Danica Favorite - Her Cowboy Inheritance

Booklist Also By Danica Favorite Contents Cover Back Cover Text About the Author Booklist Title Page Copyright Introduction Dear Reader Bible Verse Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten EPILOGUE Extract About the Publisher 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

Title Page Her Cowboy Inheritance Danica Favorite www.millsandboon.co.uk

Copyright ISBN: 978-1-474-09478-8 HER COWBOY INHERITANCE © 2019 Danica Favorite Published in Great Britain 2019 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. ® 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

Introduction 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

Bible Verse

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

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.