packing.

Clay knew enough family lore to recall the four-bedroom, one-story stone home where he’d been staying these past weeks had been the original main house back when his grandparents ran the operation. Clay’s mother had lived in Silent Spring as a teen when her father worked as a ranch hand at Kingsland. Dena Reynolds had never shared Clay’s bitterness over her relationship with Duke, so she’d gladly shared the story of their brief courtship. Followed by Duke walking away when he found out she was expecting.

And that was followed by Dena learning Duke got engaged later that month to his also-pregnant girlfriend, Adele Boudreux. Clayton had been born just two months before his half brother, Levi Kingsley. While Levi had been the privileged, acknowledged “firstborn,” Clay had never been publicly claimed. While he didn’t give a rip about that for himself, it still made him furious that Duke had slighted Clay’s mom that way. He’d offered her support money in exchange for a nondisclosure agreement, although Duke’s wife had gotten wind of Clay anyhow and had insisted Duke bring Clay to Kingsland each summer. He’d hated leaving his friends for the summer. And he’d really hated the tears in his mother’s eyes every time he boarded the plane for the mandatory visit.

Clay had gotten along with his stepmom, Adele, well enough, but she’d died in a trampling accident when he was nine years old. After that, summers at Kingsland only got worse, until that final unbearable one that coincided with his own mother’s death from a heart defect. To honor her warmhearted, forgiving spirit, he’d tried to make peace with his father that year, to no avail. Cementing Clay’s dislike of the place.

Now, walking across the snow-dusted grass of the side lawn toward a detached garage that held farm equipment and his rented SUV, Clay tugged on a pair of leather work gloves as he wondered if he’d hear from Hope this morning. She’d messaged him two days prior to say the event venue in Bozeman where she’d planned to hold her Christmas gala was having staffing issues. Apparently, she had needed to contact them before she could meet with him.

Fair enough.

Even making allowances for her busy work schedule, he expected to hear from her today. So when he heard a vehicle turning onto the ranch access road closest to his house, he couldn’t deny a surge of anticipation that it might be her. He slowed his steps as he circled the equipment garage to a small barn on the property. Gavin had been keeping one of

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