Hydroplaning had always sounded like a thrilling activity. Like parasailing. Or kite surfing. Or hang gliding. And there was nothing Sunshine Brook Whitlock loved more than a good thrill. She enjoyed walking on the wild side and was up for almost anything: cliff jumping, skydiving, and swimming with sharks. The more daredevil, the more she wanted to try it.

But as her Subaru spun out of control on the icy rain-slick highway, Sunny didn’t feel the adrenaline rush of excitement that came with those other thrill-seeking pursuits. She felt the terrifying reality that these could be her last few seconds on the planet Earth.

And seconds weren’t nearly enough time to make up for twenty-four years of orneriness.

She might look like the perfect little ray of sunshine, but beneath her sweet smile and innocent brown eyes was a devious devil who had completely hoodwinked her two brothers . . . and everyone else. Mischievous activities drew her like a bee to honey. Over the years, she had become an expert at not getting caught. But now the jig was up and she’d have to face the heavenly jury. With her record, there was no way she was getting past those pearly white gates.

Which meant she was headed straight to—

“Hell!” she yelled as her car careened off the highway. A second later, it slammed into a fence post with a jarring impact that had her body jerking forward.

This was it. She was about to pay for her deception and impulsive, irresponsible behavior. Unfortunately, her brothers would have to pay too. Corbin, who had loved and spoiled her all her life. And Jesse, who loved her just as much, even though they had met only a few months earlier. They would both be devastated by her untimely death. That upset her even more than spending the rest of her days as a deep-fried spicy chicken wing.

But just as she resigned herself to The End of her life story, her seatbelt tightened and the airbag deployed, keeping her from flying through the rain-splattered windshield. She sat there for a stunned moment with her lungs pumping and her heart thumping before she glanced out at the miles of cattle-grazing pasture capped by stormy gray skies.

“I’m alive!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “I’m alive!” She looked up at the roof of her car. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I promise to do better and not be so impulsive or ir—”

“Sunshine Whitlock.”

She startled at the authoritative female voice that echoed through the interior of her car. She swallowed hard. Obviously, God wasn’t buying her oath. While she quaked with reverent fear, she also felt vindicated.

She’d always suspected God was a woman.

“This is vehicle assistance,” the voice said.

Or maybe not.

“We were notified that your airbags deployed. Are you okay?”

“Oh!” She laughed with relief. “Yes, I’m fine, but you might want to send—” Before she could finish there was a frantic tapping on her side window. She turned to see a completely drenched and hysterical teenage girl.

“Oh my God!” Sophie Mitchell’s muffled voice came through the glass. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry. I only glanced at my phone for a second. Just a second. I didn’t mean to swerve into your lane. I’m so sorry . . . so, so sorry.” She covered her face with her hands and started sobbing.

Sunny quickly rolled down the window. “Hey, now. I’m fine, honey. Just fine. Are you okay?”

Sophie lowered her hands. The few times Sunny had been around the teenager, she’d noticed Sophie had a heavy hand with makeup. Between the rain and crying, most of that makeup was dripping down her face. Which made Sunny want to hand her a tissue . . . and give her a quick tutorial on makeup application.

“I’m okay,” Sophie sniffed. “But I won’t be for long. My uncle is going to kill me. Kill me!”

Just the mention of Sophie’s uncle had an image popping into Sunny’s head. An image of a man with hair the exact color of the onyx necklace she hadn’t been about to resist buying when she’d been living in Paris and intense eyes the deep amber of expensive French champagne. Those features were accompanied by a movie star handsome face and a hard, muscled body that would send any woman racing for her vibrator. Sunny had gone through numerous AA batteries fantasizing about Sophie’s uncle.

Of course, in her fantasies, he was nice.

In real life, he was a grumpy bumpkin.

“Ms. Whitlock?” The vehicle assistance woman cut into Sunny’s thoughts. “Do we need to send emergency assistance?”

Since the front of her car was wrapped around a fence post and the engine made a strange grinding sound, emergency assistance was definitely needed. But before she could speak, she glanced at Sophie and saw the pleading look in her amber eyes.

It was hard not to sympathize with the girl. Sunny didn’t know the full story of why Sophie was living with her grumpy uncle, but she did know what it felt like to be dumped on some relative who didn’t really want you. She and Corbin had been dumped more times than she could count, which explained all her mischievous behavior. She’d needed an outlet for her hurt and anger.

She couldn’t blame Sophie for needing the same.

She gave her an encouraging smile as she answered the vehicle assistance operator.

“No need to send help. It’s just a little fender bender­­­­­­—something I can turn in

to my insurance. You don’t need to call 911.” Especially when Sheriff Decker Carson was a friend of Corbin’s. While Corbin was a loving brother, he had a tendency to overreact. He would not be happy Sunny had driven from Houston to Wilder in an ice storm and gotten into an accident. Especially when he had informed her of the impending storm and told her not to come until the following day.

But some things were worth braving a storm.

Like loyalty to the Sisterhood.

Tonight, the Holiday Secret Sisterhood was having a meeting and Sunny had spent her entire life wanting a sister. After Corbin and Jesse had married the Holiday twins, Sunny now had six. Six sisters to drink Mimi’s homemade elderberry wine with and skinny-dip at Cooper Springs with and confide her deepest, darkest secrets to. Not that she had confided her deepest, darkest secrets yet. But she hoped to. She hoped sisters would understand her much better than her brothers did.

“Let us know if you do need help,” the operator said.

“Will do!” Once she hung up, Sunny turned to Sophie. “Get in out of the rain while I call roadside assistance.”

Sophie sat in the passenger seat and shivered while Sunny made the call. Unfortunately, it would be hours before roadside assistance could send someone out to tow her car. Since patience had never been her virtue, she decided to leave the car for the tow guy to deal with while she caught a ride to Corbin and Belle’s house with Sophie.

At least that was the plan until she glanced out the rain-splattered windshield and saw a dark blob approaching. With each swipe of the wipers, the blob grew more and more defined. Soon, she realized it was a horse and rider.

Since they were on the Holiday Ranch, it could be any number of people. Hank Holiday, the patriarch of the Holiday family. Darla, his wife. Mimi, his mama—or probably not since Mimi rarely rode anymore. One of the six Holiday sisters. Or one of the sisters’ husbands—Sunny’s brothers included.

But it turned out to be none of those people.

“Oh, shit! That’s Uncle Reid.” Sophie turned to Sunny. “Please don’t tell him about me texting and driving. He’ll be mad enough that I took his truck without permission. If he finds out I ran you off the road, he’ll put me on restriction for life.”

Sunny stared at Sophie. “You took your uncle’s truck without permission?”

Sophie sputtered. “U-U-Uhh . . . I wasn’t planning on being gone long. I was just gonna practice driving before the storm hit.”

“Practice driving? You don’t have your driver’s license?”

“Well, no, but that’s not my fault. In order to get my license, I need to have a ton of driving hours with a licensed driver and Uncle Reid just doesn’t have the time. So I’ve been—”

“Driving by yourself and forging his name.” Damn, this teenage girl really did remind Sunny of herself. She’d forged her guardians’ names on more than one occasion. But that didn’t make it right. She blew out her breath. “Your uncle should put you on restriction for the rest of your life. That way you might stay alive.”

“So you’re gonna tell him?”

Sunny glanced out the windshield and watched as Reid rode up on the beautiful chestnut horse. He looked like he belonged in an old western . . . or a girl’s wet dream. His rain-dripping Stetson was pulled low and he wore a long duster that flapped around his muscled legs as he effortlessly swung down from the horse. He turned in the direction of his truck that was parked on the side of the road a few yards away before his head swiveled to them. Sunny couldn’t see his face, but she could feel the intensity of his gaze. He headed toward them in long ground-eating strides. When he pulled open Sophie’s door, his champagne eyes were filled with concern.

“Soph! Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, Uncle Reid.”

His gaze snapped over to Sunny and she experienced the same feeling she always experienced when he looked at her—like she was sitting in front of a really hot principal who was about to discipline her. “Are you hurt, Ms. Whitlock?”

She held out her arms. “Right as rain.”

His gaze swept over her and her breathlessness grew. “So what happened?”

Sophie sent her a pleading look. As much as the teenager deserved to get into a whole mess of trouble, Sunny couldn’t bring herself to tattle. It wasn’t like teenagers didn’t do stupid things. Sunny had stolen more than one car, driven without a driver’s license, and texted while driving. So she couldn’t very well point fingers.

She pinned on a bright smile. “What happened was I got a little too big for my britches and thought I could drive much faster on a slick highway than I could.” That much was true. She had been going a little too fast. Of course, the truck coming straight at her hadn’t helped. “I hydroplaned and ran off the road. Sophie stopped to make sure I was okay.”

The concerned look left Reid’s eyes to be replaced with an emotion that was easy to read: anger. And someone being angry with her was not something Sunny was used to. People loved her. Or if not loved her, at least liked her. And why wouldn’t they? She was the life of every party. The beacon of light on the darkest days. The sweet little ol’ gal who made people smile. In fact, making people smile was what she did best.

Just not with Reid Mitchell.

His face seemed to be frozen in a perpetual frown whenever she was around. No matter how bright and funny she was, he always looked at her like she was an annoying pest he had repeatedly tried to exterminate without luck.

Today was no exception.

“Your recklessness could have killed someone,” he snapped.

“No, Uncle Reid,” Sophie jumped in. “Sunny was nowhere close to hitting me. She only skidded a little and I braked fast so I wouldn’t hit her.”

“A little?” He looked at the front of the car hugging the fence post before his attention returned to Sunny, his eyes glittering with suppressed anger.

Just like that, Sunny felt like she’d just jumped out of a plane at twenty thousand feet. She felt weightless, breathless, and . . . extremely turned on. All she could think about was Reid bending her over those muscular wrangler-encased thighs and giving her a much-deserved spanking.

“Does your car run?”

His question snapped Sunny out of her naughty-girl fantasy and made her realize that her engine had quit. She turned the key to restart it and there was a loud grinding noise like a forgotten spoon in a garbage disposal. She sent the grumpy cowboy a smile.

“I guess that would be a no.”

His lips pressed into a firm line. “Get in the truck. I’ll drive you to Corbin and Belle’s house. I’m assuming that’s where you were headed.”

“Yes, but you don’t need to drive me. I can walk. It’s not that far.”

He snorted. “I’m sure my boss would love it if I let his sister walk home in a rainstorm. Now grab your stuff and get in the truck. You too, Soph.”

Sunny had never let men tell her what to do—not even her two brothers. But before she could tell him to go to hell, he took off his rain slicker and held it out for Sophie. Sunny didn’t know if it was the sweet way he enfolded his niece in the coat or the way the rain turned his white T-shirt transparent that made her follow his orders.

Probably the T-shirt.

By the time he helped Sophie into his truck and sent the horse back to the stables, it was nothing more than wet tissue paper. When he walked over to her, holding his duster over both their heads as she got her suitcase out of the trunk, she couldn’t help staring like a spectator at a bodybuilding competition. With his arms raised, his biceps popped into orange-sized knots, his pectorals flexed into hard, nipple-topped slabs, and his stomach was a tempting washboard that begged to be strummed.

“Stop.”

The gruff command had Sunny’s gaze snapping up to Reid’s face. An angry and annoyed face. “Stop what?”

“You know what, Ms. Whitlock. That innocent act isn’t going to work with me. I know your type.”

“Really? Exactly what is my type?”

He started to say something, but then snapped his mouth shut and shook his head. “Never mind.” He handed her the duster and took her suitcase from her before turning for the truck. Unwilling to let him brush her off so easily, she hurried after him and grabbed his arm.

It was like grabbing on to a bolt of lightning. As soon as her fingers curved around his muscled forearm, an electric current raced through her, lighting up her entire body like a thousand-watt light bulb. She would have thought she was the only one who felt it if his breath hadn’t sucked in and his pupils hadn’t dilated. Before she could get over her reaction—and his—he jerked away.

“I think I need to make things perfectly clear, Ms. Whitlock. I’m not interested. Do you understand me? Not only because you’re my boss’s little sister and I don’t want to get fired, but also because you’re trouble. Trouble is the last thing I need right now. So stay away from me . . . and Sophie.” He turned and headed to his truck, carelessly tossing her suitcase into the bed.

Any other woman would have felt embarrassed. Or annoyed. Or angry. Sunny felt none of those things. As she stood there in the cold drizzle and watched him climb into the cab of his truck and slam the door hard, she only felt one thing.

Challenged.

And Sunshine Brook Whitlock had never been able to ignore a challenge in her life. (Wrangling a Wild Texan Excerpt by Katie Lane)