скачать книгу бесплатно
Her Cowboy Inheritance
Danica Favorite
A new life. A new start.And a new love at the Three Sisters RanchInheriting a ranch with her two sisters is the fresh start widowed mom Leah Holloway desperately needs. The problem? Leah knows nothing about ranching. And the only person willing to teach her is Shane Jackson, the handsome and oh-so-infuriating cowboy next door. Trusting each other means they'll risk everything—including a connection that might just blossom into something dangerously real…
A new life. A new start.
And a new love at the Three Sisters Ranch
Inheriting a ranch with her two sisters is the fresh start widowed mom Leah Holloway desperately needs. The problem? Leah knows nothing about ranching. And the only person willing to teach her is Shane Jackson, the handsome and oh-so-infuriating cowboy next door. Trusting each other means they’ll risk everything—including a connection that might just blossom into something dangerously real...
DANICA FAVORITE loves the adventure of living a creative life. She loves to explore the depths of human nature and follow people on the journey to happily-ever-after. Though the journey is often bumpy, those bumps refine imperfect characters as they live the life God created them for. Oops, that just spoiled the ending of Danica’s stories. Then again, getting there is all the fun. Find her at danicafavorite.com (http://danicafavorite.com).
Also By Danica Favorite (#ua2a5a2ed-4dd7-5a6e-a1ee-eb0f28938f02)
Three Sisters Ranch
Her Cowboy Inheritance
Rocky Mountain Dreams
The Lawman’s Redemption
Shotgun Marriage
The Nanny’s Little Matchmakers
For the Sake of the Children
An Unlikely Mother
Mistletoe Mommy
Honor-Bound Lawman
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Her Cowboy Inheritance
Danica Favorite
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-09478-8
HER COWBOY INHERITANCE
© 2019 Danica Favorite
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Soon she would be lifting bales of hay like they were nothing...
Leah put her hands on her hips and heaved in deep breaths. “I know this gets easier with practice, but wow. You must think I’m really stupid for not thinking about things like this.”
Shane handed her a bottle of water. “Not stupid. Inexperienced. I know you think I’ve been hard on you, but I don’t want you to fail simply because you hadn’t thought everything through.”
She nodded.
“You’re smart and capable,” he continued. “You have more grit and gumption than a lot of people I know. I understand why you don’t trust easily. But I’m asking you to have a little faith in the fact that I’m here to help you. I made a promise to Helen, and I’m doing for you what Helen always wanted to do.”
She brushed the hay off her pants. “I’ve given you more trust than I’ve given anyone else in a long time.”
Shane didn’t want to think about trust issues.
He hoped he could continue showing her that he had her best interests at heart...even when she didn’t understand.
Dear Reader (#ua2a5a2ed-4dd7-5a6e-a1ee-eb0f28938f02),
One of the things I’ve been thinking about a lot is what it means to love one another. The theme verse for this story—1 Corinthians 13, verses 4-8 and 13—has been on my mind a lot lately, especially as I look at how I love the others in my life. Leah has learned to see love as being one way, Shane another, and it took them being reminded about what the Bible says about love to truly understand how to love one another. Sometimes, we get our minds set on what we think love means—what has to happen in our lives to feel loved. And yet, so much of how we measure love isn’t how we’re supposed to measure love at all. Even though I know I don’t always do it right, I’m so grateful that God sees my heart and chooses to love me anyway. I pray that you, too, will know the kind of love Jesus teaches us about in the Bible.
I love connecting with my readers, so be sure to find me online:
Newsletter eepurl.com/7HCXj (http://eepurl.com/7HCXj)
Website danicafavorite.com (http://danicafavorite.com)
Twitter Twitter.com/danicafavorite (http://Twitter.com/danicafavorite)
Instagram Instagram.com/danicafavorite (http://Instagram.com/danicafavorite)
Facebook Facebook.com/DanicaFavoriteAuthor (http://Facebook.com/DanicaFavoriteAuthor)
Facebook Reader Group Facebook.com/groups/DanicaFavorite/ (http://Facebook.com/groups/DanicaFavorite/)
Amazon Amazon.com/Danica-Favorite/e/B00K RP0IFU (http://Amazon.com/Danica-Favorite/e/B00KRP0IFU)
BookBub bookbub.com/authors/danica-favorite (http://bookbub.com/authors/danica-favorite)
Sending love and prayers to you and yours,
Danica Favorite
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
—1 Corinthians 13:4–8
For all the moms out there who are doing the best they can with what they have. You’ve got this!
Contents
Cover (#ue1cfe88e-8acd-5bf1-a4d3-0e76081d8232)
Back Cover Text (#u0be1419b-85a1-5cbd-8712-f23641194bb2)
About the Author (#ua6231563-defd-5cd6-a5dc-7234c0ec31bd)
Booklist (#u9edc8d8f-c42e-5180-a89e-5f4e1c4736f3)
Title Page (#u9e2deb9e-dc10-582e-98cf-f59010cd5b3a)
Copyright (#ud50518af-d6dd-5137-a6bb-d4501b03efe9)
Introduction (#u711e3145-7c9d-5b30-a8e0-cdb7a352035e)
Dear Reader (#ud62f7485-6a39-5c53-bb75-8e05425c8f6b)
Bible Verse (#uc46d9517-a451-5c35-89e7-005f554057a5)
Dedication (#u1d595bba-2aae-56fe-b11a-f889386463fc)
Chapter One (#uea16a429-baa7-5b17-aaf1-b42270000c73)
Chapter Two (#u4cb852ae-6cd6-56d8-b22d-bf3d9f452bf5)
Chapter Three (#u9296f0ff-1e7a-5380-907d-7a7b4ab9f9c7)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#ua2a5a2ed-4dd7-5a6e-a1ee-eb0f28938f02)
Leah Holloway stood inside the old ranch house in Columbine Springs, Colorado, unable to believe that in the twenty years since she’d last been here, everything seemed almost unchanged. Except for the silence and emptiness.
“It’s weird not seeing Grandma Nellie sitting in her rocking chair, isn’t it?” her sister Erin said, coming behind her.
Leah turned. “She wasn’t our grandmother.”
“The closest thing we had to one. Besides, everyone called her Grandma Nellie.” Erin put her arm around her and gave a squeeze. “You doing okay?”
Everyone asked her that, and Leah hated having to answer the question. Of course she wasn’t doing okay. How could anybody be okay when everything in her life was falling apart? Everyone had a million questions for her, and Leah hadn’t had the chance to process what had happened. She’d been too busy trying to stay strong for her kids, doing everything she could to keep a roof over their heads, and now this.
Not that being here on the ranch was necessarily a bad thing, since the surprise bequest was literally the only reason she and her kids wouldn’t be living on the streets. But it was one more set of emotions being thrown at her that she didn’t have time to deal with.
Fortunately, her sister Nicole came in, carrying a box. “Isn’t this great? I can’t believe this is all ours.”
Erin gave their sister a small smile. “The happiest I remember being as children was the summer we spent here with Helen. The Colonel was on another temporary assignment, and she brought us here to her family’s ranch. I remember wishing we could stay here forever and never have to see the Colonel again. Who would have thought the wish of a ten-year-old would come true twenty years later?”
For a moment, Erin looked wistful, but then she shook her head. “It’s crazy to think that Helen remembered us enough to leave us her family’s ranch. I feel bad that we didn’t stay in better touch with her.”
Leah shrugged. “The Colonel would’ve never allowed it. Not with the way he threw her out. He thought she was a bad influence, allowing too much disorder in his household.”
“I don’t remember that,” Nicole said. “I barely remember Helen at all. I still think it’s weird that she left us her estate.”
The lawyer had given them a letter from Helen, outlining the reasons for her bequest. They’d all read the letter, but Nicole, who had only been six when the Colonel had divorced Helen, hadn’t responded to it the way Leah and Erin had. How could she? She’d been too young to understand so much of what had happened.
Unfortunately, Leah had been twelve, which meant she had understood far too much. Nicole being so young had been a blessing.
Sometimes, it was the only thing that gave Leah hope that her sons, Dylan and Ryan, would come through their own family tragedy unscathed. At seven and two, they barely remembered their father, who’d emotionally checked out of their lives long before his death six months ago. In some ways, her sons’ childhood mirrored so much of what Leah’s had been that it scared her. She’d spent her whole life vowing to do things differently when she had children of her own. The only differences were Leah’s mother had died when Nicole was a baby, and their father had been a monster. When the Colonel had died several years ago, she hadn’t felt the level of grief she did now for Helen.
Leah would like to think that she was a reasonably good parent to her boys, even though their father had not been. Of course, she hadn’t known the truth about him until it was too late.
A knock sounded at the door, and the three women turned. The silhouette of a cowboy was framed in the entryway, like one of those Western paintings you bought at tourist traps. As he stepped forward, he almost took Leah’s breath away. So handsome, with his rugged good looks and dark hair that barely brushed the top of his collar. If she had to guess, she’d say he was near her own age, maybe a bit older. But looks could be deceiving, as she well knew, and she didn’t have time to deal with whatever weird attraction this was. She couldn’t even handle the real emotions flooding her.
“Hope I’m not intruding,” the cowboy said. “I saw cars in front of the house when I came to check on my cattle, and I thought I’d introduce myself. I’m Shane Jackson, and I own the ranch next door.”
The lawyer had mentioned something about Shane Jackson, but Leah couldn’t remember what it was. Dylan had been throwing a fit, and Leah had been doing her best to calm him down.
Leah stepped forward. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Leah, and these are my sisters, Erin and Nicole. If you looked closely at the cars when you walked up, you might have noticed my sons, Dylan and Ryan, asleep in the backseat of the Subaru.”
Shane shook his head. “I’m afraid not. The back door of the Subaru was open. I closed it, so no critters could get in. There were no children in there.”
