The Last-Chance Maverick Read online

  THE ART OF FALLING IN LOVE

  RUST CREEK RAMBLINGS

  Fellow Ramblers, have you heard that Jonah Dalton is back in town? The sexy, citified architect hasn’t been seen round these parts since…well, we won’t get into all that. Let’s just say love has not been kind to our Jonah.

  But our sources whisper he’s recently been painting the town red with spirited artist Vanessa Brent. She’s been methodically working her way through her bucket list—and taking Jonah along for the ride. You’d never guess that Vanessa’s lust for life is masking her own heartbreaking secret. Can our hardworking maverick be the one to finally make her whole? Readers, we will let you draw your own conclusions—but we think this romance is a masterpiece in the making!

  Vanessa’s Bucket List

  1. Learn to ride a horse

  2. Go to Disney World

  3. Visit Australia

  4. Learn to scuba dive

  5. Kiss a cowboy Kiss Jonah Dalton!

  6. Go skinny-dipping!

  7. Dance in the rain

  8. See an active volcano

  9. Fall in love…forever…

  * * *

  MONTANA MAVERICKS: 20 Years in the Saddle!

  Dear Reader,

  Have you ever felt like a second chance might be your last? That you’ve got one more opportunity to say what needs to be said, make things right, turn your life around? Maybe if you try just one more time…things will turn out the way you want?

  Vanessa Brent is still recovering from the loss of her best friend and doing her best to live up to her second chance to be happy. She might be living a little too much by the book—or by the list, as the case may be—but she’s trying to find a new way of life and, hopefully, a way back to the one part of herself she’s never had to doubt before: her talent. Could successful architect Jonah Dalton be just what she needs? True, the man firmly believes he had his one shot at happily-ever-after, and when it didn’t work out, he found a way to be okay with that. Until he meets Vanessa, and realizes she’s exactly what he needs…if he’s willing to take a chance on love again.

  I am so honored to be part of the twentieth anniversary of the Montana Mavericks with such a terrific group of authors as Christine Rimmer, Teresa Southwick, Leanne Banks, Brenda Harlen and Rachel Lee, along with the numerous Harlequin Special Edition authors who have been part of such an amazing series over the years.

  Here’s to the next twenty years! May they be filled with lots of love and laughter and happily-ever-afters!

  All my best,

  Christyne

  THE LAST-CHANCE MAVERICK

  Christyne Butler

  Books by Christyne Butler

  Harlequin Special Edition

  ^Fortune’s Secret Baby #2114

  *Welcome Home, Bobby Winslow #2145

  *Having Adam’s Baby #2182

  ¤Puppy Love in Thunder Canyon #2203

  §The Maverick’s Summer Love #2275

  *Flirting with Destiny #2289

  *Destiny’s Last Bachelor? #2336

  ∆The Last-Chance Maverick #2361

  Silhouette Special Edition

  *The Cowboy’s Second Chance #1980

  *The Sheriff’s Secret Wife #2022

  *A Daddy for Jacoby #2089

  Harlequin Books

  Special Edition Bonus Story: The Anniversary Party—Chapter Four

  ^The Fortunes of Texas: Lost…and Found

  *Welcome to Destiny

  ¤Montana Mavericks: Back in the Saddle

  §Montana Mavericks: Rust Creek Cowboys

  ∆Montana Mavericks: 20 Years in the Saddle!

  Other titles by this author available in ebook format.

  CHRISTYNE BUTLER

  fell in love with romance novels while serving in the United States Navy and started writing her own stories six years ago. She considers selling to Harlequin Special Edition a dream come true and enjoys writing contemporary romances full of life, love, a hint of laughter and perhaps a dash of danger, too. And there has to be a happily-ever-after or she’s just not satisfied.

  She lives with her family in central Massachusetts and loves to hear from her readers at [email protected]. Or visit her website, www.christynebutler.com.

  To my husband, Len,

  for believing in one last chance

  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

  Excerpt

  Prologue

  Carrollton Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA

  Eleven months ago

  “Okay, read it to me...” Adele’s voice faded for a moment as she struggled to speak against the plastic mask covering her nose and mouth that supplied her with fresh oxygen. “...again. We need to finish our list.”

  Vanessa Brent swallowed hard against the lump in her throat that refused to go away. Every time she walked into this room—as plush and beautiful and unlike a hospital room as a sun-filled space could be—she had the same physical reaction and it stayed with her until she’d left again.

  One would think after three months of being here on a daily basis she’d be used to the sight of her best friend fighting a battle they’d recently accepted she wasn’t going to win. That she’d be able to sit here, hold Adele’s hand and do as she asked.

  “All of it?” Glad her words managed to find their way around the obstacle in her throat, Vanessa glanced at the aged piece of paper she held in her hand. Titled “Adele and Vanessa’s Bucket List, created July 4, 2001, Secret Clubhouse, Vanessa’s Attic, Chestnut Hill, PA,” the well-creased, lined sheet of notebook paper was covered with two distinct styles of handwriting, one belonging to her twelve-year-old self and the other a more mature scrawl. “Or just the things we’ve added?”

  They’d discovered the childhood list one day while going through some forgotten boxes in Vanessa’s loft apartment. Back when they’d thought Adele had once again beaten the childhood cancer that returned at the tender age of twenty-five, but then went into remission after treatment.

  That had been just before Easter. By early June Adele was back in the hospital, but during those few precious weeks they’d managed to check off some of the items on their list.

  “Start at the beginning.” Adele turned to look at her, the bright red silk scarf protecting her sensitive scalp brushing against the pillow. “Let’s review...what we’ve done...so far.”

  Taking a deep breath, she started reading. “Number one—dance beneath the Eiffel Tower. I did that back in college the year I studied abroad,” Vanessa said, thankful she had a photograph to honor the event as she technically didn’t remember doing so thanks to generous amounts of wine that night. “Number two—swim in the Pacific Ocean. You did that when you were in college.”

  Adele smiled, but remained silent.

  “Number three—get a tattoo.” Letting go, she flipped her hand and laid it side by side next her friend’s, their matching interlocking heart ta
ttoos visible on their inner wrists. “Number four—see a Broadway show. By ourselves.”

  They’d done both on a last-minute road trip to New York City that Adele had insisted on in May not long after they’d found their long forgotten list.

  “Shouldn’t have taken us...until age twenty-five to accomplish—” her friend rasped “—either of those.”

  “Considering how unhappy your mother was with us for taking off without telling her, not to mention our permanent souvenirs, we’re lucky she didn’t ground us when we got home like she used to do when we were kids.”

  “I think my mom was more worried because of me being in remission. Your father never said a word.”

  Vanessa wasn’t even sure her father had even realized she’d left the city, much less inked her body. “Okay, let’s see. We did go to Disney World on our senior class trip so that counted for number five. I was lucky enough to visit the White House and shake hands with the president during an art exhibit a few years back. Number six. I attempted to learn to scuba dive while visiting Australia the summer before my mother—well, before she got sick, so that covers numbers seven and eight.”

  “That’s right. So you swam in the Pacific Ocean, too.”

  “Well, technically, it was the Tasman Sea. It doesn’t count. So, other than the first eight, we haven’t managed to accomplish the rest of the 2001 list.” While Vanessa was sure that flying among the clouds (and not in an airplane!) was a childish wish that would never come true, she guessed moving out west, learning to ride a horse and the last goal, kissing a cowboy, were still possible. At least for her.

  She swallowed hard again, but the unfairness of it all kept the lump firmly in place. “You know, judging from the last few items, I think we watched too many old Westerns back when we were twelve.”

  “I always liked John Wayne. The strong, silent type,” Adele said. “So how many...do we have so far now? With the new ones included?”

  “The original twelve and the eight we added while in New York.” Vanessa read through the rest of the list. When her friend had insisted on updating it with new goals that weekend, they’d truly believed both of them would have time to accomplish things like going skinny-dipping, being part of a flash mob or dancing in the rain. Knowing now that her friend was never going to be able to accomplish any of them... “I think twenty is a good number.”

  “No. Need four more. Twelve old and twelve new.”

  “Well, number twenty is to see an active volcano. I don’t know how we’re—” Vanessa’s voice caught again, but she pushed on. “How we’re going to top that.”

  “Number twenty-one—take a bubble bath...with a man.”

  She couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s words as she propped her sketchbook on the edge of Adele’s bed, using it as a base to write on. “How do you know I haven’t done that already?”

  “Because you would’ve told me. Best friends tell each other everything.”

  Vanessa nodded. “You’re right. And I think that might top the volcano experience.”

  “Number twenty-two—kiss...Prince Charming and number twenty-three...” Adele’s voice fell to a whisper, barely heard over the steady beeping from the row of machines on the far side of her bed. “...have a baby. Or two. Or three.”

  Vanessa blinked rapidly against the sting of tears, struggling to see clearly enough to add them to the list. Adele’s words brought back the memory of how each of them, being only children, had always wished for younger siblings. That shared secret, revealed on the day they first met when Adele’s mother had come to work for Vanessa’s as a social secretary, had sealed their lifelong friendship. She still remembered the afternoon she’d returned from a ballet lesson and found a scrawny girl, her flaming red hair in braids and wearing a hand-me-down dress with dirt on her knees, sitting on the silk tufted bench in the grand foyer of Vanessa’s home reading Little Women.

  “And number twenty-four...fall in love forever.”

  Vanessa’s fingers tightened on the pen until she was sure it would break. She tried to write the last goal, but the page was too blurry.

  Then Adele’s fingers brushed against the back of her hand. She latched onto her friend’s cool touch and pressed Adele’s hand to her heated cheek. “That’s...that’s quite a list.”

  “It’s not a list. It’s a life. Your life.” Adele’s voice became strong and clear, more than it has been in days. “It’s time for you to get back to it.”

  “Adele—”

  “You’ve been with me constantly over the last year. I’m surprised you’ve found time to get any painting done, not that I want you to jump back into your crazy work schedule.” She paused for another breath. “And I know it’s you I have to thank for being as comfortable with this outrageously expensive hospital room. My mom and I are so grateful—”

  “Oh, shut up,” Vanessa admonished her friend gently, her gaze still on the blurred list. “You know I would pay anything—do anything—to have you well again.”

  Adele jiggled on Vanessa’s hand, signaling she wanted her attention. Vanessa brushed away the tears before looking at her friend who’d tugged the plastic mask from her face.

  “What’s that saying? We only have one shot at life, but if we do it right once is enough? You know better than most—especially now—how quickly life can be taken away,” Adele said, her voice low and strained. “Don’t get so lost in your art after I’m gone that you forget about all the wonderful things waiting out there for you.”

  “I still have three pieces to finish,” Vanessa said, the familiar argument returning once again. One that had started years ago between them when she’d spent her thirteenth birthday working on a painting instead of attending a school dance. “You know how I get before a show. This is an important one, too. People are coming from Europe, the Far East—”

  “You’ve been painting since you were a kid,” Adele cut her off. “You were a star in the art world at seventeen and we both know that’s because you buried yourself in your art after your mom died. Please don’t do that again. Thanks to your gift and your trust fund, you’re set for...life. It’s time to live it.”

  “You make me sound like a nun or something.”

  “You’re not too far off. What happened to that fun-loving girl you were a few years ago?”

  Vanessa’s memory flashed back to her time in Paris. “That was college, Adele. Being foolish and wild was part of the curriculum back then. Now, it’s about my work.”

  “There’s more to life...than work. Than art.”

  Vanessa had heard all of this before. Adele had always been supportive of her career, especially during the darkest moment in her life after her mother died when Vanessa was only sixteen, but she also constantly reminded her there was more to the world than her beloved brushes and paints.

  “Art is my life, Adele. It’s what got me through the pain and the heartache last time.” She pulled in a deep breath, but her eyes filled again. “I’m counting on it to help me again.... Oh, how am I going to...”

  Adele tightened her hold. “Please, don’t be sad...for too long. We’ve talked about this. That’s why I insisted we finish our list. I want you to go out there and experience all the things we’ve dreamed about. I want you to put check marks by every single one of those items.”

  The fact that her friend was spending her last days thinking of her made the constant ache inside Vanessa fracture a bit more, sending icy tentacles deeper and further, their frozen tips scraping at her heart. The feeling was a familiar one, felt for the first time since almost a decade ago.

  The time from her mother’s diagnosis to her death had been less than eight months, barely any time for them—her or her parents—to come to terms with the illness that would take her life. While her father had thrown himself into his work after the funeral, Vanessa had done the same, her a
rt allowing her a way to express her pain and grief.

  Back then she’d poured all her fears onto the canvas in the back of her mind, she too worried that she might die young. Though genetic testing reassured her she was unlikely to develop the same disease, and her time in her studio produced magnificent pieces of abstract art that made her famous, for years, Vanessa had been unable to shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen to her.

  She’d never dreamed it would be the loss of her best friend.

  It was Adele who’d helped her pick out a prom dress, who came to visit her at art school, who got her to laugh again when the someone she’d thought was her true love had broken her heart. Even more than her father, Adele and her mother, Susan, had become Vanessa’s lifeline. They’d been there for every birthday, every holiday and now...

  “Come on...promise me.”

  Adele started to cough and quickly shoved the oxygen mask back into place. Vanessa shot to her feet and bracing herself on the bed, gently laid her hand over her friend’s, making sure the device was working properly. “Hey, take it easy.”

  Adele held up her hand, fingers curled in a fist except for the last, her pinky finger extended into a hook. She looked up, her deep green eyes locking with Vanessa’s. “A solemn vow between best friends.”

  Vanessa saw a lifetime bond that went beyond friendship in her friend’s gaze. Adele was the sister she’d never had. They knew each other’s secrets, fears and dreams. They’d shared late night whispers, dried each other’s tears and laughed together more times than she could count. “You make it sound like this is my last chance to have a life.”

  “No, but maybe it’s a second chance. How many do you think we get? Just promise you’ll work hard to be happy...to fulfill our list.”

  Vanessa wrapped her pinky finger around her friend’s and dropped her forehead to rest against Adele’s as both squeezed tight and held on. “I promise.”

  Chapter One