Medicine Man

Medicine Man
Cheryl Reavis

OPPOSITES ATTRACT. BUT THEN WHAT?He was about to go to a war zone. He couldn' t get involved with a woman now.She was in a battle for custody of her son. She couldn' t risk a new romance.He was half Navajo; he embraced the spiritual wisdom of his ancestors.She knew nothing about his traditions.And both Will Baron' s and Arley Meehan' s big, protective, opinionated families opposed the two of them being together.If they were smart, they' d walk away from each other fast. If they followed their hearts, who knew what might happen….

The sound of the rain grew louder overhead, and there was a loud crack of thunder.

“Male rain,” Will said, watching the trees bend under the onslaught of the rising storm.

“Rain has a gender?”

“Where I come from it does.”

“What’s a female rain like?”

“Steady. Gentle. Soft.”

After a moment Arley stepped closer.

“I know you’re tough—Airborne and all that—and I don’t want you to panic because this is not because I think you need it,” she said. “This is because I need it—so I’ll feel better.”

With that, she slid her arms around him, resting her head against his shoulder.

He intended to end the embrace, to step away while he still could, but she lifted her head and looked at him. She was so close, her body soft and warm against his. He tried to smile and didn’t quite make it. Instead, he slowly lowered his mouth to lightly touch hers.

Dear Reader,

What a capricious thing a writer’s muse can be. More than once I’ve thought a character’s story had ended only to discover that that wasn’t the case at all. They’re still there somehow, but out of sight, waiting for just the right opportunity to step into the limelight again.

I first encountered Will Baron when he was three years old, and what a great writing pleasure it was to create a better life for this abandoned little boy. Will was happy. End of story. Or so I thought.

Then, here he came again when he was a teenager, both helping and needing help, filling an important supportive role in other stories I wanted to tell and yet still yearning for things he would have been hard pressed to name.

And now, here he is one more time—with his own story at last. Medicine Man is Will Baron’s journey to finally find the place where he truly belongs and to win the heart of the woman he is struggling so hard not to love.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading it, and I hope you’ll visit me at my Web site: www.members.authorsguild.net/cherylreavis/

Best always,

Cheryl Reavis

Medicine Man

Cheryl Reavis

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

CHERYL REAVIS

award-winning short story author and romance novelist who also writes under the name of Cinda Richards, describes herself as a late bloomer who played in her first piano recital at the tender age of thirty. “We had to line up by height—I was the third smallest kid,” she says. “After that, there was no stopping me. I immediately gave myself permission to attempt my other heart’s desire—to write.” Her Silhouette Special Edition novel A Crime of the Heart reached millions of readers via Good Housekeeping magazine. Both A Crime of the Heart and Patrick Gallagher’s Widow won the Romance Writers of America’s coveted RITA

Award for Best Contemporary Series Romance the year they were published. One of Our Own received the Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series Romance from Romantic Times BOOKreviews. A former public health nurse, Cheryl makes her home in North Carolina with her husband.

For all the readers who have written to ask me what

happened to Will Baron. This is for you, with my

sincere thanks for your kind comments and support.

Special thanks, too, to Vanessa’s sergeant

for answering my many questions.

Any mistakes are mine, not his.

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

Epilogue