The Birthday Fantasy

©2013 by Sara F. (Walter) Ellwood

Amazon Edition

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Cover Art
:

Stock photography:
purchased from
iStockphoto

Copyright:
photo of couple © 07-06-10 by Gevorg Gevorgyan, photo of lake/chair © 09-13-10 by Elena Elisseeva

Cover design:
Sara Walter Ellwood and Margery Scott

To My First Fans

Thank You!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Other Works

About Sara

“
Have you lost your ever-loving mind?” Tate Dawson stared at his boss.

Hank Raines sharpened his gaze and cut through Tate
in a no-bullshit sort of way. He placed his hands on his hips and he tapped a scuffed cowboy boot on the hardwood floor of Tate’s small living room. “Do I look like a crazy SOB?”

Tate
kept his opinion to himself, but couldn’t keep his trap shut. He had to repeat the proposition Hank had dropped on him. “You want me to
kidnap
your daughter?”

“I wouldn’t call it kidnapping. Call it taking her on a vacation
.”

Dear God, the man was serious.
“Against her will and knowledge? Sounds like kidnapping to me.”

Hank pursed his lips and pulled on his deep auburn handlebar mustache. “Particulars.
You know as well as I do that city slicker Jefferson ain’t the man she needs in her life.”

Yeah, Tate knew that, but he wasn
’t sure he was the man either. He stood from the couch and paced in front of the flat screen TV sitting on an old entertainment center between the windows. He rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. “Hank, I know you think I’m right for Jamie, but I’m about as wrong for her as Jefferson is.”

“
I don’t buy that for a minute. I don’t know what happened and honestly, I don’t care. She loved you, and I know damned well you loved her.” Hank stepped closer and put a tanned hand on Tate’s shoulder and gave a squeeze. The man had the strongest grip of anyone he knew. “Tate, I’ve considered you a son since the day you wandered on this spread fifteen years ago. You’re a hard worker and I…” Hank shrugged, dropped his hand and turned away to rub his work hardened hand over his face. He shook his head as if that would make what he was going to say easier. “Damn. I’ve always… Double damn. You know… I’ve always hoped you and Jamie would get together. You’re perfect for each other and for the ranch. You both love this place as much as I do.”

Tate swallowed and couldn
’t fight the feeling of hope that bloomed in his chest. He and Jamie had been friends since he’d come to the Raines Land Ranch looking for work when he was only twenty. He’d lost his last three rodeos and hadn’t had two dimes to rub together. Hank took a chance and offered him a job as a ranch hand. Fifteen years later, he was now the foreman of the place and Hank’s right hand man.

He remembered Jamie as the sweet faced ten-
year-old he’d met his first day on the job. She’d showed up at the barn to help with feed the horses. They’d shared a lot of laughter over the next eight years. And he’d provided a shoulder to cry on when an unpopular teenage Jamie had come to him with her frustrations with being bullied. Their friendship eventually turned into something a lot more by the time she turned eighteen, but Tate smothered the flames and had lived to regret it every day since.

As he met his friend
’s deep blue eyes, he knew he couldn’t let this chance go by. When he’d discovered not only had Jamie moved on and found another man, but had agreed to marry him after only a few months of dating, Tate had been devastated. What could he do? He had nothing to offer her. Although he had some savings, they weren’t much. He couldn’t even claim his house. It was provided to him by Hank as a privilege of being the foreman. She would have the ranch, but all he had was his loyalty to her family and his love.

“
Okay,” he was surprised to hear himself say. “I’ll do it.”

When had he decided to go along with Hank’s idea?

Hank smiled so big it lit up his leathery, tanned face. “About damned time you see common sense.” He pulled an envelope out of shirt pocket and handed it to Tate. “Here. This is a reservation to the fancy lake resort up in Colorado that belongs to my wife’s family. I haven’t been there in years, but I know it’s a real nice place.”

Tate stared
at the deep rose envelope with gold filigree print on it. Fantasy Lake Resort. He could only imagine what kind of place would carry a name like that. “Let me get this straight.” He narrowed his eyes at his boss and the father of the young woman whom he was telling him to kidnap. “You’re giving me
permission
to seduce your only daughter?”

Hank threw up his hands and turned around.
“Jesus!” He faced Tate again and swallowed hard enough to make his Adam’s apple bob up and down. “Yes, I am. I don’t have a lot of time left in this world and the last thing I want is that weasel Jefferson anywhere near this land. He may be a rich big city businessman, who claims to want nothing to do with Raines Land, but I know what he sees. This spread is close enough to Fort Worth to be a profitable development. And I know if he was honest with Jamie that would be the very last thing she’d want. She loves the land. This is the best birthday gift I could ever give my baby girl, Tate. I’m preventing her from making the biggest mistake of her life.”

****

The morning of the twenty-eighth of August promised to be beautiful day. Jamie Raines peered out her bedroom window at the sun rising above the expanse of pasture behind the house, but all she could think about was in two weeks she’d be moving into a penthouse apartment in a Dallas high rise--permanently. Instead of horses or cattle munching on the tall green grass, all she’d see would be other buildings and vehicles on the streets below lined up like ants. And nothing but people everywhere.

God, she hated the city. Just the thought of moving made her skin itch, but Robbie
couldn’t conduct his real estate development business from a ranch a hundred miles away. She glanced at her phone on the bedside table. Why hadn’t he called her? He promised to call her before he went to his meeting today. He’d probably forgotten her birthday.

Her
gaze fell on her wedding dress hanging on the back of the closet door. The dress wasn’t anything like she’d dreamed her wedding dress would look like. She’d always wanted something simple, never something too frilly for even Cinderella. But her soon-to-be mother-in-law had insisted on helping her pick the gown, and it felt all wrong.

Just like today. She turned twenty-five
, but instead of rejoicing her life turned out exactly the way she’d always dreamed, sqhe was shut in her room moping. She’d accomplished so much in her life, and yet she felt like she hadn’t done anything. Her degree was in ranch management, but instead of working on a ranch, she worked part time as an editor for a Dallas magazine. Her dream has always been to take over Raines Land someday and raise a big family, but now that probably wasn’t going to happen. Robbie didn’t want kids, and although the land would be hers, she wouldn’t be the one running the day-to-day operation.

No doubt that would fall on the very capable shoulders of Tate Dawson
--the man who’d once told her he’d like to have at least three kids.

Oh, why had she had to think about him? She closed her eyes and tried to stop the memories of the summer
before she’d gone off to college. They’d spent the hot days working together, but the nights were even hotter as their friendship turned into a passion of which either of them could get enough. When she’d thought they had something that would last, he broke it off two days before she’d left for Texas Tech. He’d claimed the problem was their age difference and he hadn’t wanted to prevent her from finding someone in college with whom she’d have more in common. Like Robbie Jefferson and she had a whole hell of a lot in common.

She stood and headed for the shower.
No use fantasizing about what couldn’t happen. Time to get the day going.

As she returned to her room
, patting her long hair dry, her iPhone began playing Garth Brooks’
Ain’t Going Down Until the Sun Comes Up.
She tossed the towel on the bed and picked up the phone from the bedside table. Robbie would get an earful if he thought she was happy about his not calling before now. “You better have a good explanation for not calling me at sunrise.”

“
Who replaced your sugar with vinegar this morning, princess?”

“
Tate?” Crap! She glanced at the phone as if it could explain why the voice on the other side didn’t belong to her fiancé. How long ago had it been since she’d talked to Tate? Three months or more?

“
Who else still calls you princess?” She heard the smile in his voice. “Sorry to surprise you. I take it you were expecting someone else?”

“
Not at all. What do you want?” She didn’t care she let her crummy mood filter through. But Tate Dawson was the last person she needed to know some things weren’t as rosy in her rose garden as she pretended them to be where Robbie Jefferson was concerned.

“
Hell, Jamie, I’m only calling to wish you a happy birthday. I wasn’t expecting to have my head bitten off.”

“
I’m sorry, Tate.” She sighed and looked at the white designer gown. Was her mood really coming from not hearing from Robbie this morning? “I guess--”
I feel trapped.
“I’m just not very happy with the idea of turning twenty-five.”