Her Oklahoma Rancher

by Brenda Minton

  Her ex-fiancé is back—with a baby.

  Can they find a second chance at Mercy Ranch?

  Paralyzed veteran Eve Vincent has built an independent new life at a ranch for wounded warriors. But when she and her ex-fiancé, Ethan Forester, are named guardians of an orphaned baby girl, they must face down past misunderstandings to make a future for Tori. And caring for the little girl together might just rekindle their love...this time for forever.

  “Eve, there is no us. But we still exist, you and me, and Tori needs us.”

  Ethan said it softly because the baby in his arms seemed to be drifting off.

  “I obviously can’t do this. Last night was proof.”

  “Last night meant nothing. You’ve always managed, Eve. You’re strong and you’re capable.”

  “Before, Ethan,” she said sadly. “I was that person before. This is me now.”

  “I guess you have changed. I’ve never heard you say you can’t.”

  He glanced down at the little girl in his arms. “What other option is there? Should we turn her over to the state, let her take her chances with whoever they choose? Find some distant relative?”

  Ethan leaned back in the chair and studied Eve’s face. She was everything familiar. His childhood friend. The person he’d loved. She looked as stubborn as ever. But there was something fragile in her expression. Something that made him recheck his feelings. Eve had been his only broken heart. He didn’t want another one...

  Brenda Minton lives in the Ozarks with her husband, children, cats, dogs and strays. She is a pastor’s wife, Sunday-school teacher, coffee addict and sleep deprived. Not in that order. Her dream to be an author for Harlequin started somewhere in the pages of a romance novel about a young American woman stranded in a Spanish castle. Her dreams came true, and twenty-plus books later, she is an author hoping to inspire young girls to dream.

  Books by Brenda Minton

  Love Inspired

  Mercy Ranch

  Reunited with the Rancher

  The Rancher’s Christmas Match

  Her Oklahoma Rancher

  Bluebonnet Springs

  Second Chance Rancher

  The Rancher’s Christmas Bride

  The Rancher’s Secret Child

  Martin’s Crossing

  A Rancher for Christmas

  The Rancher Takes a Bride

  The Rancher’s Second Chance

  The Rancher’s First Love

  Her Rancher Bodyguard

  Her Guardian Rancher

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

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  HER OKLAHOMA RANCHER

  Brenda Minton

  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

  —Romans 8:28

  This book is dedicated to my agent,

  Melissa Jeglinski, for guiding me through

  this process. She puts up with my angst,

  cheers me on and encourages me. Thank you!

  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

  Dear Reader

  Excerpt from High Country Homecoming by Roxanne Rustand

  Chapter One

  Four years ago Hope, Oklahoma, had been a forgotten lake town, and Eve Vincent had been a patient in a VA hospital coming to terms with her new reality. As she transferred from her car to the wheelchair next to it, she realized that they’d both changed. The town was booming again. The resorts and hotels were up and running, and stores were reopened with new businesses. And Eve, like the little town of Hope, had reinvented herself. She’d survived the changes that had happened after an IED exploded, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.

  Eve hadn’t grown up in Hope but she now considered the little town her home. She had moved here to live on Mercy Ranch, owned by Jack West, the same man who had infused money and time into the local economy, essentially reviving the town. What Jack had done for Hope, he’d also done for the wounded warriors he’d brought to his ranch. He’d given them all a second chance and a way to start over.

  Sometimes she thought about going back home to Texas. But home was too complicated. Her aging parents would want to coddle her even as they reminded her they had begged her not to join the army. Going back to Texas would mean facing the past, facing memories and people. The past was best left in the past. She had a new life, a new reality. Tough as it had been, she’d found happiness here. Contentment even.

  As she headed for the ramp at the side of Mattie’s Café, she raised her face to the warm, late April sunshine. A perfect day. She glanced around, searching for Kylie West’s car. They met every Monday for lunch. It had been their routine since Kylie married Jack West’s son, Carson.

  Kylie met her at the top of the ramp, holding the door open for Eve to enter the café. Eve smiled up at her friend. Kylie held her two-month-old foster daughter in her arms and she looked every bit the happy wife and mother she should be.

  “You beat me here. Even with a baby and two kids, you’re early,” Eve teased her friend. Kylie was always early.

  “It’s a hard habit to break,” Kylie said as she followed Eve into the diner. “I have a table in the corner.”

  “Perfect.”

  Holly, the owner of Mattie’s, approached with water and menus. She looked frazzled, her dark hair in a messy bun and circles under her eyes that suggested she hadn’t been sleeping.

  “You okay, Holly?” Eve asked as the other woman set glasses of water on the table.

  “It’s been a busy morning. Hectic. And, you know, life.”

  “Anything we can do?” Kylie asked.

  Holly shook her head but Eve thought she saw moisture gather in her eyes. “Nope. I’ve got this. I’ll be right back to get your orders.”

  “I wish she understood that she has friends who are willing to help her.” Kylie situated her infant daughter in Eve’s arms. “I’m guessing that, even though you don’t like kids, babies or kittens, you want to hold this little darling?”

  “I’m not that horrible.” Eve gladly took the tiny little girl. “I like kittens.”

  “You’re absolutely not horrible,” Kylie assured her.

  “And I think Holly is just holding everything together and afraid if she cracks, even a little, the dam will burst.”

  “Agreed.”

  Eve’s phone rang. Kylie reached for her purse but Eve stopped her. “No. It’s probably my parents. And I don’t want to talk to them.”

  “You’re not talking to them?”

  “Today you’re my friend, not my therapist.” Eve kissed the downy head of the infant in her arms. “I love this precious nugget.”

  “Do not call her a nugget.”

  “She’s bite-sized.” She kissed Cara’s cheeks and was rewarded with the sweetest baby smile. Brown eyes fo
cused on Eve’s face and another grin followed.

  “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Kylie asked with a dreamy voice.

  “Are you seriously asking that question? Of course she’s beautiful.” Eve sighed as she held the baby close, sniffing hair that smelled of lavender.

  She wanted one. She wouldn’t admit it, even to her best friend. Half the time she couldn’t even admit it to herself. She wanted what she couldn’t have. A husband, a family, a home of her own. Instead of admitting to those secret things, she smiled.

  She shook her head slightly, dislodging the hint of melancholy. She was happy. She loved her life at Mercy Ranch. She loved her life. Period. She had a job translating documents and manuals to English. Four years ago she hadn’t dreamed she would be able to resume her life to this degree, so of course she was happy. The military had sent her to language school and she could still use those hard earned skills to support herself.

  Her phone rang again. She held Cara in her right arm and reached for the phone with her left. The caller seemed to be getting smarter in their attempts to reach her. This time the number was blocked. She thought of friends she’d ultimately blocked from her life, lost contact with, pushed aside. All because she hadn’t wanted to face them from this chair. She hadn’t wanted to face their pity.

  When she looked up, Kylie was watching, compassion in her eyes.

  “Your parents again?” Kylie asked.

  “No caller ID so I doubt it. Our last phone call didn’t end well and I told them I needed space but they’ve never blocked their number before.”

  “Friend or therapist, I’m going to give you some advice.” Kylie moved her chair close. “You have to deal with your parents. They love you and you love them. Tell them what you need from them.”

  “I know I’m going to have to talk to them, face-to-face. But somehow I have to make them see that I can’t come home. Mercy Ranch is my home now.” She focused on the baby in her arms. “They would chip away at my faith, my independence. I just can’t.”

  The bell over the front door clanged. Eve glanced that way. Nothing unusual, a stranger walking through the doors of the café. It happened more frequently these days. Jack’s plan to bring tourists back to Hope had been successful. She started to glance away but the man walking through the door with a baby in his arms wasn’t a stranger. Suddenly she felt her skin go cold and her ears buzzed.

  “Eve, are you okay?” Kylie swooped in to take her baby. “Breathe.”

  “I can’t... I can’t breathe. I have to leave. I need to get out of here.”

  Kylie followed her gaze toward the front of the café and the man standing just inside the door. He zeroed in on Eve with lightning precision. Eve reached for her glass of water, hands trembling as she lifted it to her lips.

  “Who is he?” Kylie asked.

  “Her worst nightmare,” he said as he approached their table.

  Holly chose that moment to appear.

  “Do I need to bring another menu?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he said. At the same time Eve shook her head and said, “No.”

  Holly looked to Eve. She didn’t know how to get the words out. She didn’t know what to say. Her past, present and future had just collided in one big messy pileup and her heart still couldn’t catch up.

  Six years since they’d seen each other. Six years and he still had the ability to undo everything inside her. She couldn’t let him do that to her. She drew in a deep breath, ignored his dark auburn hair, the strength of his chin, the deep brown of his eyes. Okay, she didn’t really ignore anything about him. How could she when he was looming over her?

  With a baby.

  “Ethan, what are you doing here?” Her voice came out in a squeak.

  “Obviously I’m finding out some things I didn’t know.” His voice changed from harsh to questioning, hurt maybe?

  “Why don’t you have a seat?” Kylie offered, pulling up another chair. “Your baby is beautiful.”

  He looked down at the bundle in his arms, as if he’d forgotten about the baby in the pink dress, all soft blond hair and big eyes.

  Kylie looked from the baby to Eve. A baby. Eve shouldn’t be surprised. Four years of silence meant that any number of things could have happened in Ethan’s life. Including a wife and children. But what was he doing here? Why now?

  She waited, knowing that whatever Ethan had to say, it would hurt. And it would change her life. She felt the devastation coming and couldn’t do a thing to stop it. Without thinking she grabbed Kylie’s hand, needing strength from her best friend as the man sitting at their table stared her down, accusations and pain shining in his dark eyes.

  * * *

  For several years Ethan Forester had run the scenarios through his mind, trying to decide which one best fit Eve’s defection from his life, from the life they’d planned together. In his mind the phone call ending their engagement had been made because she’d found someone else or possibly decided she wanted a military career over a marriage to a rancher from Texas. Her parents had never been in favor of their relationship so maybe she’d come around to their way of thinking. That’s what he’d told himself. It hadn’t made him feel any better but it had helped him to deal with the loss.

  Even with the possible explanations, he’d struggled with how they’d gone from in love and engaged to separated and never seeing one another again. Over the phone they’d been planning the wedding because she would have been leaving the army and coming home. They’d picked the venue, the caterer, had even discussed bridesmaids and groomsmen. And then silence for several months.

  Their next phone call had been her telling him their engagement was over and that she never wanted to see him again. Her parents had refused to tell him anything. No surprises there.

  Now, face-to-face with her, he got it. And he was angry and hurt all over again. After years of being best friends, in love, engaged, she had kept this from him.

  “You could have told me about...” The words came out, torn from somewhere deep inside. “You could have trusted me enough to tell me.”

  “Not here,” she said. She turned away from him, not before he saw the flash of pain that flickered in her brown eyes.

  He didn’t want to feel her pain. The moment sympathy tried to surface, he shoved it back down. Tori shifted in his arms and hugged his neck, a reminder that this wasn’t about him. It wasn’t about Eve. The six-month-old in his arms came first. This was about her life, her future.

  He’d had the most difficult two weeks of his life. Tori had shared in the devastation. She was just too young to really understand how her life had changed on a rainy night two weeks ago.

  The devastation he’d felt was about to be visited on the woman sitting in front of him, dark eyes warily studying the child in his arms.

  “You’re right. Not here.” He didn’t know how to proceed. “Where can we talk?”

  She backed away from the table, her gaze flicking briefly to the woman sitting across from her. She noticed his attention on that woman and she sighed.

  “Ethan Forester, this is my friend Kylie West and her daughter Cara.” Her gaze shot to the child in his arms.

  A child she might have known had she kept in contact with friends. He should give her a definition of the word, so she would understand what it meant to her family, to her friends, that she’d disappeared from their lives.

  Kylie gave him an easy smile. “There’s a small, private room through the door at the back of the restaurant. I’ll let Holly know where you’ve gone. And if you want lunch, I’ll have her deliver it to you there.”

  Eve shook her head. “I’ve lost my appetite.”

  Rather than respond, he followed Eve as she led the way through the now crowded diner. People spoke to her but gave him suspicious looks. He knew those looks. He’d grown up in a small town. The same small town as Eve, just a s
hort distance from Austin.

  The “private room” at the back of the restaurant appeared to be an afterthought. It was a small room with three tables joined together and a painted plywood wall separating it from the rest of the café. He pulled a chair away from the table and Eve gave him a look. Thanking him. Or possibly telling him she didn’t appreciate his help. He didn’t know the protocol for helping someone in a wheelchair.

  He didn’t know this woman. Six years ago he would have said he knew her better than he knew himself. He had been wrong. The woman who had shared everything with him had been someone else. Maybe they hadn’t known each other at all.

  The girl from his childhood would have turned to him, not away from him.

  “I didn’t know you had a child,” she said.

  He sat down across from her, Tori picking at his ear. He held her tight and tried to find the right words. As angry as he might be, he still had to tell her news that would devastate her. News she should have heard two weeks ago.

  “She isn’t mine. If you weren’t hiding, you’d know that. If you’d let your parents tell me how to contact you, you’d know.”

  “I’m sorry,” she murmured, glancing away as she made the apology.

  Anger simmered, with her, with himself for caring.

  “I found you because my sister saw your name mentioned in an article about Mercy Ranch. I’ve known you almost my entire life and I’ve spent four years not knowing where you were or what had happened to you. So, yeah, you’re sorry, but I’m afraid sorry doesn’t fix this.”

  “This?” Her expression was calm. Her dark eyes had settled on Tori, revealing she was anything but calm. A storm brewed in those eyes.

  “Tori is James and Hanna’s daughter.”

  She sat perfectly still but her expression clouded at the mention of their friends. He thought she held her breath, waiting.

  He had to say the words. He knew it would devastate her. But from her changing expression, she knew what was coming. “They were killed in a car accident.”