Trish Milburn - The Cowboy's Secret Son

Lone Star Daddy

After battling a serious illness, Grace Cameron realizes one thing: her son needs his father. But how can she face Nathan Teague after seven years of lies? To ease into it, she enrolls her boy in the Cowboy Camp run by the Teague family on their Texas Hill Country ranch. Little Evan is bursting with excitement over horses, ropin’ and hanging around real cowboys! Oh, my!

Nathan is in shock when Grace comes back to town. Then when he discovers he’s the father of her cute little boy—a miniature Nathan—he’s not sure if he should be angry, grateful or both. He decides to go with angry. For a while, at least...until he gets the sense that Grace is still hiding something. What’s the secret—and how can he ever trust the woman who stole his son from him?

“He’s your son.”

All the oxygen disappeared from around Nathan. At least it felt that way.

“What?” He stared at Grace, thinking he couldn’t possibly have heard her correctly. “That’s not possible.”

She looked up at him. “I assure you it is.”

Nathan snatched his hat off and ran his fingers through his hair. He took a couple of steps away from Grace, away from the words she’d spoken. A wild storm of denial and curiosity whirled within him.

“You got pregnant that night at the party?” he asked without turning back toward Grace.

“Yes.”

Heat rushed through him. “And instead of telling me then, you decided to run away?”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

She said it so matter of factly that an unusual anger roared inside him. He spun back toward her, met her gaze. “You always have a choice.”

“Maybe you did, when you decided to pretend nothing had happened between us.”

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Blue Falls, Texas, home to endless fields of colorful wildflowers, a rich German heritage and the Vista Hills Guest Ranch. Vista Hills is home to the Teague family, including three swoon-worthy, cowboy brothers—Nathan, Ryan and Simon.

In The Cowboy’s Secret Son, you get to meet Nathan, the middle brother, the one with the closest connection to the family ranch. I’m fascinated not only with the ranching lifestyle but also with a strong and abiding connection to the land such as that held by the Teague family. It’s as much a part of who they are as the air they breathe and the heartbeats in their chests.

I found inspiration for Blue Falls in several Texas Hill Country towns—Fredericksburg, Marble Falls and Gruene among them. I hope the residents of these places and the rest of the Hill Country can see a little of the places they call home in the stories of the Teague brothers and the women with whom they fall in love. And that everyone else will be anxious to visit the area as soon as they can.

Trish Milburn

The Cowboy’s Secret Son

Trish Milburn

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trish Milburn wrote her first book in the fifth grade and has the cardboard-and-fabric-bound, handwritten and colored-pencil-illustrated copy to prove it. That “book” was called Land of the Misty Gems, and not surprisingly it was a romance. She’s always loved stories with happy endings, whether those stories come in the form of books, movies, TV programs or marriage to her own hero.

A print journalist by trade, she still does contract and freelance work in that field, balancing those duties with her dream-come-true career as a novelist. Before she published her first book, she was a finalist eight times in the prestigious Golden Heart contest sponsored by Romance Writers of America, winning twice. Other than reading, Trish enjoys traveling (by car or train—she’s a terra firma girl!), watching TV and movies, hiking, nature photography and visiting national parks.

You can visit Trish online at www.trishmilburn.com. Readers also can write to her at P.O. Box 140875, Nashville, TN 37214-0875.

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Grace Cameron, the heroine of The Cowboy’s Secret Son, has two close, special friends who have helped her through the hardest times of her life.

I’m fortunate to have had the same. So here’s to my two oldest friends—love ya, Allison and Kristy!

Contents

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

Epilogue

Chapter One

A rolling sea of bluebonnets in full bloom flowed out from where Grace Cameron sat at a roadside table. Her son, Evan, ran back and forth, pretending to ride an imaginary horse. But not even his boyish antics could lift her mood today.

Once, hills blanketed in bluebonnets had soothed her, allowing her to believe there was hope and beauty in the world beyond her daily existence. Now, the sight of them and the town in the distance caused fear and uncertainty to swirl inside her like a Texas twister.

Texas. She looked toward the horizon, soaking in a tiny sliver of Texas’s vast and varied expanse. When her parents had dragged her away nearly seven years ago, she’d thought she’d never see it again. Later, she’d avoided the state for fear she’d lose more than she already had. And yet here she sat gazing out across the spring-painted Hill Country, on the verge of taking the final step in a decision that she’d second-guessed every moment since she’d made it.

She glanced at Evan, at his miniature cowboy boots and hat, the pint-size Wrangler jeans, and couldn’t help but smile despite her inner turmoil. When she’d told him they were taking a vacation to Texas, that he was going to attend Cowboy Camp for Kids, he’d transformed into a bouncing ball of joy and excitement. While other little boys his age were into Star Wars and anime cartoons, he loved the reruns of old Westerns. His favorite cartoon character was Woody from Toy Story. He thought horses were God’s greatest creation and believed everyone should have at least one.

You couldn’t fight DNA.

“You ready to go, kiddo?”

Evan stopped midgallop. “Are we almost there?”

She nodded and pointed across the field of wildflowers. “See that town?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s Blue Falls. The camp is just a few miles on the other side.”

His face lit up so much Grace wouldn’t have been surprised if he started glowing. He raced to the car and was inside strapping on his seat belt by the time she managed to stand. She stared toward Blue Falls a bit longer, at the waterfalls that gave the town its name, the shimmer off the lake around which the town was built. Thousands of tourists flocked here each year, and all she wanted to do was turn around and leave it far behind.

But this trip wasn’t about what she wanted. It was about what was best for her son.

Her feet felt as if they were encased in wet, heavy concrete as she headed for the car. She placed her hand on her stomach as if the action would calm the nausea plaguing her.

As she drove through Blue Falls, it felt familiar, and yet not. Some businesses she remembered from her youth were gone, others still there. She’d swear the same old coots were sitting out in front of the Primrose Café swapping probably the same old stories. The Blue Falls Music Hall had gotten a sorely needed facelift in the intervening years.