Her Cowboy Till Christmas

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#u8af6b2d2-9db1-5cd0-b040-8f261759659b)

It was going to be another lonely Christmas.

Mason Fanning tripped over a toy bulldozer, and his foot landed on an action figure. Oof! Hopping on the other foot, he winced until the sharp pain subsided. His three-year-old son, Noah, was having pizza and watching a Disney movie with Grandma and Grandpa Page like he did most Friday nights. Which left Mason alone, picking up toys and contemplating what to do with himself. The snowy December evening on his cattle ranch near Rendezvous, Wyoming, was ideal for sitting in front of a fire and watching a Christmas movie the way he and Mia used to. But without her in his arms, what would be the point?

Mia was gone.

He missed her. Three years had passed, and it still seemed like her funeral happened yesterday. He missed Ma and Pops, the grandparents who’d raised him, too. He hadn’t felt this alone in a long time.

Mason snatched up the remaining toys and threw them into a basket. It was stupid to indulge in a pity party when he’d been blessed with more than most. Sure, the medical bills Mia left behind put a huge dent in his budget each month, but eventually he’d get the ranch churning out profits again. He’d leave a legacy to pass down to Noah, the way his grandparents had left Fanning Ranch to him.

A knock on the door startled him. No one ever stopped by on Friday nights.

Unless...

The emails and calls he’d been getting from Brittany Green came to mind. He hadn’t answered them. He had nothing to say to her. And since it had been a decade since he’d seen her, the thought of her showing up was laughable, anyhow.

He strode to the entryway. Opened the door.

Snowflakes and familiar ocean-blue eyes greeted him.

Brittany stood there the way she had a million times during their childhood. Her hair was blonder than he remembered. Must have been all the California sunshine. Wearing jeans, a long puffy coat and tall boots, she was still the petite dancer he’d spent every waking minute with each summer growing up.

It had been ten years since their final summer together, and the anger still burned.

He shifted his attention to the man next to her. The world spun. Impossible! The man looked exactly like him. They could have been the same person. He braced his hand against the door frame.

“Mason?” Brittany stepped forward and touched his arm. He shook it off as if it were a scorpion. “Are you okay?”

His brain scrambled to come up with anything that made sense. Nothing did. Was this a practical joke? Who was this guy? How could they look so much alike?

And why was he with Brittany?

“Why are you here?” Mason’s voice was low, gruff.

Her long dark lashes dipped briefly, then revealed eyes swimming with sympathy. “I’m sorry. You look like you’re in shock.”

“Is this some kind of prank? Did you find an actor to impersonate me or something?” He knew he sounded unhinged, but why was she with this guy? This...this...eerie imitation of him?

“Why don’t we go inside?” She motioned to the open doorway.

He didn’t want her in his home. Didn’t want to have to scrub away the memory later. But—he glanced at his spitting image—someone had some explaining to do.

“Make it quick.” Against his better judgment, he shifted sideways to let them in.

“Ryder Fanning.” The man’s face had drained of color, but he stepped forward and held out his hand. “I believe I’m your twin.”

Twin? Twin? He could not have a twin. Ma and Pops would have known about a sibling. They would have told him.

“I’m an only child.” Mason clenched his jaw.

“So am I.” Ryder’s brown eyes, the same caramel shade as his own, had nothing to hide. “At least, I thought I was until I met Brittany.”

“Come on,” Brittany said, gesturing to them both. “This will be easier to figure out sitting down.”

He wanted to escort her pretty five-foot-two-inch frame outside, slam the door shut and enjoy the satisfaction of hurting her the way she’d hurt him, but Ryder being here complicated things. Mason let out a humph, then jerked his chin for Ryder to enter. Hurt and irritation flashed in the man’s eyes, but he moved with an easy, familiar gait into the house.

It was like watching a video of himself.

Brittany made herself right at home at the kitchen table, and Mason resented it more than he thought possible. Sure, she’d been here countless times when she’d spent summers down the road with her grandmother Nan. But this was his table.

Mia’s table.

Brittany didn’t belong here.

As Ryder folded his sculpted frame onto the chair across from her, Mason sat and crossed his arms over his chest. “Someone had better start talking.”

Ryder and Brittany exchanged glances.

“Two weeks ago, I was at my favorite coffee shop.” She gestured with her hands as she talked, and those blue eyes ebbed and flowed with expressiveness. “I was mentally choreographing a solo for Kelly Jo, one of my best teen dancers—you really have to see this girl move, she’s amazing—and I grabbed my coffee and turned to leave. Well, Ryder was right behind me.” She blinked and shrugged. “I freaked out a little and, what do you know, I splashed coffee onto my white sweatshirt. As I was dabbing at it, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I... I thought it was you.”

Brittany hadn’t changed. She always took the scenic route when telling a story. Her voice had wavered at the end. The thought of running into him had obviously bothered her.

Good. It should.

Ryder cleared his throat. “She started asking me why I was in town and how I was, and she threw out names I’d never heard before. My confusion must have been obvious.”

“You had the deer-in-headlights look, but that was to be expected.” A tender smile lifted her lips, and Mason straightened. Were these two a couple? “I was a mess. Of all the times to be such a klutz... My words kept tripping over each other, and I don’t know what I was doing rubbing the stains on my shirt.”

“She kept saying ‘Mason,’ and it hit me she thought I was someone else.” Ryder’s shoulders and eyebrows rose in sync. His movements were so like his own, it made the hair on Mason’s arms rise. “I told her she had the wrong guy. And I introduced myself.”

“As soon as the last name came out of his mouth, I put it together.” She shook her head slightly. “I could barely take it in. Still can’t take it in, and it’s not even happening to me. Mason, Ryder is your identical twin. All this time and you never even knew each other existed. I remember how much you wanted a brother. Now you have one!”

And there it was—the empathy that had always, always drawn him to her. He ground his teeth together. Once upon a time, he thought she knew him in a way no one else did. That she saw through to his essence and, more, that she liked what was there.

She’d been his first love, and the experience had hardened him. Her lies had helped him see what he really wanted in a woman, and he’d found a beautiful, honest, loyal best friend in Mia.

Mia was gone, and Brittany was here. Fury pulsed, hot and surging, but he forced himself to stay calm. Why was he so mad at Brittany, anyway? It had been ten years. They’d been teenagers. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t moved on with his life. He had.

And he’d lost. Again.

Always losing.

“Why’d you come?” He didn’t miss the wariness that flashed in her eyes. “To flaunt your new boyfriend?” He regretted the words instantly. Couldn’t take them back. Didn’t know if he would have, anyway.