A Bride for Liam Brand Read online

  Liam Brand is done with waiting.

  The time has come to finally claim his bride!

  Single mom Kate King is juggling a daughter with a disability, a bustling horse ranch and a disappointing ex. Finding room for romance is more than challenging. But Liam has loved Kate for decades, and it’s time to make his move. Getting to the altar, however, proves to be the easiest part of his plan. Convincing their families is another matter entirely.

  “Are you saying I’m part of some evil plan to get you back into the dating game?”

  A nod.

  “Callie doesn’t know, then, that you’ve already turned me down once before?” he asked in a lowered, private voice.

  “It’s not that I don’t like you, Liam.” Kate, usually so sure of herself, sounded off balance with an unsteady shake in her voice.

  “That’s good to know.”

  Liam acted on instinct instead of listening to his head. He reached out, took Kate’s face in his hands and kissed her on the lips.

  It was a short kiss—sweet, gentle, instead of romantic or sensual. But it was a kiss full of promise. It was a kiss that could be his future.

  “That’s good to know,” he said again. “Because I like you, Kate. A whole heck of a lot.”

  * * *

  THE BRANDS OF MONTANA: Wrangling their own happily-ever-afters

  Dear Reader!

  Thank you for choosing A Bride for Liam Brand, the tenth Special Edition book featuring the Brand family. A Bride for Liam Brand continues the saga of the Brand family of Sugar Creek Ranch, located just outside of picturesque Bozeman, Montana.

  A Bride for Liam Brand tells the story of large-animal veterinarian Liam Brand and horse trainer Kate King. Liam is a divorced father of two who is considered to be one of the most eligible bachelors of Bozeman. Mothers have been trying to snag Liam for their daughters for years, but Liam, already burned by marriage, is holding out for a once-in-a-lifetime love. When Liam reconnects with Kate, he realizes that the bride he has been dreaming of was right there in Bozeman all along.

  Single mother Kate King is the owner of Triple K Ranch, a horse training and breeding facility she inherited from her father. Between managing a Montana ranch and taking care of her eighteen-year-old daughter, Calico, who has Down syndrome, Kate has forgotten all about romance in her own life. But when Kate’s regular veterinarian takes ill and Dr. Brand comes out to the Triple K to treat one of her horses, the single mother begins to imagine what her life might be like if she were Liam Brand’s bride.

  I invite you to visit my website, joannasimsromance.com, and while you’re there, be sure to sign up for Rendezvous Magazine for Brand-family extras, news and swag. Part of the joy of writing is hearing from readers. If you write me, I will write you back! That’s a promise.

  Happy reading!

  Joanna

  A Bride for Liam Brand

  Joanna Sims

  Joanna Sims is proud to pen contemporary romance for Harlequin Special Edition. Joanna’s series, The Brands of Montana, features hardworking characters with hometown values. You are cordially invited to join the Brands of Montana as they wrangle their own happily-ever-afters. And, as always, Joanna welcomes you to visit her at her website: joannasimsromance.com.

  Books by Joanna Sims

  Harlequin Special Edition

  The Brands of Montana

  A Wedding to Remember

  Thankful for You

  Meet Me at the Chapel

  High Country Baby

  High Country Christmas

  A Match Made in Montana

  Marry Me, Mackenzie!

  The One He’s Been Looking For

  A Baby for Christmas

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

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

  Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards

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  Dedicated to my sister, Beth Elaine...

  Thank you for being one of my first editors and shaping the writer I have become.

  I love you.

  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

  Chapter Sixteen

  Excerpt from The Single Dad’s Family Recipe by Rachael Johns

  Chapter One

  “Mommy!”

  Callie’s scream caused Kate King to drop the heavy Western saddle she was carrying and run toward the sound of her daughter’s voice.

  “Mommy!”

  “Callie!” Kate ran down the wide, center aisle of her fifty-stall barn. “Callie!”

  The mother and daughter nearly collided when Kate rounded a corner at the end of the long, concrete aisle.

  “What’s wrong?” Kate put her hands on her daughter’s shoulders, giving her face and body a cursory check with her concerned eyes.

  Callie’s round face was flushed bright red and drenched with tears and sweat. Her daughter was eighteen-years-old, an adult by any standard, but Callie had been born with Down syndrome. Negative emotions, in particular, were difficult for Callie to process.

  “Take a minute.” Her daughter was gasping for air, struggling to speak. “Catch your breath.”

  Callie leaned forward a bit, closed her eyes, coughed several times and followed her mother’s instructions.

  “Visa...” Callie finally got the words out. “He’s hurt, Mommy!”

  Kate was, at first, relieved that her daughter wasn’t the one injured, but the last thing a horse owner wanted to hear was that one of the herd was injured. So, the relief she had originally felt was fleeting.

  “It’s okay, Callie.” Kate gave her daughter a steady look. “Let’s go see what’s going on with him.”

  It was just a fact of life that her daughter didn’t have many friends in their community; Bozeman, Montana, was a small town surrounded by ranches and uninhabited swaths of land. There simply weren’t any other young adults with a similar disability living close by—so every animal on their ranch was Callie’s friend. And she took it hard if any of her friends were injured or sick.

  Visa, whose registered name was Expense Account, was a rare member of their horse-breeding ranch. The majority of the horses on the Triple K Ranch were Quarter horses with excellent pedigrees. Visa, on the other hand, was a Dutch Warmblood and Hanoverian mix, and he was Callie’s favorite.

  Together, they walked quickly out to the pasture closest to the barn; each horse had its designated pasture and turnout time. Visa, who wasn’t the most assertive horse in the herd, was always turned out with the older, more experienced geldings.

  Kate spotted typically social and “in everyone’s business” Visa, standing alone and away from the herd. The owner of the Triple K, her brow furrowed with concern, unlatched the gate to the pasture.

  “Wait for me here, please, Callie.”

  “I—I want to help.” Her daughter said.

  “Callie.” Her tone brooked no argument. “This I need you to wait here, please.”

  Callie, in her own right, was a talented horsewoman; she had been raised working with these eleg
ant creatures and had been riding before she could walk. But, in this moment, Kate didn’t want the distraction of watching out for Callie while she tried to figure out what was going on with Visa.

  “Hi, good-looking boy,” Kate said as she approached Visa. She spoke in a calm soothing voice that she used with all of the horses.

  Visa was a beautiful russet-red with black legs and a black mane and tail. The horse, which typically greeted her with a friendly head bump, pinned back its ears at her, gnashed his teeth, and tossed his head aggressively. Visa loved to scratch his face by rubbing his head on her shoulder and arm; his unusual behavior served to underscore the fact that something was wrong.

  “Okay. Okay,” Kate said in a low, gentle voice, ignoring the pinned ears and his attempts to bite her while she began to take inventory of his physical state. The biggest red flag for her was the fact that he wasn’t putting weight on his right hind leg.

  “Why are you standing way out here all by yourself?” Kate ran her hand along the young horse’s muscular body. “That’s not like you.”

  Careful not to move in a way that would spook Visa, Kate kept her right hand on his haunch while she bent forward to get a closer look at the hind leg. There was a distinctive gash above Visa’s hoof it looked like a crescent, and she immediately suspected that the young gelding had got too nosey with one of the older horses and been kicked for his trouble.

  “Easy, Visa. Let me just take a quick look. Did you get kicked?” She ran her hand down the leg; the moment she got near the gash with her fingers, Visa lifted his leg to pull it away from her.

  Kate straightened her body, acid beginning to roil in her stomach. A leg injury in a horse was never good news.

  “Okay,” she said softly to Visa. “Let’s see you walk.”

  The horse trainer hooked her finger into the horse’s halter and clucked her tongue to get Visa to walk a step forward. The horse jerked his head, resisting at first, before he agreed to take a couple of steps forward. The second he tried to put weight on that right hind leg, Kate’s suspicions were confirmed: Visa was lame. She couldn’t know, without an X-ray, how bad the injury was. But there was an undisputable truth of horse ownership—no legs, no horse.

  Kate called out to her daughter to fetch her a lead rope. Red-faced and sweaty, Callie handed her the rope.

  “I-is he hurt b-bad?”

  “I’m not sure, kiddo. Let’s get him back to the barn and we’ll call Dr. McGee. Do me a favor. Go check Visa’s stall and make sure it’s been cleaned.”

  While her daughter rushed back into the barn, lead rope in hand, Kate headed back to Visa.

  “This is going to be hard, Visa. But we’ll do it together.” She clipped the lead rope to the horse’s halter and began the painstaking walk back to the barn.

  Along the way, the rest of the herd, curious creatures, tried to join them in their journey, but Kate shooed them away. One of Visa’s pasture mates had seriously injured him, that much she knew, but she couldn’t pinpoint which horse had done the damage.

  Callie hurriedly opened the gate so Visa could limp through.

  “I-is he going to b-be okay? He looks like he’s hurt b-bad.” Tears had returned to Callie’s brown eyes.

  “It might be a broken leg, Callie. I’m not sure.” Kate had always told her daughter the truth. “But I do know that we have to be strong for Visa. We have to be calm so he can stay calm. You have to try, okay?”

  “Okay,” Callie said as she shut the gate behind them. “I—I’ll try.”

  It took a long time to get the lame horse back to his stall; once he was settled, Kate asked Callie to get Visa a pad of hay to keep him occupied while she called her regular vet.

  “Oh, Kate,” Dr. McGee’s receptionist, Dawn, said, “I’m so sorry, but Dr. McGee is out with the flu—sick as a dog, poor man.”

  Kate shook her head in frustration. Dr. McGee had been her vet for years, and she simply didn’t trust anyone else with her horses.

  “It sounds like you need someone right away.” The receptionist filled in the silence. “I can refer you to Dr. Brand. I have his number right here if you’d like to have it.”

  Kate had gone to school with Liam Brand, starting in kindergarten. Yes, she grew up with him, and yes, she ran into him every now and again in town. But she had no idea what kind of veterinarian skills Liam Brand had. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in a position to question her own vet’s referral. Kate took the number, thanked the receptionist for her time and then immediately called Dr. Brand.

  * * *

  “He-llo.” Liam Brand tapped the green telephone symbol to answer the phone quickly so he could still keep his eyes on the road.

  “May I speak with Dr. Brand, please?”

  “You got ’im.”

  “Hi, Dr. Brand. This is Kate King.” The woman on the other end of the line paused for a second. “Triple K Ranch?”

  Large-animal veterinarian Liam Brand didn’t want to let on, but he didn’t need any additional qualifiers beyond Kate’s name to identify who she was. He was a little old to have a crush, he supposed, but she certainly had caught his interest when their paths had crossed from time to time in the small Montana town of Bozeman. They had known each other all their lives, but Kate wasn’t much on small talk with old acquaintances, so he typically admired her from afar.

  “How can I help you, Ms. King?”

  “Kate,” she corrected. “One of my horses turned up lame this morning. Dr. McGee is out sick today, as I’m sure you know by now. I really need someone to come out to the ranch and x-ray Visa’s leg. Would you be able to fit me into your schedule? I know it’s short notice, but I’d really appreciate it.”

  Liam already knew that he had back-to-back appointments—it was foaling season, so he was typically booked dawn until dusk.

  “I do know about Dr. McGee—I’ve been getting calls all day from his clients. I’m double booked.”

  “Dr. Brand.” Liam could hear the stress in her voice. “I know you’re swamped, but any help you can give me would really be appreciated. It doesn’t matter how late you get here.” She paused before she added, “Visa is Callie’s favorite horse.”

  The minute Kate mentioned her daughter, Callie, Liam felt that familiar tug on his heartstrings. He’d watched Callie grow over the years; for a while there, before the divorce, his son had attended the same school. She was a special little girl—always smiling, always laughing. If Kate was trying to sway him by mentioning her daughter, it had worked.

  After taking a couple of moments to make a decision, Dr. Brand finally said, “Here—let me pull over so I can figure this out.”

  “Okay. Thank you.”

  Liam pulled his mobile-vet truck onto the side of the road so he could take a closer look at his schedule. All of his clients were so far apart that driving time made his logjammed schedule even more complicated.

  “Let’s do this,” he finally offered. “I’ll come to the Triple K after my last appointment. I’ll warn you now—it’s gonna be late. After dark, for sure.”

  “That’s not a problem! Whenever you can get here!” Kate exclaimed in a way that made him smile a bit. “I can’t thank you enough, Dr. Brand. Truly. Thank you.”

  * * *

  As he had predicted, Dr. Liam Brand arrived at the Triple K Ranch after dark. For Kate and Callie, it had been a long day of waiting. When they heard Dr. Brand’s truck wheels making a crunching noise on their gravel driveway, both Kate and her daughter abandoned their mucking and jogged to the entrance of the barn to greet Dr. Brand.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t get here any sooner,” the large-animal vet told her.

  “We’re just so grateful that you could come.” Kate offered her hand. “I know you’ve already had a long day.”

  Liam Brand was over six feet tall with a slender physique of a man who took care of his health.
His hair, cut short, had turned a dark honey color over the years, which offset, in a very appealing way, the sky blue of his eyes and the golden color of his skin. He was wearing jeans, stained from a day on the job, with the logo of his vet clinic embroidered on the left chest of a light-blue cotton top.

  “Hello, Calico.” Dr. Brand took the time to acknowledge her daughter.

  Liam knew that her daughter’s nickname was Callie, but he had always used her formal, given name “Calico” whenever he spoke to her.

  Callie smiled shyly at Liam; Kate knew that look in her daughter’s large, brown eyes. The young woman developed crushes in the blink of an eye and Liam Brand, Kate observed, was Callie’s official new crush.

  “Hi,” Callie said, ducking her head to the side and gave an embarrassed laugh.

  “Let’s go see what’s going on with Visa,” Dr. Brand said after he lifted his rolling mobile-vet kit out of the back of his truck, which had been outfitted with everything a traveling large-animal vet would need to do his or her job.

  Dr. Brand wanted to see Visa walk on the concrete; the horse had taken only a few steps before the vet nodded. He asked that they put Visa in cross ties, and then, silently, methodically, with the seriousness Kate appreciated, the vet began his physical exam of the Hanoverian mix. After a thorough exam, Dr. Brand offered some possible diagnoses. The possible culprits for Visa’s lameness had all occurred to Kate as well—it could be laminitis, it could be a soft tissue injury, there was a possibility of an abscess in the hoof. But the last possibility that Dr. Brand mentioned, a fracture of the short pastern bone, the bone right above the hoof, was the diagnosis Kate feared the most. Most equine ailments could be healed with the right care and the right perseverance. A fracture? That was a whole different ball of wax. Kate didn’t hesitate to agree to get Visa x-rayed.

  Kate and Callie stood by Visa’s head, offering him encouraging words as the vet set up the portable X-ray machine. If she had wondered about Liam’s ability as a veterinarian, watching him now dispelled all of those notions. No, he wasn’t as experienced as Dr. McGee, but he was thorough, deliberate and spoke as if he had memorized every textbook he read. While he worked, Liam discussed the recent literature and findings from current research. There wasn’t a question she asked him that he didn’t answer with the breadth and depth of a man who knew his business. When Liam had as many years of practice under his belt as Dr. McGee, he was going to be a top-notch veterinarian.