The Ranch Solution Read online

  Trading his laptop for a…saddle?

  Widower Jacob O’Donnell has to snap his teen daughter out of her rebellious ways. And his last resort to do so means temporarily swapping his Seattle boardroom for a Montana ranch. It should be simple, but nothing prepares him for the realities of a working ranch…or for Mariah Weston. This rugged country can only be paradise to someone like Mariah, whose can-do attitude and sizzling-hot temper throw Jacob harder than any horse ever could.

  Yet maybe a strong woman like Mariah can get through to his daughter. One thing is for sure—Mariah is definitely getting through to Jacob! And the closer she gets to his heart, the more Jacob wants what he knows might be impossible.

  “So why didn’t you get married?”

  Jacob raised one eyebrow and continued, “Maybe I’m not the only one concerned about losing someone special. Is that why you got engaged to a man you didn’t really love? No one could blame you after the way your mother and father died.”

  Mariah had never slapped a man, but she was within inches now. Jacob didn’t have any place questioning her relationship with Luke, or bringing up her parents.

  “Back off,” she ordered furiously, without letting Jacob say another word.

  The repair of the fence took less than five minutes and she efficiently replaced the tools in Shadow’s saddlebag.

  “We’re done,” she said shortly.

  “No ‘we’ about it. You wouldn’t let me help.”

  “Don’t push me, Jacob,” she warned. “I may not have liked the city, but I took self-defense classes when I lived there and you wouldn’t enjoy being on the receiving end of what I learned.”

  To her utter aggravation, he just laughed.

  Dear Reader,

  A friend used to speak longingly of the Amish lifestyle, believing it was less complicated and stressful than our fast-paced world. She would often say, “Maybe I’ll become Amish someday.” I’d smile and think of her sporty red car, passion for movies and lattes, and the ultra modern home she shared with her husband.

  Still, the happiest summer of my life was spent in the mountains living in a tent cabin and cooking on a wood stove. I quickly discovered the satisfaction of chopping firewood, living close to nature and taking pleasure in simple entertainments. Yet the adjustments I went through are nothing compared to what I ask of my hero when I send him on a ranch vacation with his rebellious fourteen-year-old daughter.

  Imagine a wealthy, city-loving businessman who finds himself sleeping in a tent, riding horses and dealing with a stubborn redhead who isn’t the least bit impressed with his money. Mariah is nothing like the gentle wife Jacob lost over ten years before. The only reason he stays is his troubled daughter, whose outrageous behavior has finally gotten her expelled from school. Jacob will try anything to help Kittie and he sees the ranch as a last resort.

  I hope you have fun reading about Jacob and Mariah and their families—it was loads of fun writing about them. I also enjoy hearing from readers! Please contact me c/o Harlequin Books, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, ON M3B 3K9, Canada.

  Wishing you all the best,

  Julianna Morris

  The Ranch Solution

  Julianna Morris

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Julianna Morris has an offbeat sense of humor that frequently gets her in trouble. She has also been accused of being interested in everything. Her interests range from oceanography and photography to traveling, antiquing, painting, walking on the beach and reading (mysteries and most other fiction and nonfiction). Julianna loves cats of all shapes and sizes. Her family’s feline companion is named Merlin, and like his namesake, Merlin is an alchemist—he can transform the house into a disaster in nothing flat. And since he shares the premises with a writer, it’s interesting to note that he is particularly fond of knocking books onto the floor.

  Books by Julianna Morris

  HARLEQUIN SUPERROMANCE

  1713—HONOR BOUND

  SILHOUETTE ROMANCE

  BABY TALK

  FAMILY OF THREE

  DADDY WOKE UP MARRIED

  DR. DAD

  THE MARRIAGE STAMPEDE

  *CALLIE GET YOUR GROOM

  *HANNAH GETS A HUSBAND

  *JODIE’S MAIL-ORDER MAN

  MEETING MEGAN AGAIN

  TICK TOCK GOES THE BABY CLOCK

  LAST CHANCE FOR BABY!

  **A DATE WITH A BILLIONAIRE

  **THE RIGHT TWIN FOR HIM

  **THE BACHELOR BOSS

  **JUST BETWEEN FRIENDS

  **MEET ME UNDER THE MISTLETOE

  THE HOMETOWN HERO RETURNS

  *Bridal Fever!

  **stories of the O’Rourke family

  Other titles by this author available in ebook format.

  To my talented sister, who is also my best friend.

  And to the memory of my parents, two extraordinary people who taught their children to love books and the world around us.

  Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Excerpt

  PROLOGUE

  “THANK YOU FOR COM—”

  The door of the conference room opened, interrupting Jacob O’Donnell’s opening remarks to his executive board. His eyes narrowed until he saw it was his assistant. The look on Gretchen’s face said it all—his daughter, Kittie, was in trouble. Again.

  “No injuries,” Gretchen whispered in his ear. “Accidental fire. Girls’ locker room. But both fire and police departments had to be called.”

  With effort Jacob kept his expression neutral. Fire. That was worse than anything Kittie had done before, though she’d done plenty. He looked at the men and women seated around the long table. “I apologize, but something urgent has come up that needs my attention.”

  Right.

  Something urgent.

  A fourteen-year-old daughter who was single-handedly trying to destroy the civilized world.

  Jacob cleared his throat. “So I’ll have Cara Michaels take over from here,” he continued. “Thank you, Cara.”

  His vice president of Acquisitions nodded calmly. Of course she was calm—her kids were already grown. She had raised three and lived to tell about it—he didn’t have a clue how she’d managed such a feat. As much as he loved his daughter, sometimes he hated being a parent. These days it seemed like a never-ending cycle of worry and self-doubt.

  “What’s the damage?” he automatically asked Gretchen as the door closed behind them.

  His assistant patted his arm. “It isn’t that bad—some paper, a wood bench and cabinet, cleanup and new paint. But the principal is hopping mad—I didn’t realize his voice could get that high. Mr. Williams shrieked that setting fire to a building rates more than a suspension, no matter how liberal their rules might be. I’m afraid Kittie will be expelled this time—she seems to have exceeded even his tolerance.”

  “Maybe I can pay for a new swimming pool to go with the tennis courts I donate
d the last time. Money talks,” Jacob said with a heavy dose of cynicism.

  Gretchen shook her head. “I wouldn’t try it. You didn’t hear him. I’m lucky my eardrums didn’t burst the way he was yelling.”

  “At least there are only a few weeks left in the school year.” Jacob pulled his keys from his pocket.

  “Er...why don’t you take the limousine?” Gretchen suggested, probably because the last time Kittie was in danger of being expelled, he’d turned too sharply in the parking garage and creased the fender of his Mercedes.

  “I’ll be fine,” he muttered. He didn’t like using a chauffeur, preferring to be the one in control.

  “Okay, but my car is on the same level as yours, and I’m really fond of that Saturn.”

  “It’s safe. I only hit concrete dividers, not other vehicles,” he said, teeth gritted. He didn’t want to say something he shouldn’t...which unfortunately he’d already done a few times over the past few months. Jacob hurried to the stairs, his head pounding. What a nightmare. Kittie had gone from being a normal high-school freshman at the beginning of the year to a teenager-from-hell at the end.

  Was it his fault?

  Was it drugs?

  The possibility haunted him. Kittie’s mother had become dependent on medication by the time she died. A muscle ticked in Jacob’s jaw as he remembered how the pills had made Anna so dazed she’d barely recognized anyone. They had hoped a donor heart would become available in her rare blood type, but she hadn’t lived long enough for a transplant.

  At Kittie’s school, Jacob parked in front of the administration building and went to the principal’s office; he’d gone there so often lately he could have made it blindfolded. Kittie sat in her usual chair, arms crossed over her abdomen, looking angry and defiant.

  “I didn’t try to burn down anything,” she announced, her body language screaming that she didn’t care whether he believed her or not.

  “That’s right, she just tried to hide the cigarette she was smoking without putting it out,” said a grim Mr. Williams. He was a liberal administrator, but everyone had their limits.

  “Smoking?” Jacob asked incredulously. “We’ve talked about this. I thought you had better sense.”

  “Like it matters.” Kittie sank deeper in her chair. The private school she attended didn’t have a uniform, and she’d pushed the envelope on their loose dress code in so many ways that the envelope looked more like a punching bag.

  He hadn’t put an end to the nonsense because the school psychologist had advised him to let Kittie “express” herself.

  Well, hell.

  The experts obviously didn’t know what they were talking about. Not one of those experts had come up with a decent explanation of what was going on with his daughter, and they certainly hadn’t done anything to help make things better.

  Jacob listened to twenty minutes of Mr. Williams’s ranting about out-of-control teens, silently accepted his daughter’s expulsion and endured an “interview” with the police detective who’d investigated the fire. Officer Rizzoli didn’t crack a smile the entire conversation, and Jacob’s nerves were wound to the breaking point by the time he returned to his Mercedes with Kittie in tow. She slumped into the passenger seat and scowled at her belly button.

  “I’m getting my nose pierced,” she declared.

  “Over my dead body.”

  They argued all the way home.

  When they finally arrived, Kittie disappeared upstairs into her bedroom; a few seconds later her music roared to life.

  God in heaven.

  Head pounding, Jacob looked wildly around the living room as if an answer could be found in the furniture. What was he going to do?

  Smoking?

  Fire in the girls’ locker room?

  What was next?

  Specters of teen pregnancy, STDs and drug overdoses raced through his mind, turning his stomach to ice. He’d tried grounding Kittie, taking away her computer, TV and various other privileges.

  There didn’t appear to be anything physically wrong with her according to the doctors they’d seen. The counselor he’d consulted seemed baffled, and the only advice she’d had for him was to give it time. His own parents had told him to be patient, that all kids went through a rebellious stage, but he didn’t think this was normal rebellion.

  Besides, he’d passed the expiration date on his patience; he was now operating on raw nerve.

  Jacob headed for his home office. Like the living room, the office provided broad windows, overlooking a panorama of Lake Union. During the day he could sit and watch the seaplanes arrive and depart and the sailboats skim across the water, while at night the surrounding hills glistened with city lights. The stunning view usually pleased him, a reminder that he had succeeded and could afford to give Kittie the best of everything.

  Yeah, the best.

  At this rate he was going to need the best lawyers to defend her.

  Jacob considered pouring himself a drink. Instead, he sat down in front of the computer and typed in the website address his friend Gene had given him. He stared long and hard at the travel-agency home page before clicking the U-2 Ranch link. When Gene and his wife were having trouble with their son, they’d taken him for a ranch vacation in Montana. Since then they’d raved about the U-2, claiming the experience had done wonders for Wes...sort of a boot camp for kids with problems. They’d even taken it in stride that Wes had broken his arm on the trip.

  Jacob pressed his thumbs to his aching temples. Was he desperate enough to try something that could put Kittie in harm’s way? They’d always lived in the city, and the description of the ranch didn’t thrill him—five miles from the nearest town, gravel road into the ranch, guests slept in tents, everyone worked, food served communally, no designer coffee...

  He grimaced He was addicted to good coffee, but if it helped Kittie, he’d live without the stuff forever.

  Then he read the next part.

  No smoking.

  No exceptions.

  Before he could change his mind, he took out his credit card and started typing.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “WE’RE ALMOST THERE,” Jacob said, glancing at Kittie, garbed entirely in black, including her nail polish and lipstick. He’d decided to deal with her abysmal wardrobe later; getting her out of Seattle had been a big enough struggle.

  She blew a bubble with her gum and stared ahead silently.

  “You’ll be able to ride horses there. You used to enjoy riding. Remember?”

  “Whatever.”

  He gave up and checked the GPS for how much farther they had to go. They’d flown to Billings, Montana, in an O’Donnell International company jet. Upon arrival Jacob had rented a car for the rest of the trip.

  Along with losing her MP3 player, Kittie’s punishment for smoking and accidentally setting fire to the girls’ locker room was having to pay for the damages out of her allowance and composing a written apology to the school. An acceptable written apology, since Kittie could easily make an apology sound more like an insult.

  Oh, yeah, and she was grounded for life, plus ten years. Jacob had told her if she shaped up during their trip, he might shave a few years from that part of the punishment.

  Kittie hadn’t even blinked.

  Tough love sounded clichéd, but he was desperate. He’d try anything.

  Guided by the GPS, Jacob turned onto the U-2 Ranch road and after a mile came over a hill. Laid out in a shallow valley were the ranch buildings and, on the opposite slope, an array of white canvas tents. He winced—he hadn’t slept outdoors since he was a boy. A ranch vacation was a far cry from the Caribbean resort where he’d taken Kittie for Easter a year ago.

  Jacob pulled to a stop in the parking area. There was plenty of space, likely because the school year hadn’t end
ed for kids who were still attending classes instead of being expelled.

  “Hello, there,” called a voice as Jacob opened the trunk of their rental. The speaker was a white-haired man who looked older than the hills. But the weathered cowboy had steel in his face; he might be a worthy match for a surly teenager. “I’m Burt Parsons. Welcome to the U-2 Ranch. You must be the O’Donnells.”

  “Duh,” Kittie said sarcastically.

  Burt didn’t seem surprised. “And you have to be Kittie.”

  Without a word, she spit her gum to the grass.

  Before Jacob could say something about it, Burt gave her a stern look. “We don’t allow littering here,” he informed her. “Put it in the trash.”

  Kittie didn’t move.

  “Pick it up, young lady, unless you’d rather shovel horse manure from the barn.”

  “Dad.”

  “Better get the shovel, Burt,” Jacob suggested, taking their new sleeping bags from the trunk. It was hard letting someone else discipline Kittie. He had a hunch that tough love might be rougher on him than on his daughter.

  Glaring at them both, she picked up the wad of gum and threw it in a barrel marked for trash.

  “You folks are later arriving than we expected,” Burt said, stepping forward to help with the luggage. He read the baggage tag on Kittie’s neon-pink duffel, pushed it into her arms and went ahead of them with an easy stride, carrying the sleeping bags. Jacob followed with his own suitcase.

  Kittie trudged next to him with an aggrieved mutter, but as they passed the largest barn, a young man came out and she stopped dead in her tracks. “Uh, hi,” she said, without even a touch of sarcasm or disdain—like his old Kittie.

  Jacob stiffened. At first sight the guy appeared to be in his early twenties, but on closer inspection he was clearly younger. Great. That was all his daughter needed—a crush on another messed-up teenager.

  The boy checked Kittie up and down. “You’re that city kid we’ve been expecting.”