Debra Clopton - Her Unforgettable Cowboy

A New Beginning

Everyone in Dew Drop, Texas, is thrilled that Jolie Sheridan has returned to Sunrise Ranch. Everyone except Morgan McDermott. Eight years ago, Jolie left the ranch—and Morgan—for a career as a competitive kayaker. Now after an accident has sidelined her, she’s back as a teacher for the ranch’s foster boys. Morgan knows he can’t risk getting his heart broken again. But watching Jolie’s gentle ways with the boys opens his eyes to the truth: he’s never stopped loving her. Can a “family” of foster kids help give this couple a second chance at love?

“I didn’t come here to fight. I’ve been watching ever since the calf wrestling, and I think you’re helping Sammy,” Morgan admitted.

Jolie blinked. Had she heard him right?

“I came to tell you that I’ll do whatever I need to do to help you help him,” Morgan continued. His amazing blue eyes softened—he was actually conceding.

“G-good,” Jolie stammered. As she looked at him, she thought about trying to apologize again, telling him that she hadn’t meant to hurt him. But she knew he would only deny that she’d hurt him in the first place. “That’s the way it should be. Our past, what happened between us—”

“Is the past,” he said, firmly.

“Yes. We should still be able to help these boys even though we once had feelings for each other and it didn’t work out.”

What else could she say? She’d just come up against one wall after the other with him; he’d made it clear there was no sense in rehashing old history that he had no desire to revisit. So she stopped trying.

For now.

DEBRA CLOPTON

First published in 2005, Debra Clopton is an award-winning multipublished novelist who has won a Booksellers Best Award, an Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, a Golden Quill, a 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 twenty-two blessed years to her high school sweetheart, Debra was widowed in 2003. Happily, in 2008, a couple of friends played matchmaker and set her up on a blind date. Instantly hitting it off, they were married in 2010. They live in the country with her husband’s two high-school-age sons. Debra has two adult sons, a lovely daughter-in-law and a 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 Unforgettable Cowboy

Debra Clopton

www.millsandboon.co.uk

I will not leave you as orphans—I will come for you.

—John 14:18

In memory of Ms. Jo,

Grandma Edith and Grandma Sylvia.

Thinking of each of you makes me smile.

Special thanks goes to Carolyn and Joyce for the research trip to The Purple Cow—what a fun day we had. I think you’ll see the research paid off well.

Also a big thank-you to my editor, Melissa Endlich—

your insights and encouragement

in this new venture were spot on.

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

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Epilogue

Dear Reader

Questions for Discussion

Excerpt

Chapter One

Sunrise Ranch, Dew Drop, Texas

“Calm down, son.”

Morgan McDermott’s father, Randolph, cut Morgan off at the pass with a rasp of exasperation—which in no way, shape or form even began to match the anger-fueled exasperation Morgan was struggling to contain.

An imposing figure at fifty-two, Randolph had hair as black as the Texas oil pumping from the herd of wells across the ten-thousand-acre McDermott family ranch. The only differences between the two men—who shared chiseled high cheekbones and square-jawed features—was the whisper of white at Randolph’s temples and twenty years. Randolph was as physically fit and hard-headed as any of his three sons.

“Calm down?” Morgan gave a harsh laugh. “Are you kidding me? You go behind my back and hire my ex-fiancée, and you expect me to calm down? For starters, Dad, we’re partners. I’m supposed to make decisions like this with you. Second...”

Morgan was so shaken up by what he’d just been told that he lost his train of thought.

Jolie Sheridan, here.

Randolph pushed back from his desk and rose, meeting Morgan eye to eye. “You know as well as I do that we needed a teacher and we needed one quick. Jolie has graciously agreed to fill the position for one semester—”

“I don’t care if she’s paying you to let her teach the boys here at the ranch—I don’t want her here.” Morgan would never use this tone with his father under normal circumstances. But being blindsided by the knowledge that his dad had gone behind his back and hired the woman who had broken his heart was not normal circumstances. “We’re supposed to discuss this kind of thing, Dad.”

“I understand your feelings, but there was no time. Besides, Jolie is familiar with the school and will fit right in.”

Logically it made sense, but that didn’t ease the betrayal. Morgan remained silent, trying to grasp the reality of his situation.

“Your past is something I’d hoped you’d overcome by now. I hated that you got hurt when she left. We all did. That said, I’ve made a decision and it stands.”

Morgan rammed a hand through his hair. “How do you expect me to—” He halted at the stern look his dad shot him.

“I expect you to act like a man, not a brokenhearted teenager nursing a grudge.”

His dad’s words stung. “I got over her a long time ago and you know it,” he growled, not remembering the last time—if ever—that he’d been this angry with his father.

“Did you?” Randolph studied him, unflinching, from across the wide oak desk.

“You know I did. That doesn’t mean I want to be around her for the next four months.”

“You’re strong. You’ll make it. Maybe God worked the details out so you can come to some kind of peace with the situation. You may have gotten over Jolie, but you haven’t forgiven her. You can’t have peace until you do that.”

This was a no-win situation. Yanking a noose tight around his emotions Morgan snatched his hat from the hat rack. “I’m late,” he said, turning to leave. He pushed open the door of the Sunrise Ranch offices, his father’s words trailing him.

“Mind your manners, Morgan McDermott. And remember, those boys out there are watching every move you make and learning from you.”

“Some partnership,” Morgan growled as the blazing Texas heat hit him full force. It didn’t begin to compare to the sizzling heat of his fury.

His life had just turned into a train wreck.

Ramming his hat onto his head, Morgan battled to get a grip on his anger. Stalking across fifty yards of white-rock gravel separating the barns from the office and chow hall, he fought to rein in his emotions. He had a herd of boys enjoying a very special moment in the barn and he intended to be a part of it come baseball-size hail or high water. And he knew—without his dad reminding him—that they didn’t need to see him furious.

Sunrise Ranch was a working cattle ranch and foster home for boys who needed stability in their lives. Morgan took his job as their protector and role model extremely seriously. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t still be on the ranch in the first place.