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The Double Heart Ranch
Leanna Wilson
A second heart pulsed beneath hers…and Elise would do anything to protect her child. Even marry a man she hardly knew. But when she saw the pride in Cole's eyes as he gazed at his own motherless daughter, Elise began to hope that maybe she wasn't as foolish as she'd thought. Maybe there was a chance to make a home, to give her baby a real family, on Cole's ranch. Yet the rules were firm. They'd marry, but not share a bed. They'd mingle their lives and their children, but not their hearts. And for a while it worked, until love entered the picture.
“Will you marry me?”
Elise stared at Cole for a long moment. It wasn’t the proposal she’d always imagined. No bended knee. No promised words of love.
She reminded herself that this was more of a business arrangement, and yet something inside her constricted.
Oh, come on, Elise! Here’s a strong, good-looking man who has a home and a family, asking to marry you. And he’s willing to offer it all to you! Just not love.
Cole grasped her hands in his much larger ones. Electricity skittered through her, making her feel as if every nerve was exposed. His eyes darkened, turned to a misty blue-gray “Are you having doubts now?”
“No, no second thoughts,” she said. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Cole.”
His features softened for a moment, and the baby inside her moved.
Elise felt as if she were hanging by her fingertips off a cliff. Was Cole the one pushing her over the edge? Or was he pulling her up to safety?
Dear Reader,
Not only is February the month for lovers, it is the second month for readers to enjoy exciting celebratory titles across all Silhouette series. Throughout 2000, Silhouette Books will be commemorating twenty years of publishing the best in contemporary category romance fiction. This month’s Silhouette Romance lineup continues our winning tradition.
Carla Cassidy offers an emotional VIRGIN BRIDES title, in which a baby on the doorstep sparks a second chance for a couple who’d once been Waiting for the Wedding—their own!—and might be again…. Susan Meier’s charming miniseries BREWSTER BABY BOOM continues with Bringing Up Babies, as black sheep brother Chas Brewster finds himself falling for the young nanny hired to tend his triplet half siblings.
A beautiful horse trainer’s quest for her roots leads her to two men in Moyra Tarling’s The Family Diamond. Simon Says…Marry Me! is the premiere of Myrna Mackenzie’s THE WEDDING AUCTION. Don’t miss a single story in this engaging three-book miniseries. A pregnant bride-for-hire dreams of making The Double Heart Ranch a real home, but first she must convince her husband in this heart-tugger by Leanna Wilson. And If the Ring Fits… some lucky woman gets to marry a prince! In this sparkling debut Romance from Melissa McClone, an accident-prone American heiress finds herself a royal bride-to-be!
In coming months, look for Diana Palmer, a Joan Hohl-Kasey Michaels duet and much more. It’s an exciting year for Silhouette Books, and we invite you to join the celebration!
Happy Reading!
Mary-Theresa Hussey
Senior Editor
The Double Heart Ranch
Leanna Wilson
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To Melissa & Katy, I love you both!
Books by Leanna Wilson
Silhouette Romance
Strong, Silent Cowboy #1179
Christmas in July #1197
Lone Star Rancher #1231
His Tomboy Bride #1305
Are You My Daddy? #1331
Babies, Rattles and Cribs…Oh, My! #1378
The Double Heart Ranch #1430
LEANNA WILSON
believes nothing is better than dreaming up characters and stories and having readers enjoy them as much as she does. Leanna is the winner of the National Readers’ Choice Award and Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart Award. Married to her real-life hero, she lives outside Dallas with their active toddler. While playing and reading to her son, she is cherishing the wonder of her baby daughter. But all the diapers and lullabies haven’t kept her from writing. She’s busy working on her next book, be it a Silhouette Romance, Mills & Boon Temptation or Mills & Boon American Romance novel. She enjoys hearing from her readers, so you can write to her c/o Leanna Wilson, P.O. Box 294277, Lewisville, TX 75029-4277.
Contents
Prologue (#u1f2b5c79-3bd3-53c4-94d2-fc5ae7d2fb05)
Chapter One (#u34e6c762-e247-5b24-b7c2-7b75ac570cbe)
Chapter Two (#ub738e011-0b01-553e-8197-757f1d6c3139)
Chapter Three (#litres_trial_promo)
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)
Prologue
“And they lived happily ever after.” Cole Dalton closed the book and ignored the tightening around his chest. “Happily ever afters” didn’t happen so easily. Not at all in his life.
“Read another one, Daddy!”
“Not tonight, darlin’.” He patted his daughter’s leg which lay beneath the pale pink comforter. “You have school tomorrow.”
“But I’m not sleepy.” Haley stuck out her bottom lip.
“I am.” He faked a yawn, stretching his arms out wide and opening his mouth until the sound of a creak came from his throat.
“What if I have a bad dream?”
“Then you can sleep with me.” He gave her a light kiss on the top of her curly blond hair. Crossing the five year old’s frilly room, he then turned off the lamp. Automatically the night light clicked on, glowing yellow in the corner, illuminating his daughter’s upturned face. “Now be a good girl and go to sleep.”
“Okay.” Haley snuggled down into her covers and her hair splayed out across the pillow. “G’night, Daddy.”
He could hear the chirp of crickets and croak of bullfrogs outside her window. He wondered why his ex-wife Paula had hated those sounds so much. To him, the comforting chatter seemed to embrace the ranch house. But it had never seemed serene when his wife had lived here, not with her complaining about the heat in the summer, the cold in the winter and the isolation year round.
Relieved that the nights were now peaceful and calming here on his ranch alone with his daughter, he whispered into the gray darkness, “G’night, sweetheart.”
Before he could close the door all the way, he heard her soft voice ask, “Will they really?”
He paused, confused. “Will who what, darlin’?”
“Live happily ever after?”
In the dim light, Haley stared at him with those big, solemn brown eyes. His throat closed as if a fist had cut off his airway. Haley’s constant barrage of questions always made him nervous. He never knew if he was answering the right way or about to scar his daughter for life. He knew firsthand that storybook endings didn’t happen. But should he shatter that fairy tale for his daughter now? Or let her learn it the hard way, like everyone else?
“I guess so. That’s what the book said.” He leaned against the doorframe and felt a throbbing pain resonate in his chest. It was hard being a parent. More so, a single father. He didn’t have anyone to consult with or confide in. But then he’d never had that with his ex-wife, either. “Now go to sleep, Haley.”
“But, Daddy…”
He drew a shaky breath, not sure he wanted the answer to his next question. “What is it, baby?”
“How come we don’t have a happy ever after?” Her squeaky voice could have punctured a hole right through his heart.
His hand folded around the doorknob and squeezed until he could draw a full breath into his tight lungs. Slowly, he pushed the door open wider and reentered her room. The thick, pink carpet softened the clomping sound of his boot heels. His heart pulsed with self-doubts and recriminations. He carefully sat on the edge of his daughter’s bed and tried to find the words to answer her woeful question. “Aren’t you happy here with me, sweetheart?”
“Yes, but—” She stopped herself and shut her brown eyes.
He couldn’t miss the quiver in her chin.
A cold clamp locked around his spine. Hadn’t he tried to give her everything a little girl needed—cute clothes, nourishing food on the table, a happy home and all the attention a five year old could stand?
“But what?” he prodded, needing to know her answer even if he knew it might rip him to shreds.
“We don’t have a mommy.”
No they didn’t. His ex-wife had lived as long as she could in the dust bowl of west Texas. She’d left, emotionally ripping out his heart and unbalancing their family. He’d tried to be both mother and father to Haley. Eventually, he’d admitted his deficiencies and hired a succession of nannies. None of them had stayed. They’d each found a lonesome cowboy, gotten hitched and moved on, leaving Haley and Cole once more on their own.
Maybe a little girl needed more than he could offer. Maybe Haley needed a mother more than she needed him. That drove a dull-edged blade through his heart.
His gaze shifted past the pink-curtained window to the darkness beyond. His great-great-grandfather had built the Double Heart Ranch with blood and sweat. But not alone. His mail-order bride had stood by him through tornadoes and dust storms, droughts and epidemics. They’d built a life together and made their own “happily ever after.”
Why couldn’t he do the same? He’d tried love, but Paula had hated the ranch. Worse, she’d hated motherhood even more. Maybe he could advertise for a wife, find one without the usual dating frenzy and marry for convenience. This time, for a lifetime…for his daughter’s sake. But could he trust a woman not to abandon them again?
Chapter One
“Having trouble with a Dear Jane letter?” Elise Mc-Connell asked the studious cowboy sitting at one of her tables. She balanced a tray of food between one hand and her shoulder, and tried not to inhale the greasy odor of bacon.
The cowboy glanced up. His startling blue eyes narrowed into tiny slits of wariness that pierced right through her defenses. Deep crevices outlined his firm mouth, reminding her of the caverns in the nearby Palo Duro Canyon, hard and intriguing. He had dark brown hair that some barber had cut almost too short, leaving only a trace of a wave. He’d scattered several wadded up pieces of paper across the table and had scratched through his latest attempt with a stubby pencil.
Figuring he wasn’t going to answer her, she placed his order of scrambled eggs, waffles and bacon in front of him and tried not to notice his wide shoulders and stern, uncompromising jaw. She’d made one mistake with a cowboy. She wouldn’t make another.
Wishing she’d kept her big mouth shut, she asked, “More coffee?”
He nodded and pushed his mug toward the edge of the red-and-white-checked tablecloth. “Are you new here in Desert Springs?”
His deep rumbling voice made her abdomen tighten. Must be the pungent smell of grease, she assured herself. She hadn’t had time to eat breakfast before she’d reported for work at a quarter to six and she was beginning to feel weak-kneed.
“Yes.” She set the empty tray across a nearby table and reached for the carafe behind the cowboy’s booth. Refilling his mug, she added, “I’ve been here almost a month. It’s a nice town. Quiet.”
She didn’t tell him that she’d been dumped here, without transportation or money. It wasn’t important. She was used to fending for herself. After leaving the orphanage at seventeen, she’d traveled from town to town, working odd jobs, attending a few college courses that interested her, but mostly looking for a place to call home. She’d thought she’d found a family with a cowboy. But she’d been wrong.
She’d actually started to like this little west Texas town and was considering taking up permanent residence. Besides, she didn’t have any other place to go.
A hint of a smile curled the corner of the cowboy’s mouth, denting his firm cheek with what she imagined must be a dimple if she ever witnessed a full-fledged smile. “It’s quiet all right. The streets roll up at nine o’clock.”
She gave a soft laugh. “That’s okay with me. I’m usually soaking my feet by then anyway.” Or asleep by nine these days. Being signaled by another patron of Chuck’s Diner, she said, “Enjoy your breakfast. If you need anything else, let me know. I’m Elise.”
Immediately she put the sexy cowboy and his worried frown out of her mind. She had enough troubles of her own. She’d do well to remember to keep her nose out of others’ business.
Cole watched the talkative waitress walk toward another table and pour a cup of coffee for one of his neighbors. He couldn’t help but notice the saucy swing in her step, the enticing sway of her apron ties along the narrow part of her lower back. A long auburn ponytail bounced between her shoulder blades. She wouldn’t be here long, he figured. She’d grow bored with this one-horse town, especially when she realized there weren’t many eligible men to flirt with and wrangle into the bonds of matrimony.
Turning his attention to his breakfast, he took a few bites of peppered scrambled eggs and then glanced back at the crossed-out words on the piece of paper beside his plate. He shook his head and fingered another wadded up sheet, one of many he’d attempted in his search to find the right words. Maybe this was a crazy notion. He hadn’t told anyone about his plan. Would anyone understand? Hell, he wasn’t sure he did. His friends would probably laugh until they turned blue.
Over the next hour, his gaze kept sliding away from the task at hand toward the new waitress. She had a quick, eager smile and bright discerning hazel eyes that were fringed with long, swooping lashes. Shaking his head at his own foolishness, he visited with several neighbors, folks he’d grown up with. They were ranchers and farmers, all about to head home to finish their chores, which was where he should go before picking up Haley from kindergarten. But he stayed on.
Four cups of coffee later, he shoved his fingers through his hair in frustration. He felt as jittery as a bull on the auction block. Maybe it was the caffeine. Or maybe it was that pretty waitress fluttering by his table and watching him so intently. This time, when she started to pour him another cup of coffee, he held up his hand. He’d had enough. Of the stout brew and his own stupidity.
“Are you a student?” she asked, propping a hand on her slim hip. “Trying to write an English paper or something?”
His frown deepened as he wadded up another page. “Working on an ad for the paper, but not having much luck.”
“Yeah?” As quick as the weather could change in Texas, she slid into the opposite side of his booth. “It’s slow, and you’re my only customer left. Maybe I can help you out. I took an advertising class once when I lived in Dallas. What are you selling? Cattle, horses, an old truck?”
His throat dried up like Cactus Creek had last summer. The woman had soft expectant eyes that seemed to peer right into his soul. She looked as if she’d seen a lot in her young years and might not be shocked by the truth. Like others in this town. But his suddenly thick tongue stumbled over the words like a teenage boy talking to a pretty new girl at school.
“Is it a secret?” she asked, leaning forward.
In a way. But not for long. If anyone discovered his plan, gossip would spread like wildfire during a drought. That’s what had him stumped. How would it affect Haley? He toyed with his coffee spoon, turning it over and over. Finally he found his voice and answered “Me.”
Frowning, she dipped her chin. “Me what?”
“Me.” He thumped his chest. “I’m for sale.”
