The Rancher's Redemption

by Melinda Curtis

“I’m thinking ahead, like any good lawyer would.” She clung to his hand in a most un-lawyer-like way. “And saying what you won’t let yourself say. We were meant to be together in an alternate universe, and in this one. I don’t know how it happened or when it happened, but I know that I love you and the thought of you leaving when I can’t breaks my heart.”

  “Thompson—”

  “Don’t you make light of this. I need you.”

  “Consider what you’re saying...Rachel.” He smoothed a strand of hair from her face, and held his breath when she ran a hand from his crown to the base of his neck, just like his father used to do. His words came out barely louder than a whisper. “Everything you said about me in the diner the other day is true. You don’t need a man like me.”

  “A man like you.” Tears sparkled in her eyes. “A man who helps a woman he doesn’t even know get a better monthly divorce settlement? A man who stops a bully from using unresolved custody to get spousal support? A man who fixes gates and fences without being asked? What kind of man does that sound like?” She bumped him with her shoulder, as if they were the best of friends, the closest of lovers. “It sounds like a man who’d make any woman proud to call him husband.”

  All Ben’s arguments bottlenecked in his throat. It had been a long time since anyone had told him they were proud of him. But one argument escaped. “I can never make up for what happened five years ago.”

  She cradled his face in her hands. “What I’m asking has nothing to do with the past, not with harsh words or bad decisions. It has to do with my heart wanting yours nearby, now and in the future.”

  He closed his eyes and covered her hands with his. “Looking forward, not back.”

  “I love you, Ben Blackwell.” She pressed a kiss to his lips that was so gentle, it hurt. “You and I should go down to the courthouse on Monday and get hitched.”

  “But...” She continued to throw him for a loop. “No pomp and ceremony? No wedding reception? No sparkly white dress?”

  “We had that before, both of us. And look how both those marriages turned out.”

  In his case, it’d been a nonstarter.

  “Ben.”

  The way she said his name, softly, tenderly, full of love and promise and hope. How could he refuse her anything?

  “I’ll make you a deal,” he said with a sigh. “You kiss me right now and I’ll marry you on Monday. Kiss me right now, Rachel, and I’ll promise to love you forever.”

  Oh, she kissed him all right. Rachel kissed him as if she might not get another chance, putting her heart and soul into it, telling him with more than words that she loved him as deeply as he loved her.

  And then she pulled back. “I just wish...”

  “What?” he asked. He’d grant her any wish. He’d take her to New York and show her the sights she yearned to see. He’d take the money from the sale of the Blackwell Ranch and invest it in the Double T.

  “Don’t think this is stupid, but I have one teeny, tiny regret.” She plucked an imaginary thread from her jeans. “I wish that your name started with a T. The Double T was founded with a husband and a wife, and my sister wants nothing to do with it. But I do, Ben. I want to make the Double T our home. I suppose we could change the brand...”

  “Ah.” Ben brushed a silky strand of hair behind her ear. “You don’t know what my middle name is.”

  “I don’t.” She straightened. “What is it?”

  “Trustworthy.”

  Their laughter startled the birds in the nearby trees, made Blackie whicker and Ferdinand snort.

  It was a great beginning to the kind of love that was often only found in dreams and alternative universes.

  And here. At the road to the river.

  EPILOGUE

  June 30th, Las Vegas, Nevada

  IN THE PAST two weeks, Elias Blackwell had driven through the gates to the Las Vegas retirement community and driven right back out four times. But this time, he didn’t turn around without stopping.

  It’s time. He stopped.

  In fact, it was long past time. He’d made such a fool of himself, chasing after women instead of chasing after the unraveling thread of love that had once bound his family together.

  He parked in front of a tidy duplex in the section of the retirement community that offered additional medical care and traversed the walk in the early morning heat that was summer in Vegas.

  When he’d begun this journey several months ago, he hadn’t fully comprehended the emotional toll it would take to bring his boys back to the ranch. There was joy, to be sure, in hearing Ethan and Ben had returned to Falcon Creek, at least temporarily. A measure of peace in finally recognizing that Jon had chosen the right path. But there was hardship and loneliness, too. Another failed marriage. This one he’d chosen to leave after realizing Zoe needed someone younger who’d give her the children she longed for.

  And now...

  His knuckles hesitated, seemingly floating in the air in front of the door. This might be his hardest task to check off his bucket list yet, because it involved more than one broken heart.

  Big E knocked three times. Once, a long time ago, they used to hum the chorus of Knock Three Times to each other instead of saying “I love you” out loud.

  The door swung open to reveal a vision. The same deep blue eyes. The same long braid of hair. No longer a rich brown, but now a bright white.

  “You,” Dorothy said. There was more than enough be gone in those words to make them sound truly disheartening. She moved to slam the door.

  He may have been old, but running a ranch had kept his reflexes sharp. He slapped a hand on the door, looked his first wife in the eye and said, “You may not want to see me, Dorothy, but if you still have Brenda’s letters, the boy needs them back.”

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for a sneak peek at

  the next installment of the

  Return of the Blackwell Brothers in

  The Rancher’s Fake Fiancée

  by Amy Vastine,

  when Tyler Blackwell arrives back

  in Falcon Creek!

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  The Rancher’s Fake Fiancée

  by Amy Vastine

  “FOR THE LOVE of all that’s good in the world, would you please call your brothers back?”

  Tyler Blackwell glanced up at his obviously infuriated employee. Tucking her wavy blond hair behind her ears, Hadley Sullivan’s scowl meant she was serious this time.

  Tyler’s gaze returned to his computer screen. Regardless of her ire, finishing the presentation for Lodi Organics was a bit higher on the priority list than his bothersome brothers. “Which one?”

  Hadley let out an exasperated sigh. “Take your pick. That was Ethan just now, but Ben has bombarded the office with at least a dozen calls this week and Jonathan phoned yesterday while you were at lunch. I know you know this. We put all the messages on your desk.”

  Tyler had seen the notes and promptly tossed the slips of pink paper in the recycling bin because he was nothing if not ecologically minded.

  “From now on, when they call, tell them I can only be reached on my cell.”

  “The same cell they’ve called five hundred times already?” Hadley paused even though it was a rhetorical question. “They’ve caught on to the fact that you’ll decline their call, Tyler. They’ve resorted to harassing the people in this office who actually answer their phones.”

  Clicking Save on the Lodi Organics file, Tyler ran a hand through his thick hair. He’d successfully made himself too busy to return a hundred phone calls from his overreacting brothers but also too busy for a much-needed haircut.

  “I
’ll talk to Kellen about hiring a real office manager who will help us screen all of our calls.”

  Hadley wasn’t appeased. “Maybe I should talk to Kellen about how your personal issues are beginning to negatively impact the entire company.”

  Tyler wasn’t Hadley’s favorite person at 2K Marketing. He wasn’t sure why that was. He thought she was competent at her job and often asked her to do things for him because he knew she’d get them done. It seemed strange that she was so bothered by his brothers’ constant calls. They weren’t really her problem. They were all his.

  “They’ve got to be close to giving up,” he said.

  “Ethan said it was an emergency.”

  “That’s what they keep telling me.” For the last three months. He dropped his chin to his chest. These calls were literally a pain in the neck. He gave it a rub.

  First, their grandfather ran away from home. The way Tyler saw it, Big E was a grown man with every right to go where he pleased. That was hardly an emergency.

  Jonathan and Ethan came to the rescue and managed to get the guest ranch ready for the summer rush. Obviously, they wouldn’t be able to manage it forever. Jonathan had his own ranch to run and Ethan couldn’t do it on his own. If that meant they had to get rid of the Blackwell Family Ranch, so be it. Tyler wouldn’t shed any tears over the end of it.

  “Maybe they haven’t been able to get things settled with the water,” Hadley offered. She’d been privy to more information than she needed because she didn’t have the option of hanging up the phone when they called. “Maybe they need your help with that.”

  Emergency number two had to do with water rights and bad deals that Big E was most likely responsible for orchestrating. Tyler had replied via text that he was way too busy at work to talk about something he had no control over. “Ben’s the lawyer, not me. From what I heard, they got it settled.”

  “Knock, knock.” Tyler’s business partner pushed open the door. Kellen Kettering clearly had more time on his hands and less stress than Tyler did, given his perfectly coiffed hair and easy smile. “Is this a bad time?”

  Hadley sighed as if relieved. “You’re back.”

  Kellen gave her a crooked smile and adjusted his black-framed glasses. His salt-and-pepper hair was hidden under his beanie. “My flight got in early. I hear I’ve been missing all the fun around here.”

  “If by fun you mean work, you are correct,” Tyler said, leaning back in his chair.

  Kellen had the title of company president while Tyler was the executive creative director. When they started the business five years ago, the two of them worked on every project together. In the last year or so, their accounts had almost tripled. It could have been more, but it seemed the harder Tyler worked, the more Kellen pushed him to slow down.

  “Well, I’ll let you two catch up,” Hadley said to Kellen before turning her baby blue gaze on Tyler. “Call your brothers back, Ty. I’m begging.”

  Kellen picked up the shadowbox of arrowheads Tyler had on display on his bookshelf. Tyler resisted the urge to wrestle them away. They had belonged to his father, one of the few mementos he had from either of his parents.

  “I heard you accepted a meeting with Rockwell’s Hardware,” Kellen said, setting the box down. “I thought we agreed we weren’t going to take on any other clients until we cleared a couple projects.”

  “It’s a simple rebrand.”

  “I’m not sure Eric’s ready to take on another rebranding account. He’s still trying to get his bearings here.”

  “I’ll do most of the work.” If he didn’t bother sleeping, he’d get it all done easily. Tyler didn’t have any other choice. Eric would most likely never find his bearings.

  Kellen sat down across from him. “Tyler, you know I appreciate your drive. It’s why I partnered with you. But we can’t overextend ourselves. We run the risk of choosing quantity over quality.”

  Tyler tried to sound reassuring. “I got this. Don’t worry.”

  “You sent me thirty-two emails between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. I hate to say it, but you’ve got to slow down.”

  This was how Tyler worked. People appreciated hard work. If he wanted to get noticed in the competitive world of marketing, he had to rise above the rest. “All of this will be worth it. We’re going to make the top twenty advertising agencies in Portland list this year.”

  “Tyler.” Kellen rested his elbows on his knees. “Maybe after the Lodi Organics presentation, you should take some time off. Relax. Get away for a couple weeks.”

  Tyler’s brow furrowed. He must not have heard Kellen correctly. “Are you suggesting I take a vacation?”

  “I’m not suggesting. More like telling you. You need a break. We all need a break.” Kellen sat back and seemed to struggle with the right words. “Let me be straight with you. There’s been some grumbling. People are feeling...stressed.”

  “Like who?” Tyler looked out at the office cubicles. The eight-person staff all scurried around, refusing to make eye contact.

  “Like everyone.”

  They had planned this. They had gone to Kellen behind his back.

  Copyright © 2018 by Amy Vastine

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Her Lawman Protector by Patricia Johns.

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  Her Lawman Protector

  by Patricia Johns

  CHAPTER ONE

  LIV HYLTON CRACKED open a box of books, uncovering glossy paperback covers. The smell of new books never ceased to hit her brain right in the pleasure center. She was still filling shelves in her brand-new bookshop in Eagle’s Rest, Colorado, and she was a stickler for variety. One thing she hated in a bookstore was having access only to the ten top sellers. Sometimes she didn’t want a bestseller. Sometimes she wanted a fresh discovery, a delightful distraction...and Hylton Books was going to provide just that to the tourists who came for skiing each winter and for Eagle’s Rest Lake in the summer.

  With the leaves changing to their brilliant autumn foliage, the tourists were gone—an ideal time to be doing the grunt work of opening a new business. She’d have everything streamlined by ski season.

  Liv pulled a hand through her hair and heaved a sigh. Her jeans had shrunk one too many times, and they were getting uncomfortably tight. That’s what she was telling herself, at least. She’d gained weight, but she was done with diets. After ten years of marriage, where she constantly struggled to lose weight, she wasn’t doing that to herself anymore. At the age of thirty-two, this was her body—no more punishment.

  The newly installed shelves were high—a sliding library ladder attached at one side of the store and could be swept along to whichever point along
the wall it was needed. That had been hard to come by, but a local contractor had gotten his hands on an old sliding ladder from an archives building in Denver, and it all had come together rather nicely. Like it was meant to be.

  Morning light spilled from the display window onto the front counter, and her gaze drifted toward the creased note that lay next to a pile of mystery novels. She’d found the paper on the floor that morning, shoved through the mail slot. It was a simple piece of computer paper with letters cut from magazines—creepy. The last two notes she’d tossed out, thinking they were a prank by some local kids, but this one had settled into her gut and left her nervous.

  Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Go on back and leave us alone or you’ll regret it.

  This note sounded darker than the others and less logical. Warn her about what? And how was she bothering anyone in Eagle’s Rest? She’d been born here, gone to Eagle’s Rest Elementary back when there was only one elementary school in town. Her grandparents, who’d already passed away, had settled here after they got married. Everyone she’d talked to seemed really excited about a bookstore coming to town. So, go back? To Denver, where she’d lived the past ten years with her ex?

  The implied snarl and the confusing logic behind the note chilled her. She didn’t think she had any enemies here, but maybe she was wrong about that. Whoever had left this note didn’t seem stable, and who knew what an unstable person would do for their own convoluted reasons? She’d called the police station as soon as she’d read the note, and they’d promised to send an officer down.

  Liv flipped through the stack of mysteries, putting the books in alphabetical order. But her mind wasn’t fixed on the work at hand, and she glanced out the front window at the sun-dappled sidewalk. She was waiting for the officer to arrive. It wasn’t that she thought there was some special magic in a cop’s eyes moving over that page. Her ex was a cop, so she knew their limitations, but if they could at least put this into the system, pass around a memo that she was being threatened—something! Maybe she could give local cops a deep discount for shopping at her store and keep a visible police presence on this street. That was an idea.