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    Spitfire Sweetheart: A Four Weddings and A Kiss Novella
    Spitfire Sweetheart: A Four Weddings and A Kiss Novella
    Spitfire Sweetheart: A Four Weddings and A Kiss Novella
    Ebook101 pages1 hour

    Spitfire Sweetheart: A Four Weddings and A Kiss Novella

    By Mary Connealy

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    About this ebook

    It’s 1885 and five preachers sit around a campfire out West, trading stories of unlikely couples they've seen God bring together. This is one of those stories . . .

    She’s reckless spitfire and, thanks to her, he’s a wreck . . .

    Maisy Place didn’t mean for Ryan to come to any harm. She was just looking for a quiet space to nurse her wounded pride after he’d hurt her feelings. But then she wandered onto Ryan’s property and into a heap of trouble. Ryan rescued her from a charging grizzly only to find himself with serious breaks and bruises.

    Maisy sheepishly agrees when her father insists that she nurse the wounded Ryan back to health as penance. And when his ranch hand leaves him high-and-dry just weeks before a critical cattle sale, Maisy steps in to help. Her cowboy-like ways that have always driven him crazy may ultimately prove to be his salvation . . . and pave the way to their romance.

    "Nobody tugs a heart or a smile quite like Mary Connealy . . . she is a master storyteller who leaves her readers both breathless . . . and breathless for more." —Julie Lessman, award-winning author of The Daughters of Boston (on "Winter Wedding Bells" in A Bride for All Seasons)

    “Christian novelist Connealy writes to tickle the funny bone and tease heartstrings.” —Publishers Weekly

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateJun 17, 2014
    ISBN9780529102003
    Spitfire Sweetheart: A Four Weddings and A Kiss Novella
    Author

    Mary Connealy

    Mary Connealy (MaryConnealy.com) writes "romantic comedies with cowboys" and is celebrated for her fun, zany, action-packed style. She has sold more than 1.5 million books and is the author of the popular series Wyoming Sunrise, The Lumber Baron's Daughters, and many other books. Mary lives on a ranch in eastern Nebraska with her very own romantic cowboy hero.

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      Book preview

      Spitfire Sweetheart - Mary Connealy

      CHAPTER ONE

      Saurita, New Mexico, 1879

      MAIZY MACGREGOR LEANED HER HEAD BACK AGAINST the rocks, accidentally knocking her Stetson off. She grabbed it as it fell, then tossed it aside in disgust. She had on men’s clothes—the hat, britches, shirt, boots, even a six-gun she wore on her hip. It had never bothered her before Rylan Carstens.

      She wiped her eyes. It was sure enough bothering her now.

      The water roared beside her, cascading down in a rush. She came here when she needed to be alone. And she really needed that now.

      Tossing aside her buckskin gloves, she pulled her red handkerchief out of her hip pocket—no lace kerchief tucked up her sleeve for Maizy—and wiped her eyes again, then blew her nose in a completely unladylike way.

      How had she let herself get this upset? And over a man, of all things.

      Over the neighbor whom she’d long ago accepted would never see her as anything but a child, and an unattractive, annoying child at that.

      She was used to it, and she ignored it mostly, but today it stung. He’d found her walking among his Angus cattle.

      Maizy looked to her left and watched the sleek black herd spread out along the downhill slope. Usually she didn’t go near them. Instead, she’d just slip into this spot. She’d been using it for a getaway since childhood. But this morning, not for the first time, she’d walked among his herd. They were gentle cattle, not a horn on a single one of them. They weren’t tame enough to touch—they gave way if she got too close. But they didn’t run for the hills one day, then attack the next like longhorns tended to do.

      She’d heard they were gentle, even the bulls. And she was savvy about cattle. She knew how to judge their tempers and stay clear of them when necessary. Her eyes rested on one especially young calf that might have been born just today, long after cows usually threw their calves.

      Maizy knew better than to go near a new mama, no matter how easygoing she’d been before her calf was born.

      She’d told Rylan all that and tried to make him see she was in no danger. He’d thrown her off his land anyway and even followed her home to complain to Pa, like she was a misbehaving child. He’d forbidden her to trespass ever again.

      But the minute she could get away, she came here, to her special place. The river was the border between his property and her pa’s, and it was true she was, right this minute, on the trespassing side. She barely had a toe over the line, and she was completely safe from his placid, fat cattle, so surely he wouldn’t complain about that.

      She took a little pleasure in defying him. And it was a harmless defiance, especially if he didn’t know she was here.

      Her horse was tied well across the river, on MacGregor land, cropping grass. She couldn’t see the brown-and-white pinto from here and neither could her neighbor.

      Hoping to get control of her hurt, she let herself soak in the peace of stone and water and air, loving the way this rocky ledge cut off the world. She couldn’t hear anything other than the rushing water. Her spot was curved into the rocks, and she could only see straight ahead and to the left. Water cascaded down from the mountain peaks on the right. Her almost-cave hid her from behind and overhead.

      She was in her own world, alone with her thoughts.

      Then a gunshot cut through the air, and she sat up straight and banged her head.

      Looking for the source of that gun, she turned and saw him.

      Rylan Carstens.

      And he was coming straight for her, galloping on his big chestnut stallion. Even at this distance she could tell he was looking right at her. How had he known she was in here?

      Another gunshot echoed from his Winchester.

      Rylan bent low over his horse, coming as fast as he could on the rocky ground that rose to this bluff along the river. Was he trying to kill her? If so, he was doing a poor job of it. The bullets were missing, going way over her head. But even on her worst day, she’d never done anything to make the man killing mad.

      And Maizy knew, even though Rylan seemed like a mighty cranky man, that he wasn’t the type to shoot a young woman, especially not for just being annoying.

      He fired again and again, working the levered handle on his Winchester, and she finally realized he was firing warning shots. But warning who—about what?

      She scrambled out of the little overhang and took a few running steps to make sure he saw her and wouldn’t fire in her direction.

      That’s when she heard the growl . . . and the bellow.

      Spinning around, she looked up. On the ledge that formed the roof of her little cave, standing on its hind legs, was the biggest grizzly she’d ever seen.

      Movement to her side forced her to look, though it was madness to turn away. The huge Angus bull that lorded over this part of Carstens’s herd pawed the ground, and like all bulls, guarded his herd fiercely. There were only two things between that huge bear and that angry bull.

      The shining black calf, born out of season, still wobbly.

      And Maizy.

      The bull might be threatening the bear, but the bear only had eyes for Maizy. The rest of the cow herd, save the frantic mama, turned and stampeded away.

      The bull charged.

      The bear dropped to all fours and crouched to attack.

      Pound for pound there was no meaner animal on the face of the earth than a grizzly. Maizy had a Colt in her holster, but a bullet wasn’t enough to bring one of these huge beasts down. Maybe a perfect shot right into the heart or brain would do it . . . but mostly . . . getting shot just made ’em mad.

      The bear’s beady, bloodshot eyes were riveted on Maizy.

      The bull bellowed and turned the grizzly’s attention.

      Maizy saw her chance and ran.

      A shout and another blast of gunfire sent Maizy running straight down the grassy slope for Rylan. Her eyes locked with his and she saw horror. She thought he’d seen her, but she could tell he’d been out here riding herd and seen the grizzly.

      A thud from behind told her the bear was off the ledge. Another growl seemed to blow hot breath on the back of Maizy’s neck. Or maybe that was just the hair on the back of her neck standing up in pure terror.

      The bull charged, putting itself between the bear and the calf, then stopped to paw the earth with its front feet.

      Rylan fired again and again.

      Sprinting to get out of the middle, Maizy heard the thundering hooves ahead, the scratching claws of the grizzly right behind, and the deep-throated threats from the bull.

      The calf bawled

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