The Rancher. Diana Palmer

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      DAYS ARE HOT ON SKYLANCE RANCH, AND THE NIGHTS EVEN HOTTER!

      New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Diana Palmer brings her readers back to Branntville, Texas, with Cort Brannt’s story. The heir to the Skylance Ranch empire has women gallop into his life, but the handsome lone wolf sends them just as quickly on their way…until a pretty, vivacious neighbor appears on the range. Has the most eligible bachelor in Branntville met his match?

      Praise for the novels of

      New York Times and USA TODAY

      bestselling author

      Diana Palmer

      “Palmer demonstrates, yet again, why she’s the

      queen of desperado quests for justice and true love.”

      —Publishers Weekly on Dangerous

      “The popular Palmer has penned another winning novel, a perfect blend of romance and suspense.”

      —Booklist on Lawman

      “Palmer knows how to make the sparks fly…heartwarming.”

      —Publishers Weekly on Renegade

      “Diana Palmer is a mesmerizing storyteller who captures the essence of what a romance should be.”

      —Affaire de Coeur

      Dear Reader,

      You probably think this book is about Cort Brannt, the brother of my heroine, Morie Brannt, in my mass-market Wyoming series called Wyoming Tough. Well, it’s not. It’s actually about the rooster who belongs to Cort’s neighbor. A red rooster came into my yard several weeks ago. I tried to run him off, but he kept coming back. I discovered that roosters can fly, because he jumped a seven-foot high solid wooden fence to keep coming into my yard. I have lots of grass and a garden, which means bugs and worms and nice edibles. He wouldn’t leave.

      Over the weeks, people who work for me in the yard tried to catch him. Some of the neighbors got into the act. I especially wanted him gone because every time I went out to feed the birds or look at my garden, he would attack me. I was spurred three times, and I have the scars to prove it. So the rooster had to go. That presented a problem. I didn’t want him killed or eaten, which left his fate up to me, since his owner apparently moved away and left him behind (I don’t blame him. If you knew this rooster, you wouldn’t blame him, either!)

      Our nice Mr. Martin, who looks after the koi and goldfish ponds for us, had a friend who knew how to catch chickens. He also kept chickens. So he just walked into the backyard, picked the rooster up and carried him off. My jaw is still dropping. Anyway, the rooster is very happy, has many hens to court, and I am happy because I can walk to my pumpkin patch without being mauled on the way.

      Cort Brannt is going to have the same problem. His nice little frumpy neighbor has a pet rooster named Pumpkin and she loves him. She loves Cort, too, but Cort loves Odalie Everett who wants to train as a soprano and sing in the great opera houses of the world. Ah, the eternal triangle. It will all end well, I promise. And Pumpkin will have a happy future. Just like my unwanted red rooster visitor.

      Hope you like the book. It has roots in Branntville, Texas, and spins off from one of my first romance novels, To Love and Cherish. King Brannt is Cort’s dad.

      Your greatest fan,

      Diana Palmer

      The Rancher

      Diana Palmer

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      Contents

       Chapter One

       Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Epilogue

       Excerpt

      Chapter One

      Maddie Lane was worried. She was standing in her big yard, looking at her chickens, and all she saw was a mixture of hens. There were red ones and white ones and gray speckled ones. But they were all hens. Someone was missing: her big Rhode Island Red rooster, Pumpkin.

      She knew where he likely was. It made her grind her teeth together. There was going to be trouble, again, and she was going to be on the receiving end of it.

      She pushed back her short, wavy blond hair and grimaced. Her wide gray eyes searched the yard, hoping against hope that she was mistaken, that Pumpkin had only gone in search of bugs, not cowboys.

      “Pumpkin?” she called loudly.

      Great-Aunt Sadie came to the door. She was slight and a little dumpy, with short, thin gray hair, wearing glasses and a worried look.

      “I saw him go over toward the Brannt place, Maddie,” she said as she moved out onto the porch. “I’m sorry.”

      Maddie groaned aloud. “I’ll have to go after him. Cort will kill me!”

      “Well, he hasn’t so far,” Sadie replied gently. “And he could have shot Pumpkin, but he didn’t...”

      “Only because he missed!” Maddie huffed. She sighed and put her hands on her slim hips. She had a boyish figure. She wasn’t tall or short, just sort of in the middle. But she was graceful, for all that. And she could work on a ranch, which she did. Her father had taught her how to raise cattle, how to market them, how to plan and how to budget. Her little ranch wasn’t anything big or special, but she made a little money. Things had been going fine until she decided she wanted to branch out her organic egg-laying business and bought Pumpkin after her other rooster was killed by a coyote, along with several hens. But now things weren’t so great financially.

      Maddie had worried about getting a new rooster. Her other one wasn’t really vicious, but she did have to carry a tree branch around with her to keep from getting spurred. She didn’t want another aggressive one.

      “Oh, he’s gentle as a lamb,” the former owner assured her. “Great bloodlines, good breeder, you’ll get along just fine with him!”

      Sure, she thought when she put him in the chicken yard and his first act was to jump on her foreman, old Ben Harrison, when he started to gather eggs.

      “Better get rid of him now,” Ben had warned as she doctored the cuts on his arms the rooster had made even through the fabric.

      “He’ll settle down, he’s just excited about being in a new place,” Maddie assured him.

      Looking back at that conversation now, she laughed. Ben had been right. She should have sent the rooster