Bring Me a Maverick for Christmas! by Brenda Harlen

Author:Brenda Harlen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-09-12T13:34:53+00:00

* * *

Bailey took the paper—and the hint.

He was undeniably disappointed that she’d put on the brakes again, but he didn’t really blame her. Although they’d spent a lot of time together over the past week, they’d really only known each other a week.

So while Serena went to retrieve the bow Molly had stolen, he tried to focus on measuring and cutting the paper—and not stare at the sexy curve of her butt.

“Tell me about your marriage,” she suggested, as she affixed the bow to the wrapped gift.

“Well, that question effectively killed the mood,” he noted.

“That wasn’t my intention.”

“Are you sure? Maybe you want to hear about all the reasons my marriage failed so that you can feel justified in pushing me away.”

“I’m not pushing you away,” she said. “But I’m also not in the habit of jumping into bed with a man I just met.”

“I’ve told you more about me than a lot of other people know,” he confided.

“So why won’t you tell me about your marriage?”

He shrugged to indicate his surrender. “What do you want to know?”

“How long were you married?”

“Almost two years. And before you say, ‘that’s not very long,’ believe me, it was long enough for both of us to know it wasn’t working.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. I didn’t realize it was such a touchy subject.”

He sighed. “It’s not really. I just don’t like admitting that I failed—and it was my failure. Because from the day we exchanged vows, I was waiting for everything to fall apart.”

“Why were you so sure that it would?”

He shrugged. “Maybe because of what happened to my parents.”

“They were killed by a drunk driver.”

“Yeah,” he acknowledged. “And before that, they were happy together, running the farm and raising a family. And then everything changed.”

“Because of a tragic accident.”

“Because of me,” he said.

Serena frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“It was my fault they were on that particular road at that particular time on that particular night.”

And he proceeded to tell her about the events of that fateful evening. How his older brother had invited him to go to an out-of-town bar. Although Bailey wasn’t yet of legal drinking age, Luke assured him that he knew of a honky-tonk dive that didn’t care if their customers had ID so long as they had cash to pay for their beer. Bailey was always happy to tag along with his brother, and when Danny heard they were going out, he refused to be left behind.

The bartender didn’t blink when Luke ordered a pitcher of beer and three glasses, which he carried over to the table where his brothers waited. But Danny, always a rule follower, went back to the bar to get a soda.

When Bailey had emptied the pitcher into his glass, Danny suggested that they leave and asked for the keys. Bailey, who had driven, refused, unwilling to let his little brother call the shots. Besides, a trio of young women had just settled around the neighboring table and immediately began to chat up the three cowboys.

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