The Montana McKennas: Prequel (The Montana Ranchers Book 1) Page 6

  Liz sat down in the rocker and hugged the blanket to her chest. Rocking. Rocking. The rollercoaster ride of emotions caught up to her. It had been a long few weeks. Suddenly she cried.

  James found her like that. “Liz! What’s wrong?”

  He knelt by the rocking chair and took her hand.

  “Nothing,” she said with a sniff. “Everything.”

  “Tell me?”

  Liz squeezed his hand. “I’m just so happy. And sad all at the same time. I miss my mother. She would have so enjoyed seeing my children grow up, meeting you, being a part of all this.”

  He nodded, seeming unsure of what to say. How to help.

  “And in a way, making this house a home is more difficult than I imagined. Because, you see, James, it is still Claire’s home. I feel like an outsider here.”

  “Oh, my beautiful Liz, I understand,” James said. He stood up and walked to the window, pulling back the curtain. “That’s why I’m going to do something about it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He turned to face her. “Sam and I were just down by the lake laying out a spot for a new house.”

  “A new house?” Liz couldn’t believe her ears. She stood up and went to him.

  James brought her to the window. “You can’t see the area from up here. You can just see the tip of the lake. But there’s a nice spot where we can build a new home. Maybe out of logs.”

  “Would it have enough rooms for all the children?”

  “Yes, and a guest room. Six bedrooms. What do you think?”

  Love and gratitude ripped through Liz’s heart. “It will be our home. Truly our home.”

  James put his arm around her shoulders. “Yes, for my kids, yours, and ours. Our new family.”

  Together they gazed out the window over the McKenna lands. Liz put her head on her husband’s shoulder and for once in her life felt safe and loved.

  THE MONTANA RANCHERS SERIES

  The Montana McKennas

  Written by Jan Scarbrough and Maddie James

  Welcome to McKenna Ranch!

  Meet Brody, Callie, Mercer and Parker—the four siblings in the clan of James McKenna, a Montana rancher. Growing up on the ranch was a great life, until Callie and Parker’s mother passed away, leaving James a widower. It wasn’t long, however, before he remarried, bringing stepmother Liz into their lives, along with her son, Brody. Soon, James and Liz added a new McKenna to the family, when daughter Mercer was born.

  Brothers and sisters are prone to disagreements and this Brady Bunch family of step, half, and full siblings is no exception. As they grew up on the ranch, they learned values that stuck with them throughout their lives—even though they may live apart as adults. But there is one thing that will bring them all back together. Their father’s only wish.

  Beginning with a short prequel novella that tells the story of James McKenna and Liz Caldera, and how they came to blend their families, these stories put you on the McKenna Ranch in Montana, near Yellowstone National Park. This series leads off with Jan Scarbrough’s Brody, with Maddie James’ Callie to follow, while the siblings begin the long road home. These sweet to sexy stories give you a glimpse into Montana rodeo and ranch life, and of course, provide lots of contemporary cowboy love and romance.

  The Montana McKennas: Prequel

  by Jan Scarbrough and Maddie James

  The Long Road Home:

  Brody, Book One, by Jan Scarbrough

  Callie, Book Two, by Maddie James

  Parker, Book Three, by Maddie James

  Mercer, Book Four, by Jan Scarbrough

  THE MONTANA RANCHERS SERIES

  Montana Heat

  Written by Bella Masters

  A couple of hours east of the McKenna Ranch, James McKenna’s brother-in-law, Tom Parker and his wife Sally, own another tract of family land. Parker’s Paradise Ranch has been in the family for generations. Tom’s son, Gage Parker, claims a smaller tract of land bordering the family ranch called the Branded Filly, and includes land Gage has added to it over the years.

  We first met Gage Parker, cousin to the McKenna siblings, and older brother to Murphy Reynolds from Callie, in Corporate Cowboy. In that book, Bella Masters introduces Gage’s ranch manager, Cole Stevens, along with temptress Amanda McIntyre, and Gage’s loyal personal assistant, Chad Logan. Soon to be introduced is Olivia Parker, Gage’s sister.

  The Montana Heat series, written by Bella Masters, spins the stories of the Parker side of the clan. These stories are darker and more erotic than the McKenna stories, delving deep into the sexual personalities of the characters and their erratic sexual pathways to finding the loves of their lives.

  Stories in this series are written by Bella Masters (a pen name of Maddie James) and include:

  Corporate Cowboy

  Watch for these books in process, to be released:

  Cole’s Story (untitled)

  Amanda’s Story (untitled)

  Chad’s Story (untitled)

  Olivia’s Story (untitled)

  READ THE OPENING SCENES

  of each novella in the series!

  BRODY

  Two o’clock a.m.

  Chicago, Illinois

  He was home.

  Brody Caldera’s heart quickened as he turned the key to the door of his high rise apartment on North Sheridan Road. When his girlfriend, Lori Ann, helped him pick it out soon after they met two years ago, she had loved the apartment’s “million dollar view” of Lake Michigan. The location was trendy and close to downtown and her job at an up-and-coming ad agency. The apartment was “to-die for,” and she said she’d be very happy living there between Brody’s “business” trips.

  Yeah, Lori Ann was spoiled, all right. He gave her anything and everything she wanted. But why not? He could afford it, and what else did he have to spend his money on but the woman he loved. Since the day he met her at a promotional event for the Professional Bull Riders, he’d been head-over-heels in love with her. And she with him. They were a perfect match for each other. There was just something right about them together. And one day they’d get married and make beautiful blond babies together. Maybe soon.

  Even after all this time, he adored her. Still bought her clothes and jewelry. Still had hot sex with her. That’s why he’d caught an early plane home. He wanted to surprise her this morning and kiss her awake.

  His adrenalin surged just like it did when he was about to climb down on the back of a seventeen-hundred-pound bull. Brody slowly turned the door knob, so he wouldn’t make noise and wake Lori Ann. She wasn’t expecting him.

  What the hell? Every light in the place was on. He blinked his eyes against the glare reflected off the bank of windows that faced the lake.

  Cocking his head to the side, Brody stood at the threshold and surveyed the strange sight in the fashionable, black-and-white living room Lori Ann had decorated. It didn’t look like their peaceful living space. It looked like a scene from a college frat party. Not that he would know firsthand, of course. He’d never gone to college and never been to a frat party, but he had a good imagination.

  Furniture was shoved back against the walls. Empty glasses and plates littered the glass table-tops. Cigarette butts filled several ash trays. He’d never had an ash tray in the apartment in his whole time living there.

  Lori Ann didn’t smoke. And folks didn’t smoke in Montana where he came from. He’d learned his lesson the hard way. He’d tried it once out behind the barn. His stepfather had caught him and tanned his hide. His mom had given him the “what for” too. Told him smoking interfered with drawing in the clean mountain air. It made riding and roping harder work with lungs full of crap. They were right.

  Tightening his jaw, Brody took a step inside, dropped his duffle bag by the entrance, and shut the door behind him. He turned slowly, absorbing the dead silence of the place and drawing in a pungent scent of skunk.

  He’d smelled it before on the streets of Chicago as he biked. He’d smelled it on side
walks in the Loop and on the “L.”

  Brody walked over to the glass coffee table and looked down at the ashtrays, which weren’t filled with cigarette butts, but paper-wrapped joints.

  Someone had been smoking marijuana.

  So that explained it. Lori Ann had been acting strange for six months. He’d overlooked red flags because he had wanted to. But now he couldn’t. The tightening of his gut told him he’d been a fool.

  A damn fool.

  A pair of man’s, black leather wingtips kicked off by the black leather sofa told him the same thing.

  Brody strode toward his bedroom, the one he shared with Lori Ann, and turned on the light switch beside the door. The overhead chandelier illuminated the king-size bed beneath it.

  The spectacle rocked him. Looked like some other man had been enjoying the fruits of his labor.

  Brody planted his legs wide for balance, anger rolling through the length of his slim, muscular body. So this is what betrayal feels like.

  He reached the side of the bed in two strides and grasped the edge of the red satin sheet covering Lori Ann and another body. He flicked the covering off her with a quick snap of his wrist.

  “Who’s he?” he asked between clenched teeth.

  Lori Ann sat bolt upright pulling the red satin sheet back over her well-endowed breasts.

  “Brody! What are you doing here?”

  “Seems you’ve been taking me for a ride,” he said in his quiet cowboy way.

  Lori Ann stared at him wide-eyed. He might not look like a cowboy with his frayed blue jeans, Chicago Cubs T-shirt, tennis shoes, and ball cap, but his jaw was set with the same cowboy determination that made him a champion bull rider and the same instinct that made him competitive from the time he was seventeen.

  And that instinct was kicking him right in the seat of his pants.

  The other man turned over onto his back and mumbled something about turning off the lights.

  “I can explain,” Lori Ann said with a frantic note to her voice.

  “Nothin’ to explain. I get it.” Brody didn’t need a picture drawn for him. “Be out of here by the time I get back.”

  He turned on his heel and headed for the door.

  “Wait!” she shrieked, ripping the sheet off her bed partner and leaving him buck naked sprawled out in the king-size bed. Running after him, Lori Ann caught up to Brody in the living room and grabbed him by the arm.

  Brody stopped and looked down at her disheveled blond hair, seeing for the first time the unhealthy pastiness of her porcelain skin and the selfish pout of her full lips.

  His sister, Mercer, had warned him about Lori Ann a long time ago. He hadn’t listened then. But he was listening now.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m going home,” Brody said slowly, as the idea formed in his dazed brain.

  “But this is your home.”

  “I’m going home to Montana.”

  “You can’t leave me!” Lori Ann sobbed.

  “Looks like I’m about to.”

  Brody shrugged off her hand, picked up his canvas duffle bag, and opened the door. “I’ll send my lawyer for my clothes.”

  “But what about me?”

  “I suppose you need to get yourself another sugar daddy. Looks like there’s a candidate in my bed.”

  That other candidate stood barefoot in the doorway of the bedroom, his trousers hastily jerked up around his hips. “Hey, man,” he muttered. “All is cool.”

  Brody glared at the idiot and turned quickly. He left his apartment before he did something stupid like punch the bastard’s lights out. He may have been played for a fool, but that was no reason to let his temper lead him into something he’d regret later.

  Hiking the duffle bag over his shoulder, Brody strode down the hallway, his hands shaking worse than when he was getting ready to ride a rank bull with eighty thousand dollars on the line.

  At the elevator, he punched the button for his ride down and out of a life he realized he’d been hanging on to for far too long. Better to go back to the folks he used to know. Honest, decent, hardworking folks who were what they seemed to be. Not lying opportunists like his ex-girlfriend.

  His iPhone buzzed just as the elevator door opened. Thinking the text was from Lori Ann, he almost didn’t remove his cell phone from its belt clip holster. But he did. The text was from Mercer.

  Mom needs you. Daddy’s had an accident. He’s in the hospital. Brody, come home.

  CALLIE

  Manhattan, New York City

  March 2014

  “You know I’m proud of you, baby girl, don’t you?”

  Callie McKenna smiled and closed her eyes at the familiarity of her father’s words. She looked forward to their weekly calls, the deep draw of his voice pulling her back home again for a little while.

  “I know, Daddy. I work hard. You taught me that.” She smiled and pushed back a curtain with one finger, staring out the window of her second-story walk-up. The street below was busy this Sunday morning. She itched to take a walk. The winter had been long and brutal, and this burst of springtime was a welcome change. “I do love my job. There’s talk of a promotion if I play my cards right.”

  “You got that strong McKenna work ethic in you, that’s for sure,” he said.

  She did. It had served her well in the rodeo days of her youth and continued to be an asset in her career. That work ethic was important to her. “That’s very true, Daddy.” And I owe it all to you.

  There was a short pause, and then her father continued, changing the subject. “Sugar sure could use a good run around those barrels.”

  “Sugar’s getting a little old for that, Daddy. Me, too.”

  The thought of her quarter horse, though, sent a slight spiral of homesickness into her belly. “I do miss her. I would stable her here but that’s impossible and she wouldn’t be happy. Besides, I work a lot of late nights and I don’t know when I would be able to ride her.”

  “Your life sure has changed.”

  He always said that, as if it was a surprise—like it was yesterday. Fact was, it was coming up on ten years since she’d left for college. It was his way of staying she had changed. “I’m still the same ol’ Callie,” she teased.

  He laughed and took in his bellow. “Montana misses you somethin’ awful, baby girl.”

  Translation: He missed her something awful. She knew he did. It wasn’t Sugar, or Montana, it was him. “I’ll be home soon, Daddy.”

  “When?”

  Reaching into her bag, she pulled out her planner. She was the only one of her friends who still carried a paper planner and didn’t record everything on her cell. Phone tucked between her chin and shoulder, she sifted through the pages. “Let me see when I can get away. Maybe July or August.”

  “It’s been two years, girl. You realize that?”

  “What?” Certainly not. “I’m sure it’s been—”

  “Nope. Two years since last Christmas. So, it’s been almost two and a half.”

  Oh, dear. She flipped a few more pages. “August. I’ll come in August, Daddy. Promise.” She could almost see his nod.

  “August is a good month,” he said. “Your mama’s birthday and all. Maybe we’ll ride up to the family plot.”

  Callie’s eyes immediately stung. She reached for the locket around her neck and fiddled with it—a simple gold locket her father had one time given to her mother. Now it was hers. “I’d like that a lot,” she told him, trying not to sniffle.

  “Me, too. So I’m expecting you now, girl. Got that? A McKenna doesn’t back down on her word. I can’t wait to see you in August.” He paused and then added. “But if you can come before that, it sure would be good. Got some things to talk about.”

  Something prickled in her chest. Oh? “Daddy, is everything okay?”

  He snorted. “Sure it is. Just some business about the ranch I want to go over with you and Parker. You know one day McKenna Ranch will be yours.”

  She w
ished he wouldn’t talk like that.

  Maybe it was his tone, or maybe it was something heavy in her heart, but things were suddenly off. His mood had shifted from happy to talk to you to serious shit on a dime. That prickle morphed into a trigger of worry and curled up under her breastbone. How could she tell him she never intended to run the ranch with Parker? He knew that, deep down, didn’t he?

  But her father was a stubborn, Alpha rancher used to getting his way….

  He continued. “And you need to be prepared, Callie-girl, for me to convince you to stay.”

  “Daddy, you know—”

  “I gotta run now. Time for me to get out of the kitchen and into the saddle.”

  She glanced at her watch. Seven o’clock in the morning there. Didn’t matter that it was a Sunday. Ranch work never ends. “Okay, Daddy. Give my love to Parker and the others. Love you and talk soon.”

  “Love you more, baby girl. Love you more.”

  He clicked off the phone before she did. With a sigh, she sat by the window and looked down at her planner, now in her lap. She fished a pen out of her bag and wrote the word “Montana” in big block letters across the month of August.

  She stared at the word for a moment.

  No more skirting it, no excuses. She was going home.

  Beneath the word Montana, she made a list:

  Schedule vacation

  Get airfare

  Book rental vehicle

  Get head on straight.

  ****

  Yellowstone River Roundup, Montana Fair

  Billings, Montana, August 2004

  Not a thought ran through Callie’s head as she leaned up on Sugar’s neck to gain speed. Every fiber of her being concentrated on one task—horse and rider moving as one around the cloverleaf. Relieved they’d gotten around the tricky second barrel without error, they sped toward the final one. Callie focused on keeping her hands in position. Pushing back in the saddle and sitting on her pockets, she approached the third turn.