Caught by the Cowboy Dad Read online

  “We need to work things out,” he said slowly. Then he added, “For the baby.”

  The warmth drained from her gaze. “Clay, we can do that through our lawyers. I’m calling mine.” The way Bernadette said those words... The way she snatched her water bottle back... The way she walked past him with her shoulders back and her head high...

  None of it made him feel any better about their situation. “We don’t need lawyers to work this out.” Hammering out financial details was Holden’s forte, after all. And by the time the baby was born, he should be employed and able to contribute to its care and well-being. “We can negotiate terms ourselves.”

  “I disagree.” She lengthened her stride.

  Holden didn’t want to argue. Instead, he chose to follow and plot a course of action. And for the first time in more than a month, his brain was laser focused: stop this woman from leaving.

  Dear Reader,

  The fun thing about writing stories about big families is that every family has the stuffed shirt. In the Monroes, it’s Holden. He’s the oldest of his generation and has always had big expectations placed on his shoulders. But now Holden has been fired, allegiances within the family are shifting away from him, he recently had a health scare and his ex-girlfriend is pregnant. This isn’t where he thought he’d be at age thirty-eight!

  Dr. Bernadette Carlisle can’t believe she fell in love with her long-distance boyfriend, Holden, or that he ghosted her just as she discovered she was pregnant. Also unbelievable is Holden’s unexpected invitation to go on a camping trip with him and his teenage son just when her heart was finally starting to heal. But she has to go, if only to find out what kind of father Holden wants to be to their baby. All she has to do on this trip is make sure Holden doesn’t break her heart again.

  I had a lot of fun writing Holden and Bernadette’s road trip romance. I hope you come to love The Mountain Monroes as much as I do. Each book is connected but also stands alone. Happy reading!

  Melinda

  Caught by the Cowboy Dad

  Melinda Curtis

  Melinda Curtis, prior to writing romance, was a junior manager for a Fortune 500 company, which meant when she flew on the private jet she was relegated to the jump seat—otherwise known as the potty (seriously, the commode had a seat belt). After grabbing her pen (and a parachute), she made the jump to full-time writer. Melinda has become a USA TODAY bestselling author, and her Harlequin Heartwarming book Dandelion Wishes is now a TV movie—Love in Harmony Valley.

  Brenda Novak says Season of Change “found a place on my keeper shelf.”

  Jayne Ann Krentz says of Can’t Hurry Love, “Nobody does emotional, heartwarming small-town romance like Melinda Curtis.”

  Sheila Roberts says Can’t Hurry Love is “a page turner filled with wit and charm.”

  Books by Melinda Curtis

  The Mountain Monroes

  Kissed by the Country Doc

  Snowed in with the Single Dad

  Rescued by the Perfect Cowboy

  Lassoed by the Would-Be Rancher

  Enchanted by the Rodeo Queen

  Charmed by the Cook’s Kids

  The Littlest Cowgirls

  Return of the Blackwell Brothers

  The Rancher’s Redemption

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  Contents

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  EPILOGUE

  EXCERPT FROM THE TEXAN’S SECRET SON BY KIT HAWTHORNE

  PROLOGUE

  DEVIN MONROE’S SUMMER was ruined.

  All his friends from high school were heading off to college for the summer session that started in a week to get a jump on their class ranking. And what was Devin doing? A ten-day, guys-only RV trip with his dad.

  Worst. Summer. Ever.

  And Dad...

  Geez, two years from turning forty and the man’s life was falling apart. Not that all of it was Dad’s fault.

  In January, Great-grandpa Harlan had disinherited Dad on the same day that Grandpa Darrell had fired him. Was it any wonder Dad was going gray? And then two days ago in front of half the Monroe family, some doctor had walked up to Dad and announced she was having his baby!

  Devin cringed remembering the spectacle.

  Was it any wonder his dad had gone to the hospital the next day with all the symptoms of a heart attack?

  Turns out it was only stress and dehydration. Still...this just wasn’t Dad’s year.

  But Devin still wanted it to be his year. And getting a jump on his college ranking by attending the second summer session was the way to do it.

  If Devin could get Dad to cancel the RV trip and spend some time with Dr. Baby Mama...

  Devin stomped into their hotel room in Second Chance, Idaho.

  Dad’s phone sat on the nightstand in the Lodgepole Inn. Dad was nowhere in sight.

  It would be wrong to search his contacts for Dr. Bernadette Carlisle.

  It would be wrong to send her a text message using his dad’s phone and to apologize for the unhelpful way Dad had reacted to the baby news, as if Devin was Dad.

  And it would really be wrong to invite Dr. Carlisle along on the RV trip to Yellowstone.

  Devin did it anyway.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “I’M GOING TO be a father again.” It was the first time Holden Monroe had said the words out loud.

  Speaking them made it feel as if an elephant had taken a seat on his chest.

  Yes, his ex-girlfriend was pregnant. Yes, he’d love this child as much as the first. But that wasn’t the main reason for the elephant’s sit-in. Holden was recently unemployed, might be going broke and had suffered a health scare.

  He lay on a mattress with springs that sagged and studied the cracks in the ceiling of the Lodgepole Inn. His life had come apart, start to finish, in a little town he’d never heard of a year ago called Second Chance, Idaho.

  “You don’t have to sound like it’s the end of the world, Dad.” Devin sat on the other bed in the hotel room perusing a pre-med textbook. He was seventeen, very smart and had graduated from high school a year early.

  The family wedding they’d come to attend in Second Chance hadn’t happened because Laurel, the bride, went into labor on the day and had given birth to twin girls. The ceremony had been rescheduled to next weekend. There was nothing keeping them here. Adventure awaited in the form of a father–son RV trip. But Holden couldn’t seem to move from the bed.

  A second child. He should be coming to terms with the idea and rejoicing. Instead, he couldn’t seem to focus.

  The first drops from a summer rainstorm pinged on the window. The log walls creaked from the incoming storm’s gathering wind. A fitting soundtrack to the ruination of his life. What was next? A full eclipse and Armageddon?

  I’m going to be a father again.

  “Dad? Dad, did you hear me? I said it’s not the end of the world.”

>   “Yes, but I’m doing the math.”

  “What math?” Devin turned a page.

  “I’m thirty-eight. You’re seventeen. And when Bernadette’s baby is seventeen, I’ll be fifty-five.” An age when he should have been counting down to retirement with all his investments in order after running the Monroe Holding Corporation for at least a decade.

  But he’d never advanced to the CEO position in his family’s company. In fact, the Monroe Holding Corporation no longer employed Holden, period. He barely had enough in savings to pay for Devin’s medical degree, much less finance his own company. Because that’s what fired, middle-aged men from Manhattan usually did. They branched out on their own. But to do what? He had no answer. And why would he? He hadn’t envisioned starting over this late in life.

  Holden’s shoulders crept up toward his ears. For a man who’d grown up with a silver spoon and lived the last ten years on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, this was the end of the world.

  “So what if you’re the father of two who’ll be ancient in seventeen years.” Devin flipped a page. The text was so small Holden couldn’t even begin to read the headings. “Could be worse. Dr. Carlisle could be having—”

  “Twins,” they said in unison. Twins ran deep in the Monroe DNA.

  “Maybe I could use a double blessing,” Holden said thickly, trying to find a silver lining.

  When you hit rock bottom, that’s when your true character rises.

  That was his grandpa Harlan Monroe talking. He’d always been good with the pep talks, like one of those spin-class instructors who spent half the time talking about being the best you can be, instead of yelling at you to pedal as if your life depended on it.

  The rest of my life hinges upon how fast I pedal now.

  He’d always been able to envision his ideal future and chart a course to get there. That course involved being a team player in the Monroe family, devoting long hours to brokering deals and wisely investing for the company and individual Monroes. But all the while, he hadn’t done the same for himself. He’d lived the New York City high life, gambling his future on becoming the family CEO. And he’d lost.

  “Dad, did you hear me?” Devin closed that thick book of his. “Are you ready to leave? Or can we officially cancel this father–son road trip?”

  “Cancel?” Holden sat up, swinging his long legs over the edge of the bed. He might not know what the rest of the year held, but he knew what he was doing for the next week. “We’re not canceling. Grab your bags.” They were already packed and had just been waiting for Holden to say the word. “Let’s go. You’re headed to MIT in the fall. I know how college students are. You’ll forget your old man a week in.”

  “Dad. Legally, you have me two weeks between now and the end of the year.” Devin turned eighteen in January. He’d inherited Holden’s wry humor, along with his black curly hair and gray eyes. “Let’s reschedule. We could do a road trip between terms. Meanwhile, you could...you know...get some rest, like the doctor ordered.”

  His doctor... His ex...

  “None of that talk. We’re going to make Yellowstone by dinnertime.” They had a ten-day schedule to keep, after all. And besides, Holden didn’t want to discuss his health. “I received the all clear from Bernadette.” After what had felt like a heart attack two days ago. “She said it was nothing.” And hadn’t that been embarrassing? For a few hours, he’d felt like he was dying but, medically, there was nothing wrong with him. To add to his mortification, it had been his ex, Bernadette, the woman pregnant with his child, who’d delivered the ego-crushing diagnosis. And she’d looked good while doing it, while he... “I’m fine.”

  “You have to deal with your anxiety,” Dev said, stuffing his pre-med book in his backpack.

  I do not have anxiety.

  “I can handle stress.” Holden got to his feet, drew a deep breath and forced his shoulders away from his ears.

  “All evidence to the contrary,” Devin murmured with attitude.

  Holden had forgotten what it was like to be a teenager, so full of snark that sometimes you couldn’t censor your inner voice. “You know, I can hear perfectly well.”

  Before Devin could answer, someone knocked on their hotel-room door.

  It was Holden’s cousin Shane, looking healthy and relaxed. “Thought I’d swing by while I was in town and see you off.” So chipper. So cheerful. He’d probably never stressed his way to a false-alarm heart attack.

  A second elephant joined the first on Holden’s chest, creating a cramped, burning sensation around his heart—the infamous anxiety Bernadette had warned him about, the same condition that had sent a very real-feeling electrical jolt down his left arm a few days ago.

  Deep breath in. Think happy thoughts. Avoid dwelling on the impulse to slug your cousin.

  A primitive growl worked past his flailing happy thoughts.

  For years, Holden and Shane had been jockeying for the position of heir to the Monroe conglomerate of companies. There could be only one CEO of the Monroe Holding Corporation.

  And then Grandpa Harlan had died and left their fathers everything, but only on the condition that they disown Harlan’s grandchildren, a move apparently designed to inspire the twelve of them to strike out on their own. There would be no CEO position for either Shane or Holden. All the third generation Monroes had been fired as a result. Instead of wealth, they’d been given a small town in the Idaho mountains. Second Chance was worthless in Holden’s eyes, except for a cache of stagecoach gold Shane had found and the value of the land for developers of luxury homes and ranchettes. Shane, bleeding heart that he was, saw Second Chance’s future more optimistically than Holden.

  “Dad? Did you hear me?” Devin sounded both worried and exasperated. He turned to Shane. “His responses have been on delay all morning.”

  “Yes. I’m a little foggy.” Holden rose to his own defense. “Let’s blame it on my doctor recommending I lay off caffeine.”

  “Brain fog is worrisome.” Shane studied Holden’s face as if he were studying the daily stock-market report. He gave his head a little shake as he ran a hand through his short, dark hair. “Dev, why don’t you take your suitcases down to the motor home?”

  “On it.” Devin was entirely too eager to escape the room.

  After his son left, Holden crossed his arms, leaned his back against the far log wall and scowled at Shane. “I’m fine.” Other than the anxiety-bearing elephants hindering his breathing. “Why doesn’t anyone believe me?”

  “Why?” Shane shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “Maybe because your expression today is as buttoned-up as your personality sometimes is.”

  A primal sound escaped Holden’s throat. Shane could be so annoying. “If you equate being buttoned-up with having everything under control, then I agree with you.”

  Holden was the ice man. Everyone on Wall Street said so.

  “Everything under control...” Shane crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s great. So, tell me, oh mighty negotiator and financier... What are you going to do about Bernadette and the baby?”

  Uh...

  “What are your career plans?” Shane prompted in an easygoing voice. “You’ve got it all under control. Spill.”

  Uh...

  “And while we’re on the topic of control,” Shane continued, “if you could sell Second Chance, where would you start?”

  Uh...

  It wasn’t Holden’s expression that was the problem. It was his brain. Thoughts flew about his head in bits and snatches. Holden was certain he knew what he wanted to do about the baby, his career and the future of Second Chance. He was certain, and yet, he couldn’t sort through the jumble of thoughts in his head to take a stand on any of those topics.

  Shane sat down on the corner of Holden’s bed. “If you were fine, you’d have shot back at me.” He sighed. “You can talk to me. I
understand stress.”

  “You understand nothing,” Holden grumbled. Not the pressure on his chest. Not the jumble of thoughts in his head. Not the embarrassment of going to the emergency room for no concrete medical reason. “Nothing.”

  “Really?” Shane quirked a dark brow. “I’m here for you. Enlighten me.”

  “Whatever sent me to the hospital...” which, according to the tests, wasn’t a heart attack, blood clots, malfunctioning thyroid, diabetes or cancerous tumors “...I refuse the diagnosis.”

  Shane frowned. “Stress?”

  “Anxiety.” Holden hated the familiar way the word rolled off his tongue. “That’s what they call it now, Shane. Anxiety. Do you know what they used to call what happened to me?”

  Frowning, Shane shook his head.

  “A breakdown.” Holden felt frustration build in his veins. Strong, powerful, capable men weren’t felled by life’s pressures. “I am not broken.” He was many things—proud, a cool negotiator, a workaholic. But he wasn’t broken.

  “Ah.” Shane nodded, as if he sympathized. “Holden, you’re not broken broken—”

  Holden wanted to throttle Shane.

  “—but you’re not fine, either. Something’s bothering you. Something more than Bernadette’s baby news. You showed up in town wound tighter than an eight-day clock. Maybe you should spend a week or two at the family ranch in Texas. Sleep late and ride horses. Either way, I’m here for you if you want to talk.”

  Holden didn’t want to share his feelings with anyone, most especially Shane. But he didn’t want to carry elephants around on his chest, either.

  It’s going to take more than deep breaths to get rid of them.

  Before Holden could decide how much more he should say, Shane continued his kumbaya speech. “Since I’ve been in Second Chance, my priorities have changed. Family, not the bottom line, is the most important thing to me. I know we’ve been at odds about whether to keep or sell this town. Now that a majority of the family want to retain ownership of Second Chance, we need someone with your financial expertise to guide us long-term.”