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    Saving the Sheriff: A Three River Ranch Novella
    Saving the Sheriff: A Three River Ranch Novella
    Saving the Sheriff: A Three River Ranch Novella
    Ebook145 pages1 hour

    Saving the Sheriff: A Three River Ranch Novella

    By Roxanne Snopek

    5/5

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    About this ebook

    Previously released as part of the Stranded with a Hero anthology. Now available individually!

    The power might be out…but the heat is on.

    Every year, free-spirited Frankie Sylva banishes her holiday loneliness with good deeds. This time, she's rescuing a truckload of neglected reindeer—until a blizzard sidetracks her scheme, and now she's stuck…literally.

    Local sheriff Red LeClair is shocked to find a very cute, half-frozen woman trespassing on Three River Ranch in a ditched rig, with a suspiciously empty trailer. Is she a horse thief? Is she on the run? Is she out of her mind? He has no choice but to take her back to the ranch and keep an eye on her.

    But when the power goes out, Red and Frankie are forced to depend on each other in a way that both have avoided for years. The sheriff's quiet holiday is suddenly festive: a crackling fire, candles, carols, and an irresistible stranger…who might be a felon.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateJul 28, 2014
    ISBN9781633750265
    Saving the Sheriff: A Three River Ranch Novella

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    • 5/5
      I really loved this story so much that I read it for a second time today. I think I like reading it the second time better than the first time... Two wounded souls finding each other, opening up to each other and finding love and their HEA ending.

    Book preview

    Saving the Sheriff - Roxanne Snopek

    The power might be out…but the heat is on.

    Every year, free-spirited Frankie Sylva banishes her holiday loneliness with good deeds. This time, she’s rescuing a truckload of neglected reindeer—until a blizzard sidetracks her scheme, and now she’s stuck…literally.

    Local sheriff Red LeClair is shocked to find a very cute, half-frozen woman trespassing on Three River Ranch in a ditched rig, with a suspiciously empty trailer. Is she a horse thief? Is she on the run? Is she out of her mind? He has no choice but to take her back to the ranch and keep an eye on her.

    But when the power goes out, Red and Frankie are forced to depend on each other in a way that both have avoided for years. The sheriff’s quiet holiday is suddenly festive: a crackling fire, candles, carols, and an irresistible stranger…who might be a felon.

    Table of Contents

    Chapter One

    Chapter Two

    Chapter Three

    Chapter Four

    Chapter Five

    Chapter Six

    Chapter Seven

    Chapter Eight

    Chapter Nine

    Chapter Ten

    Epilogue

    About the Author

    Other Books by Roxanne Snopek

    Resisting the Rancher

    Fake Fiance, Real Revenge

    His Reluctant Rancher

    Three River Ranch

    Check out Bliss’s newest releases…

    Her Secret, His Surprise

    Accidentally Married on Purpose

    Making Waves

    Taming the Country Star

    And discover more holiday romances with these Entangled books…

    An Officer and a Rebel

    Loving Mindy

    White-Hot Holiday

    Jane’s Gift

    Last Chance Proposal

    Erin’s Gift

    Letters at Christmas

    ‘Tis the Season Bundle

    This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

    Copyright © 2013 by Roxanne Snopek. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

    Entangled Publishing, LLC

    2614 South Timberline Road

    Suite 109

    Fort Collins, CO 80525

    Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

    Bliss is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC. For more information on our titles, visit http://www.entangledpublishing.com/category/bliss

    Edited by Wendy Chen

    Cover design by Heather Howland

    ISBN 978-1-63375-026-5

    Manufactured in the United States of America

    First Edition November 2013

    Chapter One

    What a way to spend Christmas Eve. Sheriff Red LeClair tucked his chin into his chest, the fresh assault of stinging snow enough to take his breath away. He crunched through the ice-crusted path to the field where a small band of wild mustangs waited patiently, barely visible as shadows against the nighttime backdrop of cedar and fir.

    Carson spoils you, you know, he called to them, tossing a bale of hay onto the ground beyond the beam of light thrown by his pickup.

    The weather forecast had predicted a dump of snow over the next few days, but the wind had caught them all by surprise. The livestock would be burning a lot of fuel just to stay warm.

    Red threw down a couple more bales, and with a quick flick of his utility knife, cut the twine, spilling fragrant splits of summer over the snow. Beneath the heavy-duty leather gloves, his fingers were stiff with cold, but he wasn’t really complaining. In fact, he’d leaped at the chance to look after Three River Ranch while his friend was away. Tramping through the snow, freezing his butt off, was a damn sight better than watching endless Miracle on 34th Street reruns in his empty Lutherton apartment. Whoever said there’s no place like home for the holidays obviously didn’t buy groceries in single-serve portions.

    Carson Granger wouldn’t have left at all, except that his wife Rory’s mom had given them and their little girl Lulu an all-expenses-paid trip to Maui, where she was having a family-only Christmas wedding. To Red’s way of thinking, step-father-in-law stretched the meaning of the word family, but he wasn’t about to argue. He was grateful to have somewhere to be and something to do.

    Their next-nearest neighbor, Zach, had promised to check in every day or two, on Carson’s request, but Red could handle it on his own. He liked Zach Gamble well enough but he didn’t need a babysitter. He didn’t need any company at all. Christmas was a hell of a time for a guy with no family to speak of, who’d signed his final divorce papers less than a month ago.

    He climbed back into the truck and pulled away from the corral. At least this year was better than last year. He’d gotten the position in Lutherton, Montana, the same week Kayla got her first nibble from a recording studio. It never occurred to him that she wouldn’t be as excited for him as he was for her. When he offered to give up the promotion to go to Nashville with her, he’d seen disappointment flit over her face. It had taken him months to realize that her chance at musical stardom was also her chance to start over, without him. And that neither of them had been happy for a long time.

    But that didn’t stop the pain.

    In his rearview mirror, he saw the horses slip out of the shadows for their meal, individuals appearing only as edges to the murky herd, moving as one, a unit whose strength lay in numbers.

    In the barn, he dumped fresh kibble into the pans for the colony of feral cats that lurked in the corners, fat and full-coated for the winter, big-eyed with suspicion.

    Even they lived as a group.

    Must be nice.

    He pushed the thought out of his head and forced himself to focus on his chores. Work hard, be friendly, but don’t let anyone get close enough to hurt you. That was his mantra now.

    Every howl of wind made the walls shriek and groan and he could feel the temperature dropping by the minute. He added an extra measure of kibble in case he had to hole up inside and wait out the storm.

    Water lines clear, check. Fresh feed for the saddle horses, check. Clean stalls, check. Gates, doors and latches secure, check, check and check.

    He slogged back to the truck, thinking about the casserole Rory’s housekeeper Bliss had left in the refrigerator for him, wishing he’d remembered to bring beer. And some action movies on DVD. Lord knows it would be slim pickings on TV. He’d spent last Christmas watching the tube blindly, letting tinny laugh tracks and remixed music wash over him as he sat numbly in the debris left by Kayla’s departure.

    This year, he had the lights and decorations on Rory’s pretty tree sparkling in the corner. Second-hand joy was better than none. But those old favorite movies and carols still hurt too much.

    He pulled the truck door open against the wind but before he could step in, the gale yanked it from his hands. He barely managed to haul it shut behind him. This storm was really working itself up. He couldn’t wait to get indoors again.

    He’d nuke a heaping plate of that Bliss special, bum a couple of beers off Carson and channel surf until he found Dexter or Sons of Anarchy. Even CSI or Criminal Minds would do.

    But just before he turned the ignition, he heard a sound he shouldn’t have. An engine revving, tires spinning on ice and the bone-jarring sound a clutch makes beneath an impatient foot.

    Three River Ranch had a trespasser.

    …

    Thank goodness she’d had time to switch out the black plastic boots for proper footwear, thought Frankie Sylva, looking down at her ridiculous elf suit. It was hardly suitable for being stuck in a truck and buried in snow.

    But teachers-on-call couldn’t let any job go by, however short or humiliating. Especially when that job dove-tailed with the other passion in her life: animal rescue.

    She’d succeeded, and that gave her a glow that even the stinging snow couldn’t erase. Score one for the good guys! The precious creatures she’d transported to the Three River Ranch sanctuary would now have a chance to live as nature intended, rather than being turned into Christmas dinner. Or trophies on a wall.

    She shuddered.

    Focus! She tugged the ridiculous puff-ball-topped toque further onto her head but it did little to protect her from the frigid wind, which seemed to get stronger every second.

    Frankie stood on the upside of the gentle slope into which the rear tires of the trailer had slid when she’d attempted to pull it from the corral gate. Invisible ditch. Good one, Universe. The snow around her was dirt-spattered and hoof-trampled but she couldn’t help that now.

    She needed a tow truck. Unfortunately, she found her cell phone lying on the floor of the cab in a puddle of melted snow, dead as a doornail. No blaming that on the universe.

    If only she’d told someone where she was going over the holidays, maybe there would be a chance a friend would come looking

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