Wyoming Special Delivery Read online

  Their feuding fathers never

  could have predicted this...

  He came to claim the Dawson Family Ranch...

  But was Daisy Dawson’s heart part of the deal?

  Harrison McCord was sure he was the rightful owner of the Dawson Family Ranch. And delivering Daisy Dawson’s baby on the side of the road was a mere diversion. Still, when Daisy found out his intentions, instead of pushing him away, she invited him in, figuring he’d start to see her in a whole new light. But what if she started seeing him that way, as well?

  He stood up. “I’d shake your hand if both weren’t occupied. You have a deal, Ms. Dawson.”

  Relief settled on her face. “Thank you. Neither of us will regret this.”

  “We’ll see,” he said. “I should warn you, Daisy. I do mean to take ownership of the ranch. Liking you people and this place or not. I want to be very clear on that.”

  She lifted her chin. “Five days,” she said.

  “Five days,” he repeated.

  She nodded, did some kind of wizardry with the sling and settled Tony back inside, then extended her hand.

  He shook it, the feel of her soft, warm hand in his unexpectedly...charged.

  “Let’s begin with a tour of the ranch,” she said. “You’ve barely seen the place.”

  “Okay,” he agreed. “A tour of the ranch.”

  It’s one little walk. She’ll show you the lodge and the cafeteria. She’ll talk about her grandparents. You’ll nod. You’ll go your separate ways in a half hour.

  Repeat for five days.

  He could get through this. Intact. He was 75 percent sure.

  * * *

  DAWSON FAMILY RANCH: Life, love, legacy in Wyoming.

  Dear Reader,

  The nine-months-pregnant single heroine of Wyoming Special Delivery, Daisy Dawson, is one of six siblings and the only female. But when she goes into labor on the side of a Wyoming road in the dead of summer without a cell phone or a spare brother, she’s beyond grateful when the handsome, mysterious guest at her family’s dude ranch turns up—and delivers her baby boy.

  But Harrison McCord has a secret reason for staying at the Dawson Family Ranch. A reason Daisy will not like one bit. Bringing her newborn son into the world, though, changes everything for the both of them.

  I hope you enjoy Daisy and Harrison’s story. Feel free to write me with any comments or questions at [email protected] and visit my website, melissasenate.com for more info about me and my books. For lots of photos of my cat and dog, friend me over on Facebook.

  Happy spring and happy reading!

  Warmest regards,

  Melissa Senate

  Wyoming Special Delivery

  Melissa Senate

  Melissa Senate has written many novels for Harlequin and other publishers, including her debut, See Jane Date, which was made into a TV movie. She also wrote seven books for Harlequin’s Special Edition line under the pen name Meg Maxwell. Her novels have been published in over twenty-five countries. Melissa lives on the coast of Maine with her teenage son; their rescue shepherd mix, Flash; and a lap cat named Cleo. For more information, please visit her website, melissasenate.com.

  Books by Melissa Senate

  Harlequin Special Edition

  Dawson Family Ranch

  For the Twins’ Sake

  The Wyoming Multiples

  The Baby Switch!

  Detective Barelli’s Legendary Triplets

  Wyoming Christmas Surprise

  To Keep Her Baby

  A Promise for the Twins

  Furever Yours

  A New Leash on Love

  Montana Mavericks: Six Brides for Six Brothers

  Rust Creek Falls Cinderella

  Montana Mavericks: The Great Family Roundup

  (as Meg Maxwell)

  Mommy and the Maverick

  Montana Mavericks: The Lonelyhearts Ranch

  The Maverick’s Baby-in-Waiting

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  For my mother.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Excerpt from Her Motherhood Wish by Tara Taylor Quinn

  Chapter One

  Daisy Dawson’s wedding ceremony was supposed to start any minute, and there was no sign of the groom. At nine months pregnant, in a pretty but scratchy white lace maternity dress and peau de soie heels that pinched, standing around wasn’t exactly easy.

  She poked her head out the door of the small room where she was getting ready. The special events hall of the Dawson Family Guest Ranch lodge had been beautifully decorated, thanks to her sister-in-law, Sara, who’d gone all out with pink and red roses, white tulle, and a red satin carpet runner to create an aisle. Thirty-six chairs were set up on both sides of the carpet. On the bride’s side, she saw her five brothers in the first row, all decked out in suits and Stetsons and cowboy boots. She saw her colleagues from the ranch. She saw old friends and newer ones.

  But the other side of the aisle was still conspicuously empty of guests. No relatives or friends of the groom had arrived. That was really weird. Jacob was late and so were all the people he’d invited to their wedding?

  Sure, Daisy. Right.

  She poked her head back in and looked in the mirror, reality hitting her right in the nose. Jacob wasn’t coming to his own wedding. And since none of his guests had turned up, it was obvious that he’d let them know in advance that he was calling it off. How kind of him to tell everyone in his life but her.

  Everyone who meant something special to her was waiting for her to walk down the aisle. And there wasn’t going to be a wedding. She shook her head, calling herself all kinds of a fool for ever thinking this was going to happen.

  Ping!

  Daisy eyed her phone on the vanity table with all her cosmetics and the curling iron she’d painstakingly used to get beachy waves in her straight light brown hair. The text was either from one of her brothers asking if everything was okay—since the ceremony was supposed to start at 5:00 p.m.—or it was her fiancé, Jacob, the cowardly fink, not facing her in person.

  She grabbed her phone. It was Jacob.

  I’m really sorry. But it hit me hard this morning that we don’t love each other and we’ve been forcing it. And I’ve been forcing that I can be a dad. I’m heading back to Cheyenne and might move east. Wish you and the baby all the best. J.

  A burst of sadness got her in the heart at the same time that red-hot anger seized her. She stared at herself in the mirror, through her late mother’s beautiful lace veil, which she should have known would be bad luck. She’d tried, at least. Tried, tried, tried all summer to make it work with Jacob—she’d thought they were going to build a future together. A family. But her baby wouldn’t have a father.

  She stuffed her phone in her little beaded cross-body purse and stalked out the back door and down the side steps, to where her Honda, with a Just Married sign with streamers on the back, waited to get her out of here.

  She quickly got in the car and took a deep breath, flipped back the veil, then tex ted her brother Noah.

  J called off the wedding. Need some time alone.

  She reread Jacob’s text. Wish you and the baby all the best. Like he was some distant uncle! How dare he? She banged the phone against the steering wheel and chucked it out the window, then pulled off her engagement ring and threw it out, too. She grabbed the headpiece and veil off her head and tossed them on the back seat.

  Then she peeled out, seeing the ridiculous streamers floating behind the car in the rearview mirror as she took off down the drive toward the gates of the ranch.

  Where exactly am I going? she wondered, trying not to cry so she wouldn’t swerve into the wildflowers lining the road. She lived in the main house at the guest ranch, and no way could she deal with relative after relative, friend after friend coming to see her, feeling sorry for her. So forget about her sanctuary of her bedroom and pulling the quilt over her head for a few days.

  Jacob had booked a weekend honeymoon for the two of them at the Starlight B&B in Prairie City, a half hour away. She supposed she could go there and lick her wounds and order their highly rated room service. Her cravings were insane these days. All she seemed to want was pasta in pink sauce with bacon and peas. And garlic bread. And chocolate cake. All B&Bs had chocolate cake, right?

  Thinking of the food almost took her mind off being stood up at the altar and the sudden change to her future.

  Not just hers. Her brothers’ futures, too. Four of the five Dawson men had scattered across Wyoming, and she’d been hoping to steer them back home to stay. She’d had big plans for becoming a secret amateur matchmaker at the wedding reception tonight, putting individually irresistible women for the four remaining Dawson bachelors under their unsuspecting noses. But some case she could make to Ford, Axel, Zeke and Rex for sticking around Bear Ridge, finding true love and settling down in their hometown, if not on their home ranch, now.

  One of her brothers—Noah—had already done exactly that, which had given Daisy hope for the others. One down, five to go, right? Her wedding had brought them all home when being at the ranch, being in Bear Ridge, made them all feel...unsettled. But they’d inherited the ranch last winter from their father, and only Noah had stayed to rebuild the long-closed, run-down family business. Daisy, then five months pregnant and alone, had joined Noah in the mission, and no one had been more surprised than her when her baby’s father had come after her, saying he was sorry, that he wanted a second chance, that they could do this, after all: be a family. He’d lasted four months.

  She’d thought she was getting married today. She’d thought she could convince her brothers that true love really did exist, even if it hadn’t for their father and various mothers—there were three moms among the Dawson siblings. She’d thought the Dawson clan could start fresh here together. She’d thought she could use the wedding festivities to show them they could be happy here. Among the guests she’d invited were at least eight women who would seriously appeal to each single brother for one reason or another. Falling in love would be just the ticket back. But after seeing their sister stood up at the altar—nine months pregnant with their little niece or nephew—the four remaining Dawson bachelors would hightail it out of Bear Ridge, which had always meant bad luck to all of them. Family was everything to Daisy. And not only had her dreams of building her own family with her baby’s father gone poof, but Ford, Axel, Zeke and Rex would most likely leave tonight or tomorrow and come back for her baby’s birth, then leave again after a day or two and return for Christmas. Maybe.

  Family: the way it wasn’t supposed to be.

  Daisy let out a sigh and kept driving, teary acceptance and pissed-as-hell fighting for dominance. Fifteen minutes later, the two still going at it, she drove down the service road on the outskirts of Bear Ridge that would eventually lead her to the freeway. But then her car made a weird sputtering sound. Crunch-creak. Then another. Crunch-creeeeeeeak.

  Oh no. She quickly pulled over, turned off the engine, then tried to restart. Nothing.

  “Nooo!” she yelped, hitting the steering wheel. Someone tell me this is all a bad dream. She looked around, out the windshield and both passenger windows. She was on some rural stretch, hay bales for acres on either side of her. Not another car in sight. She tried the ignition again. Dead. One more time, because you never knew. Still dead.

  She rested her head against the steering wheel for a moment, the stretch tearing the side of her wedding gown. Fine with her. The minute she got to the Starlight, she’d be rolling it up in a wad and setting it on fire in a garbage can out front like she was Angela Bassett in Waiting to Exhale.

  This really wasn’t her day after all.

  Daisy grabbed her purse to get her phone to call for help, then grimaced. “Oh hell, that was stupid.” Her phone was behind the rosebushes on the side of the lodge. With her engagement ring. Her mom had often said, Daisy Rae Dawson, acting first and thinking later is gonna be your downfall, sweetcakes. Her beloved mother was right about that. Especially now.

  She sat there for a second, taking another breath when she was hit with a strange, pulling sensation low in her belly. That was weird. She grabbed her stomach and started breathing the way she’d learned in Lamaze class. A minute or so later, it hit her again. Oh no. No, no, no. Were these contractions? Maybe they were the false early ones the Lamaze teacher had mentioned yesterday, when Jacob was there breathing deeply beside her, making her believe he was really committed to her and their child. She wasn’t due for another three weeks!

  The pain got more intense. She stared at her silver watch with the mother-of-pearl face, a gift from her brothers for Christmas last year. The sweeping second hand told her the contractions were coming every minute and a half.

  She was in labor. Left-at-the-altar, three-weeks-early labor.

  Without a phone. On the side of the road. In rural Wyoming.

  She got out of the car as another contraction sent her gripping the side of the door for support. She stared up and down the road, praying a vehicle would come by. Without an ax murderer in it.

  She started pacing, keeping one hand on the car, but it was July and eighty-two degrees and the car was hot. Contraction! She bent over and let out the scream bursting from her. “Owww-weeee!”

  Breathe, breathe, breathe, she reminded herself. She heard the sound of rushing wheels in the distance. A car! Yes! It was coming closer! She managed to pick up her head to look. Oh, thank God. Someone was coming and stopping behind her car.

  A fancy silver SUV with Wyoming plates. Not one of her brothers’ cars. Or anyone she knew. One of the guests at the ranch had a fancy silver SUV, now that she thought about it.

  “Owww-weeee!” She yelped and doubled over as the contraction seized her.

  She heard a car door open and close, footsteps rushing toward her.

  “I’ll help you get in my SUV,” a male voice said, coming closer. “I’m not a stranger,” he added quickly as he bent down where she stood to sort of make eye contact. “I’m a guest at Dawson’s ranch.”

  She glanced up. It was him. He might not be a stranger or an ax murderer, but he was kind of mysterious. He’d been at the ranch for two days yet didn’t seem remotely interested in the horses or activities. She’d even mentioned to Noah, the foreman, that something was up with the guest who’d booked Cabin No. 1, which slept four, all for himself, and then hadn’t gotten on a horse the entire time he was here.

  Maybe he was an ax murderer.

  “No time,” she managed to croak out as she dropped to her knees, then backward onto her butt. “The baby...is...coming! Owww-weeee!”

  Over her earsplitting yelp, she still heard him gasp and saw him grab his phone, then listened to him frantically explain the situation to the 911 dispatcher.

  “Okay,” he was saying into the phone with accompanying nodding. “Okay. Okay. Okay, I think I can do that. Okay.”

  “Owww-weeee!” s he screamed, eyes squeezed shut as she bore down.

  “Oh God,” he said, rushing to kneel in front of her.

  He lifted up her wedding dress and cast it over her knees. She heard him run away and thought noo, don’t leave me, but then he was back, and she realized he was cutting off her ridiculous lace maternity undies with a Swiss army knife.

  She had the urge to bear down again. And grunted and did.

  “The ambulance is coming,” he assured her. “Just hang on, Daisy.”

  “I’ll try,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut. “But I can’t!” she croaked out, opening her eyes. “You’re...about...to...owww-weeee...deliver my...baby!” she yelped.

  * * *

  Harrison McCord’s brain fought to catch up with what was happening. Not forty-five minutes ago, he’d seen Daisy, all decked out in bridal wear, walk into the ranch lodge with another woman who he recognized as her sister-in-law. Now, Daisy was still in the wedding dress, which was dirty in some spots along the bottom. But she was alone, no rings on her finger, he noticed, on the side of a road. And, if he wasn’t mistaken, in labor. What the heck had happened between then and this minute?

  “What can I do?” he asked, his voice frantic.

  “Get...these pinching shoes...off me!” she barked out before leaning back and shouting, “Owww-weeee!” That was followed by four fast breaths. Then four more.

  He took the white shoes off her feet, and her face relaxed for a second, then the panting, grunting and yelping, and breathing started again.

  “The baby. Is. Coming!” she screamed. She scrunched up her face.

  “Oh God,” he said. Again he lifted the long lacy gown and flung the edge up over her knees. He could see the baby’s head. Whoa.

  He forgot everything the dispatcher had said. What the hell do I do? Instinct must have taken over, because he took off his dress shirt and held it carefully under the head as he guided the baby—a boy—out. He then gently wrapped the messy newborn in his shirt and handed him to Daisy.