A Ready-Made Texas Family

by Angel Moore

  A Partnership of Necessity

  For the sake of her orphaned siblings, Charlotte Green will do anything to save her family’s Texas hotel—even hire her childhood nemesis, Nathan Taylor. Sure, he’s grown into a charming, handsome man since then, but it won’t change the past…or her present situation. Like it or not, Charlotte must work with Nathan, but that doesn’t mean she has to enjoy it!

  After love burned him, the only commitment Nathan will make is to his career. He won’t be distracted...even if Charlotte is as lovely as she is feisty and the hotel is beginning to feel like home. But when a new opportunity pits his ambition against his heart, will Nathan choose Charlotte and her family?

  “So, you’re finally going to eat lunch with me,” Nathan said, giving Charlotte a mischievous glance. “After all these years.”

  A vision of him laughing at her while she flailed wildly in the schoolyard trying to free a frog he’d put on her head from her tangled braids came rushing to the front of her mind. The next week he’d asked her to eat her lunch with him. An invitation she’d flatly refused.

  “Only for work, and you’ll be dismissed instantly if I get so much as a glimpse or hint of a frog.” She smiled at his chuckle.

  “No teasing.” He met her gaze with his clear blue eyes. Eyes so intense they invited her to trust. “I promise.”

  “I have not agreed to hire you yet, Mr. Taylor.”

  “You must call me Nathan. I fear I’ll never be able to think of you as Miss Green.”

  “Nathan.” The name rolled off her tongue with ease. She liked the sound of it. It was a strong and manly name. “I don’t see how I can offer you the job. Not with our history.”

  Angel Moore fell in love with romance in elementary school when she read the story of Robin Hood and Maid Marian. Who doesn’t want to escape to a happily-ever-after world? Married to her best friend, she has two wonderful sons, a lovely daughter-in-law and three grandkids. She loves sharing her faith and the hope she knows is real because of God’s goodness to her. Find her at www.angelmoorebooks.com.

  Books by Angel Moore

  Love Inspired Historical

  Conveniently Wed

  The Marriage Bargain

  The Rightful Heir

  Husband by Arrangement

  A Ready-Made Texas Family

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  ANGEL MOORE

  A Ready-Made Texas Family

  Strength and honour are her clothing;

  and she shall rejoice in time to come.

  —Proverbs 31:25

  ~ In loving memory of Lisa Bailey ~

  Many called her friend; I called her sister.

  Her joy at my successes will forever echo in my heart and mind.

  I rejoice that she is home with Jesus.

  * * *

  To Mama, the lady whose love for Christ taught me how to live an abundant life.

  To Nathaniel, for the use of his moniker.

  I hope you enjoy your namesake.

  And to God, for the faith and hope that are the foundation of my stories.

  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

  Epilogue

  Dear Reader

  Excerpt from Convenient Amish Proposal by Jan Drexler

  Chapter One

  Gran Colina, Texas

  August, 1882

  “No. No. No.” Charlotte Green held up her hands and took a step back from the registration desk. “I will not—cannot—work with him.” She felt her face twist in denial as she pointed at the man who’d followed the town banker into her lobby. Nathan Taylor had tormented her through much of their childhood. The fact that he’d grown into a handsome man did not escape her notice. His black suit jacket fit his broad shoulders as though it were hand tailored. The blue eyes dancing with mischief taunted her without saying a word.

  “Miss Green, you have no choice.” Thomas Freeman refused to listen to her. “Your father borrowed from my bank to run this hotel. The only way for you to repay my money is for Green’s Grand Hotel to remain a successful business. My alternative will be to sell the property to another hotelier.” He smirked. An actual smirk. Thomas Freeman wanted his money. Charlotte knew that whatever happened to her and her younger siblings did not matter to the man.

  She refused to allow him to bully her. “I will find a way. I’ll find someone else, but I will not work with him. He is incorrigible.”

  Nathan stepped around Mr. Freeman. “Miss Green, please accept my condolences on the loss of your parents. I know this is a terrible time for you and your family.” Sympathy? It was unlike any trait she’d ever seen in him. She would not be caught off guard by the charm he’d acquired in the years since he’d left Gran Colina.

  Charlotte schooled her features into what she hoped was politeness. “Thank you, Mr. Taylor.” She picked up her pencil and looked across the desk at both men. “If you will excuse me, I have work to do.” She turned her attention to the registration book but was unable to focus as the entries swam before her eyes. She blinked quickly. No one would see her cry. Any sign of weakness in front of Mr. Freeman could cause an increase in the scrutiny he’d fixed on her Monday morning after her father and his wife, the woman she’d grown to accept and love as her mother, were killed in a train wreck.

  The banker persisted. “Mr. Taylor will be here to make certain the work is done in a timely and proficient manner. He comes highly recommended by his uncle.”

  She tossed the pencil onto the book. “What qualifications for running a hotel does the nephew of our town doctor have? I grew up in this hotel. There’s not a person alive who knows more about this business than I do.”

  Charlotte gasped as the truth of her words sank in. It was Friday morning. Four days since her parents had died.

  Michael and Sarah bolted through the door that led to the family residence and wrapped themselves around her legs.

  “Michael took my doll!” Sarah reached around Charlotte and tried to snatch the handkerchief doll from the boy.

  Charlotte held out her hand to Michael. “Give me the doll.”

  He hid the doll behind his back. “I won’t. She took Pa’s hat. I’m keeping her doll till she gives me my hat. Pa woulda wanted me to have his hat.”

  Charlotte knelt between her young sister and brother. At five and six years old, they had resorted to bickering as a way to cope with their grief. “Sarah, you can’t take things from Michael and not expect him to be upset.”

  Sarah sniveled against Charlotte’s shoulder. “But I only wanted to hold it. It smells like Pa.”

  “It’s mine. You said so, Charlotte. She can’t have it!” Michael’s bottom lip quivered as he fought against tears.

  She wrapped them both in a hug. “Shush now.” She rocked them in her arms and sent up a silent prayer for wisdom. “Let me take care of these gentlemen, and I’ll come find something for ea
ch of you to have.”

  “Can I have Momma’s shawl?” Sarah whimpered. “It’s the same color as her eyes.”

  “We’ll all choose together.” Charlotte stood and held them both by the hand. “For now, Sarah, you give Michael the hat, and, Michael, you hand the doll to Sarah.” She turned them toward the door they’d come through. “Both of you go to the kitchen and wait for me. We’ll have milk and cookies when I’m done.”

  They scurried through the door, and Charlotte turned back to the men. “Excuse the interruption.”

  Mr. Freeman nodded in the direction of the kids. “Those two are the reason you need help. You can’t take care of the hotel. You have woman’s work to do.”

  Charlotte bristled like the gray mouser who stood guard on the back porch of the hotel. “Michael and Sarah are not work. They are my brother and sister, and the very reason I will not relinquish this business to you or anyone else.”

  The banker snapped at her. “I won’t sit idly by while my investment in this property wastes away under your childish attempts to run it. Mr. Taylor is here and will remain on staff as the hotel manager until such time as I say differently or the note is paid in full.”

  The front door of the hotel opened, and a family who’d checked in the day before entered. The mother smiled at the father, and the children bounded up the stairway toward their rooms.

  Nathan cleared his throat. “If I may?” He looked at Charlotte. “Miss Green, is there somewhere you and I could speak in private? The lobby isn’t really the best place to discuss your personal business.”

  At least he acknowledged that it was indeed her business. Unlike Mr. Freeman.

  “We could step into my parlor.”

  Mr. Freeman balked. “I don’t have time for more discussion. Mr. Taylor, this hotel cannot survive under the oversight of Miss Green. If you refuse to accept this position or if she refuses to allow you to stay, I will have no choice but to call the note due and sell the hotel.”

  “You can’t do that! This hotel is mine. It belongs to me and the children.” He couldn’t take away their home.

  “I can, and I will. The note was signed by your father. At his death, I have a responsibility to protect the holdings of the bank. This hotel was put up as surety. I can’t sit idly by and let it lose value.”

  “Give us the rest of the morning to discuss the matter between us.” Mr. Taylor seemed determined to take matters in hand.

  Charlotte wouldn’t stand idly by and listen to them. “The two of you may discuss matters until your heart is content, but this hotel is mine. I won’t concede that fact to anyone. For any reason.” She closed the registration book and went into the residence.

  * * *

  Nathan convinced Thomas Freeman to give him an opportunity to prove his skills at problem solving by allowing him to speak to Charlotte alone. In mere moments he took a seat in a straight-backed chair in Charlotte’s parlor. She sat across from him, perched on the edge of the settee like a bird ready to take flight.

  “I’m sorry to have met again under these circumstances.” He knew the pain of loss was fresh for her.

  She turned at the sound of something falling to the floor in the kitchen and called out to the kids. “Be careful in there. I’ll only be a few more minutes.” Her blue eyes trained on him the instant she turned back to face him. “I’m surprised to see you here at all.”

  Charlotte Green had lost none of her feistiness. It was one of the things that had intrigued him about her when they were in school. All the older girls were looking for husbands and planning on babies and farms. Not Charlotte. Her vivid imagination filled her with stories of adventures she wanted to take and how exciting her life was in the moment. He knew no man would conquer her strong will. He could see that strength of character had stayed with her.

  “I had no intention of returning to Gran Colina, though I did love living here. My father did, too.”

  “I’m sorry you made the trip at Mr. Freeman’s invitation to work here, but you must understand that the position is not available to you. I would not take on anyone if not for the loan at the bank.” She clasped her hands together and settled them in the lap of her black dress. It was harsh against her milky skin. The beauty he’d seen years ago had blossomed. Her dark brown tresses were twisted into a bun, but he remembered the way they had fallen in shiny waves around her shoulders. The tendrils that danced by her ears would be a major distraction if he wasn’t so focused on the reason he was in Gran Colina.

  “Miss Green—Charlotte, if I may—you are in a most precarious situation. If you do not allow me to stay, you will lose your home. Your livelihood.”

  Sarah burst into the room. “You said you were coming, and we’re hungry.”

  Charlotte lifted a finger to silence her interruption, but the child would not be deterred.

  “If you don’t come now, we’re gonna eat the cookies without you.” Sarah stood at Charlotte’s knee and stared at Nathan. The doll from the earlier argument was tucked under her arm. “You should leave my sister alone. She has to take care of us, not talk to you.”

  Nathan smiled at Sarah. “That’s what we’re discussing. I’m here to help her, so she can have time to care for you.”

  “I don’t need—”

  Sarah cut off Charlotte’s protest and tugged on her hand. “Then you can come in the kitchen and give us cookies.”

  “You mustn’t interrupt.” Charlotte cupped Sarah’s cheek. “I have to finish speaking to Mr. Taylor. Five more minutes.” She nudged her young sister in the direction of the kitchen.

  To Nathan she said, “As you can see, I have things to do, so if you’ll just accept that your coming here was mistake, we can say our goodbyes.”

  “How old is she?” Nathan pointed toward the door Sarah had gone through.

  “Five, but that has nothing to do with this.”

  “It has everything to do with this. Your brother is a bit older? Maybe a year or two?”

  “He’s six.”

  “How will you provide for them when Mr. Freeman takes the hotel from you?”

  She stiffened, and her eyes narrowed. “He will not take the hotel. You may think you’re my only solution, but I assure you that you are not.”

  “I have no doubt of your determination, Charlotte. We both know how stubborn you can be.”

  “What does that mean?” Indignation dripped from her words.

  “It means I know you.”

  “You do not. We haven’t seen each other in six years.”

  “I do. Maybe not everything about you now that you are a young lady of what? Nineteen. If I remember right, you’re three years younger than me. I realize you’re no longer a schoolgirl, but I guarantee that I know more about you than any stranger you could hope to hire for help.” The bell on the registration desk rang. “And you need help.”

  Michael came into the room. “Sarah spilled the milk. I told her to wait, but it’s all over the floor and on her dress. She’s gonna smell something awful if you don’t make her change her clothes. I know, ’cause it happened to me once when I was a little kid.”

  The bell rang again, and Nathan stood. “I’ll take care of the desk, and you take care of Sarah. We’ll meet back here in ten minutes.”

  “Ten minutes.” As much as her face rebuffed Nathan, she stood and followed Michael into the kitchen.

  Nathan was handing over a room key to a new guest when Charlotte joined him behind the registration desk.

  “I wasn’t expecting a new guest this morning.” She pulled the registration book closer to read the name.

  “Mr. Eaton arrived on the train with me. He mentioned that he hadn’t booked a room, so I suggested he come here. He had business to attend to this morning and has just finished.” He pulled the book back in front of him and notated the estimated end date of the man’s stay. “I have convi
nced him to stay until the train on Monday morning. In the best room available and at a good rate. For the hotel and for him.”

  Charlotte took the pen from his hand. “I could have taken over the desk. Sarah would have been fine for a few minutes.”

  “But you didn’t need to.” He faced her and leaned against the desk with his back to the front door. “And if I hadn’t been on the train, Mr. Eaton might have gone to Martha’s Boarding House instead.”

  She almost smiled. A slight lifting of the corner of her full lips that didn’t reach her eyes, but it was a start. “Martha closed that place down three years ago and moved to live with her daughter in Albuquerque.”

  “So things have changed a bit since I left.”

  “A lot has changed.” She put the pen away. “Especially in the last few days.” The sorrow washed over her anew.

  He hated to see her pain. A pain he knew too well. “When my mother passed away, I didn’t know how my father and I would get along without her.”

  “I didn’t know.” Her gaze met his. “I’m sorry.”

  “It was five years ago.” He pushed away from the desk. “That’s when I went to work at the Turner Hotel in Dallas.” The pain of the loss stirred in him. If they hadn’t moved away from Gran Colina in pursuit of financial stability, his mother might still be alive. Her death drove him to succeed.

  “I’ve heard of them. Pa used to say that we might not be as fancy as a Turner Hotel, but we owed it to our guests to do as fine a job as they did.”

  “When I met with your parents in Dallas, your father told me how hard all of you worked to make Green’s Grand Hotel the success it is. He wanted to expand and grow the business in order to provide a living for all of his children when they became adults.”

  Charlotte’s face lost some of its color. “You met with Pa? When?”

  “I thought you knew. He and your mother were in Dallas to see how Turner Hotels are managed. He was hoping to learn something that could be implemented here. They refused him on the spot. No one from the Turner family would help him. They never share trade secrets with someone outside of their business. I was the only person in Dallas your parents knew. They invited me to share a meal with them. That’s when your father told me about his plans to make improvements here. I offered to share anything I’d learned with them. I saw it as a neighborly thing to do. After all, they weren’t in competition with the Turner Hotel. We met on several occasions during their time in Dallas.”

 
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