Champagne Girl

Champagne Girl
Diana Palmer

Love under the Texan skyUnderneath her bubbly carefree facade, there was more–much more–to the champagne girl. Catherine Blake had high personal standards, including a sense of duty to her widowed mother, which brought her back to Comanche Flats, the family ranch.Once she'd returned, her stepbrother, Matt Kincaid, only complicated matters. Matt demanded that she stay on at the ranch, under his watchful eye. But Catherine had a job offer waiting for her in New York City. There was only one thing that could keep her on a dusty cattle ranch in Texas–the love of the rangiest cowboy in the Lone Star State!

Diana Palmer presents a fan-favorite tale of love under the Texan sky in Champagne Girl.

Though Catherine Blake maintained a bubbly, carefree facade, there was more—much more—to her. For one, she had high personal standards, including a sense of duty to her widowed mother. That responsibility brought Catherine back home to her family ranch, Comanche Flats.

Once she’d returned, her stepbrother, Matt Kincaid, demanded that she stay there under his watchful eye. But Catherine had a job offer waiting for her in New York City. There was only one thing that could keep her on a dusty cattle ranch in Texas—the one cowboy in the Lone Star State who had lassoed her heart!

Dear Reader (#ulink_68659237-cc05-591f-a138-778389e48e18),

I really can’t express how flattered I am and also how grateful I am to Mills & Boon Books for releasing this collection of my published works. It came as a great surprise. I never think of myself as writing books that are collectible. In fact, there are days when I forget that writing is work at all. What I do for a living is so much fun that it never seems like a job. And since I reside in a small community, and my daily life is confined to such mundane things as feeding the wild birds and looking after my herb patch in the backyard, I feel rather unconnected from what many would think of as a glamorous profession.

But when I read my email, or when I get letters from readers, or when I go on signing trips to bookstores to meet all of you, I feel truly blessed. Over the past thirty years, I have made lasting friendships with many of you. And quite frankly, most of you are like part of my family. You can’t imagine how much you enrich my life. Thank you so much.

I also need to extend thanks to my family (my husband, James, son, Blayne, daughter-in-law, Christina, and granddaughter, Selena Marie), to my best friend, Ann, to my readers, booksellers and the wonderful people at Mills & Boon Books—from my editor of many years, Tara, to all the other fine and talented people who make up our publishing house. Thanks to all of you for making this job and my private life so worth living.

Thank you for this tribute, Mills & Boon, and for putting up with me for thirty long years! Love to all of you.

Diana Palmer

New York Times and USA TODAY Bestselling Author

Champagne Girl

Diana Palmer

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

For Melinda, Aurora, and Pat of Texas

Contents

Cover (#uf7d17200-a06d-5477-a42c-50d24743f109)

Back Cover Text (#u97e010d8-3626-55d5-bcfe-3ccc73b5e574)

Dear Reader (#u8faf5f9d-7bd3-590f-b592-bfc11437af79)

Title Page (#u01f0416b-05b6-5d75-83e6-a3bf8ceef9e9)

Chapter One (#ubbae03d0-e04a-56bf-8f21-2029aec14221)

Chapter Two (#ud7cdc1c6-cfad-57bf-afe6-839530848d8e)

Chapter Three (#u7eae4a12-1356-5a51-8a8c-1d91e98ee382)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#ulink_3420c153-38fb-57d7-b718-350f1e31f60a)

Comanche Flats was one of the biggest ranches around, and Catherine Blake always felt a sense of small-town friendliness in the town that had grown up around the ranch. Friendliness and peace. Not that Matt gave her much peace, but she did enjoy the company of her mother and her other stepcousins.

She grinned as she wheeled her small rebuilt white Volkswagen convertible between neat white fences to the big Spanish stucco house beyond, her pale-green eyes on the distant line of oaks visible across the prairie. There were twenty-two square miles of land on this ranch, an hour or so out of Fort Worth, Texas, that her great-uncle had built into an empire. It was always described as lying between the Eastern and Western Cross Timbers, long bands of oaks, once formidable, but now reduced in numbers by encroaching civilization. The bands ran from north to south, and in the days of the great cattle drives they had been a point of reference for cattlemen.

Her slender hand brushed back her dark-chestnut hair from her oval, olive-complexioned face, and she felt again a wild thrill of excitement at having graduated from college with a degree in journalism. While at college in Fort Worth, she’d lived in a dorm during the week and come home on weekends. Often Matt had flown over to get her. The ranch was far enough away from the sprawling Dallas-Fort Worth airport that Matt preferred flying in his private plane, which had a hangar at the tiny airport in Comanche Flats. Catherine smiled, thinking about that, proud of her graduation with honors and her promise of a good job in New York. Matthew Dane Kincaid might pull everybody else’s strings, but he was through pulling Catherine’s as of now. She was almost twenty-two and feeling feverish with independence.

She was just returning from a four-day trip to San Antonio, where she’d tried to find work at a small public relations firm. That hadn’t panned out, but through a contact she’d obtained a job at a bigger firm in New York. The job wasn’t open immediately; it would take several weeks for her office to be readied. But she must have impressed the executive vice-president, because he’d flown all the way down to San Antonio to check out her credentials and had hired her on the spot. She felt excited about that. And about having the opportunity to escape her family. And, especially, Matt.

Odd, she thought, how possessive he’d gotten since her graduation from college. He owned the ranch where she and her mother lived, of course, and the feedlot, and he even had a controlling interest in the local real estate companies. But he was only a stepcousin, and Catherine deeply resented his domination. The loss of her father—he had died during the Vietnam War, when she was a baby—had made her independent-minded at an early age, and she’d fought Matt tooth and nail for years for every inch of freedom she had. When she wasn’t dying of unrequited love for him, she admitted bitterly. Hal and Jerry were never so overbearing. Of course, Matt’s brothers lacked his fiery temper and shrewd business mind. And his inborn arrogance. Matt made arrogance an art.

Betty Blake, all silvery hair and bright eyes and laughter, came rushing down the steps to meet her daughter.

“Darling, you’re home!” she enthused. “How lovely to have you back!”

“It was only for four days,” Catherine reminded her as she returned her mother’s hug. “How did Matt take it?”

“He’s barely spoken to me,” Betty confessed. “Oh, Kit, you’ve landed me in the fire this time!”

“I have to be independent,” Catherine said, her green eyes wide and pleading. “Matt just wants his own way again, as usual, but this time he isn’t winning. I’ll go if I have to wait on tables. But I won’t need to,” she said stubbornly. “I still have my income from the stock. I’ll live on that!”

Betty started to speak but nibbled on her lower lip instead. “Come in and get settled,” she said eventually. “Did you get the job?”

“Not the one in San Antonio,” Catherine said with a sigh. She glowered. “Imagine, having to sneak off and make up stories about holidays with a nonexistent girlfriend just to go and apply! Honestly, Matt is such a tyrant.…” She grinned at her mother’s worried face. “I won’t start again, I promise. Anyway, I did get a job. But it’s in New York.”

“New York!” Betty looked shocked.

“It pays well, and I don’t start for a month. Plenty of time to get ready.”