He needs a miracle...
A favorite to win at this year’s rodeo championship, Montana cowboy Toly Clayton should be flying high. Instead, he’s been handed the worst kind of Christmas gift—a diagnosis that could spell an early end to his rodeo career. Hiding his secret proves harder than Toly thinks...especially from stunningly sexy barrel racer Nikki Dobson.
The twin sister of Toly’s emotionally unpredictable roping partner, Nikki is completely and totally off-limits. Yet attraction still simmers, and the line between “friends” and “more than friends” is fading fast. With secrets piling up around him, Toly’s career, friendships and even his heart are on the line. But sometimes it takes a champion cowboy to wrangle one heck of a Christmas miracle.
She had been secretly waiting for this moment for a long time...
Nikki had never been this close to Toly’s rock-hard physique. They were both tall, and they fit together as if they were made for each other.
Toly smelled wonderful. Nikki loved the feel of his hard jaw against her cheek. It sent darts of awareness through her body. The temptation to turn her head and kiss his compelling mouth was killing her. Toly didn’t let her go and she could have stayed in his arms all night.
“If you hadn’t been involved with someone else, we could have relaxed like this before an event long before now,” he whispered into her hair.
Her heart jumped to think he might have been thinking about her on a more intimate level over the last few months, too. Still, he’d never let her know. They were all friends and she knew Toly kept his cards close to the chest.
But with the way she was feeling right now, he had to know she didn’t want to be anywhere else...
Roping Her Christmas Cowboy
Rebecca Winters
Rebecca Winterswhose family of four children has now swelled to include five beautiful grandchildren, lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the land of the Rocky Mountains. Living near canyons and high alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore. They, plus her favorite vacation spots in Europe, often end up as backgrounds for her romance novels, because writing is her passion, along with her family and church.
Rebecca loves to hear from readers. If you wish to email her, please visit her website, www.cleanromances.com.
To the continual existence of the rodeo, a tradition of the American West that’s part of our DNA. May it grow and flourish through the centuries to thrill young and old alike, as we watch exceptionally gifted men and women working with their magnificent horses in a symphony of unparalleled harmony.
Contents
“Come in my office and sit down, Mr. Clayton.”
“Thanks, Dr. Moore.” Toly Clayton had driven the half hour to Missoula from the Clayton Cattle Ranch outside Stevensville, Montana, for an appointment with a neurosurgeon. He’d just undergone an electromyograph to get to the bottom of the numbness that had attacked his lower right forearm and hand.
“The needle I inserted in your arm muscle recorded electrical activity when it was at rest and when it was contracted. The procedure helped me determine that you have a nerve, not a muscle disorder. How long did you say you’ve been team roping?”
“I’ve done that and tie-down roping since my early teens.”
“That would explain the numbness that has come on. The constant strain over the years from roping has caused the nerves to be partially compressed or stretched. You say it has happened twice in practice?”
“Yes. Once in October, and again a few days ago. It was frightening to experience that loss of feeling. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was enough to prevent me from throwing the rope with any accuracy.”
“Did you feel sharp pains or discomfort in your forearm just before the onset?”
“No. That’s what worries me. Both times when it happened, I had no warning.”
“You told me in the examining room that you’ve had no sign of this affecting your feet or legs.”
“None. Does that mean I can expect that to happen too? What’s wrong with me?”
“You have a very mild form of peripheral Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a slow growing motor sensory neuropathy. It’s inherited through a gene carried down in the family. Do you know if you’ve ever had it in yours?”
“Not