Debra Clopton - Her Homecoming Cowboy

A Little Boy’s Hero

After losing his mother, Annie Ridgeway’s sweet six-year-old nephew thinks he’s an orphan. Turns out the father he never knew is bull rider Colt Holden—the boy’s hero. Before bringing them together as father and son, Annie has to make sure Colt is as good a man as he is a cowboy. When she arrives in Mule Hollow, she finds the handsome, honorable man guarding his burdened heart against caring for anyone or anything. Will a little boy’s devotion be the fighting chance they all need?

“Honey, let go of Mr. Holden,” Annie said to her nephew.

Bright eyes beamed back at her. “But, Aunt Annie, I’ve been waiting for-evvv-er.”

She smiled and gently tugged the little boy’s arm away from Colt’s leg. Looking up, her gaze locked once more with Colt’s alarmed brown eyes.

Ever since she’d found the letter that revealed who Leo’s daddy was, God had laid a heavy burden on her heart. It had taken her house burning down to make her figure out what she wanted to do. And that was to come find out what kind of man Colt was.

She’d been here all of ten minutes and things weren’t looking so good. “I’m sorry about this. I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Annie Ridgeway, and this is my nephew, Leo.”

“Our house burned down and my room is gone,” Leo said, staring up at Colt.

Colt’s brows crinkled in dismay. “Y-your house burned down?”

She didn’t miss the flash of compassion in his reaction.

So the man does have a heart buried in there somewhere.

DEBRA CLOPTON

First published in 2005, Debra Clopton is an award-winning, multi-published novelist who has won a Book-sellers Best Award, an Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, a Golden Quill, the Cataromance Reviewers’ Choice Award, RT Book Reviews Book of the Year, and Harlequin.com’s Readers’ Choice Award. She was also a 2004 finalist in the prestigious RWA Golden Heart, a triple finalist in the American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award and most recently a finalist in the 2011 Gayle Wilson Award for Excellence.

Married for 22 blessed years to her high school sweetheart, Wayne Clopton, Debra was widowed in 2003. Happily, in 2008, a couple of friends played match-maker and set her up on a blind date with Chuck Parks. Instantly hitting it off, Debra and Chuck were married in 2010. They live in the country with Chuck’s two high-school-age sons. Debra has two adult sons, a lovely daughter-in-law and beautiful granddaughter—life is good! Her greatest awards are her family and spending time with them. You can reach Debra at P.O. Box 1125, Madisonville, TX 77864 or at debraclopton.com.

Her Homecoming Cowboy

Debra Clopton

www.millsandboon.co.uk

There is a season for everything,

and a time for every activity under heaven.

—Ecclesiastes 3:1

This book is dedicated to my good friends

Melanie Trant and Joanna Harris...

your hearts of gold and sassy attitudes made me fans from the first moments we met! As they say in Texas, God did “real good” when He ran our paths together. Thanks for being my friends.

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

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Epilogue

Dear Reader

Questions for Discussion

Chapter One

“Well, hi there, Colt Holden, bull rider extraordinaire. My goodness you’re breathtaking to watch on a bull.... Oh, and by the way, I’m here to tell you that you’re a daddy!”

Annie Ridgeway recited the words in her head. Nope, that was certainly not the way to break the news. Though humor did lighten up a hard situation most times, in this case...not so much.

Annie and her sister, Jennifer, had always had very different ideas about life. Following rodeos around and being too friendly with the cowboys who rode bulls and broncs had been, in Annie’s view, a terrible thing. Then again, she and her sister had always been opposites. Jennifer thought Annie was a stick-in-the-mud, and she thought Jennifer was a...well, to put it bluntly, a lot too loose with her affections.

The two sisters had basically disagreed about almost everything right up until the day Jennifer died a year ago.

They had disagreed about everything, that is, but their love for Leo. On loving Leo they had agreed completely.

What was best for Leo—on that they’d remained consistent—disagreeing till the very end.

Annie started over. “Mr. Holden, you don’t know this, but you are the daddy of my six-year-old nephew, Leo. Surprise!”

Groaning, she bit her lip and nibbled on that straightforward approach. It was blunt. But it was the truth.

Six years. That was a long time to keep something as important as this hidden. Whether the rowdy cowboy had wanted to know or not, he should have been told.

That ended today.

Annie had decided today was the last day she was going to be responsible for such a significant piece of her nephew’s life. Having made this monumental decision hadn’t made it easy for her. Oh, no. She’d be lying if she claimed that. It had been down-right hard; in fact, God had actually gotten a little rough with her to get her attention!

She tried again to squelch the need to turn and run. Dread so heavy she could barely breathe settled over her as she pulled her old clunker onto the gravel drive of the Holden Ranch. Squinting against the bright July sunshine, she battled with where to go—the house or the office. The small metal office sat closer to the road and had three trucks sitting in front of it, making it the logical choice.

Continuing to nibble at her lip she studied the simple office building of the Holden Ranch, and then the white ranch house in the distance. The sense of dread wrapped tighter around her, suffocating her...

You have nowhere else to go.

Ha! She could find a way to make it—

This is for Leo.

She closed her eyes.

Everything was for her little Leo.

“Is this where he lives?”

Leo’s question interrupted her thoughts. Pulling herself together, Annie turned to look at her six-year-old nephew. He was sitting in his safety chair in the backseat of the car, beaming with expectations that terrified her.

What if this guy was a jerk?

Even though Leo thought they were going to meet Colt Holden, the man he most admired in all the world, Leo had no idea what this meeting meant to his future.

Forcing a smile and ignoring the rolling of her stomach, she answered, “Yes, I believe it is. This is a great day, isn’t it?” Sick as she felt she couldn’t help being excited for Leo—after all, he was meeting his hero today.

He idolized pro-bull rider Colt Holden. Up until her death a year ago, her sister had told Leo all kinds of bedtime stories about the bull rider. They watched him when he was on television competing in pro-bull-riding events. And Jennifer had posted pictures of Colt Holden all over Leo’s room.

Annie’s mind filled with images of the bull rider’s dazzling smile in many poses and his gritty concentration when he was riding the fierce bulls.

There was no denying that the cowboy was awe-inspiring in that regard. And no wonder that Leo, clueless about who his father was, had grown up adoring the cowboy his mother had painted as the most wonderful man in the world. This should have given Annie a little heads-up on the matter. But it hadn’t.