Brenda Minton - Reunited With The Rancher

He starts the trip a single dad...

Will he find a wife on Mercy Ranch?

Returning home to confront his father about the past, single dad Carson West never expects a reunion with his childhood sweetheart. Kylie Baker thought she was content working at the ranch for wounded warriors…until Carson and his kids arrive. Now the widowed veteran’s yearning for everything she thought she couldn’t have—a lasting love and a forever family.

BRENDA MINTONlives in the Ozarks with her husband, children, cats, dogs and strays. She is a pastor’s wife, Sunday-school teacher, coffee addict and sleep deprived. Not in that order. Her dream to be an author for Harlequin started somewhere in the pages of a romance novel about a young American woman stranded in a Spanish castle. Her dreams came true, and twenty-plus books later, she is an author hoping to inspire young girls to dream.

Also By Brenda Minton

Love Inspired

Mercy Ranch

Reunited with the Rancher

Bluebonnet Springs

Second Chance Rancher

The Rancher’s Christmas Bride

The Rancher’s Secret Child

Martin’s Crossing

A Rancher for Christmas

The Rancher Takes a Bride

The Rancher’s Second Chance

The Rancher’s First Love

Her Rancher Bodyguard

Her Guardian Rancher

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Reunited with the Rancher

Brenda Minton

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08591-5

REUNITED WITH THE RANCHER

© 2018 Brenda Minton

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

She knew the truth too late.

Carson and his children would be too easy to love. She had to get away.

“I’m going to town. There’s the…” Think, think. “Stuff. At the…feed store.”

Carson quirked a brow. “Maybe I’ll go with you. The kids and I need some…stuff, too.”

She wanted to protest. But the challenge in his eyes wouldn’t let her.

“I’ll go get ready.”

She turned to leave, but he reached out for her. “Kylie, we really don’t need anything in town.”

She knew that. He’d been teasing, trying to get the best of her. And just for a brief moment she’d hoped he wanted to spend time with her.

She might have been the first girl he kissed, the girl he promised to always love, but, she reminded herself, she wasn’t the woman he married.

She realized her mistake. She’d been thinking of him as that boy she’d loved. He wasn’t. Not anymore.

She had fallen for a memory.

And the memory had turned to hope.

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoy the first book in the Mercy Ranch series. Mercy Ranch and the characters who live there are already favorites of mine, and I hope they’ll quickly become your favorites, too.

Carson and Kylie share a very broken past and they come together still searching for a way to put their lives back together. What they find as they try to maintain their separate lives is that God has always had a plan for the two of them. And that plan has brought them both to Mercy Ranch!

Thank you for taking this journey with me to Oklahoma. I continue to be uplifted by your many emails, messages and kind words.

Blessings,

Brenda

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

—Isaiah 61:3

This book is dedicated to the men and women who proudly serve in our armed forces, and to their families. We value your sacrifice and your bravery. May God richly bless you and keep you in all of your endeavors.

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

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One

Carson West had a plan. He had a plan to walk up to his father, hand him back the letter he’d sent—offering him a job as the physician of a clinic in Hope, Oklahoma—and tell him “Not in this lifetime.” No way would he give up the opportunity he’d been offered in Chicago for a job in a town that had seen better days fifty years ago.

No way would he settle in the town his mother had fled twenty years ago. She had taken her three children and nothing else. They hadn’t even been allowed to pack a suitcase. They hadn’t told friends they were leaving. They’d just gone in the middle of the night, like thieves fleeing the scene of the crime.

It seemed like a lifetime ago, but today he was back and he planned on letting Jack West know how it had felt to lose a father, even one who had randomly yelled, drank until he passed out, or woke them up at night with nightmares no one could sleep through. Because of his two tours in Vietnam, those behaviors hadn’t been in Jack’s control. But letting his family go without ever trying to contact them? Carson did blame him for that.

As he eased his SUV up the drive of the once rundown farm, he noticed several obvious differences. The white farmhouse with faded paint had been remodeled. The garage appeared to now be apartments. A short distance away stood a log home with stone trim and an attached three-car garage.

He’d been thirteen when they left, and it hadn’t been easy leaving this place. His father had been tough, sometimes angry, never predictable, but he’d still been their father. After a while Carson had buried the best of his memories and tried to push this place from his mind.