One of a Kind: Lionhearted / Letters to Kelly

A man worth waiting for… Tough, handsome, dangerous… He is…

ONE OF A KIND

Two international bestselling authors

deliver two dramatic, emotional

stories featuring their trademark

gorgeous heroes.

ONE OF A KIND

Lionhearted

DIANA PALMER

Letters to Kelly

SUZANNE BROCKMANN

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Lionhearted

DIANA PALMER

Dear Reader,

With this book, the Hart brothers of Jacobsville are all happily married and building families. For me, it’s very sad to see the last Hart bachelor tie the knot, because their biscuit mania gave me some wonderful story lines. However, as with all things, we have to move on.

I have hinted in past books about the impish Janie Brewster, and she caught the wedding bouquets at both Micah Steele’s and Rey Hart’s weddings – so I thought that would give you the idea that she was fated to marry rather soon. What I didn’t realise was how wild a story she and Leo would have when they started getting serious. I think I spent most of the book laughing while it unfolded daily on my computer screen. My husband is now convinced that I’m nuts, having had his Western movies on TV almost constantly interrupted by maniacal laughter from the direction of my office! Talk about the patience of Job! After having put up with me and my profession for over a quarter of a century, he’s no stranger to my quirks. I could never have gone so far without him – and without all of you. When I count all my blessings, I don’t sleep. It’s a long list.

I hope you like Leo’s story. He has a really rocky road to the altar, and Janie shows him that she’s no shrinking daisy! Another interesting little sidebar that popped up was Cash Grier. I didn’t actually plan to put him in this book, but he was suddenly there and refused to leave. You don’t argue with a guy like this, so I let him do pretty much what he wanted.

Thank you, as always, for years of loyalty and kindness and prayers. You know already that I am your biggest fan.

Love,

Diana Palmer

To the FAO Schwarz gang on Peachtree Road,

Atlanta, and at the Internet Customer

Service Department.

Thanks!

Prologue

Leo Hart felt alone in the world. The last of his bachelor brothers, Rey, had gotten married and moved out of the house almost a year ago. That left Leo, alone, with an arthritic housekeeper who came in two days a week and threatened to retire every day. If she did, Leo would be left without a biscuit to his name, or even a hope of getting another one unless he went to a restaurant every morning for breakfast. Considering his work schedule, that was impractical.

He leaned back in the swivel chair at his desk in the office he now shared with no one. He was happy for his brothers. Most of them had families now, except newly married Rey. Simon and Tira had two little boys. Cag and Tess had a boy. Corrigan and Dorie had a boy and a baby girl. When he looked back, Leo realized that women had been a missing commodity in his life of late. It was late September. Roundup was just over, and there had been so much going on at the ranch, with business, that he’d hardly had time for a night out. He was feeling it.

Even as he considered his loneliness, the phone rang.

“Why don’t you come over for supper?” Rey asked when he picked up the receiver.

“Listen,” Leo drawled, grinning, “you don’t invite your brother over to dinner on your honeymoon.”

“We got married after Christmas last year,” Rey pointed out.

“Like I said, you’re still on your honeymoon,” came the amused reply. “Thanks. But I’ve got too much to do.”

“Work doesn’t make up for a love life.”

“You’d know,” Leo chuckled.

“Okay. But the invitation’s open, whenever you want to accept it.”

“Thanks. I mean it.”

“Sure.”

The line went dead. Leo put the receiver down and stretched hugely, bunching the hard muscles in his upper arms. He was the boss as much as his brothers on their five ranch properties, but he did a lot of the daily physical labor that went with cattle raising, and his tall, powerful body was evidence of it. He wondered sometimes if he didn’t work that hard to keep deep-buried needs at bay. In his younger days, women had flocked around him, and he hadn’t been slow to accept sensual invitations. But he was in his thirties now, and casual interludes were no longer satisfying.

He’d planned to have a quiet weekend at home, but Marilee Morgan, a close friend of Janie Brewster’s, had cajoled him into taking her up to Houston for dinner and to see a ballet she had tickets for. He was partial to ballet, and Marilee explained that she couldn’t drive herself because her car was in the shop. She was easy on the eyes, and she was sophisticated. Not that Leo was tempted to let himself be finagled into any sort of intimacy with her. He didn’t want her carrying tales of his private life to Janie, who had an obvious and uncomfortable crush on him.

He knew that Marilee would never have asked him to take her any place in Jacobsville, Texas, because it was a small town and news of the date would inevitably get back to Janie. It might help show the girl that Leo was a free agent, but it wouldn’t help his friendship with Fred Brewster to know that Leo was playing fast and loose with Janie’s best friend. Some best friend, he thought privately.

But taking Marilee out would have one really good consequence—it would get him out of a dinner date at the Brewsters’ house. He and Fred Brewster were friends and business associates, and he enjoyed the time he spent with the older man. Well, except for two members of his family, he amended darkly. He didn’t like Fred’s sister, Lydia. She was a busybody who had highfalutin ideas. Fortunately, she was hardly ever around and she didn’t live with Fred. He had mixed feelings about Fred’s daughter Janie, who was twenty-one and bristling with psychology advice after her graduation from a junior college in that subject. She’d made Cag furious with her analyses of his food preferences, and Leo was becoming adept at avoiding invitations that would put him in her line of fire.

Not that she was bad looking. She had long, thick light brown hair and a neat little figure. But she also had a crush on Leo, which was very visible. He considered her totally unacceptable as a playmate for a man his age, and he knocked back her attempts at flirting with lazy skill. He’d known her since she was ten and wearing braces on her teeth. It was hard to get that image out of his mind.

Besides, she couldn’t cook. Her rubber chicken dinners were infamous locally, and her biscuits could be classified as lethal weapons.

Thinking about those biscuits made him pick up the phone and dial Marilee.

She was curt when she picked up the phone, but the minute he spoke, her voice softened.

“Well, hello, Leo,” she said huskily.

“What time do you want me to pick you up Saturday night?”

There was a faint hesitation. “You won’t, uh, mention this to Janie?”

“I have as little contact with Janie as I can. You know that,” he said impatiently.

“Just checking,” she teased, but she sounded worried. “I’ll be ready to leave about six.”

“Suppose I pick you up at five and we’ll have supper in Houston before the ballet?”

“Wonderful! I’ll look forward to it. See you then.”

“See you.”

He hung up, but picked up the receiver again and dialed the Brewsters’ number.

As luck would have it, Janie answered.

“Hi, Janie,” he said pleasantly.

“Hi, Leo,” she replied breathlessly. “Want to talk to Dad?”

“You’ll do,” he replied. “I have to cancel for dinner Saturday. I’ve got a date.”

There was the faintest pause. It was almost imperceptible. “I see.”

“Sorry, but it’s a long-standing one,” he lied. “I can’t get out of it. I forgot when I accepted your dad’s invitation. Can you give him my apologies?”

“Of course,” she told him. “Have a good time.”

She sounded strange. He hesitated. “Something wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing at all! Nice talking to you, Leo. Bye.”

Janie Brewster hung up and closed her eyes, sick with disappointment. She’d planned a perfect menu. She’d practiced all week on a special chicken dish that was tender and succulent. She’d practiced an exquisite crème brûlée as well, which was Leo’s favorite dessert. She could even use the little tool to caramelize the sugar topping, which had taken a while to perfect. All that work, and for nothing. She’d have been willing to bet that Leo hadn’t had a date for that night already. He’d made one deliberately, to get out of the engagement.

She sat down beside the hall table, her apron almost stiff with flour, her face white with dustings of it, her hair disheveled. She was anything but the picture of a perfect date. And wasn’t it just her luck? For the past year, she’d mounted a real campaign to get Leo to notice her. She’d flirted with him shamelessly at Micah Steele’s wedding to Callie Kirby, until a stabbing scowl had turned her shy. It had angered him that she’d caught the bouquet Callie had thrown. It had embarrassed her that he glared so angrily at her. Months later, she’d tried, shyly, every wile she had on him, with no success. She couldn’t cook and she was not much more than a fashion plate, according to her best friend, Marilee, who was trying to help her catch Leo. Marilee had plenty of advice, things Leo had mentioned that he didn’t like about Janie, and Janie was trying her best to improve in the areas he’d mentioned. She was even out on the ranch for the first time in her life, trying to get used to horses and cattle and dust and dirt. But if she couldn’t get Leo to the house to show him her new skills, she didn’t have a lot of hope.

“Who was that on the phone?” Hettie, their housekeeper, called from the staircase. “Was it Mr. Fred?”

“No. It was Leo. He can’t come Saturday night. He’s got a date.”

“Oh.” Hettie smiled sympathetically. “There will be other dinners, darlin’.”

“Of course there will,” Janie said and smiled back. She got out of the chair. “Well, I’ll just make it for you and me and Dad,” she said, with disappointment plain in her voice.

“It isn’t as if Leo has any obligation to spend his weekends with us, just because he does a lot of business with Mr. Fred,” Hettie reminded her gently. “He’s a good man. A little old for you, though,” she added hesitantly.

Janie didn’t answer her. She just smiled and walked back into the kitchen.

Leo showered, shaved, dressed to the hilt and got into the new black Lincoln sports car he’d just bought. Next year’s model, and fast as lightning. He was due for a night on the town. And missing Janie’s famous rubber chicken wasn’t going to disappoint him one bit.

His conscience did nag him, though, oddly. Maybe it was just hearing Janie’s friend, Marilee, harp on the girl all the time. In the past week, she’d started telling him some disturbing things that Janie had said about him. He was going to have to be more careful around Janie. He didn’t want her to get the wrong idea. He had no interest in her at all. She was just a kid.

He glanced in the lighted mirror over the steering wheel before he left the sprawling Hart Ranch. He had thick blond-streaked brown hair, a broad forehead, a slightly crooked nose and high cheekbones. But his teeth were good and strong, and he had a square jaw and a nice wide mouth. He wasn’t all that handsome, but compared to most of his brothers, he was a hunk. He chuckled at that rare conceit and closed the mirror. He was rich enough that his looks didn’t matter.

He didn’t fool himself that Marilee would have found him all that attractive without his bankroll. But she was pretty and he didn’t mind taking her to Houston and showing her off, like the fishing trophies he displayed on the walls of his study. A man had to have his little vanities, he told himself. But he thought about Janie’s disappointment when he didn’t show up for supper, her pain if she ever found out her best friend was stabbing her in the back, and he hated the guilt he felt.

He put on his seat belt, put the car in gear, and took off down the long driveway. He didn’t have any reason to feel guilty, he told himself firmly. He was a bachelor, and he’d never done one single thing to give Janie Brewster the impression that he wanted to be the man in her life. Besides, he’d been on his own too long. A cultural evening in Houston was just the thing to cure the blues.

Chapter One

Leo Hart was half out of humor. It had been a long week as it was, and now he was faced with trying to comfort his neighbor, Fred Brewster, who’d just lost the prize young Salers bull that Leo had wanted to buy. The bull was the offspring of a grand champion whose purchase had figured largely in Leo’s improved cross-breeding program. He felt as sad as Fred seemed to.

“He was fine yesterday,” Fred said heavily, wiping sweat off his narrow brow as the two men surveyed the bull in the pasture. The huge creature was lying dead on its side, not a mark on it. “I’m not the only rancher who’s ever lost a prize bull, but these are damned suspicious circumstances.”

“They are,” Leo agreed grimly, his dark eyes surveying the bull. “It’s just a thought, but you haven’t had a problem with an employee, have you? Christabel Gaines said they just had a bull die of unknown causes. This happened after they fired a man named Jack Clark a couple of weeks ago. He’s working for Duke Wright now, driving a cattle truck.”

“Judd Dunn said it wasn’t unknown causes that killed the bull, it was bloat. Judd’s a Texas Ranger,” Fred reminded him. ''If there was sabotage on the ranch he co-owns with Christabel, I think he’d know it. No, Christabel had that young bull in a pasture with a lot of clover and she hadn’t primed him on hay or tannin-containing forage beforehand. She won’t use antibiotics, either, which would have helped prevent trouble. Even so, you can treat bloat if you catch it in time. It was bad luck that they didn’t check that pasture, but Christabel’s shorthanded and she’s back at the vocational school full-time, too. Not much time to check on livestock.”

“They had four other bulls that were still alive,” Leo pointed out, scowling.

Fred shrugged. “Maybe they didn’t like clover, or weren’t in the same pasture.” He shook his head. “I’m fairly sure their bull died of bloat. That’s what Judd thinks, anyway. He says Christabel’s unsettled by having those movie people coming next month to work out a shooting schedule on the ranch and she’s the only one who thinks there was foul play.” Fred rubbed a hand through his silver hair. “But to answer your question—yes, I did wonder about a disgruntled ex-employee, but I haven’t fired anybody in over two years. So you can count out vengeance. And it wasn’t bloat. My stock gets antibiotics.”

“Don’t say that out loud,” Leo chuckled. “If the Tremaynes hear you, there’ll be a fight.”

“It’s my ranch. I run it my way.” Fred looked sadly toward the bull again. He was having financial woes the likes of which he’d never faced. He was too proud to tell Leo the extent of it. “This bull is a hell of a loss right now, too, with my breeding program under way. He wasn’t insured, so I can’t afford to replace him. Well, not just yet,” he amended, because he didn’t want Leo to think he was nearly broke.

“That’s one problem we can solve,” Leo replied. “I’ve got that beautiful Salers bull I bought two years ago, but it’s time I replaced him. I’d have loved to have had yours, but while I’m looking for a replacement, you can borrow mine for your breeding season.”

“Leo, I can’t let you do that,” Fred began, overwhelmed by the offer. He knew very well what that bull’s services cost.

Leo held up a big hand and grinned. “Sure you can. I’ve got an angle. I get first pick of your young bulls next spring.”

“You devil, you,” Fred said, chuckling. “All right, all right. On that condition, I’ll take him and be much obliged. But I’d feel better if there was a man sitting up with him at night to guard him.”

Leo stretched sore muscles, pushing his Stetson back over his blond-streaked brown hair. It was late September, but still very hot in Jacobsville, which was in southeastern Texas. He’d been helping move bulls all morning, and he was tired. “We can take care of security for him,” Leo said easily. “I’ve got two cowboys banged up in accidents who can’t work cattle. They’re still on my payroll, so they can sit over here and guard my bull while they recuperate.”

“And we’ll feed them,” Fred said.

Leo chuckled. “Now that’s what I call a real nice solution. One of them,” he confided, “eats for three men.”

“I won’t mind.” His eyes went back to the still bull one more time. “He was the best bull, Leo. I had so many hopes for him.”

“I know. But there are other champion-sired Salers bulls,” Leo said.

“Sure. But not one like that one,” he gestured toward the animal. “He had such beautiful conformation—” He broke off as a movement to one side caught his attention. He turned, leaned forward and then gaped at his approaching daughter. “Janie?” he asked, as if he wasn’t sure of her identity.

Janie Brewster had light brown hair and green eyes. She’d tried going blond once, but these days her hair was its natural color. Straight, thick and sleek, it hung to her waist. She had a nice figure, a little on the slender side, and pretty little pert breasts. She even had nice legs. But anyone looking at her right now could be forgiven for mistaking her for a young bull rider.

She was covered with mud from head to toe. Even her hair was caked with it. She had a saddle over one thin shoulder, leaning forward to take its weight. The separation between her boots and jeans was imperceptible. Her blouse and arms were likewise. Only her eyes were visible, her eyebrows streaked where the mud had been haphazardly wiped away.

“Hi, Daddy,” she muttered as she walked past them with a forced smile. “Hi, Leo. Nice day.”

Leo’s dark eyes were wide-open, like Fred’s. He couldn’t even manage words. He nodded, and kept gaping at the mud doll walking past.

“What have you been doing?” Fred shouted after his only child.

“Just riding around,” she said gaily.

“Riding around,” Fred murmured to himself as she trailed mud onto the porch and stopped there, calling for their housekeeper. “I can’t remember the last time I saw her on a horse,” he added.

“Neither can I,” Leo was forced to admit.

Fred shook his head. “She has these spells lately,” he said absently. “First it was baling hay. She went out with four of the hands and came home covered in dust and thorns. Then she took up dipping cattle.” He cleared his throat. “Better to forget that altogether. Now it’s riding. I don’t know what the hell’s got into her. She was all geared up to transfer to a four-year college and get on with her psychology degree. Then all of a sudden, she announces that she’s going to learn ranching.” He threw up his hands. “I’ll never understand children. Will you?” he asked Leo.

Leo chuckled. “Don’t ask me. Fatherhood is one role in life I have no desire to play. Listen, about my bull,” he continued. “I’ll have him trucked right over, and the men will come with him. If you have any more problems, you just let me know.”

Fred was relieved. The Harts owned five ranches. Nobody had more clout than they did, politically and financially. The loan of that bull would help him recoup his losses and get back on his feet. Leo was a gentleman. “I’m damned grateful, Leo. We’ve been having hard times lately.”

Leo only smiled. He knew that the Brewsters were having a bad time financially. He and Fred had swapped and traded bulls for years—although less expensive ones than Fred’s dead Salers bull—and they frequently did business together. He was glad he could help.

He did wonder about Janie’s odd behavior. She’d spent weeks trying to vamp him with low-cut blouses and dresses. She was always around when he came to see Fred on business, waiting in the living room in a seductive pose. Not that Janie even knew how to be seductive, he told himself amusedly. She was twenty-one, but hardly in the class with her friend Marilee Morgan, who was only four years older than Janie but could give Mata Hari lessons in seduction.

He wondered if Marilee had been coaching her in tomboyish antics. That would be amusing, because lately Marilee had been using Janie’s tactics on him. The former tom-boy-turned-debutante had even finagled him into taking her out to eat in Houston. He wondered if Janie knew. Sometimes friends could become your worst enemy, he thought. Luckily Janie only had a crush on him, which would wear itself out all the faster once she knew he had gone out with her best friend. Janie was far too young for him, and not only in age. The sooner she realized it, the better. Besides, he didn’t like her new competitive spirit. Why was she trying to compete with her father in ranch management all of a sudden? Was it a liberation thing? She’d never shown any such inclination before, and her new appearance was appalling. The one thing Leo had admired about her was the elegance and sophistication with which she dressed. Janie in muddy jeans was a complete turnoff.

He left Fred at the pasture and drove back to the ranch, his mind already on ways and means to find out what had caused that healthy bull’s sudden demise.

Janie was listening to their housekeeper’s tirade through the bathroom door.

“I’ll clean it all up, Hettie,” she promised. “It’s just dirt. It will come out.”

“It’s red mud! It will never come out!” Hettie was grumbling. “You’ll be red from head to toe forever! People will mistake you for that nineteenth-century Kiowa, Satanta, who painted everything he owned red, even his horse!”

Janie laughed as she stripped off the rest of her clothes and stepped into the shower. Besides being a keen student of Western history, Hettie was all fire and wind, and she’d blow out soon. She was such a sweetheart. Janie’s mother had died years ago, leaving behind Janie and her father and Hettie—and Aunt Lydia who lived in Jacobsville. Fortunately, Aunt Lydia only visited infrequently. She was so very house-proud, so clothes conscious, so debutante! She was just like Janie’s late mother, in fact, who had raised Janie to be a little flower blossom in a world of independent, strong women. She spared a thought for her mother’s horror if she could have lived long enough to see what her daughter had worn at college. There, where she could be herself, Janie didn’t wear designer dresses and hang out with the right social group. Janie studied anthropology, as well as the psychology her aunt Lydia had insisted on—and felt free to insist, since she helped pay Janie’s tuition. But Janie spent most of her weekends and afternoons buried in mud, learning how to dig out fragile pieces of ancient pottery and projectile points.

But she’d gone on with the pretense when she was home—when Aunt Lydia was visiting, of course—proving her worth at psychology. Sadly, it had gone awry when she psychoanalyzed Leo’s brother Callaghan last year over the asparagus. She’d gone to her room howling with laughter after Aunt Lydia had hung on every word approvingly. She was sorry she’d embarrassed Cag, but the impulse had been irresistible. Her aunt was so gullible. She’d felt guilty afterward, though, for not telling Aunt Lydia her true interests.

She finished her shower, dried off, and changed into new clothes so that she could start cleaning up the floors where she’d tracked mud. Despite her complaints, Hettie would help. She didn’t really mind housework. Neither did Janie, although her late mother would be horrified if she could see her only child on the floor with a scrub brush alongside Hettie’s ample figure.