This Cowboy's Son

This Cowboy's Son
Mary Sullivan

You have a son.The announcement is not exactly the welcome Matthew Long expects from Jenny Sterling when he arrives in Ordinary, Montana. Five years away can change a man, but he suspects he's still not the settle-on-the-ranch type. And if he can't settle, how is he supposed to lend a hand to raise his kid?Seems Jenny has different ideas, however. She wants Matt to do what he does best–move on so that she can return to her life without him. Surprisingly that's something Matt doesn't want to do. Because the moment he gets over the shock of being a daddy, he remembers all the powerful chemistry between him and Jenny. And if there is one person who could persuade him to be the staying kind, it might be her.

What was Matt Long doing here five long years after he’d left?

Jenny had hoped to never see him again.

When he stepped out of the truck, still as gorgeous as ever, Jenny’s traitorous heart twitched, but she forced it to settle down. Fast. Shallow charm and a killer grin wouldn’t turn her head this time around. She’d learned her lesson when he’d run out on her.

He could no longer set her skin on fire. The only heat that burned within her for him now was anger.

“You have a lot of nerve coming back to Ordinary,” she said. “Especially after the way you left. You couldn’t have said goodbye? Or left a note?”

He stopped when he saw her. His mouth dropped open then just as quickly closed. The line of his jaw became hard. Then he shrugged.

No conscience.

Good to know. She felt better about the decisions she’d made. She’d been right to do what she’d done, and to hell with Matt’s feelings. They weren’t her concern.

Dear Reader,

Sometimes the best things in life are the surprises.

Just when we think we have everything figured out, and know exactly where we want our lives to go, surprises send us for a loop, raise their figurative heads and say, “You might want to rethink where you’re headed.”

Matthew Long first appeared in No Ordinary Cowboy as a love ’em and leave ’em cowboy, but I wasn’t ready to love him and leave him. I knew he had a whole lot more going on than he let the world see.

Matt believes he would make a terrible father, but once he sees Jesse for the first time and realizes that Jesse is his son, his life changes irrevocably.

The question then is whether Matt is up to the challenge, but we romance readers expect a lot from our heroes and our heroes hate to disappoint us.

Sometimes the things we most fear, brought on by those uncontrollable surprises in life, stand up and shout, “Sure your life was okay the way you planned it, but you’re going to love this even more!”

Enjoy Matt’s story!

Mary Sullivan

This Cowboy’s Son

Mary Sullivan

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

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mary Sullivan loves writing about children. That’s why you’ll find them in many of her stories. She loves to watch how they affect us in real life and then writes about how they affect her heroes and heroines. If we allow them to, children can challenge us as parents and caregivers and extended family members and in society as a whole to be the best that we can be. Readers can reach her through her Web site at www.MarySullivanbooks.com.

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

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

WIND WHIPPED through the valley and howled around the old house like a widow keening.

A crack of thunder shook the earth. Rain pelted the windshield faster than the wipers could clear it away, blurring the outline of the cabin.

Matthew Long swore he could hear years-dead voices whispering things better left unsaid. Grief clung to this place like a bad dream, still breathed his father’s obscenities and his mother’s lunatic ravings.

He wished that Jenny Sterling could have found somewhere else to ride out this storm other than the house he’d grown up in.

Lightning flashed the midnight sky with midday brightness, exposing a still life of the land on which Matt had hoped to never again step foot. Weeds had obliterated any trace of the small garden his mother had once planted in the yard. A hole the size of a pebble marred one of the living room’s windows.

The flat roof of the veranda listed like a drunken sailor.

The house looked forgotten and lonesome.

Warm light flickered in the cabin’s windows and wood smoke scented the air. Jenny had started a fire.

Matt couldn’t put it off any longer. He had to go in there and drag her back home to the Sheltering Arms. Hank might be a friend, but he was also their employer. The little idiot needed to apologize for the argument she’d started with Hank’s guest, Amy.

He turned off the engine and jumped out of the truck.