An Accidental Family

An Accidental Family
Darlene Graham

What's hidden in the Winding Stair Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma?Rainey Chapman has three young, troubled boys in her care. When they witness a crime, Rainey's difficult job becomes deadly serious. Until the criminals are caught, she must hide the boys at a secret location known only to Seth Whitman–a small-town cop with a secret of his own.Rainey's never met a man like Seth, but she has met a cop like him–her father, gunned down over ten years ago. She's vowed that she will never fall for a man who puts himself in danger every day. Even if he's become a father figure for the needy boys…and even if he's everything she's ever wanted in a man.

The moon shone as full and lucent as a spotlight

The dogs had trotted along and threaded underfoot and the boys were as bad as Granny’s billy goats, leaping around on the jagged rocks in the dark. Seth had to grab at a couple of shirt collars and haul them back from the ledge. Finally they all settled down under the vast night sky for some stargazing.

“Boys, look,” Rainey said. “That’s Arcturus.” She pointed. “And that’s Andromeda. Orion. And those— Granny calls those the seven sisters.”

While she was speaking a shooting star cut through the dark sky low on the horizon.

“Wow! Did you see that?” Dillon poked Seth’s shoulder excitedly. Maddy signed his wonder near Rainey’s face in the dark.

Even Aaron looked enthralled. While Rainey was watching Aaron, Seth was watching her. At one point they exchanged a glance of protective accord over the boys’ heads, and Rainey wondered what it would be like, how it would feel, to raise children with the kind of man who would take them up on a mountain to look at the stars.

Dear Reader,

Seth Whitman and Rainey Chapman form a family with three needy young boys under most unusual circumstances in a most unusual setting.

The Winding Stair Mountains in southeastern Oklahoma have an enduring mystery and beauty that civilization cannot touch. Just hearing the names of the landmarks in that area stirred my imagination: Black Fork Mountain, Talimena Drive, The Runestones.

I had to see this remote corner of my state up close. So with my best friend from high school riding shotgun, I took off on a road trip. As we checked out the towns, the historic sites, the flora and fauna, the dark rivers and hidden waterfalls, we discovered that the real treasures in southeastern Oklahoma are the people. The preachers and the cowboys and the artists who live there today are as fascinating as the outlaws and the Native American chiefs and the Vikings who passed through in the old days.

All this color and beauty and lore became like a kaleidoscope that I twisted and twisted until I came up with Granny’s mountain home and the town of Tenikah…the perfect place for Seth and Rainey to fall in love and find a family.

I’d love to hear from you! Contact me at P.O. Box 720224, Norman, OK 73070 or visit my Web site, www.darlenegraham.com. While you’re there, be sure to take a peek at my upcoming Texas trilogy.

My best,

Darlene Graham

An Accidental Family

Darlene Graham

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

For my lifelong friend, Susan Camp.

Thank you for exploring the Winding Stair Mountains

with me. Our adventures seem never to end!

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 ONE

THE FACE OF HIS BROTHER rose up to haunt Seth Whitman as he crouched alone in the dark. For some reason he always envisioned Lane the way he looked in the old black-and-white photo that hung on the wall of the field house, a cocky seventeen-year-old football hero, immortalized along with every other All-State player to graduate from Tenikah High. There was no black-and-white portrait of Seth’s face up on that wall, and he was glad of it. Since the day Coach Hollings had ripped his picture down, Seth had been the outsider and always would be.

The snap of a twig somewhere in the dark rock formations that surrounded him snuffed the memories. Alert to any sound that might be the movement of humans, he listened but heard nothing except the throaty roar of the river below, and from behind, the tinkle of seeping water inside the caves.

He eased back down into the dark niche to resume his vigil.

His sweat-soaked uniform chafed like leather beneath his Kevlar bulletproof vest as the fingers clutching the stock of his shotgun tightened into a choke hold. An old hatred burned suddenly alive again in the pit of his gut.

He sensed the presence of his brother’s murderers as palpably as he sensed the dying traces of summer in the air. Waiting for them was excruciating.

He swiped at a trickle of sweat slithering down his throat. The temperature had spiked above a hundred today, rare in the densely forested mountains of southeastern Oklahoma, even in August. When it got this hot, the trees seemed to wilt and the sandstone cliffs and winding blacktop roads refused to release their heat even after the sun slid behind the ridgelines. He’d bet his pickup that the temperature hadn’t dropped ten degrees since sundown.

Another twig snapped.