Nevada Cowboy Dad

Nevada Cowboy Dad
Dorsey Kelley

FAMILYMATTERSFAMILY FOR A YEAR…Both wanted a home–the same home! So lonely widow Lucy Donovan and Rusty Sheffield struck a yearlong bargain. Lucy promised the cash to save the cowboy dad's beloved ranch, and he'd let her stay at her old house with him and his niece. And when the year ended, so did their partnership. Right?OR A LIFETIME?Well, not if Lucy could help it. She'd come to recapture her happy childhood–but Rusty was making her glad she was a woman. Soon, Lucy didn't want to go anywhere–except down the aisle!Kisses, kids, cuddles and kin–the best things in life are find in families!

“How could I live in the same house with a female like you and not want you?” Rusty said. (#ub8df88b1-a51f-5eb7-bb9b-3ece7ff7b158)Letter to Reader (#ub217652e-6390-5c7a-866c-f0532263fa8c)Title Page (#uefff9f5c-0a5d-559d-8c3d-bebd2ca2657e)Dedication (#u70e61956-36b7-5090-9152-2beba0f1bdab)About the Author (#u517651ed-fccb-5e97-9c33-766219cd88dd)Chapter One (#u8aaa91f5-b81a-5f1f-9e4a-3f20eb508ad9)Chapter Two (#u58114688-8e73-5243-acf5-ed1d44bcb9aa)Chapter Three (#uf89a3020-c310-5810-aa79-0c2dc7bf70ca)Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“How could I live in the same house with a female like you and not want you?” Rusty said.

“You’re beautiful,” he continued. “And all woman.”

Stunned, Lucy kept her head down. “Please,” she said belatedly, “don’t say those things.”

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t. I didn’t come to the Lazy S for that. I want a family, Rusty.”

“Family,” he echoed in disbelief. “You mean you want to treat me like some kind of...of brother?”

At least he understood, she thought, relieved. She nodded firmly. “Yes. A brother.”

Surprising her, he threw back his head and guffawed. “Woman, I think maybe you’ve lost a few head of cattle from your herd.” His laughter filled the fall air. “There’s nothing brotherly about the way I feel about you, Lucy. And you’re not being truthful with your own feelings if you say you think of me that way.”

Dear Reader,

As spring turns to summer, make Silhouette Romance the perfect companion for those lazy days and sultry nights! Fans of our LOVING THE BOSS series won’t want to miss The Marriage Merger by exciting author Vivian Leiber. A pretend engagement between friends goes awry when their white lies lead to a real white wedding!

Take one biological-clock-ticking twin posing as a new mom and one daddy determined to gain custody of his newborn son, and you’ve got the unsuspecting partners in The Baby Arrangement, Moyra Tarling’s tender BUNDLES OF JOY title. You’ve asked for more TWINS ON THE DOORSTEP, Stella Bagwell’s charming author-led miniseries, so this month we give you Millionaire on Her Doorstep, an emotional story of two wounded souls who find love in the most unexpected way...and in the most unexpected place.

Can a bachelor bent on never marrying and a single mom with a bustling brood of four become a Fairy-Tale Family? Find out in Pat Montana’s delightful new novel. Next, a handsome doctor’s case of mistaken identity leads to The Triplet’s Wedding Wish in this heartwarming tale by DeAnna Talcott. And a young widow finds the home—and family—she’s always wanted when she strikes a deal with a Nevada Cowboy Dad, this month’s FAMILY MATTERS offering from Dorsey Kelley.

Enjoy this month’s fantastic selections, and make sure to return each and every month to Silhouette Romance!

Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor, Silhouette Romance

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Nevada Cowboy Dad

Dorsey Kelley

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

I dedicate this novel to all the fine organizations that support verbally abused and physically battered women, and most especially to the Nicole Brown Simpson Charitable Foundation. For any abused wife: Please, take heart, and get help.

DORSEY KELLEY can hardly get off a horse long enough to write books. She helps ranchers move cattle around in annual drives, participates in roundups and brandings and hams it up in parades. Now she is learning to team rope because, she says, “It’s so dam much fun!”

When she isn’t horsing around, Dorsey plays tennis, takes her three daughters to the mall and makes her husband crazy with planning even more ranch trips.

Chapter One

She was coming back. And she was bringing her money with her.

That was all Rusty Sheffield allowed himself to think about as he waited on horseback for the sleek sports car to make its way up the gravel drive of the Lazy S Ranch. The expensive engine almost purred, he thought broodingly, as out of place on the Nevada cattle ranch as antlers on a sheepdog.

Impatient and frustrated, Rusty yanked off his hat and slapped at a clump of dried mud on his thigh. Dust rose from both his hat and his worn jeans, making thin clouds in the chill air. Damn, he hated what he was about to do, hated the reason for this meeting with Lucy Donovan.

Still, every time he reviewed the ranch’s dismal finances the truth was a fist slamming agonizingly into his gut. He resettled his hat, but there was no denying it—he was getting desperate.

Lifting the reins, he urged his sorrel gelding out the corral and toward the gravelled area where Lucy had parked her car and was now emerging.

“Welcome back.” He touched his Stetson and forced out the courtesy. “It’s been a long time.”

Lucy lingered in the embrace of her car’s door, blinking nervously as if she needed shielding. She was small, her chin-length hair straight and plain, with ebony strands that now blew in the slight breeze.

She’s awful damn pretty. The errant thought came to Rusty out of nowhere, as did images he hadn’t replayed in years. He remembered big, frightened green eyes that seemed to see everything, and ragged-cut hair, dark and tattered as old black silk. He remembered her forlorn expression.

He didn’t remember pretty.

“Oh, I didn’t see you there,” she said, and twisted to face him.

Her hands clutched the car’s streamlined window frame and he noticed she wore a severe gray suit with heels. Her body was slim, with every curve a man liked to see. Little Lucy had become a woman.

“Uh,” she said, “it has been a long time. Fifteen years since I’ve been here.”

“Since the divorce,” Rusty said, dismounting. “Our parents must have had the shortest marriage on record.” Six months, to be exact, Rusty remembered silently, before Lucy’s mother decided she didn’t like country living—and didn’t like the rancher with whom she’d exchanged vows. She’d packed up her car, her annoying little lap dog and Lucy.

“How is your mother?” he asked. Best to get the formalities over with.

“Living abroad,” she answered curtly. “Remarried. A shipping magnate this time, I think.”

“You don’t talk to her much, then?”

She shrugged, but under her calm, he could feel her emotions. Lucy and her mom weren’t cut from the same cloth; he knew that from way back.

Not that it mattered to him. None of his business.

He saw her glance over the sprawling two-story house, the white-painted outbuildings of barns, sheds and bunkhouse. His gaze followed hers, seeing what she saw, and he winced. How evident was the peeling paint? How obvious the overgrown weeds, the half-broken fence posts?

“It’s the same,” she whispered, though her words drifted to him on the cold breeze. “Nothing’s changed. Nothing.”

“That bad, huh?” His jaw clenched.