Karen Rock – Christmas At Cade Ranch (страница 1)
The Christmas they never had.
James Cade has one priority: keep the family ranch running smoothly in the wake of his younger brother’s death. With Jesse’s ex, Sofia Gallardo, and her young son, Javi, stranded at Cade Ranch over Christmas, this task just got a lot harder. The longer Sofia and Javi stay, the harder it is to imagine the ranch without them. James couldn’t save his brother from his inner demons, but he can give his nephew a secure future. Maybe more—if he can figure out how to trust Sofia, and stop feeling like he’s betraying Jesse. Because trying to stop thinking about beautiful, determined Sofia is impossible.
“All I could hear was you, Sofia. Singing the wrong words.”
He couldn’t stop his twitching mouth any longer and gave in to a full-on smile. An unfamiliar feeling.
“Then what does the singer mean when he says he wants to get lost in the rock and roll? Huh?” Her huff made something tight inside his chest loosen.
“He wants to get lost in the beat,” he said reasonably, inhaling the vanilla-musk scent of her hair. “Here. Listen again.” He started the song over. At the chorus, he sang the correct line.
A quick glance to his right revealed Sofia’s frown. Her dark eyebrows met over her nose and that full pink mouth of hers, the one he hadn’t been able to stop staring at since they’d met last night, pursed. He forced his gaze back on the road where it belonged.
He had no business thinking Jesse’s girl was pretty.
The holidays hold unique memories for all of us. Some of them are warm and wonderful as we remember happy gatherings around a Christmas tree laden with gifts or cozy evenings eating homemade treats beside a fire while listening to carols. But for people who don’t have homes, or family, the holidays can be riddled with unpleasant memories.
For struggling single mother Sofia Gallardo, the holidays evoke a mix of emotions. Her only Christmas wish is to give her six-year-old son, Javi, a real Christmas, a home and a family to be proud of. For the Cades, the holidays are a time they pretend doesn’t exist as it brings back painful memories of a beloved family member they’ve recently lost.
I’m inspired by Sofia’s perseverance and determination to provide a better life for her child, and am moved by the Cades’ grief and need to come together as a family again. The magic of Christmas heals wounds and brings a couple and child the love and family they deserve. I welcome you to the first book in my Rocky Mountain Cowboys series and hope you find it as uplifting and inspiring as I did!
Wishing you a holiday season filled with joy, laughter and love.
Happy reading,
Karen Rock
Christmas at Cade Ranch
Karen Rock
KAREN ROCK is an award-winning young adult and adult contemporary author. She holds a master’s degree in English and worked as an ELA instructor before becoming a full-time author. Most recently, her Harlequin Heartwarming novels have won the 2015 National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award and the 2015 Booksellers’ Best Award. When she’s not writing, Karen loves scouring estate sales, cooking and hiking. She lives in the Adirondack Mountain region with her husband, daughter and Cavalier King Charles spaniels. Visit her at karenrock.com.
To my husband and daughter, whose love is the greatest gift I receive every Christmas and the whole year through.
Contents
“IS DADDY DOWN THERE?”
Sofia Gallardo knelt beside her five-year-old son, Javi, on frozen grass and snuggled him close. All around them, poinsettia and pinecone Christmas wreaths bedecked the surrounding gravesites. She pulled in a ragged breath of balsam-scented air and blinked stinging eyes.
How to explain the afterlife to a child? An animated film they’d watched at a public library came to mind. “No, honey. Daddy went ‘up.’”
Javi traced the plaque’s engraved letters with a fingertip poking through his faded red glove. The white tops of Carbondale, Colorado’s nearby Rocky Mountain range breathed chill late-November air down at them. It rustled through the Douglas firs dotting Rosebud Cemetery and jingled bell-shaped ornaments looped around a wintergreen boxwood. “Like in the movie?”
“Just like that.”
“With balloons?”
“Maybe.”
Brown eyes slanted up at her beneath a drooping toque a size too big for his head. He looked thinner, she assessed, gnawing on her lip. Pale. When was the last time he’d had milk? Fruit? Two days ago?
No. Three.
Four.
“He can’t go up without balloons.” Javi pulled a creased picture from his backpack and peered at it. “And he wasn’t old like Mr. Fredisson.”
“Fredricksen,” she corrected automatically, then closed her eyes for a moment and gathered her thoughts. How to make sense of something she hadn’t yet fully processed? Outside the cemetery’s gates, the swish-hiss of a sander slipped past, ahead of this afternoon’s predicted storm.
She shivered in her sweater and wished for a winter coat, gloves and a better set for Javi, too, than his mismatched pair.
Wishes.