Diana Palmer presents a fan-favorite tale of love under the Texan sky in Champagne Girl.
Though Catherine Blake maintained a bubbly, carefree facade, there was moremuch moreto her. For one, she had high personal standards, including a sense of duty to her widowed mother. That responsibility brought Catherine back home to her family ranch, Comanche Flats.
Once shed returned, her stepbrother, Matt Kincaid, demanded that she stay there under his watchful eye. But Catherine had a job offer waiting for her in New York City. There was only one thing that could keep her on a dusty cattle ranch in Texasthe one cowboy in the Lone Star State who had lassoed her heart!
Dear Reader,
But when I read my email, or when I get letters from readers, or when I go on signing trips to bookstores to meet all of you, I feel truly blessed. Over the past thirty years, I have made lasting friendships with many of you. And quite frankly, most of you are like part of my family. You cant imagine how much you enrich my life. Thank you so much.
I also need to extend thanks to my family (my husband, James, son, Blayne, daughter-in-law, Christina, and granddaughter, Selena Marie), to my best friend, Ann, to my readers, booksellers and the wonderful people at Mills & Boon Booksfrom my editor of many years, Tara, to all the other fine and talented people who make up our publishing house. Thanks to all of you for making this job and my private life so worth living.
Thank you for this tribute, Mills & Boon, and for putting up with me for thirty long years! Love to all of you.
Diana Palmer
New York Times and USA TODAY Bestselling Author
Champagne Girl Diana Palmer
For Melinda, Aurora, and Pat of Texas
Contents
Back Cover Text
Dear Reader
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
About the Author
Copyright
Chapter One
She grinned as she wheeled her small rebuilt white Volkswagen convertible between neat white fences to the big Spanish stucco house beyond, her pale-green eyes on the distant line of oaks visible across the prairie. There were twenty-two square miles of land on this ranch, an hour or so out of Fort Worth, Texas, that her great-uncle had built into an empire. It was always described as lying between the Eastern and Western Cross Timbers, long bands of oaks, once formidable, but now reduced in numbers by encroaching civilization. The bands ran from north to south, and in the days of the great cattle drives they had been a point of reference for cattlemen.
Her slender hand brushed back her dark-chestnut hair from her oval, olive-complexioned face, and she felt again a wild thrill of excitement at having graduated from college with a degree in journalism. While at college in Fort Worth, shed lived in a dorm during the week and come home on weekends. Often Matt had flown over to get her. The ranch was far enough away from the sprawling Dallas-Fort Worth airport that Matt preferred flying in his private plane, which had a hangar at the tiny airport in Comanche Flats. Catherine smiled, thinking about that, proud of her graduation with honors and her promise of a good job in New York. Matthew Dane Kincaid might pull everybody elses strings, but he was through pulling Catherines as of now. She was almost twenty-two and feeling feverish with independence.
She was just returning from a four-day trip to San Antonio, where shed tried to find work at a small public relations firm. That hadnt panned out, but through a contact shed obtained a job at a bigger firm in New York. The job wasnt open immediately; it would take several weeks for her office to be readied. But she must have impressed the executive vice-president, because hed flown all the way down to San Antonio to check out her credentials and had hired her on the spot. She felt excited about that. And about having the opportunity to escape her family. And, especially, Matt.
Odd, she thought, how possessive hed gotten since her graduation from college. He owned the ranch where she and her mother lived, of course, and the feedlot, and he even had a controlling interest in the local real estate companies. But he was only a stepcousin, and Catherine deeply resented his domination. The loss of her fatherhe had died during the Vietnam War, when she was a babyhad made her independent-minded at an early age, and shed fought Matt tooth and nail for years for every inch of freedom she had. When she wasnt dying of unrequited love for him, she admitted bitterly. Hal and Jerry were never so overbearing. Of course, Matts brothers lacked his fiery temper and shrewd business mind. And his inborn arrogance. Matt made arrogance an art.
Betty Blake, all silvery hair and bright eyes and laughter, came rushing down the steps to meet her daughter.
Darling, youre home! she enthused. How lovely to have you back!
It was only for four days, Catherine reminded her as she returned her mothers hug. How did Matt take it?