The Valentine Two-Step

The Valentine Two-Step
RaeAnne Thayne

Certainly he had been bewitched by women before, but for rancher–and single father–Matt Harte, this was the last straw! Because of his daughter's shenanigans, he'd gotten roped into planning the annual Valentine's Day dance. And his partner in crime? Why, beautiful big-city vet–and recent Salt River transplant–Ellie Webster.Who he couldn't take his eyes off. And not for lack of trying…Ellie knew that Matt Harte didn't want her in his town, let alone on the intimate dance committee of two. But this was for her daughter's sake. It wasn't like she wanted to spend all that one-on-one time with the rugged rancher, imagining what it would be like to be his partner–for real….

“You can stop looking at me like that,”

Ellie said.

“Like what?”

“Like you’re feeling sorry for the poor little foster girl playing make-believe. I did just fine.”

“I never said otherwise,” Matt said gruffly.

“You didn’t have to say a word. I can see what you’re thinking clear as day. I’ve seen pity plenty of times. But I’ve done just fine,” Ellie insisted, lifting her chin. “And I don’t care what you think about me, Harte.”

“Good. Then it won’t bother you when I tell you I think about you all the time. Or,” he finished quietly, “when I tell you that I think you’re just about the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen standing in my barn.”

Ellie’s jaw sagged open, and she stared at him, wide-eyed.

“Close your mouth, Doc,” he murmured wryly.

She snapped it shut, knowing exactly what he was going to do….

The Valentine Two-Step

RaeAnne Thayne

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

RAEANNE THAYNE

lives in a crumbling old Victorian house in northern Utah with her husband and two young children. She loves being able to write surrounded by rugged mountains and real cowboys.

To Lyndsey Thomas, for saving my life and my sanity more times than I can count!

Special thanks to Dr. Ronald Hamm, D.V.M., animal healer extraordinaire, for sharing so generously of his expertise.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Prologue

“It’s absolutely perfect.” Dylan Webster held her hands out imploringly to her best friend, Lucy Harte. “Don’t you see? It’s the only way!”

Lucy frowned in that serious way of hers, her gray eyes troubled. In the dim, dusty light inside their secret place—a hollowed-out hideaway behind the stacked hay bales of the Diamond Harte barn loft—her forehead looked all wrinkly. Kind of like a shar-pei puppy Dylan had seen once at her mom’s office back in California.

“I don’t know…” she began.

“Come on, Luce. You said it yourself. We should have been sisters, not just best friends. We were born on exactly the same day, we both love horses and despise long division and we both want to be vets like my mom when we grow up, right?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“If my mom married your dad, we really would be sisters. It would be like having a sleepover all the time. I could ride the school bus with you and everything, and I just know my mom would let me have my own horse if we lived out here on the ranch.”

Lucy nibbled her lip. “But, Dylan…”

“You want a mom of your own as much as I want a dad, don’t you? Even though you have your aunt Cassie to look after you, it’s not the same. You know it’s not.”

It was exactly the right button to push, and she knew it. Before her very eyes, Lucy sighed, and her expression went all dreamy. Dylan felt a little pinch of guilt at using her best friend’s most cherished dream to her own advantage, but she worked hard to ignore it.

Her plan would never work if she couldn’t convince Lucy how brilliant it was. Both of them had to be one-hundred-percent behind it. “We’d be sisters, Luce,” she said. “Sisters for real. Wouldn’t it be awesome?”

“Sisters.” Lucy burrowed deeper into the hay, her gray eyes closed as if, like Dylan, she was imagining family vacations and noisy Christmas mornings and never again having to miss a daddy-daughter party at school. Or in Lucy’s case, a mother-daughter party.