Book 8: The Mountain Monroes
Caught by the Cowboy Dad
This cowboy’s planned his future, then love gets in the way!
Holden Monroe is focused on sending his son off to college until ex-girlfriend Bernadette Carlisle drops the bomb that she’s expecting their baby. The cowboy’s offer to do the right thing is an empty gesture to Bernadette. The successful doctor doesn’t believe Holden capable of settling down—she just wants a custody agreement. But an eventful road trip might just change everyone’s expectations!
Tropes: second chance romance, cowboy romance, medical romance, accidental pregnancy, clean romance
Excerpt:
“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, 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 may 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.
The Story Behind the Story
Readers of the series will recognize that this couple met back in Book 2 (Snowed in with the Single Dad). They’ve been dating on the down-low ever since. I love planting characters for future use. Hope you enjoy that about this series, too!
Holden has been going through a crisis of identity through most of the series. He’s become what his family expects of him, but deep down, he wants to be true to his more humble roots.
Cookies: did you pay attention to Bo Monroe talking about the family ranch in Texas in previous books? This figures prominently in Holden’s backstory.
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