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      Dear Reader,

      Welcome back to Crystal Creek! In the heart of Texas Hill Country, the McKinneys have been ranching, living and loving for generations, but the future promises changes none of these good folks could ever imagine!

      Crystal Creek itself is the product of many imaginations, but the stories began to take shape when some of your favorite authors— Barbara Kaye, Margot Dalton, Bethany Campbell, Cara West, Kathy Clark and Sharon Brondos—all got together with me just outside of Austin to explore the Hill Country, and to dream up the kinds of romances such a setting would provide. For several days, we roamed the countryside, where generous Texans opened their historic homes to us, and gave us insights into their lives. We ate barbecue, we visited an ostrich farm and we mapped out our plans to give you the linked stories you love, with a true Texas flavor and all the elements you’ve come to expect in your romance reading: compelling, contemporary characters caught in conflicts that reflect today’s dilemmas.

      Margot Dalton takes us next door to the Double C in Even the Nights are Better, where Carolyn Townsend, J. T. McKinney’s sister-in-law and neighbor, certainly has her hands full. What with an unwelcome business venture opening right under her nose, a health crisis throwing all the McKinneys into a tizzy and a wounded puppy fighting for survival in her barn, romantic advances are the last thing on her mind. Being confronted with a lifelong ardor she hadn’t ever known existed is more than she can cope with right now!

      And next month, you’ll want to attend the opening of the Hole in the Wall Dude Ranch with all of us. Everyone who’s anyone in Crystal Creek will be there. And owner Scott Harris’s wandering brother Jeff—who can give Cal McKinney a run for his money in the charm department—is bound to show up sooner or later!

      C’mon down to Crystal Creek—home of sultry Texas drawls, smooth Texas charm and tall, sexy Texans!

      Marsha Zinberg

       Executive Editor

       Crystal Creek

      A Note from the Author

      Even the Nights Are Better begins in the spring, and I soon realized that no matter how hard I tried, I just wasn’t going to be able to describe the true miracle of April in Texas Hill Country. It’s not only the green hills rolling off into the misty distance, the incredible blue of the sky and the miles and miles of wildflowers. There’s something even more magical in the air, something that goes far beyond words. I just hope that someday, everyone will have a chance to visit Texas in the spring and see it for themselves.

      Margot Dalton

      Cast of Characters

      AT THE DOUBLE C RANCH

John Travis (J.T.)McKinneyCynthia PageMcKinneyTyler McKinney	Rancher, owner of the Double C, his family’s ranch. A man who knows his own mind. J.T.’s wife. An ex-Bostonian bank executive learning to do things the Texas way. J.T.’s eldest son, a graduate of Rice University. Now he wants to grow grapes in his daddy’s pasture.
Cal McKinney	J.T.’s second son, an irresistible and irrepressible rodeo cowboy.
Serena Davis	The bootmaker who turned Cal’s head.
Lynn McKinney	J.T.’s only daughter. She bucks the trend by raising Thoroughbreds in quarter-horse country.
Hank Travis	J.T.’s ancient grandfather. Old Hank has seen and done it all.
Ruth Holden	Californian vintner, daughter of Dan Holden, J.T.’s old army buddy. Ruth is visiting the Double C to help Tyler plan his vineyard.
Lettie Mae Reese Virginia Parks Ken Slattery	Cook.Housekeeper.Foreman at the Double C.		Together they know all the household secrets.

      AT THE CIRCLE T RANCH

      AT THE LONGHORN

      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 ONE

      RAIN FELL over the hills of Central Texas during the night, carried by gray brooding clouds that had rolled in with the twilight and massed along the darkening skyline as soft and dense as piles of wood ash.

      But it wasn’t one of the torrential downpours that often lash the Hill Country in the spring, dropping two or three inches onto green wooded hillsides and gravelly creek beds in the space of a few hours.

      This was a gentle sweet spring rain, pattering and rustling in the new green leaves, dancing on the silvered surface of the river, whispering through gullies and shallow draws in the midnight blackness. The moisture flowed like a blessing across the hills and valleys, and by dawn the world was made new, washed clean and bright as a freshly minted coin.

      Just as the rain ended, a silver-gray Camaro came skimming along a country road in the early-morning freshness, its sleek sculptured sides catching and reflecting the rising sun’s dazzling rays that broke into rainbows among the silent dripping trees.

      This vehicle belonged to Vernon Trent and was his one wry, half-joking concession to longing for vanished youth. On this glorious spring morning, Vernon Trent had just passed his forty-fifth birthday and was, on the whole, comfortable with himself and his life. He liked the maturity and

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