Texas Bossa Nova (Texas Montgomery Mavericks Book 5)

He plans to take the wander right out of her wanderlust.

Texas Montgomery Mavericks, Book 5

Magda Hobbs’s job as ranch housekeeper—and its daily dose of cowboys—wreaked havoc on her libido. Especially one certain cowboy she couldn’t resist. Scared of going down the same path as her mother, Magda jumped on her motorcycle and hit the road.

Five months later, her father’s mild heart attack has forced her back to Whispering Springs. While she’s grateful for the cleaning job at one of the Montgomery ranch houses, she’s not so thrilled one of the cowboys she’s looking after is the one she fell for last spring.

Reno Montgomery’s parents hiring a housekeeper for him and his brother is a nice surprise, but he’s shocked to discover it’s Magda, the woman who up and left just when things were getting serious between them.

When a freak snowstorm cuts off the outside world, the isolation rekindles their desire. But when the weather and the roads clear, Reno has to work hard and fast to keep the woman of his dreams from accelerating right out of his life again.

Warning: Contains a woman born with a bad case of wanderlust, and a cowboy determined to show her that life’s a dance that doesn’t have to two-step her out of his life.

Texas Bossa Nova

Cynthia D’Alba

Dedication

As usual, I’m in debt to Sandi Jones for her awesome critiques for this story. Thanks for being such a fantastic crit partner. To Tina Marie Reiter, Paula Farrell and Delene Yochum, thanks for being very special members of D’Alba Diamonds, my street team, and for doing beta reads for this book. A special thank you to Delene Yochum for handling all the street team duties while I recovered from surgery.

As always, my editor Heidi Moore rocks. Thank you for all your hard work on this book and your patience. You made Magda and Reno’s story much stronger.

To my husband. Thanks, honey, for your love and support. I couldn’t do this without you.

Chapter One

Icy rain splattered the helmet shield and rolled off the rider’s rain suit. No matter how many layers a motorcycle rider had on, riding in wet weather when the temperature was just above freezing was miserable, or at least it was in Magda Hobbs’s opinion. And since it was her ass on the Harley-Davidson Fat Boy tonight, she figured her opinion was the only one that counted.

Of course, she’d done all the right layering to stay warm, including shoving today’s newspaper down the front of her jacket as a wind barrier, but her glove-covered hands and fingers still felt a little stiff from the low temperature. If she’d had time, a heat pack in each glove would have solved that issue, but two hours ago she’d been at her latest crappy job—Santa’s elf helper—when the call had come in about her father. Mild heart attack, Mitch Landry had told her. There was nothing mild about a heart attack.

She’d quit her job on the spot—no loss really—packed everything she owned into her saddlebags and top box and taken off for Texas. In the five months since she’d left Whispering Springs, Texas, she’d worked her way across Arkansas, taking one dead-end job after another. Dish washer. Hotel maid. Store clerk. Any job that paid weekly and didn’t require a long-term commitment. She never stayed longer than a month anywhere she stopped. She’d hit Memphis in the middle of December, found a cheap, furnished room, and taken the job as Santa’s helper, which wouldn’t have been a bad job if Santa hadn’t been a sexist drunk who couldn’t keep his hands off her ass.

It was after ten o’clock at night when she passed over the Memphis Bridge into Arkansas. Ahead of her was an eight-hour ride, which any biker knew was insane. That was too far and too long of a ride in one stretch, but if her dad died before she got there, she’d never forgive herself. Zeb Hobbs was the only family she had.

Zeb hadn’t known he had a daughter. It’d taken California social services three years to notify him about Magda, and another two years for him to find her. She’d been nineteen when Zeb had rescued her off the streets where she’d been living after running away from her last foster home. He’d pretty much saved her life.

And how had she repaid him? By leaving. Not immediately. She’d hung around for four years, but then she’d seen herself headed down the same road as her mother, and she couldn’t face that.

Her mother had loved her. Magda had no doubt about that. However, as the only child of a single parent who’d barely finished high school, their lives had consisted of one crappy apartment after another as her mother had tried to make ends meet with a series of minimum-wage jobs. Her mother spent her short life waiting for her knight in shining armor to come sweep her off her feet and give them a perfect life.

When Magda’s mother died, leaving her alone at age twelve, she’d promised herself she wouldn’t become her mother. She wouldn’t make the same mistakes.

Magda was stronger than her mother. She didn’t need a man to complete her, a man to give her life purpose. She’d known her biological father was a cowboy, so dating a cowboy had gone straight to the top of her never-do list. And yet, somehow, a cowboy had penetrated her heart. That had been a mistake on her part.

She’d needed to put some distance between her and her cowboy, so she’d quit her job and left. Between the multiple moves with her mother, the numerous foster homes and her two years making it on the streets, Magda was sure she wasn’t meant to stay in one place very long. She never intended to go back once she’d moved on. Except for tonight. Tonight she was headed back to Whispering Springs to check on her dad.

On the outskirts of Little Rock, she stopped long enough to buy a couple of hand warmers and slug down a cup of hot but nasty black coffee, and got back on the road. At this pace, she should be in her father’s hospital room by morning.

At six a.m., she rode into Whispering Springs. Exhausted. Shivering cold. Starving. Ass aching. Legs throbbing. But she’d made it. Part of her was scared to walk into the small community hospital. What if he’d already died?

She found a spot in hospital parking, grabbed her saddle bags and backpack and headed for the front door. Even though it was early, the doors had been unlocked for the day so she had no trouble gaining access. Her bladder demanded immediate attention before she went anywhere else. Luckily, there was a women’s restroom adjacent to the lobby.

After she’d finished her business and was washing her hands, she chanced a glance into the mirror and drew back. Her dark hair, not one of her better features on a good day, was plastered to her scalp. Her face wore the pallor of the recently deceased. The combination of wind and her constant licking had made her lips chapped and cracked.

She washed her face with warm water, which helped get some blood flow and a little color to her cheeks. Accepting the fact that she could do nothing about her helmet hair, she collected her belongings and went to find an elevator and the cardiac unit. Mitch had told her Zeb was in room forty-one-eleven.

The elevator doors pinged open on the fourth floor and Magda stepped out. The halls were still quiet. Too early for the day staff to be arriving and too late for the night staff to be hustling about.

She found Zeb’s room without difficulty and without running into anyone. Reading his name on the door’s tag sent her heart into machine gun-fire rate again. But his name was here, so he had to have made it through the night.

Easing open the door, she slipped her head around the edge. And there he was. His eyes were shut. His mouth hung open as a snore bounced off the walls, which made her smile. But he was pale. It could be the white hospital sheets or the moonlight on his face, but she was used to seeing Zeb on a horse, a cowboy hat on his head as he shouted orders to the other ranch hands. This Zeb looked frail, old even.

She let herself in and shut the door quietly behind her. He didn’t stir. After dropping her bags in the corner, she made her way to the side of his bed.

“I’m so sorry, Dad,” she whispered. “I should have been here.”

“Damn. I must be worse than they told me.” Zeb opened his eyes and gave her a weak smile. “Since when do you call me anything other than Zeb?”

Magda had jumped when he first spoke. Now, even though her heart was skittering around her chest, she laughed.

“Hey, old man. This a trick to get me back here?” She kept her tone light and teasing.

“It’s not, but if I’d known it’d work this well, I’d have done it months ago.”

She reached through the bedside rails and took his hand. “You scared the shit out of me.”

He squeezed her fingers. “Scared you? Ha. Nothing scares you.”

“This did.” Her eyes began to sting with building tears. “Don’t do it again,” she warned.

He chuckled. “I’m not going to die, at least not right now.”

A nurse’s aide entered. “I need to take Mr. Hobbs’s vitals,” she said, pulling the portable blood-pressure machine to the side of the bed.

Magda released Zeb’s hand and stood quietly as the aide did her work. After a few minutes, the aide left and they were alone again.

“You look exhausted,” Zeb said. “Why don’t you sit down?”

Magda replied with a small laugh. “I can’t. My ass is still vibrating from the ride here.”

He shook his head. “The weather was too bad for you to have ridden all night,” he chided. “You should have waited until the morning.”

“I was fine.” Her standard defenses rose. “I’m used to being on the road.”

“Yeah, well, it’s time to finish that nonsense and come home.”

Home. The word stirred the butterflies in her gut. Whispering Springs, Texas, had been home for more than four years, the longest she’d ever lived anywhere since her mother’s death. She missed it, missed her friends, her old job. She even missed seeing a cowboy or two every day.

“I’m back,” she said. “At least until you’re better.”

“You don’t have to nurse me back to health,” he said. “I’ll be fine. But I won’t argue with you about coming home.”

“Can I stay at your place until I land somewhere?”

“Of course. As long as you need. You still have a key?”

She nodded.

“Then make yourself at home. I—”

A knock at the door interrupted whatever he was going to say. Mitch Landry, her old boss and Zeb’s current boss, pushed his head through the door.

“You up?”

“C’mon in,” Zeb said. “It’s a regular party this morning.”

Mitch and Olivia Landry entered the hospital room.

“Thought we’d check on you before church,” Mitch said and then he seemed to notice Magda. “Morning, sunshine.”

Olivia’s face lit up and she hurried around the bed to grab Magda in a tight bear hug. “It’s so good to see you. I’ve missed you so much.” She pulled back to look into Magda’s eyes. “But not as much as Adam. He misses you a lot.”

Magda smiled. “I know. He calls me all the time. Thank you for programming in my cell phone number. I love getting his calls.”

Olivia put her arm around Magda’s waist. “When did you get back? Are you here to stay?”

“Got in this morning. I’ll be here as long as Zeb needs me.”

“Well, then,” Zeb said, “I guess you’re back for good, because I’ll always want my kid near me.”

“Where are you staying? Do you want to stay at our house?” Olivia asked.

“You’d sure be welcome,” Mitch said.

“Thanks, but I’ll head to Zeb’s house.” Magda started to ask about her old job but decided at the last minute that this wasn’t the time or place.

“Plan on Christmas Eve with us,” Olivia said. “It’s our year to host, so the entire Montgomery clan is headed to our house this year.”

“That’ll be a madhouse,” Magda said, thinking of all the marriages and babies that’d come along in the last couple of years.

“No kidding. But you’ll come, right?” Olivia said with a squeeze on Magda’s waist.

“Thank you for the invitation. I’ll come as long as Zeb doesn’t need me.” She looked down at her father. “Will you be home by then?”

“Don’t know. Have to ask the doctor when he comes by today, but it doesn’t matter if I am. Like I told you, you don’t have to babysit me.”

“We’ll take it a day at a time,” Mitch said. “If you can come, Magda, we would all love to see you.”

Maybe most of the Montgomery clan would be glad to see her, but one particular Montgomery male might wish she’d just stayed gone.

“I’ll come, even if it’s only for a few minutes. I need to see your kids.”

“Adam will be so happy. You’re going to be shocked at how much Eliza Grace has grown since you last saw her.” Olivia looked across the bed at her husband. “Let’s not tell Adam that Magda’s here. We’ll keep her as a Christmas surprise for him. Heaven knows, he’s rattled and snooped through all of his presents under the tree.”

Mitch laughed. “We’ll tell him that Santa dropped you off,” he said to Magda.

“Seeing as how my last job was Santa’s elf helper, that’ll work.”

Olivia broke out in a laugh. “Oh my God. What a horrible job.”

“You have no idea.”

“You’ll have to tell me all about it tomorrow night.”

“We need to go if we don’t want to be late for the early service,” Mitch said, looking at his watch. “Get better, Zeb. We need you back.” He held out his hand.

Zeb shook it. “Be back before you know it.”

Olivia leaned over the bedrail and kissed his cheek. “We
all
miss you. See you soon.”

The responding smile and slight flush to Zeb’s cheeks made Magda wonder what she’d missed in the conversation that made Zeb blush. But then Zeb didn’t blush, so it was probably just her imagination.

After the Landrys left, she rolled the room’s recliner closer to the bed. She settled into it with a fatigued sigh.

“Why don’t you go on to the house?” Zeb said. “There’s clean sheets on the guest bed.”

“I’ll wait for the doctor and then I’ll go.” She frowned. “Clean sheets on the guest bed? Since when are there any sheets on that bed, much less clean ones?”

He chuckled. “So I’ve changed. Lean back. I’ll wake you up when the doctor gets here.”

She flipped the lever on the side and lowered the back until she was almost supine. Her muscles groaned and popped as she stretched her arms over her head and rolled side-to-side. The only sounds in the room were the nursing staff in the hall and the pinging of ice on the window. The ride to her father’s house would be difficult on slick roads, but she’d take it easy.

“Good morning, Mr. Hobbs. How are you feeling today?”

The booming male voice startled Magda awake and she quickly popped into an upright position. A white-coated older man stood on the far side of the bed.

“Good morning,” he said to Magda.

“Morning,” she muttered.

“I’m Dr. Myles. I’m a cardiologist. Dr. Montgomery asked me to take a look at you, Mr. Hobbs.”

“What’d ya find?” Zeb asked.

“I’m sure they told you last night that your cardiac enzymes were elevated, which is indicative of a heart attack. But I’d like to do some additional tests to ascertain the extent of the damage.”

The doctor’s words sent fear sliding through Magda’s system, but Zeb seemed to be taking it all in stride.

He nodded. “That’s fine. Do what you need to. I’m not ready to meet my maker just yet.”

Dr. Myles smiled. “We’ll be doing an echocardiogram this morning. That’s just a fancy name for an ultrasound of your heart. I’ve asked the nurses to schedule you for a cardiac catheterization this afternoon.”

The doctor explained how the cath would be done, what they’d be looking for and the potential for Zeb to have stents put in if any blockages were found. The words were like Greek to Magda, but she trusted Dr. Caroline Graham-Montgomery, Zeb’s admitting doctor. If Caroline thought this guy was the best cardiologist for Zeb, then Magda did too.

After the doctor left, Zeb once again started on Magda to leave and get some sleep. “Besides,” he added, “the weather forecast is not great. You need to get off that damn bike. Go home and get some rest. If you want to come back, drive my truck.”

She stopped by the nurses’ station on her way out and spoke with the nurse in charge of Zeb’s care, who promised to call Magda if there were any changes in his condition.