Debbi Rawlins - To Trust A Rancher

Discover the Made in Montana miniseries—where all your cowboy dreams come true!

Seven years ago, a vicious lie drove Becca Hartman to run away from Blackfoot Falls, Montana, with her best friend, Amy. Now the truth has finally brought Becca home...with Amy’s little boy in tow. Becca’s raised Noah as her own, so watching Noah meet his family—including Becca’s old crush, rancher Ryder Mitchell—is terrifying. If Ryder finds out that Noah is his nephew, will he take the boy away?

Ryder wants to blame Becca for his sister’s wild behavior. Yet as he spends time with the loving single mom and her son, he realizes she might be someone he could love...if he can ever learn to trust her again.

DEBBI RAWLINS grew up on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, but always loved Western movies and books. When she was twelve she spent the summer on the Big Island of Hawaii, and had the dubious honor of being thrown off her first horse. A year later, minutes before a parade started down her street, she managed to find the most skittish horse in the lineup and...you can probably guess the rest.

These days, sixty-five-plus books later, she lives on four acres in gorgeous rural Utah surrounded by dogs, cats, goats, chickens and free-range cattle who just love taking down her fence every couple years.

Also by Debbi Rawlins

Stealing the Cowboy’s Heart

Her Cowboy Reunion

Alone with You

Need You Now

Behind Closed Doors

Anywhere with You

Come On Over

This Kiss

Come Closer, Cowboy

Wild for You

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

To Trust a Rancher

Debbi Rawlins

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07768-2

TO TRUST A RANCHER

© 2018 Debbi Quattrone

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 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.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

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 Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One

Becca Hartman’s heart pounded. Today was the start of a new phase of her life. One where she’d have the time to give her son dinner and put him to bed every night, instead of just checking in on him after he was already asleep. It felt like the best gift she’d ever been given, and she didn’t want to screw it up.

She checked her reflection in the bathroom mirror, trying to remember the last time she’d worn a dress. The second it hit her, she wished she hadn’t tried so hard. It had been her grandfather’s funeral. Two years ago. She’d rushed back to Montana but had almost missed the service. Grams had taken one look at her and cried for an hour straight.

Oh, God, Becca couldn’t think about that now. She smoothed a wrinkle on the blue dress, then dabbed on some lip gloss. Satisfied that she looked presentable for the first day in her brand-new position, she went to the kitchen.

Noah sat at the table in his booster seat, making designs in his cinnamon-topped oatmeal.

“Hey, sweetie. What do you think about you and me celebrating my promotion tonight?” Becca opened the fridge and brought out the orange juice. “Pizza sound good to you?”

He was too quiet.

Reaching into the cupboard for a glass, she glanced over her shoulder. “Noah? Did you hear me?”

Making a face, he stuck the wrong side of his spoon into the cereal.

“What’s wrong? You love oatmeal.”

“I want bananas.”

“I’ll pick some up after work,” she said. “For now, you eat it like that, okay?”

From the window, she saw Isabella coming up the crumbling cement walkway, sidestepping the neighbor kid’s rusty bike. The relief that swept Becca was more proof she was far too anxious over her new job. The woman hadn’t been even a minute late in the four years she’d been watching Noah.

“Mommy?”

Becca turned a smile on him.

A glob of oatmeal hit her chin. She gasped, looked down and watched the goop slide down the front of her dress.

Noah broke into peals of laughter.

People always said the twos were terrible. Yeah, well, four was no picnic either.

Although, as a rule, Noah was a very sweet little boy. It was usually after he’d spent time with Amy that he acted out like this. She spoiled him terribly, all because she felt guilty for abandoning him. And then, consistent with their longtime friendship, Becca was left to clean up the mess.

“Noah?” She grabbed a paper towel. “Why did you do that?” She heard Isabella’s quick knock, then the door squeaked open, but Becca kept her eyes on him as she dampened the towel. “Noah? Answer me.”

He bowed his head and shrugged his thin shoulders.

Isabella quietly set her tote aside. Becca sure hoped the woman knew a trick to get the stain out, or she would have to wear the only other dress she owned. The black one, stuffed far, far back in her closet.