Book 12: The Mountain Monroes
A Cowboy Thanksgiving
The long-awaited finale!
A holiday visit or a season for love?
As an orphan, Maxine Holloway has never known what “family” truly feels like. That is, until Max and her daughter spend Thanksgiving in Second Chance, Idaho, with the boisterous and prominent Monroes—including ridiculously handsome cowboy Bo Monroe. For the first time ever, Max doesn’t feel like an outsider. But can she let down her guard enough to let the Monroes—and especially Bo—be her home beyond the holidays?
Tropes: cowboy romance, holiday romance, single mom romance, clean romance
Excerpt:
Friday afternoon, Bo stood in baggage claim at the Boise airport holding a sign with a name printed in bold black letters: Max Holloway.
He scanned the approaching crowd for someone wearing an airline uniform and holding the hand of a young boy.
A little girl wearing a bright pink tracksuit and thick, round glasses ran up to Bo, brown, corkscrew curls straining the bands around her ponytails. “Hi.” She tucked her thumbs beneath her purple backpack straps. “I love cowboys.”
“Is that so?” Bo tipped his cowboy hat and spared a smile for the overly friendly girl before continuing his search for an escorted minor in the crowd.
“For Max Holloway?” A woman with light brown, curly hair, and thick, round glasses wheeled a large, yellow suitcase to a stop in front of Bo’s booted feet and set a car seat by her side. She wore blue slacks, a white button-down blouse, and a blue blazer. So much blue. She had to be an airline employee of some sort.
But if she was, where was the little boy?
“I was expecting Max?” Bo stared at the little girl, who seemed nothing like a Max and too small to be traveling alone, much less compete in the Monroe Holiday Challenge.
“It’s Maxine,” the woman said in a no-nonsense voice.
“Okay.” Max was Maxine and an adorable little tyke. Plans for the holiday challenge would need to be adjusted. Even the lines he’d written in his notebook this morning – be positive, beat Shane – seemed a stretch. Maybe he’d use this as an excuse to drop out or at the very least get paired with someone who could help him win. Smiling, Bo handed the woman his placard. “Do I need to sign anything before taking custody of Maxine?”
The woman gave him a disapproving once-over. The airlines had chosen her well. She didn’t seem like the type to put up with drama – be it lost luggage or awkward transfers of minors traveling alone.
The urge to win her over surged within him, strengthening his smile.
“Right. You need identification.” Bo took out his wallet and showed her his driver’s license. “Are you looking forward to Thanksgiving?”
“Yes.” The airline employee stared at him steadily through her thick glasses. Her eyes were the color of his favorite, oak-aged whiskey. She glanced at his I.D. “Beauregard Franklin Monroe.”
Beauregard…
What had his parents been thinking?
“Not everyone can grow into an old school name like Beauregard.” Grinning at the little girl, Bo twirled an imaginary handlebar mustache. “But you can call me Bo.” He tucked his wallet in his back jeans pocket, propped the car seat on the yellow suitcase, took possession of the little girl’s hand, and then navigated through the sea of travelers. “Do you like dogs? Spot is waiting for us in my truck. You’ll love him. I feel like ice cream before we make the drive over the mountain to Second Chance. What do you think?”
The little girl blinked up at Bo with eyes the same color as those of her airline chaperone. “Don’t I have to eat my vegetables first?”
“Of course, not,” he said cheerfully. “It’s the holidays.” That’s what his Grandpa Harlan used to say, much to his mother’s chagrin.
“Vegetables first,” said the woman behind him. “Always.”
Bo stopped just before the exit. He hadn’t realized the airline representative was still tagging along. “Sorry. I didn’t sign for her, did I?”
The woman wasn’t carrying a pen. She didn’t have a sheaf of papers. But she was frowning at him in the worst way.
“Mama, just once I wanna have ice cream before vegetables.” The little girl smiled coyly. “Please…”
“Mama?” Bo took a step back, earning a frown from the woman.
“I think there’s been a mix up.” The woman gestured from the little girl to herself. “Nathan said you’d take us in for Thanksgiving.” At Bo’s blank look, she added, “Us, as in two.”
“No. Nathan said…” Bo trailed off, trying to remember.
My…(unintelligible)…needs a place to spend the holidays. Max is an orphan and…(unintelligible)…can’t spend with them. (Unintelligible)…you owe me.
Shane and Jonah were going to have a good laugh over this misunderstanding. They might even try to make a team out of them.
Not a chance.
Bo drew a deep breath, determined to make the best of things, such as they were. “To be honest, we had a bad connection and I’m not sure what Nathan said exactly.” Bo forced himself to chuckle, although he felt like nothing was funny. “All I got was that some kid named Max needed a place to spend the holidays. And then came the email from Nathan with the flight number and arrival time, plus the name Max Holloway.”
The woman straightened her jacket and righted her glasses, all the while keeping a close eye on her little girl. “Is that all?”
“Yeah. That was the gist of it.” He forced another mirthless chuckle, a little ha-ha-ha that would never pass for Santa’s ho-ho-ho. “It’s all good. There’s plenty of room in Second Chance for both Maxine and you.” Whoever she was.
“That’s Luna.” The woman informed him in an exasperated voice, pointing at her daughter. “And I’m Max.”
The Story Behind the Story
I thought I was so clever when I plotted 12 books for the Mountain Monroes. But in the actually writing…boy, was it hard to wrap up all the plotlines (and weddings) all those books later. LOL!
Bo has been the hunk of the Monroe family all his life. We’ve all known beautiful people. And although no one wants to admit it, they get treated differently. Thankfully, Bo has realized he doesn’t want to be just another pretty face.
Cookies: Every book in this series has a prologue that provides the pulse of the story, feeding some of those tricky storylines, and often featuring the man who left Second Chance, Idaho, to the Monroes. Watch for the epilogue in this book to tie up any and all (hopefully) loose ends.
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