Stella Bagwell – A Ranger For Christmas (страница 1)
No romance on the job!
Arizona park ranger Vivian Hollister is
“Stella Bagwell is a master of the cowboy romance.” —#1
After writing more than eighty books for Mills & Boon, STELLA BAGWELL still finds it exciting to create new stories and bring her characters to life. She loves all things Western and has been married to her own real cowboy for forty-four years. Living on the south Texas coast, she also enjoys being outdoors and helping her husband care for the horses, cats and dog that call their small ranch home. The couple has one son, who teaches high school mathematics and is also an athletic director. Stella loves hearing from readers. They can contact her at stellabagwell@gmail.com.
Her Man on Three Rivers Ranch The
Arizona Lawman
Her Kind of Doctor
The Cowboy’s Christmas Lullaby His
Badge, Her Baby…Their Family?Her
Rugged Rancher
Christmas on the Silver Horn Ranch
Daddy Wore Spurs
The Lawman’s Noelle
The Little Maverick Matchmaker The
Maverick’s Bride-to-Order
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk
A Ranger for Christmas
Stella Bagwell
ISBN: 978-1-474-07847-4
A RANGER FOR CHRISTMAS
© 2018 Stella Bagwell
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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With much love to my brother, Charles Cook,
and my sister-in-law, Denise Cook.
Contents
“How many times do I have to tell you, Mort? I don’t need another partner. I’ve got this.”
Park ranger Vivian Hollister rose from a wooden chair and began to pace around her supervisor’s small office. Beyond the open blinds, she could see the parking lot in front of the headquarters building was empty. Her fellow rangers had already headed out to patrol their allotted areas, while she’d been ordered to remain behind for a private meeting with Mort.
“Look, Viv, I’ll be the first to admit that you’re damned good at your job. You’ve been here at Lake Pleasant for a long time and I’ve never had to worry about you slacking off, or making a wrong decision about handling problems. But—”
Vivian didn’t allow him to finish. “But what? I’ve been here nine years, Mort. Going on ten. And by that length of time, you should know I have the routine down. Why bother bringing someone in to fill Louis’s place when I can handle the job on my own?”
The sixty-year-old man with red hair was tall and rawboned, with blue eyes that crinkled at the corners. He’d been Vivian’s supervisor from the day she’d been hired on at Lake Pleasant State Park in Arizona. Since then, he’d not only been a great boss, but he’d also become her friend, and she’d expected him to understand her reluctance to work long days with a stranger. Instead, his patient smile made it clear she was wasting time trying to argue her point.
“If Louis was only going to miss a day or two of work, I’d say fine, Viv. Go ahead and handle it on your own. But at the very least, it’s going to be four to six months before Louis’s broken leg will be ready for work again. And with the Christmas holiday coming up, the park is going to be brimming with extra campers. Like it or not, you’re going to need help.”